Meditation, enactivism and introspective training
This PhD thesis concerns introspective approaches to the study of the mind. Across three standalone papers, I examine the significance of introspective data and advise on appropriate kinds of training for the production of such data. An overview document first introduces major themes, methods and arguments of the thesis. Paper 1 then begins the argumentative work, interrogating the constraining function of introspection in cognitive science. Here, I evaluate ~enactivist~ claims about the significance of introspection, clarifying central enactivist suggestions to draw out the broader importance of introspection in science and philosophy. Paper 2 then examines the proposed employment of Buddhist meditation practices in the production of rigorous introspective data. I defend such proposals against concerns that meditators yield ungeneralizable data, given the transformative character of these attention-training techniques. I argue that some meditation-trained transformations are actually epistemically-beneficial, undermining popular associations between transformation and ~distortion~. Paper 3 then reviews difficulties involved in integrating meditative training into research. I emphasise the importance of specific
Roberts, Michael David
B Philosophy (General) ; BF Psychology ; BL Religion
Meditation, enactivism and introspective training. This PhD thesis concerns introspective approaches to the study of the mind. Across three standalone papers, I examine the significance of introspective data and advise on appropriate kinds of training for the production of such data. An overview document first introduces major themes, methods and arguments of the thesis. Paper 1 then begins the argumentative work, interrogating the constraining function of introspection in cognitive science. Here, I evaluate ~enactivist~ claims about the significance of introspection, clarifying central enactivist suggestions to draw out the broader importance of introspection in science and philosophy. Paper 2 then examines the proposed employment of Buddhist meditation practices in the production of rigorous introspective data. I defend such proposals against concerns that meditators yield ungeneralizable data, given the transformative character of these attention-training techniques. I argue that some meditation-trained transformations are actually epistemically-beneficial, undermining popular associations between transformation and ~distortion~. Paper 3 then reviews difficulties involved in integrating meditative training into research. I emphasise the importance of specific
meditation introspective training phd concern introspective approach study mind across_three paper examine significance introspective data advise appropriate kind train production data overview document first introduce major_theme method argument thesis paper begin argumentative work interrogate constrain function introspection cognitive_science evaluate claim significance introspection clarify central suggestion draw_broad importance introspection science philosophy paper examines propose employment buddhist meditation practice production rigorous introspective data defend proposal concern yield data give transformative character attention training technique argue meditation trained transformation actually epistemically beneficial undermining popular association transformation distortion paper review difficulty_involve integrate training research emphasise_importance specific