This book is an introduction to some of the issues in the philosophy of mind as it is currently pursued in the western analytical tradition. The activities of the mind seem to include both thinking and reasoning, on the one hand, and sensing and experiencing, on the other. How do mind and mentality so conceived fit into the natural world? Can only living things have minds? Could thinking, sensing and experiencing be purely physical processes? A radical shift in thinking about the nature of both mind and life was ushered in by Descartes and the rise of modern science in the seventeenth century. The implications of this shift for the answers to these questions are explored, along with further key developments in twentieth century thought, such as the relevance of the computer for understanding the mind.