Geoffrey Lloyd
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199214617
- eISBN:
- 9780191706493
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214617.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This book presents a study of the problems posed by the unity and diversity of the human mind. On the one hand, as humans we all share broadly the same anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and certain ...
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This book presents a study of the problems posed by the unity and diversity of the human mind. On the one hand, as humans we all share broadly the same anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and certain psychological capabilities — the capacity to learn a language, for instance. On the other, different individuals and groups have very different talents, tastes, and beliefs, for instance about how they see themselves, other humans and the world around them. These issues are highly charged, for any denial of psychic unity savours of racism, while many assertions of psychic diversity raise the spectres of arbitrary relativism, the incommensurability of beliefs systems, and their mutual unintelligibility. The book examines where different types of arguments, scientific, philosophical, anthropological and historical, can take us. It discusses colour perception, spatial cognition, animal and plant taxonomy, the emotions, ideas of health and well-being, concepts of the self, agency and causation, varying perceptions of the distinction between nature and culture, and reasoning itself. It pays attention to the multidimensionality of the phenomena to be apprehended and to the diversity of manners, or styles, of apprehending them. The weight to be given to different factors, physical, biological, psychological, cultural, ideological, varies as between different subject areas and sometimes even within a single area. The book uses recent work in social anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, neurophysiology, and the history of ideas to redefine the problems and clarify how our evident psychic diversity can be reconciled with our shared humanity.Less
This book presents a study of the problems posed by the unity and diversity of the human mind. On the one hand, as humans we all share broadly the same anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and certain psychological capabilities — the capacity to learn a language, for instance. On the other, different individuals and groups have very different talents, tastes, and beliefs, for instance about how they see themselves, other humans and the world around them. These issues are highly charged, for any denial of psychic unity savours of racism, while many assertions of psychic diversity raise the spectres of arbitrary relativism, the incommensurability of beliefs systems, and their mutual unintelligibility. The book examines where different types of arguments, scientific, philosophical, anthropological and historical, can take us. It discusses colour perception, spatial cognition, animal and plant taxonomy, the emotions, ideas of health and well-being, concepts of the self, agency and causation, varying perceptions of the distinction between nature and culture, and reasoning itself. It pays attention to the multidimensionality of the phenomena to be apprehended and to the diversity of manners, or styles, of apprehending them. The weight to be given to different factors, physical, biological, psychological, cultural, ideological, varies as between different subject areas and sometimes even within a single area. The book uses recent work in social anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, neurophysiology, and the history of ideas to redefine the problems and clarify how our evident psychic diversity can be reconciled with our shared humanity.
Alan K. Bowman and Michael Brady (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262962
- eISBN:
- 9780191734533
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262962.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Methodology and Techniques
These fifteen chapters explore the ways in which recent developments in imaging, image analysis, and image display and diffusion can be applied to objects of material culture in order to enhance ...
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These fifteen chapters explore the ways in which recent developments in imaging, image analysis, and image display and diffusion can be applied to objects of material culture in order to enhance historians' understanding of the period from which the objects came (in this case, the remote past). In interpreting artefacts, the historian acts out a perceptual-cognitive task of transforming often noisy and impoverished signals into semantically rich symbols that have to be set within a cultural and historical context. Engineering scientists, equipped with a range of sophisticated techniques, equipment and highly specialised knowledge, are not always as aware as they might be of the range and the exact nature of problems faced by historians in interpreting objects of material culture. By providing the opportunity for scholars from these communities to explain to each other what they are doing and how, the chapters explore the ways in which the scientific contributors and the historians are thinking about subjectivity of interpretation, visual cognition, and the need to improve methods of presenting evidence so as to feed directly back into their own scientific thinking and to encourage genuine innovation in their approach to developing methods of image-enhancement and interpretation of objects. A significant further dimension is the improvement of techniques of providing high quality images of important and valuable collections of original artefacts to scholars who cannot always study the originals directly. Another important development discussed here is the fact that such imaging techniques now offer the researcher valuable insurance against the processes of deterioration to which such artefacts are inevitably subject. Seven of the chapters are scientific and technical, while the other eight have an archaeological or historical focus.Less
These fifteen chapters explore the ways in which recent developments in imaging, image analysis, and image display and diffusion can be applied to objects of material culture in order to enhance historians' understanding of the period from which the objects came (in this case, the remote past). In interpreting artefacts, the historian acts out a perceptual-cognitive task of transforming often noisy and impoverished signals into semantically rich symbols that have to be set within a cultural and historical context. Engineering scientists, equipped with a range of sophisticated techniques, equipment and highly specialised knowledge, are not always as aware as they might be of the range and the exact nature of problems faced by historians in interpreting objects of material culture. By providing the opportunity for scholars from these communities to explain to each other what they are doing and how, the chapters explore the ways in which the scientific contributors and the historians are thinking about subjectivity of interpretation, visual cognition, and the need to improve methods of presenting evidence so as to feed directly back into their own scientific thinking and to encourage genuine innovation in their approach to developing methods of image-enhancement and interpretation of objects. A significant further dimension is the improvement of techniques of providing high quality images of important and valuable collections of original artefacts to scholars who cannot always study the originals directly. Another important development discussed here is the fact that such imaging techniques now offer the researcher valuable insurance against the processes of deterioration to which such artefacts are inevitably subject. Seven of the chapters are scientific and technical, while the other eight have an archaeological or historical focus.
