John Campbell, "Causation in Psychology" (Harvard UP, 2020)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hi everyone, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the founder of the New Books Network, and I'm also a historian. I used to be a history professor, and I love maps. So I'm especially happy to tell you that this episode is sponsored by What's Your Map, which was the winner of the best education podcast at the 2025 British Podcast Awards. What's Your Map is hosted by historian and prize-winning author, Professor Jerry Broughton. In each episode, he invites a guest to share. A map close to their heart and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. I can tell you I've listened and it's fascinating. The podcast is in its sixth series and is enjoyed by audiences around the globe. You can explore all the maps in the podcast at occulehyphenmundi.com while you listen.
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Hello and welcome to New Books and Philosophy, a podcast channel with the New Books Network. I'm Carrie Figor, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. I'm co-host of the channel, along with Robert Talise, Alexis McLeod, and Sarah Tice. Together we bring you conversations with philosophers about their new books. in a wide range of areas of contemporary philosophical inquiry. Today's interview is with John Campbell, Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. His new book Quasation in Psychology is just out from Harvard University Press. Our practices of holding people morally and legally responsible for what they do are Rests on causal relationships between our mental states and our actions.
A desire for revenge or a fear for one's safety May each cause a violent act. In either either case, John Campbell argues. There is a psychological causal process that leads from the motivating mental state to the action. In his book Campbell claims that the existence of such singular causal relations and our knowledge of them do not depend on the existence of psychological generalizations on which under which they might be subsumed. Moreover, imaginative understanding or empathy is enables us to trace these one off idiosyncratic causal sequences and thereby attain knowledge of the singular causal relationships. Campbell uses his analysis to distinguish human freedom of action at the level of causal process.
and to provide a new perspective on the traditional mind body problem. Please stay tuned for an intriguing and fun conversation. With a leading philosopher of Hello, John Campbell. Welcome to New Books in Philosophy.
Hi, it's nice to be talking with you.
Um, I'm really uh excited to be talking about your book, Causation in Psychology, just out from Harvard University Press. Um, before we get to the book itself, um tell us a bit about yourself, your philosophical interests, um, and how you came to write the book.
Sure. Well, um professionally I'm a Uh let's see, I spent most of my career in Oxford in the UK. And I spent m most of my regular life as a philosopher, thinking of myself as a philosopher of language. Um and after doing this for a few years I found I'd been reclassified as a philosopher of mind. And um Then Moving to the US to Berkeley in two thousand three, I found that um philosophy of mind was all about the mind-body problem. So that that which in the UK had always seemed to me the kind of thing you worked on as an undergraduate and then forgot about. Uh but I I realize after a bit that in the in the US and indeed in the culture generally, in the English speaking culture generally, the mind body problem is really
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–9:46
2
What is John Campbell’s main argument about singular psychological causation?
9:46–13:28
3
Why does Campbell claim knowledge of singular causal relations doesn’t depend on generalizations?
13:28–13:45
4
What role do imagination and empathy play in tracing singular psychological causal sequences?
13:45–46:59
5
How does Campbell distinguish between general and singular causal claims in psychology?
46:59–52:41
6
How does the discussion illustrate the difference between physical and psychological causal processes?
52:41–1:05:24
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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