Neural Mechanisms

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

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2. Introduction: New Challenges in the Philosophy of Neuroscience

   • Fabrizio Calzavarini, Marco Viola

   Pages 1-7

3. Explanation and Prediction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

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   2. Modelling Bayesian Computation in the Brain: Unification, Explanation, and Constraints

      • David M. Kaplan, Christopher L. Hewitson

      Pages 11-33

   3. Prediction and Topological Models in Neuroscience

      • Bryce Gessell, Matthew Stanley, Benjamin Geib, Felipe De Brigard

      Pages 35-55

   4. Circuital and Developmental Explanations for the Cortex

      • Alessio Plebe

      Pages 57-83

   5. Data Mining the Brain to Decode the Mind

      • Daniel A. Weiskopf

      Pages 85-110

4. Concepts and Tools

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111

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   2. Evolving Concepts of “Hierarchy” in Systems Neuroscience

      • Daniel C. Burnston, Philipp Haueis

      Pages 113-141

   3. Fundamental Theories in Neuroscience: Why Neural Darwinism Encompasses Neural Reuse

      • Luis H. Favela

      Pages 143-162

   4. Saving Data Analysis: Epistemic Friction and Progress in Neuroimaging Research

      • Jessey Wright

      Pages 163-189

   5. Neural Reuse and the Nature of Evolutionary Constraints

      • Charles Rathkopf

      Pages 191-208

   6. Behavior Considered as an Enabling Constraint

      • Vicente Raja, Michael L. Anderson

      Pages 209-232

5. Metaphysical Challenges

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 233-233

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   2. Your Brain Is Like a Computer: Function, Analogy, Simplification

      • Mazviita Chirimuuta

      Pages 235-261

   3. The Mind-Body Problem 3.0

      • Marco J. Nathan

      Pages 263-282

   4. Psychoneural Isomorphism: From Metaphysics to Robustness

      • Alfredo Vernazzani

      Pages 283-310

   5. Folk Psychological and Neurocognitive Ontologies

      • Joe Dewhurst

      Pages 311-334

6. Mechanistic Explanations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 335-335

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   2. Integration and the Mechanistic Triad: Producing, Underlying and Maintaining Mechanistic Explanations

      • Lena Kästner

      Pages 337-361

This volume brings together new papers advancing contemporary debates in foundational, conceptual, and methodological issues in cognitive neuroscience. The different perspectives presented in each chapter have previously been discussed between the authors, as the volume builds on the experience of Neural Mechanisms (NM) Online – webinar series on the philosophy of neuroscience organized by the editors of this volume. 

The contributed chapters pertain to five core areas in current philosophy of neuroscience. It surveys the novel forms of explanation (and prediction) developed in cognitive neuroscience, and looks at new concepts, methods and techniques used in the field. The book also highlights the metaphysical challenges raised by recent neuroscience and demonstrates the relation between neuroscience and mechanistic philosophy. Finally, the book dives into the issue of neural computations and representations. Assembling contributions from leading philosophers ofneuroscience, this work draws upon the expertise of both established scholars and promising early career researchers.

• Bayesian models in neuroscience
• Bodily representations
• Computational Psychiatry
• Concepts and methods in brain sciences
• Consciousness and mechanistic explanation
• Explanation in neuroscience
• Hierarchy in Systems Neuroscience
• Localization and Decomposition
• Mechanistic explanation and the brain
• Motor actions
• Network Analysis
• Neural Architecture
• Neural Reuse
• Neurocognitive ontologies
• Philosophy of neuroscience
• Psychoneural Isomorphism
• Reverse inference
• The mind-body problem
• Topological Models in Neuroscience
• Neural Mechanisms Online

• Department of Letter, Philosophy, Communication, University of Bergamo LLC, Turin, Italy

  Fabrizio Calzavarini

• Department of Philosophy and Education, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

  Marco Viola

Fabrizio Calzavarini is a Post doc Researcher at the University of Bergamo, Italy, and is affiliated with the Center for Logic, Language, and Cognition, Turin, Italy. His research is organized into two interrelated streams. One stream falls at the intersection between the philosophy and neuroscience of semantics, focusing on the neural substrates of lexical competence. The other stream addresses philosophical issues in neuroscience more generally. He is the author of Brain and the Lexicon (Springer, 2020) and the co-organizer of Neural Mechanisms Online, a series of webinars and web-conferences in the philosophy of neuroscience.



Marco Viola is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Turin, Italy. His core interest is the philosophy of neuroscience, especially cognitive ontology and the neuroscience of emotion. Other interests include face perception, philosophy of mind and the social epistemology of science. He is the co-organizer of Neural Mechanisms Online, a series of webinars and web-conferences in the philosophy of neuroscience

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