The Act of Thinking  
Derek Melser
MIT Press
In this remarkable monograph, Derek Melser argues that the core                 assumption of both folk psychology and cognitive science -- that thinking goes on in                 the head -- is mistaken. Melser argues that thinking is not an intracranial process                 of any kind, mental or neural, but is rather a learned action of the person.After an                 introduction in which he makes a prima facie case that thinking is an action, Melser                 reviews action-based theories of thinking advanced by Ryle, Vygotsky, Hampshire and                 others. He then presents his own theory of "token concerting," according to which                 thinking is a special kind of token performance, by the individual, of certain                 social, concerted activity. He examines the developmental role of concerted                 activity, the token performance of concerted activity, the functions of speech, the                 mechanics and uses of covert tokening, empathy, the origins of solo action, the                 actional nature of perception, and various kinds and aspects of mature thinking. In                 addition, he analyzes the role of metaphors in the folk notion of mind.While                 intending his theory as a contribution to the philosophy of mind, Melser aims also                 at a larger goal: to establish actions as a legitimate philosophical given,                 self-explanatory and sui generis. To this end, he argues in the final chapter                 against the possibility of scientific explanation of actions. The Act of Thinking                 opens up a large new area for philosophical research.