Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T07:17:32.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The cognitive and behavioral sciences: Real patterns, real unity, real causes, but no supervenience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2005

Don Ross  and
David Spurrett
Don Ross*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL35294-1260; School of Economics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch7701, South Africahttp://www.commerce.uct.ac.za/economics/staff/personalpages/dross/
David Spurrett*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy and Ethics, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban4041, South Africahttp://www.nu.ac.za/undphil/spurrett/
*
[email protected]
[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Our response amplifies our case for scientific realism and the unity of science and clarifies our commitments to scientific unity, nonreductionism, behaviorism, and our rejection of talk of “emergence.” We acknowledge support from commentators for our view of physics and, responding to pressure and suggestions from commentators, deny the generality supervenience and explain what this involves. We close by reflecting on the relationship between philosophy and science.

Type
Authors' Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 27 , Issue 5 , October 2004 , pp. 637 - 647
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achinstein, P. (1983) The nature of explanation. Oxford University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Armstrong, D. (1981) The nature of mind and other essays. Cornell University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Arnett, D. (1996) Supernovae and nucleosynthesis: An investigation of the history of matter, from the big bang to the present. Princeton University Press. [DW]Google Scholar
Badii, R. & Politi, A. (1997) Complexity: Hierarchical structure and scaling in physics. Cambridge University Press. [CRS]Google Scholar
Baker, L. R. (1993) Metaphysics and mental causation. In: Mental causation, ed. Heil, J. & Mele, A.. Clarendon Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Batterman, R. (2000) Multiple realizability and universality. British Journal for Philosophy of Science 51:115–45. [aDR]Google Scholar
Beck, C. & Schlögl, F. (1993) Thermodynamics of chaotic systems: An introduction. Cambridge University Press. [CRS]Google Scholar
Bickle, J. (1998) Psychoneural reduction: The new wave. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [aDR]Google Scholar
Birks, J. B. (1963) Rutherford at Manchester. W. A. Benjamin. [aDR]Google Scholar
Block, N. (1980a) Introduction: What is functionalism? In: Readings in the philosophy of psychology, vol. 1, ed. Block, N.. Methuen. [aDR]Google Scholar
Block, N. (1980b) Troubles with functionalism? In: Readings in the philosophy of psychology, vol. 1, ed. Block, N.. Methuen. [aDR]Google Scholar
Block, N. (2003) Do causal powers drain away? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 67:110–27. [MS]Google Scholar
Block, N. & Fodor, J. (1972) What psychological states are not. Philosophical Review 8(2):159–81. [aDR]Google Scholar
Bohm, D. (1952) A suggested interpretation of quantum theory in terms of “hidden” variables. Physical Review 85:166–93. [DW]Google Scholar
Brooks, D. R. & Wiley, E. O. (1988) Evolution as entropy, 2nd edition. University of Chicago Press. [JC]Google Scholar
Brooks, R. A. (1991) Intelligence without representation. Artificial Intelligence 47:141–60. [aDR]Google Scholar
Burge, T. (1993) Mind-body causation and explanatory practice. In: Mental causation, ed. Heil, J. & Mele, A.. Clarendon Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Campbell, D. T. (1974) “Downward causation” in hierarchically organized biological systems. In: Studies in the philosophy of biology, ed. Ayala, F. J. & Dobzhansky, T.. Macmillan. [JC]Google Scholar
Cartwright, N. (1983) How the laws of physics lie. Clarendon Press. [DB, aDR]Google Scholar
Cartwright, N. (1989) Nature's capacities and their measurement. Clarendon Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Cartwright, N. (1999) The dappled world. Cambridge University Press. [DB, SC, aDR]Google Scholar
Chaikin, P. M. & Lubensky, T. C. (1995) Principles of condensed matter physics. Cambridge University Press. [CRS]Google Scholar
Chalmers, D. (1996) The conscious mind. Oxford University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Chorin, A. J. (1994) Vorticity and turbulence. Springer. [CRS]Google Scholar
