8 LEHIGH UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES psychology The Whole Person The history of science is a story of how humans see the world and the continual reassessment of our assumptions about our place in it. There has been a metaphysical divide for centuries between the natural world and the domain of the mind. Theoretical psychologist Mark Bickhard argues that there are essential relationships between the two. His latest book presents a model to understand how minds emerge from, yet remain connected with, the world of facts. He proposes a new model of metaphysics that shifts this understanding from a framework of substance to one of process that enables an integrated account of the appearance of normative phenomena. Bickhard, who holds appointments in the departments of philosophy and psychology, explores the spaces of theory and philosophy concerning minds and persons. His book, The Whole Person: Toward a Naturalism of Minds and Persons, focuses on the evolutionary and developmental occurrence of normative phenomena out of prior forms of process. He proposes models of, among other phenomena, biological function, representation, and other cognitive issues. Bickhard presents a new paradigm, a process metaphysics. This process model of representation, called interactivism, requires changes in many related disciplines. His arguments pay particular attention to three domains in which changes are induced by the representational model: perception, learning, and language. This interactivist model of representation and cognition is an action and interaction-based approach, he says. It involves fundamentally different assumptions about representation than generally accepted models and presents a fundamentally different metaphysical framework from the substance, structure, and particle frameworks that are still dominant in most of philosophy, cognitive science, and psychology. He focuses on the evolutionary and developmental emergence of normative phenomena out of prior forms of process. “If you want to think about substance, most people will think Aristotle. Aristotle has been the primary source for matter-and-form ways of thinking about things. What I’m arguing for is a process metaphysics. (My model) isn’t reinventing entirely, but it is saying, ‘Look, we really need to do this right. And in order to do it right, we’ve got to use a process model. And here’s a way of thinking about process metaphysics.’ I don’t, in a certain sense, propose full process metaphysics. It seems to me that that ends up being physics. And we already have process models in physics. They’re called quantum field theories.” There are good reasons to explore process frameworks, Bickhard argues. Substance and encoding presuppositions have permeated Western thought for millennia, and attaining a fresh process and interactive view is not easy, but accepted frameworks no longer work conceptually and empirically, and it is time for the process alternative to emerge. art Through the Eyes of Franz Kafka The German-speaking Jewish author Franz Kafka is considered by many to be one of the great 20th century writers. His prominence is so significant that we sometimes even use his name as an adjective. His work has influenced many 20th century writers and has been the focus of many literary scholars. Perhaps less well known is that Kafka was also a prolific artist, and on the 100th anniversary of his death this year, his sketches, drawings, and interest in modern art are the subject of a new book co-edited by art historian Nicholas Sawicki. Sawicki, associate professor of art history and chair of the department of art, architecture and design, co-edited the monograph with Marie Rakušanová, an art historian at Charles University in Prague. Through the Eyes of Franz Kafka: Between Image and Language follows Kafka’s interest in art and explores the variety of images that surrounded Kafka in his home city of Prague, as well as the drawings that Kafka produced in his lifetime. The book accompanies an exhibition that opened in June and was curated by Rakušanová. Kafka’s attention to the modern visual culture of his era was reflected in his writings and in his interest in drawing, a practice in which he (CONTINUED ON PAGE 10) istockphoto.com
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