Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T15:08:00.035Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Functional Analysis and the Autonomy of Psychology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Uljana Feest
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the notion that psychology is autonomous. It is argued that we need to distinguish between (a) the question of whether psychological explanations are autonomous, and (b) the question of whether the process of psychological discovery is autonomous. The issue is approached by providing a reinterpretation of Robert Cummins's notion of functional analysis (FA). A distinction is drawn between FA as an explanatory strategy and FA as an investigative strategy. It is argued that the identification of functional components of the cognitive system may draw on knowledge about brain structure, without thereby jeopardizing the explanatory autonomy of psychology.

Type
Psychology, Cognitive, and Neuroscience
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 70 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2002 Biennial Meeting of The Philosophy of Science Association. Part I: Contributed Papers , December 2003 , pp. 937 - 948
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

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.)

Footnotes

‡

Many people have provided helpful comments on various previous drafts of this paper. In particular, the author would like to thank (in chronological order) Sandra Mitchell, John Roberts, Daniel Steel, Peter Machamer, Gualtiero Piccinini, and Paul Griffiths, as well as the participants of PSA session, “Psychology, Cognitive and Neuroscience.”

References

Amundsen, Ron, and Lauder, George (1994), “Functions without Purpose: The Uses of Causal Role Function in Evolutionary Biology”, Functions without Purpose: The Uses of Causal Role Function in Evolutionary Biology 9:443–469.Google Scholar
Anderson, John R. (1990), The Adaptive Control of Thought. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate Publishers.Google Scholar
Baddeley, Alan D. (1986), Working Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google ScholarPubMed
Bechtel, William, and Richardson, Robert (1993), Discovering Complexity. Decomposition, and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bechtel, William, and Mundale, Jennifer (1999), “Multiple Realizability Revisited: Linking Cognitive and Neural States”, Multiple Realizability Revisited: Linking Cognitive and Neural States 66:175–207.Google Scholar
Bickle, John (1998), Psychoneural Reduction, The New Wave. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Block, Ned (1980), “Introduction: What Is Functionalism?”, in Block, N. (ed.), Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 171–184.Google Scholar
Craver, Carl F., and Darden, Lindley (2001), “Discovering Mechanisms in Neurobiology: The Case of Spatial Memory”, in Machamer, Peter, Grush, Rick, and McLaughlin, Peter (eds.), Theory and Method in the Neurosciences. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Cummins, Robert (1975), “Functional Analysis”, Functional Analysis 72(20): 741–756.Google Scholar
Cummins, Robert (1983), Psychological Explanation. Cambridge and London: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, Michael (1998), Understanding Cognitive Science. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry (1974), “Special Science, or The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis”, Special Science, or The Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis 28:97–115. Reprinted in Ned Block (ed.), 1980. Readings in the Philosophy of Psychology, vol 1. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980.)Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry (1990), “Making Mind Matter More”, A Theory of Content and Other Essays. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Fodor, Jerry (1997), “Special Sciences: Still Autonomous after All These Years”, Special Sciences: Still Autonomous after All These Years 11:149–163.Google Scholar
Keeley, Brian (2000), “Shocking Lessons from Electric Fish: The Theory and Practice of Multiple Realization”, Shocking Lessons from Electric Fish: The Theory and Practice of Multiple Realization 67:444–465.Google Scholar
Kim, Jaegwon (1992), “Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction”, Multiple Realization and the Metaphysics of Reduction 52:1–26.Google Scholar
Kim, Jaegwon (1999), Mind in a Physical World, Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Kitcher, Philip (1984), “1953 and All That: A Tale of Two Sciences”, 1953 and All That: A Tale of Two Sciences 93:335–373.Google Scholar
Machamer, Peter, Darden, Lindley, and Craver, Carl F. (2000), “Thinking About Mechanisms”, Thinking About Mechanisms 67:1–25.Google Scholar
Machamer, Peter, and Sullivan, Jacqueline (2001), “Leveling Reduction”. Paper presented at the Pitt-London Workshop for the Philosophy of Biology and Neuroscience (September).Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary (1967), “Psychological Predicates”, in William Capitan and Daniel Merrill (eds.), Art, Mind, and Religion. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted as “The Nature of Mental States”, in W. Lycan (ed.), Mind and Cognition. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990.)Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Alexander (2001), “Reductionism in a Historical Science”, Reductionism in a Historical Science 68:135–163.Google Scholar
Wright, Larry (1973), “Functions”, Functions 82:139–168.Google Scholar