Brain-Mind

From Neurons to Consciousness and Creativity

Paul Thagard (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

338 Seiten

2021
Oxford University Press Inc (Verlag)
978-0-19-761859-2 (ISBN)

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How do brains make minds? Paul Thagard's Brain-Mind presents a unified, brain-based theory of cognition and emotion with applications to the most complex kinds of thinking, right up to consciousness and creativity. Neural mechanisms are used to explain mental operations for analogy, action, intention, language, and the self.

How do brains make minds? Paul Thagard presents a unified, brain-based theory of cognition and emotion with applications to the most complex kinds of thinking, right up to consciousness and creativity. Neural mechanisms are used to explain mental operations for analogy, action, intention, language, and the self.

Brain-Mind develops a brilliant account of mental operations using promising new ideas from theoretical neuroscience. Single neurons cannot do much by themselves, but groups of neurons work together to accomplish powerful kinds of mental representation, including concepts, images, and rules.

Minds enable people to perceive, imagine, solve problems, understand, learn, speak, reason, create, and be emotional and conscious. Competing explanations of how the mind works have identified it as soul, computer, brain, dynamical system, or social construction. This book explains minds in terms of interacting mechanisms operating at multiple levels, including the social, mental, neural, and molecular. Unification comes from systematic application of Chris Eliasmith's powerful Semantic Pointer Architecture, a highly original synthesis of neural network and symbolic ideas about how the mind works.

This book belongs to a trio that includes Mind-Society: From Brains to Social Sciences and Professions and Natural Philosophy: From Social Brains to Knowledge, Reality, Morality, and Beauty. They can be read independently, but together they make up a Treatise on Mind and Society that provides a unified and comprehensive treatment of the cognitive sciences, social sciences, professions, and humanities.

Paul Thagard is a distinguished philosopher and cognitive scientist who has written many books, including The Brain and the Meaning of Life (Princeton University Press, 2010) and The Cognitive Science of Science (MIT Press, 2012). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Cognitive Science Society, and the Association for Psychological Science.

Preface

Acknowledgments

1. What are Minds?

Why Minds Matter
What are Minds?
Cognitive Science
Representations and Processes
Mechanisms
Looking Ahead
Summary
Notes to Chapter 1: Minds

2. How Brains Make Minds

Why Brains Matter to Mind and Society
Thinking with Cells
Neurons
Neural Groups
Combining Neural Representations
Semantic Pointers
The Semantic Pointer Architecture
Innateness versus Learning
Summary and Discussion
Appendix: Details and Comparisons
Notes to Chapter 2: Brains

3. Perception and Imagery

Why Perception and Imagery Matter to Mind and Society
From Sensation to Perception to Imagery
External Senses
Internal Senses
Imagery
Mental Mechanisms for Imagery
Neural Mechanisms for Imagery
Uses of Imagery
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 3: Perception

4. Concepts

Why Concepts Matter to Mind and Society
Theories of Concepts
Neural Mechanisms for Concepts
Uses of Concepts
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 4: Concepts

5. Rules

Why Rules Matter to Mind and Society
Mental Mechanisms for Rules
Neural Mechanisms for Rules
Uses of Rules
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 5: Rules

6. Analogies

Why Analogies Matter to Mind and Society
Mental Mechanisms for Analogy
Neural Mechanisms for Analogy
Uses of Analogies
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 6: Analogies

7. Emotions

Why Emotions Matter to Mind and Society
Psychological Theories of Emotion
Neural Mechanisms for Emotions
Uses of Emotions
How Emotions Change
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 7: Emotions

8. Consciousness

Why Consciousness Matters to Mind and Society
Psychological Theories of Consciousness
Neural Mechanisms for Consciousness
Uses of Consciousness
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 8: Consciousness

9. Action and Intention

Why Actions Matter to Mind and Society
Psychological Theories of Action, Intention, and Will
Neural Mechanisms for Action and Intention
Uses of Action and Intention
The Will
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 9: Action

10. Language

Why Language Matters to Mind and Society
Syntax First: Chomsky
Integrating Syntax, Semantics, and Phonology
Meaning
Conceptual Blending
Metaphor
Innateness and Language Learning
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 10: Language

11. Creativity

Why Creativity Matters to Mind and Society
What is Creativity?
Images
Concepts
Rules
Procedural Creativity
Analogies and Metaphors
Emotions
Case Study: CRISPR/Cas9
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 11: Creativity

12. The Self

Why the Self Matters to Mind and Society
What is the Self?
Semantic Pointers for Self-Representation
Semantic Pointer Mechanisms for Self-Effecting and Self-Changing
Multilevel Systems
Molecular Mechanisms
Social Mechanisms
Summary and Discussion
Notes to Chapter 12: Self

References

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	11.08.2021
Reihe/Serie	Oxford Series on Cognitive Models and Architectures
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 231 mm
Gewicht	499 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Allgemeine Psychologie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Psychologie ► Verhaltenstherapie
ISBN-10	0-19-761859-6 / 0197618596
ISBN-13	978-0-19-761859-2 / 9780197618592
Zustand	Neuware