Download or read book Consciousness Cognitive Schemata and Relativism written by M. Kamppinen and published by . This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Consciousness Cognitive Schemata and Relativism written by M. Kamppinen and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-09 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series includes monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data-processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal, or machine. Its scope spans the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental powers of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and computer science. While primary emphasis is placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental, and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. This multi-authored volume provides investigations that fall into three broad areas of inquiry. In Part I, Antti Revonsuo reviews and evaluates contem porary discussions of the nature of consciousness. In Part II, Matti Kamppinen explores methodological issues, distinguishing between "intentional" and "structural" explanations. In Part III, Seppo Sajama and Simo Vihjanen consider whether humans ever have direct access to reality (in Section A), while Matti Kamppinen and Antti Revonsuo explore the conse quences of the claim that our knowledge of reality is conceptually mediated (in Section B). These studies combine to provide a stimulating exploration of cognitive science that should appeal to students and to scholars alike. J.H.F. vii PREFACE BY THE EDITOR The purpose of the book is to illustrate how empirical and conceptual problems interact in modem cognitive science. We argue that several topics discussed in contemporary research have long historical roots in philosophy.
Download or read book Consciousness in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience written by Antti Revonsuo and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consciousness seems to be an enigmatic phenomenon: it is difficult to imagine how our perceptions of the world and our inner thoughts, sensations and feelings could be related to the immensely complicated biological organ we call the brain. This volume presents the thoughts of some of the leading philosophers and cognitive scientists who have recently participated in the discussion of the status of consciousness in science. The focus of inquiry is the question: "Is it possible to incorporate consciousness into science?" Philosophers have suggested different alternatives -- some think that consciousness should be altogether eliminated from science because it is not a real phenomenon, others that consciousness is a real, higher-level physical or neurobiological phenomenon, and still others that consciousness is fundamentally mysterious and beyond the reach of science. At the same time, however, several models or theories of the role of conscious processing in the brain have been developed in the more empirical cognitive sciences. It has been suggested that non-conscious processes must be sharply separated from conscious ones, and that the necessity of this distinction is manifested in the curious behavior of certain brain-damaged patients. This book demonstrates the dialogue between philosophical and empirical points of view. The writers present alternative solutions to the brain-consciousness problem and they discuss how the unification of biological and psychological sciences could thus become feasible. Covering a large ground, this book shows how the philosophical and empirical problems are closely interconnected. From this interdisciplinary exploration emerges the conviction that consciousness can and should be a natural part of our scientific world view.
Download or read book Trends in Cognitive Psychology written by Serge P. Shohov and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2002 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cognitive psychology is concerned with several mental processes, including those involved in perception, attention, learning, memory, problem solving, decision making and the use of language. It is often said that cognitive psychology tries to understand how people represent their experience and then use these representations to operate effectively. Cognitive psychology holds that people are not passive organisms whose mental representations are simple or direct reflections of the outside world. Rater, they are active processors of environmental events, and as such they bring their past knowledge and their biases to bear on how they perceive and understand all current events. Thus perceiving, imagining, thinking, remembering, forming concepts, and solving problems, indeed all aspects of people's mental lives, define the domain of cognitive exploration. This book presents important research which was carefully selected and screened for both current relevance and long-term advancement of the field.
Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness written by Philip David Zelazo and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-05-14 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.
Download or read book Conscious Experience written by Thomas Metzinger and published by Imprint Academic. This book was released on 1995 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The contributions to this book are original articles, representing a cross-section of current philosophical work on consciousness and thereby allowing students and readers from other disciplines to acquaint themselves with the very latest debate, so that they can then pursue their own research interests more effectively. The volume includes a bibliography on consciousness in philosophy, cognitive science and brain research, covering the last 25 years and consisting of over 1000 entries in 18 thematic sections, compiled by David Chalmers and Thomas Metzinger.
Download or read book Computers and Cognition Why Minds are not Machines written by J.H. Fetzer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An important collection of studies providing a fresh and original perspective on the nature of mind, including thoughtful and detailed arguments that explain why the prevailing paradigm - the computational conception of language and mentality - can no longer be sustained. An alternative approach is advanced, inspired by the work of Charles S. Peirce, according to which minds are sign-using (or `semiotic') systems, which in turn generates distinctions between different kinds of minds and overcomes problems that burden more familiar alternatives. Unlike conceptions of minds as machines, this novel approach has obvious evolutionary implications, where differences in semiotic abilities tend to distinguish the species. From this point of view, the scope and limits of computer and AI systems can be more adequately appraised and alternative accounts of consciousness and cognition can be more thoroughly criticised. Readership: Intermediate and advanced students of computer science, AI, cognitive science, and all students of the philosophy of the mind.
