Mark H Bickhard
Biographic Data
| ID | 200707 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark H Bickhard |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark H |
| FAMILY NAME | Bickhard |
| SIGNATURE | BICKHARD M H |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lehigh University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3859-9437 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 37 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Comments on Development and Artificial Intelligence
I review several kinds of models of developmental dynamics, and argue that AI can realize some properties of human development, but is incapable of genuine development with current technologies. The primary lens for these analyses is that of passive mind models versus active (action based) models of mind. I also address a few additional issues such as whether brain-like models are necessary or whether Large Language Models (LLMs) in particular co…
Emergent Constructivism
Nativist and empiricist approaches require foundationalism because they cannot account for the emergence of representation. Foundationalism is the assumption of an innate representational base. In turn, foundationalism places limits on the nature of learning as a constructivist process. In contrast, action-based approaches can account for the emergence of representation through (inter)action. In so doing, action-based approaches can pursue an eme…
Dynamics Is Not Enough
An underlying process metaphysics is, arguably, necessary, but it is not sufficient for understanding the world, and, in particular, for understanding the mind and its development. It is necessary for both logical and empirical reasons, but we also need to account, within such a dynamic framework, for emergent normativity, adaptability, and cognition, among other phenomena, in order to model development. I will sketch these arguments, and then ou…
Whence Container
The current target article provides a robust investigation of the “cultural character” of cognitive development. This investigation has both theoretical and empirical/ methodological aspects. Methodologically, the authors argue for a unit of analysis concerning the development of object knowledge that includes other agents engaged in communication with the infant (i.e., that includes the sociocultural aspects of the infants’ developmental environ…
Probabilities over What
Tourmen [this issue] gives an overview of a number of convergences and divergences between some contemporary probabilistic models of learning and development and Piaget's model. Tourmen's points are interesting and important, but so are also some caveats concerning the relationships between probabilistic models and Piaget's model, which are given limited attention. I elaborate on some of those caveats.Models of learning focusing on the learning o…
Stepping Back
Author affiliations
The Social-Interactive Ontology of Language
Language is almost universally considered an encoding of mental contents into an utterance stream, and mental contents, in turn, are almost universally considered constituted as, or derived from, encodings of the environment. This basic framework has been in place for millennia, but it has remained mysterious and perplexing how it could be modeled. I have argued for some time that both aspects of this encoding framework are fatally flawed, and he…
Beyond Principles and Programs
Fields focuses on implementation not origins, but the origins of nativism are located in issues about the origins of representations. His narrower focus is on organization of empirical atoms - nativism argues that object representations must be innate. In contrast, Fields argues that persistence is a computational phenomenon and that programs can construct "object files," thus, nativism about object representations is not necessary. All such posi…
The Psychology of Personhood
What is a person? Surprisingly little attention is given to this question in psychology. For much of the past century, psychology has tended to focus on the systematic study of processes rather than on the persons who enact and embody them. In contrast to the reductionist picture of much mainstream theorising, which construes persons as their mental lives, behaviours or neurophysiological particulars, The Psychology of Personhood presents persons…
Psychology of Personhood
Some Consequences (and Enablings) of Process Metaphysics
Normativity
Commentaries| June 07 2011 Normativity: A Crucial Kind of Emergence: Commentary on Witherington Subject Area: Psychiatry and Psychology , Women's and Children's Health Jedediah W.P. Allen; Jedediah W.P. Allen Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., USA Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Mark H. Bickhard Mark H. Bickhard Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., USA Search for other works by this author on: This Site Pub…
Piaget and Active Cognition
Commentaries| January 21 2010 Piaget and Active Cognition Subject Area: Psychiatry and Psychology , Women's and Children's Health Mark H. Bickhard Mark H. Bickhard Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., USA Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Human Development (1997) 40 (4): 238–244. https://doi.org/10.1159/000278727 Article history Published Online: January 21 2010 Content Tools Views Icon Views Article contents…
Commentary
A Deconstruction of Fodor’s Anticonstructivism
