Thesis (B.A.)--Haverford College, Dept. of Philosophy, 2005. / Title, author from bound volume of Senior essays, Dept. of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references.

In this paper, I will defend two methodological theses, one negative and one positive, about how to develop a holistic theory of content for mental representations that avoids a problem peculiar to holistic theories, viz., the problem of content instability. The relevant debate between holists and anti-holists has focused on whether this problem provides an in principle barrier to developing a plausible holistic theory. On this front, the holists have won; defenders of holistic theories have convincingly argued that the anti-holists do not have a cogent argument from the problem of content instability to the impossibility of developing a plausible holistic theory. However, beyond this, little has been said about how to develop a holistic theory that avoids the problematic consequences of content instability; all that has been established is that it appears to be, in principle, possible to do so. This paper should contribute to making progress in this area. The two theses I will defend are about how to generate useful constraints on holistic theories so that they avoid content instability. The negative thesis of this paper is that the strategy of generating constraints suggested by the holists' response to anti-holist arguments, viz., appealing to properties of theories' determination functions, is a non-starter. The positive thesis of this paper is that the best way to develop useful stability constraints is to appeal to the explanatory role(s) that representations play in cognitive science theories. / Master of Arts

Philosophers commonly distinguish between an experience’s intentional content—what the experience represents—and its phenomenal character—what the experience is like for the subject. Separatism—the view that the intentional content and phenomenal character of an experience are independent of one another in the sense that neither determines the other—was once widely held. In recent years, however, separatism has become increasingly marginalized; at present, most philosophers who work on the issue agree that there must be some kind of necessary connection between an experience’s intentional content and phenomenal character. In contrast with the current consensus, I believe that a particular form of separatism remains the most plausible view of the relationship between an experience’s intentional content and phenomenal character. Accordingly, in this thesis I explain and defend a view that I call “moderate separatism.” The view is “moderate” in that the separatist claim is restricted to a particular class of phenomenal properties: I do not maintain that all the phenomenal properties instantiated by an experience are independent of that experience’s intentional content but only that this is true of the sensory qualities instantiated by that experience. I argue for moderate separatism by appealing to examples of ordinary experiences where sensory qualities and intentional content come apart. First I argue that an experience’s intentional content does not determine the sensory qualities it instantiates by appealing to cases where two experiences share the same intentional content but instantiate different sensory qualities. Then I argue that the sensory qualities instantiated by an experience do not determine its intentional content by appealing to cases where two experiences that instantiate the same sensory qualities differ with regard to intentional content. I consider a number of alternatives to my account of the intentional content and phenomenal character of the experiences at issue and argue that none is plausible. If so, it follows that the intentional content and sensory qualities instantiated by an experience are independent of one another.

Philosophers commonly distinguish between an experience’s intentional content—what the experience represents—and its phenomenal character—what the experience is like for the subject. Separatism—the view that the intentional content and phenomenal character of an experience are independent of one another in the sense that neither determines the other—was once widely held. In recent years, however, separatism has become increasingly marginalized; at present, most philosophers who work on the issue agree that there must be some kind of necessary connection between an experience’s intentional content and phenomenal character. In contrast with the current consensus, I believe that a particular form of separatism remains the most plausible view of the relationship between an experience’s intentional content and phenomenal character. Accordingly, in this thesis I explain and defend a view that I call “moderate separatism.” The view is “moderate” in that the separatist claim is restricted to a particular class of phenomenal properties: I do not maintain that all the phenomenal properties instantiated by an experience are independent of that experience’s intentional content but only that this is true of the sensory qualities instantiated by that experience. I argue for moderate separatism by appealing to examples of ordinary experiences where sensory qualities and intentional content come apart. First I argue that an experience’s intentional content does not determine the sensory qualities it instantiates by appealing to cases where two experiences share the same intentional content but instantiate different sensory qualities. Then I argue that the sensory qualities instantiated by an experience do not determine its intentional content by appealing to cases where two experiences that instantiate the same sensory qualities differ with regard to intentional content. I consider a number of alternatives to my account of the intentional content and phenomenal character of the experiences at issue and argue that none is plausible. If so, it follows that the intentional content and sensory qualities instantiated by an experience are independent of one another.

