Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind

Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind PDF Author: William L. Abler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
"Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind provides a complete, clear, unified theory of the foundations of mathematics, language, and the human mind. Mind in the human sense is no longer distinguished by a few chance details of zoological classification, but, like physics, is based directly in first principles. Because sentences share all functional mechanisms with equations - a main verb, linguistic deep-structure, recursion, discretencess, linear delivery, truth and falsity - language shares a common source with arithmetic and algebra. Because truth or falsity of equations depends on their symmetry about the "equals", equations are self-regulating, not arbitrary, and reflect the founding properties of matter. Sentences of ordinary language are formed from equations by the turning of a single key - that of symmetry - unlocking the human mind into the fascinating non-Euclidean world of 21[superscript st] century physics and beyond."--BOOK JACKET.

Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind

Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind PDF Author: William L. Abler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Structure of Matter, Structure of Mind provides a complete, clear, unified theory of the foundations of mathematics, language, and the human mind. Mind in the human sense is no longer distinguished by a few chance details of zoological classification, but, like physics, is based directly in first principles. Because sentences share all functional mechanisms with equations - a main verb, linguistic deep-structure, recursion, discretencess, linear delivery, truth and falsity - language shares a common source with arithmetic and algebra. Because truth or falsity of equations depends on their symmetry about the "equals", equations are self-regulating, not arbitrary, and reflect the founding properties of matter. Sentences of ordinary language are formed from equations by the turning of a single key - that of symmetry - unlocking the human mind into the fascinating non-Euclidean world of 21[superscript st] century physics and beyond."--BOOK JACKET.

Brain, Mind, and the Structure of Reality

Brain, Mind, and the Structure of Reality PDF Author: Paul L. Nunez
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199914648
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 317

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Book Description
Does the brain create the mind, or is some external entity involved? This book synthesizes ideas borrowed from philosophy, religion, and science. Topics range widely from brain imagining of thought processes to quantum mechanics and the essential role of information in brains and physical systems.

Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind

Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind PDF Author: William Jaworski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198749562
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind is the first book to show how hylomorphism can be used to solve mind-body problems--persistent problems understanding how thought, feeling, perception, and other mental phenomena fit into the physical world described by our best science. Hylomorphism claims that structure is a basic ontological and explanatory principle. Some individuals, paradigmatically living things, consist of materials that are structured or organized in various ways. Those structures are responsible for individuals being the kinds of things they are, and having the kinds of powers or capacities they have. From a hylomorphic perspective, mind-body problems are byproducts of a worldview that rejects structure. Hylomorphic structure carves out distinctive individuals from the otherwise undifferentiated sea of matter and energy described by our best physics, and it confers on those individuals distinctive powers, including the powers to think, feel, and perceive. A worldview that rejects hylomorphic structure lacks a basic principle which distinguishes the parts of the physical universe that can think, feel, and perceive from those that can't, and without such a principle, the existence of those powers in the physical world can start to look inexplicable and mysterious. But if mental phenomena are structural phenomena, as hylomorphism claims, then they are uncontroversially part of the physical world, for on the hylomorphic view, structure is uncontroversially part of the physical world. Hylomorphism thus provides an elegant way of solving mind-body problems.

Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind

Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind PDF Author: William Jaworski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191066494
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Structure and the Metaphysics of Mind is the first book to show how hylomorphism can be used to solve mind-body problems—persistent problems understanding how thought, feeling, perception, and other mental phenomena fit into the physical world described by our best science. Hylomorphism claims that structure is a basic ontological and explanatory principle. Some individuals, paradigmatically living things, consist of materials that are structured or organized in various ways. Those structures are responsible for individuals being the kinds of things they are, and having the kinds of powers or capacities they have. From a hylomorphic perspective, mind-body problems are byproducts of a worldview that rejects structure. Hylomorphic structure carves out distinctive individuals from the otherwise undifferentiated sea of matter and energy described by our best physics, and it confers on those individuals distinctive powers, including the powers to think, feel, and perceive. A worldview that rejects hylomorphic structure lacks a basic principle which distinguishes the parts of the physical universe that can think, feel, and perceive from those that can't, and without such a principle, the existence of those powers in the physical world can start to look inexplicable and mysterious. But if mental phenomena are structural phenomena, as hylomorphism claims, then they are uncontroversially part of the physical world, for on the hylomorphic view, structure is uncontroversially part of the physical world. Hylomorphism thus provides an elegant way of solving mind-body problems.

A Neurocomputational Perspective

A Neurocomputational Perspective PDF Author: Paul M. Churchland
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262531061
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
"A Bradford book."Includes index. Bibliography: p. [305]-313.

