I have encountered many collections of previously published essays where authors report in the preface that they have successfully resisted the temptation to revise and update the work of their earlier selves. I admire their fortitude, but sadly have been unable to emulate it. Almost all of the essays that follow have been edited and reworked, some extensively so.
I have made stylistic changes throughout, both to improve readability and to standardize punctuation and spelling to the US model. I have also added cross-referencing notes and, where appropriate, updated references, particularly to the scientific literature. Some expository sections have been rewritten to avoid duplication and overlap. And in a few places, which I will not identify, weak arguments have been replaced with stronger ones (or so I hope).
Two essays have received a much more drastic treatment. Chapter 7 (“Bodily Ownership, Bodily Awareness, and Knowledge without Observation”) was originally published in Analysis, a journal that adheres to enviable standards of concision. On rereading the essay, however, I realized that there is a fine line between being concise and being cryptic. Accordingly, I substantially expanded this essay, which has nearly doubled in length. Chapter 10 (“The Thinking Self, Commonsense Psychology, and the Springs of Action”) appears here for the first time. Or more accurately, the title is here making its first appearance. The essay itself combines and develops material from two previously published papers, one of which (“The Domain of Folk Psychology,” 2003) was published in a volume of lectures delivered at the Royal Institute of Philosophy, while the other (“Arguing for Eliminativism,” 2005) appeared in a festschrift for Paul Churchland. Neither essay quite made the grade on its own, but the amalgam does, I hope, add value to this collection.
Each of the essays contains its own acknowledgments and thanks, all of which of course still stand. In addition, I would particularly like to record my debt to Philip Laughlin at the MIT Press for initially supporting this project and then for being a model editor. Thanks also to Judy Feldmann for copyediting and steering the book through the production process. It has been a pleasure to work again with the MIT Press, nearly twenty-five years after my first project with them.