Andrew Brook (born 17 March 1943) is a Canadian philosopher, author and academic particularly known for his writings on Immanuel Kant and the interplay between philosophy and cognitive science.
He subsequently co-authored Knowledge and Mind with Robert Stainton (MIT Press, 2000) and has edited several books on consciousness and cognitive science.
Brook emphasizes in the book that Kant had something to offer contemporary psychology, cognitive science and philosophy of mind.
"[8] Brook attributes the following discoveries to Kant: 1) the mind has the ability to synthesize a single coherent representation of self and the world.
He also suggests that three of Kant's insights have been adopted by cognitive science: the transcendental method (inference to the best explanation), that experience requires both concepts and percepts; and his general picture of the mind as a system of concept-using functions for manipulating representations.
[9] He explains that Kant distrusted introspection as a means of revealing the structure of the mind, yet also had deep reservations about Cartesian a priori arguments.
Reviewing the book, Stevenson wrote in The Philosophical Quarterly, "I venture the judgement that this will be recognized as one of the most important books ever on Kant [10] However, Eric Watkins in the Journal of the History of Philosophy raised concerns about the literature Brook cited and the more controversial interpretations: "Brook neglects almost entirely the relevant German scholarship on Kant's theory of mind, in the form of work by G. Prauss, W. Carl, M. Frank, G. Mohr, B. Thole and D. Sturma" (Watkins, 1995, p. 3).
[16] In addition to numerous scholarly papers, Brook's other publications include: He has also written the following encyclopedia entries: