Stephen Stich Board of Governors Professor of Philosophy Contact Information Office: Davison Hall 131 Email: Phone: (732) 932-9861 x131 Homepage: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~stich

Education

B.A., University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D., Princeton

Speciality

Phil. of Mind, Cognitive Science, Phil. of Language, Epistemology

Research

My current research is focused on two large clusters of issues in the philosophy of mind and cognitive science. MIND READING: The first of these is centered around the phenomenon of "mind reading" -- the process by which we come to know about the mental states of other people. One view (the so-called "theory-theory") maintains that in forming beliefs about other people's mental states we rely on a tacit psychological theory (often called "folk psychology"). Another view (the "simulation theory") claims that we do not use a tacit folk psychology. Rather, simulation theorists maintain, we form beliefs about other people's mental states by a process in which we run some of our own mental processes "off-line". In the book I am currently writing on this debate, in collaboration with Shaun Nichols, we argue for a hybrid account of mind reading in which both theory and simulation play a role. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY: The other cluster of issues are centered around evolutionary psychology, the view that the mind consists primarity of a cluster of mental "organs" or "modules" that were shaped by natural selection to solve specific specific adaptive problems. I am particularly interested in the implications of evolutionary psychology in epistemology, ethics and psychotherapy.

Selected Publications

Books From Folk Psychology to Cognitive Science: The Case Against Belief, (Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books / MIT Press) 1983. The Fragmentation of Reason: Preface to a Pragmatic Theory of Cognitive Evaluation, (Cambridge, MA: Bradford Books / MIT Press) 1990. Deconstructing the Mind, (New York: Oxford University Press) 1996. http://www.oup-usa.org/docs/0195126661.html Mindreading (with Shaun Nichols), (New York: Oxford University Press) 2003. Edited Volumes Stephen P. Stich, ed., Innate Ideas, (Berkeley and London: University of California Press) 1975. David A. Jackson & Stephen P. Stich. eds., The Recombinant DNA Debate, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.) 1979. William Ramsey, Stephen P. Stich & David E. Rumelhart, eds., Philosophy and Connectionist Theory, (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), 1991. http://www.erlbaum.com/Books/searchintro/BookDetailscvr.cfm?ISBN=0-8058-0592-3 Stephen Stich & Ted A. Warfield, eds., Mental Representation, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell) 1994. Adam Morton & Stephen P. Stich, eds., Benacerraf and His Critics, (Oxford, Basil Blackwell) 1996. Michael Bishop, Richard Samuels & Stephen Stich, eds., Synthese, Special Issue on Rationality. Vol. 122, Nos. 1-2, January / February 2000. Peter Carruthers, Stephen Stich & Michael Siegal, eds., The Cognitive Basis of Science, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 2002. http://titles.cambridge.org/catalogue.asp?isbn=0521011779 Ted A. Warfield & Stephen Stich, eds., The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell) 2003. Selected Articles Peter G. Hinman, Jaegwon Kim & Stephen P. Stich, "Logical Truth Revisited," Journal of Philosophy, LXV, 17, 1968. Pp. 495-500. Stephen P. Stich, "Dissonant Notes on the Theory of Reference," Nous, IV, 4, 1970. Pp. 385-397. Stephen P. Stich, "What Every Speaker Knows," Philosophical Review, LXXX, 4, 1971. Pp. 476-496. Stephen P. Stich, "Grammar, Psychology and Indeterminacy," Journal of Philosophy, LXIX, 22, 1972. Pp. 799-818. Stephen P. Stich, John Tinnon & Lawrence Sklar, "Entailment and the Verificationist Program," Ratio (English Edition) XV, 1, 1973. Pp. 84-97. Stephen P. Stich, "Logical Form and Natural Language," Philosophical Studies, 28, 6, 1975. Pp. 397-418. Stephen P. Stich, "Davidson's Semantic Program," Canadian Journal of Philosophy, IV, 2, 1976. Pp. 201-227. Stephen P. Stich, "The Recombinant DNA Debate," Philosophy and Public Affairs, 7,3, 1978. Pp. 187-205. Stephen P. Stich, "Empiricism, Innateness and Linguistic Universals," Philosophical Studies, 33, 3, 1978. Pp. 273-286. Stephen P. Stich, "Beliefs and Sub-Doxastic States," Philosophy of Science, 45, 4, 1978. Pp. 499-518. Stephen