The Philosophy of Psychology

by George Botterill , Peter Carruthers

• ISBN13: 9780521551113
• ISBN10: 0521551110
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What is the relationship between common-sense, or 'folk', psychology and contemporary scientific psychology? Are they in conflict with one another? Or do they perform quite different, though perhaps complementary, roles? George Botterill and Peter Carruthers discuss these questions, defending a robust form of realism about the commitments of folk psychology and about the prospects for integrating those commitments into natural science. Their focus throughout the book is on the ways in which cognitive science presents a challenge to our common-sense self-image - arguing that our native conception of the mind will be enriched, but not overturned, by science. The Philosophy of Psychology is designed as a textbook for upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students in philosophy and cognitive science, but as a text that not only surveys but advances the debates on the topics discussed, it will also be of interest to researchers working in these areas.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix	(3)
Acknowledgements	xii
1 Introduction: some background	1	(23)
1 Developments in philosophy of mind	1	(11)
2 Developments in psychology	12	(11)
3 Conclusion	23	(1)
2 Folk-psychological commitments	24	(25)
1 Realisms and anti-realisms	24	(2)
2 Two varieties of anti-realism	26	(5)
3 The case for realism about folk psychology	31	(9)
4 Realism and eliminativism	40	(6)
5 Using folk psychology	46	(2)
6 Conclusion	48	(1)
3 Modularity and nativism	49	(28)
1 Some background on empiricism and nativism	50	(2)
2 The case for nativism	52	(4)
3 Developmental rigidity and modularity	56	(6)
4 Fodorian modularity	62	(4)
5 Input systems versus central systems	66	(9)
6 Conclusion	75	(2)
4 Mind-reading	77	(28)
1 The alternatives: theory-theory versus simulation	77	(6)
2 Problems for simulationism	83	(6)
3 A hybrid view	89	(2)
4 Developmental studies	91	(8)
5 Accounting for autistic impairments	99	(4)
6 Conclusion	103	(2)
5 Reasoning and irrationality	105	(26)
1 Introduction: the fragmentation of rationality	105	(3)
2 Some psychological evidence	108	(3)
3 Philosophical arguments in defence of rationality	111	(8)
4 Psychological explanations of performance	119	(6)
5 Practical rationality	125	(5)
6 Conclusion	130	(1)
6 Content for psychology	131	(30)
1 Introduction: wide versus narrow	133	(5)
2 Arguments for wide content	138	(1)
3 The coherence of narrow content	138	(5)
4 Explanation and causation	143	(12)
5 Folk-psychological content	155	(5)
6 Conclusion	160	(1)
7 Content naturalised	161	(30)
1 Introduction	161	(2)
2 Informational semantics	163	(4)
3 Teleo-semantics	167	(9)
4 Functional-role semantics	176	(8)
5 Naturalisation versus reduction	184	(6)
6 Conclusion	190	(1)
8 Forms of representation	191	(36)
1 Preliminaries: thinking in images	191	(3)
2 Mentalese versus connectionism	194	(14)
3 The place of natural language in thought	208	(17)
4 Conclusion	225	(2)
9 Consciousness: the final frontier?	227	(45)
1 Preliminaries: distinctions and data	227	(7)
2 Mysterianism	234	(13)
3 Cognitivist theories	247	(24)
4 Conclusion	271	(1)
References	272	(18)
Index of names	290	(5)
Index of subjects	295