Folk Psychology Attacked

Reading

P. Churchland, "Eliminative Materialism and the Propositional Attitudes", Chapter 9 in Lycan.

Lecture where this is primarily covered

Week 15: 'Eliminativism'

BE ACTIVE: Write down from memory the headings of the key points. The absolute basics.

In a sentence

**It is proposed (by eliminativism) that folk psychology is a weak theory of human behaviour, destined to be replaced.**

Folk psychology is the name some theorists have given to our ordinary way of talking about human actions springing from what they want and what they believe will get them what they want.

Click on FOLK PSYCHOLOGY - INTRODUCTION for the key points.

Folk psychology is deeply embedded in human life. It is at the foundation of all our social and legal arrangements, and also in most of what we say and think about ourselves and others. So the claim that it is simply a mistaken theory is a dramatic and far reaching one. Entertaining it is an exercise in thinking the unthinkable. -And of course invaluable for a philosophical person for that reason.

Eliminativists believe it will be replaced by the theory of the workings of the brain and the central nervous system which is emerging from neuroscience. We will come to explain and predict what we do - better, our behaviour - not in terms of beliefs and desires, but in terms of neurones, synapses, ganglia, neurotransmitters, etc.

DEFENCE OF THE CLAIM THAT FOLK PSYCHOLOGY IS A THEORY.

Paul Churchland argues first that Folk Psychology is indeed a theory.

ITS STATEMENTS ARE LAW-LIKE - LIKE THOSE OF SCIENCE.

Folk Psychology yields law-like statements like this:

For all x and for all p, if x fears that p then x desires that not p.

For all x and for all p, if x hopes that p and x discovers that p then x is pleased that p.

The fact that Folk Psychology makes statements of this law-like form he says supports his claim that it is a theory.

FOLK PSYCHOLOGY IS A POOR THEORY

He then argues that it is a poor theory.

FOLK PSYCHOLOGY FAILS TO THROUGH LIGHT ON MANY IMPORTANT FEATURES OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE.

For example:

the nature and dynamics of mental illness
the faculty of creative imagination
the ground of intelligence differences between individuals
the nature and psychological significance of sleep, which ordinarily occupies one third of a person's life
catching
hitting targets when we throw
the construction of 3D visual images from 2D retinal patterns
perceptual illusions
memory
learning

Churchland : 'On these and other mental phenomena, Folk Psychology sheds negligible light.'. (Churchland, in Lycan, p.210)

Pause.

Review this list. Do you agree that folk psychology has no light to throw on any of them?

Some people respond by saying that they wouldn't expect Folk Psychology to throw light on these things.

Do you agree? Possible response

AS A 'COMMON-SENSE' THEORY, IT CAN EXPECT TO GO THE WAY OF OTHER 'COMMON-SENSE' THEORIES.

Plenty of theories that seem common-sense at one time are abandoned later.

Examples of theories once sponsored by common sense:

space has a preferred direction in which things fall
weight is an intrinsic feature of a body
a force-free moving object will promptly return to rest
the sphere of the heavens turns daily

To suggest that Folk Psychology will be abandoned, says the eliminativist, cannot in the light of precedents such as these be dismissed as absurd.

Prompt

Sort of incidentally, can you attach names to the examples of discarded theories given?

Check

TWO POSSIBLE FATES FOR FOLK PSYCHOLOGY:

REDUCTION

Reduction of one theory to another is said to take place when there are equivalent concepts in either theory - those in one correspond to those in another.

This is the kind of relationship envisaged by the identity hypothesis. There is an alleged equivalence between lightening and electrical discharge, clouds and moisture droplets, consciousness and brain activity.

REPLACEMENT

This was the fate of e.g. caloric theory.

This was a theory of heat which postulated that it was a fluid - a special fluid, a fluid which couldn't be felt, and didn't weigh anything, but occupied space. So the expansion of bodies when they became hot was accounted for, and the fact that heating a body didn't in itself increase their weight.

What replaced this theory was the hypothesis that heat was a form of energy.

Paul Churchland in the Reader article says that Folk Psychology could be heading for either of these two fates, reductionism or replacement. Later he favours the latter. It is set to be eliminated by neuroscience. This is the position of eliminative materialism.

Envoi

"Folk psychology suffers explanatory failures on an epic scale...it has been stagnant for at least 25 centuries, and ... its categories appear ... incommensurable with ... the categories of the background physical science whose long-term claim to explain human behaviour seems undeniable."

(Churchland, in Lycan, p.212.)

END

Review Question

Is it part of Folk Theory to believe that President Clinton probably hasn't told the whole truth about his relationship with Monica Lewinski? Saith the wise

Tester

Try and formulate a reason for thinking that Folk Psychology is not a scientific theory. One possible line of thought

STAY ACTIVE: Have another go at writing down from memory the headings of the key points. The absolute basics.