Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASCs) are marked by social-communicative difficulties and unusually fixed or repetitive interests, activities, and behaviors (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). In this thesis, I review empirically and conceptually based philosophic proposals that maintain the social-communicative difficulties exhibited by persons on the autism spectrum result from a lack of capacity to understand other persons as minded. I will argue that the social-communicative difficulties that characterize ASCs may instead result from a lack of ability to access other minds, and that this lack of ability is due to a contingent lack of external resources.

No description available.

The starting-point of the thesis was that teachers to a large extent teach on the basis of intuitive theories. This creates a tendency that a number of frequent conceptions, pedagogical and didactic theories, experiences of one's own school days etc. become parts of a more fragmentary structure of ideas, rather than a coherent theory of teaching. With the aim of creating a deeper understanding of questions related to teaching and learning, two dominating perspectives were described initial. By putting the intuitive ideas in relation to basic paradigmatic assumptions a picture was given of what the teacher has to know in order to thoroughly understand a certain perspective. In addition, examples of pedagogical theories were presented that can be referred to the perspective in question, which teachers can adopt to qualify their understanding. A critical discussion of the paradigmatic assumptions paved the way for a third perspective, where thoughts occurring in the other two were partly combined. Here a theoretical basis was also presented to explain why the use of mental tools of thinking, especially such that are linked to knowledge theory may lead the teacher to a more reflective way of dealing with questions of teaching and learning. The third perspective was illustrated, first with four examples of how teaching can be performed, and then also in the form of in-service training for teachers. In the empirical section and in the final conclusion the perspectives were illustrated, discussed and examined critically. On the basis of questionnaires answered by upper secondary school teachers, interviews and observations, assumed examples of intuitive theories were presented. The empirical material was also analysed from the same starting-points as the formulation of the perspectives. Ten teachers' systems of intuitive theories about teaching and learning could thus be constructed. Five of these were presented and a comparison with the perspectives was made. Some analyses, however, turned out to agree best with a further perspective, which had not been focused on in the thesis. It was also found that teachers' practice can be enriched by being confronted with scientific knowledge. The value of such knowledge was illustrated through the evaluation of an inservice programme for teachers.

