ENGLISH

Philosophical Psychopathology: Philosophy without Thought Experiments

By Garry Young

Book information

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Year
2013
ISBN
1137329319, 9781137329318
Google Books ID
Pp1EAgAAQBAJ
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (2791264 bytes)
Pages
vi+208\215
Topic
Psychology
Orientation
yes
Paginated
yes
Scanned
portrait
Time added
2014-12-02 08:11:31

Description

Garry Young presents examples of rare pathological conditions such as blindsight, anarchic hand, alien control and various delusional states to inform fundamental questions on topics relating to consciousness, intentional action, thought and rationality, as well as what is required to possess certain kinds of knowledge. Rather than trying to answer these questions by inventing far-fetched scenario or 'thought experiments', this book argues that there is a better but, at present, under-used resource available: namely, clinical case studies evidence. Thus, when inquiry as to whether consciousness must necessarily accompany our intentional action, instead of creating a philosophical zombie why not look to the actions of those suffering from blindsight or visual agnosia. Similarly, when considering whether it is possible to doubt that one thinks, why invent a malicious demon as Descartes did when one can draw on delusional evidence from those suffering from thought insertion who deny certain thoughts are theirs.

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