Philosophy of Psychology: Causality and Psychological Subject
Title | Philosophy of Psychology: Causality and Psychological Subject PDF eBook |
Author | Wenceslao J. Gonzalez |
Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG |
Pages | 278 |
Release | 2018-06-11 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 3110573989 |
Contemporary philosophy of science analyzes psychology as a science with special features, because this discipline includes some specific philosophical problems – descriptive and normative, structural and dynamic. Some of these are particularly relevant both theoretically (casual explanation) and practically (the configuration of the psychological subject and its relations with psychiatry). Two central aspects in this book are the role of causality, especially conceived as intervention or manipulation, and the characterization of the psychological subject. This requires a clarification of scientific explanations in terms of causality in psychology, because characterizations of causality are quite different in epistemological and ontological terms. One of the most influential views is James Woodward’s approach to causality as intervention, which entails an analysis of its characteristics, new elements and limits. This means taking into account the structural and dynamic aspects included in causal cognition and psychological explanations. Psychology seen as special science also requires us to consider the scientific status of psychology and the psychological subject, which leads to limits of naturalism in psychology.
Philosophy of Psychology: Causality and Psychological Subject
Title | Philosophy of Psychology: Causality and Psychological Subject PDF eBook |
Author | Wenceslao J. Gonzalez |
Publisher | |
Pages | 293 |
Release | 2018 |
Genre | PSYCHOLOGY |
ISBN | 9783110576061 |
Contemporary philosophy of science analyzes psychology as a science with special features, because this discipline includes some specific philosophical problems – descriptive and normative, structural and dynamic. Some of these are particularly relevant both theoretically (casual explanation) and practically (the configuration of the psychological subject and its relations with psychiatry). Two central aspects in this book are the role of causality, especially conceived as intervention or manipulation, and the characterization of the psychological subject. This requires a clarification of scientific explanations in terms of causality in psychology, because characterizations of causality are quite different in epistemological and ontological terms. One of the most influential views is James Woodward’s approach to causality as intervention, which entails an analysis of its characteristics, new elements and limits. This means taking into account the structural and dynamic aspects included in causal cognition and psychological explanations. Psychology seen as special science also requires us to consider the scientific status of psychology and the psychological subject, which leads to limits of naturalism in psychology.
Causation with a Human Face
Title | Causation with a Human Face PDF eBook |
Author | James Woodward |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 425 |
Release | 2021 |
Genre | Computers |
ISBN | 0197585418 |
The past few decades have seen an explosion of research on causal reasoning in philosophy, computer science, and statistics, as well as descriptive research in psychology about how people reason about causes. Causation with a Human Face integrates these lines of research and argues for an understanding of how each can inform the other: normative ideas can suggest interesting experiments, while descriptive results can suggest important normative concepts. Woodward's overall framework builds on an interventionist treatment of causation, and discusses proposals about the role of invariant or stable relationships in successful causal reasoning and the notion of proportionality. He argues that these normative ideas are reflected in the causal judgments that people actually make as a descriptive matter.
Causation with a Human Face
Title | Causation with a Human Face PDF eBook |
Author | James Woodward |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
Pages | 425 |
Release | 2021-09-27 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0197585434 |
The past few decades have seen an explosion of research on causal reasoning in philosophy, computer science, and statistics, as well as descriptive work in psychology. In Causation with a Human Face, James Woodward integrates these lines of research and argues for an understanding of how each can inform the other: normative ideas can suggest interesting experiments, while descriptive results can suggest important normative concepts. Woodward's overall framework builds on the interventionist treatment of causation that he developed in Making Things Happen. Normative ideas discussed include proposals about the role of invariant or stable relationships in successful causal reasoning and the notion of proportionality. He argues that these normative ideas are reflected in the causal judgments that people actually make as a descriptive matter. Woodward also discusses the common philosophical practice-particularly salient in philosophical accounts of causation--of appealing to "intuitions" or "judgments about cases" in support of philosophical theses. He explores how, properly understood, such appeals are not different in principle from appeals to results from empirical research, and demonstrates how they may serve as a useful source of information about causal cognition.
