Aristotle, Connectionism, and the Morally Excellent Brain

1998 ◽  
pp. 13-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
David DeMoss
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reasoning ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Good Person ◽  
Moral Concepts ◽  
Wise Person ◽  
Moral Decisions ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

Can a mass of networked neurons produce moral human agents? I shall argue that it can; a brain can be morally excellent. A connectionist account of how the brain works can explain how a person might be morally excellent in Aristotle's sense of the term. According to connectionism, the brain is a maze of interconnections trained to recognize and respond to patterns of stimulation. According to Aristotle, a morally excellent human is a practically wise person trained in good habits. What an Aristotelian theory of ethics and a connectionist theory of mind have in common is the assumption that the successful mind/brain has the disposition to behave appropriately in appropriate circumstances. According to Aristotle, the good person knows the right end, desires and chooses to pursue it, and recognizes the right means to it. Thus the good person's brain must be able to form certain moral concepts, develop appropriate behavioral dispositions, and learn practical reasoning skills. I shall argue that this collection of the brain's cognitive capacities is best accounted for by a connectionist theory of the mind/brain. The human condition is both material and moral; we are brain-controlled bodies with ethical values. My essay seeks to understand the relationship between our brains and our values, between how the brain works and how we make moral decisions.

IQ DISCREPANCIES AMONG IMPULSIVE AND NON-IMPULSIVE INMATES

1992 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley N. Myers ◽  
Jon B. Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Criminal Behaviour ◽  
Verbal Scale ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Performance Scale

The intention of this study was to examine the relationship between the right and left hemispheres of the brain and criminal behaviour. It was predicted that prisoners scoring higher on the Verbal scale than the Performance scale of the WAIS-R would tend to commit more analytical thought-out crimes. Those scoring higher on the Performance scale may be more impulsive type criminals and tend to commit crimes less thought out. A total of 51 inmates were tested with the WAIS-R. Inmates who scored lower on the Verbal scale than the Performance scale tended to be more impulsive. Due to the overlap in crimes committed by both types of criminals, it was recommended that future research in this area may include a third category of both impulsive-non-impulsive along with the separation of the two categories.

scholarly journals Multi-Hops Functional Connectivity Improves Individual Prediction of Fusiform Face Activation via a Graph Neural Network

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongya Wu ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Jun Feng
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Face Area ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

Brain connectivity plays an important role in determining the brain region’s function. Previous researchers proposed that the brain region’s function is characterized by that region’s input and output connectivity profiles. Following this proposal, numerous studies have investigated the relationship between connectivity and function. However, this proposal only utilizes direct connectivity profiles and thus is deficient in explaining individual differences in the brain region’s function. To overcome this problem, we proposed that a brain region’s function is characterized by that region’s multi-hops connectivity profile. To test this proposal, we used multi-hops functional connectivity to predict the individual face activation of the right fusiform face area (rFFA) via a multi-layer graph neural network and showed that the prediction performance is essentially improved. Results also indicated that the two-layer graph neural network is the best in characterizing rFFA’s face activation and revealed a hierarchical network for the face processing of rFFA.

scholarly journals Jacques Jean Lhermitte and the syndrome of peduncular hallucinosis

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. E9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Kosty ◽  
Juan Mejia-Munne ◽  
Rimal Dossani ◽  
Amey Savardekar ◽  
Bharat Guthikonda
Keyword(s):  
Spinal Cord ◽  
Demyelinating Disease ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Neurosurgical Procedures ◽  
Visual Hallucinations ◽  
Electrical Shock ◽  
Peduncular Hallucinosis ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

Jacques Jean Lhermitte (1877–1959) was among the most accomplished neurologists of the 20th century. In addition to working as a clinician and instructor, he authored more than 800 papers and 16 books on neurology, neuropathology, psychiatry, and mystical phenomena. In addition to the well-known “Lhermitte’s sign,” an electrical shock–like sensation caused by spinal cord irritation in demyelinating disease, Lhermitte was a pioneer in the study of the relationship between the physical substance of the brain and the experience of the mind. A fascinating example of this is the syndrome of peduncular hallucinosis, characterized by vivid visual hallucinations occurring in fully lucid patients. This syndrome, which was initially described as the result of a midbrain insult, also may occur with injury to the thalamus or pons. It has been reported as a presenting symptom of various tumors and as a complication of neurosurgical procedures. Here, the authors review the life of Lhermitte and provide a historical review of the syndrome of peduncular hallucinosis.

