The Mind Incarnate (Life and Mind: Philosophical Issues in Biology and Psychology)

"How are the mind and body harnessed together? In The Mind Incarnate Lawrence Shapiro addresses this question by testing two widely accepted hypothesis, the multiple realizability thesis and the separability thesis. He argues that there is significant - though far from decisive - evidence against them." "Collecting evidence from a variety of sources (e.g., neuroscience, evolutionary theory, and embodied cognition) he concludes that the multiple realizability thesis, accepted by most philosophers as a virtual truism, is much less obvious than commonly assumed, and that there is even stronger reason to give up the separability thesis. In contrast to views of mind that tempt us to see the mind as simply being resident in a brain or body, Shapiro's view is a far more encompassing integration of mind, brain, and body than philosophers have supposed."--Jacket.