Inner Speech

New Voices

Edited by Peter Langland-Hassan and Agustin Vicente

A unique volume on the topic of inner speech
Informative introduction gives a general overview of the topic
Interdisciplinary chapters are written to accessibly present the relevant concepts and frameworks
Offers different perspectives to facilitate a coherent conversation among theorists

Inner Speech

New Voices

Edited by Peter Langland-Hassan and Agustin Vicente

Description

Much of what we say is never said aloud. It occurs only silently, as inner speech. We chastise, congratulate, joke, and generate endless commentary, all without making a sound. This distinctively human ability to create public language in the privacy of our own minds-to, in a sense, "hear" ourselves talking when no one else can-is no less remarkable for its familiarity. And yet, until recently, inner speech remained at the periphery of philosophical and psychological theorizing. This volume, comprised of chapters written by an interdisciplinary group of leading philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists, displays the rapidly growing interest among researchers in the puzzles surrounding the nature and cognitive role of the inner voice. Questions explored include: the aids and obstacles inner speech presents to self-knowledge; the complex relation it bears to overt speech production and perception; the means by which inner speech can be identified and empirically assessed; its role in generating auditory verbal hallucinations; and its relationship to conceptual thought itself.

Inner Speech

New Voices

Edited by Peter Langland-Hassan and Agustin Vicente

0:Introduction, Peter Langland-Hassan and Agustin Vicente
Part I: The Nature of Inner Speech
1:The causes and contents of inner speech, Peter Carruthers
2:Inner speech as the internalization of outer speech, Christopher Gauker
3:From introspection to essence: the auditory nature of inner speech, Peter Langland-Hassan
4:Inner speech and mental imagery: a neuroscientific perspective, Sharon Geva
5:A neurocognitive model of inner language: to predict, to hear, to see and to feel, Hélène Loevenbruck, R. Grandchamp, L. Rapin, L. Nalborczyk, M. Dohen, P. Perrier, M. Baciu, and Marcela Perrone-Bortolotti
6:Inner speaking as pristine inner experience, Russell Hurlburt and Christopher Heavey
Part II: Inner Speech, Self-Reflection, and Self-Knowledge
7:Inner speech, determinacy, and thinking consciously about thoughts, José Luis Bermúdez
8:Inner speech and outer thought, Keith Frankish
9:When inner speech misleads, Sam Wilkinson and Charles Fernyhough
10:Know thyself: beliefs vs. desires in inner speech, Edouard Machery
11:The self-reflective function of inner speech: thirteen years later, Alain Morin
12:Activity, agency, and inner speech pathology, Lauren Swiney

Inner Speech

New Voices

Edited by Peter Langland-Hassan and Agustin Vicente

Author Information

Edited by Peter Langland-Hassan, Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Cincinnati, and Agustin Vicente, Research Professor, Ikerbasque: Basque Foundation for Science and University of the Basque Country

Peter Langland-Hassan is a philosopher of mind and cognitive science at the University of Cincinnati. He has published widely on topics including imagination, inner speech, aphasia, metacognition, and self-knowledge. Langland-Hassan was a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, in the Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology (PNP) program, and holds degrees in philosophy from Columbia University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Agustín Vicente is a philosopher of psychology and of language, and is Research Professor for the Ikerbasque Foundation for Science at the University of the Basque Country. He writes, often in collaboration, on semantics and pragmatics, language and thought, and physicalism and naturalism. He has published more than fifty papers in prestigious philosophy and linguistics venues.

Contributors:

M. Baciu, CNRS/University Grenoble Alpes
José Luis Bermúdez, Texas A&M University
Peter Carruthers, University of Maryland
M. Dohen, CNRS/University Grenoble Alpes
Charles Fernyhough, Durham University
Keith Frankish, University of Sheffield
Christopher Gauker, University of Salzburg
Sharon Geva, University College London
R. Grandchamp, CNRS/University Grenoble Alpes
Christopher Heavey, University of Nevada
Russell Hurlburt, University of Nevada
Peter Langland-Hassan, University of Cincinnati
H. Loevenbruck, CNRS/University Grenoble Alpes
Edouard Machery, University of Pittsburgh
Alain Morin, Mount Royal University
L. Nalborczyk, CNRS/University Grenoble Alpes/University of Ghent
P. Perrier, CNRS/University Grenoble Alpes
M. Perrone-Bortolotti, CNRS/University Grenoble Alpes
L. Rapin, McGill University
Lauren Swiney, University of Warwick
Sam Wilkinson, University of Edinburgh
Agustín Vicente, Ikerbasque/University of the Basque Country

Inner Speech

New Voices

Edited by Peter Langland-Hassan and Agustin Vicente

Reviews and Awards

"a comprehensive, diverse and timely treatment of inner speech, the phenomenon of "the little voice in the head"... The book offers an in-depth treatment of the phenomenon from both theoretical and empirical approaches and thus provides a unique platform to contrast and evaluate the various approaches. Moreover, by directly engaging with inner speech, its contributors provide insights into the nature of thinking, consciousness, perception, action, self-knowledge and the self, thus presenting a network of interrelated topics for the study of the mind... an excellent collection of cutting-edge research on the philosophy, psychology and neuroscience of inner speech, a phenomenon that is key to many different cognitive processes. Carefully engaging with it will prove useful to students, professors, researchers and anyone interested in the nature of the mind." - Marta Jorba, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

"A uniquely broad coverage of its interesting topic; this text will appeal to students and scholars of linguistics, philosophy, and psychology ... Recommended." - J. R. Shook, CHOICE