scholarly journals HEALTH MEET - MUSIC

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1SE) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Monisha Veeravani
Keyword(s):  
Music Therapy ◽  
Human Life ◽  
High Stress ◽  
The Body ◽  
Special Importance ◽  
Entire Body ◽  
Sound Waves ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Music gives people a deeper understanding on the level of sensation and motivates them to become better and this element can change the world when it is wider than our own. It is music that connects the beginning to the end and becomes the literature of our heart. Fills the soul with affection, takes the mind from deep darkness to eternal heights. Music has the status of a® God, so purity has special importance in this genre. Music is the way to cultivate the mind through the seven pure and five vocal cords. Therefore, it can be said that music is necessary to keep the body and mind healthy, cheerful. This keeps the body, mind and brain healthy, and concentrates. Stress is also removed from music. It has been proved by various scientific experiments that both music practice and yoga practice develop strength in human life and many diseases can be treated. Music therapy i.e. music therapy nowadays plays an important role in relieving many health problems. Is playing If you live under high stress or are suffering from insomnia problem, then you can take help of this therapy. Each sound produces specific waves. These sound waves directly affect our brain. Everything in existence is affected by these waves. If a music is composed with the right words and the appropriate ragas, it will work on our brain in the same way that the software works inside a computer. Since our entire body is under the control of the brain, we can get the right result by having the expected effect on the brain through remedial music. संगीत लोगों को संवेदना के स्तर पर एक गहरी समझ देकर उन्हें बेहतर बनने की दिशा में प्रेरित करता है और यही तत्व जब निज से व्यापक होता है तो दुनिया भी बदल सकती है. ये संगीत ही है जो आदि को अंत से जोडकर हमारे हृदय का साहित्य बन जाता है। आत्मा को स्नेह से भर देता है मन को गहन अन्धकार से लेकर अनन्त ऊंचाइयों तक ले जाता है । संगीत क® ईश्वर का दर्जा प्राप्त है, इसीलिए इस विधा में शुध्दता का विशेष महत्व है। सात षुघ्द अ©र पांच क®मल स्वर®ं के माध्यम से मन क® साधने का उपाय है संगीत। अतः कहा जा सकता है कि शरीर तथा मन क® स्वस्थ््ा, प्रफुल्लित रखने के लिए संगीत आवश््यक है। इससे शरीर, मन, मस्तिष्क स्वस्थ््ा रहता है, एकाग्र रहता है। संगीत से तनाव भी दूर ह®ता है। विभिन्न वैज्ञानिक प्रयोगों द्वारा यह सिद्ध हो चुका है कि संगीत साधना व योग साधना दोनों से मनुष्य के जीवन में शक्ति का विकास होता है और अनेक बीमारियों का उपचार किया जा सकता है म्यूजिक थेरेपी यानी संगीत चिकित्सा आजकल अनेक स्वास्थ्य समस्याओं से राहत दिलाने में अहम भूमिका निभा रही है। आप अगर ज्यादा तनाव में रहते हैं या अनिद्रा की समस्या से पीडित हैं तो इस चिकित्सा की सहायता ले सकते हैं । हर ध्वनि से विशिष्ट तरंगें पैदा होती हैं। ये ध्वनि तरंगें सीधे हमारे मस्तिष्क को प्रभावित करती हैं। इन्हीं तरंगों से अस्तित्व में मौजूद हर चीज प्रभावित होती है। अगर कोई संगीत सही शब्दों और उपयुक्त रागों के साथ तैयार किया जाए तो वह हमारे मस्तिष्क पर उसी तरह काम करेगा जैसे किसी ’कम्प्यूटर’ के अंदर ’साफ्टवेयर’ काम करता है। चूंकि हमारा पूरा शरीर मस्तिष्क के नियंत्रण में होता है, इसलिए हम मस्तिष्क पर उपचारी संगीत के माध्यम से अपेक्षित प्रभाव डालकर सही परिणाम प्राप्त कर सकते हैं।

scholarly journals QUEM ESTÁ NO COMANDO? NEUROCIÊNCIA, RESSONÂNCIA E DESAFIOS PARA A TEOLOGIA

