Table of Contents

1: Elly Vintiadis: Introduction
2: John Heil: Must there be brute facts?
3: Elanor Taylor: How to make the case for brute facts
4: Joseph Levine: Bruteness and supervenience: mind vs. morality
5: James Van Cleve: Brute necessity and the mind body problem
6: Dana Goswick: Are modal facts brute facts?
7: Kevin Morris: Truthmaking and the mysteries of emergence
8: Torin Alter: Are there brute facts about consciousness?
9: Gerald Vision: The Provenance of Consciousness
10: John Symons: Brute facts about emergence
11: Elly Vintiadis: There is nothing (really) wrong with emergent brute facts
12: Peter Wyss: Emergence: inexplicable but explanatory
13: Mark H. Bickhard: Naturalism, emergence, and brute facts
14: Argyris Arnellos and Charbel El-Hani: Emergence, downward determination and brute facts in biological systems

About the Author

Elly Vintiadis teaches philosophy at the American College of Greece. Her current research interests are in the philosophy of mind, the metaphysics of mind and philosophy of psychiatry - mainly explanation, emergentism and the philosophical implications of mental disorders. In the past Vintiadis has taught at the Hellenic Naval Staff and Command College and at the City College of New York. Constantinos Mekios studied genetics at Columbia University prior to joining
the philosophy department at Boston University, where he specialized in the philosophy of biology. Mekios is currently associate professor of philosophy at Stonehill College, where he has been teaching
since 2006. His philosophical research remains informed primarily by biological problems and his present work centers on questions concerning explanation and methodology in Systems Biology.

Reviews

a comprehensive introduction as well as thoughtfully relevant ... contributions knitting together the various expert critical responses to the existence and use of brute facts ... Recommended.
*J. Gough, CHOICE*

A lucid evaluation of the limits of science is as important for science education as the analysis of what can be achieved by science. In order to defend the reliability of the scientific method against antiscientific challenges, it is important to reflect on the scope and limits of scientific explanation. By contributing to this task, the book will be useful and relevant as a background for science educators and science education research.
*Max Kistler, Science & Education*

Overall, this collection explores a variety of themes in the existing literature. The issues that it covers deserve a broader audience. Hopefully, this work will draw more attention to the topic in the coming years.
*Derek Shiller, Metascience*