Abstraction Through the Lens of Neuroscience

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 6-18
Author(s):  
Valentin A. Bazhanov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
The Other ◽  
Activity Type ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Concrete Concepts ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Different Levels

The interpretation of the abstraction process and the use of various abstractions are consistent with the trends associated with the naturalistic turn in modern cognitive and neural studies. Logic of dealing with abstractions presupposes not only acts of digress from the insignificant details of the object, but also the replenishment of the image due to idealization, endowing the object with properties that are absent from it. Thus, abstraction expresses not only the activity of the subject but the fact of “locking” this activity on a certain kind of ontology as well. The latter, in the spirit of I. Kant’s apriorism, is a function of epistemological attitudes and the nature of the subject's activity. Therefore, in the context of modern neuroscience, we can mean the transcendentalism of activity type. An effective tool for comprehension of abstractions making and development is a metaphor, which, on the one hand, allows submerge the object of analysis into a more or less familiar context, and on the other hand, it may produce new abstractions. Naturalistic tendencies manifested in the fact that empirically established abstractions activate certain neural brain networks, and abstract and concrete concepts are "processed" by various parts of the brain. If we keep in mind the presence of different levels abstractions then not only neural networks but even individual neurons (called “conceptual”) can be excited. The excitation of neural networks is associated with understanding the meaning of some concepts, but at the same time, the activity of these networks presupposes the "dissection" of reality due to a certain angle, determined in the general case by goals, attitudes and concrete practices of the subject.

Functions, levels, and mechanisms: Explanation in cognitive science and its problems

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimo Marraffa ◽  
Alfredo Paternoster
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Explanatory Style ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Cognitive Sciences ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Different Levels

In the first part of the paper we describe the philosophical debate on the expansions of cognitive science into the brain and into the environment, take sides against the “revolutionary” positions on them and in favor of a “reformist” approach, and conclude that the most appropriate model for cognitive sciences is pluralistic. This is meant in a twofold sense. On the one hand, mental phenomena require a variety of explanatory levels, whose inter-relations are of two kinds: decomposition and contextualization. On the other hand, the arguably quasi-holistic character of some cognitive tasks suggests that the mechanistic style of explanation has to be integrated in these cases with a dynamical explanatory style. This theoretical picture, however, raises two classes of problems: (a) the compatibility between the mechanistic-computationalist explanation and the dynamical one and (b) the nature of theoretical entities and relations postulated at the different levels of a pluralistic model involving computational explanations. Each point will be discussed in the second part of the paper.

scholarly journals IX . Researches on the intimate structure of the brain.—Second series

1868 ◽  
Vol 158 ◽  
pp. 263-331 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
Medulla Oblongata ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Close Study ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
The Brain

Before I begin to describe the parts which form the subject of this communication, and to show how some of them are merely modified portions or developments of others that belong to the medulla oblongata , it will be advisable to recur to those morphological changes in the medulla, which I formerly pointed out as themselves arising from modifications of the spinal cord . And while in unravelling structures so extremely complex, such a course seems almost necessary to facilitate their comprehension, and convey to the reader a just notion of their morphological changes, in relation on the one hand, to the remaining parts of the encephalon, and on the other hand, to the spinal cord, it will afford me an opportunity of adding to this recapitulation some new facts that have been elicited by subsequent observation and a more extended experience. It is gratifying to know that many of the results of my previous researches have been found to throw considerable light on certain diseases of the nervous system, especially on some forms of paralysis; and my own pathological investigations, as well as a close study of nervous disorders, have not only enabled me to shape my present researches as much as possible in accordance with the requirements of the pathologist, but, by pointing to the probability of certain anatomical connexions suggested by morbid symptoms, they have sometimes been the means of directing the course of my dissections in a very peculiar way.

Productivity of French and Dutch (semi-)copular constructions and the adverse impact of high token frequency

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niek Van Wettere
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Distribution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Adverse Impact ◽  
Frequent Type ◽  
Token Frequency ◽  
Semantic Classes ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

Abstract This paper examines the productivity of the subject complement slot in a set of French and Dutch (semi-)copular micro-constructions. The presumed counterpart of productivity, conventionalization in the form of high token frequency, will also be taken into account in the analysis of the productivity complex. On the one hand, it will be shown that prototypical copulas generally have a higher productivity than semi-copulas, although there are some semi-copulas that can rival the productivity of prototypical copulas. On the other hand, it will be demonstrated that high token frequency is in general detrimental to productivity, on the level of the entire subject complement slot and on the level of the different semantic classes. However, the shape of the frequency distribution also seems to play a role: multiple highly frequent types are in my data more detrimental to productivity than one extremely frequent type, although the semantic connectedness of the types in the distribution might also be an explanatory factor.