Basic Structures of Reality

Basic Structures of Reality PDF Author: Colin McGinn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199909539
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
In Basic Structures of Reality, Colin McGinn deals with questions of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind from the vantage point of physics. Combining general philosophy with physics, he covers such topics as the definition of matter, the nature of space, motion, gravity, electromagnetic fields, the character of physical knowledge, and consciousness and meaning. Throughout, McGinn maintains an historical perspective and seeks to determine how much we really know of the world described by physics. He defends a version of "structuralism": the thesis that our knowledge is partial and merely abstract, leaving a large epistemological gap at the center of physics. McGinn then connects this element of mystery to parallel mysteries in relation to the mind. Consciousness emerges as just one more mystery of physics. A theory of matter and space is developed, according to which the impenetrability of matter is explained as the deletion of volumes of space. McGinn proposes a philosophy of science that distinguishes physics from both psychology and biology, explores the ontology of energy, and considers the relevance of physics to seemingly remote fields such as the theory of meaning. In the form of a series of aphorisms, the author presents a metaphysical system that takes laws of nature as fundamental. With its broad scope and deep study of the fundamental questions at the heart of philosophy of physics, this book is not intended primarily for specialists, but for the general philosophical reader interested in how physics and philosophy intersect.

A Physicist's View of Matter and Mind

A Physicist's View of Matter and Mind PDF Author: Chandre Dharma-wardana
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814425427
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 518

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Book Description
This is a highly interdisciplinary book straddling physics and complex systems such as living organisms. The presentation is from the perspective of physics, in a manner accessible to those interested in scientific knowledge integrated within its socio-cultural and philosophical backgrounds. Two key areas of human understanding, namely physics and conscious complex systems, are presented in simple language. An optional technical presentation is also given in parallel where it is needed.

Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind Volume 3

Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind Volume 3 PDF Author:
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198879466
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Mind presents cutting-edge work in the philosophy of mind, combining invited articles and articles selected from submissions. Each volume will highlight two themes to bring focus to debates. The series will reflect the diversity of methods adopted in contemporary philosophy of mind and provide a venue for rigorous and innovative work by both established and up-and-coming voices in the field. The themes covered in the third volume are mind and science, sensory experience, and the philosophy of mind of Margaret Cavendish and C.A. Strong. It also contains a book symposium on David Papineau's The Metaphysics of Sensory Experience.

Energy and Structure

Energy and Structure PDF Author: Richard Newbold Adams
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292762224
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
All social structures are essentially power structures dependent on energy. The concept of power and the role of energy in social organization are crucial and timely concerns, especially in light of the current apprehension about future energy resources. In Energy and Structure, Richard N. Adams argues that social power affects humanity's approach to ecological, economic, and political problems, directing people to seek solutions that are often deceptively shortsighted. Adams, an anthropologist, proposes that social power is directly derived from control over energy processes. He identifies how power and mentalistic structures constitute fundamental determinants that shape the lives of people at all stages of cultural development, forcing them to accept alternatives often far removed from their desires. His central thesis is that the amount of power in any system varies with the amount of control exercised over the environment and that increasing power and control lead to increasing centralization of decision-making, social marginalization, and environmental despoliation. Thus the more highly developed societies, by virtue of their greater controls, are responsible for the greater ultimate subordination and destruction of human potential, as humanity combines technological advances with a growing inability to exercise good judgment with respect to our own survival. Energy and Structure begins with an examination of the basic theory of social power—what it is and how it works. Adams defines and differentiates between the concepts of power and control, authority and legitimacy, power domains and levels. He then examines the underlying metatheory of energetic and mentalistic structures and provides an analytic model of the evolution of power, from the primitive band to modern nations. He predicts the emergence of supranational blocs and discusses other future possibilities. Throughout, his theoretical points are solidly supported by examples drawn from a wide range of cultures.

The Structure of Intelligence

The Structure of Intelligence PDF Author: Ben Goertzel
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146124336X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
0. 0 Psychology versus Complex Systems Science Over the last century, psychology has become much less of an art and much more of a science. Philosophical speculation is out; data collection is in. In many ways this has been a very positive trend. Cognitive science (Mandler, 1985) has given us scientific analyses of a variety of intelligent behaviors: short-term memory, language processing, vision processing, etc. And thanks to molecular psychology (Franklin, 1985), we now have a rudimentary understanding of the chemical processes underlying personality and mental illness. However, there is a growing feeling-particularly among non-psychologists (see e. g. Sommerhoff, 1990) - that, with the new emphasis on data collection, something important has been lost. Very little attention is paid to the question of how it all fits together. The early psychologists, and the classical philosophers of mind, were concerned with the general nature of mentality as much as with the mechanisms underlying specific phenomena. But the new, scientific psychology has made disappointingly little progress toward the resolution of these more general questions. One way to deal with this complaint is to dismiss the questions themselves. After all, one might argue, a scientific psychology cannot be expected to deal with fuzzy philosophical questions that probably have little empirical signifi cance. It is interesting that behaviorists and cognitive scientists tend to be in agreement regarding the question of the overall structure of the mind.