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The reductionist ideal in cognitive psychology

Richard Montgomery

pp. 279-314

Abstract

I offer support for the view that physicalist theories of cognition don't reduce to neurophysiological theories. On my view, the mind-brain relationship is to be explained in terms of evolutionary forces, some of which tug in the direction of a reductionistic mind-brain relationship, and some of which which tug in the opposite direction. This theory of forces makes possible an anti-reductionist account of the cognitive mind-brain relationship which avoids psychophysical anomalism. This theory thus also responds to the complaint which arguably lies behind the Churchlands' strongest criticisms of anti-reductionism — namely the complaint that anti-reductionists fail to supply principled explanations for the character of the mind-brain relationship. While lending support to anti-reductionism, the view defended here also insures a permanent place for mind-brain reduction as an explanatory ideal analogous to Newtonian inertial motion or Aristotelian natural motion.

Publication details

Published in:

(1990) Synthese 85 (2).

Pages: 279-314

DOI: 10.1007/BF00484795

Full citation:

Montgomery Richard (1990) „The reductionist ideal in cognitive psychology“. Synthese 85 (2), 279–314.