Anne-Lise Christensen, Elkhonon Goldberg, and Dmitri Bougakov (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195176704
- eISBN:
- 9780199864706
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195176704.001.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, History of Neuroscience
Alexandr Romanovich Luria was one of the foremost neuropsychologists of the 20th Century and the field of neuropsychology was created, in large part, due to his research on patients with brain ...
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Alexandr Romanovich Luria was one of the foremost neuropsychologists of the 20th Century and the field of neuropsychology was created, in large part, due to his research on patients with brain lesions during the Second World War. Throughout his career, his insights on thought processes and aphasias inspired and challenged the discipline and his students. Luria's Legacy in the 21st Century is a collection of essays by leading neuropsychologists and cognitive neuroscientists to honor Alexandr Romanovich Luria and to highlight the enduring impact of his legacy on cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuropsychology, and neurorehabilitation. A wide range of topics are covered, from functional neuroimaging in neuropsychology to bedside evaluation techniques. Several generations of neuropsychologists and cognitive neuroscientists are among contributors, including those who closely worked with Luria, their own students, and others influenced in their work by Luria's pioneering insights. Broad in scope and rich in detail, Luria's Legacy in the 21st Century provides a window into the world of the great neuropsychologist. Each essay suggests that Luria's impact will be felt far into the future.Less
Alexandr Romanovich Luria was one of the foremost neuropsychologists of the 20th Century and the field of neuropsychology was created, in large part, due to his research on patients with brain lesions during the Second World War. Throughout his career, his insights on thought processes and aphasias inspired and challenged the discipline and his students. Luria's Legacy in the 21st Century is a collection of essays by leading neuropsychologists and cognitive neuroscientists to honor Alexandr Romanovich Luria and to highlight the enduring impact of his legacy on cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuropsychology, and neurorehabilitation. A wide range of topics are covered, from functional neuroimaging in neuropsychology to bedside evaluation techniques. Several generations of neuropsychologists and cognitive neuroscientists are among contributors, including those who closely worked with Luria, their own students, and others influenced in their work by Luria's pioneering insights. Broad in scope and rich in detail, Luria's Legacy in the 21st Century provides a window into the world of the great neuropsychologist. Each essay suggests that Luria's impact will be felt far into the future.
Michael Spivey
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195170788
- eISBN:
- 9780199786831
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195170788.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience
The cognitive and neural sciences have been on the brink of a paradigm shift for over a decade. This book is intended to help galvanize the forces of dynamical systems theory, cognitive and ...