Submitted by Ana Carla Almeida (ana.almeida@ucsal.br) on 2016-10-06T18:03:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAOMarluzePereira.pdf: 2042501 bytes, checksum: 146161fc980bdc7867296d7aa900b6b3 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Emília Carvalho Ribeiro (maria.ribeiro@ucsal.br) on 2016-11-25T21:47:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAOMarluzePereira.pdf: 2042501 bytes, checksum: 146161fc980bdc7867296d7aa900b6b3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-25T21:47:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAOMarluzePereira.pdf: 2042501 bytes, checksum: 146161fc980bdc7867296d7aa900b6b3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-22 / A partir da novidade urbanística, em Salvador-BA, dos condomínios residenciais fechados de alto padrão - os quais trazem para dentro de seus muros serviços antes só disponíveis através de uma circulação na cidade -, este estudo investiga as narrativas de pais moradores nestes locais acerca do significado da cidade. O advento destes condomínios implica, ao mesmo tempo, em uma novidade no modo de vida das famílias. Ancorados em uma reflexão sobre os cuidados com seus filhos, a relação família e cidade surge nas narrativas dos pais revelando o impacto citadino e a importância da cidade para a vida das famílias. Conduzido a partir da fundamentação teórica da Psicologia Cultural, este estudo investigou os significados de cidade a partir das temporalidades trazida nas narrativas, analisando a dinâmica deste signo enquanto mediador e regulador semiótico. Buscando responder aos princípios da ciência idiográfica, foi realizado um estudo de casos múltiplos de cunho narrativo. Partindo da categoria ‘psicologia popular’ foi proposto o Modelo Dinâmico das Três Dimensões básicas do signo cidade - a dimensão territorial, a social e a política -, a fim de analisar e compreender o significado daquilo que narravam enquanto cidade, ao se referirem à experiência de cidade. Como resultado da aplicação do modelo às significações de cidades narradas, chegou-se à identificação de diferentes dinâmicas entre as dimensões territorial, social e política, a partir da temporalidade a que o signo era referido. Além das temporalidades de passado, presente e futuro foi também construída, nas narrativas, uma cidade atemporal, reveladora da força promotora do signo em estudo. A dinâmica do signo cidade revelou na temporalidade de futuro a predominância da dimensão política, da qual a significação de cidade se mostrou como um produto. Significadas em narrativas únicas, foi evidenciado um mecanismo de cristalização de significação através da retroalimentação semiótica entre a dimensão política e a dimensão social. Esta “armadilha semiótica” revelou contribuir para um cenário pessimista quanto ao futuro da cidade, consequência de um esvaziamento das alternativas de ação de cunho coletivo pelo indivíduo. Foram destacados, nas narrativas, os processos semióticos de canonicidade na cultura pessoal e sua relação com a cultura coletiva. Demonstrando a dinâmica do modelo da bilateralidade na transferência da cultura, a novidade semiótica foi trazida com exemplos que evidenciaram a construção de significados de cidade a partir do seu desenvolver no tempo da entrevista, com a entrada de novos elementos semióticos nas reflexões. Este resultado evidenciou a possibilidade da geração do novo e sua potencialidade em flexibilizar as narrativas únicas. / The residential gated upscale condos - which bring within its walls services previously available only through city circulation – represents, in Salvador Bahia, an urban novelty and, at the same time, a new families’ way of life. This study investigates narratives of parents, residents in these places, about the significance of the city. Anchored in a reflection on children caring, the relationship between family and city emerges in the parents´ narratives revealing the impact and importance of the city to families’ lives. This study investigated the meanings of city from temporalities brought in narratives, analyzing the dynamics of this sign as a mediator and semiotic regulator, according to the theoretical perspective of the Cultural Psychology. Seeking to meet the principles of idiographic science a multiple case study was performed, based on narrative interviews. From the category 'folk psychology' a Dynamic Model of Three Basic Dimensions of the sign city - the territorial dimension, the social and political - was proposed in order to analyze and understand the meaning of what they narrated as a city, while referring to the experience of city. As a result of the model, applying to narratives about the meanings of cities, we found out the identification of different dynamics between the territorial, social and political dimensions, according to which temporality the sign was related to. Besides the past, present and future temporalities there was also constructed through narratives, a timeless city, revealing the strength of the sign under study as a promoter sign. In the future’s temporality the dynamic of the sign city revealed the political dimension dominance, leading to the significance of the city as a product of this dimension. There was an evidenced of a meaning crystallization mechanism through semiotic feedback between the political dimension and the social dimension. This “semiotic trap" seemed to contributed to a pessimistic view about city´s future, due to a fading of collective actions alternatives to individual. The narratives underscore the semiotic processes of canonicity in personal culture and its relationship with the collective culture. Demonstrating the dynamics of bilateralism transfer of culture model, the semiotics novelty was brought through narrative examples, demonstrating the meaning construction of the city sign while interview was taking place. The entry of new semiotic elements in the reflections, demonstrated the possibility of the new semiotic generation and its potential to ease the unique narratives.

