Author: Dr. Angell O. de la Sierra, Esq.
Publisher: WestBow Press
ISBN: 1466949007
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 1079
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Book Description
I would like to invite all those studious of the mind/brain interface puzzle to share our insights. What follows represents an ongoing series of reflections on the ontology of consciousness based on some intuitions on life, language acquisition and survival strategies to accommodate the biological, psychic and social imperatives of human life in its ecological niche, thus the BPS model. For the latest publication click on BPS Model. http://www.delaSierra-Sheffer.net/ID-Neurophilo-net/index.htm
Author: Patricia Smith Churchland
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262530859
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 566
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Book Description
"A Bradford book." Bibliography: p. [491]-523. Includes index.
Author: Patricia S. Churchland
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691180970
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
A provocative new account of how morality evolved What is morality? Where does it come from? And why do most of us heed its call most of the time? In Braintrust, neurophilosophy pioneer Patricia Churchland argues that morality originates in the biology of the brain. She describes the "neurobiological platform of bonding" that, modified by evolutionary pressures and cultural values, has led to human styles of moral behavior. The result is a provocative genealogy of morals that asks us to reevaluate the priority given to religion, absolute rules, and pure reason in accounting for the basis of morality. Moral values, Churchland argues, are rooted in a behavior common to all mammals—the caring for offspring. The evolved structure, processes, and chemistry of the brain incline humans to strive not only for self-preservation but for the well-being of allied selves—first offspring, then mates, kin, and so on, in wider and wider "caring" circles. Separation and exclusion cause pain, and the company of loved ones causes pleasure; responding to feelings of social pain and pleasure, brains adjust their circuitry to local customs. In this way, caring is apportioned, conscience molded, and moral intuitions instilled. A key part of the story is oxytocin, an ancient body-and-brain molecule that, by decreasing the stress response, allows humans to develop the trust in one another necessary for the development of close-knit ties, social institutions, and morality. A major new account of what really makes us moral, Braintrust challenges us to reconsider the origins of some of our most cherished values.
Author: Jonathan O. Chimakonam
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3030142620
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 107
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Book Description
This book introduces concepts in philosophy of mind and neurophilosophy. Inside, three scholars offer approaches to the problems of identity, consciousness, and the mind. In the process, they open new vistas for thought and raise fresh controversies to some of the oldest problems in philosophy. The first chapter focuses on the identity problem. The author employs an explanatory model he christened sense-phenomenalism to defend the thesis that personal identity is something or a phenomenon that pertains to the observable/perceptible aspect of the human person. The next chapter explores the problem of consciousness. It deploys the new concept equiphenomenalism as a model to show that mental properties are not by-products but necessary products of consciousness. Herein, the notion of qualia is a fundamental and necessary product that must be experienced simultaneously with neural activities for consciousness to be possible. The last chapter addresses the mind/body problem. It adopts the new concept proto-phenomenalism as an alternative explanatory model. This model eliminates the idea of a mind. As such, it approaches the mind-body problem from a materialistic point of view with many implications such as, the meaning(lessness) of our existence, the possibility of thought engineering as well as religious implications.
Author: M. R. Bennett
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9781405108553
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 461
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Book Description
Writing from a scientifically and philosophically informed perspective, the authors provide a critical overview of the conceptual difficulties encountered in many current neuroscientific and psychological theories.
Author: Dr. Angell O. de la Sierra
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 1466978562
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 145
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Book Description
In this continuation of our speculations and conjectures about brain dynamics as it pertains the attainment of the introspective self conscious state and the concomitant brain proto language faculty activation -both sine qua non antecedents to the decision making process- we are now trying to get a clearer picture about what seems to our species confusion of consciously experiencing two simultaneous but opposing perspectives of the same existential 4-d reality and how it may impact the conscious free judgment on the priority to be assigned to any important and relevant issue to the human species. Which one should we adopt to guide our lives today and the day after tomorrow? Of course we are more concerned with the above average responsible citizen looking beyond the conveniences of a quotidian hedonistic Sartrean existentialism where pleasurable enjoyment is routinely satisfied ahead of known but ignored necessities for the lasting survival of the human species generations ahead. How can we reconcile these seemingly opposing views we need to take into account? This realistic approach is called compromise, hybridization or complementarity and the assumption that hidden variables -if any- beyond human brain phenomenological or combinatorial threshold would always bring Heisenberg-type uncertainties to reckon with. These can be either the choice of exclusive biopsychosocial (BPS) imperatives for any living species survival as opposed to the altruistic, spiritual life against self interests of the historical prophets or the more familiar Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen (EPR) complementarities between the position of a particulate object of mass (m) and its momentum when we try to measure them. Likewise for energy and time. Underlying these seemingly opposite/contrasting appearances are subthreshold physical interactions. These considerations force you to adopt a quantum statistical probabilistic view of reality relying on falsifiability, predictability and mathematical logic manipulations of symbolic representations of measurable/observed facts. But when it comes to human judgments these coexisting complementarities, i.e., the subconscious species survival BPS imperative drives we share with other evolved species to stay alive now and then and the conscious species survival across generations sacrifices a few were willing to endure against self interest, resist being framed into coherent rules of metaphysical logic for analysis..
