Papers by Huib Looren de Jong
Behavioral and Brain …, Jan 1, 2004
There is a widespread tendency among researchers of conscious-ness to address the semantics of th... more There is a widespread tendency among researchers of conscious-ness to address the semantics of the term consciousness (and its cognates) when investigating the mental phenomenon, con-sciousness. Such terminological discussions, in my view, are typi-cally poorly ...
Theory & Psychology, Jan 1, 1995
252 ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND NATURALISM commonalities can be understood as belonging to a broadl... more 252 ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY AND NATURALISM commonalities can be understood as belonging to a broadly naturalist framework. Following a brief sketch of Heider's early theorizing and Brunswik's functionalism and their respective relations to Gibson, the latter's ecologi- ...
Abstract 1. the notion of representation in contemporary philosophy of mind is discussed/in theor... more Abstract 1. the notion of representation in contemporary philosophy of mind is discussed/in theoretical psychology, 2 approaches can be distinguished: naturalist vs rationalist (computationalist)/the latter emphasizes the self-contained character of mental processes, ...
Philosophical Psychology, Jan 1, 1998
ABSTRACT The doctrine of eliminative materialism holds that belief-desire psychology is massively... more ABSTRACT The doctrine of eliminative materialism holds that belief-desire psychology is massively referentially disconnected. We claim, however, that it is not at all obvious what it means to be referentially (dis)connected. The two major accounts of reference both lead to serious ...
Synthese, Jan 1, 2006
It is argued that John Bickle's Ruthless Reductionism is flawed as an account of the practice of ... more It is argued that John Bickle's Ruthless Reductionism is flawed as an account of the practice of neuroscience. Examples from genetics and linguistics suggest, first, that not every mind-brain link or gene-phenotype link qualifies as a reduction or as a complete explanation, and, second, that the higher (psychological) level of analysis is not likely to disappear as neuroscience progresses. The most plausible picture of the evolving sciences of the mind-brain seems a patchwork of multiple connections and partial explanations, linking anatomy, mechanisms and functions across different domains, levels, and grain sizes. Bickle's claim that only the molecular level provides genuine explanations, and higher level concepts are just heuristics that will soon be redundant, is thus rejected. In addition, it is argued that Bickle's recasting of philosophy of science as metascience explicating empirical practices, ignores an essential role for philosophy in reflecting upon criteria for reduction and explanation. Many interesting and complex issues remain to be investigated for the philosophy of science, and in particular the nature of interlevel links found in empirical research requires sophisticated philosophical analysis.
Theory & Psychology, Jan 1, 2001
Philosophical …, Jan 1, 2002
Investigations into inter-level relations in computer science, biology and psychology call for an... more Investigations into inter-level relations in computer science, biology and psychology call for an empirical turn in the philosophy of mind. Rather than concentrate on a priori discussions of inter-level relations between "completed" sciences, a case is made for the actual study of the way inter-level relations grow out of the developing sciences. Thus, philosophical inquiries will be made more relevant to the sciences, and, more importantly, philosophical accounts of inter-level relations will be testable by confronting them with what really happens in science. Hence, close observation of the ever-changing reduction relations in the developing sciences, and revision of philosophical positions based on these empirical observations, may, in the long run, be more conducive to an adequate understanding of inter-level relations than a traditional a priori approach.
Theory & Psychology, Jan 1, 2001
In this paper, two recent interpretations of current work in behavioral genetics are rejected. Ge... more In this paper, two recent interpretations of current work in behavioral genetics are rejected. Genetic reductionism, the view according to which genetic properties are causally sufficient for phenotypic traits, is dismissed because it ignores the fact that there are not only causal pathways from DNA to phenotype but also pathways that feed back from, for instance, the cytoplasm or the outside world to the genetic material. The complexity of development is acknowledged in the view known as developmentalism, which claims that a complex causal network of genetic and non-genetic factors is responsible for phenotypic outcomes. However, genetic explanations, at least in some contexts, do seem to have a privileged status. Heuristic identity theory appears to offer a more adequate interpretation for behavioral genetics. It is in many cases very illuminating to hypothetically identify phenotypic traits with genetic properties. We claim that McCauley and Bechtel's proposal calls for at least two constraints to avoid a wild proliferation of implausible identities. First, more emphasis should be placed on explanatory failures. Second, the most interesting identifications are those that make 'qualitative leaps', that is, they must apply across distinct levels of analysis.
Philosophical Psychology, Jan 1, 2005
The matter of the mind: Philosophical …, Jan 1, 2007
Theory & Psychology, Jan 1, 2000
616 THEORY & PSYCHOLOGY 10(5) The background of these debates seems to be the dark feelin... more 616 THEORY & PSYCHOLOGY 10(5) The background of these debates seems to be the dark feeling that biology is destiny, that what was thought to make up human dignity, mood, personality, free will, self-determination, is determined by blind molecular and ...
