Composition, Realization, and Constitutive Explanation: An Ontologically Egalitarian Account of Multilevel Mechanisms

(Note for connoisseurs: I consider this “aspect view” of realization an improvement over the “subset view,” although they share many virtues. As far as I know, the subset view is due primarily to Jessica Wilson.) It also explains why higher-level…

Now Featuring

The Brains Blog is thrilled to feature Gualtiero Piccinini this week, focusing on their new book, Neurocognitive Mechanisms: Explaining Biological Cognition (Oxford). Gualtiero is, of course, the original founder of the Brains Blog! So we welcome Gualtiero back for a…

Announcement: Finalists of the 7th Annual Oxford Uehiro Prize in Practical Ethics and Final Presentation

All are welcome to attend this public even: The following essays have been awarded an Honourable Mention: Oshmita Ray: May the use of violent civil disobedience be justified as a response to institutional racism? Undergraduate Finalists Graduate Finalists Imogen Rivers:…

Imagination Between Bats and Cats: Commentary by Margherita Arcangeli on Explaining Imagination (with reply)

Strangely it might seem, I agree with Peter. In my own taxonomy (see Arcangeli 2018 and 2020) I have identified two different classes of mental phenomena, which (misleadingly, I think) are lumped together under the umbrella “imagination”: imagination as a…