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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Philosophy of mind
This book outlines how the protagonists in The Nibelung's Ring, The
Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones attempt to construct
identities and expand their consciousness manifestations. As the
characters in the three works face the ends of their respective
worlds, they must find answers to their mortality, and to the
threat it implies: the loss of identity and consciousness.
Moreover, it details how this process is depicted performatively.
In a hands-on and interdisciplinary approach, this book seeks to
unveil the underlying philosophical concepts of identity and
consciousness in the three works as they are represented
audio-visually on stage and screen. Through the use of many
practical examples, this book offers both academic scholars and any
interested readers a completely new perspective on three enduringly
popular and interrelated works.
This book provides a framework that encompasses both physics and
cognitive science - integrating them into a 'theory of everything'
to establish a basis for both our scientific and humanistic
endeavours. It explores the implications of brain laterality for
understanding the emergence of mind and its relation to the
physical world - arguing that the analytic vs. holistic cognitive
differences of the left and right human cerebral hemispheres are
key to understanding not only human self-consciousness and
language, but also sociocultural phenomena ranging from the
emergence of the scientific method and axes of political
orientation to the direction of development of conceptions of God
and the fundamental differences between polarizing philosophical
traditions. In a further step, the book draws on the Darwinian
principle that our cognitive apparatus is shaped by the environment
in which it evolved to argue that human bilaterality mirrors the
fundamental hylomorphic relation between formal organization and
material components that constitutes physical nature itself. The
logical division between holistic and analytic categories thereby
offers a principled basis for a metaphilosophy.
The first textbook to integrate standard philosophy of mind
approach with developments in psychology, cognitive science and
neuroscience Covers all the essential subjects and topics in
philosophy of mind,such as dualism, materialism, mental
representation, functionalism and mental causation Also discusses
many more recent topics, including infant and animal cognition; the
embodied or 'extended' mind; and consciousness Includes chapter
summaries, further reading, boxes, and notes to help students
Clearly explains the ideas and arguments of leading philosophers of
mind such as Daniel Dennett, Jerry Fodor, Donald Davidson, Hilary
Putnam and Jaegwon Kim
For more than 1800 years it has been supposed that Aristotle viewed
the soul as the entelechy of the visible body which is 'equipped
with organs'. This book argues that in actual fact he saw the soul
as the entelechy of a natural body 'that serves as its instrument'.
This correction puts paid to W. Jaeger's hypothesis of a
three-phase development in Aristotle. The author of this book
defends the unity of Aristotle's philosophy of living nature in De
anima, in the biological treatises, and in the lost dialogues.
Aristotle should therefore be regarded as the author of the notion
of the 'vehicle of the soul' and of a 'non-Platonic' dualism. The
current understanding of his influence on Hellenistic philosophy
needs to change accordingly.
Over the last few years, Raymond Tallis has published widely
acclaimed critiques of influential trends in contemporary thought:
for example, Not Saussure - described as 'one of the most brilliant
and effective of all rebuttals of post-Saussurean theory' - In
Defence of Realism and The Explicit Animal, which demonstrated the
baselessness of contemporary accounts of consciousness. Enemies of
Hope takes the story further, identifying the themes common to
anti-humanist twentieth-century thought and challenging the cult of
pessimism that pervades our age. Tallis teases out the many strands
of the comfortable, self-congratulatory cynicism of modernist and
postmodernist cultural critics, exposing their self-contradictions
and their wilful blindness to the distinctive mystery of human
nature. The 'pathologisers of culture' and 'the marginalisers of
consciousness' are shown to be the enemies of hope - the hope of
progress based upon the rational, conscious endeavours of
humankind. Perceptive, passionate and often controversial, Raymond
Tallis's latest debunking of Kulturkritik explores a host of
ethical and philosophical issues central to contemporary thought,
raising questions we cannot afford to ignore. After reading Enemies
of Hope, those minded to misrepresent mankind in ways that are
almost routine amongst humanist intellectuals may be inclined to
think twice. By clearing away the hysterical anti-humanism of the
twentieth century Enemies of Hope frees us to start thinking
constructively about the way forward for humanity in the
twenty-first.
