Of Mind and Other Matters PDF Download

Author: Nelson Goodman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674631267
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
This book displays both the remarkable diversity of Goodman's concerns and the essential unity of his thought. As a whole the volume will serve as a concise introduction to Goodman's thought for general readers, and will develop its more recent unfoldings for those philosophers and others who have grown wiser with his books over the years.

Author: Michael S. Gazzaniga
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780395421598
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
Describes how research is showing how the mind and the body affect each other and how each individual can better manage their bodies and lives.

Author: Jerome Kagan
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300217366
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
"Kagan ponders a series of important nodes of debate while challenging us to examine what we know and why we know it. Most critically he presents an elegant argument for functions of mind that cannot be replaced with sentences about brains while acknowledging that mind emerges from brain activity. He relies on the evidence to argue that thoughts and emotions are distinct from their biological and genetic bases. In separate chapters he deals with the meaning of words, kinds of knowing, the powerful influence of social class, the functions of education, emotion, morality, and other issues. And without fail he sheds light on these ideas while remaining honest to their complexity." -- Publisher's description.

Author: James P. Hogan
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
"From the pioneering experiments in "cybernetics" of the 1940s to the digital computers and robot prototypes developed by Carnegie Mellon University and MIT researchers to Deep Blue, and on to the most current projects involving humanoid robots and attempts to duplicate the evolution of intelligence, Mind Matters chronicles the extraordinary journey toward a scientific breakthrough that could well overshadow man's conquest of space." "Whether such a breakthrough is even possible, and what the implications - social, economic, political - for humankind will be if it is, makes Mind Matters the scientifically and philosophically provocative read of the year."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Author: John Stott
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830879609
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 91

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Book Description
"Knowledge is indispensable to Christian life and service," writes John Stott. "If we do not use the mind which God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality." While Christians have had a long heritage of rigorous scholarship and careful thinking, some circles still view the intellect with suspicion or even as contradictory to Christian faith. And many non-Christians are quick to label Christians as anti-intellectual and obscurantist. But this need not be so. In this classic introduction to Christian thinking, John Stott makes a forceful appeal for Christian discipleship that engages the mind as well as the heart.

Author: Robert N. McCauley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190091169
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
A man with schizophrenia believes that God is instructing him through the public address system in a bus station. A nun falls into a decades-long depression because she believes that God refuses to answer her prayers. A neighborhood parishioner is bedeviled with anxiety because he believes that a certain religious ritual must be repeated, repeated, and repeated lest God punish him. To what extent are such manifestations of religious thinking analogous to mental disorder? Does mental dysfunction bring an individual closer to religious experience or thought? Hearing Voices and Other Unusual Experiences explores these questions using the tools of the cognitive science of religion and the philosophy of psychopathology. Robert McCauley and George Graham emphasize underlying cognitive continuities between familiar features of religiosity, of mental disorders, and of everyday thinking and action. They contend that much religious thought and behavior can be explained as the cultural activation of our natural cognitive systems, which address matters that are essential to human survival: hazard precautions, agency detection, language processing, and theory of mind. Those systems produce responses to cultural stimuli that may mimic features of cognition and conduct associated with mental disorders, but which are sometimes coded as "religious" depending on the context. The authors examine hallucinations of the voice of God and of other supernatural agents, spiritual depression often described as a "dark night of the soul," religious scrupulosity and compulsiveness, and challenges to theistic cognition that Autistic Spectrum Disorder poses. Their approach promises to shed light on both mental abnormalities and religiosity.

Author: Sanford Goldberg
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317469399
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Gray Matters is a thorough examination of the main topics in recent philosophy of mind. It aims at surveying a broad range of issues, not all of which can be subsumed under one position or one philosopher's theory. In this way, the authors avoid neglecting interesting issues out of allegiance to a given theory of mind.

Author: William E. Lyons
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780748614400
Category : Philosophy of mind
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Written in a clear, non-technical style, this book provides an introduction to the history of philosophy of the mind, from the Cartesian school up until the present time.

Author: Robert N. McCauley
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0190091142
Category : Cognition and culture
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
"McCauley and Graham endorse an Ecumenical Naturalism toward all cognition, which will illuminate the long-recognized and striking similarities between features of mental disorders and features of religions. The authors emphasize underlying cognitive continuities between familiar features of religiosity, of mental disorders, and of everyday thinking and action. They contend that much religious thought and behavior can be explained in terms of the cultural activation of maturationally natural cognitive systems, which address fundamental problems of human survival, encompassing such capacities as hazard precautions, agency detection, language processing, and theory of mind. The associated skills are not taught and appear independent of general intelligence. Religions' representations cue such systems' operations. The authors hypothesize that in doing so they sometimes elicit responses that mimic features of cognition and conduct associated with mental disorders. Both in schizophrenia and in religions some people hear alien voices. The inability of depressed participants to communicate with or sense their religions' powerful, caring gods can exacerbate their depression. Often religions can domesticate the concerns and compulsions of people with OCD. Religions' rituals and pronouncements about moral thought-action fusion can temporarily evoke similar obsessions and compulsions in the general population. A chapter is devoted to each of these and to the exception that proves the rule. The authors argue that if Autistic Spectrum Disorder involves theory of mind deficits, then people with ASD will lack intuitive insight and find inferences with many religious representations challenging. Ecumenical Naturalism's approach to mental abnormalities and religiosity promises both explanatory and therapeutic understanding"--

Author: Daniel M. Wegner
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143110020
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
“Compelling, and so beautifully written…’The Mind Club’ deftly brings the most up-to-date research about other minds to readers of all backgrounds. It may cause you to think differently about crime and punishment, about business transactions and health care, and even about the upcoming elections. Things might just start looking up.”–The Wall Street Journal From dogs to gods, the science of understanding mysterious minds—including your own. Nothing seems more real than the minds of other people. When you consider what your boss is thinking or whether your spouse is happy, you are admitting them into the "mind club." It’s easy to assume other humans can think and feel, but what about a cow, a computer, a corporation? What kinds of mind do they have? Daniel M. Wegner and Kurt Gray are award-winning psychologists who have discovered that minds—while incredibly important—are a matter of perception. Their research opens a trove of new findings, with insights into human behavior that are fascinating, frightening and funny. The Mind Club explains why we love some animals and eat others, why people debate the existence of God so intensely, how good people can be so cruel, and why robots make such poor lovers. By investigating the mind perception of extraordinary targets—animals, machines, comatose people, god—Wegner and Gray explain what it means to have a mind, and why it matters so much. Fusing cutting-edge research and personal anecdotes, The Mind Club explores the moral dimensions of mind perception with wit and compassion, revealing the surprisingly simple basis for what compels us to love and hate, to harm and to protect.