P. Stich, "Autonomous Psychology and the Belief-Desire Thesis," The Monist, Special Number on the Philosophy and Psychology of Cognition, 61, 4, 1978. Pp. 573-591. Stephen P. Stich, "Do Animals Have Beliefs?" The Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 57, 1, 1979. Pp. 15-28. Stephen P. Stich, "Between Chomskian Rationalism and Popperian Empiricism," The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 30, 1979. Pp. 329-347. Stephen P. Stich & Richard E. Nisbett, "Justification and the Psychology of Human Reasoning," Philosophy of Science, 47, 2, 1980. Pp. 188-202. Stephen P. Stich, "Dennett on Intentional Systems," Philosophical Topics, 12, 1, 1981. Pp. 39-62. Stephen P. Stich, "On The Ascription of Content," in Thought and Object: Essays on Intentionality, ed. by Andrew Woodfield (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 1982. Pp. 153-206. Stephen P. Stich, "On Genetic Engineering, The Epistemology of Risk and the Value of Life," in the Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of Logic, Methodology and the Philosophy of Science, ed. by L.J. Cohen, J. Los, H. Pfeiffer & K.P. Podewski (Amsterdam: North Holland Publishing Co.) 1982. Pp. 433-458. Stephen P. Stich, "Genetic Engineering: How Should Science Be Controlled?" in Individual Rights and Public Policy ed. by Tom Regan & Donald VanDeVeer (Towota, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield), 1982. Pp. 86-115. Stephen P. Stich, "Testimony on Genetic Engineering," in Human Genetic Engineering: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight of the Committee on Science and Technology, U.S. House of Representatives. Ninety-Seventh Congress, Second Session. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 1983. Stephen P. Stich, "Armstrong on Belief," D. M. Armstrong, ed. by Radu J. Bogdan (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing Co.) 1984. Pp. 121-138. Stephen P. Stich, "Relativism, Rationality and the Limits of Intentional Description," Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 65, 3, 1984. Pp. 211-235. Stephen P. Stich, "Could Man Be An Irrational Animal?" Synthese, 64, 1, 1985. Pp. 115-135. Stephen P. Stich, "Are Belief Predicates Systematically Ambiguous?" in Belief: Form, Content and Function ed. by Radu Bogdan (Oxford University Press), 1986. Pp. 119-147. Stephen P. Stich, "Reflective Equilibrium, Analytic Epistemology and the Problem of Cognitive Diversity," Synthese, 74, 3, 1988. Pp. 391-413. Shawn Lockery and Stephen P. Stich, "Prospects for Animal Models of Mental Representation," International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 2, 3, 1989. Pp. 157-173. Stephen P. Stich, "Rationality," in Thinking, volume 3 of An Invitation to Cognitive Science, ed. by Daniel Osherson & Edward E. Smith (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) 1990. Pp. 173-196. William Ramsey, Stephen P. Stich & Joseph Garon, "Connectionism, Eliminativism and the Future of Folk Psychology," Philosophical Perspectives, 4: Action Theory and Philosophy of Mind, 1990. Pp. 499-533. William Ramsey & Stephen P. Stich, "Connectionism and Three Levels of Nativism," Synthese, 82, 2, 1990. Pp. 177-205. Stephen P. Stich. "Evaluating Cognitive Strategies: A Reply to Cohen, Goldman, Harman and Lycan," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 51, 1, 1991. Pp. 207-213. Todd Jones, Edmond Mulaire & Stephen P. Stich, "Staving Off Catastrophe: A Critical Notice of Jerry A. Fodor's Psychosemantics, Mind and Language, 6, 1, 1991. Pp. 58-82. Stephen P. Stich, "Narrow Content Meets Fat Syntax," in Meaning in Mind: Fodor and His Critics, ed. by Barry Loewer and Georges Rey (Oxford: Basil Blackwell), 1991. Pp. 239-254. Stephen P. Stich, "Do True Believers Exist? A Reply to Andy Clark," The Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume LXV, 1991. Pp. 229-244. Stephen P. Stich, "What Is a Theory of Mental Representation?" Mind, 101, 402, 1992. Pp. 243-61. Stephen P. Stich & Shaun Nichols, "Folk Psychology: Simulation vs. Tacit Theory," Mind and Language, 7, 1&2, 1992. Pp. 29-65. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Sim1/sim1.html Stephen P. Stich. "Moral Philosophy and Mental Representation," in The Origin of Values, ed. by M. Hechter, L. Nadel & R. E. Michod (New York: Aldine de Gruyter) 1993. Pp. 215-228. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/MPMR/MPAMR.html Stephen P. Stich, "Naturalizing Epistemology: Quine, Simon and the Prospects for Pragmatism," in C. Hookway & D. Peterson, eds., Philosophy and Cognitive Science, Royal Institute of Philosophy, Supplement no. 34 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1993. Pp. 1-17. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/People/NaturalizingEpistem.htm Stephen P. Stich & Ian Ravenscroft, "What Is Folk Psychology?" Cognition, 50, 1-3, 1994. Pp. 447-468. Stephen P. Stich, "Philosophy and Psychology," A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind ed. by Samuel Guttenplan (Oxford: Basil Blackwell) 1994. Pp. 500-507. Stephen P. Stich & Stephen Laurence, "Intentionality and Naturalism," Midwest Studies in Philosophy, v. 19, Naturalism, ed. by Peter A. French, Theodore E. Uehling, Jr. (University of Notre Dame Press), 1994. Pp. 159-182. Stephen P. Stich, "The Virtues, Challenges and Implications of Connectionism," British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 45, 1994. Pp. 1047-1058. Stephen P. Stich & Ted Warfield, "Do Connectionist Minds Have Beliefs? -- A Reply to Clark and Smolensky," in Connectionism: Debates on Psychological Explanation, Volume Two, ed. by Cynthia Macdonald & Graham Macdonald (Oxford: Basil Blackwell) 1995. Pp. 395-411. Stephen P. Stich & Shaun Nichols, "Second Thoughts on Simulation," in Mental Simulation: Philosophical and Psychological Essays, ed. by Martin Davies and Tony Stone (Oxford: Blackwells) 1995. Pp. 87-108. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Sim2/sim2.html Shaun Nichols, Stephen P. Stich & Alan Leslie, "Choice Effects and the Ineffectiveness of Simulation," Mind and Language, 10, 4, 1995. Pp. 437-445. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Sim4/sim4.html 99. Stephen P. Stich, "The Dispute Over Innate Ideas," in Sprachphilosophie, Ein Internationales Handbuch Zeitgenossischer Forschung, Volume 2, ed. by Marcelo Dascal, Dietfried Gerhardus, Kuno Lorenz & Georg Meggle (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter) 1996. Pp. 1041-1050. Shaun Nichols, Stephen P. Stich, Alan Leslie & David Klein, "The Varieties of Off-Line Simulation," in Theories of Theories of Mind, ed. by Peter Carruthers & Peter Smith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 1996. Pp. 39-74. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Sim3/sim3.html Stephen P. Stich, "Decostruire la Mente: La Critica al Materialismo," in Cervelli che Parlano: Il Dibattio su Mente, Coscienza e Intelligenza Artificiale, Introduzione e cura di Eddy Carli, (Milano: Bruno Mondadori) 1997. Pp. 197-212. Stephen P. Stich & Shaun Nichols, "Cognitive Penetrability, Rationality and Restricted Simulation," Mind and Language, 12, 3/4, 1997. Pp. 297-326. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Heal1/heal1.html Michael Bishop & Stephen P. Stich, "The Flight to Reference, or How Not to Make Progress in the Philosophy of Science," Philosophy of Science, 65, 1, March, 1998. Pp. 33-49. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/People/FlighttoReference.htm Stephen P. Stich & Shaun Nichols, "Theory Theory to the Max," Mind and Language, 13, 3, September 1998. Pp. 421-49. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/g&m/G&M.html Shaun Nichols & Stephen Stich, "Rethinking Co-Cognition," Mind and Language, 13, 4, December 1998. Pp. 499-512. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Heal2/heal2.html Richard Samuels, Stephen P. Stich & Patrice D. Tremoulet, "Rethinking Rationality: From Bleak Implications to Darwinian Modules," in What Is Cognitive Science? ed. by E. LePore & Z. Pylyshyn (Oxford: Blackwells) 1999. Pp. 74-120. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Rethink/rethink.html Dominic Murphy & Stephen Stich, "Griffiths, Elimination and Psychopathology," Metascience, 8, 1, March, 1999. Pp. 13-25. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Griffiths/GRIFFITHS.html Stephen Stich, "Is Man A Rational Animal?" in Daniel Kolak, ed., Questioning Matters: An Introduction to Philosophical Inquiry (Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Co.) 1999. Pp. 221-236. Shaun Nichols & Stephen P. Stich, "Pretense in Prediction: Simulation and Understanding Minds," in Denis Fisette, ed., Consciousness and Intentionality: Models and Modalities of Attribution a volume in The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer) 1999. Pp. 291-310. Stephen P. Stich, "Eliminativism," in The MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science, ed. by Robert A. Wilson & Frank C. Keil (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) 1999. Pp. 265-267. Stephen P. Stich, "Cognitive Pluralism," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1999. Stephen P. Stich, "Epistemic Relativism," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1999. Stephen P. Stich & Georges Rey, "Folk Psychology," Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1999. Shaun Nichols & Stephen Stich, "A Cognitive Theory of Pretense," Cognition, 74, 2, 2000. Pp. 115-147. