How the Body Shapes the Mind is an interdisciplinary work that addresses philosophical questions by appealing to evidence found in experimental psychology, neuroscience, studies of pathologies, and developmental psychology. There is a growing consensus across these disciplines that the contribution of embodiment to cognition is inescapable. Because this insight has been developed across a variety of disciplines, however, there is still a need to develop a common vocabulary that is capable of integrating discussions of brain mechanisms in neuroscience, behavioural expressions (...) in psychology, design concerns in artificial intelligence and robotics, and debates about embodied experience in the phenomenology and philosophy of mind. Shaun Gallagher's book aims to contribute to the formulation of that common vocabulary and to develop a conceptual framework that will avoid both the overly reductionistic approaches that explain everything in terms of bottom-up neuronal mechanisms, and inflationistic approaches that explain everything in terms of Cartesian, top-down cognitive states. Gallagher pursues two basic sets of questions. The first set consists of questions about the phenomenal aspects of the structure of experience, and specifically the relatively regular and constant features that we find in the content of our experience. If throughout conscious experience there is a constant reference to one's own body, even if this is a recessive or marginal awareness, then that reference constitutes a structural feature of the phenomenal field of consciousness, part of a framework that is likely to determine or influence all other aspects of experience. The second set of questions concerns aspects of the structure of experience that are more hidden, those that may be more difficult to get at because they happen before we know it. They do not normally enter into the content of experience in an explicit way, and are often inaccessible to reflective consciousness. To what extent, and in what ways, are consciousness and cognitive processes, which include experiences related to perception, memory, imagination, belief, judgement, and so forth, shaped or structured by the fact that they are embodied in this way? (shrink)

Both critique and an appropriation of a large and diverse body of work, Home and Beyond is a major contribution to contemporary Husserl scholarship.

This is a book about how we see: the environment around us (its surfaces, their layout, and their colors and textures); where we are in the environment; whether or not we are moving and, if we are, where we are going; what things are good for; how to do things (to thread a needle or drive an automobile); or why things look as they do.The basic assumption is that vision depends on the eye which is connected to the brain. The (...) author suggests that natural vision depends on the eyes in the head on a body supported by the ground, the brain being only the central organ of a complete visual system. When no constraints are put on the visual system, people look around, walk up to something interesting and move around it so as to see it from all sides, and go from one vista to another. That is natural vision—and what this book is about. (shrink)

Outlines the ethical code of the samurai in a time when the martial skills of the warrior became redundant and his role was subsumed into governmental service.

Contents: The Sportive Origin of the State – Unity and Diversity of Europe – Man the Technician – History as a System. Translation of "El origen deportivo del Estado"; (1924); "Prólogo para franceses" (1937); and Meditación de la técnica (1939). "History as a System" was published originally in English in Philosophy and History: Essays Presented to Ernst Cassirer. Edited by Raymond Klibansky and H. J. Paton. Oxford: at the Clarendon Press (London, H. Milford), 1936, pp. 283-322.

A pioneering philosophical exploration, this volume seeks to clarify the function of climate as a key factor within the structure of human existence. The author takes as his starting point the argument that the phenomena of climate should be treated as expressions of subjective human existence and not of natural environments. In developing his argument, Watsuji first examines the basic principles of climate and then proceeds to examine three types of climate in detail--monsoon, desert, and meadow--and their relative impacts on (...) human experience. As both a unique guide to Japan and her culture and a penetrating philosophical study, Climate and Culture will be enlightening reading for students and scholars of modern Japanese thought. (shrink)

The thesis is concerned with the creation and origin of the work of art. It attempts to explain the unique metaphysical status of artworks as cultural products. The genesis of the work of art, which I understand to be collaborative and deeply historical in nature, is analyzed using a framework that resorts to both philosophical traditions, analytic and continental, as well as to art history and sociology. I argue that the work of art is actualized when the artistic object is (...) endowed with an interpretation. Additionally, I maintain that the work of art as creative object is divested of the necessity of originality. I also revise traditional accounts of the artist and the role of the public. To this effect I undertake an extensive criticism of the aesthetics of genius, which favors a view of the artist as hegemonic and central. The artist's reduced protagonism is absorbed by an engaged public, which I call attendant, and whose primary tool is interpretation. In the end, I posit that works of art arise as the result of the joint activity of artist and public. ;Complementing the text are a number of illustrations and concrete examples that range from straightforward images of paintings and sculptures, to short stories, poems, citations from plays, or even comic strips which act as either an additional butress or as counterpoint to the arguments I present or criticize. Lastly there are some "interpretive devices" planted through the text that are meant to exemplify and draw from the reader the kinds of critical responses I theorize about. (shrink)

The influential work of speculative biology-and a key document in posthumanist studies-now available in a new, accurate English translation.