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The cognitive and neural sciences have been on the brink of a paradigm shift for over a decade. This book is intended to help galvanize the forces of dynamical systems theory, cognitive and computational neuroscience, connectionism, and ecological psychology that are needed to complete this paradigm shift. The book lays bare the fact that comprehending a spoken sentence, understanding a visual scene, or just thinking about the day's events involves the serial coalescing of different neuronal activation patterns, i.e., a state-space trajectory that flirts with a series of point attractors. As a result, the brain cannot help but spend most of its time instantiating patterns of activity that are in between identifiable mental states rather than in them. The chapters are arranged to present a systematic overview of how perception, cognition, and action are partially overlapping segments of one continuous mental flow, rather than three distinct mental systems. The early chapters provide experiential demonstrations of the gray areas in mental activity that happen in between discretely labeled mental events, as well as geometric visualizations of attractors in state space that make the dynamical-systems framework seem less mathematically abstract. The middle chapters present scores of behavioral and neurophysiological studies that portray the continuous temporal dynamics inherent in categorization, language comprehension, visual perception, as well as attention, action, and reasoning. The final chapters conclude with discussions of what the mind itself must look like if its activity is continuous in time and its contents are distributed in state space.Less
The cognitive and neural sciences have been on the brink of a paradigm shift for over a decade. This book is intended to help galvanize the forces of dynamical systems theory, cognitive and computational neuroscience, connectionism, and ecological psychology that are needed to complete this paradigm shift. The book lays bare the fact that comprehending a spoken sentence, understanding a visual scene, or just thinking about the day's events involves the serial coalescing of different neuronal activation patterns, i.e., a state-space trajectory that flirts with a series of point attractors. As a result, the brain cannot help but spend most of its time instantiating patterns of activity that are in between identifiable mental states rather than in them. The chapters are arranged to present a systematic overview of how perception, cognition, and action are partially overlapping segments of one continuous mental flow, rather than three distinct mental systems. The early chapters provide experiential demonstrations of the gray areas in mental activity that happen in between discretely labeled mental events, as well as geometric visualizations of attractors in state space that make the dynamical-systems framework seem less mathematically abstract. The middle chapters present scores of behavioral and neurophysiological studies that portray the continuous temporal dynamics inherent in categorization, language comprehension, visual perception, as well as attention, action, and reasoning. The final chapters conclude with discussions of what the mind itself must look like if its activity is continuous in time and its contents are distributed in state space.
Arthur S. Reber
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195106589
- eISBN:
- 9780199871698
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195106589.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
The book is an extended essay on implicit learning, a topic that emerged in recent years as an important but previously overlooked process. Implicit learning is learning that takes place independent ...
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The book is an extended essay on implicit learning, a topic that emerged in recent years as an important but previously overlooked process. Implicit learning is learning that takes place independent of both the process and products of learning. It occurs without the intention to learn and largely without awareness of the nature of what has been learned. The process is “bottom-up”; information is acquired automatically when individuals focus attention on complex displays; and the knowledge base is “tacit” and largely opaque to introspection. Examples abound in everyday life, notably natural language learning and the acquisition of the mores of social behavior. A core assumption is that this implicit acquisitional mechanism is a fundamental “root” process that is based on evolutionarily old neurological structures and lies at the heart of the adaptive behavioral repertoire of every complex organism. Firstly, the book outlines the essential features of implicit learning that have emerged from controlled studies carried out over the past several decades. It also presents alternative perspectives that have been proposed and accommodates these views to the proposed theoretical model. It then structures the literature within the framework of Darwinian evolutionary biology that lies at the core of the theory. Finally, it shows how the evolutionary stance makes a series of predictions about how functions based on implicit mechanisms should differ from those mediated by consciousness.Less
The book is an extended essay on implicit learning, a topic that emerged in recent years as an important but previously overlooked process. Implicit learning is learning that takes place independent of both the process and products of learning. It occurs without the intention to learn and largely without awareness of the nature of what has been learned. The process is “bottom-up”; information is acquired automatically when individuals focus attention on complex displays; and the knowledge base is “tacit” and largely opaque to introspection. Examples abound in everyday life, notably natural language learning and the acquisition of the mores of social behavior. A core assumption is that this implicit acquisitional mechanism is a fundamental “root” process that is based on evolutionarily old neurological structures and lies at the heart of the adaptive behavioral repertoire of every complex organism. Firstly, the book outlines the essential features of implicit learning that have emerged from controlled studies carried out over the past several decades. It also presents alternative perspectives that have been proposed and accommodates these views to the proposed theoretical model. It then structures the literature within the framework of Darwinian evolutionary biology that lies at the core of the theory. Finally, it shows how the evolutionary stance makes a series of predictions about how functions based on implicit mechanisms should differ from those mediated by consciousness.
