The essays in this volume are concerned with our everyday and developed scientific systems of explanation of human behavior in terms of beliefs, attitudes, memories, and the like. The volume provides an introduction to the lively contemporary debate about the status and theoretical viability of such forms of "folk-psychological" explanation, in the light of recent developments in neurobiology and cognitive science. It can be used as a textbook for advanced courses in the philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive science.

In his critical history of American social psychology, John Greenwood reviews the original conception of the social dimensions of cognition, emotion and behavior, and of the discipline of social psychology itself, as embraced by early twentieth century American social psychologists. He documents how the once broadly defined conception of social psychological phenomena came to be progressively neglected as the century developed, till hardly any trace of the original conception of the "social" remains in contemporary American psychology.

This book is about explanation and experiment in a science of human action. It aims to provide a philosophy of social psychological science that both embodies sound principles of scientific reasoning and is sensitive to the social psychological dimensions of human action. The guiding principle of this book is the belief that the logical forms of causal explanation and experimental evaluation can be ef fectively employed in the scientific analysis of meaningful human action. According to most accounts, social psychological science has been in a more or less constant state of crisis for the...

A penetrating analysis of the fundamental conceptual continuities and discontinuities that inform the history of psychology.