Reduction, elimination, and levels: The case of the LTP-learning link

Philosophical Psychology 12 (3):237 – 262 (1999)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We argue in this paper that so-called new wave reductionism fails to capture the nature of the interlevel relations between psychology and neuroscience. Bickle (1995, Psychoneural reduction of the genuinely cognitive: some accomplished facts, Philosophical Psychology, 8, 265-285; 1998, Psychoneural reduction: the new wave, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) has claimed that a (bottom-up) reduction of the psychological concepts of learning and memory to the concepts of neuroscience has in fact already been accomplished. An investigation of current research on the phenomenon of long-term potentiation reveals that this claim overstates the facts. Both the psychological and the neural concepts involved have not yet stabilized and face further correction under the influence of both bottom-up and top-down selection pressures. In addition, psychological concepts often refer to functions, and functions are indispensable and irreducible. Function ascriptions pick out objective patterns involving historical factors and distal goals. This view of functions implies that psychological facts cannot be simply read off from the neurophysiological facts. Although psychological theorizing is constrained by neurophysiology (and vice versa), psychology remains distinct at least to some degree.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 102,394

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Evaluating New Wave Reductionism: The Case of Vision.D. van Eck - 2006 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57 (1):167-196.
Evaluating New Wave Reductionism: The Case of Vision.M. K. D. Schouten, H. Looren de Jong & D. Eck - 2006 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 57 (1):167 - 196.
The mind reduced to molecules?Verena Gottschling - 2005 - Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 4 (3):279-283.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
72 (#297,382)

6 months
13 (#253,895)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Maurice Schouten
Last affiliation: Tilburg University