Friday, January 28, 2011

Susan Haack - Belief in Naturalism: An Epistemologist's Philosophy of Mind

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Interesting philosophy article on the nature of epistemology from Social Science Research Network - free PDF download at the link below. Haack looks at the theory of mind and introspection within this wide-ranging article.


Susan Haack
University of Miami - School of Law; University of Miami - Department of Philosophy

Logos Episteme, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 67-83, 2010

University of Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-36


Abstract:
My title, "Belief in Naturalism," signals, not that I adopt naturalism as an article of faith, but that my purpose in this paper is to shed some light on what belief is, on why the concept of belief is needed in epistemology, and how all this related to debates about epistemological naturalism. After clarifying the many varieties of naturalism, philosophical and other (section 1), and then the various forms of epistemological naturalism specifically (section 2), I offer a theory of belief in which three elements - the behavioral, the neurophysiological, and the socio-historical - interlock (section 3), and apply this theory to resolve some contested questions: about whether animals and pre-linguistic infants have beliefs, about the fallibility of introspection, and about self-deception (section 4).
Full reference:
Haack, S. (2010, Dec. 20). Belief in Naturalism: An Epistemologist's Philosophy of Mind. Logos Episteme, Vol. 1, No. 1: pp. 67-83. University of Miami Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2010-36. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1728817


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