Luc Faucher
Université du Québec à Montréal, Philosophie, Faculty Member
Research Interests: Philosophy and Conscience
Research on the adaptive characteristics of the human immune system reveals that evolutionary algorithms are not strictly matters of replication. And research in genomics suggests that there is no a single source of evolutionary... more
Research on the adaptive characteristics of the human immune system reveals that evolutionary algorithms are not strictly matters of replication. And research in genomics suggests that there is no a single source of evolutionary information that carries the same content in every environment. A plausible theory of cultural evolution must acknowledge the possibility that multiple selective algorithms are operating at different time-scales, on different units of selection, with different logical structures; but it must explain how different selective processes are interfaced to yield culturally stable phenomena. This paper advances an empirically plausible approach to memetics that recognizes a wider variety of evolutionary algorithms; and it advances a pluralistic approach to cultural change. Finally, it shows that multiple forms of processing, operating at different timescales, on different units of selection, collectively sustain the human capacity to form and use certain types of r...
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This chapter examines whether and how concepts vary across and within individuals (inter- and intra-individual variation) by examining what constrains variation of concepts. To address this issue, the chapter focuses on an independently... more
This chapter examines whether and how concepts vary across and within individuals (inter- and intra-individual variation) by examining what constrains variation of concepts. To address this issue, the chapter focuses on an independently interesting case study: inter- and intra-individual variation in the concept of race. The case study contrasts two competing hypotheses about the concept of race: the biological and the social hypotheses. According to the first hypothesis, the concept of race is a biological concept that is constrained by folk biology; according to the second, it is the concept of a social category. The chapter shows that people’s folk biology constrains the concept of race and thus limits how much concepts of race can vary within and across individuals.
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Dans cet article, nous nous interessons a la possibilite de l’augmentation morale par le biais de la stimulation cerebrale profonde (SCP). Apres avoir defini ce en quoi consiste l’augmentation morale et ecarte quelques objections prima... more
Dans cet article, nous nous interessons a la possibilite de l’augmentation morale par le biais de la stimulation cerebrale profonde (SCP). Apres avoir defini ce en quoi consiste l’augmentation morale et ecarte quelques objections prima facie que l’on peut faire a son endroit, cet article tente d’etablir si l’augmentation morale par le biais de la SCP est empiriquement possible et souleve un ensemble de questions que poserait l’utilisation de ce genre de technologie dans le domaine de la cognition morale.
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Defining mental disorder. Jerome Wakefield and his critics Luc Faucher et Denis Forest, éditeurs MIT Press, Collection « Philosophical psychopathology », 640 pages, 2021 Présentation. Proposée par Jerome Wakefield, la définition du... more
Defining mental disorder. Jerome Wakefield and his critics Luc Faucher et Denis Forest, éditeurs MIT Press, Collection « Philosophical psychopathology », 640 pages, 2021 Présentation. Proposée par Jerome Wakefield, la définition du trouble mental comme « dysfonctionnement préjudiciable » est au coeur des débats internationaux en philosophie de la psychiatrie depuis 30 ans. La conception mixte de Wakefield a pour particularité de proposer une alternative aussi bien aux conceptions purement naturalistes de la maladie mentale qu'à des conceptions opposées, inspirées par le constructivisme social ou le nihilisme antipsychiatrique. Elle entend poser une limite à la médicalisation des problèmes de vie et à l'inflation des catégories psychiatriques. Mais si on parle de « dysfonctionnement préjudiciable », comment identifier ce qui dysfonctionne et comment déterminer à partir de quand ? De quel « préjudice », évalué comment,
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De nos jours, l'approche dominante dans le debat sur les races est le constructionnisme social. Les tenants de cette approche soutiennent que le concept de race est un concept pseudo biologique utilise pour justifier et rationaliser... more
De nos jours, l'approche dominante dans le debat sur les races est le constructionnisme social. Les tenants de cette approche soutiennent que le concept de race est un concept pseudo biologique utilise pour justifier et rationaliser le traitement inequitable d'un groupe de gens par un autre. Ils proposent que les classifications raciales et la maniere dont les races sont conceptualisees resultent des conditions sociales propres a chaque culture. Nous examinons les merites et les limites de cette approche. Nous soutenons qu'elle doit etre completee par une approche evolutionniste et cognitive. Sur la base des travaux de Gil-White (1999, 2001 a, b), nous proposons que l'evolution de la cognition sociale a ete fortement influencee par la vie de nos ancetres au sein de larges groupes appeles « ethnies ». Nous avancons que la cognition raciale resulte d'un systeme cognitif dedie a ce type d'organisation sociale.
