Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Part 3d. Summary of Part 3

In Part 3, I've been putting forth the idea that individuals coming from a Nonrepresentational perspective tend to ask questions that are fundamentally different from those asked by Representationalists. I've looked closely at what I called HOW questions, examining how people come to think, believe, and understand things about the outside world. For easier reference, here’s a condensed overview of the differences I described in the ways the two camps address these types of questions:

Representationalist View
What is being caused (what people are trying to explain):
Context-independent, free-standing capacities that many people may have in common (e.g., the ability to understand abstract concepts or to think or reason about nonexistent objects)

What counts as a cause:
Enduring mental entities (states, objects, or characteristics) — that is, discrete realities that somehow retain their essential character or properties over a period of time (e.g., concepts, mental representations, etc.)

What accounts for similarities in experiences and behaviors over time, for a single individual and between different individuals?
Similarity of mental entities

Non-representationalist View
What is being caused (what people are trying to explain):
Specific behaviors and experiences that occur, in real time, in response to particular internal or external stimuli (particular things people say, do, and experience within a given context)

What counts as a cause:
Ongoing, not-exclusively-mental processes that evolve and change over periods of time (including contextual details from the immediate situation or from the person’s past experiences)

What accounts for similarities in experiences and behaviors over time, for a single individual and between different individuals?
Similarity of basic human anatomy and physiology (including neuroanatomy and neurophysiology), coupled with countless similarities and predictable regularities in social, physical, and cultural environments (ways of life)

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