Explanatory Reduction, Conceptual Analysis, and Conceivability Arguments about the Mind

Noûs ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brie Gertler
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Conceivability Arguments ◽  
The Mind

scholarly journals Psychology and the Use of Intuitions in Philosophy

2010 ◽  
pp. 157-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Talbot
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Experimental Philosophy ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Psychological Understanding ◽  
The Mind

There is widespread controversy about the use of intuitions in philosophy.  In this paper I will argue that there are legitimate concerns about this use, and that these concerns cannot be fully responded to using the traditional methods of philosophy.  We need an understanding of how intuitions are generated and what it is they are based on, and this understanding must be founded on the psychological investigation of the mind.  I explore how a psychological understanding of intuitions is likely to impact a range of philosophical projects, from conceptual analysis to the study of (non-conceptual) "things themselves" to experimental philosophy.

Is The Mind-Body Problem Empirical?

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 505-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Foss
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Real World ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Body Problem ◽  
A Priori ◽  
The Real ◽  
Existential Import ◽  
Mind Body Problem ◽  
The Mind

There is no problem more paradigmatically philosophical than the mind-body problem. Nevertheless, I will argue that the problem is empirical. I am not even suggesting that conceptual analysis of the various mind-body theories be abandoned – just as I could not suggest it be abandoned for theories in physics or biology. But unlike the question, ‘Is every even number greater than 2 equal to the sum of two primes?’ the mind-body problem cannot be solved a priori, by analysis alone; though I will not argue this thesis here, it is nearly obvious, since purported solutions must make matter of fact claims, heavy with existential import, about the real world. By contrast, an investigation of the sensitivity of the mind-body problem to empirical evidence will show that purported solutions to the problem are empirically testable, to a degree consistent with philosophy giving a clarified mind-body problem to the sciences. I offer the bold outlines of such an investigation here.

scholarly journals Consciousness regained? Philosophical arguments for and against reductive physicalism

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Keyword(s):  
Body Problem ◽  
Explanatory Gap ◽  
Multiple Realizability ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Reductive Physicalism ◽  
Mind Body Problem ◽  
Conceivability Arguments ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Explanatory Gap ◽  
Methodological Reflection

This paper is an overview of recent discussions concerning the mind-body problem, which is being addressed at the interface between philosophy and neuroscience. It focuses on phenomenal features of consciousness or "qualia," which are distinguished from various related issues. Then follows a discussion of various influential skeptical arguments that question the possibility of reductive explanations of qualia in physicalist terms: knowledge arguments, conceivability arguments, the argument of multiple realizability, and the explanatory gap argument. None of the arguments is found to be very convincing. It does not necessarily follow that reductive physicalism is the only option, but it is defensible. However, constant conceptual and methodological reflection is required, alongside ongoing research, to keep such a view free from dogmatism and naivety.

scholarly journals Mind–World Relations

Epistemology ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 120-139
Author(s):  
Ernest Sosa
Keyword(s):  
Personal Identity ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Scientific Progress ◽  
Conceptual Innovation ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Philosophical Progress ◽  
Freedom And Responsibility

This chapter discusses how people often appeal to what they would ordinarily say, and even to what they would ordinarily think, in the exercise of generally shared concepts. When one wonders about personal identity, freedom and responsibility, the mind and its states and contents, justice, rightness of action, happiness, and so on, the main focus is not just the words or the concepts. There are things beyond words and concepts whose nature people wish to understand. The metaphysics of persons goes beyond the semantics of the word “person” and its cognates, and even beyond the correlated conceptual analysis. Philosophical progress might then take a form similar to the kind of scientific progress that involves conceptual innovation.

scholarly journals Attention please: Positioning attention at the center of curriculum and pedagogy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Ergas
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Curriculum Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Voluntary Attention ◽  
Attentional Training ◽  
Curriculum And Pedagogy ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Educational Potential

This paper explores two contradictory approaches to the concept of attention as it underlies curriculum theory based on conceptual analysis and empirical studies. The first approach depicts a common curricular-pedagogical conception based on the following premises: 1) Attention is a means for the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge. 2) Sustained voluntary attention is an unrealistic goal given the tendency of the mind to wander, hence the teacher is responsible for sustaining students’ attention. The second approach, stemming from theory and contemporary applications of ‘attentional training’ challenges both premises suggesting that: 1) Attention determines the quality of our life thus its cultivation is an end in itself. 2) The cultivation of sustained voluntary attention through self-practice is feasible and holds significant transformative educational potential. Based on the analysis proposed the paper suggests and exemplifies a balancing approach in which subject matter and attentional training can be integrated with each made subservient to the other at different times toward broadening the scope of education.

scholarly journals Doxographical Appropriation of Nāgārjuna’s Catuṣkoṭi in Chinese Sanlun and Tiantai Thought

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 912
Author(s):  
Hans Rudolf Kantor
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Buddhist Doctrine ◽  
Heuristic Device ◽  
The Mind

This article reconstructs the Chinese “practice qua exegesis” which evolved out of the doxographical appropriation of the Indian Buddhist catuṣkoṭi (four edges), a heuristic device for conceptual analysis and a method of assorting linguistic forms to which adherents of Madhyamaka ascribed ambiguous potential. It could conceptually clarify Buddhist doctrine, but also produce deceptive speech. According to the Chinese interpreters, conceptual and linguistic forms continue to be deceptive until the mind realizes that all it holds on or distinguishes itself from is its own fabrication. Liberation from such self-induced deceptions requires awareness of the paradox that the desire to leave them behind is itself a way of clinging to them. Chinese Sanlun and Tiantai masters tried to uncover this paradox and to disclose to practitioners how the application of the catuṣkoṭi, on the basis of such awareness, enables proper conceptual analysis in exegesis. From this approach followed the Chinese habit of construing doxographies in which hermeneutical and soteriological intent coincide. Understanding the inner unity of doctrinal manifoldness in the translated sūtra and śāstra literature from India via exegesis also made it possible to apprehend the ineffable sense of liberation.

How Homo economicus lost her mind and how we can revive her

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter DeScioli
Keyword(s):  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Homo Economicus ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Target Article ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind ◽  
And Behavior

AbstractThe target article by Boyer & Petersen (B&P) contributes a vital message: that people have folk economic theories that shape their thoughts and behavior in the marketplace. This message is all the more important because, in the history of economic thought, Homo economicus was increasingly stripped of mental capacities. Intuitive theories can help restore the mind of Homo economicus.

Metaphors in the Mind

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette Littlemore
Keyword(s):  
The Mind
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