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 611
Author(s):  
Rudolf Von Sinner
Keyword(s):  
Human Condition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Second Person ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Ancient Problem ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

RESUMO: A relação entre corpo e alma ou entre corpo, alma e espírito é um pro­blema antigo da antropologia, inclusive na teologia cristã. A questão continua em pauta hoje diante de novas descobertas e teorias nas neurociências. Praticamente migrou para a discussão da relação entre cérebro e mente. Hoje é consenso bastante amplo que quem comanda o corpo é o cérebro. Se aceitarmos isto, quem está no comando do cérebro? Sou eu, em primeira pessoa, minha alma, minha mente? Ou seria “ele”, em terceira pessoa, nosso próprio cérebro me determinando? E como ficaria na segunda pessoa – o ser humano como estando em relação a Deus a quem o chama de “tu”? Querendo superar preconceitos contra uma neurociên­cia determinista e uma teologia despreocupada com a ciência – e estas próprias posições, onde são defendidas –, o presente artigo procura tratar da condição humana em sua liberdade sempre precária e tolhida. Recorrendo à abordagem neurobiológica e psiquiátrica de Joachim Bauer, argumenta pela importância das relações do ser humano com o outro, com Deus e com o mundo, numa forma de ressonância (Hartmut Rosa). ABSTRACT: The relationship between body and soul or between body, soul and spirit is an ancient problem of anthropology, and also of Christian theology. In view of present day discoveries and new neuroscientific theories, the issue poses itself afresh. It practically migrated to the discussion of the relationship between brain and mind. Today, there is ample consensus that it is the brain that is in charge of the body. If we accept that, then who is in charge of the brain? Is it me, in the first person, my soul, my mind? Or is it “him”, in the third person, our own brain that determines me? And how about the second person – the human being in its relationship with God whom it calls “you”? Striving to overcome prejudices against a deterministic neuroscience, on the one hand, and a theology indifferent to science – and, indeed, such positions, wherever they are held – the present article seeks to deal with the human condition in its freedom, always precarious and restrained. Referring to neurobiological and psychiatric insights from Joachim Bauer, it argues for the importance of the relationship of the human being with the other, with God and with the world, in a form of resonance (Hartmut Rosa).

scholarly journals DA RELAÇÃO CORPO-ALMA À MENTE-CÉREBRO: A ANTROPOLOGIA CRISTÃ E AS NOVAS ANTROPOLOGIAS

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (129) ◽  
pp. 215
Author(s):  
Renato Alves De Oliveira
Keyword(s):  
Christian Anthropology ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Way

O objetivo deste artigo é mostrar que a questão referente aos dois princípios metafísicos constitutivos da antropologia cristã, o corpo/matéria e a alma/espírito, e a forma de conceber a relação entre eles encontra-se presentes no subsolo das novas antropologias materialistas, mas com um novo verniz através da relação entre a mente e o cérebro. Para a antropologia cristã, a existência do binômio corpo-alma é uma questão resolvida. As discussões se concentram na forma de conceber a relação entre ambos os princípios. Analogamente, para algumas antropologias materialistas atuais, a existência da mente e do cérebro é uma questão fechada. Os confrontos encontram-se na forma de conceber as relações entre a mente e o cérebro: há uma identificação ou distinção entres ambas as realidades? A mente seria uma qualidade emergente do cérebro? ABSTRACT: The purpose of this article is to show that the question concerning the two constituent metaphysical principles of Christian anthropology, body/matter and soul/spirit, and the way of conceiving the relationship between them is presente in the basement of the new materialist anthropologies, but with a new varnish through the relationship between mind and brain. For Christian anthropology, the existence of the binomial soul/body is a settled issue. The discussions focus on how to design the relationship between the two principles. Similarly, for some current materialistic anthropologies, the existence of the mind and the brain is a closed question. The clashes are the way of conceiving the relationship between mind and brain: Is there an identification or a distinction between the two realities? Would be the mind an emergent quality of the brain?

Philosophy Redivivus?