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The focus of the advocates of the Research Domain Critria (RDoC) on faulty brain circuits has led some to suspect it of being a reductionist enterprise. And because RDoC will eventually impact clinical psychiatry, some have feared that it... more
The focus of the advocates of the Research Domain Critria (RDoC) on faulty brain circuits has led some to suspect it of being a reductionist enterprise. And because RDoC will eventually impact clinical psychiatry, some have feared that it will transform clinical psychiatry in a mindless and applied neurobehavioral science. We argue that if RDoC is officially endorsing a kind of reductionism, the particular kind of reductionism it endorses is not suffering from the shortcomings of more classical forms of reductionism. Because of that, at least in principle, RDoC could enrich rather than impoverish clinical psychiatry. This paper raises few potential problems of the RDoC for clinical psychiatry caused by its implicit epistemological reductionism.
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Research Interests: Philosophy and Humanities
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Direction d'ouvrage, en cours de publicatio
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Research Interests: Psychology and Philosophy
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Research Interests: Philosophy and Conscience
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Just as the DSM-5 was about to be finalized, the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) launched its “Research Domain Criteria” (RDoC) initiative, a project that has been seen by many as a disavowal of the type of nosological... more
Just as the DSM-5 was about to be finalized, the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) launched its “Research Domain Criteria” (RDoC) initiative, a project that has been seen by many as a disavowal of the type of nosological enterprise incarnated by the DSM itself, from DSM-III to DSM-5. In our paper, we first want to describe the context in which RDoC appeared and demonstrate that, if it is not a disavowal of the DSM-5’s work, it certainly signals the abandonment of a method of trying to establish a valid nosology; a paradigm shift in nosology so to speak. We will then question if RDoC is a reductionist enterprise. We will explain why RDoC is not reductionist in a strong and naive sense, but why it could be understood as reductionist in a weaker sense. If this weaker form of reductionism does not possess the problems the stronger forms of reductionism do, it might nonetheless generate problems of its own that researchers should be aware of. We will try to delineate some of these problems.
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Psychiatry is in disarray. Case in point: psychiatry’s primary classification manual has been under attack almost since the nosological revolution initiated by the DSM-III. The latest version – the DSM-5 – was not even published when... more
Psychiatry is in disarray. Case in point: psychiatry’s primary classification manual has been under attack almost since the nosological revolution initiated by the DSM-III. The latest version – the DSM-5 – was not even published when criticism of it began. From many corners of psychiatry, voices were heard that urged a reclassification of mental disorders based on research in neuroscience and genetics as a solution to psychiatry’s current situation. A radically different solution has been proposed to ‘cure’ the DSM of its alleged ailments: to build (or rebuild) it based on an evolutionary understanding of disorders. Indeed, advocates of evolutionary psychiatry believe that psychiatry could benefit from the adoption of an evolutionary perspective by providing a new understanding of specific mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, phobia, autism, etc. In this paper, I will focus my attention on two recent explanations of depression that adopt an evolutionary-style: Nesse’s, and Andrews and Thomson’s. In this paper, I will present their respective positions in regards to depression. I will then present some reasons as to why one should remain unconvinced by these explanations of depression.
