After Mind

We humans think, feel, hope, and desire. We have personalities, inner lives, inner worlds, and inner depths. Despite having all these attributes, this book argues, we do not have "minds" or "mental states." The concept of mind is consistently harmful-to our thinking about ourselves and our place in the world, to nonhuman animals, and to the psychiatrically ill and disabled. The concept also has a negative impact on, among other things, our understanding of responsibility and decision-- making in law. This book draws together a wide range of philosophical, empirical, and historical scholarship to trace out the origins of the concept of mind, critique it, and explore alternatives. After Mind unpicks the influence of the concept of mind on our thinking about ourselves and the world, and offers positive alternatives that fit better with what we can learn from empirical science, historical research, anthropological studies, and philosophical argument.