Author: Radu J. Bogdan Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 9780262261623 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 242
Book Description
Drawing on philosophical, psychological, and evolutionary perspectives, Bogdan analyzes how primates create the resources for "metamentation"—the ability of the mind to think about its own thoughts. Mental reflexivity, or metamentation—a mind thinking about its own thoughts—underpins reflexive consciousness, deliberation, self-evaluation, moral judgment, the ability to think ahead, and much more. Yet relatively little in philosophy or psychology has been written about what metamentation actually is, or about why and how it came about. In this book, Radu Bogdan proposes that humans think reflexively because they interpret each other's minds in social contexts of cooperation, communication, education, politics, and so forth. As naive psychology, interpretation was naturally selected among primates as a battery of practical skills that preceded language and advanced thinking. Metamentation began as interpretation mentally rehearsed: through mental sharing of attitudes and information about items of common interest, interpretation conspired with mental rehearsal to develop metamentation. Drawing on philosophical, psychological, and evolutionary perspectives, Bogdan analyzes the main phylogenetic and ontogenetic stages through which primates' abilities to interpret other minds evolve and gradually create the opportunities and resources for metamentation. Contrary to prevailing views, he concludes that metamentation benefits from, but is not a predetermined outcome of, logical abilities, language, and consciousness.
Author: Radu J. Bogdan Publisher: Bradford Books ISBN: 9780262024679 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 215
Book Description
Drawing on philosophical, psychological, and evolutionary perspectives, Bogdan analyzes how primates create the resources for "metamentation"—the ability of the mind to think about its own thoughts.
Author: Toni Gomila Publisher: Elsevier ISBN: 0123852013 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 150
Book Description
Ten years ago, the hegemonic idea was that language was a kind of independent module within the mind, a sort of "print-out" of whatever cognitive activity was taking place, but without any influence whatsoever in that activity. While this view is still held, evidence amassed in the last 10 years suggests another view of their inter-relationships, even though exactly which one is not clear yet, in part because of the lack of a unified view, and in part because of the inertia of the previous position, in part because all this evidence must be considered together. An increasing number of researchers are paying attention to the issues involved as the human language specificity may provide a clue to understand what makes humans "smart," to account for the singularities of human cognition. This book provides a comprehensive review of the multiple developments that have taken place in the last 10 years on the question of the relationships between language and thought and integrates them into a coherent framework. It will be relevant for anyone working in the sciences of languages. Synthesizes recent research Provides an integrated view of cognitive architecture Explains the relationships between language and thought
Author: Michael Hyatt Publisher: Baker Books ISBN: 1493433970 Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 150
Book Description
Do you trust the voice in your head? Our brains are remarkable. They subconsciously translate the events around us into meaningful storylines that inform what we think and how we live. The problem is, the stories our minds feed us as facts aren't always true. Worse, these stories turn into false beliefs about others, the world, and ourselves that keep us from our true potential. These limiting beliefs confront us all. But what if you could harness your brain's operating system to tell a new story? Not just any story. A true story that empowers you to overcome limitations and surpass your goals. Drawing upon the latest insights in performance psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science, as well as case studies from their own clients, New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller outline a framework anyone can follow to test their own assumptions and start living better, truer stories that shape superior outcomes in business and life.
Author: James O'Loghlin Publisher: Penguin Group Australia ISBN: 1760146404 Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 330
Book Description
The mind is a marvel. It’s at the centre of our most rewarding experiences. It lets in awe and laughter, love and wisdom, and helps us overcome life’s great trials. It’s our greatest asset, but it can also be our greatest adversary, allowing in self-doubt, anxious thoughts and depression. It can magnify our fears and undermine our best intentions, and lead us into life’s darkest corners. Based on James O’Loghlin and Professor Ian Hickie’s popular podcast, Minding Your Mind is an exploration into everything you’ve ever wanted to know about how the mind works, and the thoughts and emotions that steer our lives. It also offers practical strategies on how we can understand, change and improve our mental health, covering such topics as: * Burn-out and depression * Hope and despair * Trust and trauma * Humour and community * Trauma and addiction * Anger and self-control * Managing our body clocks * Navigating life’s crises * The importance of social connection and community Written with compassion and curiosity, warmth and humour, Minding Your Mind is for anyone who wants the best for their mental well-being but might not know the best way to get there. It’s a check-up for everything happening between the ears and through the body, flagging the warning signs when things get wobbly and offering a pathway to a more fulfilling life.
