The Explanation Of Behaviour
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of philosophy of mind and the behavioural sciences stands one of the most rigorous challenges ever mounted against the mechanistic paradigm: Charles Taylor's The Explanation of Behaviour. Published as part of the prestigious International Library of Philosophy and Scientific Method, this landmark work argues that human and animal behaviour cannot be adequately accounted for by the reductive, stimulus-response models championed by mid-twentieth-century behaviourism. Taylor, writing as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montreal, presents a systematic and incisive critique of the teleological deficiencies within mechanistic explanations, contending that purposive or goal-directed behaviour demands an entirely different conceptual framework. Drawing on the philosophy of action, biology, and the nascent cognitive sciences, Taylor illustrates why intentionality and purpose must be treated as irreducible features of living systems rather than mere epiphenomena to be explained away. His prose is rigorous yet lucid, navigating complex analytical terrain with a clarity that renders the arguments accessible to both philosophers and scientists. This foundational text anticipates many of the central debates that would come to define the philosophy of psychology and cognitive science in the decades that followed — a prescient and essential read for anyone seeking to understand why the question of *why* we act as we do remains so stubbornly, fascinatingly unresolved.
Author: Charles Taylor
Format: Paperback
Genre: Philosophy
Condition remarks:
Book: Fair
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
At the crossroads of philosophy of mind and the behavioural sciences stands one of the most rigorous challenges ever mounted against the mechanistic paradigm: Charles Taylor's The Explanation of Behaviour. Published as part of the prestigious International Library of Philosophy and Scientific Method, this landmark work argues that human and animal behaviour cannot be adequately accounted for by the reductive, stimulus-response models championed by mid-twentieth-century behaviourism. Taylor, writing as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Montreal, presents a systematic and incisive critique of the teleological deficiencies within mechanistic explanations, contending that purposive or goal-directed behaviour demands an entirely different conceptual framework. Drawing on the philosophy of action, biology, and the nascent cognitive sciences, Taylor illustrates why intentionality and purpose must be treated as irreducible features of living systems rather than mere epiphenomena to be explained away. His prose is rigorous yet lucid, navigating complex analytical terrain with a clarity that renders the arguments accessible to both philosophers and scientists. This foundational text anticipates many of the central debates that would come to define the philosophy of psychology and cognitive science in the decades that followed — a prescient and essential read for anyone seeking to understand why the question of *why* we act as we do remains so stubbornly, fascinatingly unresolved.