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Mark Bickhard

Professor

610.758.3633
mhb0@lehigh.edu
Chandler-Ullmann room 111
Education:

Ph.D. in Human Development, University of Chicago, 1973

M.S. in Statistics, University of Chicago, 1970

B.S. in Mathematics, University of Chicago, 1966

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Research Areas

Additional Interests

  • Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology

Research Statement

My work addresses wide ranges of issues and kinds of phenomena in Psychology and Philosophy: e.g., Representation, cognition, learning, memory, development, consciousness, language, neural processes.

This is a brief description of the book that I am currently writing:

This is a work in the theory and philosophy of minds and persons. It presents models of how multiple mental processes are emergently realized, and of how social persons are constituted. There are several dominant basic theoretical and philosophical assumptions in contemporary literature that block such models of emergent realization, so the discussion is strongly embedded in analyzing these barriers and showing how they can be removed.

The general framework is that of process metaphysics, which makes sense of metaphysically genuine emergence, which, in turn, enables a model of normative emergences — the emergence of normativities such as function-dysfunction, representational truth and falsity, rationality-irrationality, and many others. Mentality is saturated with normativities. This mental-processes discussion culminates with a model of reflective consciousness.

Mental processes, in turn, serve as the ground and framework for the emergence of social realities and social persons. Language is at the core of these emergences.

The discussion addresses a number of related issues, such as the evolutionary emergence of such phenomena, how they can be realized in brain processes, fundamental child and adult developmental processes and emergences, and issues concerning the self-consistency of the model.

Biography

I was at the University of Texas at Austin 1972 - 1990, and have been Lehigh University 1990 to the present.  I hold the Chair as the Henry R. Luce Professor in Cognitive Robotics and the Philosophy of Knowledge at Lehigh University, and I'm affiliated with the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology.  My work ranges from process metaphysics and emergence to consciousness, cognition, language, and functional models of brain processes, to persons and social ontologies.  My work on cognition features a model of cognition as emergent in agent processes for interacting with the world.

Selected works

Bickhard, M. H. (in preparation). The Whole Person: Toward a Naturalism of Persons.

Allen, J. W. P., Bickhard, M. H.  (2022).  Emergent Constructivism: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations.  Human Development, 66, 276-294.  DOI: 10.1159/000526220

Mirski, R., Bickhard, M. H.  (2021).  Conventional Minds: An interactivist perspective on social cognition and its enculturation.  New Ideas in Psychology, 62, 100856.

Oguz, E., Bickhard, M. H.  (2018).  Representing is something that we do, not a structure that we “use”: Reply to Gładziejewski.  New Ideas in Psychology49, 27–37.

Bickhard, M. H.  (2016).  Inter- and En- Activism: Some thoughts and comparisons.  New Ideas in Psychology, 41, 23-32.

Bickhard, M. H.  (2016).  The Anticipatory Brain: Two Approaches.  In V. C. Müller  (Ed.)  Fundamental Issues of Artificial Intelligence.  (259-281).  Switzerland: Springer.

Bickhard, M. H.  (2015).  The Metaphysics of Emergence.  Kairos, 12, 7-25.

Bickhard, M. H.  (2015).  Toward a Model of Functional Brain Processes I: Central Nervous System Functional Micro-architecture.  Axiomathes, 25(3), 217-238.

Bickhard, M. H.  (2015).  Toward a Model of Functional Brain Processes II: Central Nervous System Functional Macro-architecture.  Axiomathes, 25(4), 377-407.

Bickhard, M. H.  (2014).  What Could Cognition Be, If not Computation … or Connectionism, or Dynamic Systems?  Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology35(1), 53-66. DOI: 10.1037/a0038059

Bickhard, M. H.  (2013).  The Emergent Ontology of Persons.  In Martin, J., Bickhard, M. H.  (Eds).  The Psychology of Personhood:  Philosophical, Historical, Social-Developmental, and Narrative Perspectives.  (165-180).  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Allen, J. W. P., Bickhard, M. H.  (2013).  Stepping Off The Pendulum: Why Only an Action-Based Approach Can Transcend the Nativist-Empiricist Debate.  Cognitive Development, 28, 96-133.

Bickhard, M. H.  (2012).  A Process Ontology for Persons and Their Development.  New Ideas in Psychology30(1), 107-119.

Ziemke, T., Bickhard, M. H.  (2011).  Cognitive Robotics: Introduction to the Special Issue.  New Ideas in Psychology29(3), 201-202. DOI: 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.02.002

Campbell, R. J., Bickhard, M. H.  (2011).  Physicalism, Emergence and Downward Causation.  Axiomathes, 21: 33-56. DOI: 10.1007/s10516-010-9128-6

Allen, J.W.P., Bickhard, M. H.  (2011).  Normativity: A Crucial Kind of Emergence.  Human Development, 54, 106-112. DOI: 10.1159/000327096

Bickhard, M. H.  (2011).  Systems and Process Metaphysics.  In C. Hooker  (Ed.) Handbook of Philosophy of Science. Philosophy of Complex Systems, Vol. 10.  (91-104).  Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Allen, J. W. P., Bickhard, M. H.  (2011).  Emergent Constructivism.  Child Development Perspectives 5(3), 164-165. DOI: 10.1111/j.1750-8606.2011.00178.x

Bickhard, M. H.  (2009).  Interactivism: A Manifesto.  New Ideas in Psychology 27, 85–95. DOI 10.1016/j.newideapsych.2008.05.001

Bickhard, M. H.  (2009).  The interactivist model.  Synthese 166(3), 547-591. DOI 10.1007/s11229-008-9375-x

Teaching

I am currently teaching Philosophy of Physics, and next semester (Spring 2024) will be teaching Minds and Persons in the Natural World

Website

bickhard.ws