David Canter
in
5. Working with offenders
Thomas Flynn
in
5. A chastened individualism? Existentialism and social thought
In history too, existence precedes essence.
Jean-Paul Sartre
It may be shameful to be happy by oneself.
Albert Camus, The Plague
When Sartre entered the lecture hall on that October evening of 1945, he was facing the widespread belief that his newly popular philosophy was simply a warmed-up version of bourgeois individualism, totally insensitive to the mortal camaraderie that had just defeated Fascism across the continent. This suspicion was confirmed by the often-quoted penultimate line of his play No Exit , ‘Hell is other people’ ( L’enfer c’est les autres
Gillian Butler and McManus Freda
in
4. How do we use what is in the mind? Thinking, reasoning, and communicating
Tim Bayne
in
1.
What is thought?
Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.
Blaise Pascal
What is thought? This might seem like a strange question to pose at the outset of a book, for it is a fairly safe bet that anyone bold enough to read a book—especially a book on thought!—will not be unaccustomed to thinking. In fact, you have probably already had quite a number of thoughts today. Although there may be periods during the course of a normal day during which one has few thoughts—perhaps there are even times
Tim Bayne
in
3.
The inner sanctum
Like the notes of an old violin,
Thoughts talk to me within
My mind, that shuttered room.
Siegfried Sassoon, ‘Old Music’, in
Rhymed Ruminations
In Greek mythology the god Momus is said to have expressed dissatisfaction with man because his state of mind could not be easily discerned. Instead, Momus suggested, human beings ought to have been built with a window in their breast so that their mental states could be more easily identified. The idea that a person’s thoughts might be hidden in the secret recesses of their mind is not an unfamiliar one. Uncertainty
Jonathan St B. T. Evans
in
3. Thinking hypothetically
A remarkable and distinctive feature of human intelligence is our ability to think hypothetically. We can imagine how things might be in the future and how they might have turned out differently in the past. Such are our powers of imagination that we enjoy reading novels and watching dramas on TV or in the cinema, an extraordinary demonstration in itself of the unique form of human intelligence. Imagination is not just there for entertainment, however. It plays an important role in science, arts, and engineering, and is fundamental to rational decision making.
Jonathan St B. T. Evans
in
6. Are we rational?
Most of the topics covered in this book allow human thinking and reasoning to be compared with a ‘normative’ standard, a formal theory of right and wrong answers. The normative theories mostly applied are decision theory, probability theory, or logic. We have seen that people frequently make errors by these standards and have been shown to have many cognitive biases. Some psychologists and philosophers have wondered whether this means that human beings must be intrinsically irrational. This question is not as simple as it seems, however, and has been the subject of much fierce debate over
Jonathan St B. T. Evans
in
7. From dual processes to two minds
may need at times to pay conscious attention. If a hazardous situation arises, for example when traffic ahead suddenly slows down, our attention will switch to the task of driving and we can no longer follow what is on the radio. This tells us some important things. First, while our conscious attention is elsewhere, some process in our brain is still monitoring the road situation for hazards and is able to call up conscious attention when required. Second, it shows us that our ability to think consciously is limited and we need
Jonathan St B. T. Evans
in
1. Introduction and history
The French philosopher Descartes famously said ‘I think therefore I am’. Thinking is indeed the essence of what it means to be human and defines us more than anything else as a species. The remarkable success of humans, far ahead of all other animals, is based on our unique powers of thought. By thinking, and especially by reasoning to a purpose, we can exercise all the formidable powers of human intelligence. Reasoning can help us to solve novel problems, to make one-off decisions, to develop mathematics, science, and engineering, to design our environments to suit ourselves.
Tim Bayne
A Very Short Introduction
Tim Bayne
in
4.
Brute thought
A dog can believe his master is at the door. But can he also believe that his master will come the day after tomorrow?
Philosophical Investigations
Can non-human animals think? If so, what kinds of thoughts can they enjoy? Dogs might have beliefs and desires of certain kinds, but can they entertain the possibility that something could be the case or hope that it is the case? Whether or not non-human animals are capable of thoughts of any kind, it is clear that there are profound differences between the cognitive capacities of humans and those of other
Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer
A Very Short Introduction
Jonathan St B. T. Evans
A Very Short Introduction
Michael Beaney
A Very Short Introduction
Michael Beaney
in
Introduction
Many professional philosophers working today would describe themselves as ‘analytic philosophers’. Certainly, this is true of many philosophers teaching in colleges and universities in the English-speaking world. But analytic philosophy has been growing rapidly elsewhere: one sign of this is the establishment over the last twenty years or so of societies for analytic philosophy right across the world, from East Asia to Latin America. This is not to say that there is agreement on what ‘analytic philosophy’ means or what its main concerns, methods, and successes are. But I hope that this book will give you some idea of
Katherine Hawley
in
3. Evolving trust and cooperation
Bats, bees, and chimpanzees
In the movies, vampire bats go out at night to feast upon the blood of innocent maidens, but in real life they stick to cattle and horses. Some nights, an individual bat is unlucky and returns to the communal roost hungry. Luckier bats charmingly vomit up some of the blood they’ve harvested, to feed their hungry colleagues. Why do they bother?
Jonathan St B. T. Evans
in
4. Decision making
that requires a decision. Similarly, if the route we drive to work requires us to turn left at a junction, we would not want to call that decision making. It happens automatically with practice. Turning right instead, for a particular purpose—to post an urgent letter perhaps—would require a decision. And as we all know, it is quite likely that we will forget and turn left anyway. In the language of dual-process theory, automatic Type 1 processes dominate most of our everyday choices. The psychology of decision making mostly involves novel choice problems that require Type 2,
Michael Beaney
in
5. How can we think more clearly?
Analytic philosophy places great emphasis on clarity. But what does ‘clarity’ mean and how can we think more clearly? How does clarity connect with other virtues of analytic philosophy? In the Introduction to this book, I mentioned precision and rigour as two other virtues that have traditionally been seen as characteristic of analytic philosophy. But I also suggested that creativity, fruitfulness, and systematicity are also virtues, at least of the best analytic philosophy, and I have especially been concerned to show how analytic philosophy is conceptually creative. So how does clarity relate to