A literatura filosófica sobre a Psicologia do Senso Comum se estende desde a década de 1970, e abrange diversas questões sobre nosso entendimento interpessoal cotidiano, nossa capacidade de interação e coordenação de atividades, o arcabouço conceitual intuitivo que relaciona estados mentais e atitudes proposicionais a comportamentos, e os mecanismos cognitivos de leitura mental que nos permitem atribuir estados mentais a outras pessoas. Nesta dissertação eu examino o desenvolvimento histórico desta literatura, identificando dois debates distintos, o primeiro (principalmente entre Paul Churchland e Jerry Fodor dos anos 70 aos anos 90) tendo como foco a relação entre a teoria da Psicologia do Senso Comum e teorias científicas (da neurociência e das ciências cognitivas), e o segundo (o debate contemporâneo) tendo como foco os mecanismos cognitivos de leitura mental e o papel das atribuições de estados mentais e atitudes proposicionais nas teorias da cognição corporificada, situada e estendida. Além do exame histórico do que argumento serem dois debates distintos e da transição conceitual entre ambos, também apresento aqui minha crítica à abordagem eliminativista contemporânea de Matthew Ratcliffe e, como alternativa, articulo os princípios de uma abordagem pluralista que combina leitura mental e interpretação contextual situada como fundamentais para a cognição social / The philosophical literature on Folk Psychology began in the 1970s, and encompasses various questions about our everyday interpersonal understanding, our ability to interact and coordinate activities, the intuitive conceptual framework that relates mental states and propositional attitudes to behaviors, and the cognitive mechanisms of mindreading that allow us to attribute mental states to other people. In this thesis I examine the historical development of this literature, identifying two distinct debates, the first (mainly between Paul Churchland and Jerry Fodor from the 70s to the 90s) focusing on the relationship between the theory of Folk Psychology and scientific theories (in neuroscience and cognitive science), and the second (the contemporary debate) focusing on the cognitive mechanisms of mindreading and the role played by attributions of mental states and propositional attitudes in theories of embodied, situated and extended cognition. In addition to the historical examination of what I argue are two distinct debates as well as of the conceptual transition between them, here I present my criticism of Matthew Ratcliffe\'s contemporary eliminativist approach and, as an alternative to it, I articulate the principles of a pluralistic approach that combines both mindreading and situated contextual interpretation as fundamental for social cognition

在當代心靈哲學的討論中，「通俗心理學」是指日常生活中人們對於其自身或其他人心理狀態與行為的常識性理解，它是以命題態度作為核心。「取消式唯物論」認為通俗心理學題錯誤的，將會被神經科學所取消。此主張最初為費耶阿本所提出，本論文所討論的取消式唯物論，則是指邱奇瀾及邱奇蘭所主張的版本。根據他們的論點，通俗心理學是一個經驗理論，由於它是無能與停希的，並且無法被成熟的神經科學化約，所以它的律則及本體論皆是錯誤的，未來人類將會使用一套神經科學的語詞來表達我們的心靈現象，使得通俗心理學被徹底取消。另一方面，工具論則認為通俗心理學並不是經驗理論，有關命題態度的歸屬僅僅是實用上的工具，於預測上有用，但並不描述內在的物理機制，以命題態度為組成部份的通俗心理學是社會實踐中多目標的工具，它根植於人類日常生活中，因此無法被神經科學所化約或取消。本論文企圖透過對取消式唯物論與工具論間，對通俗心理學的相互爭論，進一步嘗試對「通俗心理學作為一個理論或實踐？」這個課題作一個初步的回答。我們認為通俗心理學題一個深受社會文化及演化因素影響的常識概念架構，它不僅是一因果解釋理論，並且也是依賴社會文化網絡的實踐工具，應當以理論與實踐的兩種進路來加以探討。如果通俗心理學並不僅僅是一經驗理論，而是具有理論與實踐兩面向文明及演化的產物的話，則通俗心理學將不會面臨被神經科學徹底取消的命運。

