DOCSLIB.ORG

Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology And

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology And Bill Warren KELLY’S PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY AND DEWEY’S PRAGMATISM: SOME DIRECT AND SOME ‘INTELLECTUAL CONTEXT’ ASPECTS Bill Warren University of Newcastle, Australia This paper is intended as a companion paper to two others focused on the links between Pragmatism and George Kelly’s theory of personal constructs: Butt’s (2005) discussion of George Herbert Mead (1863-1931), and McWilliams’ (2009) account of the ideas of William James (1842-1910). Given that much of what has been said about Pragmatism and PCP in these last papers, and also in Warren (1998, 2003) applies almost equally to Dewey, the present paper attempts to present a different perspective and to highlight lesser known matters that are hopefully not only interesting in their own right but also raise similarities and points of contrast between the intellectual careers of Dewey and Kelly. Thus is here presented a discussion of some aspects of the ideas and career of a thinker long identified with North American Pragmatism, in the light of Kelly’s (1955/1991) comment that Dewey’s “philosophy and psychology can be read between many of the lines of the psychology of personal constructs” (p. 154/108). The discussion is necessarily selective, and in the context of a focus on the historical and theoretical origins of PCP. Its aim is to provide a fuller sketch of the wider climate of ideas to which both Dewey and Kelly were subjected as their scholarly work and their careers developed. Key words: personal construct psychology, pragmatism, Kelly, Dewey CONTEXT: DEWEY AND KELLY IN cluded: The Reflex Arc in Psychology (1896), TIME The Significance of the Problem of Knowledge (1897), The School and Society (1900), The In- Scholarly works fluence of Charles Darwin on Philosophy (1910), Democracy and Education (1916/1966), John Dewey (1859-1952) was appointed to a Reconstruction in Philosophy (1920), and Hu- Chair of Philosophy, Psychology and Pedagogy man Nature and Conduct (1922). During Kelly’s in 1904, insisting that the name of the Chair be early adulthood Dewey published significant as it was because of his conviction that the three further work: How We Think (1910 originally, disciplines it describes were inherently con- revised 1933), The Quest for Certainty (1929 ), A nected. He published a good deal of his major Common Faith (1934), and Experience and Edu- work before George Kelly (1905-1967) was an cation (1938). In a number of cases there were adult. Kelly was appointed to a Chair of Psy- republications of the earlier works and revised chology in 1945, later to a Chair of Clinical Psy- editions in the period in which Kelly’s own ideas chology (1946), both at Ohio State University, were taking shape. As will be developed below, and then to a Chair of Theoretical Psychology at Dewey and Kelly also shared a more general Brandeis University in 1965. Kelly’s major work social-intellectual milieu, one in which Dewey was published in 1955, though with a gestation was a very significant and controversial figure. period between 1930 and that publication date. This significance and controversy turn around Dewey’s significant work in the period of two matters: Progressive Education, and De- Kelly’s childhood, infancy, and adolescence in- wey’s social activism. 32 Personal Construct Theory & Practice, 7, 2010 Kelly’s personal construct psychology and Dewey’s pragmatism Progressive education ing as a coalition against ignorance and the threat of social divisiveness and fragmentation. Kelly’s early years studying and working in the Progressive Education is captured well as to field of educational psychology corresponds to its essential features by Kneller (1964/1971): what is identified as the ‘progressive era’ (1917- education should be centered on the learner’s 1957), spawned by what Cremin (1961) calls the needs and interests , involve the learner coope- ‘progressive impulse’ (1876-1917). The ‘im- rating rather than competing with others, and pulse’ was constituted by a zeitgeist in which the actively involved in the process, in respect of ideas of Rousseau, Marx, Darwin (particularly which process the problem-solving project was Social Darwinism), Herbert Spencer, and Freud the ‘gold standard’ example, in a context where were resonating in Europe and had reached a teacher was a mentor or guide not an imparter North America. Thus, too, was the psychologist of knowledge, that context (e.g. a school) being William James (1899/1907) writing to teachers run democratically with learners having an equal as the centrality and magnitude of the activity voice with their guides or mentors. In Dewey’s that is education was being recognized as having version of