Abstract
There was a time when philosophy ruled the branches of sciences but still, it was realized that there are philosophies that are related to other branches of sciences as well and these are the sciences that included social sciences and the natural sciences. Finer categories of sciences and the disciplines are now being represented by these philosophies and these include psychology, physics, biology as well as economics.
Introduction
The philosophy of psychology deals with the mind and cognitive abilities. In the late nineties, it was seen that psychology stopped relating all the studies with philosophy and started working on the mind and its related cognitive abilities. For the last thirty years, it has been seen that there is fast growth in the field of cognitive sciences as artificial intelligence, cognitive anthropology, linguistics, and these are collectively referred to as cognitive sciences. Since that time, the philosophers of psychology are the ones who have been contributing to the scientific work in the field of psychology. As a result, it has been seen that the philosophical aspects of cognitive sciences have been studied in a deeper manner (Bermúdez 83).
There are many contemporary discussions in the philosophy of psychology and these have been considered diverse as these are inclusive of some philosophical issues related to the cognitive sciences. In this case, the areas that are discussed by the philosophers in psychology include the mind and the other related areas of psychology. Many topics that are discussed by the philosophers in psychology are the ones that arise because of the recognition that the philosophers have in cognitive sciences (Stout 45).
In this case, many theories have been presented. One of the theories deals with the causal as well as the representational level properties that are related to the computational theories of cognition. This and the other theories are the ones that deal with the problems of cognitive causations. There are many studies on the nature of cognitive architecture that can help in separating the classics from the connectionist approaches as these are based on the debates between the rationalists and the empiricists.
Studies in the philosophy of psychology
Main topics that have been analytically covered by the philosophers of psychology since the last two decades include intentions, cognitive architecture and consciousness (Bermúdez 87).
Mental representation or intentionality says that human beings do not simply respond to their environments but are equipped with some kind of mental machinery. This is the machinery, which is sensitive to the changes in the environment, but the complexity that the machinery has can deal in attempting to respond to the change. This refers to the stimulus-response pairs defined by the neurologists afterward.
A role that is played by the language in the mental representation has also been debated and this is referred to as the hypothesis of the language of thought. This is the hypothesis that says that there are variations in the case of the mental representation in the animals and infants who have no languages (Thagard 89).
Some theories debate the content of mental representation. One of the theories has been referred to as the theological theory; saying that an individual’s physical, historical as well as social location is a factor that can help in the determination of the mental representation content.
Cognitive architecture
The philosophers, in this case, discuss the ranges of cognition and by keeping in mind the cognitive architecture, the philosophers have debated on the processing and the mechanism of the cognition. In 1950, the concept of cognitive processing was given and this has been known as the computation (Stout 54).
Computationalism is the theory that has gained importance. This is the theory that characterizes that the computation is cognition and the specific explanation that has been given in this aspect says that cognition is symbolic manipulation. In this case, Allen Newell and Herb Simon have given the hypothesis known as the physical symbol system hypothesis and it says that the physical symbol system has the necessary and important means in order to carry out the intellectual as well as the intelligent actions, which are required in most cases (Eilan 31). Within the philosophers, there is a general commitment found in relation to the nature of the architecture of the cognitive system. In this case, many hypotheses have been designed based on the cognitive architecture and these are based on the explicit computational models. According to the hypothesis, it has been addressed that computational models generate the behaviors that approximate and relate to some of the main aspects of human cognitive behavior.
It has been added by Newell and Simon, that the production systems, which are composed of the condition action rules are the backbones of the human cognitive architecture.
The dynamic approach has been used in order to explain the views that have been presented in relation to cognitive architecture. Dynamicism says that all cognitive systems are a part of dynamic systems, which exist in real-time, and their movement in time is not controlled by the computational rules. It has been added that the rules and symbols have no role in cognition rather the cognition proceeds through the settlement of the cognitive system in equilibrium (Bermúdez 34).
Conclusion
Psychology has been the branch of science that had been functioning alone in the previous years and it has recently has collaborated with philosophy. Consequently, the work that has been done in the field of psychology has accelerated as the philosophical work and therapies have been integrated causing the field and knowledge to excel.
Works Cited
Bermúdez, Luis, José. Philosophy of psychology: a contemporary introduction: Routledge contemporary introductions to philosophy. Routledge, 2005.
Eilan, Naomi. Joint attention: communication and other minds : issues in philosophy and psychology. Consciousness and self-consciousness. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Stout, F. G. Studies in Philosophy and Psychology. Read Books, 2007.
Thagard, Paul. Philosophy of psychology and cognitive science: Volume 12 of Handbook of the philosophy of science. Elsevier, 2007.