Psychological Metaphysics

Psychological Metaphysics PDF Author: Peter White
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134889259
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
The research literature on causal attribution and social cognition generally consists of many fascinating but fragmented and superficial phenomena. These can only be understood as an organised whole by elucidating the fundamental psychological assumptions on which they depend. Psychological Metaphysics is an exploration of the most basic and important assumptions in the psychological construction of reality, with the aim of showing what they are, how they originate, and what they are there for. Peter White proposes that people basically understand causation in terms of stable, special powers of things operating to produce effects under suitable conditions. This underpins an analysis of people's understanding of causal processes in the physical world, and of human action. In making a radical break with the Heiderian tradition, Psychological Metaphysics suggests that causal attribution is in the service of the person's practical concerns and any interest in accuracy or understanding is subservient to this. Indeed, a notion of regularity in the world is of no more than minor importance, and social cognition is not a matter of cognitive mechanisms or processes but of cultural ways of thinking imposed upon tacit, unquestioned, universal assumptions.

Psychological Metaphysics

Psychological Metaphysics PDF Author: Peter White
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134889259
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 337

Get Book Here

Book Description
The research literature on causal attribution and social cognition generally consists of many fascinating but fragmented and superficial phenomena. These can only be understood as an organised whole by elucidating the fundamental psychological assumptions on which they depend. Psychological Metaphysics is an exploration of the most basic and important assumptions in the psychological construction of reality, with the aim of showing what they are, how they originate, and what they are there for. Peter White proposes that people basically understand causation in terms of stable, special powers of things operating to produce effects under suitable conditions. This underpins an analysis of people's understanding of causal processes in the physical world, and of human action. In making a radical break with the Heiderian tradition, Psychological Metaphysics suggests that causal attribution is in the service of the person's practical concerns and any interest in accuracy or understanding is subservient to this. Indeed, a notion of regularity in the world is of no more than minor importance, and social cognition is not a matter of cognitive mechanisms or processes but of cultural ways of thinking imposed upon tacit, unquestioned, universal assumptions.

Psychological Metaphysics

Psychological Metaphysics PDF Author: Peter A. White
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315473550
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 579

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Book Description
The research literature on causal attribution and social cognition generally consists of many fascinating but fragmented and superficial phenomena. These can only be understood as an organised whole by elucidating the fundamental psychological assumptions on which they depend. Originally published in 1993, Psychological Metaphysics is an exploration of the most basic and important assumptions in the psychological construction of reality, with the aim of showing what they are, how they originate, and what they are there for. Peter A. White proposes that people basically understand causation in terms of stable, specific powers of things operating to produce effects under suitable conditions. This underpins an analysis of people’s understanding of causal processes in the physical word and of human action, which makes a radical break with the Heiderian tradition. Psychological Metaphysics suggests that causal attribution is in the service of the person’s practical concerns and any interest in accuracy or understanding is subservient to this. A notion of regularity in the world is of no more than minor importance in causal attribution, and social cognition is not so much a matter of cognitive mechanisms or processes but more of cultural ways of thinking imposed upon tacit, unquestioned, universal assumptions. Psychological Metaphysics incorporates not only research and theory in social cognition and developmental psychology, but also philosophy and the history of ideas. It will be challenging to everyone interested in how we try to understand the world.

Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of Mind PDF Author: George Trumbull Ladd
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dualism
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
"This book is an essay in the speculative treatment of certain problems, suggested but not usually discussed in the course of a thorough empirical study of mental phenomena. Inasmuch as these problems all relate to the real nature and actual performances and relations of the human mind, the essay may properly be called metaphysical. Let it be confessed, then, that the author comes forward with a treatise in metaphysics--in the more special meaning of that term. I think, however, that in spite of the marked disfavor into which all metaphysics has fallen in certain quarters, no detailed apology for asking readers for such a treatise need be offered in its Preface. Indeed, the first two chapters of the book are occupied in showing how inevitable is the demand which the science of psychology makes for a further philosophical discussion of all its principal problems. The nature of psychology, however, and the nature of philosophy, and especially the nature of the relations existing between the two, are such as to make it undesirable, if not impossible, to consider in one book all the metaphysical problems which this empirical science suggests. Indeed, the whole sphere of philosophical study scarcely does more than this. A somewhat but not wholly arbitrary selection of problems had, therefore, to be made; and their detailed discussion was then brought under the one title, "Philosophy of Mind." The reasons for the selection are made sufficiently clear in the course of the discussion itself"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).

The Metaphysics of a Naturalist

The Metaphysics of a Naturalist PDF Author: Clarence Luther Herrick
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metaphysics
Languages : en
Pages : 110

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Book Description


Franz Brentano's metaphysics and psychology

Franz Brentano's metaphysics and psychology PDF Author: Ion Tănăsescu
Publisher: Zeta Books
ISBN: 606826646X
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 517

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Book Description


Vocabulary of Philosophy, Psychological, Ethical, Metaphysical; with Quotations and References

Vocabulary of Philosophy, Psychological, Ethical, Metaphysical; with Quotations and References PDF Author: William Fleming
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description


Classical Metaphysics, Philosophy, and Psychology

Classical Metaphysics, Philosophy, and Psychology PDF Author: Dominic Ledernier
Publisher: Dominic Ledernier
ISBN: 0805989064
Category : First philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 195

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Book Description
This book has a future because it provides a better understanding about timeless matters that never fade away. It makes us aware of determinism and explains the thinking process of the instances that are located in human beings. Furthermore, Classical Metaphysics, Philosophy, and Psychology helps making the difference between objectivity and subjectivity which, in some fields, is not easy to find and gives us the opportunity to diminish and solve the conflicts that erupt inside of us. Finally, it introduces a knowledge that can no longer be disassociated from our hightech world

Questions on Psychology, Metaphysics, and Ethics

Questions on Psychology, Metaphysics, and Ethics PDF Author: Frederick Ryland
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ethics
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description


Metaphysics

Metaphysics PDF Author: Aristotle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199682984
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
Laura Castelli presents a new translation of the tenth book (Iota) of Aristotle's Metaphysics, together with a comprehensive commentary. Castelli's commentary helps readers to understand Aristotle's most systematic account of what it is for something to be one, what it is for something to be a unit of measurement, and what contraries are.

Personal Agency

Personal Agency PDF Author: E. J. Lowe
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191550906
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Personal Agency consists of two parts. In Part II, a radically libertarian theory of action is defended which combines aspects of agent causalism and volitionism. This theory accords to volitions the status of basic mental actions, maintaining that these are spontaneous exercises of the will—a 'two-way' power which rational agents can freely exercise in the light of reason. Lowe contends that substances, not events, are the causal source of all change in the world—with rational, free agents like ourselves having a special place in the causal order as unmoved movers, or initiators of new causal chains. And he defends a thoroughgoing externalism regarding reasons for action, holding these to be mind-independent worldly entities rather than the beliefs and desires of agents. Part I prepares the ground for this theory by undermining the threat presented to it by physicalism. It does this by challenging the causal closure argument for physicalism in all of its forms and by showing that a dualistic philosophy of mind—one which holds that human mental states and their subjects cannot be identified with bodily states and human bodies respectively—is both metaphysically coherent and entirely consistent with known empirical facts.