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Can the inherence heuristic explain vitalistic reasoning?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2014

Brock Bastian
Brock Bastian*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. [email protected]
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Abstract

Inherence is an important component of psychological essentialism. By drawing on vitalism as a way in which to explain this link, however, the authors appear to conflate causal explanations based on fixed features with those based on general causal forces. The disjuncture between these two types of explanatory principles highlights potential new avenues for the inherence heuristic.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 37 , Issue 5 , October 2014 , pp. 482 - 483
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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