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Fri 6 Jan, 2006 12:24 pm
We have in our Western philosophy a traditional theory of faculty psychology wherein our reasoning is a faculty completely separate from the body. "Reason is seen as independent of perception and bodily movement." It is this capacity of autonomous reason that makes us different in kind from all other animals. I suspect that many fundamental aspects of philosophy and psychology are focused upon declaring, whenever possible, the separateness of our species from all other animals.
This tradition of an autonomous reason began long before evolutionary theory and has held strongly since then without consideration, it seems to me, of the theories of Darwin and of biological science. Cognitive science has in the last three decades developed considerable empirical evidence supporting Darwin and not supporting the traditional theories of philosophy and psychology regarding the autonomy of reason. Cognitive science has focused a great deal of empirical science toward discovering the nature of the embodied mind.
The three major findings of cognitive science are:
The mind is inherently embodied.
Thought is mostly unconscious.
Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.
"These findings of cognitive science are profoundly disquieting [for traditional thinking] in two respects. First, they tell us that human reason is a form of animal reason, a reason inextricably tied to our bodies and the peculiarities of our brains. Second, these results tell us that our bodies, brains, and interactions with our environment provide the mostly unconscious basis for our everyday metaphysics, that is, our sense of what is real."
All living creatures categorize. All creatures, as a minimum, separate eat from no eat and friend from foe. As neural creatures tadpole and wo/man categorize. There are trillions of synaptic connections taking place in the least sophisticated of creatures and this multiple synapses must be organized in some way to facilitate passage through a small number of interconnections and thus categorization takes place. Great numbers of different synapses take place in an experience and these are subsumed in some fashion to provide the category eat or foe perhaps.
Our categories are what we consider to be real in the world: tree, rock, animalÂ…Our concepts are what we use to structure our reasoning about these categories. Concepts are neural structures that are the fundamental means by which we reason about categories.
Quotes from "Philosophy in the Flesh".
P.S If we take a big bite out of reality we will, I think, find that it is multilayered like the onion. There are many domains of knowledge available to us for penetrating those layers of reality. Cognitive science is one that I find to be very interesting.
I like Spinoza's
natura naturans and natura naturata best.
Cognitive science does seem interesting, I must admit this is the first I've heard of it.
It does seem to be attempting to maintain man's penchant to remain in a dualistic frame of mind, against all odds. By denying the previous ages' philosophies and approaches to duality, it is still seems to want to resolve dualism into a mish-mash of impossible singularity.
Although that is just my naive and unlearned immediate impression that I'm voicing--please feel free to inform me further, and I will surely gain some education in the process.
Oh **** son, cognitive science is whatsup.
What do you think the end result would be if we spent time and resources in teaching and stimulating the minds of infants, children, youth and adults. Like I mean, actually did something about it. Intense educational regime. But starting at the basics..the bigger the foundation the bigger the building, so give babies maximum exposure to all things mind stimulating. We're already doin it, with the rise of the teenage generation. Teens are smarter than ever, and thats just a byproduct...imagine if we made it a priority.
My dog has the most fun when he's playing, he's practicing battle skills, essentially his survival skills. Well, I have the most fun when I'm reading...if anyone can extrapolate, you'll find that my theory is that we were always the smart race, now that we're picking up on it, what if we use our smarts to make ourselves smarter....hmmmm....
RoyalesThaRula wrote:
My dog has the most fun when he's playing, he's practicing battle skills, essentially his survival skills. Well, I have the most fun when I'm reading...if anyone can extrapolate, you'll find that my theory is that we were always the smart race, now that we're picking up on it, what if we use our smarts to make ourselves smarter....hmmmm....
I see...I'm getting a better idea of all this. More input, please.
Cognitive science. I've heard of it, but didn't know what it was. Interesting thread.
I think it has been established that higher level thinking is a result of the cerebrum, and that is tied to the lower parts of the brain. They're separate but connected.
Throughout our life we constantly make judgments about such abstract matters as difference, importance, difficulty, and morality, and we have subjective experiences such as affection, desire, love, intimacy and achievement. Cognitive science claims that the manner in which we conceptualize and reason about these matters are determined, to one extinct or another, by sensorimotor domains of experience. CS claims that, in many cases, early experiences of normal mundane manipulations of objects become the prototypes from which these later concrete and abstract judgments are made.
Thanks for the clarification.
Cognitive science argues for an embodied realism as opposed to philosophy's metaphysical realism. Embodied realism provides us with a link between our ideas and the worlds we experience. "Our bodies contribute to our sense of what is real".
Spatial-relations concepts are not part of the world but are embodied and provide us with our ability to make sense of the world. "They characterize what spatial form is and define spatial inference."
Metaphors
Throughout our life we constantly make judgments about such abstract matters as difference, importance, difficulty, and morality, and we have subjective experiences such as affection, desire, love, intimacy and achievement. Cognitive science claims that the manner in which we conceptualize and reason about these matters are determined, to one extinct or another, by sensorimotor domains of experience. CS claims that, in many cases, early experiences of normal mundane manipulations of objects become the prototypes from which these later concrete and abstract judgments are made.CS is claiming that the neural structure of sensorimotor experience is mapped onto the mental space for another experience that is not sensorimotor but subjective and that this neural mapping, which is unconscious and automatic, serves as part of the "DNA" of the subjective experience. The sensorimotor experience serves the role of an axiom for the subjective experience.
Here;s some questions that could be looked at by cognitive scientists. How do we learn. Are there things that we are able to learn at young ages but since we're not exposed to them we don't use them? Like the parts are there in our brain physically, but we dont have the mental interaction needed to stimulate and activate those sectors.
As I understand it the brain has massive numbers of neural cells and many are constantly being destroyed based upon which are used and which are not used. As we progress in age we each become much different in so far as what our number of neural cells we have and how they are interconnected.
Conceptual metaphors are that with which we often use to reason. All of our experience derived in journeys taken, travels planned, goals sought, vehicles controlled and ridden in, and difficulties encountered in an attempt to reach a destination are at our service as we plan a life together with the person we love.
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