Download or read book The Physical Basis of Mind written by George Henry Lewes and published by . This book was released on 1893 with total page 534 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF MIND written by GEORGE HENRY LEWES and published by BEYOND BOOKS HUB. This book was released on 1893-01-01 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE title indicates that this volume is restricted to the group of material conditions which constitute the organism in relation to the physical world—a group which furnishes the data for one half of the psychologist’s quest; the other half being furnished by historical and social conditions. The Human Mind, so far as it is accessible to scientific inquiry, has a twofold root, man being not only an animal organism but an unit in the social organism; and hence the complete theory of its functions and faculties must be sought in this twofold direction. This conception (which has been declared “to amount to a revolution in Psychology”), although slowly prepared by the growing conviction that Man could not be isolated from Humanity, was first expounded in the opening volume of these Problems of Life and Mind; at least, I am not aware that any predecessor had seen how the specially human faculties of Intellect and Conscience were products of social factors co-operating with the animal factors. In considering the Physical Basis a large place must be assigned to the mechanical and chemical relations which are involved in organic functions; yet we have to recognize that this procedure of Analysis is artificial and preparatory, that none of its results are final, none represent the synthetic reality of vital facts. Hence one leading object of the following pages has been everywhere to substitute the biological point of view for the metaphysical and mechanical points of view which too often obstruct research—the one finding its expression in spiritualist theories, the other in materialist theories; both disregarding the plain principle that the first requisite in a theory of biological phenomena must be to view them in the light of biological conditions: in other words, to fix our gaze upon what passes in the organism, and not on what may pass in the laboratory, where the conditions are different. Analysis is a potent instrument, but is too often relied on in forgetfulness of what constitutes its real aid, and thus leads to a disregard of all those conditions which it has artificially set aside. We see this in the tendency of anatomists and physiologists to assign to one element, in a complex cluster of co-operants, the significance which properly belongs to that cluster: as when the property of a tissue is placed exclusively in a single element of that tissue, the function of an organ assigned to its chief tissue, and a function of the organism to a single organ. Another object has been to furnish the reader uninstructed in physiology with such a general outline of the structure and functions of the organism, and such details respecting the sentient mechanism, as may awaken an interest in the study, and enable him to understand the application of Physiology to Psychology. If he comes upon details which can only interest specially educated students, or perhaps only by them be really understood, he can pass over these details, for their omission will not seriously affect the bearing of the general principles. I have given the best I had to give; and must leave each reader to find in it whatever may interest him. The uses of books are first to stimulate inquiry by awakening an interest; secondly, to clarify and classify the knowledge already gained from direct contemplation of the phenomena. They are stimuli and aids to observation and thought. They should never be allowed to see for us, nor to think for us. The volume contains four essays. The first, on the Nature of Life, deals with the speciality of organic phenomena, as distinguished from the inorganic. It sets forth the physiological principles which Psychology must incessantly invoke. In the course of the exposition I have incorporated several passages from four articles on Mr. Darwin’s hypotheses, contributed to the Fortnightly Review during the year 1868. I have also suggested a modification of the hypothesis of Natural Selection, by extending to the tissues and organs that principle of competition which Mr. Darwin has so luminously applied to organisms. Should this generalization of the “struggle for existence” be accepted, it will answer many of the hitherto unanswerable objections. The second essay is on the Nervous Mechanism, setting forth what is known and what is inferred respecting the structure and properties of that all-important system. If the sceptical and revolutionary attitude, in presence of opinions currently held to be established truths, surprises or pains the reader unprepared for such doubts, I can only ask him to submit my statements to a similar scepticism, and confront them with the ascertained evidence. After many years of laborious investigation and meditation, the conclusion has slowly forced itself upon me, that on this subject there is a “false persuasion of knowledge” very fatal in its influence, because unhesitatingly adopted as the ground of speculation both in Pathology and Psychology. This persuasion is sustained because few are aware how much of what passes for observation is in reality sheer hypothesis. I have had to point out the great extent to which Imaginary Anatomy has been unsuspectingly accepted; and hope to have done something towards raising a rational misgiving in the student’s mind respecting “the superstition of the nerve-cell”—a superstition which I freely confess to have shared in for many years. The third essay treats of Animal Automatism. Here the constant insistance on the biological point of view, while it causes a rejection of the mechanical theory, admits the fullest recognition of all the mechanical relations involved in animal movements, and thus endeavors to reconcile the contending schools. In this essay I have also attempted a psychological solution of that much-debated question—the relation between Body and Mind. This solution explains why physical and mental phenomena must necessarily present to our apprehension such profoundly diverse characters; and shows that Materialism, in attempting to deduce the mental from the physical, puts into the conclusion what the very terms have excluded from the premises; whereas, on the hypothesis of a physical process being only the objective aspect of a mental process, the attempt to interpret the one by the other is as legitimate as the solution of a geometrical problem by algebra. In the final essay the Reflex Theory is discussed; and here once more the biological point of view rectifies the error of an analysis which has led to the denial of Sensibility in reflex actions, because that analysis has overlooked the necessary presence of the conditions which determine Sensibility. In these chapters are reproduced several passages from the Physiology of Common Life. According to my original intention, this volume was to have included an exposition of the part I conceive the brain to play in physiological and psychological processes, but that must be postponed until it can be accompanied by a survey of psychological processes which would render the exposition more intelligible.
