Synopses & Reviews
Mind and Supermind offers a new perspective on the nature of belief and the structure of the human mind. Keith Frankish argues that the folk-psychological term 'belief' refers to two distinct types of mental state, which have different properties and support different kinds of mental explanation. Building on this claim, he develops a picture of the human mind as a two-level structure, consisting of a basic mind and a supermind, and shows how the resulting account sheds light on a number of puzzling phenomena and helps to vindicate folk psychology. Topics discussed include the function of conscious thought, the cognitive role of natural language, the relation between partial and flat-out belief, the possibility of active belief formation, and the nature of akrasia, self-deception, and first-person authority. This book will be valuable for philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists.
Synopsis
Portraying the mind as a two-level structure, this book analyzes the architecture of the human mind. Thus, it demonstrates that the mind consists of a basic mind and a supermind--the former non-conscious and non-linguistic, the latter conscious and language-involving. Claiming that philosophers and psychologists have failed to distinguish these levels, Keith Frankish argues that this failure has stood in the way of the successful explanation of a number of puzzling mental phenomena. His book will be valued by philosophers, psychologists, and cognitive scientists.
Synopsis
This book portrays the human mind as a two-level structure, with a non-conscious basic mind supporting a more sophisticated supermind, which is conscious and relies on language. It argues that philosophers and psychologists have failed to distinguish these levels properly, and that this failure has led to problems.
Table of Contents
Preface; A note on grammar; 1. Introduction; 2. Divisions in folk psychology; 3. Challenges and precedents; 4. The premising machine; 5. Superbelief and the supermind; 6. Propositional modularity; 7. Conceptual modularity; 8. Further applications; Conclusion.