Support from Contemporary Psychology

Abstract

A great deal has happened in psychology since the time of William James. However, many psychologists, neuroscientists, and philosophers who intended to stay in tune with the basic precepts of physics became locked to the ideas of nineteenth century physicists and failed to acknowledge or recognize the jettisoning by twentieth century physicists of classical materialism and the principle of the causal closure of the physical. Thus while the physicists were bringing effects attributed to the conscious intentions of human agents into the dynamical description of the physically described world, mainline psychologists, embracing behaviorism, sought to remove such features even from psychology, and most philosophers of mind followed suit.