Download or read book Duality of the Mind written by Ron Sun and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2001-09-01 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a condensation of a large body of work concerning human learning carried out over a period of more than five years by Dr. Sun and his collaborators. In a nutshell, this work is concerned with a broad framework for studying human cognition based on a new approach that is characterized by its focus on the dichotomy of, and the interaction between, explicit and implicit cognition and a computational model that implements this framework. In this work, a broad, generic computational model was developed that instantiates Dr. Sun's framework and enables the testing of his theoretical approach in a variety of ways. With this model, simulation results were matched with data of human cognition in a variety of different domains. Formal (mathematical and computational) analyses were also carried out to further explore the model and its numerous implementational details. Furthermore, this book addresses some of the most significant theoretical issues, such as symbol grounding, intentionality, social cognition, consciousness, and other theoretical issues in relation to the framework. The general framework and the model developed generate interesting insights into these theoretical issues.
Download or read book Advances in Psychology Research written by Serge P. Shohov and published by Nova Publishers. This book was released on 2003-01-27 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advances in Psychology Research
Download or read book Religion in Mind written by Jensine Andresen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-06-28 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion in Mind is a 2001 text which summarizes and extends the advances in the cognitive study of religion throughout the 1990s. It uses empirical research from psychology and anthropology to illuminate various components of religious belief, ritual, and experience. The book examines cognitive dimensions of religion within a naturalistic view of culture, while respecting the phenomenology of religion and drawing together teachers of religion, psychologists of religion, and cognitive scientists. Expert contributors focus on phenomena such as belief-fixation and transmission; attributions of agency; anthropomorphizing; counterintuitive religious representations; the well-formedness of religious rituals; links between religious representations and emotions; and the development of god concepts. The work encourages greater interdisciplinary linkages between scholars from different fields and will be of interest to researchers in anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and cognitive science. It also will interest more general readers in religion and science.
Download or read book Conceptual Challenges in Evolutionary Psychology written by Harmon R. Holcomb III and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This series will include monographs and collections of studies devoted to the investigation and exploration of knowledge, information, and data-processing systems of all kinds, no matter whether human, (other) animal, or machine. Its scope is intended to span the full range of interests from classical problems in the philosophy of mind and philosophical psychology through issues in cognitive psychology and sociobiology (concerning the mental capabilities of other species) to ideas related to artificial intelligence and to computer science. While primary emphasis will be placed upon theoretical, conceptual, and epistemological aspects of these problems and domains, empirical, experimental, and methodological studies will also appear from time to time. Few areas of inquiry have generated as much interest and enthusiasm in recent times as has the discipline known as "evolutionary psychology", but its pretentions and its accomlishments have not always been properly understood. This collection brings together important work in psychology, anthropology, and the philosophy of science that contributes toward that goal, especially by emphasizing the role of natural selection and sexual selection as crucial factors in the evolution of cognitive mechanisms for information processing. The methodological studies that are presented here are bound to enhance appreciation for the scope and limits of this fascinating domain. The editor has produced a fascinating volume that should appeal to a broad and diverse audience.
Download or read book Downward Processes In The Perception Representation Mechanisms Proceedings Of The International School Of Biocybernetics written by Cloe Taddei-ferretti and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 1998-12-24 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perception is the first step in the whole of the cognitive processes (attention, learning, memory, categorization, imagery, intuition, inference, comprehension, thought, judgement, expression) which culminate in the reasoning activity and to which emotions make a contribution. The production of perception representations is correlated with the perception events. Such perception representations occur by means of the contribution of two kinds of factors: sensory signals which reproduce the spatio-temporal characteristics of the receptor modifications, and interpretation of the intrinsic ambiguity of such signals by means of unconscious inferences. Various interactions intervene between bottom-up signals from peripheral receptors and top-down signals from higher centres.
Download or read book Magic Miracles and Religion written by Ilkka Pyysiäinen and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2004 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can scientists study religion? Ilkka Pyysiäinen says that they can. While the study of religion cannot be reduced to other disciplines, it must not ignore what other disciplines have learned about human thought and behavior. In this collection of essays, Pyysiäinen shows how findings from cognitive science can offer new directions to debates in religion. After providing a historical and theoretical overview of the cognitive science of religion, Pyysiäinen demonstrates how knowledge of the mind's workings can help deconstruct such concepts as "god," "ideology," "culture," "magic," "miracles," and "religion." For scholars of religion or for scholars of the mind-brain, Magic, Miracles, and Religion provides a helpful overview to this emerging field.
