Subjects of Experience

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Subjects of Experience
Authors and Contributors      By (author) E. J. Lowe
SeriesCambridge Studies in Philosophy
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:220
Dimensions(mm): Height 217,Width 140
Category/GenrePhilosophy - metaphysics and ontology
ISBN/Barcode 9780521031554
ClassificationsDewey:126
Audience
Professional & Vocational
Illustrations Worked examples or Exercises

Publishing Details

Publisher Cambridge University Press
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publication Date 2 November 2006
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

In this innovative study of the relationship between persons and their bodies, E. J. Lowe demonstrates the inadequacy of physicalism, even in its mildest, non-reductionist guises, as a basis for a scientifically and philosophically acceptable account of human beings as subjects of experience, thought and action. He defends a substantival theory of the self as an enduring and irreducible entity - a theory which is unashamedly committed to a distinctly non-Cartesian dualism of self and body. Taking up the physicalist challenge to any robust form of psychophysical interactionism, he shows how an attribution of independent causal powers to the mental states of human subjects is perfectly consistent with a thoroughly naturalistic world view. He concludes his study by examining in detail the role which conscious mental states play in the human subject's exercise of its most central capacities for perception, action, thought and self-knowledge.

Reviews

'... provocative and invigorating, and at the same time both metaphysically satisfying and empirically well informed. This is an elegant and powerful book that philosophers of mind would do well to read and reread carefully.' John Heil, Times Literary Supplement