In this thesis, I argue that at least some animals have the sort of intentionality philosophers traditionally have only ascribed to humans. I argue for this through the examination of tool-use among New Caledonian crows and Bottlenose dolphins. New Caledonian crows demonstrate advanced tool-manufacture and standardization, while Bottlenose dolphins use social learning to a much greater degree than other animals. These two case studies fit nicely with many of the non-linguistic accounts of intentionality employed by philosophers. This thesis is aimed at showing that our basic philosophical concept of intentionality leaves room for intentional behavior on the part of non-human animals. Descriptions of human behavior are often contrasted with that of "lower" animals. Many have taken rationality as the characteristic that separates us from animals, and our notions about the superiority of humans have been passed down through theology and philosophy. From Plato onward, philosophers have created divisions that put humanity in a special position relative to all other creatures. Neglecting a careful analysis of animal behavior in making these divisions does a disservice not only to the animals themselves, but also to humans. This thesis is an attempt to start pulling a thread of the discussion about the specialness of humans out for examination. Specifically, I examine the case of intentionality in the framework of the tool-related behaviors of crows and dolphins. / Master of Arts

<p>Moral cognition represents a foundational faculty of the human species. Our sense of morality develops beginning at a very young age, and its dysfunction can lead to devastating mental disorders. Given its central importance, it has fittingly garnered the attention of thinkers throughout the ages. For millennia, philosophers have pondered what it is to be right or wrong, good or bad, virtuous or vicious. For centuries, psychologists have elucidated how people acquire and act upon a sense of morality. More recently in the last decade, neuroscientists have embarked on a project to study how morality arises from computations in the brain. However, this latest project has been fragmented: researchers have largely studied various neural components of morality - including emotion, value, and mentalizing - in isolation. This has resulted in an informal and disjointed model for the neural mechanisms of morality. This dissertation is concerned with more formally identifying neural components and their influences on each other in the context of moral cognition.</p><p>In Chapter 2, I study how the component neural networks of moral cognition may be involved in distinct aspects of a single decision by employing a complex clinical decision making task involving the disclosure of conflicts of interest. I show that for a given decision, the magnitude of conflict of interest is tracked by mentalizing networks, while the degree of disclosure-induced behavioral change exhibited by participants is predicted by value networks. In Chapter 3, I move beyond the informal model of morality used in Chapter 2 and previous literature by devising a methodology to identify hierarchical ontologies of neural circuits; such an approach can have implications on further discussions of morality, and more generally, on other aspects of cognitive neuroscience. From this, I present the 50 elemental neural circuits that are fundamental to human cognition and explore how these elements can differentially combine to form emergent neural circuits. In Chapter 4, I use these advances to address morality, uncovering its relevant component neural networks in a data-driven way. I show that neural circuits important in supporting higher-level moral computations include mentalizing and taste. In Chapter 5, I demonstrate an important complexity in a compositional model of morality. I show that one of the components of moral cognition, mentalizing, can paradoxically be influenced by moral judgments themselves. To conclude, I highlight the implications of both theoretical and methodological advances. The hierarchical ontologies of neural circuits may be a profitable framework for the future characterization and study of mental disorders; and to effectively study these circuits, the use of moral judgment and decision-making paradigms will be effective experimental tasks, considering the centrality of moral cognition to who we are, whether in health or illness.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis advisor: Liane Young / Thesis advisor: James Dungan / Memory is dependent on a variety of factors from individual differences in storage capacity to cultural differences in attentional biases. While previous research has studied the effect of the intentionality of actions on memory, few have looked into how the intersection of intentionality and morality might affect memory. This study sought to examine how morality and intentionality affect participants’ ability to remember specific information about an event. Participants read six stories from a single condition in a 2 (moral/neutral) x 2 (intentional/accidental) between-subjects design. After half an hour of non-verbal distractor tasks, participants were asked to freely recall as much information as they could from the previous stories. Although we found few significant results, we did find consistent trends suggesting that moral intentional scenarios improve participants’ recall of overall memory about the event. Specifically, morality and intentionality show trends toward improving participants’ memory for information about the story’s agent, their action, and whether or not their action was done intentionally or accidentally. The lack of significance could stem from a small sample size for each condition (N=20), which did not give enough power for statistical analyses. We discuss this and other limitations, as well as future directions on how these preliminary results apply to cultural and linguistic differences in memory and how this could have important implications for eyewitness testimony. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Psychology Honors Program. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Psychology.

Sport is considered a viable context for positive youth development, including the acquisition of life skills. However, research indicates that sport participation alone does not necessarily amount to consistent developmental outcomes (Coakley, 2011). Therefore, it is important to understand how sport can be structured by coaches, as direct influencers of the structure and delivery of sport programs, to facilitate the development of skills that youth can use to thrive in life. Using the Bean et al. (2018) continuum, this thesis explored coaches’ implicit and explicit approaches to life skills development and transfer in youth sport. A multiple case study design was employed comprised of nine cases, each consisting of one coach and at least two of his/her athletes, who were members of a youth sport team (i.e., baseball, rugby, soccer, and sailing), operating in the National Capital Region. Data were collected from the coaches via pre- and post-season interviews and in-season journaling, as well as from athletes via post-season interviews. The results indicated that the coaches went beyond the implicit/explicit dichotomy. The coaches were found to predominantly and consistently use implicit approaches and inconsistently use explicit approaches, with dilemmas and factors reported influencing their explicit practices. The results have implications for future research and applied efforts towards coaches’ integration of the explicit approaches to teaching youth life skills development and transfer within their coaching practices to maximize positive youth development through sport.

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Diss. Göteborg : Göteborgs universitet, 2007.