Selected Philosophical and Methodological Papers
A collection of papers that demonstrates the unusual scope and imagination of Meehl’s contributions to the field of philosophy, inlcuding incisive writings on the mind-body problem, freedom and determinism, psychoanalytic explanation, theory appraisal, moral aspects of insanity and the law, and precognitive telepathy.
“This collection of essays is a veritable gold mine. ... Rereading them brought back vividly the range and profundity of Meehl’s work as well as the sheer delight of his writing style. This collection ... should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in such areas as philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, artificial intelligence, methodology of the social sciences, as well as ... foundations of statistics, psychoanalysis, free will, moral responsibility, determinism, punishment, rehabilitation, and ESP.”
-Wesley Salmon
During his distinguished career as a psychologist, which has spanned four decades, Paul Meehl has steadily contributed to the philosophical literature with his probing and witty analyses. The unusual scope and imagination of his work are revealed in this collection as Meehl explores the mind-body problem, freedom and determinism, psychoanalytic explanation, theory appraisal, moral aspects of insanity and the law, and precognitive telepathy.
Meehl is cofounder of the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science with Herbert Feigl and Wilfrid Sellars. Included in this collection are several of their collaborative works.
Contents
Foreword C. Anthony Anderson and Keith Gunderson
Preface
Theoretical Risks and Tabular Asterisks: Sir Karl, Sir Ronald, and the Slow Progress of Soft Psychology
Psychological Determinism and Human Rationality: A Psychologist’s Reactions to Professor Karl Popper’s “Of Clouds and Clocks”
The Determinism-Freedom and Mind-Body Problems with Herbert Feigl
Psychological Determinism or Chance: Configural Cerebral Autoselection as a Tertium Quid
A Most Peculiar Paradox
The Concept of Emergence with Wilfrid Sellars
The Complete Autocerebroscopist: A Thought-Experiment on Professor Feigl’s Mind-body Identity Thesis
On a Distinction between Hypothetical Constructs and Intervening Variables with Kenneth MacCorquodale
Psychopathology and Purpose
Some Methodological Reflections on the Difficulties of Psychoanalytic Research
Subjectivity in Psychoanalytic Inference: The Nagging Persistence of Wilhelm Fliess’s Achensee Question
The Virtues of M’Naghten with Joseph M. Livermore
On the Justifications for Civil Commitment with Joseph M. Livermore and Carl P. Malmquist
Psychology and the Criminal Law
Law and the Fireside Inductions: Some Reflections of a Clinical Psychologist
The Insanity Defense
Compatibility of Science and ESP with Michael Scriven
Precognitive Telepathy I: On the Possibility of Distinguishing It Experimentally from Psychokinesis
Precognitive Telepathy II: Some Neurophysiological Conjectures and Metaphysical Speculations
