Synopses & Reviews
Jaegwon Kim is one of the most preeminent and most influential contributors to the philosophy of mind and metaphysics. This collection of essays presents the core of his work on supervenience and mind with two sets of postscripts especially written for the book. The essays focus on such issues as the nature of causation and events, what dependency relations other than causal relations connect facts and events, the analysis of supervenience, and the mind-body problem. A central problem in the philosophy of mind is the problem of explaining how the mind can causally influence bodily processes. Professor Kim explores this problem in detail, criticizes the nonreductionist solution of it, and offers a modified reductionist solution of his own. Both professional philosophers and their graduate students will find this an invaluable collection.
Review
'\"Kim\'s papers in this area have had tremendous impact in philosophy, and I think this book would be regarded as a \'must-buy\' item by very many philosophers working in metaphysics and in philosophy of mind.\" Terry Horgan, Memphis State University\"Kim\'s work is at the center of current discussion of supervenience, the relation of supervenience to reductionism, the nature of mental causation, and related issues in the philosophy of mind. Although his work on these topics is often cited, it is scattered in various journals volumes, etc., and often difficult to track down. It would be enormously useful to have this work, or what he regards as the core of it, collected in a single place.\" Sydney Shoemaker, Cornell University\"Kim\'s work is at the center of current discussion of supervenience, the relation of supervenience to reductionism, the nature of mental causation, and related issues in the philosophy of mind. Although his work on these topics is often cited, it is scattered in various journals volumes, etc., and often difficult to track down. It would be enormously useful to have this work, or what he regards as the core of it, collected in a single place.\" Sydney Shoemaker, Cornell University'