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although it fails in its avowed aim, is by no means without other,
compensating virtues and uses.

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UNIVERSITY OF SHEFF1F.I.D DAVID BE1.I.

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Matter and Consciousness: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy
of Mind
By PAUL C H U R C H L A N D
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M.I.T. Press, 1984. xii 164 pp. $20.00 cloth, $8.95 paper

Consciousness and Causality: A Debate on the Nature of Mind

By D. M. ARMSTRONG and N O R M A N MALCOLM
Blackwell, 1984. 228 pp. g17.50 cloth, €6.50 paper

For several years, there has been a shortage of good teaching material for
undergraduate courses in the philosophy of mind. Due to the growth of
‘cognitive science’ and the breaking down of boundaries between
philosophy of mind and the more theoretical parts of psychology, the
older texts and anthologies have dated. T h e influence of computer
models and ever more sophisticated forms of functionalism and
physicalism has rendered many of the more important papers inaccessible
to all but the best undergraduates: an anthology such as Ned Block’s two-
volume Readin,p in the Philosophy of Psycholo,qy (Harvard University
Press) is both expensive and too difficult for most students. Hence, we
should welcome the two books under review, which both promise to
make central issues in the philosophy of mind more accessible.
Churchlands volume is straightforwardly a textbook: he laudably
claims to write solely for a student audience with no primary concern to
stimulate or impress his colleagues. Rapidly but lucidly he introduces
what he takes to be the fundamental philosophical problems about the
mind, and he sketches the most important lines of approach to them. As
in his previous writings, Churchland defends an incautious naturalism:
we should look to the developing science of mind for our best account of
what mind is, and we should be ready to give u p many of the untutored
assumptions built into common sense styles of psychological explanation
along the way. Churchland‘s form of materialism rests upon a readiness
to sacrifice everyday psychological conceptions which cannot be
reconciled with neurophysiological models of mental functioning. His
volume excellently prepares the student for the more difficult areas of
the literature by introducing the central conceptions of Artificial
Intelligence and Neuroscience and defending their philosophical interest.
Teachers who are unsympathetic to approaches to the philosophy of

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mind which stress the rapprochement between philosophical and scientific
approaches may not find this book useful. Nor will those whose main
concern is with the detailed analysis of particular mental concepts. But
for others, the volume represents an excellent introduction to the field,
whose bold and individual standpoint should stimulate students. Before
the two chapters mentioned above and a delightful concluding one

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