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Rethinking Introspection: A Pluralist Approach to the First-Person Perspective PDF

190 Pages·2013·1.77 MB·English
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N ew Directions in Philosophy and Cognitive Science S eries Editors: J ohn P rotevi, Louisiana State University and Michael Wheeler, University of Stirling T his series brings together work that takes cognitive science in new directions. Hitherto, philosophical reflection on cognitive science – or perhaps better, philo- sophical contribution to the interdisciplinary field that is cognitive science – has for the most part come from philosophers with a commitment to a representa- tionalist model of the mind. H owever, as cognitive science continues to make advances, especially in its neuroscience and robotics aspects, there is growing discontent with the represen- tationalism of traditional philosophical interpretations of cognition. Cognitive scientists and philosophers have turned to a variety of sources – phenome- nology and dynamic systems theory foremost among them to date – to rethink cognition as the direction of the action of an embodied and affectively attuned organism embedded in its social world, a stance that sees representation as only one tool of cognition, and a derived one at that. T o foster this growing interest in rethinking traditional philosophical notions of cognition – using phenomenology, dynamic systems theory, and perhaps other approaches yet to be identified – we dedicate this series to ‘New Directions in Philosophy and Cognitive Science’. T itles include: R obyn Bluhm, Anne Jaap Jacobson and Heidi Maibom ( editors) N EUROFEMINISM I ssues at the Intersection of Feminist Theory and Cognitive J esse Butler R ETHINKING INTROSPECTION A Pluralist Approach to the First-Person Perspective J ulian Kiverstein & Michael Wheeler (e ditors) H EIDEGGER AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE M ichelle Maiese E MBODIMENT, EMOTION, AND COGNITION R ichard Menary C OGNITIVE INTEGRATION M ind and Cognition Unbounded Z dravko Radman (e ditor) K NOWING WITHOUT THINKING M ind, Action, Cognition and the Phenomenon of the Background M atthew Ratcliffe R ETHINKING COMMONSENSE PSYCHOLOGY A Critique of Folk Psychology, Theory of Mind and Stimulation J ay Schulkin ( editor) A CTION, PERCEPTION AND THE BRAIN F orthcoming titles: A nne Jaap Jacobson K EEPING THE WORLD IN MIND Biologically Embodied Representations and the New Sciences of the Mind H anne De Jaegher P ARTICIPATION SENSE-MAKING A n Enactive Approach to Intersubjectivity R obert Welshon N IETZSCHE, PSYCHOLOGY, AND COGNITIVE SCIENCE C harles T. Wolfe (e ditor) B RAIN THEORY E ssays in Critical Neurophilosophy N ew Directions in Philosophy a nd C ognitive Science S eries Standing Order I SBN 9 78–0–230–54935–7 (Hardback) 978–0–230–54936–4 ( Paperback) ( outside North America only) Y ou can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the ISBNs quoted above. C ustomer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, H ampshire RG21 6XS, England R ethinking Introspection A Pluralist Approach to the First-Person Perspective J esse B utler U niversity of C entral Arkansas, U SA © Jesse Butler 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-28037-4 A ll rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. N o portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. A ny person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. F irst published 2013 by P ALGRAVE MACMILLAN P algrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. P algrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. P algrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries ISBN 978-1-349-44767-1 ISBN 978-1-137-28038-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137280381 T his book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 2 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 F or Blue C ontents S eries Editors’ Foreword i x A cknowledgements x i I ntroduction 1 1 I ntrospection as Inner Perception 6 H istorical overview 7 P erceptual models of introspection in psychology 1 0 I nner perception in contemporary philosophy of mind 1 2 2 P oking Out the Inner Eye 1 6 I s there a mind’s eye in the brain? 1 7 W hat are the objects of mental perception? 2 1 D o mental states exhibit perceptual qualia? 