Download or read book Abstract Concepts and the Embodied Mind written by Guy Dove and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Our thoughts depend on knowledge about objects, people, properties, and events. To think about where we left our keys, what we are going to make for dinner, when we last fed the dogs, and how we are going to survive our next visit with our family, we need to know something about locations, keys, cooking, dogs, survival, families, and so on. This book examines how our brains can store and access such general knowledge about the world and our place in it. More specifically, it investigates the neurocognitive mechanisms responsible for encoding our concepts. Sorting objects, events, and experiences into categories enables us to recall and use information that we have gathered over time. Stored information about these categories helps us make decisions, communicate, and respond in an intelligent way to changing circumstances. Our concepts serve as the building blocks for many forms of thinking. We use them to recognize patterns, draw inferences, make decisions, and understand word meanings. Concepts are bodies of knowledge that are quickly accessed in various situations (Machery, 2009; Margolis & Laurence, 1999; Murphy, 2002)"--

Download or read book Abstractions and Embodiments written by Janet Abbate and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cutting-edge historians explore ideas, communities, and technologies around modern computing to explore how computers mediate social relations. Computers have been framed both as a mirror for the human mind and as an irreducible other that humanness is defined against, depending on different historical definitions of "humanness." They can serve both liberation and control because some people's freedom has historically been predicated on controlling others. Historians of computing return again and again to these contradictions, as they often reveal deeper structures. Using twin frameworks of abstraction and embodiment, a reformulation of the old mind-body dichotomy, this anthology examines how social relations are enacted in and through computing. The authors examining "Abstraction" revisit central concepts in computing, including "algorithm," "program," "clone," and "risk." In doing so, they demonstrate how the meanings of these terms reflect power relations and social identities. The section on "Embodiments" focuses on sensory aspects of using computers as well as the ways in which gender, race, and other identities have shaped the opportunities and embodied experiences of computer workers and users. Offering a rich and diverse set of studies in new areas, the book explores such disparate themes as disability, the influence of the punk movement, working mothers as technical innovators, and gaming behind the Iron Curtain. Abstractions and Embodiments reimagines computing history by questioning canonical interpretations, foregrounding new actors and contexts, and highlighting neglected aspects of computing as an embodied experience. It makes the profound case that both technology and the body are culturally shaped and that there can be no clear distinction between social, intellectual, and technical aspects of computing. Contributors: Janet Abbate, Marc Aidinoff, Troy Kaighin Astarte, Ekaterina Babinsteva, André Brock, Maarten Bullynck, Jiahui Chan, Gerardo Con Diaz, Liesbeth De Mol, Stephanie Dick, Kelcey Gibbons, Elyse Graham, Michael J. Halvorson, Mar Hicks, Scott Kushner, Xiaochang Li, Zachary Loeb, Lisa Nakamura, Tiffany Nichols, Laine Nooney, Elizabeth Petrick, Cierra Robson, Hallam Stevens, Jaroslav Švelch

Download or read book The Iconology of Abstraction written by Krešimir Purgar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-06-15 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uncovers how we make meaning of abstraction, both historically and in present times, and examines abstract images as a visual language. The contributors demonstrate that abstraction is not primarily an artistic phenomenon, but rather arises from human beings’ desire to imagine, understand and communicate complex, ineffable concepts in fields ranging from fine art and philosophy to technologies of data visualization, from cartography and medicine to astronomy. The book will be of interest to scholars working in image studies, visual studies, art history, philosophy and aesthetics.

Download or read book Music and Embodied Cognition written by Arnie Cox and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taking a cognitive approach to musical meaning, Arnie Cox explores embodied experiences of hearing music as those that move us both consciously and unconsciously. In this pioneering study that draws on neuroscience and music theory, phenomenology and cognitive science, Cox advances his theory of the "mimetic hypothesis," the notion that a large part of our experience and understanding of music involves an embodied imitation in the listener of bodily motions and exertions that are involved in producing music. Through an often unconscious imitation of action and sound, we feel the music as it moves and grows. With applications to tonal and post-tonal Western classical music, to Western vernacular music, and to non-Western music, Cox's work stands to expand the range of phenomena that can be explained by the role of sensory, motor, and affective aspects of human experience and cognition.

Download or read book The Abstraction Engine written by Michael Fortescue and published by John Benjamins Publishing Company. This book was released on 2017-04-11 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main thesis of this book is that abstraction, far from being confined to higher forms of cognition, language and logical reasoning, has actually been a major driving force throughout the evolution of creatures with brains. It is manifest in emotive as well as rational thought. Wending its way through the various facets of abstraction, the book attempts to clarify – and relate – the often confusing meanings of the word ‘abstract’ that one may encounter even within the same discipline. The unusual synoptic approach, which draws upon research in psychology, neural network theory, child language acquisition, philosophy and consciousness studies, as well as a variety of linguistic disciplines, cannot be compared directly to other books on the market that touch upon just one particular aspect of abstraction. It is aimed at a wide readership – anyone interested in the nature of abstraction and the cognitive processing and purpose behind it. (series A)

