Description
Book SynopsisWhat distinguishes good explanations in neuroscience from bad? Carl F. Craver constructs and defends standards for evaluating neuroscientific explanations that are grounded in a systematic view of what neuroscientific explanations are: descriptions of multilevel mechanisms. In developing this approach, he draws on a wide range of examples in the history of neuroscience (e.g. Hodgkin and Huxley''s model of the action potential and LTP as a putative explanation for different kinds of memory), as well as recent philosophical work on the nature of scientific explanation. Readers in neuroscience, psychology, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of science will find much to provoke and stimulate them in this book.
Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Given how much attention has been paid to neuroscience, it is little surprising how slow philosophy of science has been in exploring the philosophical issues involved in explaining the brain and using the brain to explain behaviour. Carl Craver's book...represents this new direction, and an excellent addition to a burgeoning field it is...Explaining the Brain is timely, well-written, and meticulously argued...I highly recommend this text to anyone with any interest in how theories in neuroscience are constructed...Craver's book set the bar high. It will be difficult indeed to surpass this work in the near future. * Valerie Gray Hardcastle, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews *
This book should be of interest not just to those of us who care about philosophy of neuroscience, but also to philosophers of biology and philosophers of mind more generally. I expect it to shape debate for a long time to come. * Colin Klein, Mind *
Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. Introduction: Starting With Neuroscience ; 2. Explanation and Causal Relevance ; 3. Causal Relevance and Manipulation ; 4. The Norms of Mechanistic Explanation ; 5. A Field-Guide to Levels ; 6. Nonfundamental Explanation ; 7. The Mosaic Unity of Neuroscience