This Element examines the problem of hospital noise, a problem that
has repeatedly been discovered anew, with each new era bringing its
own efforts to control and abate unwanted sound in healthcare
settings. Why, then, has hospital noise never been resolved? This
question is at the heart of Making Noise in the Modern Hospital,
which brings together histories of the senses, space, technology,
society, medicine and architecture to understand the changing
cacophony of the late twentieth-century British hospital. This
Element is fundamentally interdisciplinary - despite being
historical, it comes up to the present day and brings in
scholarship on space, place, atmosphere and the senses that will
have relevance to scholars working outside of historical research.
The intersection between medical and sensory histories also puts
interdisciplinary research at the Element's core.
The Interactions Between Instinct and Intellect and its Impact on
Human Behavior
Length: 208 pages
Mark Abraham was displeased by the phenomenon of politicking,
although he studied it for a deeper and more accurate understanding
of this fatigued term, "politics," as a major aspect of human
affair. For reasons he could not identify as a student, he was
never satisfied with the prevailing definitions. Thus, he asked his
professors in both undergraduate and graduate school in the
political science department to share their understanding of the
term with him. Each of them seemed to have an understanding
uniquely different from all the rest. Then, he realized that this
was a vaguely understood phenomenon even by the professors in the
field and he relented his efforts and concluded that, "politics,"
was one of the most used but the least understood phenomena. As he
developed his own theories, he formulated that unlike the commonly
perceived concept, politics is not just a profession for the few in
each society, but it is a brand of behavior unique to humans that
starts in early childhood. Thus, he formulated, "to be instinctive
is to be selfish. To be selfish and intelligent is to be political.
Because instincts and intellect are permanent human fixtures,
politicking that results for their cofunction also becomes a
permanent human fixture." This perception justifies Aristotle's
claim that, "man is a political animal." The ultimate objective of
politicking is to impose and thus, he tries to redefine it. He
perceives politicking as a range of complex and manipulative deeds
afforded by people to impose their will and interest on others
against their will and interest. As such, it erodes innocence and
is one of the least desirable of all human attributes.
Yet the selfish nature of all instincts as the driving force
behind politics is the sole force that governs the world of
animals, thus politicking becomes the refined reflection of animals
in man. Where animals use fangs, claws, venom, speed and brute
force to subdue and devour their pray, humans apply politics that
includes the use of brute force. Misconceiving this term greatly
contributes to human conflicts at all levels, which is why most
people unconsciously dislike politicking and politics worldwide.
Modern study of the mind is marked by the hegemony of thought,
dominance of consciousness, and dictate of deliberation that result
in an overwhelming intellectualism. However, it ignores the
fundamental fact that by far most of our mental activity is not
manifested in explicit reasoning, and is mostly not conscious. What
then enables our successful participation in the natural, social,
and cultural surroundings without recourse to the 'higher'
cognitive processes? The background. It is the implicit and
efficacious guide in human coping with the world without the
monitoring reason. Yet how rules turn into routines? How conscious
efforts convert into unreflective skills? How does the body of
knowledge become the knowing body? How can most complex reactions
of the human mind turn into 'just doing'? The lesson from the
background teaches us that we are capacitated to do more than we
explicitly know; the sort of knowledge is skilled and automated
competence which is there before the conscious 'self' can report of
its emergence.
"Making the Human Mind" is an attack on the widespread assumption that the mind has parts and that it is the interaction between these parts which accounts for some of the most characteristic human behaviour, the sorts of irrational behaviour displayed in self-deception and weakness of will.;The implications of this attack are considerable: Professor Sharpe contests a realism about the mind, the belief that there is an inventory which an all-seeing deity could compile and which could contain answers to all the questions we could ask about people. With this goes a hermeneutic approach to the understanding of human behaviour: these forms of understanding are markedly different from that suggested by the scientific model and favoured by those who partition the mind.;Finally, the author undermines eliminative materialism and the idea that the way we talk about the mind constitutes a "folk psychology", arguing that what is distinctively human about the human mind has been created by self-consciousness and is self-created.
Looks at the history and origins of celibacy, discusses its role in
the priesthood, and considers the psychological aspects of
celibacy.
