Needs, Feelings, and Emotions of Embodied Mind

2021 ◽  
pp. 175-202
Keyword(s):  
Learning Process ◽  
Unmet Needs ◽  
Brain Structures ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Embodied Mind ◽  
Intelligent Machines ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Artificial Brain ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Mind

Model of artificial mind discussed in this and the following two chapters considers critical elements of the mind operation. The question is whether we can propose artificial brain structures in machines that will be able to create the basis of intelligence and consciousness. Wanting to build an artificial brain, we propose what properties it should have, and how it should be organized. The chapter begins with presenting embodiment of the mind as the part of the environment that is under control of the mind. Perceiving and identifying with one's own body depends on observing the body's actions in the environment. The embodiment must communicate with the brain through channels that ensure the perception of the environment. The use of body dynamics facilitates control, planning, and decision making. Conditions that exist in the real world create a framework for proper action and reflect the compatibility of agent's competencies with the environment. In a conscious embodied mind, representations are created and used for actions. Higher level consciousness can be treated as an abstract version of the coordination of perception and action. Conscious states are triggered by externally supplied signals from the environment and by internally generated mental states. Self-consciousness requires distinguishing oneself from the environment. The definition of embodied intelligence adopted in this book is aimed at building an intelligent and conscious machine. The authors have recognized the ability to learn as the most important feature of intelligence, which is why they consider beings that do not learn anything as not intelligent. Machines will not have the same needs as people but must have needs whose fulfillment is a measure of success. Meeting these needs will require physical and mental effort, and the development of useful skills will be associated with the development of intelligence. The agent treats unmet needs as a signal to act. Using the analogy to pain, these signals representing unmet needs will be called the pain signals. Strength of these signals can be measured and compared with each other. Various pain signals not only provide motivation for action but also control the learning process. Finally, they discuss the role of feelings and emotions and their importance in the agent's learning process. In particular, they discuss their role in creation of conscious sensations. They explain the source of feelings as associated with but different than reward or punishment signals. The signals provided by the senses to anticipate reward or punishment are related to the physical properties of the observed objects, which are directly related to feelings. Pleasure is the promise of meeting a real need. Feelings will fuel emotions. They relate emotions to subconscious reactions to what happened. They also discuss why we may need to build emotional machines and how artificial emotions can be created in machines.

The Definition of the Human Mind in Its Derivation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ursula Renz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Content ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
The Body ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Finite Minds

This chapter analyzes the passages in which Spinoza develops his definition of the human mind. It begins by reading 2p11 as denying that the mind is something like a bearer of mental states. Next, the chapter argues that, in claiming that the mind is part of the infinite intellect, Spinoza is not referring to the mind’s activity but rather defending holism with respect to mental content. Through an examination of the wording of 2p12, the chapter shows that, contrary to most interpretations, Spinoza does not assume that the human mind perceives any affections of the body. The chapter concludes by showing how, by identifying the mind with the idea of the body, Spinoza solves the problem of the numerical difference between finite minds. Altogether, the chapter shows that, for Spinoza, the human mind is not an idea that God cognizes but the awareness by which we identify our own body.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Cheyne
Keyword(s):  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
External Powers ◽  
The Mind

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.

Contemporary psychosurgery and a look to the future

2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 944-956 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Feldman ◽  
Ronald L. Alterman ◽  
James T. Goodrich
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Psychiatric Disease ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Current State ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
Patient Selection Criteria ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Historical Developments ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Fine Print

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.

scholarly journals Activity in the brain’s valuation and mentalizing networks is associated with propagation of online recommendations

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa C. Baek ◽  
Matthew Brook O’Donnell ◽  
Christin Scholz ◽  
Rui Pei ◽  
Javier O. Garcia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Opinion Change ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Mentalizing System

AbstractWord of mouth recommendations influence a wide range of choices and behaviors. What takes place in the mind of recommendation receivers that determines whether they will be successfully influenced? Prior work suggests that brain systems implicated in assessing the value of stimuli (i.e., subjective valuation) and understanding others’ mental states (i.e., mentalizing) play key roles. The current study used neuroimaging and natural language classifiers to extend these findings in a naturalistic context and tested the extent to which the two systems work together or independently in responding to social influence. First, we show that in response to text-based social media recommendations, activity in both the brain’s valuation system and mentalizing system was associated with greater likelihood of opinion change. Second, participants were more likely to update their opinions in response to negative, compared to positive, recommendations, with activity in the mentalizing system scaling with the negativity of the recommendations. Third, decreased functional connectivity between valuation and mentalizing systems was associated with opinion change. Results highlight the role of brain regions involved in mentalizing and positive valuation in recommendation propagation, and further show that mentalizing may be particularly key in processing negative recommendations, whereas the valuation system is relevant in evaluating both positive and negative recommendations.

scholarly journals ‘A transverse scar on the neck’ – psychosomatic approach in the differential diagnosis and surgical treatment of hyperthyroidism in post-war Finland

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-156
Author(s):  
Eve-Riina Hyrkäs
Keyword(s):  
Surgical Treatment ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Differential Diagnostics ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Surgical Interventions ◽  
Somatic Illness ◽  
Post War ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Mind

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.