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Rethink/rethink.html Ron Mallon & Stephen Stich, "The Odd Couple: The Compatibility of Social Construction and Evolutionary Psychology," Philosophy of Science, 67 (March, 2000). Pp. 133-154. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Odd/OddCouple.html Dominic Murphy & Stephen Stich, "Darwin in the Madhouse: Evolutionary Psychology and the Classification of Mental Disorders," in Peter Carruthers and Andrew Chamberlain, eds., Evolution and the Human Mind: Modularity, Language and Meta-Cognition, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) 2000. Pp. 62-92. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Mad/Madhouse.html Stephen Stich, "Plato's Method Meets Cognitive Science," Free Inquiry, 21, 2, Spring 2001. Pp. 36-38. Stephen Stich & Jonathan Weinberg, "Jackson's Empirical Assumptions," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 62, 3, May 2001. Pp. 637-643. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Jackson/Jackson.htm Richard Samuels, Stephen Stich & Michael Bishop, "Ending the Rationality Wars: How to Make Disputes About Human Rationality Disappear," in Renée Elio, ed., Common Sense, Reasoning, and Rationality (Oxford: Oxford University Press) 2002. 236-268. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Wars/wars.html Luc Faucher, Ron Mallon, Shaun Nichols, Daniel Nazer, Aaron Ruby, Stephen Stich & Jonathan Weinberg, "The Baby in the Labcoat: Why Child Development Is An Inadequate Model for Understanding the Development of Science," in P. Carruthers, S. Stich & M. Siegal, eds., The Cognitive Basis of Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 2002. Pp. 335-362. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/BABYfinalt.htm Richard Samuels & Stephen Stich, "Irrationality," to appear in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, edited by N. Smelser & P. Baltes (Oxford: Pergamon Press). Richard Samuels, Stephen Stich & Luc Faucher, "Reasoning and Rationality," to appear in the Handbook of Epistemology ed. by I. Niiniluoto, M. Sintonen, & J. Wolenski (Dordrecht: Kluwer). Pp. 1-50. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Reason/ReasonRationality.htm Shaun Nichols, & Stephen Stich, "How to Read Your Own Mind: A Cognitive Theory of Self-Consciousness," to appear in Aspects of Consciousness, ed. by Q. Smith and A. Jokic (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Shaun Nichols & Stephen Stich, "Reading One's Own Mind: Self-Awareness and Developmental Psychology" to appear in Working Through Thought, ed. by R. Kukla, R. Manning & R. Stainton (Boulder, CO: Westview Press). http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Room/room.html Richard Samuels & Stephen Stich, "Rationality," to appear in Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (London: Macmillan Publishers). Jonathan Weinberg, Shaun Nichols & Stephen Stich, "Normativity and Epistemic Intuitions," to appear in Philosophical Topics. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/NEI/NEIPT.html John Doris & Stephen Stich, "Ethics," to appear in Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (London: Macmillan Publishers). Stephen Stich & Shaun Nichols, "Folk Psychology," to appear in Ted A. Warfield & Stephen Stich, eds., The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind, (Oxford: Basil Blackwell) 2003. Pp. 235-255. Shaun Nichols, Stephen Stich & Jonathan Weinberg, "Meta-Skepticism: Meditations on Ethno-Epistemology," to appear in S. Luper, ed., The Skeptics. http://ruccs.rutgers.edu/ArchiveFolder/Research%20Group/Publications/Metaskept.htm Richard Samuels & Stephen Stich, "Rationality and Psychology," to appear in Alfred Mele & Piers Rawling, eds., Rationality. Oxford Reference Library. Oxford University Press. John Doris & Stephen Stich, "As a Matter of Fact: Empirical Perspectives on Ethics," to appear in F. Jackson and M. Smith, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Analytic Philosophy, 2003.