1998 ◽  
pp. 86-92
Author(s):  
Oskar Gruenwald
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Scientific Advance ◽  
New Era ◽  
Stephen Hawking ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Science And Faith ◽  
The Brain

Curiously, in the late twentieth century, even agnostic cosmologists like Stephen Hawking—who is often compared with Einstein—pose metascientific questions concerning a Creator and the cosmos, which science per se is unable to answer. Modern science of the brain, e.g. Roger Penrose's Shadows of the Mind (1994), is only beginning to explore the relationship between the brain and the mind-the physiological and the epistemic. Galileo thought that God's two books-Nature and the Word-cannot be in conflict, since both have a common author: God. This entails, inter alia, that science and faith are to two roads to the Creator-God. David Granby recalls that once upon a time, science and religion were perceived as complementary enterprises, with each scientific advance confirming the grandeur of a Superior Intelligence-God. Are we then at the threshold of a new era of fruitful dialogue between science and religion, one that is mediated by philosophy in the classical sense? In this paper I explore this question in greater detail.

scholarly journals Interpersonal brain synchronization under bluffing in strategic games

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 1326-1335
Author(s):  
Zhihao Wang ◽  
Yiwen Wang ◽  
Xiaolin Zhou ◽  
Rongjun Yu
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Strategic Thinking ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Strategic Games ◽  
Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
High Penalty ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

Abstract People commonly use bluffing as a strategy to manipulate other people’s beliefs about them for gain. Although bluffing is an important part of successful strategic thinking, the inter-brain mechanisms underlying bluffing remain unclear. Here, we employed a functional near-infrared spectroscopy hyperscanning technique to simultaneously record the brain activity in the right temporal-parietal junction in 32 pairs of participants when they played a bluffing game against each other or with computer opponents separately. We also manipulated the penalty for bluffing (high vs low). Under the condition of high relative to low penalty, results showed a higher bluffing rate and a higher calling rate in human-to-human as compared to human-to-computer pairing. At the neural level, high relative to low penalty condition increased the interpersonal brain synchronization (IBS) in the right angular gyrus (rAG) during human-to-human as compared to human-to-computer interaction. Importantly, bluffing relative to non-bluffing, under the high penalty and human-to-human condition, resulted in an increase in response time and enhanced IBS in the rAG. Participants who bluffed more frequently also elicited stronger IBS. Our findings support the view that regions associated with mentalizing become synchronized during bluffing games, especially under the high penalty and human-to-human condition.

Humility, Free Will Beliefs, and Existential Angst

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Nadelhoffer ◽  
Jennifer Cole Wright
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Existential Anxiety ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Shed Light

In Chapter 15, Thomas Nadelhoffer and Jennifer Cole Wright investigate the relationship between free will beliefs (or the lack thereof) and existential anxiety. In an attempt to shed light on this relationship, they set out to test whether trait humility can serve as a “buffer” between the two—that is, are people who are high in dispositional humility less likely to experience existential anxiety in the face of skepticism about free will? Given the perspectival and attitudinal nature of humility, Nadelhoffer and Wright predict that humble people will be less anxious in the face of stories about the purported death of free will (or the reduction of the mind to the brain). In a series of four studies, they test their hypothesis, with mixed results.,The findings, however, tell us something important about the current use of primes in studies designed to manipulate people’s belief in free will (usually to measure their pro- or antisocial effects).

scholarly journals Neuropsychiatry in the UK: planning the service provision for the 21st century

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 303-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niruj Agrawal ◽  
Simon Fleminger ◽  
Howard Ring ◽  
Shoumitro Deb
Keyword(s):  
Service Provision ◽  
Service Planning ◽  
Cartesian Dualism ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
No Man's Land ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Brain

Some believe that Cartesian dualism of mind and body in the 19th century and the rise of psychoanalysis by the turn of the 20th century was what led to the separation of neurology and psychiatry. More recently, conceptualisations of the mind/brain paradigm have helped rediscover the relationship between the mind and the brain, bringing renewed synergy between neurology and psychiatry (Cunningham et al, 2006). However, division is still apparent in current service planning and provision in the UK for individuals whose presentation lies in the no-man's-land between these two historical domains.

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