Category
Psychology & the mind sciences
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Eliminative materialism: how can anyone claim that beliefs don’t exist?
Another beginner question from me, sorry. I read a short summary of Paul Churchland's eliminative materialism and I can't get past the first step. As I understand it, he says that our everyday way of explaining people ("she went to the shop…
Started by Fajar Nugroho3 replies156 views -
When I play a Bach suite from memory, is that the same “memory” philosophers argue about?
I play cello in a chamber ensemble and teach children. This spring I memorised the third Bach suite for a recital, and something happened on stage that I keep thinking about. Halfway through the Bourrée my mind went blank. I could not…
Started by Moon Ha-eun4 replies228 views -
The replication crisis is a philosophical problem before it is a statistical one
I'm a data scientist in Nairobi and I've followed the replication crisis in psychology closely. A large collaborative project published in 2015 tried to repeat about a hundred published studies, and fewer than half produced results as strong as the originals. Since…
Started by Wanjiru Kamau5 replies244 views -
Reading group: William James, The Principles of Psychology, three chapters
William James published The Principles of Psychology in 1890, after twelve years of work. It is two huge volumes, and nobody should read it straight through. But three chapters are among the best things written about the mind, and they read like…
Started by Dana Whitfield5 replies292 views -
Is “depression” one condition or several? A clinician’s doubts
I have practised as a psychoanalyst in Buenos Aires for many years and have worked alongside psychiatrists the whole time. One question has followed me: when two patients receive the same diagnosis of major depression, do they have the same thing? Consider…
Started by Martín Roldán4 replies138 views -
Are talk therapy and antidepressants treating the same thing?
I have a psychoanalytic practice in Buenos Aires. Many of my patients also see a psychiatrist and take medication, and most of them ask me at some point whether we are working on the same problem from two sides or on two…
Started by Martín Roldán5 replies284 views -
Can trained meditative introspection count as evidence? Abhidhamma and William James
I am a Theravada nun in Kandy. My study is the Abhidhamma, the systematic part of our canon that analyses experience into momentary mental events and their factors. In the classical Theravada scheme there are fifty-two mental factors (cetasika), seven of which…
Started by Ayya Kusalañāṇī4 replies182 views