Fodor has argued against developmental psychology. He contends that most concepts are innate, that little of importance can be learned, and that stage development cannot occur. Fodor considers mental representations to be static encodings. He is correct in arguing that new kinds of encodings cannot be learned. Novel encodings are unlearnable, however, because encodings are not a coherent foundation for knowledge in the first place. The alternativ…
The Nature of Developmental Stages
A theoretical analysis of the nature of developmental stages is presented. A formal model of the relationship of knowing is outlined from which developmental stages, egocentrism, and vertical decalage can be derived as logically necessary consequences. A number of implications of the model for the nature of developmental stages are discussed, and it is noted that these implications show several important divergences from Piaget. The underlying mo…
On Necessary and Specific Capabilities in Evolution and Development
An argument is presented showing that the postulation of psychological capabilities that are jointly necessary to and specific to other capabilities involves strong theoretical commitments that have not generally been recognized. The argument is first developed in terms of examples drawn from language development and evolution. It is then generalized beyond language and, further, shown to apply to acquired capabilities as well as to innate capabi…
Vestiges of Logical Positivism
This article reviews the historical emergence and basic tenets of logical positivism, and demonstrates that a number of these positivistic tenets still exert a deeply hidden and deleterious influence on developmental psychology. The demonstration is primarily in terms of a case study concerning a critique of tests of Piagetian stage hypotheses. The analysis illustrates and demonstrates a number of important points concerning the vestigial influen…
Interactivism
The interactivist model
Issues in Process Metaphysics
In the last several decades, there has been a growing—even if partial—appreciation of the importance of process, or dynamic, approaches in cognitive science. All sciences, in fact, have passed thro
Mechanism is not enough
I will argue that mechanism is not sufficient to capture representation, thus cognition. More generally, mechanism is not sufficient to capture normativity of any sort. I will also outline a model of emergent normativity, representational normativity in particular, and show how it transcends these limitations of mechanism. To begin, I will address some illustrative attempts to model representation within mechanistically naturalistic frameworks, f…
Culture, Self and Identity
A complete and thorough grasp of culture eludes psychology because of the pervasive dualism that pervades psychology and Western thought more broadly. Drawing on interactivism, a process model for human phenomena, we make two main points: first, culture cannot be reified, seen as distinct from the self, nor can it be treated as something objective or subjective; and, second, agency and culture are intertwined and distributed across levels of know…
A Challenge to Constructivism
Self and Values
The standard research programs in moral development have been criticized for adopting a narrow and restrictive view of the moral domain. There has been a dearth of alternative theories that account for the diversity of mature moral viewpoints both within and outside Western culture. We present an interactivist framework that takes into account the plurality of moral perspectives. It does so by addressing fundamental issues of psychological ontolo…
Some foundational questions concerning language studies
The interactivist model
Piaget on Variation and Selection Models
Throughout his career, Piaget rejected the adequacy of random trial and error, or variation and selection models. Instead, he argued that teleonomic autoregulations were necessary to account for the facts of evolution and development. This purported necessity of teleonomy has been a controversial and generally rejected aspect of his model – especially in its evolutionary version. Necessary teleonomy, however, is not an isolated part of Piaget’s t…
Intrinsic constraints on language
Clearing the ground
The ability to perceive duration
The ability to perceive duration
Piaget on Variation and Selection Models
Throughout his career, Piaget rejected the adequacy of random trial and error, or variation and selection models. Instead, he argued that teleonomic autoregulations were necessary to account for the facts of evolution and development. This purported necessity of teleonomy has been a controversial and generally rejected aspect of his model – especially in its evolutionary version. Necessary teleonomy, however, is not an isolated part of Piaget’s t…
Myths of Science
There is, unfortunately, a large vestigial heritage of positivist errors, and distortions of positivist errors, concerning the nature of science that still permeate psychology. This paper contributes to contemporary debates concerning the metascience of psychology not by proposing a positive program of scientific norms and values, but by addressing and countering a number of these errors, these residual myths, concerning the nature of science
Types of constraints on development
Some foundational questions concerning language studies
Clearing the ground
Transcending False Dichotomies in Developmental Psychology
Intrinsic constraints on language
Interaction and Representation
We now have naturalistic understandings, at least in principle, of many phenomena that were once mysterious, such as of fire and life. Mental processes and properties, however, so far continue to resist naturalism. In part, this is due to the particular difficulty of naturalizing the normativity of mental phenomena, such as that of the truth and falsity of representation. Normativity is a particularly strong challenge to models of naturalistic em…
