Blackwell Reference Online

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Like most volumes in the Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, this one contains alphabetically arranged entries covering its subject matter. However, there are differences between this Companion and the others, which it might be helpful to highlight. 1 An Essay on Mind , which forms Part I of this book, is intended to provide an alternative, non-alphabetic, way of navigating through the entries. No doubt the alphabetic arrangement will suit those who are familiar with philosophy of mind, but this will not be the position of all readers. The idea is for the reader to use the Essay to get his or her bearings in respect of some topic and then to pursue it in more depth by reading the entry which is cross-referenced in the Essay , small capital letters are used to indicate cross-references, as they are in individual entries throughout the Companion . The Essay is not a compendious survey of the whole of philosophy of mind as those areas which are extensively covered in the entries are touched on only lightly in it. Instead, it is a selective narrative which attempts to adumbrate a picture of the mind, and some of the philosophical problems it generates. It is my hope that it will tempt, rather than merely introduce, the reader into the subject. 2 There is a tendency to identify many viewpoints in the philosophy of mind by the authors with whom they are most closely associated. ... log in or subscribe to read full text