Author: Stanislas Dehaene
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698151402
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
WINNER OF THE 2014 BRAIN PRIZE From the acclaimed author of Reading in the Brain and How We Learn, a breathtaking look at the new science that can track consciousness deep in the brain How does our brain generate a conscious thought? And why does so much of our knowledge remain unconscious? Thanks to clever psychological and brain-imaging experiments, scientists are closer to cracking this mystery than ever before. In this lively book, Stanislas Dehaene describes the pioneering work his lab and the labs of other cognitive neuroscientists worldwide have accomplished in defining, testing, and explaining the brain events behind a conscious state. We can now pin down the neurons that fire when a person reports becoming aware of a piece of information and understand the crucial role unconscious computations play in how we make decisions. The emerging theory enables a test of consciousness in animals, babies, and those with severe brain injuries. A joyous exploration of the mind and its thrilling complexities, Consciousness and the Brain will excite anyone interested in cutting-edge science and technology and the vast philosophical, personal, and ethical implications of finally quantifying consciousness.
Author: Patrick McNamara
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139483560
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 319
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Book Description
Technical advances in the life and medical sciences have revolutionised our understanding of the brain, while the emerging disciplines of social, cognitive, and affective neuroscience continue to reveal the connections of the higher cognitive functions and emotional states associated with religious experience to underlying brain states. At the same time, a host of developing theories in psychology and anthropology posit evolutionary explanations for the ubiquity and persistence of religious beliefs and the reports of religious experiences across human cultures, while gesturing toward physical bases for these behaviours. What is missing from this literature is a strong voice speaking to these behavioural and social scientists - as well as to the intellectually curious in the religious studies community - from the perspective of a brain scientist.
Author: Catherine Malabou
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
ISBN: 0823229548
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 119
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Book Description
Recent neuroscience, in replacing the old model of the brain as a single centralized source of control, has emphasized plasticity,the quality by which our brains develop and change throughout the course of our lives. Our brains exist as historical products, developing in interaction with themselves and with their surroundings.Hence there is a thin line between the organization of the nervous system and the political and social organization that both conditions and is conditioned by human experience. Looking carefully at contemporary neuroscience, it is hard not to notice that the new way of talking about the brain mirrors the management discourse of the neo-liberal capitalist world in which we now live, with its talk of decentralization, networks, and flexibility. Consciously or unconsciously, science cannot but echo the world in which it takes place.In the neo-liberal world, plasticitycan be equated with flexibility-a term that has become a buzzword in economics and management theory. The plastic brain would thus represent just another style of power, which, although less centralized, is still a means of control. In this book, Catherine Malabou develops a second, more radical meaning for plasticity. Not only does plasticity allow our brains to adapt to existing circumstances, it opens a margin of freedom to intervene, to change those very circumstances. Such an understanding opens up a newly transformative aspect of the neurosciences.In insisting on this proximity between the neurosciences and the social sciences, Malabou applies to the brain Marx's well-known phrase about history: people make their own brains, but they do not know it. This book is a summons to such knowledge.
Author: Aldrich Chan
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324015985
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Clinical musings on the nature of reality and “known experience.” Therapists must rely on their clients’ reporting of experience in order to assess, treat, and offer help. Yet we all experience the world through various filters of one sort or another, and our experiences are transformed through several nonconscious processes before reaching our conscious awareness. Science, philosophy, and wisdom traditions share the belief that our awareness is very restricted. How, then, can anyone accurately report their experience, let alone get help with it? Neuropsychologist Aldrich Chan examines how our experience of reality is assembled and shaped by biological, psychological, sociocultural, and existential processes. Each chapter explores processes within these domains that may act as “veils.” Topics in the book include: the default mode network, cognitive distortions, decision-making heuristics, the interconnected mind, memory, and cultural concepts of distress. By understanding the ways in which reality can be distorted, clinicians can more effectively help their clients reach their personal psychotherapeutic goals.