The ‘Pistola’ of Cerveri de Girona

Traditio ◽  
1948 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 161-185
Author(s):  
Kurt Lewent
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Love Affair ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Good Taste ◽  
Moral Argumentation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Way Of Thinking ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Troubadour Poetry

Cerveri was decidedly no poetical genius, and often enough he follows the trodden paths of troubadour poetry. However, there is no denying that again and again he tries to escape that poetical routine. In many cases these attempts result in odd and eccentric compositions, where the unusual is reached at the cost of good taste and poetical values. On the other hand, it must be admitted that Cerveri's efforts in this respect were not always futile. His is, e.g. an amusing satire upon bad women. One of his love songs, characteristically called libel by the MS (Sg), assumes the form of a complaint submitted to the king as the supreme earthly judge, in which the defendant is the lady whose charms torture the lover and have made him a prisoner. This poem combines the traditional praise of the beloved and a flattery addressed to the king. Its slightly humoristic tone is also found in a song entitled lo vers del vassayll leyal. Here Cerveri, basing himself on a certain legend connected with St. Mark, gives the king advice in his love affair. Again the poet kills two birds with one stone, flattering the sovereign and pointing, for obvious purposes, to his own poverty. The latter is the only topic of a remarkably personal poem in which the author complains bitterly that, while many of his playmates have become rich in later years, the only wealth he himself did amass were the chans gays and sonetz agradans which he composed for other people to enjoy. Cerveri even tries to renew the traditional genre of the chanson de la mal mariée by adding motifs of—presumably—his own invention. This tendency towards a more independent way of thinking and greater originality in its poetical presentation could not be better illustrated than by the two poems which the MS calls Lo vers de la terra de Preste Johan and Pistola The one puts the poet's moral argumentation against the background of the medieval legend of Prester John, the other, which forms the subject of the present study, sets its teachings in a still more solemn framework, the liturgy of the Mass.

A Propos De Ta Sa Fuqin Si-Le

1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-257
Author(s):  
Robert Iljic
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Proper Noun ◽  
Intransitive Verb ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Accepted Standard ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

The sentences of the type above mentioned are characterized, on the one hand, by the cooccurrence of bă with an intransitive verb, on the other hand, by the classifier ge following bă and introducing a noun relative to a unique referent. This type of sentence, quoted by most major contemporary Chinese grammars, and to be traced in baihuà texts, doesn't seem, nowadays, to pertain any longer to a universally accepted standard. This paper demonstrates that in these sentences, as in all bă constructions, bă actually marks a patient (even if the latter may be the subject-of an intransitive verb); besides, given its position before bă, a certain agentivity is always conferred to a noun in topic position, even if this agentivity, taken to its far end, boils down to the only desire of having been able to do something to prevent a given event (a point in case: the death of a father); finally, the function of ge before a proper noun or a noun semantically determined as unique, which can be found in some other sentences, isn't to count, that is, to indicate a quantity. but to emphasize the qualitative value of the noun (the father insofar as he is a father), the effect being to underline the value (price) that the speaker attaches to a given person or thing, hence the modal connotation ascribed to such sentences.

scholarly journals THE CRITICISM OF LITERALISM IN READING THE QUR'AN THROUGH NASR HAMID ABU ZAYD HERMENEUTICS

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naupal Naupal
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Hermeneutic Circle ◽  
Text Interpretation ◽  
Arab Culture ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Interpretation Process ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Times ◽  
The One

Abu Zayd believes that understanding the Qur'an is not limited to explanations or comments. It involves an interpretation process for capturing the significance (maghza) from the literal text. Interpretation also requires a presupposition that the Qur'an itself does not produce literal absolutes and certainty. The presupposition needs an interpretation that illustrates the possibility of accepting the diversity of Qur'anic interpretations in the times. By using Abu Zayd's hermeneutics, the Qur'an is an icon of Islam and at the same time a representation of Arab culture itself which is not necessarily literally absolute, but is open to interpretation. Hans Georg Gadamer's hermeneutic circle that inspired Hermeneutics of Abu Zayd emphasized that in understanding and applying the meanings of the text, the subject played a role in the text rather than the other way around. This study aims to open opportunities that the Qur'an on the one hand is an objective thing seen from the content of its truth, that is seen from its universal message, but on the other hand it is subjective, because it is bound by the interpretation of the text. This research is also intended to avoid the sacredness of the ordination of a single interpretation of the Qur'an which has resulted in the emergence of fundamentalism which has recently become so prevalent in global Islamic societies, not least in Indonesia.