2 8 P erception, evolution, and knowledge of minds 3 1 P erception and recursion 3 6 I ntrospection and attention 3 7 3 I ntrospection as a Metaphor 4 1 T he prominence of perceptual metaphor 4 1 W hat is introspection? 4 5 T he diversity of introspection 4 8 4 K nowing Our Own Consciousness 5 1 K nowing what it is like 5 2 T he inadequacy of standard models of phenomenal knowledge 5 5 T he existential constitution model of phenomenal knowledge 6 2 O bjections and clarifications 6 5 P utting skepticism of self-knowledge in its place 6 9 C onclusion 7 3 5 I ntrospection through Cognition 7 5 R epresentation, metarepresentation, and misrepresentation 7 6 C onceptualizing our own mental states 8 4 A ttention and introspection 9 0 I ntrospection and the extended mind 9 4 C onclusion 9 7 vii viii Contents 6 U nderstanding Our Own Beliefs and Desires 9 9 F olk psychology and first-person authority 1 02 T he theory theory challenge to first-person authority 1 03 E mpirical evidence of theory-mediated introspection 1 06 M ind-monitoring mechanisms and the phenomenology of propositional attitudes 1 12 Conclusion 1 16 7 T he Internal Monologue 1 19 K nowing our own thoughts through language 1 20 O bjections and clarifications 1 30 K inds of self-knowledge enabled by inner speech 1 37 F rom self-determined truth to self-deception and back 1 40 C onclusion 1 47 8 O n the Social Side of Self-Knowledge 1 48 S ocial self-knowledge 1 49 N avigating one’s position in social space 1 51 D irect and indirect testimony about oneself 1 53 B ias and the rationality of testimonial deference 1 56 C onclusion 1 60 C onclusion: Is That All There Is? 1 61 N otes 1 65 R eferences 1 69 I ndex 1 77 Series Editors’ Foreword O ne of the oldest and yet most difficult of the ancient Greek philo- sophical imperatives is ‘Know thyself’. A perhaps equally ancient asso- ciation couples vision – theory – and truth. Combining the two leads us to introspection: the route to knowing yourself is to look within yourself. A s venerable as the introspective tradition is, it came under severe attack when philosophy and scientific psychology became allies. Cast aside for its impressionism and relativism, introspection spent the twentieth century banished from scientifically oriented philosophy, lost in the wilderness of poets, novelists, and phenomenologists. I f introspection is to be readmitted to polite company then, Jesse Butler argues, it will have to be rethought. And that rethinking shows it not to be a literal inward vision – despite a long series of philosophers who have used language suggesting that it is – but a metaphor grouping together multiple and heterogeneous processes. T he most basic of those processes, Butler shows, is revealed by the phenomenological method, which is not, pace its enemies , navel-gazing yielding subjective impressions, but rather the careful demonstration that our basic cognitive self-relation is non-reflective subjective aware- ness. As Butler puts it, ‘We know ourselves by being ourselves, not as objects but rather through the qualitative character of our experiences as living subjects’. This is a unique sort of knowledge, Butler claims, irreducible to the types of knowledge currently discussed in analytic philosophy of mind. Butler calls it the ‘existential constitution’ model and discusses it in relation to the classical phenomenologists and to contemporary thinkers. B utler does not stop there, however. He goes on to show how non- reflective self-awareness is only one of our ‘introspective’ capacities; we can and do objectify ourselves for genuine and valid cognitive purposes. Such higher-level, reflective introspection occurs through the use of normal outwardly directed cognitive processes such as representation, conceptualization, and attention that we turn back on ourselves. To complete the picture, Butler also discusses the self-application of Theory of Mind, inner speech, and sociality and self-knowledge. ix x Series Editors’ Foreword A ll in all, then, Butler’s R ethinking Introspection shows how the ancient theme of introspection, when brought back from exile and appropri- ately rethought, offers widespread and important current application. J ohn Protevi, Louisiana State University M ichael Wheeler, University of Stirling

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Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.