Davidson Anomalous Monism

PCC is a branch of Humanistic Psychology often referred to as the “third force” in psychology. This movement rejected some fundamental ideas of Psychoanalysis and Behaviourism feeling they dehumanised people by viewing them as “...objects for study” (Merry, 2011, p 2). Feeling there were limitations to the deterministic assumptions made on human nature held by both Psychoanalysis, viewing behaviour in response to instinctive unconscious forces originating from past events, and Behaviourists

It is also important to consider the major features of a science, in order to judge whether Psychology can in fact be considered as one. This assignment will aim to answer the question by first looking at whether Psychology is a definable subject matter (Kuhn, 1970). The next paragraph will focus on the importance of the role of theory. This represents an attempt to explain observed phenomena, such as Skinner’s (1938) attempt to account for behaviour (human and non-human) in terms of operant conditioning. Furthermore, any science must have a hypothesis and be able to test them by making predictions about behaviour under certain conditions. Also, empirical methods and replication will be discussed as well.

The important problems of the mind module are: how do we understand the nature of mental events, their relation to the physical world and physical events and fundamentally the problems with other minds. This essay essentially serves to evaluate whether the Zombie argument against Cartesian Dualism is sound by: criticising the Zombie argument through analysing the validity of each premise of the Zombie argument, defending the Zombie argument against one of its objections and responses from the Cartesian Argument by analogy. This essay will offer reasons to believe the Zombie argument by contrasting it with the strengths and weaknesses of the Cartesian

In his paper “Mind and Body Problem”, Jerome Shaffer examines the much discussed view of the relation between mental and physical events. According to this view consideration is given to whether or not mental events can occur in the same place the corresponding physical events occur. In the course of his examination of this view, Shaffer considers one difficulty which arises in connection with it, and concludes that it is insurmountable. Unfortunately, his treatment of what he takes to be the central difficulty with the view in question is seriously defected and my purpose in this paper is to indicate wherein its defects lie.

In this approach we see the theories of psychology that see the human mind function based upon the interaction of forces and drives within the mind, normally this means unconscious thoughts, but it also includes looking at the different structures of the personality.

Psychology is the scientific “study of the mind” (Gross, 2015) and behaviour, which includes the study of humans and animals. There are various approaches in modern psychology. A theoretical approach is a perspective which is someone’s view about human behaviour, there can be many different theories within an approach, however they all piece together the same assumptions. (McLeod, 2007). A theory is an attempt by theorists to try to explain behaviour. Theories are not facts but can be verified by testing. Theories can then be evaluated which I aim to achieve through this essay, where I will briefly explain the theoretical approaches in psychology and aim to focus on an analysis of each perspective which consists of the psychodynamic,

Two assumptions bring the issue of explanation to the fore. One of these pertains to the range and the other to the type of event that the theories are adduced to account for. The merits of the theory theory and the simulation theory are usually discussed in relation to the practice of the prediction of intentional behavior. The reasonable assumption, (assumption A), is that the mechanism that is deployed in prediction will be the same one that is deployed in the explanation, the description and the interpretation of our own and others’ behavior. The second assumption, (assumption B), is that the two theories offer competing accounts of the same sort of event. The theory theory and the simulation theory, in proposing alternative views of the mechanism underlying our folk psychological practices of prediction, explanation, etc., agree on what these practices consist in.

Psychology, due to its complexity can be approached in a variety of ways. To help us understand the human mind, behaviourist and psychodynamic approaches have helped us understand the alternative outlooks in the science of mind and behaviour. Both approaches can be examined by the means of theoretical assumptions and methodology.

In Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, Michel Foucault, the French philosopher, writes, “What desire can be contrary to nature since it was given to man by nature itself”. In this quote, Foucault examines the absurd nature of human conformity to social norms. Society has a way of creating unofficial rules and regulations for how the human race should behave and carry out daily activities. Australian writer and traveler Robyn Davidson challenged the constraints of conformity when she trekked 1,700 miles across the Australian desert with only four camels and a dog. As a young, broke, inexperienced, female embarking on an extraordinarily difficult solo journey, Davidson had all odds for success against her. From

He claims that our ordinary psychological structure is a false and major misleading conception of the causes of human behavior and the nature of cognitive activity. Therefore, we cannot expect a truly sufficient neuroscientific account of our mental lives to provide abstract categories that match up nicely with the categories of our commonsense structure. Theories which give a false account of the way the world is and which cannot be reduced will be eliminated. Thus, folk psychological theories will be

This essay will outline and compare both biological and behavioural perspectives on human behaviour. The history, major discoveries and theories will be discussed along with some of the most influential theorists in each of these two areas of psychology. This essay will also compare the two areas strengths and weaknesses in the field of psychology.

Jaegwon Kim thinks that multiple realizability of mental properties would bring about the conclusion that psychology is most likely not a science. Several functionalists, specially, Fodor, take up the opposing stance to Kim, supporting that the multiple realizability of mental states is one of the reasons why psychology is an autonomous and justifiable science. Essentially, Kim think that in order for mental states to be multiply realizable then psychology must be fundamentally broken; with human psychology encompassing properties realized for humans and alien psychology encompassing those mental states realized in the alien way etc. I will demonstrate that even if one supports and allows the principles behind Kim’s argument they do not result in his final conclusion of psychology failing to be a science. By attacking his principle of Casual Individuation of Kinds I will show that Kim has failed to find the correct conclusion. Furthermore, I will consider a possible objection that Kim might have to my stance and give a short rebuttle. I will conclude by explicating Jerry Fodor’s account of what is Kim’s essential problem is. By showing that Kim’s conclusion fails it will entail that Fodor’s conclusion is more viable in reality.

The concept of intentions has been central to describing and explaining human goal directed behavior. In everyday life we constantly plan, store and implement intentions. In many cases, such implementations are immediate (e.g. take a glass to drink), in other cases they are delayed (e.g. when I will meet John I have to give him back the book that I borrowed). Intention has also become an important topic in cognitive neuroscience, originating with Benjamin Libet’s (1985) controversial claims about the relation of conscious intentions to actions. Subsequent work has concerned use of brain imaging to identify human intentions (e.g. Cunnington et al., 2006 ; Haynes et al., 2007). Work with non-human primates has investigated the relation between

Sigmund Freud has defined human behaviours as individual influenced by the structure of society, objective and exists outside individual’s consciousness. The human behaviour and mind look at the human nature as a whole so that it produces some behaviour or to affect the behaviour of the other people around or group. It goes back to the 20th century. People like Freud, J Watson, BF Skinner, Maslow and a lot more others made it to be known. (Mcleod, 2013)

In the early 1950’s, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953) openly condemned psychology as a discipline plagued with conceptual confusion, and rife with experimental methods that are often completely irrelevant to the problems they set out to solve. Although written over half a century ago, Wittgenstein’s criticism actively reflects the distinct conundrum of modern day psychology, in which expeditious empirical expansion is coupled with conceptual and theoretical turmoil (Hacker, 2007). Despite this ambiguity, the advancement of contemporary experimental techniques continues to cultivate a naïve, unjustified assurance in the status of psychology as a physical science. Openly condemning ‘metatheoretical psychologists’, the proposition under scrutiny is directly representative of the common neglect of philosophical investigation within the scope of contemporary psychological research. Irony lies in the fact the critical and conceptual inquiry undertaken by such ‘philosophical types’ is imperative in the formation of factual, scientific theories (Boag, 2011). In this sense, I will argue that to label metatheoretical psychologists as ‘cowboy builders’ is absurd. They do not ‘tear down’ edifices in the lust for destruction as suggested by the premise at hand, instead, they play a much more important role by providing conceptual critique in the hope of theoretical improvement and stability (Noaparast, 1995). Abstract analysis such as this can prove helpful in exposing conceptual