Mental States and Propositional Attitudes: Philosophical Approaches to Folk Psychology

• Grant number: 11/16057-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2012
• End date: July 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Osvaldo Frota Pessoa Junior
• Grantee: Guilherme Sanches de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Folk Psychology attributes to human beings a variety of intentional mental states and propositional attitudes such as beliefs, desires, emotions, fears, hopes, intentions, predictions, etc. Although widespread in ordinary talk, Folk Psychology generates different reactions in the competing scientific and philosophical formulations of mind. This project aims at exploring the three main philosophical approaches to Folk Psychology: the eliminativist approach of Paul and Patricia Churchland, the evolutionary-reformative approach of Stephen Stich and Steven Pinker, and the conservative approach of Jerry Fodor. The general hypothesis will be that our ordinary intuitions about the mind are not wrong, and that the attribution of intentional mental states and propositional attitudes is not just an useful fiction nor should be eliminated; in case the arguments for this view turn out to be insufficient, the hypothesis will have been frustrated, but not the philosophical spirit of the inquiry.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

OLIVEIRA, Guilherme Sanches de. Mental states and propositional attitudes: philosophical approaches to folk psychology. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD) São Paulo.