A Reconciliation for the Future of Psychiatry: Both Folk Psychology and Cognitive Science
Frontiers in Psychiatry July 1, 2016 Daniel Douglas Hutto
Philosophy of psychiatry faces a choice between two views of mental disorders: the folk psychology (FP) view, which relies on everyday normative concepts, and the scientific image (SI) view, which grounds understanding solely in cognitive science. This paper argues that FP is too limited because the mind exceeds folk-psychological description, while standard cognitivist versions of SI are unjustifiably neurocentric. It proposes that a more liberal SI, combined with a revised and edited FP, can reconcile both views and provide a sound philosophical basis for psychiatry.