Churchland, P. (1981) Eliminative materialism and the propositional attitudes. Journal of Philosophy 78:67–90. [aDR]Google Scholar
Clapp, L. (2001) Disjunctive properties: Multiple realizations. Journal of Philosophy 98:111–36. [aDR]Google Scholar
Clark, A. (1997) Being there. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [aDR]Google Scholar
Collier, J. (1986) Entropy in evolution. Biology and Philosophy 1:5–24. http//www.nu.ac.za/undphil/collier/papers/entev.pdf [JC]Google Scholar
Collier, J. (1988) Supervenience and reduction in biological hierarchies. In: Philosophy and Biology: Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary, ed. Matthen, M. & Linsky, B.. 14:209–34. http//www.nu.ac.za/undphil/collier/papers/redsup.pdf [JC]Google Scholar
Collier, J. (2002) What is autonomy? In: Partial Proceedings of CASYS’01: Fifth International Conference on Computing Anticipatory Systems, International Journal of Computing Anticipatory Systems, Liège, Belgium, ed. Dubois, D. M.. CHAOS. http//www.nu.ac.za/undphil/collier/papers/What%20is%20Autonomy.pdf [JC]Google Scholar
Collier, J. & Hooker, C. A. (1999) Complexly organised dynamical systems. Open Systems and Information Dynamics 6:111–36. http//www.newcastle.edu.au/centre/casrg/publications/Cods.pdf [JC]Google Scholar
Collier, J. & Muller, S. (1998) The dynamical basis of emergence in natural hierarchies, with Scott Muller. In: Emergence, complexity, hierarchy and organization: Selected and edited papers from the ECHO III Conference, Acta Polytechnica Scandinavica, MA91, ed. Farre, G. & Oksala, T.. Finnish Academy of Technology. http//www.nu.ac.za/undphil/collier/papers/echoiii.pdf [JC]Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (1981) Three kinds of intentional psychology. In: Reduction, time and reality, ed. Healey, R.. Cambridge University Press. (Reprinted in: Dennett, D. (1987) The intentional stance. MIT Press/Bradford Books). [aDR]Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (1987) The intentional stance. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [aDR]Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (1991a) Consciousness explained. Little, Brown. [aDR]Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (1991b) Real patterns. Journal of Philosophy 88:27–51. [aDR, DW]Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (1997) Brainchildren: Essays on designing minds. MIT Press. [CRS]Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (2001a) Are we explaining consciousness yet? Cognition 79:221–37. [aDR]Google Scholar
Dennett, D. (2001b) The Zombic hunch: Extinction of an intuition? In: Philosophy at the new millennium, ed. O’Hear, A.. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Dupré, J. (1993) The disorder of things. Harvard University Press. [DB, aDR]Google Scholar
Elder, C. (2001) Mental causation versus physical causation: No contest. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 62(1):111–27. [aDR]Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1968) Psychological explanation. Random House. [aDR]Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1974) Special sciences, or the disunity of science as a working hypothesis. Synthese 28:77–115. [aDR]Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1975) The language of thought. Harvard University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1987) Psychosemantics. MIT Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Fodor, J. (1994) The elm and the expert. MIT Press/Bradford. [aDR]Google Scholar
Forrest, S. ed. (1991) Emergent computation. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [rDR]Google Scholar
Forster, D. (1975) Hydrodynamic fluctuations, broken symmetry, and correlation functions. Benjamin Cummings. [CRS]Google Scholar
French, S. & Ladyman, J. (2003) The dissolution of objects. Synthese 136:73–7. [rDR]Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1974) Explanation and scientific understanding. Journal of Philosophy 71:5–19. [aDR]Google Scholar
Friedman, M. (1999) Reconsidering logical positivism. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Garfinkel, A. (1981) Forms of explanation. Yale University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Gintis, H. (2000) Game theory evolving. Princeton University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Glimcher, P. (2003) Decisions, uncertainty, and the brain. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [aDR]Google Scholar
