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Is Logic all in our Heads? From Naturalism to Psychologism

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Abstract

Psychologism in logic is the doctrine that the semantic content of logical terms is in some way a feature of human psychology. We consider the historically influential version of the doctrine, Psychological Individualism, and the many counter-arguments to it. We then propose and assess various modifications to the doctrine that might allow it to avoid the classical objections. We call these Psychological Descriptivism, Teleological Cognitive Architecture, and Ideal Cognizers. These characterizations give some order to the wide range of modern views that are seen as psychologistic because of one or another feature. Although these can avoid some of the classic objections to psychologism, some still hold.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Philosophy and Linguistics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Francis J. Pelletier

  2. Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

    Renée Elio

  3. Department of Philosophy, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Philip Hanson

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  1. Francis J. Pelletier
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  2. Renée Elio
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  3. Philip Hanson
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Correspondence to Francis J. Pelletier.

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Pelletier, F.J., Elio, R. & Hanson, P. Is Logic all in our Heads? From Naturalism to Psychologism. Stud Logica 88, 3–66 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11225-008-9098-5

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