these features, there are no such a vital function of ensuring social-cohesion. De- things as ‘subjects’, as the world comes at us not wey’s (1900) The School and Society recognized as bits or lumps that are Geography or Mathe- this as did his later Democracy and Education matics etc., but as a ‘blooming buzzing confu- (1916/1966) and there were numerous other sion’ out of which we make a sense; though the voices that were formed into a full voiced choir sense we make is not completely arbitrary. All of of opinion, argument and experimentation that these ideas sit very well with personal construct challenged North American education at its core. psychology. The formative role in relation to this choir was Cremin’s wider argument is that the Progres- played by Joseph Mayer Rice, and the main sive Education Movement represents “a crucial choirmaster was John Dewey. Rice, a pediatri- chapter in the history of recent American civili- cian who had become disturbed by the children zation” and that “to ignore it is to miss one he saw whose problems arose from the social whole facet of America’s response to industrial- conditions in which they lived, wrote an analysis ism” (p. ix-x). Thus, by the time Kelly was en- of the parlous state of North American schooling gaged in the general milieu of education – teach- and education. As Cremin (1961) tells us, Rice’s ing, research, dealing with ‘difficult students’ – articles in The Forum (between 1892 and June, progressive ideas were ‘in the air’, and Dewey if 1893) were to constitute the catalyst for a revolu- not the mentor of the Progressive Movement, tion in thinking. Generally, he argues, progres- certainly a very significant influence within it. sive education originated in the wider “humani- Indeed, an emphasis on the social dimensions of tarian effort to apply the promise of American education, particularly a view that society could life – the ideal of government by, of, and for the be ‘restructured’ using the schools, was contro- people” to the urban-industrial civilization that versial; it particularly annoyed those who had emerged at the end of the nineteenth century just fought a war, and would fight another, to (Cremin, 1961, p. viii). For him, “progressive preserve the existing lifestyle. Dewey did not education began as Progressivism in education: a accept the ideas of the Social Reconstructionist many-sided effort to use the schools to improve School of the Movement which had raised the the lives of individuals” (Cremin, 1961, p. viii). question “dare the schools build a new social The crucial points here are a stress on the social order?” This lack of support for ‘harder Left’ dimensions of life (influenced by the ideas of ideas was despite Dewey’s social activism and Marx and Social Darwinism, then Mead in par- his involvements in many social and political ticular), on the idea of a ‘social science’ (the new causes, such as women’s suffrage, the unioniza- sciences of Sociology and Psychology), and on tion of teachers, his involvement in organiza- ‘the practical’ (American Pragmatism), combin- tions encouraging social and cultural relations with Russia and Latin America, as well as his 33 Personal Construct Theory & Practice, 7, 2010 Bill Warren championing of academic freedom. He had also, from?’ might answer ‘from a shop’ was but a at some personal risk and aged in his late seven- relatively trivial example of the distancing of ties, gone to Mexico to Chair the Committee es- people from the origins of things in real, practic- tablished in 1937 to review the Moscow trial of al activity of human beings in their efforts to Leon Trotsky, which concluded that, in essence, live, and to survive at a higher than mere subsis- Trotsky had been ‘framed’. tence level. Again, Kelly’s three early (‘jug- These last interests and involvements, in ad- gled’) jobs -- with bankers, in an Ameri- dition to his general social-critical commentary, canization class for would-be citizens, and in account for the creation of an FBI file on Dewey language classes for labor organizers – could (Beineke, 1987). This file shows three periods of hardly not have provided first-hand experience active interest: 1930, during WWII, and after his of these tensions that the progressive educator in death in 1957. The first two periods reveal con- general, and Dewey in particular, were highlight- cerns about his friendly relations with Russia ing and of which they were warning. Kelly’s and his visit there in 1928, and his membership MA in 1927 ( One Thousand Workers and Their of organizations with the foci indicated above. Leisure ) attests to his interest in social issues, Material from the third period was only partly just as do his PhD (Common Factors in Reading released and shows simply that the then FBI Di- and Speech Difficulties ) and his earlier Bachelor rector, J. Edgar Hoover, requested a review of of Education Degree, evidence his interest in the file, but the reason for that review and what research and thinking in the field of education he did with that summary is not known.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Chemistry
    Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Chemistry Jaap van Brakel Abstract: In this paper I assess the relation between philosophy of chemistry and (general) philosophy of science, focusing on those themes in the philoso- phy of chemistry that may bring about major revisions or extensions of cur- rent philosophy of science. Three themes can claim to make a unique contri- bution to philosophy of science: first, the variety of materials in the (natural and artificial) world; second, extending the world by making new stuff; and, third, specific features of the relations between chemistry and physics. Keywords : philosophy of science, philosophy of chemistry, interdiscourse relations, making stuff, variety of substances . 1. Introduction Chemistry is unique and distinguishes itself from all other sciences, with respect to three broad issues: • A (variety of) stuff perspective, requiring conceptual analysis of the notion of stuff or material (Sections 4 and 5). • A making stuff perspective: the transformation of stuff by chemical reaction or phase transition (Section 6). • The pivotal role of the relations between chemistry and physics in connection with the question how everything fits together (Section 7). All themes in the philosophy of chemistry can be classified in one of these three clusters or make contributions to general philosophy of science that, as yet , are not particularly different from similar contributions from other sci- ences (Section 3). I do not exclude the possibility of there being more than three clusters of philosophical issues unique to philosophy of chemistry, but I am not aware of any as yet. Moreover, highlighting the issues discussed in Sections 5-7 does not mean that issues reviewed in Section 3 are less im- portant in revising the philosophy of science.
    [Show full text]
  • Aristotle's Anticommunism Author(S): Darrell Dobbs Source: American Journal of Political Science, Vol
    Aristotle's Anticommunism Author(s): Darrell Dobbs Source: American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Feb., 1985), pp. 29-46 Published by: Midwest Political Science Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2111210 Accessed: 10/12/2010 23:50 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mpsa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Midwest Political Science Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Journal of Political Science. http://www.jstor.org Aristotle'sAnticommunism DarrellDobbs, Universityof Houston This essayexamines Aristotle's critical review of Plato's Republic,the focus of whichreview is restricted,surprisingly, to Socrates'communistic political institutions; Aristotle hardly men- tionsany of theother important themes developed in thedialogue.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: the New Metaphysics of Time Over the Last Several Years
    History and Theory, Virtual Issue 1 (August 2012) © Wesleyan University 2012 ISSN: 1468-2303 INTRODUCTION: THE NEW METAPHYSICS OF TIME ETHAN KLEINBERG Over the last several years, the editors of History and Theory have tracked a growing trend evident not only in the articles published in our pages but also in manuscripts submitted to the journal as well as articles published in other venues. In the broadest strokes, this trend can be described as a response to the perceived limitations of a discourse predicated on language, rhetoric, and the question of representation. Whether one subscribes to the idea that historians and theorists of history took a “linguistic turn” in the 1980s,1 an increasing number of articles and monographs have taken issue with the general influence of French “post- structuralism” or “postmodernism,” with constructivism, and specifically with the work of Hayden White. These works seek to address the perceived faults of an overemphasis on the issues of “language” and representation that has obscured or misdirected the goal of actually addressing the past by perpetually worrying over how we might go about that task. Combined with the growing interest in material culture, the ways of science, and the nature of the body, it is hard to doubt the return to the real. But what strikes us as most interesting about this trend is the way that some of these theorists have sought to move beyond the emphasis on language and representation not by returning to a crude variant of objectivism or empiricism but by re-examining our relationship to the past and the past’s very nature and by attempting to construct a new metaphysics of time.
