AbstractIn this chapter, it is assumed that, in order for the debate over extended cognition (and mind) to have substance, there must be a genuine distinction between what is cognitive and what is not. This motivates the search for a mark of the cognitive, a principle demarcating the cognitive. Desiderata for a principle of demarcation are set out. Various principles supportive of the extended...
To figure out whether the main empirical question "Is our brain hardwired to believe in and produce God, or is our brain hardwired to perceive and experience God?" is answered, this paper presents systematic critical review of the positions, arguments and controversies of each side of the neuroscientific-theological debate and puts forward an integral view where the human is seen as a...
Many meditation exercises aim at increased awareness of ongoing experiences through sustained attention and at detachment, i.e., non-engaging observation of these ongoing experiences by the intent not to analyze, judge or expect anything. Long-term meditation practice is believed to generalize the ability of increased awareness and greater detachment into everyday life. We hypothesized that...
AbstractThis book surveys philosophical issues raised by the situated movement in cognitive science—the treatment of cognitive phenomena as the joint product of brain, body, and environment. The book focuses specifically on the hypothesis of extended cognition, according to which human cognitive processes literally comprise elements beyond the boundary of the human organism. A systems-based...
AbstractThis chapter addresses a realization-based interpretation of the extended approach. On this view, cognitive states are states of an organismically bounded cognitive system, yet may still have realizers—that is, physical implementations—that extend beyond the boundary of the organism. Functionalism in philosophy of mind, as well as the associated idea of a physical realization, is...
Much of our knowledge in neuroscience was discovered through the study of mind-altering natural products. However, although much has been learned about human physiology and basic biological processes, the underlying causes of CNS disorders and other disease states are still elusive. Based on its main past successes, the continued study of mind-altering compounds promises to yield novel agents...
Abstract Alston's perceptual account of mystical experience fails to show how it is that the sort of predicates that are used to describe God in these experiences could be derived from perception, even though the ascription of matched predicates in the natural order are not derived in the manner Alston has in mind. In contrast, if one looks to research on shared attention between individuals as...
in modern science that is causing waves in the philosophy of mind. Can there be artificial minds? Can machines be made to think? Can machines be conscious? Is it possible for artificial intelligence to replace the human brain? These and similar questions pervade most discussions and philosophical polemics on the issue of artificial intelligence. While some analysts think that in a very...
Freud (and later commentators) have failed to explain how the origins of psychoanalytical theory began with a positivist investment without recognizing a dual epistemological commitment: simply, Freud engaged positivism because he believed it generally equated with empiricism, which he valued, and he rejected "philosophy," and, more specifically, Kantianism, because of the associated...
Extensions of Lockean and Kantian concepts offer new insights into the neurophysiology of consciousness. The Identity Theory as presented herein is plausible and leads to major revisions in concepts and their terminologies relating to consciousness: Memory items are regarded as semi-independent rather than as only hierarchical. The concept of representations is revised. It can be seen that the...