"What are mental states? When we talk about people's beliefs or desires, are we talking about what is happening inside their heads? If so, might cognitive science show that we are wrong? Might it turn out that mental states do not exist? Mental fictionalism offers a new approach to these longstanding questions about the mind. Its core idea is that mental states are useful fictions. When we talk about mental states, we are not formulating hypotheses about people's inner machinery. Instead, we simply talk "as if" people had certain inner states, such as beliefs or desires, in order to make sense of their behaviour. This is the first book dedicated to exploring mental fictionalism. Featuring contributions from established authors as well as up-and-coming scholars in this burgeoning field, the book reveals the exciting potential of a fictionalist approach to the mind, as well as the challenges it faces. In doing so, it offers a fresh perspective on foundational debates in the philosophy of mind, such as the nature of mental states and folk psychology, as well as hot topics in the field, such as embodied cognition and mental representation. Mental Fictionalism: Philosophical Explorations essential reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals alike"--
This is the first book dedicated to exploring mental fictionalism. Featuring contributions from established authors as well as up-and-coming scholars in this burgeoning field, it is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals alike.
Introduction: What is Mental Fictionalism? Tamįs Demeter, T. Parent, and
Adam Toon Part 1: Proposals
1. Mental Fictionalism Meg Wallace
2.
Fictionalism and Intentionality Adam Toon
3. A Rylean Mental Fictionalism
William Lycan
4. A Mental Fictionalism Worthy of Its Name Tamįs Demeter
5.
Enactive-Ecological Fictionalism: An Eliminativism that Works Adrian Downey
Part 2: Challenges
6. The Sellarsian Fate for Mental Fictionalism Lįszló
Kocsis and Krisztiįn Pete
7. What We Talk about When We Talk about Mental
States Zoe Drayson
8. A Brickhouse Defence for Folk Psychology: How to Defeat
Big Bad Wolf Eliminativism Dan Hutto
9. Mental Fictionalism: The Costly
Combination of Magic and the Mind Amber Ross
10. The Pragmatic Approach to
Fictive Utterances and its Consequences for Mental Fictionalism Miklós Mįrton
and Jįnos Tzsér Part 3: Explorations
11. I Think; Therefore, I am a Fiction
T. Parent
12. Psychiatric Fictionalism Sam Wilkinson
13. Three Kinds of
Fictionalism about Knowledge-Talk Julianne Chung
14. Mental Fictionalism: A
Foothold Amid Deflationary Collapse Meg Wallace Part 4: Alternatives
15.
Mental Fact and Mental Fiction Tim Crane and Katalin Farkas
16.
Interpretivism and Mental Fictionalism Bruno Mölder
17. Rejecting the
Metaphysics of the Mental: An Advertisement for a Conceptual-Cartographical
Exploration of our Folk-Psychological Practices Julia Tanney
18. Am I a
Fictionalist? Daniel C. Dennett. Index
Tamįs Demeter, Corvinus University of Budapest and Research Centre for the Humanities, Budapest, Hungary.
T. Parent Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan.
Adam Toon, University of Exeter, UK.
