For some, biology explains all there is to know about the mind. Yet many big questions remain: Is the mind shaped by genes or the environment? If mental traits are the result of adaptations built up over thousands of years, as evolutionary psychologists claim, how can such claims be tested? If the mind is a machine, as biologists argue, how does it allow for something as complex as human thought?
Revised and updated to take account of new developments in the field, The Biological Mind: A Philosophical Introduction explores these questions and more, using the philosophy of biology to introduce and assess the nature of the mind. Justin Garson addresses the following key topics:
- moral psychology, altruism, and levels of selection;
- evolutionary psychology and the adaptationism debate;
- genes, environment, and the nature–nurture debate;
- natural selection and mental representation;
- psychiatric classification and the maladapted mind.
This second edition includes three new chapters on race, sex, and human nature as well as new sections on group and kin selection, psychological altruism, and cultural evolution. Including chapter summaries, annotated further readings, a glossary of terms, and examples and case studies throughout, this is an indispensable introduction for those teaching philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, and philosophy of biology. It will also be an excellent resource for those in related fields such as biology.
Introduction
1. What is natural selection?
2. Do groups undergo selection?
3. Is natural selection the most powerful force of evolution?
4. Is evolution the foundation of psychology?
5. Do cultures evolve?
6. Is anything innate?
7. Are people altruistic?
8. What are mental representations?
9. What are Mental Disorders?
10. Did racial classification evolve?
11. Are there evolved psychological sex differences?
12. Does human nature exist?
Glossary
Index
Biography
Justin Garson is Professor of Philosophy at Hunter College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York, USA. He is the author of Madness: A Philosophical Exploration (2022), What Biological Functions Are and Why They Matter (2019), and A Critical Overview of Biological Functions (2016). He is also co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Biodiversity (2016).
Praise for the first edition:
'In this introductory volume, Garson offers a concise summary of several debates surrounding the interface between philosophy of biology and philosophy of mind. … Written with admirable clarity and wit, this book would make a great secondary text in an upper-level philosophy of biology or philosophy of mind course. Summing Up: Recommended.' - Philip Jenkins, CHOICE
'In this accessible and interesting book, Justin Garson shows why philosophy matters to understanding the biology of the mind. Scientists have made great progress on questions about altruism, free will, consciousness, and the impact of genes on mental activity, but it takes a philosopher to provide the needed clarification, connection, and caution. Garson is that philosopher.' - Elliott Sober, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA
'A wonderful, clear, lively, informative, and extremely accessible book. It is a terrific introduction to the philosophy of mind for those who want to explore the relation between our biological and psychological natures.' - Karen Neander, Duke University, USA
'A wide-ranging, well-informed, and highly readable introduction to current debates in the philosophy of mind and psychology, presented through the lens of philosophy of biology and general philosophy of science. Garson's biologically oriented approach to the issues makes so much sense, one can't help but wonder why it's not more standard in the literature; by rights, it should be.' - Philip Robbins, University of Missouri, USA