Biological …, Jan 1, 1988
The present investigation explores the way young and elderly subjects use regularities in target ... more The present investigation explores the way young and elderly subjects use regularities in target location in a visual display to guide search for targets. Although both young and old subjects show efficient use of search strategies, slight but reliable differences in reaction times suggest decreased ability in the elderly to use complex cues. Event-related potentials were very different for the young and the old. In the young, P3 amplitudes were larger on trials where the rule that governed the location of the target became evident; this was interpreted as an effect of memory updating. Enhanced positive Slow Wave amplitude indicated uncertainty in random search conditions. Elderly subjects' P3 and SW, however, seemed unrelated to behavioral performance, and they showed a large negative Slow Wave at central and parietal sites to randomly located targets. The latter finding was tentatively interpreted as a sign of increased effort in the elderly to allocate attention in visual space. This pattern of behavioral and ERP results suggests that age-related differences in search tasks can be understood in terms of changes in the strategy of allocating visual attention.
The British journal for …, Jan 1, 2006
This paper inquires into the nature of intertheoretic relations between psychology and neuroscien... more This paper inquires into the nature of intertheoretic relations between psychology and neuroscience. This relationship has been characterized by some as one in which psychological explanations eventually will fall away as otiose, overthrown completely by neurobiological ones. Against this view it will be argued that it squares poorly with scientific practices and empirical developments in the cognitive neurosciences. We analyse a case from research on visual perception, which suggests a much more subtle and complex interplay between psychology and neuroscience than a complete take-over of the former by the latter. In the case of vision, cross-theory influences between psychology and neuroscience go back and forth, resulting in refinement in both disciplines. We interpret this case study as showing that:
Theory & Psychology, Jan 1, 2003
Functional explanation, for long the mainstay of psychology's autonomy, has recently come under a... more Functional explanation, for long the mainstay of psychology's autonomy, has recently come under attack. It is sometimes argued that higher-level generalizations are causally impotent, and do not really explain anything. Presumably only the reduction of higher-level patterns to underlying causal physical properties, and the specifying of lower-level, local causal mechanisms, provides genuine explanations. Two lines of argument are critically discussed: causal exclusion and multiple realization. These bear upon the credibility of functional explanation, and upon the presumed explanatory superiority of causal mechanisms over functional higher-level generalizations. It is argued that the causal exclusion argument conflates metaphysics with explanation, and that, rather than pointing towards reductionism, multiple realization indicates the indispensability of higher (functional) generalizations, alongside lower (causal) explanations; the choice for higher or lower level depends on context and explanatory interest. The notion of screening-off suggests a criterion for the legitimacy of higher-level characterizations. A brief example from the history of genetics is discussed to illustrate these ideas. This leads to a plea for pluralism in explanation.
Philosophical Psychology, Jan 1, 2002
ABSTRACT Until recently, the notions of function and multiple realization were supposed to save t... more ABSTRACT Until recently, the notions of function and multiple realization were supposed to save the autonomy of psychological explanations. Furthermore, the concept of supervenience presumably allows both dependence of mind on brain and non-reducibility of mind to brain, ...
Theory & Psychology, Jan 1, 1995
Abstract 1. Discusses JJ Gibson's (1966, 1979) ecological approach to perception as belo... more Abstract 1. Discusses JJ Gibson's (1966, 1979) ecological approach to perception as belonging to the tradition of naturalist psychology, which focuses on the adaptive role of the perceptual system, and which includes assumptions about the structure of the ecological ...
Theory & Psychology, Jan 1, 1997
148 A RELATIONAL CONCEPT OF MIND has elaborated a set of interconnected arguments to support that... more 148 A RELATIONAL CONCEPT OF MIND has elaborated a set of interconnected arguments to support that claim. These seem to entail or presuppose assumptions about the appropriate level of description of the input for perception and about what constitute legitimate types ...
Biological psychology, Jan 1, 1989
APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser c... more APA PsycNET Our Apologies! - The following features are not available with your current Browser configuration. - alerts user that their session is about to expire - display, print, save, export, and email selected records - get My ...
Philosophical Psychology, Jan 1, 1999
A BS TRA C T W e argue in this paper that so-called new w ave reductionism fails to capture the n... more A BS TRA C T W e argue in this paper that so-called new w ave reductionism fails to capture the nature of the interlevel relations between psychology and neuroscience. Bickle (1995, Psychoneural reduction of the genuinely cognitive: some accomplished facts, Philosophical Psychology, 8, 265± 285; 1998, Psychoneural reduction: th e new wave, Cambridge,
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Papers by Huib Looren de Jong