Author: Christoph Durt Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262549255 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 451
Book Description
The first interdisciplinary investigation of the cultural context of enactive embodiment, offering perspectives that range from the neurophilosophical to the anthropological. Recent accounts of cognition attempt to overcome the limitations of traditional cognitive science by reconceiving cognition as enactive and the cognizer as an embodied being who is embedded in biological, psychological, and cultural contexts. Cultural forms of sense-making constitute the shared world, which in turn is the origin and place of cognition. This volume is the first interdisciplinary collection on the cultural context of embodiment, offering perspectives that range from the neurophilosophical to the anthropological. The book brings together new contributions by some of the most renowned scholars in the field and the latest results from up-and-coming researchers. The contributors explore conceptual foundations, drawing on work by Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre, and respond to recent critiques. They consider whether there is something in the self that precedes intersubjectivity and inquire into the relation between culture and consciousness, the nature of shared meaning and social understanding, the social dimension of shame, and the nature of joint affordances. They apply the notion of radical enactive cognition to evolutionary anthropology, and examine the concept of the body in relation to culture in light of studies in such fields as phenomenology, cognitive neuroscience, psychology, and psychopathology. Through such investigations, the book breaks ground for the study of the interplay of embodiment, enaction, and culture. Contributors Mark Bickhard, Ingar Brinck, Anna Ciaunica, Hanne De Jaegher, Nicolas de Warren, Ezequiel Di Paolo, Christoph Durt, John Z. Elias, Joerg Fingerhut, Aikaterini Fotopoulou, Thomas Fuchs, Shaun Gallagher, Vittorio Gallese, Duilio Garofoli, Katrin Heimann, Peter Henningsen, Daniel D. Hutto, Laurence J. Kirmayer, Alba Montes Sánchez, Dermot Moran, Maxwell J. D. Ramstead, Matthew Ratcliffe, Vasudevi Reddy, Zuzanna Rucińska, Alessandro Salice, Glenda Satne, Heribert Sattel, Christian Tewes, Dan Zahavi
Author: Raymond Corbey Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1107424380 Category : Animal rights Languages : en Pages : 595
Book Description
"The assumption that humans are cognitively and morally superior to other animals is fundamental to social democracies and legal systems worldwide. It legitimises treating members of other animal species as inferior to humans. The last few decades have seen a growing awareness of this issue, as evidence continues to show that individuals of many other species have rich mental, emotional and social lives. Bringing together leading experts from a range of disciplines, this volume identifies the key barriers to a definition of moral respect that includes nonhuman animals. It sets out to increase concern, empathy and inclusiveness by developing strategies that can be used to protect other animals from exploitation in the wild and from suffering in captivity. The chapters link scientific data with normative and philosophical reflections, offering unique insight into controversial issues around the ethical, political and legal status of other species"--
Author: Jane M. Healy Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1439126704 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 396
Book Description
Is today's fast-paced media culture creating a toxic environment for our children's brains? In this landmark, bestselling assessment tracing the roots of America's escalating crisis in education, Jane M. Healy, Ph.D., examines how television, video games, and other components of popular culture compromise our children's ability to concentrate and to absorb and analyze information. Drawing on neuropsychological research and an analysis of current educational practices, Healy presents in clear, understandable language: -- How growing brains are physically shaped by experience -- Why television programs -- even supposedly educational shows like Sesame Street -- develop "habits of mind" that place children at a disadvantage in school -- Why increasing numbers of children are diagnosed with attention deficit disorder -- How parents and teachers can make a critical difference by making children good learners from the day they are born
Author: Lee Thayer Publisher: Xlibris Corporation ISBN: 145684041X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 185
Book Description
"This is a book about how we invent ourselves and our cultures by how we explain things. We invent our explanations, and then they invent us. It is a book about how we create our virtual worlds – the habitat of our minds – by how we explain things. It is a book about how our explanations get embedded in the stories we tell and ingest – from gossip to advertising to the pernicious “social media.” It is a book about how everything we say or do or have is an explanation. Whatever we say or do or buy explains who we are. We multifariously explain ourselves to ourselves and to others. We talk, we daydream, we do, we feel: all evolves from how we explain things. Our explanations are the seeds from which everything human and social sprouts and evolves. They are the sources and the sinks of how we live our lives. It is a book that offers a non-biological and thus a superior theory of the human trajectory, of specifically human and social evolution. We have turned our lives over to our pundits – our “experts,” our celebrities, our advertisers and entertainers, and our fashionistas. We invite them to tell us what’s what, and how to live. They are our predators. We are their prey. It is an unprecedented sea-change for civilization. As our lives go, so goes our civilization. We evolve out of our explanations of things. But to what end?"
Author: T. Givón Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing ISBN: 9027296081 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 404
Book Description
The contributors to this volume are linguists, psychologists, neuroscientists, primatologists, and anthropologists who share the assumption that language, just as mind and brain, are products of biological evolution. The rise of human language is not viewed as a serendipitous mutation that gave birth to a unique linguistic organ, but as a gradual, adaptive extension of pre-existing mental capacities and brain structures. The contributors carefully study brain mechanisms, diachronic change, language acquisition, and the parallels between cognitive and linguistic structures to weave a web of hypotheses and suggestive empirical findings on the origins of language and the connections of language to other human capacities. The chapters discuss brain pathways that support linguistic processing; origins of specific linguistic features in temporal and hierarchical structures of the mind; the possible co-evolution of language and the reasoning about mental states; and the aspects of language learning that may serve as models of evolutionary change.