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Of a Different Mind
  • Published: 23 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9780262052993
  • Imprint: MIT Press Academic
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $145.00

Of a Different Mind

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind and Psychology

  • Erik Myin
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A new way to teach philosophy of mind and psychology that makes room for action-first views.

Much of contemporary philosophical discourse of the mind is dominated by understanding the mind as a biological information processor, and it is thanks to its computational operations that we perceive, act intelligently, and think. By contrast, this novel textbook presents a view of the philosophy of mind where action, rather than thought, is the most fundamental thing a mind does. Erik Myin covers a broad range of action-based views—embodied, embedded, enacted, extended, and enculturated—while providing a thorough introduction to standard analytical philosophy of mind. Balancing historical perspectives with forward-looking pluralism, Myin tells a different story about the philosophy of mind that expands, rather than constrains, possibilities and provides a relevant blueprint for the next generation of thinkers in the field.

  • Offers an innovative, agential view of the philosophy of mind
  • Integrates coverage of historical thinking and contemporary developments
  • Details action-first views of the mind
  • Suits undergraduate students in philosophy and psychology
  • Published: 23 June 2026
  • ISBN: 9780262052993
  • Imprint: MIT Press Academic
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $145.00
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Praise for Of a Different Mind

"This important book testifies to the 'enactive' viewpoint in cognitive science having now come of age. In arguing that minds lack informational content, Hutto and Myin develop an original version of the enactive view that reshapes current philosophical thinking about embodied and extended cognition. Both proponents and critics of the enactive viewpoint will need to come to terms with this new enactive manifesto." -- Evan Thompson, co-author of The Blind Spot "Most books that try to push the conceptual envelope tend to sacrifice analytic rigor for clarity of vision. That is surely not the case in Radicalizing Enactivism. Hutto and Myin defend a position that pushes ideas that most people think are a few steps too far several steps farther. The fact that their genuinely radical conclusions are supported by dense analytical argumentation makes the book a serious challenge to the status quo in the philosophy of mind." -- Anthony Chemero, Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, University of Cincinnati; author of Radical Embodied Cognitive Science