Questions and Answers
What does eliminative materialism suggest regarding folk psychology (FP)?
Eliminative materialism states that while there may be neurological concepts that correspond to FP, its current classifications do not fit well with psychology.
Folk psychology is regarded as a theory by eliminative materialists.
False
What analogy is used to describe the category of weeds?
The analogy suggests that the category of weeds is highly subjective and does not fit neatly into botany.
What are the two alternative attitudes to FP discussed in the text?
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What is one objection to Churchland's claim that folk psychology has not advanced over thousands of years?
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What is one response to Churchland's claim about FP suffering explanatory failures?
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What does instrumentalism propose about concepts and theories?
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How does instrumentalism view the truth of an idea?
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What is folk psychology?
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What is at stake in the debate about folk psychology?
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Explain the debate about the legitimacy of folk psychology.
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What are the two components to theories about the status/legitimacy of folk psychology?
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Explain mindreading and how it motivates folk psychology.
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What are the three central interpretive questions raised about theory-theory?
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Explain the argument that folk psychology can be understood as a deductive-nomological theory.
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Explain the argument that folk psychology can be understood as a model.
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What is the simulation approach to explaining mindreading?
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What are some key objections to simulation theory?
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Explain Dennett's connectionism.
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List the four explanations of mindreading.
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Explain Churchland's eliminative materialist argument.
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Study Notes
Folk Psychology Overview
- Folk psychology enables individuals to explain and predict behavior and mental states based on everyday experiences such as beliefs and desires.
- It is considered essential within contemporary philosophy regarding the mind and raises questions about its scientific legitimacy.
Legitimacy Debate
- Folk psychology contrasts with scientific theories of the mind and raises concerns about its verification and empirical rigor.
- The debate involves the relevance of common sense to understanding cognitive processes and whether it constitutes a legitimate theory of the mind.
Arguments & Positions
- Folk psychology can be seen as indispensable for comprehending human behavior, advocating that it should be treated as a legitimate theory.
- Alternatively, it may be deemed radically false in light of eliminative materialism, which posits that many folk psychological terms do not correspond to any real cognitive processes.
Theory-Theory
- Challenges folk psychology by proposing it as a cognitive theory, enabling mindreading through representation and theoretical reasoning.
- Proponents reference Chomsky's ideas that human cognition involves internal representations necessary for understanding grammar and behavior.
Mindreading Capabilities
- Mindreading involves predicting actions, attributing mental states, and explaining behavior based on these mental states.
- Folk psychology effectively accounts for these capabilities, suggesting its terms represent genuine aspects of human psychology.
Empirical Support for Mindreading
- Research, including experiments on children, shows that understanding false beliefs develops around age four, indicating a biological basis for mindreading capacities.
Interpretive Questions about Theory-Theory
- Key questions include the nature and particular elements of folk psychology, and how it is represented neurologically in the brain.
Folk Psychology as a Scientific Theory
- Deductive-nomological theory illustrates that folk psychological explanations should derive behavior from general laws and conditions, similar to scientific laws in physics.
Modeling Folk Psychology
- Folk psychology can also be viewed as a model, utilizing hypothetical structures to explain behaviors across different situations, blending elements like beliefs and desires.
Simulation Theory
- Proposes that mindreading relies on simulating others' beliefs and mental states via a three-stage cognitive process.
- Counter-poses theory-theory, arguing for a more intuitive, process-driven approach that does not solely rely on theoretical constructs.
Objections to Simulation Theory
- Critics argue that it may not reliably accommodate diverse motivations or beliefs and that concerns arise regarding self-attribution versus attributing mental states to others.
Connectionism
- Connectionism shifts the view of cognition, emphasizing networks over structured representations and suggesting a relationship between neuroscience and psychology.
- It maintains that folk psychological terms serve as predictive instruments for understanding behavior, despite lacking physical counterparts in the brain.
Explanations of Mindreading
- Four primary explanations: theory-theory, simulation theory, narrative approach, and intentional systems approach.
Eliminative Materialism
- Proposes that folk psychology fundamentally misrepresents cognitive processes and posits that beliefs and desires do not exist since folk psychology is false.
Critiques of Eliminative Materialism
- Challenges to the claims about stagnation and lack of progress in folk psychology include its evolving nature and responsiveness to empirical research in understanding behavior.
Conclusion on Folk Psychology
- The debate surrounding folk psychology emphasizes its complexity, relevance, and the ongoing conversation about its status within cognitive science and philosophy of mind.### Empirical Progressiveness in Folk Psychology (FP)
- Empirical progressiveness is not an appropriate standard for FP, as FP does not formulate new generalizations but applies a pre-existing theory to specific human behaviors.
- Judging FP by empirical progressiveness confuses its pursuit of understanding and causation in human behavior.
Response to Churchland's Claims
- Churchland's assertion regarding FP's explanatory failures is incorrect; cognitive psychologists utilize folk-psychological concepts (belief, desire, judgment) in their comprehensive theories of visual perception, memory, and learning.
Incommensurability with Cognitive Science
- Drawing from Davidson's perspective: Every mental event consistently corresponds with a neurological event, though systematic relationships between event-types may not be necessary.
- FP and neuroscience can coexist; the mental events proposed by FP can still exist and have causal relationships with sensations and behaviors.
Instrumentalism Thesis
- Instrumentalism posits that concepts and theories are tools, evaluated not on truth or accuracy, but on their effectiveness in explaining and predicting phenomena.
- The truth of an idea is judged by its practical success in solving problems, while its value is based on its role in human experience.
- Dennett's connectionism aligns with instrumentalism, reinforcing the view that theories are functional rather than truth-evaluable.
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Description
Explore the concepts of folk psychology, its role in predicting human behavior, and the ongoing debate regarding its legitimacy as a scientific theory. This quiz will challenge your understanding of everyday mental states and their significance in cognitive science discussions.
