The Philosophy of Psychology
What is the relationship between common-sense, or ‘folk’, psychology and contemporary scientific psychology? Are they in conflict with one another? Or do they perform quite different, though perhaps complementary, roles? George Botterill and Peter Carruthers discuss these questions, defending a robust form of realism about the commitments of folk psychology and about the prospects for integrating those commitments into natural science.
Their focus throughout the book is on the ways in which cognitive science presents a challenge to our common-sense selfimage – arguing that our native conception of the mind will be enriched, but not overturned, by science. The Philosophy of Psychology is designed as a textbook for upper-level undergraduate and beginning graduate students in philosophy and cognitive science. As a text that not only surveys but advances the debates on the topics discussed, it will also be of interest to researchers working in these areas.
George Botterill is Lecturer in Philosophy and a member of the Hang
Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies at the University of Sheffield. He has
published a number of essays in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science.
Peter Carruthers is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Hang
Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies at the University of Sheffield. His
publications include Human Knowledge and Human Nature (1992) and
Language, Thought and Consciousness: An Essay in Philosophical Psychology (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
