Graham Frank Macdonald

Philosophy Of Psychology provides an introduction to and review of key contemporary debates concerning the nature of explanation and methodology in psychology. Each section of the book includes a classic reading along with an important response, and concludes with a specially commissioned reply by the main contributor. The editorial introductions provide a comprehensive survey and map through the discipline. Topics covered include: causal relevance, explanatory relevance, anti-individualism and psychological explanation, biopsychology, tacit knowledge and the unconscious and psychanalytic explanation. Contributors include Ned Black, Tyler Burge, Martin Davies, Fred Dretske, Jerry Foder, Jim Hopkins, Mark Johnston, Jaegwon Kim, Cynthia Macdonald, Graham Macdonald, Ruth Garrett Millikan, Christopher Peacocke and John Searle.

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.

A. J. Ayer was one of the foremost analytical philosophers of the twentieth century, and was known as a brilliant and engaging speaker. In essays based on his influential Dewey Lectures, Ayer addresses some of the most critical and controversial questions in epistemology and the philosophy of science, examining the nature of inductive reasoning and grappling with the issues that most concerned him as a philosopher. This edition contains revised and expanded versions of the lectures and two additional essays. Ayer begins by considering Hume's formulation of the problem of induction and then explores the inferences on which we base our beliefs in factual matters. In other essays, he defines the three kinds of probability that inform inductive reasoning and examines the various criteria for verifiability and falsifiability. In his extensive introduction, Graham Macdonald discusses the arguments in _Probability and Evidence_, how they relate to Ayer's other works, and their influence in contemporary philosophy. He also provides a brief biographical sketch of Ayer, and includes a bibliography of works about and in response to _Probability and Evidence_.

The most comprehensive discussion available of the work of philosopher, John McDowell. Contains newly commissioned papers by distinguished philosophers on McDowell’s work, along with substantial replies to each by McDowell himself. The contributors are philosophers with international reputations for their work in the areas in which they are contributing. Covers the whole of McDowell’s philosophy, including his contributions in ancient philosophy, moral philosophy, philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics and epistemology. McDowell’s replies to the contributions in this volume contribute to the body of his work.