On the Cognition in Cognitive Development
Otto Kernberg's Object Relations Theory
A conceptual and empirical critique of Kernberg's influential object relations theory is presented as a case study of the limitations of structural ontological presuppositions in accounting for psychological processes. A summary overview is provided of Kernberg's systems model, the process of internalization, his developmental stages, and his conception of the borderline personality organization. Then a detailed critique considers: (1) the founda…
The Tragedy of Operationalism
Operational definitions were a neo-Machian development that connected with the positivism of logical positivism. Logical positivism failed, with the failure of operational definitions being just one of multiple and multifarious failures of logical positivism more broadly. Operationalism, however, has continued to seduce psychology more than half a century after it was repudiated by philosophers of science, including the very logical positivists w…
Why Children Don't Have to Solve the Frame Problems
Self and Values
The standard research programs in moral development have been criticized for adopting a narrow and restrictive view of the moral domain. There has been a dearth of alternative theories that account for the diversity of mature moral viewpoints both within and outside Western culture. We present an interactivist framework that takes into account the plurality of moral perspectives. It does so by addressing fundamental issues of psychological ontolo…
A Challenge to Constructivism
Mechanism is not enough
I will argue that mechanism is not sufficient to capture representation, thus cognition. More generally, mechanism is not sufficient to capture normativity of any sort. I will also outline a model of emergent normativity, representational normativity in particular, and show how it transcends these limitations of mechanism. To begin, I will address some illustrative attempts to model representation within mechanistically naturalistic frameworks, f…
Culture, Self and Identity
A complete and thorough grasp of culture eludes psychology because of the pervasive dualism that pervades psychology and Western thought more broadly. Drawing on interactivism, a process model for human phenomena, we make two main points: first, culture cannot be reified, seen as distinct from the self, nor can it be treated as something objective or subjective; and, second, agency and culture are intertwined and distributed across levels of know…
Issues in Process Metaphysics
In the last several decades, there has been a growing—even if partial—appreciation of the importance of process, or dynamic, approaches in cognitive science. All sciences, in fact, have passed thro
A Deconstruction of Fodor’s Anticonstructivism
Fodor has argued against developmental psychology. He contends that most concepts are innate, that little of importance can be learned, and that stage development cannot occur. Fodor considers mental representations to be static encodings. He is correct in arguing that new kinds of encodings cannot be learned. Novel encodings are unlearnable, however, because encodings are not a coherent foundation for knowledge in the first place. The alternativ…
The Nature of Developmental Stages
A theoretical analysis of the nature of developmental stages is presented. A formal model of the relationship of knowing is outlined from which developmental stages, egocentrism, and vertical decalage can be derived as logically necessary consequences. A number of implications of the model for the nature of developmental stages are discussed, and it is noted that these implications show several important divergences from Piaget. The underlying mo…
On Necessary and Specific Capabilities in Evolution and Development
An argument is presented showing that the postulation of psychological capabilities that are jointly necessary to and specific to other capabilities involves strong theoretical commitments that have not generally been recognized. The argument is first developed in terms of examples drawn from language development and evolution. It is then generalized beyond language and, further, shown to apply to acquired capabilities as well as to innate capabi…
Vestiges of Logical Positivism
This article reviews the historical emergence and basic tenets of logical positivism, and demonstrates that a number of these positivistic tenets still exert a deeply hidden and deleterious influence on developmental psychology. The demonstration is primarily in terms of a case study concerning a critique of tests of Piagetian stage hypotheses. The analysis illustrates and demonstrates a number of important points concerning the vestigial influen…
Interactivism
The interactivist model
Piaget and Active Cognition
Commentaries| January 21 2010 Piaget and Active Cognition Subject Area: Psychiatry and Psychology , Women's and Children's Health Mark H. Bickhard Mark H. Bickhard Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., USA Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Human Development (1997) 40 (4): 238–244. https://doi.org/10.1159/000278727 Article history Published Online: January 21 2010 Content Tools Views Icon Views Article contents…
Psychology (30 works) · Epistemology (29 works) · Philosophy (25 works) · Cognitive science (22 works) · Computer Science (20 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Cognition (11 works) · Embodied and Extended Cognition (11 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (10 works) · Philosophy and History of Science (9 works)