Inner speech : new voices

Inner speech lies at the chaotic intersection of several difficult questions in contemporary philosophy and psychology. On the one hand, these episodes are private mental events. On the other, they resemble speech acts of the sort used in interpersonal communication. Inner speech episodes seem to constitute or express sophisticated trains of conceptual thought but, at the same time, they are motoric in nature and draw on sensorimotor mechanisms for speech production and perception more generally. By using inner speech, we seem to both regulate our bodily actions and gain a unique kind of access to our own beliefs and desires. Inner Speech: New Voices explores this familiar and yet mysterious element of our daily lives, bringing together contributions from leading philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists. In response to renewed interest in the general connections between thought, language, and consciousness, these leading thinkers develop a number of important new theories, raise questions about the nature of inner speech and its cognitive functions, and debate the current controversies surrounding the "little voice in the head."

• List of Figures p. ix
• List of Contributors p. xi
• Introduction p. 1 Peter Langland-Hassan and Agustín Vicente
• Part I The Nature of Inner Speech
• 1 The Causes and Contents of Inner Speech p. 31 Peter Carruthers
• 2 Inner Speech as the Internalization of Outer Speech p. 53 Christopher Gauker
• 3 From Introspection to Essence: The Auditory Nature of Inner Speech p. 78 Peter Langland-Hassan
• 4 Inner Speech and Mental Imagery: A Neuroscientific Perspective p. 105 Sharon Geva
• 5 A Cognitive Neuroscience View of Inner Language: To Predict and to Hear, See, Feel p. 131 H. Lœvenbruck and R. Grandchamp and L. Rapin and L. Nalborczyk and M. Dohen and P. Perrier and M. Baciu and M. Perrone-Bertolotti
• 6 Inner Speaking as Pristine Inner Experience p. 168 Russell T. Hurlburt and Christopher L. Heavey
• Part II Inner Speech, Self-Reflection, and Self-Knowledge
• 7 Inner Speech, Determinacy, and Thinking Consciously about Thoughts p. 199 José Luis Bermúdez
• 8 Inner Speech and Outer Thought p. 221 Keith Frankish
• 9 When Inner Speech Misleads p. 244 Sam Wilkinson and Charles Fernyhough
• 10 Know Thyself: Beliefs vs. Desires in Inner Speech p. 261 Edouard Machery
• 11 The Self-Reflective Functions of Inner Speech: Thirteen Years Later p. 276 Alain Morin
• 12 Activity, Agency, and Inner Speech Pathology p. 299 Lauren Swiney
• Index p. 333