It's a philosopher's job to tell people how to live

That may be so.

But from what you've said of it it sounds like an attempt to map the aspects and functions of thought in order to realize potential. But I get the impression you're trying to pass it off as something more.

Also, you have never answered any of my attempts to clarify this with something that might actually be helpfull.

But Wikipedia has this to say about it, (and more)..

"Critical thinking consists of a mental process of analyzing or evaluating information, particularly statements or propositions that people have offered as true. It forms a process of reflecting upon the meaning of statements, examining the offered evidence and reasoning, and forming judgments about the facts.

Critical thinkers can gather such information from observation, experience, reasoning, and/or communication. Critical thinking has its basis in intellectual values that go beyond subject-matter divisions and which include: clarity, accuracy, precision, evidence, thoroughness and fairness."

So it is really nothing more than basic human skills. I can understand how someone might need a book on it, like some need training of motoric skills, but I would not shout it out to the world.

BTW coberst,

Your own grasp of "cognitive science" is somewhat idiosyncratic. Have a look at Piaget, Bateson and Capra for a more comprehensive background to the predominance of "action". You need also be wary of "neural correlates" because nobody really knows how neurons "work". There's even speculation that synaptic distances are small enough to be analysed in terms of quantum theory (see e.g Hammeroff).

(.....merely a rejoinder from a former researcher in cognitive science and a part-time salesman :wink: )

fresco wrote:


That's interesting.

After viewing a documentary about M theory I started wondering if these 7 extra dimensions (or at least some of them) might be non-physical or non-local dimensions such as that of our mental landscape...

With your common sense suspended, on what basis do you judge the merit of these other world views?

Fresco

"Philosophy in the Flesh" is introducing a revolutionary idea about the nature of mind. They are introducing a possible first paradigm for cognitive science.

The definitions you get for cognitive science from the names you mentioned are speaking about AI. Cognitive science began in the fifties with AI as a possible first paradigm but the enthusiasm for AI is waining rapidly.

Shapless says--"With your common sense suspended, on what basis do you judge the merit of these other world views?"

I do not mean that you turn into a zombie. We all walk around with a comonsense attitude about reality. If we are to learn something new we must not close our eyes to something new because we have always believed other things.

most interesting, indeed, but i'm neither physicist nor mathematician so have no way of knowing if your speculation has any plausibility.
incidentally, i thought of a neat counterexample to an earlier assertion that English speakers think in English. they generally don't think in any language while contemplating a move in a chess game, if they happen to be good players. chess is a good example of visual/non-verbal thinking.

coberst wrote:


As I've said before, I do not credit this "sleepwalking" to the school system or any educational dogma. All that is merely information.

I think it has more to do with iPods and internet and the growing mountan of videogames and DVD's that are so efficient in taking our minds of "things".

To some people thinking is like stabbing yourself with a knife, and to most it is something limited to bare neccesity. God knows why that is so. Anyway, you don't get someone to do what they don't want to just by showing them how to do it right...

Personally I admire the capacity for trust of those who do not question their existence, and I think that it is wrong to assume that there is a lack of value in their lives, as I've sometimes gotten the impression that you are insinuating.

yitwail wrote:


Another example is playing an instrument. Some learn by notation, and some of them are unable to relate to the notes save through reading them.
Others learn by hearing, and to them it is an additional task to consider the notation. They think in sound, not symbols.

yes, and the appeal and function of music has to be one of the mysteries of the human mind. i think it's too simplistic simply to assert that musical ability was sexually selected, because of the apparent vast variation in musical talent between individuals, as compared to, say singing ability among male canaries. music seems to be another topic not addressed by Lakoff & Johnson, not to mention humor, another variant of thought that i think can go beyond language.

Cyracuz and yitwail,

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/presentations/whatisconsciousness.html

coberst,

You wrote.

The definitions you get for cognitive science from the names you mentioned are speaking about AI.

I suggest you have a bit more reading to do !

fresco, neat site! and it mentions free will!

will comment when i've digested it. seems to me that coberst was describing a computational model of the brain, which your site claims are inadequate, but that's just a guess, not having read his referenced work.

Yes, interesting site. But it's going to take a while..

I ran a search on quantum consciousness in wikipedia, and found this:

"The nature of consciousness and its place in the universe remain unknown. Classical models view consciousness as computation among the brain's neurons but as yet have failed to describe an exact mechanism. Quantum processes in the brain have been invoked as explanations for consciousness and its enigmatic features. Some theories have been subjected to experimental tests and evidence indicating that quantum non-locality is occurring in conscious and subconscious brain functions has been claimed, however these results have not gained wide acceptance."

A facinating idea. The question of exactly where my "thoughts" are has occupied me for some time. Quantum consciousness is an all new approach to me.