Download or read book The Physical Basis of Mind written by George Henry Lewes and published by London, Truebner. This book was released on 1877 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Physical Basis of Mind and Morals written by Michael Hendrick Fitch and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book What We Are written by Izi Stoll and published by Triskelion Press. This book was released on 2019-09-20 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A mechanistic explanation for consciousness has long proved elusive to scientists and philosophers, with many neuroscientists today even questioning the existence of the phenomenon. In What We Are, a new perspective has arrived. This new approach combines the laws of physics, information theory, and neuroscience to provide the first physical explanation for the phenomenon of streaming perceptual experience and the sense of a self which can act in the world. An exciting development in the field, this comprehensive new theory presents a full mechanistic framework for bottom-up and top-down cognitive processing, with both routes exquisitely dependent upon functional neural circuitry, and provides an explanation for the seemingly immaterial nature of thought. This book clearly and concisely introduces the reader to the problem of consciousness and how other thinkers have approached it, offers an stimulating new theory to scientifically address the problem, then discusses potential applications and specific predictions of the theory.
Download or read book Problems of Life and Mind written by George Lewes and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-12-30 with total page 454 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.
Download or read book Shadows of the Mind written by Roger Penrose and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1994 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the author's thesis that consciousness, in its manifestation in the human quality of understanding, is doing something that mere computation cannot; and attempts to understand how such non-computational action might arise within scientifically comprehensive physical laws.
Download or read book Learning With the Body in Mind written by Eric Jensen and published by Corwin. This book was released on 2000-02-16 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capitalize on the high energy that is natural to young learners! Research suggests that movement activities are an integral part of the learning process. From role plays to relays, learning is better activated when the body gets involved. Whether you're a primary school teacher or a secondary maths teacher, you'll discover how to use movement to increase intrinsic motivation, improve attitudes, strengthen memory, and boost achievement in your classroom. This highly readable book offers a valuable compendium of practical strategies backed by clinical and classroom research for engaging students at all levels.
Download or read book The Neural Basis of Free Will written by Peter Tse and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The issues of mental causation, consciousness, and free will have vexed philosophers since Plato. This book examines these unresolved issues from a neuroscientific perspective. In contrast with philosophers who use logic rather than data to argue whether mental causation or consciousness can exist given unproven first assumptions, Tse proposes that we instead listen to what neurons have to say. Because the brain must already embody a solution to the mind--body problem, why not focus on how the brain actually realizes mental causation? Tse draws on exciting recent neuroscientific data concerning how informational causation is realized in physical causation at the level of NMDA receptors, synapses, dendrites, neurons, and neuronal circuits. He argues that a particular kind of strong free will and downward mental causation are realized in rapid synaptic plasticity. Recent neurophysiological breakthroughs reveal that neurons function as criterial assessors of their inputs, which then change the criteria that will make other neurons fire in the future. Such informational causation cannot change the physical basis of information realized in the present, but it can change the physical basis of information that may be realized in the immediate future. This gets around the standard argument against free will centered on the impossibility of self-causation. Tse explores the ways that mental causation and qualia might be realized in this kind of neuronal and associated information-processing architecture, and considers the psychological and philosophical implications of having such an architecture realized in our brains.
Download or read book The Body in the Mind written by Mark Johnson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-01-31 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "There are books—few and far between—which carefully, delightfully, and genuinely turn your head inside out. This is one of them. It ranges over some central issues in Western philosophy and begins the long overdue job of giving us a radically new account of meaning, rationality, and objectivity."—Yaakov Garb, San Francisco Chronicle
Download or read book The physical basis of mind written by George Henry Lewes and published by . This book was released on 1877 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Brain Shaped Mind written by Naomi Goldblum and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-08-23 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Will brain scientists ever be able to read our minds? Why are some things harder to remember than others? Based on recent brain research and neural network modelling, The Brain-Shaped Mind addresses these, and other, questions, and provides a clear account of how the structure of the brain influences the workings of the mind. Neuroscientists are now learning about our minds by examining how the neurones in the brain are connected with one another and the surrounding environment. This book explores how neural networks enable us to recognise objects and learn new things, and what happens when things go wrong. The reader is taken on a fascinating journey into what is arguably one of the most complicated and remarkable aspects of our lives.
Download or read book Furnishing the Mind written by Jesse J. Prinz and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2004-08-20 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western philosophy has long been divided between empiricists, who argue that human understanding has its basis in experience, and rationalists, who argue that reason is the source of knowledge. A central issue in the debate is the nature of concepts, the internal representations we use to think about the world. The traditional empiricist thesis that concepts are built up from sensory input has fallen out of favor. Mainstream cognitive science tends to echo the rationalist tradition, with its emphasis on innateness. In Furnishing the Mind, Jesse Prinz attempts to swing the pendulum back toward empiricism. Prinz provides a critical survey of leading theories of concepts, including imagism, definitionism, prototype theory, exemplar theory, the theory theory, and informational atomism. He sets forth a new defense of concept empiricism that draws on philosophy, neuroscience, and psychology and introduces a new version of concept empiricism called proxytype theory. He also provides accounts of abstract concepts, intentionality, narrow content, and concept combination. In an extended discussion of innateness, he covers Noam Chomsky's arguments for the innateness of grammar, developmental psychologists' arguments for innate cognitive domains, and Jerry Fodor's argument for radical concept nativism.
Download or read book Windows on the Mind written by Erich Harth and published by William Morrow. This book was released on 1982 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Physical Basis of The Direction of Time written by H. Dieter Zeh and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-08-13 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thoroughly revised 5th edition of Zeh's classic text investigates irreversible phenomena and their foundation in classical, quantum and cosmological settings. It includes new sections on the meaning of probabilities in a cosmological context, irreversible aspects of quantum computers, and various consequences of the expansion of the Universe. In particular, the book offers an analysis of the physical concept of time.
Download or read book The Physical Basis of Mental Life written by R. R. Noel and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-08-20 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1873. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.
Download or read book Mind and Cosmos written by Thomas Nagel and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.