    [Show full text]
  • Kant's Doctrine of Schemata
    Kant’s Doctrine of Schemata By Joseph L. Hunter Thesis submitted to the faculty of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTERS OF ARTS IN PHILOSOPHY APPROVED: _______________________________ Eric Watkins, Chair _______________________________ _______________________________ Roger Ariew Joseph C. Pitt August 25, 1999 Blacksburg, Virginia Keywords: Kant, Schemata, Experience, Knowledge, Categories, Construction, Mathematics. i Kant’s Doctrine of Shemata Joseph L. Hunter (ABSTRACT) The following is a study of what may be the most puzzling and yet, at the same time, most significant aspect of Kant’s system: his theory of schemata. I will argue that Kant’s commentators have failed to make sense of this aspect of Kant’s philosophy. A host of questions have been left unanswered, and the doctrine remains a puzzle. While this study is not an attempt to construct a complete, satisfying account of the doctrine, it should be seen as a step somewhere on the road of doing so, leaving much work to be done. I will contend that one way that we may shed light on Kant’s doctrine of schemata is to reconsider the manner in which Kant employs schemata in his mathematics. His use of the schemata there may provide some inkling into the nature of transcendental schemata and, in doing so, provide some hints at how the transcendental schemata allow our representations of objects to be subsumed under the pure concepts of the understanding. In many ways, then, the aims of the study are modest: instead of a grand- scale interpretation of Kant's philosophy, a detailed textual analysis and interpretation are presented of his doctrine of schemata.
    [Show full text]
  • Peirce, Pragmatism, and the Right Way of Thinking
    SANDIA REPORT SAND2011-5583 Unlimited Release Printed August 2011 Peirce, Pragmatism, and The Right Way of Thinking Philip L. Campbell Prepared by Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185 and Livermore, California 94550 Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.. Approved for public release; further dissemination unlimited. Issued by Sandia National Laboratories, operated for the United States Department of Energy by Sandia Corporation. NOTICE: This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government, nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, nor any of their contractors, subcontractors, or their employees, make any warranty, express or implied, or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represent that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily con- stitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government, any agency thereof, or any of their contractors or subcontractors. The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, any agency thereof, or any of their contractors. Printed in the United States of America. This report has been reproduced directly from the best available copy.
    [Show full text]
  • 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Robert L
    Contemporary Civilization (Ideas and Institutions Section XII: The osP t-Enlightenment Period of Western Man) 1958 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Robert L. Bloom Gettysburg College Basil L. Crapster Gettysburg College Harold A. Dunkelberger Gettysburg College See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/contemporary_sec12 Part of the European Languages and Societies Commons, History Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Bloom, Robert L. et al. "5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism. Pt XII: The osP t-Enlightenment Period." Ideas and Institutions of Western Man (Gettysburg College, 1958), 53-69. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ contemporary_sec12/5 This open access book chapter is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 5. Immanuel Kant and Critical Idealism Abstract The ideas of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) are significant enough to be compared to a watershed in Western thought. In his mind were gathered up the major interests of the Enlightenment: science, epistemology, and ethics; and all of these were given a new direction which he himself described as another Copernican revolution. As Copernicus had shown that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the sun around the earth, so Kant showed that the knowing subject played an active and creative role in the production of his world picture, rather than the static and passive role which the early Enlightenment had assigned him.
    [Show full text]
  • Causality in the Mind: Estimating Contextual and Conjunctive Power
    This excerpt from Explanation and Cognition. Frank C. Keil and Robert A. Wilson, editors. © 2000 The MIT Press. is provided in screen-viewable form for personal use only by members of MIT CogNet. Unauthorized use or dissemination of this information is expressly forbidden. If you have any questions about this material, please contact [email protected]. 9 Causality in the Mind: Estimating Contextual and Conjunctive Causal Power Patricia W. Cheng I would like to argue that humans, and perhaps all species capable of flex- ibly adaptive goal-directed actions, are born with a conviction that they use for inferring cause-and-effect relations in the world.This conviction— that entities and events may have causal powers with respect to other enti- ties or events—provides a simple framework that enables reasoners to incrementally construct a picture of causal relations in a complex world. In the reasoner’s mind, causal powers are invariant properties of relations that allow the prediction of the consequences of actions regardless of the context in which the action occurs, with “context” being the background causes of an effect (those other than the candidate causes) that happen to occur in a situation. The reasoner’s goal is to infer these powers. The causal power scheme, however, is coherent only if the inferred powers can be tested in contexts other than the one in which they are inferred. When predictions based on simple causal powers fail, reasoners may be motivated to evaluate conjunctive causal power. All conventional statistical measures of independence, none of which is based on a causal power analysis, contradict measures of conjunctive causal power (Novick and Cheng 1999).
