Brain-Mind

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Thagard
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Cognition And Emotion ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Action Intention

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. 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. Unification comes from systematic application of Chris Eliasmith’s powerful new Semantic Pointer Architecture, a highly original synthesis of neural network and symbolic ideas about how the mind works. The book shows the relevance of semantic pointers to a full range of important kinds of mental representations, from sensations and imagery to concepts, rules, analogies, and emotions. Neural mechanisms are used to explain many phenomena concerning consciousness, action, intention, language, creativity, and the self. 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.

Using Theoretical Frameworks from the Social Sciences to Understand and Explain Behaviour in Social Computing

2011 ◽  
pp. 36-53
Author(s):  
Jacqui Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Identity Theory ◽  
Social Computing ◽  
Social Capital Theory ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Cognition And Emotion ◽  
The Social

Research over the past 15 years has examined how the Internet is being used to support communication and social interaction across a variety of groups and communities. However, much of this research has been exploratory, rather than explanatory. It is argued here that approaches from the social sciences offer established methods and frameworks within which the psychological and social impacts of computing can be addressed. In discussing various theories, the chapter highlights one problem—that individual theories have tended to be used to explain a single aspect of human behaviour. There is a need to think more holistically and search for a theoretical approach that can explain intrapersonal processes (e.g. cognition and emotion) as well as interpersonal behaviour within social computing. A number of theoretical frameworks from the social sciences (e.g. social identity theory and social capital theory) will be discussed as potentially being able to explain psychological processes at all levels for users of social computing applications. In summary, the objectives of this chapter are to discuss current approaches used to explain the way people interact in social computing contexts, identify shortcomings with these and to highlight approaches that can address these shortcomings.

Why Thomas Reid Matters to the Epistemology of the Social Sciences

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (279) ◽  
pp. 282-301
Author(s):  
Laurent Jaffro ◽  
Vinícius França Freitas
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Action ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Reasoning ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Mind

Abstract Little attention has been paid to the fact that Thomas Reid's epistemology applies to ‘political reasoning’ as well as to various operations of the mind. Reid was interested in identifying the ‘first principles’ of political science as he did with other domains of human knowledge. This raises the question of the extent to which the study of human action falls within the competence of ‘common sense’. Our aim is to reconstruct and assess Reid's epistemology of the sciences of social action and to determine how it connects with the fundamental tenets of his general epistemology. In the first part, we portray Reid as a methodological individualist and focus on the status of the first principles of political reasoning. The second part examines Reid's views on the explanatory power of the principles of human action. Finally, we draw a parallel between Reid's epistemology and the methodology of Weberian sociology.

Moral Theory Based on the ‘Heart’ versus the ‘Mind’: Schopenhauer's and Durkheim's Critiques of Kantian Ethics

1989 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-457 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stjepan G. Mestrovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Kantian Ethics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Moral Facts

Schopenhauer criticized Kant's moral theory on the grounds that it was non-empirical and inadequate, because it attempted to establish morality on the basis of reason and duty. Contrary to Kant, Schopenhauer argued that genuine morality is irrational, based on compassion, and a human product, hence that it could be studied empirically. Schopenhauer established the ‘science of morality’ which occupied the attention of a host of turn of the century precursors of the social sciences, especially Durkheim. Durkheim's version of the science of moral facts is compared and contrasted with Schopenhauer's critique of Kant, and it is demonstrated that Durkheim tends (o follow Schopenhauer's lead. Problems with Durkheim's and Schopenhauer's critiques of Kantian ethics are also discussed.

Integral Engagement: Christian Constructivism and the Social Sciences

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 445-457
Author(s):  
Donald Guthrie
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Human Condition

This article explores how Christian constructivism can guide educators who are Christians toward an integral engagement with the social sciences that is both critically reflective and humbly teachable. Such an engagement requires a recognition that all image-bearing human beings may contribute insights about the human condition, responsible stewardship of knowledge with the mind of Christ, and approaching the social sciences with gospel-directed critical realism that is neither fearful nor uncritically accepting of social science perspectives.

