This book is about theoretical and
philosophical issues in psychology. Psychology is mainly considered as the science
of the mind. But this consideration also brings out two fundamental
questions. The first of these questions is what the mind is and what modern
psychology and philosophy have to say about its nature. And the second is about
science; what is the science and what is a scientific approach to the study of
the mind?

This comprehensive textbook of Bem
and Looren de Jong represents an integrated approach to these two foundational
questions. It brings together and explores a wide range of problems and debates
not only in philosophy and psychology, but also in cognitive science, neurology
and computational science. Thus, the book is divided into two main sections:
the first half of the book, which is covered in the first five chapters, is
devoted to the discussions of the issues and debates on the nature of science
and scientific psychology; the second part, which forms the last five chapters,
is on the nature of the mind.

In the first two chapters they
present some central concepts in the philosophy of science. After exploring
what knowledge is and how knowledge claims might be justified in the first
chapter, they proceed to discuss three different types of explanations that
occur in psychology together with the discussion of the reduction of
psychological processes to neuroscientific ones.

Chapter three introduces the
“received view” in the philosophy of science, Logical Positivism, and its
classic and highly influential ideas on objectivity, the nature of theory and
observation, verification and progress in science. The following chapter
continues with the discussion they started in the previous chapter and
introduces the reader to views on science developed out of a rejection of
positivism. The fundamental issue of this chapter is how objectivity claimed by
science is possible; thus, the ensuing discussion focuses on the reliability of
science in terms of realism-relativism debate. In trying to find a balance
between extreme positions they present some pragmatic considerations at the
end.

The fifth and the last chapter of
the first part of the book concludes the discussion on the philosophy of
science by emphasizing social and psychological aspects of science. The upshot
of the two previous chapters is that in the philosophy of science concern for
the purity of science and demarcation of science from non-science yielded to
the study of the pragmatic relation between the knower and the world. In this
chapter, authors widen the scope by paying attention to, first, the social
background of scientific knowledge and practice, and secondly, to reviewing
some research on the psychology of science.

The second part of the book starts
with an introductory chapter on philosophy of cognition and mind. This chapter
provides definitions of mental processes such as intelligence, intentionality
and consciousness, and the rough outlines of traditional theoretical frameworks
for understanding the relation between mind and brain. The following two
chapters represent the language-based view and the brain- based view of mind,
respectively. After the discussion of the classical view of mind as the
software of the brain, that is the computational view of mind in the seventh
chapter , they proceed with the discussion of connectionsim and dynamism as the
alternatives for the classical computational view in the eighth chapter. Since,
from the beginning, the authors criticize the cognitive approach for its
general confinement of mind to internal processes, in the last section of the
eighth chapter, they sketch how the brain-based view could contribute to such
general issues in philosophy as the nature of knowledge, meaning, and the sense
of self and the brain.

The discussion on anti-mechanistic
approaches continues in the ninth chapter. In this chapter they discuss
biologically, phenomenologically and culturally inspired models and metaphors
for mind or cognition, which all, in some way or other, go against the narrow
mechanical interpretation of mind as symbol manipulation or network activation,
that is, some form of computation.

In the last chapter, some central concepts of mind and
science are revisited. They discuss some problems that were traditionally the
province of philosophy or philosophical psychology. Issues like the nature of
mental acts, the mind’s place in a physical universe, freedom of will versus
determinism, and the nature of consciousness are venerable problems, which have
been the subject of metaphysical speculation and theoretical analysis for some
25 centuries.  In this chapter, they present thumbnail sketches of some of the
main developments at the interface of psychology and philosophy, most of which
have already been introduced in the earlier chapters.

This is really an extraordinarily
good textbook. With a ten-chapter structure designed around the two fundamental
issues at the interface of philosophy and psychology, this textbook proves to
be ideal for a lecture course on the subject. What makes Theoretical Issues
in Psychology really useful as a textbook is its pedagogical features. Each
chapter starts with a Preview that briefly lists its main subject and
some of the issues involved. There are numerous Boxes in the text, which
highlight important concepts and definitions, or enumerate in a list-wise
fashion viewpoints and theoretical constructs. The Conclusion of each
chapter summarizes the main issues, and attempts to wind up the problematic of
the chapter and draw a few general lessons. The book also includes a Glossary,
which contains the list of definitions of recurring technical terms and
philosophical concepts throughout the text. This structured design gives the
reader a chance to verify whether s/he has picked up the substance of the
chapter

I believe that brought fully up-to
date with advances in computational, cognitive and neuroscience research as
well as links with philosophy, Theoretical Issues in Psychology should
be essential reading for all students, whether undergraduates and
postgraduates, requiring an understanding of these issues. The authors succeed
in presenting really technical and hard concepts in cognitive psychology,
neuroscience, computational science and philosophy in a very clear and
understandable fashion. It makes it a valuable handbook also for layman who
takes a genuine interest in the theoretical and philosophical issues in
psychology as well as for academicians and students in the field.

© 2006 Kamuran
Godelek

Kamuran
Godelek, Ph.D., Mersin University, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of
Philosophy, Ciftlik Koyu, Mersin, TURKEY

Categories: Philosophical, Psychology