Pragmatist Neurophilosophy:American Philosophy and the Brain explains why the broad tradition of pragmatism is needed now more than ever. Bringing pragmatist philosophers together with cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists, this volume explores topics of urgent interest across neuroscience and philosophy from the perspective of pragmatism. Discussing how Charles Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Mead benefited from their laboratory-knowledge, contributors treat America's first-generation pragmatists as America's first cognitive scientists. They explain why scientists today should participate in pragmatic judgments, just as the classical pragmatists did, and how current scientists can benefit from their earlier philosophical explorations across the same territory. Looking at recent neuroscientific discoveries in relation to classical pragmatists, they explore emerging pragmatic views supported directly from the behavioral and brain sciences and describe how "neuropragmatism" engages larger cultural questions by adequately dealing with meaningful values and ethical ideals. Pragmatist Neurophilosophy is an important contribution to scholars of both pragmatism and neuroscience and a timely reminder that America's first generation of pragmatists did not stumble onto its principles, but designed them in light of biology's new discoveries.

List of Contributors1. Introduction - John Shook and Tibor SolymosiPart 1: Historical Considerations2. Peirce on Neuronal Synchronicity and Spontaneous Order - John Kaag3. The Legacy of William James: Lessons for Today's 21st-Century Neuroscience - Maxine Sheets-Johnstone4. Dewey, Naturalism, and Neuroaesthetics - Russell Pryba Part 2: Reconstructing Neuroscience and Philosophy5. Descendants of Pragmatism: Reconciliation and Reconstruction in Neopragmatism, Neurophilosophy, and Neuropragmatism - Tibor Solymosi6. Neuropragmatic Reconstruction: A Case from Neuroeconomics - Mark Tschaepe7. The Most Important Thing Neuropragmatism Can Do: Providing an Alternative to 'Cognitive' Neuroscience - Eric P. Charles, Andrew D. Wilson, and Sabrina GolonkaPart 3: Cognition, Inquiry, and Belief in the Brain and Beyond8. How Inquiry and Method Shape Brain Science: Pragmatism, Embodiment, and Cognitive Neuroscience - Tim Rohrer9. Extended Mind and Representation - Tom Burke10. The Self as an Evolved Organism that Lives in a Pragmatically Defined World - David L. Thompson11. Is Experience Subjective or Objective, or Both, or Neither? - John ShookIndex