The new field of experimental philosophy has emerged as the methods of psychological science have been brought to bear on traditional philosophical issues. Oxford Studies in Experimental Philosophy is the place to go to see outstanding new work in the field. It features papers by philosophers, papers by psychologists, and papers co-authored by people in both disciplines. The series heralds the emergence of a truly interdisciplinary field in which people from different disciplines are working together to address a shared set of questions. This second volume in the series is divided into three sections that explore epistemology, moral and political philosophy, and metaphysics and mind.

New essays by leading philosophers and cognitive scientists that present recent findings and theoretical developments in the study of concepts. The study of concepts has advanced dramatically in recent years, with exciting new findings and theoretical developments. Core concepts have been investigated in greater depth and new lines of inquiry have blossomed, with researchers from an ever broader range of disciplines making important contributions. In this volume, leading philosophers and cognitive scientists offer original essays that present the state-of-the-art in the study of concepts. These essays, all commissioned for this book, do not merely present the usual surveys and overviews; rather, they offer the latest work on concepts by a diverse group of theorists as well as discussions of the ideas that should guide research over the next decade. The book is an essential companion volume to the earlier Concepts: Core Readings, the definitive source for classic texts on the nature of concepts. The essays cover concepts as they relate to animal cognition, the brain, evolution, perception, and language, concepts across cultures, concept acquisition and conceptual change, concepts and normativity, concepts in context, and conceptual individuation. The contributors include such prominent scholars as Susan Carey, Nicola Clayton, Jerry Fodor, Douglas Medin, Joshua Tenenbaum, and Anna Wierzbicka. Contributors Aurore Avargues-Weber, Eef Ameel, Megan Bang, H. Clark Barrett, Pascal Boyer, Elisabeth Camp, Susan Carey, Daniel Casasanto, Nicola S. Clayton, Dorothy L. Cheney, Vyvyan Evans, Jerry A. Fodor, Silvia Gennari, Tobias Gerstenberg, Martin Giurfa, Noah D. Goodman, J. Kiley Hamlin, James A. Hampton, Mutsumi Imai, Charles W. Kalish, Frank Keil, Jonathan Kominsky, Stephen Laurence, Gary Lupyan, Edouard Machery, Bradford Z. Mahon, Asifa Majid, Barbara C. Malt, Eric Margolis, Douglas Medin, Nancy J. Nersessian, bethany ojalehto, Anna Papafragou, Joshua M. Plotnik, Noburo Saji, Robert M. Seyfarth, Joshua B. Tenenbaum, Sandra Waxman, Daniel A. Weiskopf, Anna Wierzbicka

Intelligence is one of the defining characteristics of human beings: an inherent ability to respond to the world with awareness, knowledge, learning, and insight. Most considerations of human intelligence are based on the notion that intelligence is a product of brain functioning. A. H. Almaas introduces here a radically different viewpoint, one that recognizes an actual quality of consciousness as the source of intelligence. He calls this source the Brilliancy of our true nature.
The presentation of his understanding of intelligence is followed by in-depth dialogues with his students on the various barriers to recognizing and embodying this essential quality. In particular, an unresolved relationship with one's father is found to shape the experience of Brilliancy. Using a Socratic method that draws upon techniques of body-centered, Gestalt, psychodynamic, and cognitive psychologies, Almaas helps participants work through their defenses and conflicts surrounding this issue and then, diverging from pychotherapeutic practice, guides them in discovering their own Brilliancy.

A comprehensive exploration of issues affecting the lives of women with intellectual disabilities, this book examines how they have found a place for themselves in families, in relationships, at work and in communities. It consists of their stories, written by themselves or by those close to them, and of qualitative research on particular areas of their lives. It takes an international perspective, including contributions from women living in Europe, Australia, India and the US.

Women with intellectual disabilities face specific problems in writing about their lives. Some of these problems relate to their disability, others to the way they are perceived by the broader communities in which they live. These stories challenge the prevailing stereotypes about women with intellectual disabilities as a homogeneous group in need of care and protection. Throughout the book, women's experiences from different countries and cultures are represented. Their personal stories and feminist scholarship are linked together, to provide new and important perspectives on issues of gender and disability. This book will be particularly important for policy workers and practitioners in the disability field, as well as to sociologists and psychologists.

This compelling book reveals the six fundamental levels that form the architecture of our minds. The growth of these levels, four of which are deeper even than the unconscious, depends on a series of critical but subtle emotional transactions between an infant and a devoted care-giver. In mapping these interactions, Dr Greenspan formulates the elusive building blocks of creative and analytic thinking and provides an exciting missing link between recent discoveries in neuroscience and the qualities that make us most fully human. He also sounds a warning: these mind-building experiences are being eroded in child-rearing and educational practices, and he offers specific solutions to restoring them in families, daycare, schools and in social policy.

