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Kenneth Livingston
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    14
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Areas of Interest
Normative Ethics
17th/18th Century Philosophy
  • All publications (14)
  •  54
    What Fodor means: Some thoughts on reading Jerry Fodor's A Theory of Content and Other Essays
    Philosophical Psychology 6 (3): 289-301. 1993.
    Jerry Fodor's Asymmetric Dependency Theory (ADT) of meaning is discussed in the context of his attempt to avoid holism and the relativism it entails. Questions are raised about the implications of the theory for psychological theories of meaning, and brief suggestions are offered for how to more closely link a theory of meaning to a theory of perception
    Asymmetric-Dependence Accounts of Mental ContentPhilosophy of Cognitive Science
  •  52
    Concepts, categories, and epistemology
    Philosophia 19 (2-3): 265-300. 1989.
    Epistemology, MiscConcepts, Misc
  •  38
    The case for general mechanisms in concept formation
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21 (4): 581-582. 1998.
    Reasons are given for believing that it is premature to abandon the idea that domain-general models of concept learning can explain how human beings understand the biological world. Questions are raised about whether the evidence for domain specificity is convincing, and it is suggested that two constraints on domain-general concept learning models may be sufficient to account for the available data.
    Philosophy of Cognitive SciencePhilosophy of Psychology
  •  35
    Concept acquisition and use occurs in (real) context
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21 (1): 77-78. 1998.
    A realist story of concepts like Millikan's can and should accommodate facts about how the context of items available for comparison during concept formation affects just what concept is formed or reidentified. Similarly, the contribution of the goals and purposes of the conceptualizer are relevant to how concepts are acquired and deployed, but can be understood as entirely consistent with a view of concepts as objectively evaluable.
    Philosophy of Cognitive SciencePhilosophy of Psychology
  •  28
    Cultural adaptation and evolved, general-purpose cognitive mechanisms are sufficient to explain belief in souls
    Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 (5): 480. 2006.
    It is suggested that general-purpose cognitive modules are the proper endophenotypes on which evolution has operated, not special purpose belief modules. These general-purpose modules operate to extract adaptive cultural patterns. Belief in souls may be adaptive and based in evolved systems without requiring that a specific cognitive system has evolved to support just such beliefs.
    Philosophy of Cognitive Science
  •  27
    The neurocomputational mind meets normative epistemology
    Philosophical Psychology 9 (1): 33-59. 1996.
    The rapid development of connectionist models in computer science and of powerful computational tools in neuroscience has encouraged eliminativist materialist philosophers to propose specific alternatives to traditional mentalistic theories of mind. One of the problems associated with such a move is that elimination of the mental would seem to remove access to ideas like truth as the foundations of normative epistemology. Thus, a successful elimination of propositional or sentential theories of …Read more
    The rapid development of connectionist models in computer science and of powerful computational tools in neuroscience has encouraged eliminativist materialist philosophers to propose specific alternatives to traditional mentalistic theories of mind. One of the problems associated with such a move is that elimination of the mental would seem to remove access to ideas like truth as the foundations of normative epistemology. Thus, a successful elimination of propositional or sentential theories of mind must not only replace them for purposes of our psychology, it must also replace them for purposes of the evaluation of our theories and explanations, psychological and otherwise. This paper briefly reviews eliminativist arguments for doubting the correctness of sentential accounts of explanation, understanding, and normative evaluation. It then considers Paul Churchland's (1989) proposed alternative norms, which are framed neurocomputationally. The alternative is found wanting in several specific ways. The arguments for eliminating propositionally-based norms are then re-examined and it is suggested that the need for wholesale elimination is overstated. A clear gap in the traditional epistemological story is identified, however, and a more modest set of norms is proposed as a way of filling this gap, rather than as a way of entirely replacing the traditional framework
    Philosophy of Neuroscience, MiscEpistemic Normativity, MiscEliminativism about Propositional Attitud…Read more
    Philosophy of Neuroscience, MiscEpistemic Normativity, MiscEliminativism about Propositional Attitudes
  •  8
    Religious Practice, Brain, and Belief
    Journal of Cognition and Culture 5 (1-2): 75-117. 2005.
  •  5
    Rumors of Our Death…
    with Gwen J. Broude, Joshua R. De Leeuw, Janet K. Andrews, and John H. Long
    Topics in Cognitive Science 11 (4): 864-868. 2019.
    Topics in Cognitive Science, EarlyView.
    Philosophy of Cognitive Science
  •  5
    Rumors of Our Death…
    with Gwen J. Broude, Joshua R. Leeuw, Janet K. Andrews, and John H. Long
    Topics in Cognitive Science 11 (4): 864-868. 2019.
    Philosophy of Cognitive Science
  •  1
    Emotion, Memory, and Religious Concepts
    with Peter F. Alfaro
  • God, Aristotle, and the New Science of Happiness
    Free Inquiry 26 32-38. 2006.
    Happiness
  • Ties That Bind: Reconciling Discrepancies Between Categorization and Naminf
    with Janet K. Andrews and Patrick Dwyer
  • Reason, Faith, and the Good Life
    Free Inquiry 22. 2002.
  • Effects of Category Learning: An Event-Related Potential Study
    with Jan Andrews, Alex Goldberg, Evan Cesanek, and Julianne Herts
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