Relations and Representations
Title | Relations and Representations PDF eBook |
Author | John D. Greenwood |
Publisher | Psychology Press |
Pages | 156 |
Release | 2015-06-19 |
Genre | Psychology |
ISBN | 1317559274 |
What is the nature of social psychological science? What does a realist approach to human behaviour offer? Originally published in 1991, this lucid introduction to the philosophy of social psychological science takes a new and original approach to the subject. The author repudiates traditional empiricist and hermeneutical accounts, advancing instead a realist philosophy of social psychological science that maintains objectivity while at the same time stressing the social dimensions of mind and action. The author provides novel perspectives on the problems and potential of those sciences concerned with human behaviours that are constituted as meaningful actions by their social relational, and representational dimensions. He focuses in particular on the social identity of human actions and psychological states, on the objectivity of theoretical description and causal explanation, and on the role of experimentation. This approach, aimed at reconciling our scientific interest with our human intuitions, results in a richer conception of social psychological theory and phenomena than was found in most contemporary theoretical accounts. A stimulating and thought-provoking text, this title will still be of special value to students and teachers of psychology, sociology, anthropology and philosophy.
Causation in Psychology
Title | Causation in Psychology PDF eBook |
Author | John Campbell |
Publisher | Harvard University Press |
Pages | 216 |
Release | 2020-12-01 |
Genre | Philosophy |
ISBN | 0674249526 |
A renowned philosopher argues that singular causation in the mind is not grounded in general patterns of causation, a claim on behalf of human distinctiveness, which has implications for the future of social robots. A blab droid is a robot with a body shaped like a pizza box, a pair of treads, and a smiley face. Guided by an onboard video camera, it roams hotel lobbies and conference centers, asking questions in the voice of a seven-year-old. “Can you help me?” “What is the worst thing you’ve ever done?” “Who in the world do you love most?” People pour their hearts out in response. This droid prompts the question of what we can hope from social robots. Might they provide humanlike friendship? Philosopher John Campbell doesn’t think so. He argues that, while a social robot can remember the details of a person’s history better than some spouses can, it cannot empathize with the human mind, because it lacks the faculty for thinking in terms of singular causation. Causation in Psychology makes the case that singular causation is essential and unique to the human species. From the point of view of practical action, knowledge of what generally causes what is often all one needs. But humans are capable of more. We have a capacity to imagine singular causation. Unlike robots and nonhuman animals, we don’t have to rely on axioms about pain to know how ongoing suffering is affecting someone’s ability to make decisions, for example, and this knowledge is not a derivative of general rules. The capacity to imagine singular causation, Campbell contends, is a core element of human freedom and of the ability to empathize with human thoughts and feelings.
Causality and Neo-Stages in Development
Title | Causality and Neo-Stages in Development PDF eBook |
Author | Gerald Young |
Publisher | Springer Nature |
Pages | 460 |
Release | 2021-10-30 |
Genre | Psychology |
ISBN | 303082540X |
This book represents a broad integration of several major themes in psychology toward its unification. Unifying psychology is an ongoing project that has no end-point, but the present work suggests several major axes toward that end, including causality and activation-inhibition coordination. On the development side of the model building, the author has constructed an integrated lifespan stage model of development across the Piagetian cognitive and the Eriksonian socioaffective domains. The model is based on the concept of neo-stages, which mitigates standard criticisms of developmental stage models. The new work in the second half of the book extends the primary work in the first half both in terms of causality and development. Also, the area of couple work is examined from the stage perspective. Finally, new concepts related to the main themes are represented, including on the science formula, executive function, stress dysregulation disorder, inner peace, and ethics, all toward showing the rich potential of the present modeling.