Inferentialism as a theory of meaning builds on the idea that what a linguistic expression means depends exclusively on the inferential rules that govern its use. Following different strategies and exploring various case studies, the authors of this collection of essays discuss under what circumstances and to what extent the central tenets of inferentialism are tenable.The essays in this volume present the results of a three-year research project "Representation and Inference" which was conducted from the beginning of 2008 to the end 2010. The aim of the project was to assess the research program of inferentialism as it has been pursued recently by Robert Brandom, Mark Lance, and Jaroslav Peregrin. Earlier versions of these texts were presented at the conference "Inference, Consequence, and Meaning" held in Sofia on the 3rd and 4th of December, 2008.

Few debates have so polarized the scientific and lay communities over the past century as the IQ controversy. In this brilliant and highly readable volume, psychologist Raymond E. Fancher, author of books on Sigmund Freud and on the lives and ideas of the great psychologists, turns a historical eye toward the scientists who have played, leading roles in the intelligence debate. It is a rich and exciting narrative of the lives and ideas of such intellects as John Stuart Mill, Francis Galton, Alfred Binet, and Arthur Jensen, among others, who have shaped the concept of intelligence over the past two hundred years.

This book illuminates a controversy that will not go away, one whose impact continues to be felt in many public educational systems throughout the Western world.

This volume broadens our concept of reasoning and rationality to allow for a more pluralistic and situational view of human thinking as a practical activity. Drawing on contributors across disciplines including philosophy, economics, psychology, statistics, computer science, engineering, and physics, "Reasoning, Rationality, and Probability" argues that the search for strong theories should leave room for the construction of context-sensitive conceptual tools. Both science and everyday life, the authors argue, are too complex and multifaceted to be forced into ready-made schemata.

Who are smarter, Asians or Westerners? Are there genetic explanations for racial differences in test scores? What makes some nationalities excel in engineering and others in music? Will math and science remain a largely male preserve. From the damning research of The Bell Curve to the more recent controversy surrounding geneticist James Watson's statements, one factor has been consistently left out of the equation: culture. In the tradition of The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould, world-class social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett takes on the idea of intelligence as something that is biologically determined and impervious to culture--with vast implications for the role of education as it relates to social and economic development. Intelligence and How to Get It asserts that intellect is not primarily genetic but is principally determined by societal influences. Nisbett's commanding argument, superb marshaling of evidence, and fearless discussions of the controversial carve out new and exciting terrain in this hotly debated field.

How does the environment shape the ways an animal processes information and makes decisions? How do constraints imposed on nervous systems affect an animal's activities? To help answer these questions, "Cognitive Ecology" integrates evolutionary ecology and cognitive science, demonstrating how studies of perception, memory, and learning can deepen our understanding of animal behavior and ecology.
Individual chapters consider such issues as the evolution of learning and its influence on behavior; the effects of cognitive mechanisms on the evolution of signaling behavior; how neurobiological and evolutionary processes have shaped navigational activities; functional and mechanical explanations for altered behaviors in response to changing environments; how foragers make decisions and how these decisions are influenced by the risks of predation; and how cognitive mechanisms affect partner choice.
"Cognitive Ecology" will encourage biologists to consider how animal cognition affects behavior, and will also interest comparative psychologists and cognitive scientists.

Most human thinking is thoroughly informed by context, but, until recently, theories of reasoning have concentrated on abstract rules and generalities that make no reference to this crucial factor. "Perspectives on Contexts" brings together essays from leading cognitive scientists to forge a vigorous interdisciplinary understanding of the contextual phenomenon. Applicable to human and machine cognition in philosophy, artificial intelligence, and psychology, this volume is essential to the current renaissance in thinking about context.

Most human thinking is thoroughly informed by context, but, until recently, theories of reasoning have concentrated on abstract rules and generalities that make no reference to this crucial factor. "Perspectives on Contexts" brings together essays from leading cognitive scientists to forge a vigorous interdisciplinary understanding of the contextual phenomenon. Applicable to human and machine cognition in philosophy, artificial intelligence, and psychology, this volume is essential to the current renaissance in thinking about context.

This volume broadens our concept of reasoning and rationality to allow for a more pluralistic and situational view of human thinking as a practical activity. Drawing on contributors across disciplines including philosophy, economics, psychology, statistics, computer science, engineering, and physics, "Reasoning, Rationality, and Probability" argues that the search for strong theories should leave room for the construction of context-sensitive conceptual tools. Both science and everyday life, the authors argue, are too complex and multifaceted to be forced into ready-made schemata.