The Mind-Body Politic

ISBN-13: 9783030195458 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 320 str.

Michelle Maiese; Robert Hanna

Opis

Building on contemporary research in embodied cognition, enactivism, and the extended mind, this book explores how social institutions in contemporary neoliberal democratic states systematically affect our thoughts, feelings, and agency, Human beings are, necessarily, social animals who create and belong to social institutions. But social institutions take on a life of their own, and literally shape the minds of all those who belong to them, for better or worse, usually without their being self-consciously aware of it. Indeed, in contemporary neoliberal societies, it's generally for the worse . In the The Mind-Body Politic , Michelle Maiese and Robert Hanna work out a new critique of contemporary social institutions by deploying the special standpoint of the philosophy of mind-in particular, the special standpoint of the philosophy of what they call essentially embodied minds- and make a set of concrete, positive proposals for radically changing both these social institutions and also our essentially embodied lives for the better.

Recenzje

"The book is not only an exposition of political discourse but concurrently an analysis of form, a rich and ambitious undertaking." (Isobel Armstrong, Modern Philology, Vol. 117 (1), May, 2019)

Spis treści

1.      Chapter 1. Introduction: Political Philosophy of Mind

1.1. The Philosophy of Mind

1.2. Emancipatory Political Theory

 

2.      Chapter 2. Three Theses Unpacked: Mind-Shaping, Collective Sociopathy, and Collective Wisdom

2.1. The Mind-Shaping Thesis

2.1.1.  Its Meaning

2.1.2.  Enactivism, Affective Framing, and Habits

2.1.3.  Affordances and Enculturated Expectations

2.1.4.  Its Truth

2.2. The Collective Wisdom Thesis

2.2.1.  Its Meaning

2.2.2.  Its Truth

2.3. The Collective Sociopathy Thesis

2.3.1.  Its Meaning

2.3.2.  Its Truth

2.4. Mind-Shaping Inside Sociodynamic Systems

 

3.      Chapter 3. What is a Destructive, Deforming Institution?

3.1. True Needs, False Needs, False Freedom of Choice, and Collective Sociopathy

3.2. Eight Criteria, How To Make Them Vivid, and How To Explain Them

3.2.1.  Commodification 

3.2.2.  Mechanization

3.2.3.  Coercion 

3.2.4.  Divided Mind 

3.2.5.  Reversal of Affect 

3.2.6.  Loss of Autonomy

3.2.7.  Incentivization of Desires

3.2.8.  False Consciousness

***

3.3. How To Prove These Claims

 

4.      Chapter 4. Case-Study I: Higher Education in Neoliberal Nation-States

4.1. Higher Education as The Higher Commodification

4.1.1.  “Mind Invasion” and Collective Sociopathy

4.1.2.  Neoliberal U

4.1.3.  The Affective Pull of Neoliberal Ideology

4.2. Neoliberal U and the Eight Criteria of Collective Sociopathy

            4.2.1.  Commodification

4.2.2.  Mechanization

4.2.3.  Coercion

4.2.4.  Divided Mind

4.2.5.  Reversal of Affect

4.2.6.  Loss of Autonomy

4.2.7.  Incentivization of Desires

4.2.8.  False Consciousness

***     

4.3. Shared Expectations in Online Education

 

5.      Chapter 5. Case-Study II: Mental Health Treatment in Neoliberal Nation-States

5.1. Dr Bigbrother: The Medical Model and Neoliberalism

5.2. Doing It By the DSM: Mental Healthcare and the Eight Criteria of Collective Sociopathy

5.2.1.  The Commodification of Mental “Health” and “Normalcy”

5.2.2.  Mechanization

5.2.3.  Coercion: “Governmentality” in the Realm of Mental Health

5.2.3a.  Excursus: The Rhetoric of “Responsibilization,” “Resilience,” and “Recovery”

5.2.3b.  Excursus Continued: The Resilient Student

5.2.4.  Divided Mind

5.2.5.  Reversal of Affect: Alienation

5.2.6.  Loss of Autonomy

5.2.7.  Incentivization of Desires   

5.2.8.  False Consciousness

***

 

6.      Chapter 6. What is a Constructive, Enabling Institution?

6.1. Negating and Reformulating the Eight Criteria

            6.1.1.  Anti-Commodifying or Self-Realizing 

            6.1.2.  Anti-Mechanistic or Organicist

            6.1.3.  Anti-Coercive or Dignitarian 

6.1.4. and 6.1.5.  Anti-Mind-Dividing or Integrative, and Anti-Affect-Reversing or Authenticating

6.1.6.  Anti-Autonomy-Damaging or Autonomy-Promoting

6.1.7.   Anti-Desire-Incentivizing or True-Desire-Promoting

6.1.8.  Anti-False-Consciousness-Producing or Critical-Consciousness-Priming

6.2. Affording Flexible Habits of Mind

6.3 How to Expunge Our Inner Hobbes

6.4. Real-World Examples of Collectively Wise Institutions

            6.4.1.  Disaster Communities

            6.4.2.  Various Phases in the History of the American Left

 

7.      Chapter 7. How To Design a Constructive, Enabling Institution

7.1. Affective Framing Patterns Redux

7.2. The Cognitivist Approach to Transformative Learning

7.3. Enactivism, Essential Embodiment, and Affective Framing

7.4. The Neurobiological Dynamics of Affective Reframing

7.5. Tapping Into the Affective Dimension of Transformative Learning

***

 

8.      Chapter 8. Conclusion: Cognitive Walls, Cognitive-Affective Revolution, and Real-World Utopias

 

O autorze

Michelle Maiese is Professor of Philosophy at Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is the author of Embodiment, Emotion, and Cognition (2011), Embodied Selves and Embodied Minds (2015), and many articles on topics in philosophy of mind and psychiatry.

Robert Hanna is an independent philosopher who has held research or teaching positions at universities in Brazil, Canada, Luxembourg, the UK, and the USA. He is a philosophical generalist and the author or co-author of eleven books, including Rationality and Logic (2006), Embodied Minds in Action (co-authored with Michelle Maiese, 2009) and the five-volume book series, The Rational Human Condition (2015-2018).

Blurb

Building on contemporary research in embodied cognition, enactivism, and the extended mind, this book explores how social institutions in contemporary neoliberal nation-states systematically affect our thoughts, feelings, and agency. Human beings are, necessarily, social animals who create and belong to social institutions. But social institutions take on a life of their own, and literally shape the minds of all those who belong to them, for better or worse, usually without their being self-consciously aware of it. Indeed, in contemporary neoliberal societies, it is generally for the worse. In The Mind-Body Politic, Michelle Maiese and Robert Hanna work out a new critique of contemporary social institutions by deploying the special standpoint of the philosophy of mind—in particular, the special standpoint of the philosophy of what they call essentially embodied minds—and make a set of concrete, positive proposals for radically changing both these social institutions and also our essentially embodied lives for the better.