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Research Interests: Psychology and Philosophy
Philosophers have not been very preoccupied by the link between emotions and attention. The few that did (de Sousa, 1987) never really specified the relation between the two phenomena. Using empirical data from the study of the emotion of... more
Philosophers have not been very preoccupied by the link between emotions and attention. The few that did (de Sousa, 1987) never really specified the relation between the two phenomena. Using empirical data from the study of the emotion of fear, we provide a description (and an explanation) of the links between emotion and attention. We also discuss the nature (empirical or conceptual) of these links.
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A consideration of the recent history of philosophy reveals that when thinking about unity of science, philosophers have mainly been thinking of unity through reduction of higher level theories to lower level theories. In other words, if... more
A consideration of the recent history of philosophy reveals that when thinking about unity of science, philosophers have mainly been thinking of unity through reduction of higher level theories to lower level theories. In other words, if unity was to be achieved it was through intertheoretic reduction. Lately, though, some philosophers (Darden and Maull, Philos Sci 44:43–64, 1977; McCauley and Bechtel, Theory Psychol 11:736–760, 2001; Mitchell and Dietrich, Am Nat 168:S73–S79, 2006) have started to question this exclusive focus on intertheoretic reduction in the discussions concerning the unity of science. These philosophers have also come to reject the global project of unification for more modest and local forms of unification: This is the area of pluralism. Pluralism complicates tremendously our understanding of the relations between theories. In fact, pluralism suggests that we are facing two distinct tasks: (1) Developing a typology of the intertheoretic relations; (2) Understanding on a case-by-case basis the relation between specific theories or specific frameworks. I believe that progress has been made with respect to (1), but I want to improve on the current understanding of the typology of intertheoretic relations. I take (2) to be essential: Many scientists have failed to understand what pluralism entails. They view their theories to be simply inconsistent with each other (when sometimes, they are not). It is important to understand the relations between actual sciences and between actual theories in order to avoid futile arguments and to develop better theories. In this paper, I will present Sandra Mitchell’s typology of inter-theoretic relations. I will then focus on a case study—the relations between the neurosciences and social cognitive psychology of racial prejudice. What will emerge is that the pluralism proposed by Mitchell should be enriched further to understand the real nature of the unity proposed in certain fields of science.
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The chapter aims to defend an externalist conception of evolutionary psychology by integrating the two forms of externalism found, respectively, in cognitive science and evolutionary biology, which were until now been pursued... more
The chapter aims to defend an externalist conception of evolutionary psychology by integrating the two forms of externalism found, respectively, in cognitive science and evolutionary biology, which were until now been pursued independently. We call this conception of evolutionary psychology “externalist evolutionary cognitive science”. However, adopting an externalist position is easier said than done, especially on the empirical and experimental front. To this day, externalism (both in cognitive science and evolutionary biology) is mostly limited to conceptual arguments, methodological prescriptions and speculative interpretations of scientific work. To integrate the two forms of externalism, we propose to trade internalist idealizations in cognitive science and evolutionary biology with another set of idealizations, inspired by work in mobile robotics as well as in developmental cognitive neuroscience. We start however by explaining in more detail what exactly internalism and externalism in those disciplines are.
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Constructionism can take several forms: one can refer to biological, psychological, or social constructionism. What I want to argue in this article is that if one carefully teases out varied forms of constructionism, the frontiers between... more
Constructionism can take several forms: one can refer to biological, psychological, or social constructionism. What I want to argue in this article is that if one carefully teases out varied forms of constructionism, the frontiers between some of them will begin to blur.
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Recommender systems are considered as an answer to the information overload in a Web environment. Such systems recommend items (movies, music, books, news, web pages, etc.) that the user should be interested in. Collaborative filtering... more
Recommender systems are considered as an answer to the information overload in a Web environment. Such systems recommend items (movies, music, books, news, web pages, etc.) that the user should be interested in. Collaborative filtering recommender systems have a huge success in commercial applications. The sales in these applications follow a power law distribution. However, with the increase of the