Microgenetic Theory and Process Thought

The aim of this volume is to establish some foundational psychological principles of the philosophy of mind grounded in process (what the author calls microgenetic) theory and evolutionary development. In this view, outcomes incorporate earlier segments in the series including values, meaning and beliefs, in other words formative phases. The writing is technical but clear and the contents cover the mind/brain state, experience, consciousness, feeling, thinking, novelty and causation, certainty and conviction, and the psychology of free will - in other words, a survey of fundamental topics. Readers will find a fresh perspective on all these themes from a panpsychic or dual aspect viewpoint whereby the psyche is the experiencing brain.

The essential ingredients of consciousness are argued to be a 'self, world and an intermediate phase of introspection or imagination embedded in the self-world relation' of immediate experience including both feeling and thinking, introspection and sense perception. This also involves a thorough discussion of the relationship between choice, decision and action and a subtle treatment of the topic of free will. Brown points out that the terms of reference of the discussion are critical as is the nature of freedom in free will. On the one hand, 'the brain as a part of the natural world is a physical entity presumed to obey causal laws' while on the mental side, free choice is problematic if it is supposed to be the impact of an immaterial self. Causal determinism, though, assumes that choice and action correspond to brain process while the process is in fact one of transformation or actualisation entailing creativity, as explained by Whitehead. Readers engaged in these philosophical and psychological debates will find much food for thought in this volume.