scholarly journals Mind as a behavioral inhibition network

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toru Moriyama ◽  
Kohei Sonoda ◽  
Hanna Saito ◽  
Masao Migita

This study reconsiders the conventional definition of mind as “a part of a person that makes mental activity” and proposes an additional definition of mind as “the internal other”. In this paper, we investigate the substance of the internal other from the perspectives of comparative psychology, ethology, and neurophysiology, and propose the hypothesis that “behavioral inhibition network” corresponds with the internal other. We believe that our study makes a significant contribution to the literature because the authors investigate whether the behavioral inhibition network matches the mind that one experiences in their daily life.The behavioral inhibition network is a promising candidate for the source of endogenous fluctuations observed in animal behavior. In this paper, we introduce studies illustrating that the ability to generate behavioral fluctuation generates “emergent behavior”.We believe that this paper will be of interest to the readership of psychological journals because the authors introduce experimental results suggesting the possibility that plants and materials such as stones have a behavioral inhibition network. Approaching the substance of mind not only reveals that mind exists in all living things and materials, but also brings a new worldview that all living things and materials have creativity of generation of emergent behavior.

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Guttman ◽  
Charles W. Greenbaum

This article gives an overview of Facet Theory, a systematic approach to facilitating theory construction, research design, and data analysis for complex studies, that is particularly appropriate to the behavioral and social sciences. Facet Theory is based on (1) a definitional framework for a universe of observations in the area of study; (2) empirical structures of observations within this framework; (3) a search for correspondence between the definitional system and aspects of the empirical structure for the observations. The development of Facet Theory and Facet Design is reviewed from early scale analysis and the Guttman Scale, leading to the concepts of “mapping sentence,” “universe of content,” “common range,” “content facets,” and nonmetric multidimensional methods of data analysis. In Facet Theory, the definition of the behavioral domain provides a rationale for hypothesizing structural relationships among variables employed in a study. Examples are presented from various areas of research (intelligence, infant development, animal behavior, etc.) to illustrate the methods and results of structural analysis with Smallest Space Analysis (SSA), Multidimensional Scalogram Analysis (MSA), and Partial Order Scalogram Analysis (POSA). The “radex” and “cylindrex” of intelligence tests are shown to be outstanding examples of predicted spatial configurations that have demonstrated the ubiquitous emergence of the same empirical structures in different studies. Further examples are given from studies of spatial abilities, infant development, animal behavior, and others. The use of Facet Theory, with careful construction of theory and design, is shown to provide new insights into existing data; it allows for the diagnosis and discrimination of behavioral traits and makes the generalizability and replication of findings possible, which in turn makes possible the discovery of lawfulness. Achievements, issues, and future challenges of Facet Theory are discussed.


Author(s):  
Nicholas Wolterstorff

This chapter considers why contemporary analytic philosophers of religion have neglected liturgy and focused almost all of their attention on religious belief. Following Descartes, reflections on mental activity and the mind have been central in modern philosophy. But that has not prevented the emergence of philosophy of art, philosophy of language, and political philosophy, none of which deal with mental activity or the mind. So why not philosophy of liturgy? Several explanations are considered; but none is found to be fully satisfactory. The Introduction concludes with an explanation of how the subsequent discussion relates to liturgical theology and to anthropological ritual studies.


Author(s):  
Peter Cheyne

This introductory chapter commences with a definition of contemplation as the sustained attention to the ideas of reason, which are not merely concepts in the mind, but real, external powers that constitute and order being and value, and therefore excite reverence or admiration. A contemplative, Coleridgean position is outlined as a defence in the crisis of the humanities, arguing that if Coleridge is right in asserting that ideas ‘in fact constitute … humanity’, then they must be the proper or ultimate studies of the disciplines that comprise the humanities. This focus on contemplation as the access to essential ideas explains why Coleridge progressed from, without ever abandoning, imagination to reason as his thought evolved during his lifetime. A section on ‘Contemplation: How to Get There from Here’, is followed by a descriptive bibliography of Coleridge as discussed by philosophers, intellectual historians, theologians, and philosophically minded literary scholars.


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 944-956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Feldman ◽  
Ronald L. Alterman ◽  
James T. Goodrich

Object. Despite a long and controversial history, psychosurgery has persisted as a modern treatment option for some severe, medically intractable psychiatric disorders. The goal of this study was to review the current state of psychosurgery. Methods. In this review, the definition of psychosurgery, patient selection criteria, and anatomical and physiological rationales for cingulotomy, subcaudate tractotomy, anterior capsulotomy, and limbic leukotomy are discussed. The historical developments, modern procedures, and results of these four contemporary psychosurgical procedures are also reviewed. Examples of recent advances in neuroscience indicating a future role for neurosurgical intervention for psychiatric disease are also mentioned. Conclusions. A thorough understanding of contemporary psychosurgery will help neurosurgeons and other physicians face the ethical, social, and technical challenges that are sure to lie ahead as modern science continues to unlock the secrets of the mind and brain.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-156
Author(s):  
Eve-Riina Hyrkäs

