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Why Philosophy Needs Logical Psychologism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2013

Vanessa Lehan-Streisel
Vanessa Lehan-Streisel*
Affiliation:
York University
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Abstract

In this paper, I argue that social psychologism is the most philosophically appealing form of psychologism. I present two arguments in support of social psychologism. The first is that this form of psychologism allows philosophers to justify normative claims about human reasoning. In the second part of this paper I argue that social psychologism ameliorates historical concerns with psychologism in general. The conclusion I draw from this discussion is that a need to outline and justify a normative system for deductive reasoning requires some discussion of how formal systems and human minds connect to one another.

Je soutiens dans cet article que le psychologisme social est la forme la plus attrayante de psychologisme. Ma défense du psychologisme social se développe en deux temps. Premièrement, je démontre que cette forme de psychologisme permet aux philosophes de justifier leurs revendications normatives au sujet du raisonnement humain. Je montre ensuite, dans la seconde partie de mon raisonnement, comment le psychologisme social assouplit les préoccupations de nature historique du psychologisme en général. Je conclus en soulignant que la nécessité d’encadrer et de justifier un système normatif pour les raisonnements déductifs exige des discussions approfondies sur les façons dont les systèmes formels et les esprits humains entrent en contact les uns avec les autres.

Type
Articles
Information
Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review / Revue canadienne de philosophie , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 575 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 2012 

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References

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