The concept of affordances is being increasingly used in fields
beyond ecological psychology to reveal previously unexplored
interdisciplinary relationships. These fields include engineering,
robotics, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, urban theory,
architecture, computer science, and much more. As the concept is
adapted for its relational meaning between an agent and the
environment, or object, the meaning of the term has changed to fit
the customs of the adapting field. This book maps the different
shades of the term and brings insights into how it is
operationalized by providing short accessible essays regardless of
background. Each contribution addresses big questions around this
topic such as the application of the concept on ongoing research,
how to measure or identify affordances, as well as other reflective
questions about the future of affordances in the field. The book is
envisioned to be read by non-experts, students, and researchers
from several disciplines, and fills the need for summarization
across disciplines. As the many adaptations flourished from the
same psychological concept, this book also aims to function as a
catalyst and motivation for reinterpreting the concepts for new
directions. Compared to existing books, this book aims not to span
the vertical dimension of field by taking a deep dive into a
niche-field-instead, this book aims to have a wide horizontal span
highlighting a common concept shared by an increasing number of
fields, namely affordances. As such, this book takes a different
approach by attempting to summarize the different emerging
applications and definitions of the concept, and make them
accessible to non-experts, students, and researchers regardless of
background and level.
Kant is generally conceived to have offered little attention to the
fact that we experience the world in and through our bodies. This
book argues that this standard image of the great German
philosopher is radically wrong. Not only does Kant - throughout his
career and in works published before and after the Critique of pure
reason - reflect constantly upon the fact that human life is
embodied, but the Critique of pure reason itself may be read as a
critical reflection aimed at exploring some significant
philosophical implications of this fact. Bringing this aspect of
Kant's philosophy into focus is important, not only because it
sheds new light on our understanding of Kant's work, but also
because it is relevant to contemporary discussions in philosophy
about embodiment, learning and practice. By taking his philosophy
of embodiment into account, the author makes Kant stand out as a
true contemporary in new and unexpected ways.
In this book, Shay Welch expands on the contemporary cognitive
thinking-in-movement framework, which has its roots in the work of
Maxine Sheets-Johnstone but extends and develops within
contemporary embodied cognition theory. Welch believes that dance
can be used to ask questions, and this book offers a method of how
critical inquiry can be embodied. First, she presents the
theoretical underpinnings of what this process is and how it can
work; second, she introduces the empirical method as a tool that
can be used by movers for the purpose of doing embodied inquiry.
Exploring the role of embodied cognition and embodied metaphors in
mining the body for questions, Welch demonstrates how to utilize
movement to explore embodied practices of knowing. She argues that
our creative embodied movements facilitate our ability to bodily
engage in critical analysis about the world.
A World for Us aims to refute physical realism and establish in its
place a form of idealism. Physical realism, in the sense in which
John Foster understands it, takes the physical world to be
something whose existence is both logically independent of the
human mind and metaphysically fundamental. Foster identifies a
number of problems for this realist view, but his main objection is
that it does not accord the world the requisite empirical
immanence. The form of idealism that he tries to establish in its
place rejects the realist view in both its aspects. It takes the
world to be something whose existence is ultimately constituted by
facts about human sensory experience, or by some richer complex of
non-physical facts in which such experiential facts centrally
feature. Foster calls this phenomenalistic idealism. He tries to
establish a specific version of such phenomenalistic idealism, in
which the experiential facts that centrally feature in the
constitutive creation of the world are ones that concern the
organization of human sensory experience. The basic idea of this
version is that, in the context of certain other constitutively
relevant factors, this sensory organization creates the physical
world by disposing things to appear systematically world-wise at
the human empirical viewpoint. Chief among these other relevant
factors is the role of God as the one who is responsible for the
sensory organization and ordains the system of appearance it
yields. It is this that gives the idealistically created world its
objectivity and allows it to qualify as a real world.
