Marginality in Philosophy and Psychology: The Limits of Psychological Explanation

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2023
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

This book is a significant contribution to ongoing debates on marginality among psychiatrists, psychologists, social scientists, and philosophers. By discussing marginality from an analytic perspective and drawing on canonical theories by a diverse set of authors, such as Dilthey, Collingwood, Wittgenstein, Foucault, John McDowell, Susan Carey, Michael Tomasello, and Chris Frith, this book offers valuable insights into this complex phenomenon.

Psychology often falls into the trap of overambitious theorizing, driven by a perceived need to justify its scientific credentials. In his book, George Tudorie takes a critical look at this tendency by examining the cases of preverbal children and mentally ill patients. He argues that attempting to apply overarching and unifying explanations to these marginal subjects is problematic, instead advocating for granting them their proper explanatory autonomy.

Tudorie delves into recent cognitive theories on early development in children to highlight the challenges of conceptualizing the emergence of human abilities. He demonstrates how cognitive accounts of psychosis, built around the typical concepts of 'belief-desire-intention psychology, ultimately fail. Through this analysis, Tudorie reveals that interpretation is not a viable route psychology can take at the margins and calls for a clearer understanding of explanatory options in such cases.

This book is a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners interested in exploring the complexities of marginality and its implications for understanding human behavior and mental health. By engaging with a range of theoretical perspectives and case studies, it provides a rich and nuanced understanding of the factors that contribute to marginalization and the potential for alternative explanations and interventions.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781350320956