Behavior and Mind The Roots of Modern Psychology

by Rachlin, Howard

• ISBN13: 9780195079791
• ISBN10: 0195079795
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-01-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book attempts to synthesize two apparently contradictory views of psychology: as the science of internal mental mechanisms and as the science of complex external behavior. Most books in the psychology and philosophy of mind reject one approach while championing the other, but Rachlin argues that the two approaches are complementary rather than contradictory. Rejection of either involves disregarding vast sources of information vital to solving pressing human problems--in the areas of addiction, mental illness, education, crime, and decision-making, to name but a few. Where previous books have focused either on psychology as an abstract science of the mind or as a strictly empirical approach to behavioral problems, this is the only book that attempts to show how the best modern theoretical work on mental mechanisms relates to the best modern empirical work on complex behavioral problems. It will be of considerable interest to psychologists and philosophers across many disciplines and perspectives.

Table of Contents

Preface

Behavior, Cognition, and Mind

Teleological Behaviorism and Cognitive Psychology

Plato

Aristotle's Scientific Method

Aristotle's Psychology and Ethics

Augustine and Descartes: The Concept of Free Will

A Teleological Science of Psychology

Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.