This book explains that while posthumanism rose in opposition to
the biblical contention that 'Man was created in the image of God',
transhumanism ascertained the complementary view that 'Man has been
assigned dominion over all creatures', further exploring a path
that had been opened up by the Enlightenment's notion of human
perfectibility. It explains also how posthumanism and transhumanism
relate to deconstruction theory, and on a broader level to
capitalism, libertarianism, and the fight against human extinction
which may involve trespassing the boundary of the skin, achieving
individual immortality or dematerialization of the Self and
colonisation of distant planets and stars. Two authors debate about
truth and reason in today's world, the notion of personhood and the
legacy of the Nietzschean Superhuman in the current varieties of
anti-humanism.
Oxford Studies in Metaethics is the only publication devoted
exclusively to original philosophical work in the foundations of
ethics. It provides an annual selection of much of the best new
scholarship being done in the field. Its broad purview includes
work being done at the intersections of ethical theory with
metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of language, and philosophy
of mind. The essays included in the series provide an excellent
basis for understanding recent developments in the field; those who
would like to acquaint themselves with the current state of play in
metaethics would do well to start here.
Ordering Emotions in Europe, 1100-1800 investigates how emotions
were conceptualised and practised in the medieval and early modern
period, as they ordered systems of thought and practice-from
philosophy and theology, music and literature, to science and
medicine. Analysing discursive, psychic and bodily dimensions of
emotions as they were experienced, performed and narrated, authors
explore how emotions were understood to interact with more abstract
intellectual capacities in producing systems of thought, and how
these key frameworks of the medieval and early modern period were
enacted by individuals as social and emotional practices, acts and
experiences of everyday life. Contributors are: Han Baltussen,
Susan Broomhall, Louis C. Charland, Louise D'Arcens, Raphaele
Garrod, Yasmin Haskell, Danijela Kambaskovic, Clare Monagle,
Juanita Feros Ruys, Francois Soyer, Robert Weston, Carol J.
Williams, R.S. White, and Spencer E. Young.
Ervin Laszlo's tour de force, What is Reality?, is the product of a
half-century of deep contemplation and cutting-edge scholarship.
Addressing many of the paradoxes that have confounded modern
science over the years, it offers nothing less than a new paradigm
of reality, one in which the cosmos is a seamless whole, informed
by a single, coherent consciousness manifest in us all. Bringing
together science, philosophy, and metaphysics, Laszlo takes aim at
accepted wisdom, such as the dichotomies of mind and body, spirit
and matter, being and nonbeing, to show how we are all part of an
infinite cycle of existence unfolding in spacetime and beyond.
Augmented by insightful commentary from a dozen scholars and
thinkers, along with a foreword by Deepak Chopra and an
introduction by Stanislav Grof, What is Reality? offers a fresh and
liberating understanding of the meaning and purpose of existence.
In recent research, dual-process theories of cognition have been
the primary model for explaining moral judgment and reasoning.
These theories understand moral thinking in terms of two separate
domains: one deliberate and analytic, the other quick and
instinctive. This book presents a new theory of the philosophy and
cognitive science of moral judgment. Hanno Sauer develops and
defends an account of "triple-process" moral psychology, arguing
that moral thinking and reasoning are only insufficiently
understood when described in terms of a quick but intuitive and a
slow but rational type of cognition. This approach severely
underestimates the importance and impact of dispositions to
initiate and engage in critical thinking - the cognitive resource
in charge of counteracting my-side bias, closed-mindedness,
dogmatism, and breakdowns of self-control. Moral cognition is
based, not on emotion and reason, but on an integrated network of
intuitive, algorithmic and reflective thinking. Moral Thinking,
Fast and Slow will be of great interest to philosophers and
students of ethics, philosophy of psychology and cognitive science.
John Perry offers a rethinking of Gottlob Frege's seminal
contributions to philosophy of language. Frege's innovations
provided the basis of modern logic, but his influence in other
areas should not be understated. For instance, the view that he
developed in "On Sense and Reference", the most studied essay in
the philosophy of language, dominated twentieth-century work in the
field and continues to be very influential. Perry explains and
charts the development of Frege's views in this area, and argues
that his doctrine of indirect reference directed philosophy of
language on a long detour from which only now can we emerge. Perry
advocates a move away from indirect reference and presents an
alternative framework which does not require the abandoning of
circumstances in the references of sentences.
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