Download or read book Superminds written by Selmer Bringsjord and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book-length presentation and defense of a new theory of human and machine cognition, according to which human persons are superminds. Superminds are capable of processing information not only at and below the level of Turing machines (standard computers), but above that level (the "Turing Limit"), as information processing devices that have not yet been (and perhaps can never be) built, but have been mathematically specified; these devices are known as super-Turing machines or hypercomputers. Superminds, as explained herein, also have properties no machine, whether above or below the Turing Limit, can have. The present book is the third and pivotal volume in Bringsjord's supermind quartet; the first two books were What Robots Can and Can't Be (Kluwer) and AI and Literary Creativity (Lawrence Erlbaum). The final chapter of this book offers eight prescriptions for the concrete practice of AI and cognitive science in light of the fact that we are superminds.
Download or read book Prerational Intelligence Adaptive Behavior and Intelligent Systems Without Symbols and Logic Volume 1 Volume 2 Prerational Intelligence Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Behavior of Natural and Artificial Systems Volume 3 written by Holk Cruse and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-11-11 with total page 1585 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present book is the product of conferences held in Bielefeld at the Center for interdisciplinary Sturlies (ZiF) in connection with a year-long ZiF Research Group with the theme "Prerational intelligence". The premise ex plored by the research group is that traditional notions of intelligent behav ior, which form the basis for much work in artificial intelligence and cog nitive science, presuppose many basic capabilities which are not trivial, as more recent work in robotics and neuroscience has shown, and that these capabilities may be best understood as ernerging from interaction and coop eration in systems of simple agents, elements that accept inputs from and act upon their surroundings. The main focus is on the way animals and artificial systems process in formation about their surroundings in order to move and act adaptively. The analysis of the collective properties of systems of interacting agents, how ever, is a problern that occurs repeatedly in many disciplines. Therefore, contributions from a wide variety of areas have been included in order to obtain a broad overview of phenomena that demoostrate complexity arising from simple interactions or can be described as adaptive behavior arising from the collective action of groups of agents. To this end we have invited contributions on topics ranging from the development of complex structures and functions in systems ranging from cellular automata, genetic codes, and neural connectivity to social behavior and evolution. Additional contribu tions discuss traditional concepts of intelligence and adaptive behavior. 1.
Download or read book Prerational Intelligence written by Holk Cruse and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2000 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The focus of prerational intelligence is on the way animals and artificial systems utilize information about their surroundings in order to behave intelligently; the premise is that logic and symbolic reasoning are neither necessary nor, possibly, sufficient. Experts in the fields of biology, psychology, robotics, AI, mathematics, engineering, computer science, and philosophy review the evidence that intelligent behaviour can arise in systems of simple agents interacting according to simple rules; that self-organization and interaction with the environment are critical; and that quick approximations may replace logical analyses. It is argued that a better understanding of the intelligence inherent in procedure like those illustrated will eventually shed light on how rational intelligence is realised in humans. Readership: Scientifically literate general readers and scientists in all fields interested in understanding and duplicating biological intelligence.
Download or read book Rationality and the Study of Religion written by Jeppe Sinding Jensen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does rationality, the intellectual bedrock of all science, apply to the study of religion? Religion, arguably the most subjective area of human behaviour, has particular challenges associated with its study. Attracting crowd-healers, conjurers, the pious and the prophetic alongside comparativists and sceptics, it excites opinions and generalizations whilst seldom explicitly staking out the territory for the discussions in which it partakes. Increasingly, scholars argue that religious study needs to define and critique its own field, and to distinguish itself from theology and other non-objective disciplines. Yet how can rational techniques be applied to beliefs and states of mind regarded by some as beyond the scope of human reason? Can these be made empirically testable, or comparable and replicable within academic communities? Can science explicate religion without reducing it to mere superstition, or redefine its truth in some empirical but meaningful way? Featuring contributions from leading international experts including Donald Wiebe, Roger Trigg and Michael Pye, Rationality and the Study of Religion gets under the surface of the religious studies discipline to expose the ideologies beneath. Reopening debate in a neglected yet philosophically significant field, it questions the role of rationality in religious anthropology, natural history and anti-scientific theologies, with implications not only for supposedly objective disciplines but for our deepest attitudes to personal experience. 'Interesting and important. Religion has long been associated with irrationality, both by its defenders and its critics, and the topic of rationality has been unjustly neglected The book certainly deserves to be widely circulated.' Greg Alles, Western Maryland College