AbstractIn the Finnish medical discussion during the middle decades of the twentieth century, the challenging differential diagnostics between hyperthyroidism and various neuroses was perceived to yield a risk of unnecessary surgical interventions of psychiatric patients. In 1963, the Finnish surgeon Erkki Saarenmaa claimed that ‘the most significant mark of a neurotic was a transverse scar on the neck’, a result of an unnecessary thyroid surgery. The utterance was connected to the complex nature of thyroid diseases, which seemed to be to ‘a great extent psychosomatic’. Setting forth from this statement, the article aims to decipher the connection between hyperthyroidism, unnecessary surgical treatment and the psychosomatic approach in Finnish medicine. Utilising a wide variety of published medical research and discussion in specialist journals, the article examines the theoretical debate around troublesome diagnostics of functional complaints. It focuses on the introduction of new medical ideas, namely the concepts of ‘psychosomatics’ and ‘stress’. In the process, the article aims to unveil a definition of psychosomatic illness that places it on a continuum between psychological and somatic illness. That psychosomatic approach creates a space with interpretative potential can be applied to the historiography of psychosomatic phenomena more generally. Further inquiry into the intersections of surgery and psychosomatics would enrich both historiographies. It is also argued that the historical study of psychosomatic syndromes may become skewed, if the term ‘psychosomatic’ is from the outset taken to signify something that is all in the mind.


Panggung ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Acep Iwan Saidi ◽  
Agung Eko Budiwaspada

ABSTRACTThis research is entitled “Visualization and Transformation of Embodiment in the Film of Planes Animation”. As an animation film, Planes is interesting because it is using inanimate objects, in this case the planes, as characters. This fact indicates that the character transformation is done by an animator, from the character of inanimate objects in to live character. By using the methods of structural and semiotic analysis, found that the transformation is done not only for personification (it is made as if the inanimate objects becomes alive). In the Planes, “the living things” not only exist in the mind as imagination, but it is exist out of the mind, as an autonomous reality. Based on that, Planes is the animation film which opens space for creating a new myth in the history of culture. Like the fable as a myth in the tradition of primary orality, Planes allows the formation of myth in digital oral tradition.Key Words: Transformation, visualization, embodiment, personification, metaphor, tradition, myth ABSTRAKPenelitian ini bertajuk “Visualisasi dan Transformasi Kebertubuhan dalam Film Animasi Planes”.Sebagai film animasi, Planes menarik karena menggunakan benda-benda mati, dalam hal ini pesawat, sebagai tokoh cerita. Fakta ini mengindikasikan dilakukannya transformasi karakte r ole h animator, yakni dari karakte r “yang mati” ke “yang hidup”.Dengan menggunakan metode analisis structural dan semiotik, ditemukan bahwa transformasi tersebut dilakukan melampaui sarana retorika personifikasi (membuatseolah- olah yang mati menjadi hidup).Di dalam Planes, “yang hidup” itu tidak berada di dalam pikiran dan imajinasi apresiator sebagai yang seolah-olah, melainkan hadir di luar pikiran, berdiri sendiri sebagai realita sotonom. Berdasarkan hal itu, Planes merupakan film animasi yang membuka ruang bagi terciptanya mitos baru dalam sejarah cerita. Jika fable merupakan mitos dalam tradisi kelisanan primer, Planes memungkinkan terbentuknya mitos dalam tradisi lisan digital.Kata kunci: transformasi, visualisasi, kebertubuhan, personifikasi, metafora, tradisi, mitos.


Author(s):  
John Maynard Smith ◽  
Eors Szathmary

Imagine that, when the first spacemen step out of their craft onto the surface of one of the moons of Jupiter, they are confronted by an object the size of a horse, rolling towards them on wheels, and bearing on its back a concave disc pointing towards the Sun. They will at once conclude that the object is alive, or has been made by something alive. If all they find is a purple smear on the surface of the rocks, they will have to work harder to decide. This is the phenotypic approach to the definition of life: a thing is alive if it has parts, or ‘organs’, which perform functions. William Paley explained the machine-like nature of life by the existence of a creator: today, we would invoke natural selection. There are, however, dangers in assuming that any entity with the properties of a self-regulating machine is alive, or an artefact. In section 2.2, we tell the story of a self-regulating atomic reactor, the Oklo reactor, which is neither. This story can be taken in one of three ways. First, it shows the dangers of the phenotypic definition of life: not all complex entities are alive. Second, it illustrates how the accidents of history can give rise spontaneously to surprisingly complex machine-like entities. The relevance of this to the origin of life is obvious. In essence, the problem is the following. How could chemical and physical processes give rise, without natural selection, to entities capable of hereditary replication, which would therefore, from then on, evolve by natural selection? The Oklo reactor is an example of what can happen. Finally, section 2.2 can simply be skipped: the events were interesting, but do not resemble in detail those that led to the origin of life on Earth. There is an alternative to the phenotypic definition of life. It is to define as alive any entities that have the properties of multiplication, variation and heredity. The logic behind this definition, first proposed by Muller (1966), is that a population of entities with these properties will evolve by natural selection, and hence can be expected to acquire the complex adaptations for survival and reproduction that are characteristic of living things.


1955 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 32-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emil W. Haury ◽  
Robert L. Rands ◽  
Albert C. Spaulding ◽  
Walter W. Taylor ◽  
Raymond H. Thompson ◽  
...  

The study of cultural stability requires a knowledge of cultural development over a reasonably long span of time. The definition of this time perspective is one of the major contributions of archaeology to the study of culture. The archaeologist therefore should be in a position to make a significant contribution to the appraisal of the stability problem itself. However, the lack of a commonly accepted anthropological definition of the concept of cultural stability imposes semantic difficulties which hinder the determination of practical limits for the stability- instability problem area. Moreover, the nature of the data available to the archaeologist conditions the kind of contribution he can make.


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