    [Show full text]
  • PHIL 3302: Philosophy of Aristotle (3 Credits)
    Date prepared: 8/17/14 The University of New Orleans Dept. of Philosophy PHIL 3302: Philosophy of Aristotle (3 credits) SECTION 001: LA 194, Thursday, 4:30 p.m – 7:15 p.m. Instructor: Dr. Surprenant Office: UNO: LA 387 Office Hours: (office) M: 11-12pm, Th: 1-4pm (and by appointment) (Skype, csurprenant) Tues: 12-2pm (and by appointment) Office Phone: (504) 280-6818 Contact Contact Information Email: [email protected] Course Webpages: Accessed via Moodle. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics, ed. Crisp (Cambridge, 2000). ISBN: 0521635462 Aristotle: The Politics and Constitution of Athens, ed. Everson (Oxford, 1996). ISBN: 0521484006 Text Required Required CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Aristotle's ideas are examined through careful analysis of his main works with emphasis on his criticisms of the basic theories of his teacher, Plato, and Aristotle's influence on subsequent Western Philosophy, literature, and science. COURSE OVERVIEW: This course is an advanced study of Aristotle’s moral and political philosophy. We will examine Aristotle’s answers to such questions as: May the state legitimately use the law to impose a certain conception of morality on its citizens? Or must the state aim, rather, to remain neutral when its citizens disagree strongly about the best way of life, protecting its citizens’ freedom to choose their own visions of the good life? A primary focus throughout the entire semester will be on learning how to read, understand, Course Description Course evaluate, and construct philosophical arguments, and then engaging with contemporary scholars about these arguments and ideas. In this way, this course will also serve as an introduction to being a philosopher.
    [Show full text]
  • Criminal Responsibility and Causal Determinism J
    Washington University Jurisprudence Review Volume 9 | Issue 1 2016 Criminal Responsibility and Causal Determinism J. G. Moore Follow this and additional works at: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_jurisprudence Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legal History Commons, Legal Theory Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Rule of Law Commons This document is a corrected version of the article originally published in print. To access the original version, follow the link in the Recommended Citation then download the file listed under “Previous Versions." Recommended Citation J. G. Moore, Criminal Responsibility and Causal Determinism, 9 Wash. U. Jur. Rev. 043 (2016, corrected 2016). Available at: http://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_jurisprudence/vol9/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School at Washington University Open Scholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Washington University Jurisprudence Review by an authorized administrator of Washington University Open Scholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Criminal Responsibility and Causal Determinism Cover Page Footnote This document is a corrected version of the article originally published in print. To access the original version, follow the link in the Recommended Citation then download the file listed under “Previous Versions." This article is available in Washington University Jurisprudence Review: https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/law_jurisprudence/vol9/ iss1/6 CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CAUSAL DETERMINISM: CORRECTED VERSION J G MOORE* INTRODUCTION In analytical jurisprudence, determinism has long been seen as a threat to free will, and free will has been considered necessary for criminal responsibility.1 Accordingly, Oliver Wendell Holmes held that if an offender were hereditarily or environmentally determined to offend, then her free will would be reduced, and her responsibility for criminal acts would be correspondingly diminished.2 In this respect, Holmes followed his father, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Additionality: a Useful Way to Construct the Counterfactual Qualitatively?
