Armstrong's Materialist Theory of Mind

A Materialist Theory of Mind (1968) by David Armstrong is one of a handful of texts that began the physicalist revolution in the philosophy of mind. It is perhaps the most influential book in the field of the second half of the twentieth century. In this volume a distinguished international team of philosophers examine what we still owe to Armstrong's theory, and how to expand it, as well as looking back on how it came about. The first four chapters are historical in orientation, exploring how the book fits into the history of materialism in the twentieth century. The chapters that follow discuss perception, belief, the supposed explanatory gap between the physical and the mental, introspection, conation, causality, and functionalism.

1 - A Materialist Theory of the Mind in Context
2 - Lewis and the Identity Theory
3 - The Two Davids and Australian Materialism
4 - Causation, Perception, and Dispositions: Towards A Materialist Theory of the Mind
5 - Materialism, Then and Now
6 - Armstrong and Perception
7 - Does A Materialist Theory of the Mind give us a Reply to the Knowledge Argument?
8 - Closing (or at Least Narrowing) the Explanatory Gap
9 - Introspection and Distinctness: Armstrong and Shoemaker on Introspection
10 - Armstrong's Just-so Story about Consciousness
11 - Armstrong on Conation
12 - Causal Conditionalism
13 - A Materialist Reconception of the Mind
14 - Armstrong's Revenge

Peter Anstey studied Philosophy at the University of Sydney. He specializes in Early Modern Philosophy with a special focus on Locke, Boyle, Bacon, and Experimental Philosophy. He was the inaugural Professor of Early Modern Philosophy at the University of Otago from 2006 to 2012, before returning to Sydney University where he is currently Professor of Philosophy. He is literary executor to the late D. M. Armstrong. Braddon-Mitchell did graduate work at the Australian National University, working on the Philosophy of Mind and Explanation. He has since worked at the University of Auckland before going to the University of Sydney in 2000 where he is currently Professor of Philosophy. He works in the Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, and Explanation.