Theories of the Mind

Many of the world's leading thinkers - Hobbes and Hegel, Spinoza and Sartre, Berkeley, Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell - have been haunted by the same great philosophical puzzle: what is the exact relationship between the body and the mind?
Plato, Descartes, and the dualists believe the mind and physical objects (including the body and the brain) are utterly distinct in nature. Double aspect theorists, by contrast, claim that they are just different aspects of one reality. Idealists believe only the mind exists; materialists think everything is physical. Other schools stress our inner experience, our outward behavior, or the function of mental events.
In his brilliant exposition of these conflicting theories, Stephen Priest provides a critical analysis of the main contributions to the debate, showing where they clash and where they fit together. The result is a definitive survey of the mind-body problem; the conclusion offers a compelling new solution.
STEPHEN PRIEST was born in Oxford, England. He is a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, author of "The British Empiricists: Hobbes to Ayer," and editor of "Hegel's Critique of Kant."