Download or read book Embodied and grounded cognition written by Anna Borghi and published by Frontiers E-books. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last 10-15 years, the "embodied" and "grounded" cognition approach has become widespread in all fields related to cognitive science, such as cognitive and social psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, computational modelling and robotics. According to this approach, our cognitive activity is grounded in sensory-motor processes and situated in specific contexts and situations. Therefore, in this view, concepts consist of the reactivation of the same neural pattern that is present when we perceive and/or interact with the objects they refer to. In the same way, understanding language would imply forming a mental simulation of what is linguistically described. This simulation would entail the recruitment of the same neurons that are activated when actually acting or perceiving the situation, action, emotion, object or entity described by language. In the last years a lot of evidence has been collected in favour of EC and GC view. The aim of this Research Topic is twofold. First, it intends to give an idea of the field of embodied and grounded cognition in its broadness. We therefore intend to invite scientists of different disciplines (anthropology, philosophy, linguistics, cognitive and social psychology, neuroscience, computer science) to submit their proposals. The second aim of this Research Topicis to focus on some challenges that in our opinion embodied and grounded theories of cognition need to face. First, we believe that one important challenge for EC and GC views is to account for the way the so-called "abstract concepts" and abstract words are represented. Evidence on the representation of concrete concepts and words is compelling, whereas evidence on abstract concepts representation is still too scarce and limited to restricted domains. We therefore welcome proposals dealing with this complex issue. Second, we think that embodied and grounded theories of cognition would need to formulate more precise hypotheses, and that in general within the field a larger theoretical effort should be made. It is striking that, even if a lot of work in the field of computational modelling and robotics starts from an embodied approach, experimental and modelling work on embodied cognition remain somehow separate. We therefore invite researchers to submit papers proposing models which might help to explain phenomena as well as to constrain and specify in more detail the predictions and the claims advanced within the framework of EC and GC theories.

Download or read book Embodiment Political Economy and Human Flourishing written by Frédéric Basso and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Everything in Its Right Place written by Joseph Almog and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014-02 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this work, Joseph Almog develops the unitarian and universalist metaphysics of Spinoza. Spinoza's ground zero thesis is that everything (including God, mathematics, morals, our own thoughts) finds its place within Spinoza's (capital N) Nature. It is the place that each thing occupies within the grid of Nature - from God on down the cosmic tree of being - that determines its fundamental (lowercase n) nature. This leads, as in the Ethics, to a final chapter on what it meant to Spinoza to live in symbiosis with Nature and, therefore, to be one with it - and with God.

Download or read book Surfaces written by Avrum Stroll and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1984 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Words as Social Tools An Embodied View on Abstract Concepts written by Anna M. Borghi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2014-03-13 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are abstract concepts and words represented in the brain? That is the central question addressed by the authors of “Words as Social Tools: An Embodied View on Abstract Concepts”. First, they focus on the difficulties in defining what abstract concepts and words are, and what they mean in psycholinguistic research. Then the authors go on to describe and critically discuss the main theories on this topic with a special emphasis on the different embodied and grounded theories proposed in cognitive psychology within the last ten years, highlighting the advantages and limitations of each of these theories. The core of this Brief consists of the presentation of a new theory developed by the authors, the WAT (Words As social Tools) view, according to which both sensorimotor (such as perception, action, emotional experiences) and linguistic experiences are at the basis of abstract concepts and of abstract word representation, processing and use. This theory assigns a major role to acquisition: one of the assumptions the authors make is that the different ways in which concrete and abstract words are acquired constrain their brain representation and their use. This view will be compared with the main existing theories on abstractness, from the theory of conceptual metaphors to the theories on multiple representation. Finally, the volume illustrates recent evidence from different areas (developmental, behavioral, cross-cultural, neuropsychological and neural) which converge with and support the authors' theory, leading to the conclusion that in order to account for representation and processing of abstract concepts and words, an extension of embodied and grounded theories is necessary.

Download or read book Johann Sebastian Bach s Goldberg Variations Reimagined written by Erinn E. Knyt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers the first detailed reception history of adaptations of Johann Sebastian Bach's Goldberg Variations from 1800-2020. By focusing on ways the piece has been arranged, transcribed, and reworked, or quoted in in film, dance, literature, visual art, and digital media, it reveals changing views about the role of the composer and score that have impacted recent performance practices and notions of the work concept. Beyond this, it features the work of composers, many from underrepresented backgrounds, who have recently deconstructed Bach by reimagining the subjects, compositional procedures, and forms, using contemporary compositional approaches.

Download or read book Sheets Diagrams and Realism in Peirce written by Frederik Stjernfelt and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-09-05 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates a number of central problems in the philosophy of Charles Peirce grouped around the realism of his semiotics: the issue of how sign systems are developed and used in the investigation of reality. Thus, it deals with the precise character of Peirce's realism; with Peirce's special notion of propositions as signs which, at the same time, denote and describe the same object. It deals with diagrams as signs which depict more or less abstract states-of-affairs, facilitating reasoning about them; with assertions as public claims about the truth of propositions. It deals with iconicity in logic, the issue of self-control in reasoning, dependences between phenomena in their realist descriptions. A number of chapters deal with applied semiotics: with biosemiotic sign use among pre-human organisms: the multimedia combination of pictorial and linguistic information in human semiotic genres like cartoons, posters, poetry, monuments. All in all, the book makes a strong case for the actual relevance of Peirce's realist semiotics.

