Määttänen P. Mind in Action. Experience and Embodied Cognition in Pragmatism

Heidelberg: Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2015. — 94 p. — ISBN 978-3-319-17623-9 (eBook)Pragmatism was born as a challenge to the presumptions of classical philosophy. Charles Peirce presented his pragmatic maxim as an alternative to René Descartes’ thought that clear and distinct ideas can be found by using introspection. John Dewey’s mature work is devoted to the reconstruction of philosophy. The main idea of pragmatism is that experience as sense perception is a too narrow view. Action must be included in the concept of experience. This requires a different view about the structure of experience and the object of knowledge. The earlier view, according to which experience is sense perception and the object of knowledge consists of the hidden causes of perceptions, is not adequate if the role of action in experience is to be taken into account. In pragmatism to know is to know what to do, and the object of knowledge consists of the possibilities to act in given circumstances. The main objective of this book is to find out what would follow if this revision were consistently carried out.1. Philosophical Naturalism
2. Experience and the Object of Knowledge
3. Habit of Action
4. Habits as Meanings
5. Mind and Interaction
6. Facts and Values in Pragmatism
7. Mind in Action and the Problem of Realism