Stich and His Critics

The collaboration of cognitive science and philosophy has recently blossomed into one of the fastest growing domains of philosophical inquiry and analysis. Many contemporary philosophers would place Stephen Stich at its vanguard. Possessing a rare ability to combine compellingly lucid arguments with deep philosophical insights, Stich has emerged over the past four decades to become one of cognitive science′s most influential and innovative philosophers.

Groundbreaking in its own right, Stich and His Critics provides a thorough assessment and critique of the key philosophical themes in the distinguished career of Stephen Stich. Through a challenging collection of original new essays from leading philosophical scholars, the text explores some of philosophy′s most hotly–debated contemporary topics, including mental representation, theory of mind, nativism, moral philosophy, and naturalized epistemology.

Stich and His Critics peels back the layers of Stephen Stich′s innovative body of work to reveal startling new insights into the award–winning philosopher′s pioneering and sometimes controversial theories regarding the complexities of the human mind.

Introduction: Dominic Murphy (California Institute of Technology) and Michael Bishop (Florida State University).

1. Is There a Role for Representational Content in Scientific Psychology?: Frances Egan (Rutgers University).

2. Representationalism Reconsidered: Peter Godfrey–Smith (Harvard University).

3. On Determining What There Isn’t: Michael Devitt (City University of New York).

4. Eliminativism and The Theory of Reference: Frank Jackson (The Australian National University).

5. Why Isn’t Stich an ElimiNativist?: Fiona Cowie (California Institute of Technology).

6. A Defense of the Use of Intuitions in Philosophy: Ernest Sosa (Brown University).

7. Reflections on Cognitive and Epistemic Diversity: Can a Stich in Time Save Quine?: Michael Bishop (Florida State University).

8. Simulation Theory and Cognitive Neuroscience: Alvin Goldman (Rutgers University).

9. The Triumph of a Reasonable Man: Stich, Mindreading and Nativism: Kim Sterelny (Australian National University and Victoria University of Wellington).

10. Against Moral Nativism: Jesse J. Prinz (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).

11. Replies: Steve Stich (Rutgers University).

List of Publications by Steve Stich

Michael A. Bishop is Professor of Philosophy at Florida State University. His research focuses on how to properly understand and assess reasoning in science and in everyday life. He is the co–author, with J. D. Trout, of Epistemology and the Psychology of Human Judgment (2005).

Dominic Murphy is Senior Lecturer in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. He is the author of Psychiatry in the Scientific Image (2006).

"The papers in this collection, the fourteenth in the Philosophers and their Critics series edited by Ernest Lepore, bear witness to the fecundity of Stich′s contributions to the discipline, while his replies to the individual papers bear witness to his dialectical skills." ( Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, September 2009)

"The tone of the book is almost universally one of mutual respect and generosity in interpretation. Overall it is an excellent collection." (Metapsychology, September 2009)