Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Rickels_Thesis_Final.pdf (489.66 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Inherited Ontologies and the Relations between Philosophy of Mind and the Empirical Cognitive Sciences

Rickels, Christopher A
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1365012314

Abstract Details

2013, Master of Arts, University of Toledo, Philosophy.
A productive relationship between the philosophy of mind and the empirical cognitive sciences not only is possible, but also is pursued productively by practitioners from both sides. In the first two chapters, I consider two examples of sets of concepts (“folk psychology” and the “architecture of the mind”) which are shared between the philosophy of mind and the empirical cognitive sciences and analyze them from both perspectives. I introduce a historical-analytical apparatus called “inherited ontologies” to track these sets of concepts and how they emerge, mutate, and replicate over time in order to show that what can begin as semantic opacity can end as ontological confusion. I argue that the important question is not whether we inherit our implicit ideas about the mind from our genes or our culture, but how shared inheritance manifests in different ways in different individuals. In the third chapter, I argue that the plurality of kinds of minds should inform how we research our minds. Instead of supposing that a plurality of approaches to study a plurality of minds is a problem to be solved, we should embrace cognitive and methodological diversity as not only possible but desirable in a shared problem space. The cognitive sciences should develop a unity of purpose without collapsing into a presumed uniformity of subject matter.
Madeline Muntersbjorn, Ph.D (Committee Chair)
John Sarnecki, Ph.D (Committee Member)
Stephen Christman, Ph.D (Committee Member)
65 p.
Artificial Intelligence; Behavioral Sciences; Cognitive Psychology; Education; Linguistics; Metaphysics; Neurosciences; Philosophy; Philosophy of Science; Psychology; Science History
philosophy; philosophy of mind; cognitive science; inherited ontology; philosophy of psychology; folk psychology; nativism; empiricism; modularity; speculative psychology; meme; memetics; philosophy of science

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Rickels, C. A. (2013). Inherited Ontologies and the Relations between Philosophy of Mind and the Empirical Cognitive Sciences [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1365012314

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Rickels, Christopher. Inherited Ontologies and the Relations between Philosophy of Mind and the Empirical Cognitive Sciences. 2013. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1365012314.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Rickels, Christopher. "Inherited Ontologies and the Relations between Philosophy of Mind and the Empirical Cognitive Sciences." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1365012314

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1365012314
721
© 2013, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Inherited Ontologies and the Relations between Philosophy of Mind and the Empirical Cognitive Sciences by Christopher A Rickels is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.