States of Mind: Countering Eliminative Materialism

This book examines, from a Wittgensteinian perspective, a version of eliminative materialism formerly propounded by Richard Rorty. The author argues that this view about the nature and existence of minds and mental states, which treats them as proto-scientific theoretical entities, is false, and assumes too crude an understanding of our day-to-day use of mental language. The author also develops positive conclusions in the philosophy of mind from a criticism of these underlying assumptions, setting out an alternative position derived from Wittgenstein's notion of criteria.