LIBRARIBE THREE STUDIES IN NATURALIZED PHILOSOPHICAL PSYCHOLOGY

The dissertation consists of three distinct essays. Each is concerned with the implications that scientific theories of cognition have for philosophical issues. In the first essay I explore the relationship between common sense belief-desire psychology and computation psychological theories, using belief as a model. I criticize the widely-held view that to have a belief is to explicitly store a representation and defend an alternative explanation which identifies having a belief with being disposed to use an appropriate representation in reasoning and decision processes. I argue that this dispositional account of belief suggests that common sense belief-desire (B-D) concepts and explanations may not figure prominently in scientific explanations of our cognitive make-up, although it is likel