A literatura filosófica sobre a Psicologia do Senso Comum se estende desde a década de 1970, e abrange diversas questões sobre nosso entendimento interpessoal cotidiano, nossa capacidade de interação e coordenação de atividades, o arcabouço conceitual intuitivo que relaciona estados mentais e atitudes proposicionais a comportamentos, e os mecanismos cognitivos de leitura mental que nos permitem atribuir estados mentais a outras pessoas. Nesta dissertação eu examino o desenvolvimento histórico desta literatura, identificando dois debates distintos, o primeiro (principalmente entre Paul Churchland e Jerry Fodor dos anos 70 aos anos 90) tendo como foco a relação entre a teoria da Psicologia do Senso Comum e teorias científicas (da neurociência e das ciências cognitivas), e o segundo (o debate contemporâneo) tendo como foco os mecanismos cognitivos de leitura mental e o papel das atribuições de estados mentais e atitudes proposicionais nas teorias da cognição corporificada, situada e estendida. Além do exame histórico do que argumento serem dois debates distintos e da transição conceitual entre ambos, também apresento aqui minha crítica à abordagem eliminativista contemporânea de Matthew Ratcliffe e, como alternativa, articulo os princípios de uma abordagem pluralista que combina leitura mental e interpretação contextual situada como fundamentais para a cognição social / The philosophical literature on Folk Psychology began in the 1970s, and encompasses various questions about our everyday interpersonal understanding, our ability to interact and coordinate activities, the intuitive conceptual framework that relates mental states and propositional attitudes to behaviors, and the cognitive mechanisms of mindreading that allow us to attribute mental states to other people. In this thesis I examine the historical development of this literature, identifying two distinct debates, the first (mainly between Paul Churchland and Jerry Fodor from the 70s to the 90s) focusing on the relationship between the theory of Folk Psychology and scientific theories (in neuroscience and cognitive science), and the second (the contemporary debate) focusing on the cognitive mechanisms of mindreading and the role played by attributions of mental states and propositional attitudes in theories of embodied, situated and extended cognition. In addition to the historical examination of what I argue are two distinct debates as well as of the conceptual transition between them, here I present my criticism of Matthew Ratcliffe\'s contemporary eliminativist approach and, as an alternative to it, I articulate the principles of a pluralistic approach that combines both mindreading and situated contextual interpretation as fundamental for social cognition

No description available.

There exists a broad inclination among those who theorize about mental representation to assume that the meanings of linguistic units, like words, are going to be identical to, and work exactly like, mental representations, such as concepts. This has the effect of many theorists applying facts that seem to have been discovered about the meanings of linguistic units to mental representations. This is especially so for causal theories of content, which will be the primary exemplars here. It is the contention of this essay that this approach is mistaken. The influence of thinking about language and mental representation in this way has resulted in the adoption of certain positions by a broad swathe of theorists to the effect that the content of a concept is identical to the property in the world that the concept represents, and that because of this a concept only applies to an object in the world or it does not. The consequences of such commitments are what appear to be insoluble problems that arise when trying to account for, or explain, misrepresentation in cognitive systems. This essay presents the position that in order to actually account for misrepresentation, conceptual content must be understood as being very much like measurements, in that the application of a content to an object in the world is akin to measuring said object, and that conceptual content ought be understood as being graded in the same way that measurements are. On this view, then, concepts are the kinds of things that can be applied more, or less, accurately to particular objects in the world, and so are not identical to whatever it is that they represent.

There exists a broad inclination among those who theorize about mental representation to assume that the meanings of linguistic units, like words, are going to be identical to, and work exactly like, mental representations, such as concepts. This has the effect of many theorists applying facts that seem to have been discovered about the meanings of linguistic units to mental representations. This is especially so for causal theories of content, which will be the primary exemplars here. It is the contention of this essay that this approach is mistaken. The influence of thinking about language and mental representation in this way has resulted in the adoption of certain positions by a broad swathe of theorists to the effect that the content of a concept is identical to the property in the world that the concept represents, and that because of this a concept only applies to an object in the world or it does not. The consequences of such commitments are what appear to be insoluble problems that arise when trying to account for, or explain, misrepresentation in cognitive systems. This essay presents the position that in order to actually account for misrepresentation, conceptual content must be understood as being very much like measurements, in that the application of a content to an object in the world is akin to measuring said object, and that conceptual content ought be understood as being graded in the same way that measurements are. On this view, then, concepts are the kinds of things that can be applied more, or less, accurately to particular objects in the world, and so are not identical to whatever it is that they represent.