The Mind Is a DJ: Rhythmic Entrainment in Beatmatching and Embodied Temporal Processing

2021 ◽  
pp. 234-252
Author(s):  
Maria A. G. Witek
Keyword(s):  
Error Correction ◽  
Temporal Processing ◽  
Body Movements ◽  
Embodied Mind ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Conscious Control

In music, rhythmic entrainment occurs when the attention and body movements of listeners, dancers and musicians become synchronized with the beat. This synchronization occurs due to the mechanisms of phase and period correction. Here, I describe what happens to these mechanisms during beatmatching—a central skill in DJing that involves synchronizing the beats of two records on a set of turntables. Via the enactivist approach to the embodied mind, I argue that beatmatching affords a different form of entrainment that requires more conscious control of and embodied operationalization of temporal error correction, and thus provides a vivid model of the embodied distribution of rhythmic entrainment.

scholarly journals A discussion of problems in implementing organisational cultural change

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 480-488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saowapha Limwichitr ◽  
Judith Broady-Preston ◽  
David Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Library And Information Science ◽  
Learning Organisation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Critical Elements ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Business And Management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on organisational cultural change and problems in its implementation, focussing on the case of building a learning organisation (LO) within university library context. Design/methodology/approach – Key literature published within Library and Information Science, Business and Management and other related fields were reviewed to identify themes regarding organisational cultural change in relation to development of an LO emerging in the recent years. Findings – Reviewed literature in this paper highlights key challenges in examining organisational cultural change for the purpose of building an LO. These include a lack of an agreed definition of the LO concept, practical approaches and measure for assessing achievement of the cultural change. A need for in-depth studies which focus on current practices and related problems in this regard is also revealed, and the systems approach is proposed as a suitable approach for holistic investigation of all critical elements that possibly affect establishment of an LO. Originality/value – The paper raises awareness of the importance of examining organisational cultural change as a critical supportive influence of developing an LO. Problems to be considered in its implementation are synthesised and served as a basis for further investigation in the author’s doctoral research project.

Williamson on Defining Knowledge

Episteme ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Manuel Pérez Otero
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract In his outstanding book Knowledge and its Limits (2000), Williamson (a) claims that we have inductive evidence for some negative theses concerning the prospects of defining knowledge, like this: knowing cannot be defined in accordance with a determinate traditional conjunctive scheme; (b) defends a theory of mental states, mental concepts and the relations between the two, from which we would obtain additional, not merely inductive, evidence for this negative thesis; and (c) presents an alternative (non-traditional-conjunctive) definition of knowledge. Here I consider these issues and extract two relevant conclusions: (i) Williamson's theory of states and concepts only supports the negative thesis because this theory would explain too much, since it imposes implausible necessary limitations on possible uses of concepts and linguistic expressions. So, there is no appropriate non-inductive evidence for the negative thesis. (ii) Williamson's own definition of knowledge is at risk.

scholarly journals MENGHADIRKAN FILM DALAM PEMBELAJARAN BAHASA `JERMAN SEBAGAI BAHASA ASING (DEUTSCH ALS FREMDSPRACHE)

Paramasastra ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dwi Imroatu Julaikah
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
German Language ◽  
Formal Institutions ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Teaching Learning

German language is taught in Indonesia as a foreign language, or we usually call as DAF (Deutsch als Fremdsprache). This language is taught in formal and non-formal institutions. In this context, it is very important, especially for the teacher to bring interactive and joyfull learning in the classroom, and it is challenging for the teacher. Thus, presenting interesting language in the class, full of innovativation in learning prosess of German language, must be done. One of the choices to get those situations in the classroom is to bring a good media. Film is one alternative that can be presented. This paper discusses how to bring movies in learning a foreign language (German). Further discussion is more about (a) Definition of film, (b) Film, as a medium in teaching learning process, and (c) How to teach German with didactic and methodic in learning German language.

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