scholarly journals Mytens tvang

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Albinus
Keyword(s):  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Negative Dialectics ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

The purpose of the article is to show how the negative dialectics of Adorno gets involved with a concept of myth that is questionable in several respects. First of all, Adorno tries to combine, but rather conflates, two understandings of myth. On the one hand, the concept of myth is defined as the ancient Greek mythos, in which the subject of man is projected on to nature; on the other hand, myth is defined as the backfire of enlightenment, in which self-reflection becomes the blind spot of instrumental reason. Along these lines of argument, Adorno’s interpretation of Homer, which, at any rate, is highly inspiring, attempts to demonstrate that Odysseus is already enlightened in that he keeps the myth at bay in order to gain his self. The point is, as a matter of dialectic necessity, that he just ends up in myth once again, albeit in the second sense, namely by being a victim of his own self-denial. A question that seems to remain unanswered, though, is how the two kinds of myth are related. Further, Adorno draws on a problematic distinction between myth and literature in order to claim that Homer separates himself from the realm of myth. By adopting Adorno’s own game of interpretation, however, it is possible to regard myth as such, including the Homeric one, as being contingently open-ended rather than just a matter of dialectic determination.

The Animistic Way: Contemporary Paganism and the Posthuman

Poligrafi ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 107-127
Author(s):  
Victoria Dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
Natural World ◽  
Julia Kristeva ◽  
The Other ◽  
Relational Ontology ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
Human World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One ◽  
Contemporary Paganism

This article aims to explore the affinities between contemporary Paganism and the posthuman project in how they approach the non-human natural world. On the one hand, posthumanism explores new ways of considering the notion of humans and how they are linked with the non-human world. On the other hand, Neopaganism expands this reflection to the spiritual domain through its animistic relational sensibility. Both perspectives challenge the modern paradigm where nature and humans are opposed and mutually disconnected. They instead propose a relational ontology that welcomes the “different other.” This integrated relationship between humans and the “other than human” can be understood through the semiotic Chora, a notion belonging to Julia Kristeva that addresses how the subject is not symbolically separated from the world in which it is contained.

Herbert Mac Cabe’s Philosophical Anthropology

Politeia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 238-260
Author(s):  
Franco Manni ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Philosophical Anthropology ◽  
External World ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Language System ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Individual Human

From the ideas of Aristotle, De Saussure and Wittgenstein, philosopher Herbert McCabe elaborated an original anthropology. 'Meaning' means: the role played by a part towards the whole. Senses are bodily organs and sensations allow an animal to get fragments of the external world which become 'meaningful' for the behaviour of the whole animal Besides sensations, humans are ‘linguistic animals’ because through words they are able to 'communicate', that is, to share a peculiar kind of meanings: concepts. Whereas, sense-images are stored physically in our brain and cannot be shared, even though we can relate to sense-images by words (speech coincides with thought). However, concepts do not belong to the individual human being qua individual, but to an interpersonal entity: the language system. Therefore, on the one hand, to store images is a sense-power and an operation of the brain, whereas the brain (quite paradoxically!) is not in itself the organ of thought. On the other hand, concepts do not exist on their own.

The sense and the meaning of cultural-historical theory of L. S. Vygotsky

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-47
Author(s):  
Elena Kravtsova
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Projective Method ◽  
Genetic Method ◽  
Modern Psychology ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Basic Concepts ◽  
The One ◽  
Historical Theory

L. S. Vygotsky’s principal idea, lying in the base of cultural-historical theory, is the primacy of sense over meaning. There are serious reasons to believe that this part of cultural-historical theory was not completely understood both by his disciples and his opponents. That’s why many Vygotsky’s conclusions and discoveries remained untapped. while others were implemented in science and practice quite di˙erently from what he suggested. Vygotsky once wrote that features of the particular science deeply related to its method. That’s why he introduced the experimental-genetic method (projective method in modern psychology), which allows modeling the processes of development. One of the basic concepts of cultural-historical theory is the concept of “cultural de-velopment”. A Cultural person, for Vygotsky, is the person, who can control not only their own behavior and actions but also their own psychic processes. On the one hand, modern psychology doesn’t deny the role of volition in child’s development. But on the other hand, the volition itself is typically understood as one’s ability to submit to laws and rules. More than that – it’s rather easy to create conditions where a person will submit to laws and rules, but it doesn’t develop his ability to control himself. In Vygotsky’s opinion, there are natural psychic functions, which in the process of learning transform into cultural ones. In this context, the main goal of learning is to create conditions for developing person’s ability to be the subject of his own behavior, activity and psychic.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document