- Stephen Stich
Stephen Stich (born
May 9 ,1943 ) is a professor ofPhilosophy atRutgers University . He is also currently an Honorary Professor of the department of Philosophy at theUniversity of Sheffield . For the spring of 2007, he is the Clark Way-Harrison visiting professor with the [http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/ department of Philosophy] atWashington University in St. Louis . Stich's main philosophical interests are in thephilosophy of mind ,cognitive science ,epistemology , andmoral psychology . He is arguably best known for his contributions to philosophy of mind. His 1983 book, "From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science: The Case Against Belief", received much attention as he argued for a form ofeliminative materialism about the mind. However, he has since modified his position, especially in his 1996 book "Deconstructing the Mind".Biography
Stephen Stich attended the
University of Pennsylvania from 1960-1964, receiving his B.A. in 1964 (Summa Cum Laude with distinction in Philosophy). After attendingPrinceton University from 1964-1968, he received his Ph.D. in 1968. [Background education information from [http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~stich/CV/CV_SPS.pdf Stich's curriculum vitae (PDF)] .]Stich has taught at several universities, including
University of Michigan ,University of Maryland, College Park ,University of California, San Diego ,University of Sheffield , andRutgers University .Stich joined the department of philosophy at the
University of Sheffield in February 2005 as an Honorary Professor. He remains primarily at Rutgers, but will visit Sheffield on a regular basis to teach and work with the Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies. [Information from [http://www.shef.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/profiles/stich.html Stich's profile at University of Sheffield] .]In
2007 he was awarded theJean Nicod Prize and gave a series of lectures in Paris titled "Moral Theory Meets Cognitive Science: How the Cognitive Science Can Transform Traditional Debates".Work
Stich is primarily known in philosophy for his work in the
philosophy of mind ,cognitive science ,epistemology , andmoral psychology . In philosophy of mind and cognitive science, Stich (1983) has argued for a form ofeliminative materialism —the view that talk of the mental should be replaced with talk of its physical substrate. Since then, however, he has changed some of his views on the mind. See "Deconstructing the Mind" (1996) for his more recent views. In epistemology, he has explored (with several of his colleagues) the nature of intuitions using the techniques ofexperimental philosophy , especially epistemic intuitions that vary among cultures—see Stich (1988) and Stich, et al. (2001). This work reflects a general skepticism aboutconceptual analysis and the traditional methods of analytic philosophy.He and
Shaun Nichols are responsible for a theory of how we humans understand the mental states of ourselves and others, or mindreading, which they present in Nichols and Stich (2003). Their theory is a hybrid, containing elements of both thesimulation theory andtheory theory , and also aims to explain the mental architecture that enables pretence.elected publications
* 1972, "Grammar, Psychology and Indeterminacy", "Journal of Philosophy", LXIX, 22, pp. 799-818.
* 1978, "Empiricism, Innateness and Linguistic Universals", "Philosophical Studies", Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 273-286.
* 1978, "Beliefs and Sub-Doxastic States", "Philosophy of Science", Vol. 45, No. 4, pp. 499-518.
* 1979, "Do Animals Have Beliefs?" "The Australasian Journal of Philosophy", Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 15-28.
* 1983, "From Folk Pschology to Cognitive Science: The Case Against Belief", MIT Press.
* 1985, "Could Man Be An Irrational Animal?" "Synthese", Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 115-135.
* 1988, "Reflective Equilibrium, Analytic Epistemology and the Problem of Cognitive Diversity", "Synthese", Vol. 74, No. 3, pp. 391-413.
* 1990, "Connectionism, Eliminativism and the Future of Folk Psychology", "Philosophical Perspectives", Vol. 4, pp. 499-533. (with William Ramsey & Joseph Garon)
* 1990, "The Fragmentation of Reason: Preface to a Pragmatic Theory of Cognitive Evaluation", MIT Press.
* 1992, "What Is a Theory of Mental Representation?" "Mind", Vol. 101, No. 402, pp. 243-61.
* 1993, "Naturalizing Epistemology: Quine, Simon and the Prospects for Pragmatism", in C. Hookway & D. Peterson (eds.), "Philosophy and Cognitive Science", Royal Institute of Philosophy, Supplement no. 34 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 1-17. [http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/People/NaturalizingEpistem.htm Online text]
* 1996, "Deconstructing the Mind", Oxford University Press. [http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/philo/courses/consciousness97/papers/stich.html Chapter 1 online]
* 1998, "The Flight to Reference, or How Not to Make Progress in the Philosophy of Science", (with Michael Bishop) "Philosophy of Science", Vol. 65, No. 1, pp. 33-49. [http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/People/FlighttoReference.htm Online text]
* 1998, "Theory Theory to the Max", (with Shaun Nichols) "Mind and Language", Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 421-49. [http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/g&m/G&M.html Online text]
* 2001, "Jackson's Empirical Assumptions", (with Jonathan Weinberg) "Philosophy and Phenomenological Research", Vol. 62, No. 3, pp. 637-643. [http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Jackson/Jackson.htm Online text]
* 2003, "Mindreading", (co-authored with Shaun Nichols) Oxford University Press.
* 2006, "Two Theories about the Cognitive Architecture Underlying Morality", (with Daniel Kelley), "Online Philosophy Conference", [http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~tan02/OPC%20Week%20One/Stich%20and%20Kelley.pdf Online PDF]Notes and references
ee also
* List of Jean Nicod Prize laureates
External links
* [http://philosophy.rutgers.edu/FACSTAFF/BIOS/stich.html Stich's profile at Rutgers]
* [http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~stich/ Stich's web site at Rutgers]
* [http://www.shef.ac.uk/philosophy/staff/profiles/stich.html Stich's profile at the University of Sheffield]
* [http://www.shef.ac.uk/philosophy/department/hangseng/ The Hang Seng Centre for Cognitive Studies]
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