Mind-Society

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Thagard
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Comprehensive Treatment ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Marriage Patterns

Social change comes from the combination of communication among people and their individual cognitive and emotional processes. This book systematically connects neural and psychological explanations of mind with social phenomena, covering major social sciences (social psychology, sociology, politics, economics, anthropology, and history) and professions (medicine, law, education, engineering, and business). The aim is not to reduce the social to the psychological but rather to display their harmony and interdependence. This display is accomplished by describing the interconnections among mental and social mechanisms, which interact to generate social changes ranging from marriage patterns to wars. The major tool for this description is the method of social cognitive-emotional workups, which connects the mental mechanisms operating in individuals with social mechanisms operating in groups. Social change is the result of emergence from interacting social and mental mechanisms, which include the neural and molecular processes that make minds capable of thinking. Validation of hypotheses about multilevel emergence requires detailed studies of important social changes, from norms about romantic relationships to economic practices, political institutions, religious customs, and international relations. This book belongs to a trio that includes Brain–Mind: From Neurons to Consciousness and Creativity 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.

The Self

Brain-Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 252-276
Author(s):  
Paul Thagard
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Social Mechanisms ◽  
Short Term ◽  
The Social ◽  
Multiple Levels

The self is a complex of mechanisms at multiple levels that include the molecular and the social. Semantic pointers are crucial to the self with respect to various phenomena, including how one represents oneself to oneself and to others, as well as in how one evaluates oneself. Also explained are operations that the self does to itself in efforts to achieve short-term goals such as self-control and long-term goals such as self-fulfillment. Semantic pointer explanations of images, concepts, and other mental representations are important for understanding how selves accomplish their goals. Representations of the self via semantic pointers can recursively be bound into semantic pointers for beliefs, desires, and intentions. Discussion of the social mechanisms relevant to the self begins to connect neural and mental mechanisms with discussions of social sciences and professions.

Man's Role in Changing the Landscape of Southeast Asia

1968 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl J. Pelzer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Symposium ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Ample Opportunity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Anthropological Research ◽  
The Face ◽  
Varied Form

The theme of this paper, a theme close to the heart of the geographer, was in a slightly varied form the title of an international symposium organized by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research in 1955. This symposium on “Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth” provided ample opportunity for fruitful dialogues between scholars representing the full range of disciplines from the natural sciences through the humanities to the social sciences. In this truly interdisciplinary symposium of some seventy-five scholars, no less than thirty percent represented the discipline of geography.

scholarly journals The Life of the Mind: A Study of Faculty Spaces in Academic Libraries

2004 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Engel ◽  
Karen Antell
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
University Of Oklahoma ◽  
The Social ◽  
Life Of The Mind ◽  
Library As Place ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The University

The value of the academic library as “place” in the university community has recently been debated in the popular and scholarly library literature, but the debate centers on student use of library space rather than faculty use. This study addresses the issue of faculty use of library space by investigating the use of “faculty spaces”—individual, enclosed, lock-able carrels or studies—through a series of interviews with faculty space holders at the University of Oklahoma and a survey of ARL libraries. Both elements of the investigation show that faculty spaces are heavily used and highly valued by faculty members, especially those in the social sciences and humanities. The researchers present the results of the interviews and the survey, and explore the reasons for the continuing value of faculty spaces in the age of electronic information.

Liberals and conservatives: Non-convertible currencies

2015 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hibbing ◽  
Kevin B. Smith ◽  
John R. Alford
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Full Range ◽  
The Social

AbstractDuarte et al. are correct that the social science enterprise would improve on several fronts if the number of politically conservative researchers were to increase; however, because they misunderstand the degree to which liberals and conservatives are dispositionally different, they fail to appreciate the full range of reasons that conservatives are reluctant to enter the modern social sciences.

Cities of the Mind: Images and Themes of the City in the Social Sciences

1985 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 304
Author(s):  
Anthony H. Pascal ◽  
Lloyd Rodwin ◽  
Robert M. Hollister
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The City
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