Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-20T11:44:34.059Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Memory Consolidation, Multiple Realizations, and Modest Reductions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Jacqueline Anne Sullivan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article investigates several consequences of a recent trend in philosophy of mind to shift the relata of realization from mental state–physical state to function-mechanism. It is shown, by applying both frameworks to the neuroscientific case study of memory consolidation, that, although this shift can be used to avoid the immediate antireductionist consequences of the traditional argument from multiple realizability, what is gained is a far more modest form of reductionism than recent philosophical accounts have intimated and neuroscientists themselves have claimed.

Type
Multiple Realizability, Explanation, and Special Sciences
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 75 , Issue 5: Proceedings of the 2006 Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association. Part II: Symposia Papers. Edited by Cristina Bicchieri and Jason Alexander , December 2008 , pp. 501 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © The Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

‡

The author would like to thank Tom Polger for organizing the PSA 2007 symposium on multiple realization and Ken Aizawa for writing a paper for the Society of Philosophy and Psychology Meeting held at Wake Forest University in June 2005, which prompted my interest in the issues I address in this article.

References

Aizawa, Kenneth (2007), “The Biochemistry of Memory Consolidation: Model Systems for the Philosophy of Mind”, The Biochemistry of Memory Consolidation: Model Systems for the Philosophy of Mind 155:65–98.Google Scholar
Barco, Angel, Bailey, Craig H., and Kandel, Eric R. (2006), “Common Molecular Mechanisms in Explicit and Implicit Memory”, Common Molecular Mechanisms in Explicit and Implicit Memory 97:1520–1533.Google ScholarPubMed
Bechtel, William, and Mundale, Jennifer K. (1999), “Multiple Realizability Revisited: Linking Cognitive and Neural States”, Multiple Realizability Revisited: Linking Cognitive and Neural States 66:175–207.Google Scholar
Bechtel, William, and Richardson, Robert C. (1993), Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Bickle, John (2003), Philosophy and Neuroscience: A Ruthlessly Reductive Account. Dordrecht: Kluwer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bickle, John (2006), “Reducing Mind to Molecular Pathways: Explicating the Reductionism Implicit in Current Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience”, Reducing Mind to Molecular Pathways: Explicating the Reductionism Implicit in Current Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience 151:411–434.Google Scholar
Craver, Carl F. (2001), “Role Functions, Mechanisms, and Hierarchy”, Role Functions, Mechanisms, and Hierarchy 68:31–55.Google Scholar
Craver, Carl F., and Darden, Lindley (2001), “Discovering Mechanisms in Neurobiology: The Case of Spatial Memory”, in Machamer, Peter K., Grush, Richard, and McLaughlin, Peter (eds.), Theory and Method in the Neurosciences. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 112–137.Google Scholar
Cummins, Robert C. (1975), “Functional Analysis”, Functional Analysis 72:741–765.Google Scholar
Dudai, Yadin (2002), Memory from A to Z: Keywords, Concepts, and Beyond. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Farb, Claudia R., and Ledoux, Joseph E. (1997), “NMDA and AMPA Receptors in the Lateral Nucleus of the Amygdala Are Postsynaptic to Auditory Thalamic Afferents”, NMDA and AMPA Receptors in the Lateral Nucleus of the Amygdala Are Postsynaptic to Auditory Thalamic Afferents 27 (2): 106–121..Google ScholarPubMed
Fodor, Jerry A. (1974), “Special Sciences or the Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis”, Special Sciences or the Disunity of Science as a Working Hypothesis 28:97–115.Google Scholar
Hebb, Donald O. ([1949] 2002), The Organization of Behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Kandel, Eric R. (2001), “The Molecular Biology of Memory Storage: A Dialog between Genes and Synapses”, The Molecular Biology of Memory Storage: A Dialog between Genes and Synapses 21 (5): 565–611..Google ScholarPubMed
Kim, Jaegwon (2005), Physicalism or Something Near Enough, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Machamer, Peter K., Darden, Lindley, and Craver, Carl F. (2000), “Thinking about Mechanisms”, Thinking about Mechanisms 67:1–25.Google Scholar
Pinsker, Harold M., Hening, W. A., Carew, Thomas J., and Kandel, Eric R. (1973), “Long-Term Sensitization of a Defensive Withdrawal Reflex in Alysia”, Long-Term Sensitization of a Defensive Withdrawal Reflex in Alysia 182:451–454.Google Scholar
Polger, Thomas W. (2003), Natural Minds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary ([1960] 1975), “Minds and Machines”, in Hook, Sidney (ed.), Dimensions of Mind. New York: New York University Press, 148–179. Reprinted in Mind, Language and Reality: Philosophical Papers, Hilary Putnam (ed.), vol. 2. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Putnam, Hilary ([1967] 2002), “Psychological Predicates”, in Capitan, W. H. and Merrill, D. D. (eds.), Art, Mind, and Religion. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Reprinted as “The Nature of Mental States,” in The Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, David Chalmers (ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, 73–79.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, Sarina M., Schafe, Glenn E., and LeDoux, Joseph E. (2004), “Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Learning and Memory in the Lateral Amygdala”, Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Emotional Learning and Memory in the Lateral Amygdala 44:75–91.Google ScholarPubMed
Schafe, Glenn E., and LeDoux, Joseph E. (2000), “Memory Consolidation of Auditory Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Requires Protein Synthesis and Protein Kinase A in the Amygdala”, Memory Consolidation of Auditory Pavlovian Fear Conditioning Requires Protein Synthesis and Protein Kinase A in the Amygdala 20:RC96:1–5.Google ScholarPubMed
Shapiro, Lawrence A. (2000), “Multiple Realizations”, Multiple Realizations 97:635–654.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Lawrence A. (2004), The Mind Incarnate. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Smart, J. J. C. (1959), “Sensations and Brain Processes”, Sensations and Brain Processes 68:141–156.Google Scholar
Sober, Elliot (1999), “The Multiple Realizability Argument against Reductionism”, The Multiple Realizability Argument against Reductionism 66:542–564.Google Scholar
Squire, Larry R., and Kandel, Eric R. (2000), Memory: From Mind to Molecules. New York: Owl.Google Scholar
Sweatt, J. David (2003), Mechanisms of Memory. Burlington, MA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Robert A. (2001), “Two Views of Realization”, Two Views of Realization 104:1–31.Google Scholar