How is watching a movie similar to dreaming? What goes on in our minds when we become absorbed in a movie? How does looking "into" a movie screen allow us to experience the thoughts and feelings of a movie's characters? These and related questions are at the heart of The Power of Movies, a thoughtful, invigorating, and remarkably accessible book about a phenomenon seemingly beyond reach of our understanding. Colin McGinn-"an ingenious philosopher who thinks like a laser and writes like a dream," according to Steven Pinker-enhances our understanding of both movies and ourselves in this...
How is watching a movie similar to dreaming? What goes on in our minds when we become absorbed in a movie? How does looking "into" a movie screen allo...
This advanced introductory text offers a synoptic view of philosophical inquiry, discussing such topics as consciousness, the self, meaning, free will, the a priori, and knowledge. The emphasis is on the fundamental intractability of these questions, and a theory is proposed as to why the human mind has so much difficulty in resolving them. This theory turns upon a naturalistic picture of the scope and limits of human intelligence.
This advanced introductory text offers a synoptic view of philosophical inquiry, discussing such topics as consciousness, the self, meaning, free will...
This book brings together a selection of Colin McGinn's philosophical essays from the 1970s to the 1990s, whose unifying theme is the relation between the mind and the world. The essays range over a set of prominent topics in contemporary philosophy, including the analysis of knowledge, the a priori, necessity, possible worlds, realism, mental representation, appearance and reality, and color.
This book brings together a selection of Colin McGinn's philosophical essays from the 1970s to the 1990s, whose unifying theme is the relation between...
Can consciousness be fitted into a naturalistic worldview or is it inherently mysterious? In virtue of what does a physical organism come to have an inner conscious life? This book argues that we are not equipped to understand the workings of conciousness, despite its objective naturalness. Introspection does not reveal the hiddent structure of consciousness and it is this that joins experience to the material world.
Can consciousness be fitted into a naturalistic worldview or is it inherently mysterious? In virtue of what does a physical organism come to have an i...
Alan Swift is an insurance man, a family man, and a space man. But he also has two alter egos: a high-flying imaginary self and a low-lying phobic self. These three selves coexist uneasily. Living at home, in Holloway, he succumbs to claustrophobia; traveling abroad he faces agoraphobia. What is he to do? The novel tracks Alan's movements and transformations, as he tries to deal with the conflicting pressures in his psyche. Moving through space, he is dogged by conscience, yet he must also respect his imagination. Should he stay or should he go?
Alan Swift is an insurance man, a family man, and a space man. But he also has two alter egos: a high-flying imaginary self and a low-lying phobic sel...
Many beginning students in philosophy of language find themselves grappling with dense and difficult texts not easily understood by someone new to the field. This book offers an introduction to philosophy of language by explaining ten classic, often anthologized, texts. Accessible and thorough, written with a unique combination of informality and careful formulation, the book addresses sense and reference, proper names, definite descriptions, indexicals, the definition of truth, truth and meaning, and the nature of speaker meaning, as addressed by Frege, Kripke, Russell, Donnellan, Kaplan,...
Many beginning students in philosophy of language find themselves grappling with dense and difficult texts not easily understood by someone new to ...
"McGinn is an ingenious philosopher who thinks like a laser and writes like a dream."--Steven Pinker
This book is a hymn to the hand. In Prehension, Colin McGinn links questions from science to philosophical concerns to consider something that we take for granted: the importance of the hand in everything we do. Drawing on evolutionary biology, anatomy, archaeology, linguistics, psychology, and philosophy, among other disciplines, McGinn examines the role of the hand in shaping human evolution. He finds that the development of our capacity to grasp, to grip, to take hold...
"McGinn is an ingenious philosopher who thinks like a laser and writes like a dream."--Steven Pinker