Hempel, C. (1965) The logic of scientific explanation. Free Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Horgan, T. (1997) Kim on mental causation and causal exclusion. Philosophical Perspectives 11:165–84. [aDR]Google Scholar
Hull, D. (1972) Reduction in genetics – biology or philosophy? Philosophy of Science 39:491–99. [aDR]Google Scholar
Humberstone, L. (1998) Note on supervenience and definability. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 39:243–52. [MS]Google Scholar
Hutchins, E. (1995) Cognition in the wild. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [aDR]Google Scholar
Jackson, F. & Pettit, P. (1988) Functionalism and broad content. Mind 97:381–400. [aDR]Google Scholar
Jackson, F. & Pettit, P. (1990) Program explanation: A general perspective. Analysis 50:107–17. [aDR]Google Scholar
Juarrero, A. (1999) Dynamics in action. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [aDR]Google Scholar
Kauffman, S. A. (1993) The origins of order. Oxford University Press. [JC]Google Scholar
Keizer, J. (1987) Statistical thermodynamics of nonequilibrium processes. Springer. [CRS]Google Scholar
Kim, J. (1993) Supervenience and mind. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Kim, J. (1998) Mind in a physical world. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [DB, JL, AM, aDR, MS]Google Scholar
Kincaid, H. (1997) Individualism and the unity of science. Rowman & Littlefield. [aDR]Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1976) Explanation, conjunction and unification. Journal of Philosophy 73:207–12. [aDR]Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1981) Explanatory unification. Philosophy of Science 48:507–31. [DB, aDR]Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1989) Explanatory unification and the causal structure of the world. In: Scientific explanation, ed. Kitcher, P. & Salmon, W.. University of Minnesota Press. [SC, aDR]Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1994) The unity of science and the unity of nature. In: Kant's epistemology and philosophy of science, ed. Parrini, P.. Kluwer. [SC]Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. (1999) Unification as a regulative ideal. Perspectives on Science 7:337–48. [SC]Google Scholar
Kitcher, P. & Salmon, W., eds. (1989) Scientific explanation. University of Minnesota Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Kripke, S. A. (1981) Wittgenstein on rules and private language. Blackwell. [MS]Google Scholar
Kuhn, T. S. (1971) Les Notions de causalité dans le developpement de la physique. Etudes d’Épistémologie Génétique 25:7–18. [aDR]Google Scholar
Kutz, M. (1998) Mathematical models of dynamical physical systems. In: M. Kutz, The mechanical engineer's handbook, Ch. 27. Wiley. [MS]Google Scholar
Ladyman, J. (2000) What's really wrong with constructive empiricism? Van Fraassen and the metaphysics of modality. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 51:837–56. [rDR]Google Scholar
Leibniz, G. W. (1890) Anti barbarus physicus pro philosophia realis contra renovationes qualitatum scholasticarum et intelligentiarum chimaericarum. Die philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, ed. Gerhardt, C. I.. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung. [AR]Google Scholar
Lewis, D. (1972) Psychophysical and theoretical identifications. Australasian Journal of Philosophy 50:249–58. [aDR]Google Scholar
Lewis, D. (1980) Mad pain and Martian pain. In: Readings in the philosophy of psychology, vol. 1, ed. Block, N.. Methuen. [aDR]Google Scholar
Lipton, P. (2002) The reach of the law. Philosophical Books 43:254–60. [SC, rDR]Google Scholar
Loewer, B. (2001) Review of Kim: Mind in a physical world. Journal of Philosophy 98:315–24. [aDR]Google Scholar
Macdonald, C. (1989) Mind-body identity theories. Routledge. [GM]Google Scholar
Macdonald, C. & Macdonald, G. (1986) Mental causation and explanation of action. The Philosophical Quarterly 36:145–58. [GM]Google Scholar
Macdonald, C. & Macdonald, G. (1995) How to be psychologically relevant. In: Philosophy of psychology: debates on psychological explanation, vol. 1, ed. Macdonald, C. & Macdonald, G.. Blackwell. [GM]Google Scholar
Macdonald, G. (1992) Reduction and evolutionary biology. In: Reduction, explanation, and realism, ed. Lennon, K. & Charles, D., pp. 69–96. Oxford University Press. [GM]Google Scholar
