The Mind-Body Politic

Building on contemporary research in embodied cognition, enactivism, and the extended mind, this book explores how social institutions in contemporary neoliberal nation-states systematically affect our thoughts, feelings, and agency. Human beings are, necessarily, social animals who create and belong to social institutions. But social institutions take on a life of their own, and literally shape the minds of all those who belong to them, for better or worse, usually without their being self-consciously aware of it. Indeed, in contemporary neoliberal societies, it is generally for the worse. In The Mind-Body Politic, Michelle Maiese and Robert Hanna work out a new critique of contemporary social institutions by deploying the special standpoint of the philosophy of mind-in particular, the special standpoint of the philosophy of what they call essentially embodied minds-and make a set of concrete, positive proposals for radically changing both these social institutions and also our essentially embodied lives for the better.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Political Philosophy of Mind. - Chapter 2. Three Theses Unpacked: Mind-Shaping, Collective Sociopathy, and Collective Wisdom. - Chapter 3. What is a Destructive, Deforming Institution? . - Chapter 4. Case-Study I: Higher Education in Neoliberal Nation-States. - Chapter 5. Case-Study II: Mental Health Treatment in Neoliberal Nation-States. - Chapter 6. What is a Constructive, Enabling Institution? . - Chapter 7. How To Design a Constructive, Enabling Institution. - Chapter 8. Conclusion: Cognitive Walls, Cognitive-Affective Revolution, and Real-World Utopias.