Download or read book Conceptual and Interactive Embodiment written by Martin Fischer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-22 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This two-volume set provides a comprehensive overview of the multidisciplinary field of Embodied Cognition. With contributions from internationally acknowledged researchers from a variety of fields, Foundations of Embodied Cognition reveals how intelligent behaviour emerges from the interplay between brain, body and environment. Drawing on the most recent theoretical and empirical findings in embodied cognition, Volume 2 Conceptual and Interactive Embodiment is divided into four distinct parts, bringing together a number of influential perspectives and new ideas. Part one introduces the field of embodied language processing, before part two presents recent developments in our understanding of embodied conceptual understanding. The final two parts look at the applied nature of embodied cognition, exploring the embodied nature of social co-ordination as well as the emerging field of artificial embodiment. Building on the idea that knowledge acquisition, retention and retrieval are intimately interconnected with sensory and motor processes, Foundations of Embodied Cognition is a landmark publication in the field. It will be of great interest to researchers and advanced students from across the cognitive sciences, including those specialising in psychology, neuroscience, intelligent systems and robotics, philosophy, linguistics and anthropology.

Download or read book Atavistic Tendencies written by Dana Seitler and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The post-Darwinian theory of atavism forecasted obstacles to human progress in the reappearance of throwback physical or cultural traits after several generations of absence. In this original and stimulating work, Dana Seitler explores the ways in which modernity itself is an atavism, shaping a historical and theoretical account of its dramatic rise and impact on Western culture and imagination.

Download or read book Cultural Legal Studies written by Cassandra Sharp and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-07-24 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What can law’s popular cultures do for law, as a constitutive and interrogative critical practice? This collection explores such a question through the lens of the ‘cultural legal studies’ movement, which proffers a new encounter with the ‘cultural turn’ in law and legal theory. Moving beyond the ‘law ands’ (literature, humanities, culture, film, visual and aesthetics) on which it is based, this book demonstrates how the techniques and practices of cultural legal studies can be used to metamorphose law and the legalities that underpin its popular imaginary. By drawing on three different modes of cultural legal studies – storytelling, technology and jurisprudence – the collection showcases the intersectional practices of cultural legal studies, and law in its popular cultural mode. The contributors to the collection deploy differentiated modes of cultural legal studies practice, adopting diverse philosophical, disciplinary, methodological and theoretical approaches and subjects of examination. The collection draws on this mix of diversity and homogeneity to thread together its overarching theme: that we must take seriously an interrogation of law as culture and in its cultural form. That is, it does not ask how a text ‘represents’ law; but rather how the representational nature of both law and culture intersect so that the ‘juridical’ become visible in various cultural manifestations. In short, it asks: how law’s popular cultures actively effect the metamorphosis of law.

Download or read book Conceptual metaphor and embodied cognition in science learning written by Tamer Amin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scientific concepts are abstract human constructions, invented to make sense of complex natural phenomena. Scientists use specialised languages, diagrams, and mathematical representations of various kinds to convey these abstract constructions. This book uses the perspectives of embodied cognition and conceptual metaphor to explore how learners make sense of these concepts. That is, it is assumed that human cognition – including scientific cognition – is grounded in the body and in the material and social contexts in which it is embedded. Understanding abstract concepts is therefore grounded, via metaphor, in knowledge derived from sensory and motor experiences arising from interaction with the physical world. The volume consists of nine chapters that examine a number of intertwined themes: how systematic metaphorical mappings are implicit in scientific language, diagrams, mathematical representations, and the gestures used by scientists; how scientific modelling relies fundamentally on metaphor and can be seen as a form of narrative cognition; how implicit metaphors can be the sources of learner misconceptions; how conceptual change and the acquisition of scientific expertise involve learning to coordinate the use of multiple implicit metaphors; and how effective instruction can build on recognising the embodied nature of scientific cognition and the role of metaphor in scientific thought and learning. The volume also includes three extended commentaries from leading researchers in the fields of cognitive linguistics, the learning sciences, and science education, in which they reflect on theoretical, methodological and pedagogical issues raised in the book. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Science Education.

Download or read book How Humans Learn to Think Mathematically written by David Tall and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-02 with total page 483 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How Humans Learn to Think Mathematically describes the development of mathematical thinking from the young child to the sophisticated adult. Professor David Tall reveals the reasons why mathematical concepts that make sense in one context may become problematic in another. For example, a child's experience of whole number arithmetic successively affects subsequent understanding of fractions, negative numbers, algebra, and the introduction of definitions and proof. Tall's explanations for these developments are accessible to a general audience while encouraging specialists to relate their areas of expertise to the full range of mathematical thinking. The book offers a comprehensive framework for understanding mathematical growth, from practical beginnings through theoretical developments, to the continuing evolution of mathematical thinking at the highest level.