Imaginative cases, or what might be called puzzles and other thought experiments, play a central role in philosophy of mind. The real world also furnishes philosophers with an ample supply of such puzzles.

This volume collects 50 of the most important historical and contemporary cases in philosophy of mind and describes their significance. The authors divide them into five sections: consciousness and dualism; physicalist theories and the metaphysics of mind; content, intentionality, and representation; perception, imagination, and attention; and persons, personal identity, and the self. Each chapter provides background, describes a central case or cases, discusses the relevant literature, and suggests further readings. Philosophy of Mind: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments promises to be a useful teaching tool as well as a handy resource for anyone interested in the area.

Key Features:

• Offers stand-alone chapters, each presented in an identical format:
• Background
• The Case
• Discussion
• Recommended Reading
• Each chapter is self-contained, allowing students to quickly understand an issue and giving instructors flexibility in assigning readings to match the themes of the course.
• Additional pedagogical features include a general volume introduction as well as smaller introductions to each of the five sections and a glossary at the end of the book.

Table of Contents

Part I: Consciousness and Dualism

Introduction

1 The Floating Man

2 Leibniz’s Mill

3 The Disembodied Pain

4 The Hard Problem of Consciousness

5 What it’s Like to be a Bat

6 Mary and the Black-and-White Room

7 Zombies

8 Yogis

9 The Coffee Tasters

10 The Hornswoggle Problem

11 The Slugs and the Tiles

Part II: Physicalist Theories and the Metaphysics of Mind

Introduction

12 The Exclusion Problem

13 The Puzzle of the Special Sciences

14 The Super-Spartans

15 Mad Pain and Martian Pain

16 The Blockhead

17 The Imitation Game

18 The Chinese Room

19 Eloise and the Tree

20 Inverted Qualia

21 Hempel’s Dilemma

22 Brains within Brains

Part III: Content, Intentionality, and Representation

Introduction

23 Rabbits and Rabbit Stages

24 Swampman

25 Twin Earth and Arthritis Man

26 Otto’s Notebook

27 The Brain in a Vat

28 Puzzling Pierre

29 The Shopping List

Part IV: Perception, Imagination, and Attention

Introduction

30 Molyneux’s Problem

31 The Missing Shade of Blue

32 Imagining Chiliagons

33 Color Swatches and Speckled Hens

34 The Skywalk

35 Pine Trees and Cyrillic Text

36 Synesthesia

37 Change Blindness

38 Blindsight, Distracted Driving, and Pneumatic Drills

Part V: Persons, Personal Identity, and the Self

Introduction

39 The Prince and the Cobbler

40 The Chariot and the Candle

41 The Body-Swap Puzzle

42 Mind Uploading

43 The Puzzle of Too Many Minds

44 Split Brains and the Unity Puzzle

45 Sharing Feelings, Combining Minds

46 The Elusive Self

47 The Essential Indexical

48 The Queen and the Gametes

49 The Trekkie, Mr. Oreo, and Narrative Conceptions of the Self

50 The Puzzle of Transformative Choice

About the Authors

Torin Alter is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama, USA. Most of his publications concern consciousness and the mind–body problem, including The Matter of Consciousness: From the Knowledge Argument to Russellian Monism (Oxford UP, 2023) and A Dialogue on Consciousness (Oxford UP, 2009; co-written with Robert J. Howell).

Robert J. Howell is Yasser El-Sayed Chair of Philosophy at Rice University, USA. He has published extensively in the philosophy of mind and is the author of Self-Awareness and the Elusive Subject (Oxford UP, 2023) and Consciousness and the Limits of Objectivity (Oxford UP, 2013). With Torin Alter, he has co-authored A Dialogue on Consciousness (Oxford UP, 2009) and The God Dialogues (Oxford UP, 2011).

Amy Kind is the Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, USA. She has published extensively in the philosophy of mind, with much of her work taking up issues relating to imagination. She has also authored and edited numerous books, including Philosophy of Mind: The Basics (Routledge, 2020).