Marcus, E. (2001) Mental causation: Unnaturalized but not unnatural. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 63(1):57–83. [aDR]Google Scholar
Marras, A. (2000) Critical notice of Kim: Mind in a physical world. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 30:137–60. [aDR]Google Scholar
Marras, A. (2002) Kim on reduction. Erkenntnis 57(2):231–57. [aDR]Google Scholar
McClamrock, R. (1995) Existential cognition. University of Chicago Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
McGinn, C. (1991) The problem of consciousness. Blackwell. [aDR]Google Scholar
Melnyk, A. (2003) A physicalist manifesto: Thoroughly modern materialism. Cambridge University Press. [BM]Google Scholar
Menzies, P. (1988) Against causal reductionism. Mind 98:551–74. [aDR]Google Scholar
Meyering, T. (2000) Physicalism and downward causation in psychology and the special sciences. Inquiry 43:181–202. [AM, aDR]Google Scholar
Millero, F. J. (2001) The physical chemistry of natural waters. Wiley-Interscience. [aDR]Google Scholar
Millikan, R. (1999) Historical kinds and the special sciences. Philosophical Studies 95:45–65. [GM]Google Scholar
Nagel, E. (1961) The structure of science. Harcourt, Brace & World. [aDR]Google Scholar
Needham, P. (2002) The discovery that water is H2O. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 16(3):205–26. [aDR]Google Scholar
Nottale, L. (1993) Fractal space-time and microphysics: Towards a theory of scalerelativity. World Scientific. [aDR]Google Scholar
Nottale, L. (2000) Scale relativity, fractal space-time and morphogenesis of structures. In: Sciences of the interface: Proceedings of International Symposium in Honor of O. Rössler, ed. Diebner, H., Druckrey, T. & Weibel, P.. Genista. [aDR]Google Scholar
Oppenheim, P. & Putnam, H. (1958) Unity of science as a working hypothesis. In: Minnesota studies in the philosophy of science, vol. 2, ed. Feigl, H., Maxwell, G. & Scriven, M.. University of Minnesota Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Papineau, D. (1993) Philosophical naturalism. Blackwell. [aDR]Google Scholar
Pearl, J. (2000) Causality: Models, reasoning and inference. Cambridge University Press. [CRS]Google Scholar
Pettit, P. (1993) The common mind. Oxford University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Place, U. T. (1956) Is consciousness a brain process? British Journal of Psychology 47:44–50. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ponce, V. (2003) Rethinking natural kinds. Doctoral dissertation in philosophy, Duke University. [aDR]Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1963) Brains and behavior. In: Analytical philosophy, second series, ed. Butler, R.. Basil Blackwell & Mott. [aDR]Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1967a) Psychological predicates. In: Art, mind and religion, ed. Captain, W. H. & Merrill, D. D.. University of Pittsburgh Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1967b) The mental life of some machines. In: Intentionality, minds and perception, ed. Castañeda, H.-N.. Wayne State University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1975a) Mind, language and reality: Philosophical papers, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Putnam, H. (1975b) Philosophy and our mental life. In: Mind, language and reality: Philosophical papers, vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Pylyshyn, Z. W. (1984) Computation and cognition: Towards a foundation for cognitive science. MIT Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Raynor, H. A. & Epstein, L. H. (2001) Dietary variety, energy regulation, and obesity. Psychological Bulletin 127(3):325–41. [aDR]Google Scholar
Redhead, M. (1990) Explanation. In: Explanation and its limits, ed. Knowles, D.. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1957) The philosophy of space and time. Dover. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ross, D. (1991) Hume, resemblance and the foundations of psychology. History of Philosophy Quarterly 8:343–456. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ross, D. (1997) Critical notice of Ron McClamrock: Existential cognition. Canadian Journal of Philosophy 27:271–84. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ross, D. (2000) Rainforest realism: A Dennettian theory of existence. In: Dennett's philosophy: A comprehensive assessment, ed. Ross, D., Brook, A. & Thompson, D.. MIT Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ross, D. (2001) Dennettian behavioural explanations and the roles of the social sciences. In: Daniel Dennett, ed. Brook, A. & Ross, D.. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ross, D. (2001) (forthcoming) Chalmers's naturalistic dualism: A case study in the irrelevance of the mind-body problem to the scientific study of consciousness. In: The mind as scientific object, ed. Ernelling, C. & Johnson, D.. Oxford University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ross, D., Ladyman, J., Spurrett, D. & Collier, J. (in preparation) What's wrong with things. Oxford University Press. [rDR]Google Scholar
