Cynthia Macdonald

This volume provides an introduction to and review of key contemporary debates concerning connectionism, and the nature of explanation and methodology in cognitive psychology. The first debate centers on the question of whether human cognition is best modeled by classical or by connectionist architectures. The second centres on the question of the compatibility between folk, or commonsense, psychological explanation and explanations based on connectionist models of cognition. Each of the two sections includes a classic reading along with important responses, and concludes with a specially commissioned reply by the main contributor. The editorial introductions provide a comprehensive survey and map through the debates.

Frege's Theory of Sense and Reference By Wolfgang Carl CUP, 1994. Pp. 230. ISBN 0–521–39816–9. £11–95. (pbk). Frege By Anthony Kenny Penguin, 1995. Pp. 240. ISBN 0–14–012550–7. £7.99. A Kant Dictionary By Howard Caygill Blackwell, 1995. Pp. 453. ISBN 0–631–17535–0. £45.00(hbk), £14.99(pbk). In Search of Authenticity: From Kierkegaard to Camus By Jacob Golomb Routledge, 1995. P. 219. ISBN 0–415–11947–2. £12.99(pbk). Hegel: Phenomenology and System By H.S. Harris Hackett, 1995. Pp. x + 118. Democratic Theory: The Philosophical Foundations By James L. Hyland Manchester University Press, 1995. ISBN 0–7190–3941‐X (hbk), 0–7190–4517–7 (pbk). £40.00(hbk), £14.99(pbk). A Political Theory of Rights By Attracta Ingram Clarendon, Oxford University Press, 1994. Pp. 232. ISBN 0–19–827963–9. £17.95 (pbk). The Rise of Neo‐Kantianism By K.C. Köhnke Translated by R.J. Hollingdale. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. xiii + 290. ISBN 0–521–37336–0. £17.95 (hbk). The Facts of Causation By Hugh Mellor Routledge, 1995. ISBN 415–09779–7. £35.00 (hbk). Semiosis in the Postmodern Age By Floyd Merrell Purdue University Press, 1995. Pp. 374. ISBN 1–55753–05–6. $37.50. Philosophie No. 47 Special issue on Gilles Deleuze Les Editions de Minuit, 1995. Pp. 96. ISBN 2707315281. 64f. Pragmatism By Hilary Putnam Basil Blackwell, 1995. Pp. xii + 106. ISBN 0–631–19343‐X. £9.99 (pbk). Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity By James Tully Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xviii + 253. ISBN 0521–4711–76, £35.00 (hbk); ISBN 0521^3742–3 £13.95(pbk). Making Sense of Humanity and Other Philosophical Papers By Bernard Williams Cambridge University Press, 1995. Pp. xii + 251. ISBN 0–521–47279–2 (hbk); ISBN 0–521–47868–5 (pbk). £37.50 (hbk); £12.95 (pbk).

Self-knowledge is the focus of considerable attention from philosophers: Knowing Our Own Minds gives a much-needed overview of current work on the subject, bringing together new essays by leading figures. Knowledge of one's own sensations, desires, intentions, thoughts, beliefs, and other attitudes is characteristically different from other kinds of knowledge: it has greater immediacy, authority, and salience. The contributors examine philosophical questions raised by the distinctive character of self-knowledge, relating it to knowledge of other minds, to rationality and agency, externalist theories of psychological content, and knowledge of language. Together these original, stimulating, and closely interlinked essays demonstrate the special relevance of self-knowledge to a broad range of issues in epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language.

Many recent discussions of the identity and individuation of actions focus on attempts to find satisfactory answers to questions like, “When, if ever, is a shooting a killing?” Those who attempt to answer such questions divide themselves, on the whole, into two opposing groups. I. Thalberg has conveniently labelled the members of one group ‘unifiers’, and the members of the other group ‘multipliers’.The unifier account is commonly attributed to philosophers such as G. E. M. Anscombe and Donald Davidson. Proponents of this account characteristically believe that many non-basic actions such as shootings, killings, etc., are identical with those basic actions by means of which the non-basic ones are performed. This position is indicated in the following remarks:… in moving her hand, the queen was doing something that caused the death of the king. These are two descriptions of the same event — the queen moved her hand in that way; she did something that caused the death of the king. Doing something that causes a death is identical with causing a death. But there is no distinction to be made between causing the death of a person and killing him.

‘Introspection’ is a term used by philosophers to refer to a special method or means by which one comes to know certain of one's own mental states; specifically, one's current conscious states. It derives from the Latin ‘spicere’, meaning ‘look’, and ‘intra’, meaning ‘within’; introspection is a process of looking inward. Introspectionist accounts of self-knowledge fall within the broader domain of theories of self-knowledge, understood as views about the nature of and basis for one's knowledge of one's own mental states, including one's beliefs, desires, conscious thinkings, and sensations. Theories of self-knowledge are motivated by the apparent need to account for a number of striking features of at least some such knowledge, which ordinary empirical knowledge, including knowledge of the mental states of others, is typically thought to lack.