    REFEREED ARTICLE Evaluation Journal of Australasia, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2010, pp. 28–35 Additionality: a useful way to construct the counterfactual qualitatively? Abstract Julie Hind One concern about impact evaluation is whether a program has made a difference (Owen 2006). Essentially, in trying to understand this, an evaluation seeks to establish causality—the causal link between the social program and the outcomes (Mohr 1999; Rossi & Freeman 1993). However, attributing causality to social programs is difficult because of the inherent complexity and the many and varied factors at play (House 2001; Mayne 2001; Pawson & Tilley 1998; White 2010). Evaluators can choose from a number of theories and methods to help address causality (Davidson 2000). Measuring the counterfactual—the difference between actual outcomes and what would have occurred without Julie Hind is Director of Evolving the intervention—has been at the heart of traditional Ways, Albury–Wodonga. Email: impact evaluations. While this has traditionally been <[email protected]> measured using experimental and quasi-experimental methods, a counterfactual does not always need a This article was written towards comparison group (White 2010) and can be constructed completion of a Master of Assessment qualitatively (Cummings 2006). and Evaluation degree at the With these in mind, this article explores the usefulness of University of Melbourne. the concept of additionality, a mixed-methods framework developed by Buisseret et al. (cited in Georghiou 2002) as a means of evaluative comparison of the counterfactual. Introduction Over recent decades, there has been a move away from an emphasis on procedural matters within government agencies towards a focus on achievements (Mayne 2001).
    [Show full text]
  • Learning a Theory of Causality
    Learning a Theory of Causality Noah D. Goodman, Tomer D. Ullman, Joshua B. Tenenbaum ndg, tomeru, jbt @mit.edu MIT, Dept.f of Brain and Cognitiveg Sciences The very early appearance of abstract knowledge is often taken as evidence for innateness. We explore the relative learning speeds of abstract and specific knowledge within a Bayesian framework, and the role for innate structure. We focus on knowledge about causality, seen as a domain-general intuitive theory, and ask whether this knowledge can be learned from co- occurrence of events. We begin by phrasing the causal Bayes nets theory of causality, and a range of alternatives, in a logical language for relational theories. This allows us to explore simultaneous inductive learning of an abstract theory of causality and a causal model for each of several causal systems. We find that the correct theory of causality can be learned relatively quickly, often becoming available before specific causal theories have been learned—an effect we term the blessing of abstraction. We then explore the effect of providing a variety of auxiliary evidence, and find that a collection of simple “perceptual input analyzers” can help to bootstrap abstract knowledge. Together these results suggest that the most efficient route to causal knowledge may be to build in not an abstract notion of causality, but a powerful inductive learning mechanism and a variety of perceptual supports. While these results are purely computational, they have implications for cognitive development, which we explore in the conclusion. Pre-print June 2010—to appear in Psych. Review. essary building block in models of cognitive development or because it was not clear how such abstract knowledge could Introduction be learned.
    [Show full text]
  • Elements of Causal Inference
    Elements of Causal Inference Foundations and Learning Algorithms Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning Francis Bach, Editor Christopher Bishop, David Heckerman, Michael Jordan, and Michael Kearns, As- sociate Editors A complete list of books published in The Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning series appears at the back of this book. Elements of Causal Inference Foundations and Learning Algorithms Jonas Peters, Dominik Janzing, and Bernhard Scholkopf¨ The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England c 2017 Massachusetts Institute of Technology This work is licensed to the public under a Creative Commons Attribution- Non- Commercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 license (international): http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ All rights reserved except as licensed pursuant to the Creative Commons license identified above. Any reproduction or other use not licensed as above, by any electronic or mechanical means (including but not limited to photocopying, public distribution, online display, and digital information storage and retrieval) requires permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in LaTeX by the authors. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Peters, Jonas. j Janzing, Dominik. j Scholkopf,¨ Bernhard. Title: Elements of causal inference : foundations and learning algorithms / Jonas Peters, Dominik Janzing, and Bernhard Scholkopf.¨ Description: Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 2017. j Series: Adaptive computation and machine learning series
    [Show full text]