Rowlands, M. (1999) The body in mind. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Ruelle, D. (1978) Thermodynamic formalism: The mathematical structures of classical equilibrium statistical mechanics. Addison-Wesley. [CRS]Google Scholar
Russell, B. (1917) On the notion of cause. In: Mysticism and logic. Allen & Unwin. [aDR]Google Scholar
Salmon, W. C. (1984) Scientific explanation and the causal structure of the world. Princeton University Press. [DB, aDR, CRS]Google Scholar
Salmon, W. C. (1990) Scientific explanation: Causationand unification. Critica Revista Hispanoamericana de Filosofia 22:3–21. [aDR]Google Scholar
Salmon, W. C. (1999) Causality and explanation. Oxford University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Scheutz, M. (1999a) The missing link: implementation and realization of computations in computer and cognitive science. Doctoral dissertation, Departments of Cognitive and Computer Science, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN. [MS]Google Scholar
Scheutz, M. (1999b) When physical systems realize functions. Minds and Machines 9:161–96. [MS]Google Scholar
Scheutz, M. (2001) Causal versus computational complexity. Minds and Machines 11:534–66. [MS]Google Scholar
Shadlen, M., Britten, K., Newsome, W. & Movshen, J. (1996) A computational analysis of the relationship between neuronal and behavioural responses to visual motion. Journal of Neuroscience 16:1486–510. [aDR]Google Scholar
Shalizi, C. R. & Moore, C. (2003) What is a macrostate? Subjective measurements and objective dynamics. Available at: http//arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0303625. (Also submitted to Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics). [CRS]Google Scholar
Shannon, C. & Weaver, W. (1949) The mathematical theory of communication. University of Illinois Press. [DB]Google Scholar
Smart, J. J. C. (1959) Sensations and brain processes. Philosophical Review 68:141–56. [aDR]Google Scholar
Spurrett, D. (1999) The completeness of physics. Doctoral dissertation in Philosophy, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa. [SC, aDR]Google Scholar
Spurrett, D. (2001a) Cartwright on laws and composition. International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 15(3):253–68. [SC, arDR]Google Scholar
Spurrett, D. (2001b) What physical properties are. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 82(2):201–25. [aDR]Google Scholar
Spurrett, D. & Papineau, D. (1999) A note on the completeness of “physics.” Analysis 59(1):25–29. [aDR]Google Scholar
Spurrett, D. & Ross, D. (under review) On notions of cause: Russell's thesis after ninety years. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. [rDR]Google Scholar
Stich, S. (1983) From folk psychology to cognitive science. MIT Press/Bradford Books. [aDR]Google Scholar
Thalos, M. (2002) The reduction of causal processes. Synthese 131:99–128. [aDR]Google Scholar
van Brakel, J. (2000) The nature of chemical substances. In: Of minds and molecules: New philosophical perspectives on chemistry, ed. Bhushan, N. & Rosenfeld, S.. Oxford University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
van Fraassen, B. (1980) The scientific image. Clarendon Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Van Gulick, R. (1993) Who's in charge here? And who's doing all the work? In: Mental causation, ed. Heil, J. & Mele, A.. Clarendon Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Vernadsky, V. (1988) Prostranstvo i vremja v zhivoj i nezhivoi prirode. Philosophskije misli naturalista. Nauka. [AR]Google Scholar
Wallace, D. (2003) Everett and structure. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science B: Studies in the History and Philosophy of Modern Physics 34:87–105. [aDR, DW]Google Scholar
Wilson, R. (1995) Cartesian psychology and physical minds. Cambridge University Press. [aDR]Google Scholar
Yablo, S. (1992) Mental causation. Philosophical Review 101(2):245–80. [aDR]Google Scholar