In Two Minds: Dual Processes And Beyond

Description:
This book explores the idea that we have two minds - automatic, unconscious, and fast, the other controlled, conscious, and slow. In recent years there has been great interest in so-called dual-process theories of reasoning and rationality. According to such theories, there are two distinct systems underlying human reasoning - an evolutionarily old system that is associative, automatic, unconscious, parallel, and fast, and a more recent, distinctively human system that is rule-based, controlled, conscious, serial, and slow. Within the former, processes the former, processes are held to be innate and to use heuristics that evolved to solve specific adaptive problems. In the latter, processes are taken to be learned, flexible, and responsive to rational norms. Despite the attention these theories are attracting, there is still poor communication between dual-process theorists themselves, and the substantial bodies of work on dual processes in cognitive psychology and social psychology remain isolated from each other. This book brings together leading researchers on dual processes to summarize the state-of-the-art, highlight key issues, present different perspectives, explore implications, and provide a stimulus to further work. It includes new ideas about the human mind both by contemporary philosophers interested in broad theoretical questions about mental architecture and by psychologists specialising in traditionally distinct and isolated fields. For all those in the cognitive sciences, this is a book that will advance dual-process theorizing, promote interdisciplinary communication, and encourage further applications of dual-process approaches.

Review:
Inarguably, this edited collection by Evans and Frankish is the definitive statement of the status quo in this area of work Philosophy in Review

Table of Contents:
1. The duality of mind: a historical perspective; PART I - FOUNDATIONS; 2. How many dual process theories do we need: one, two or many?; 3. Distinguishing the reflective, algorithmic, and autonomous minds: is it time for a tri-process theory?; 4. Systems and levels: dual-system theories and the personal-subpersonal distinction; 5. An architecture for dual reasoning; 6. The magical number two, plus or minus: dual process theory as a theory of cognitive kinds; PART II - PERSPECTIVES; 7. Intuitive and reflective inferences; 8. Dual-process theories: a metacognitve perspective; 9. Dual-process models: a social psychological model; 10. Thinking across cultures: implications for dual processes; 11. The two systems of learning: an architectural perspective; PART III - APPLICATIONS; 12. Cognitive and social cognitive development: dual-process research and theory; 13. What zombies can't do: a social cognitive neuroscience approach to the irreducibility of reflective consciousness; 14. In two minds about rationality?; 15. Reason and intuition in the moral life: a dual-process account of moral justification