John A. Sloboda
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198521280
- eISBN:
- 9780191706257
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198521280.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This book describes and analyses the cognitive processes that take place in the perception, performance, and creation of music. It proposes that underlying the various musical skills is the ability ...
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This book describes and analyses the cognitive processes that take place in the perception, performance, and creation of music. It proposes that underlying the various musical skills is the ability to form abstract mental representations of music, which allow it to be apprehended in structural terms. In this respect, the analogy to language is paramount. The book reviews the experimental literature on music-language overlaps, performance, composition and improvization, listening, learning and development, and culture and biology. It assesses this literature and also examines areas where research is lacking, from the perspective of a cognitive psychologist who is also an active performing musician.Less
This book describes and analyses the cognitive processes that take place in the perception, performance, and creation of music. It proposes that underlying the various musical skills is the ability to form abstract mental representations of music, which allow it to be apprehended in structural terms. In this respect, the analogy to language is paramount. The book reviews the experimental literature on music-language overlaps, performance, composition and improvization, listening, learning and development, and culture and biology. It assesses this literature and also examines areas where research is lacking, from the perspective of a cognitive psychologist who is also an active performing musician.
Todd Tremlin
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195305340
- eISBN:
- 9780199784721
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195305345.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This book provides an introduction to the cognitive science of religion, a new discipline of study that explains the origins and persistence of religious ideas and behavior on the basis of evolved ...
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This book provides an introduction to the cognitive science of religion, a new discipline of study that explains the origins and persistence of religious ideas and behavior on the basis of evolved mental structures and functions of the human brain. Belief in gods and the social formation of religion have their genesis in biology — in powerful, often hidden, processes of cognition that all humans share. Arguing that we cannot understand what we think until we first understand how we think, the book describes ways in which evolution by natural selection molded the modern human mind, resulting in mental modularity, innate intelligences, and species-typical modes of thought. The book details many of the adapted features of the brain — agent detection, theory of mind, social cognition, and others — focusing on how mental endowments inherited from our ancestral past lead people to naturally entertain religious ideas, such as the god concepts that are ubiquitous the world over. In addition to introducing the major themes, theories, and thinkers in the cognitive science of religion, the book also advances the current discussion by moving beyond explanations for individual religious beliefs and behaviors to the operation of culture and religious systems. Drawing on dual-process models of cognition developed in social psychology, the book argues that the same cognitive constraints that shape human thought also work as a selective force on the content and durability of religions.Less
This book provides an introduction to the cognitive science of religion, a new discipline of study that explains the origins and persistence of religious ideas and behavior on the basis of evolved mental structures and functions of the human brain. Belief in gods and the social formation of religion have their genesis in biology — in powerful, often hidden, processes of cognition that all humans share. Arguing that we cannot understand what we think until we first understand how we think, the book describes ways in which evolution by natural selection molded the modern human mind, resulting in mental modularity, innate intelligences, and species-typical modes of thought. The book details many of the adapted features of the brain — agent detection, theory of mind, social cognition, and others — focusing on how mental endowments inherited from our ancestral past lead people to naturally entertain religious ideas, such as the god concepts that are ubiquitous the world over. In addition to introducing the major themes, theories, and thinkers in the cognitive science of religion, the book also advances the current discussion by moving beyond explanations for individual religious beliefs and behaviors to the operation of culture and religious systems. Drawing on dual-process models of cognition developed in social psychology, the book argues that the same cognitive constraints that shape human thought also work as a selective force on the content and durability of religions.
Annette Miae Kim
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195369397
- eISBN:
- 9780199871032
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195369397.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Why have some countries been able to escape the usual dead end of international development efforts and build explosively growing capitalist economies? Based on years of fieldwork, this book provides ...
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Why have some countries been able to escape the usual dead end of international development efforts and build explosively growing capitalist economies? Based on years of fieldwork, this book provides an account of the first generation of entrepreneurs in Vietnam in comparison to those in other transition countries. Focusing on the emergence of private land development firms in Ho Chi Minh City, this book shows how within seven years the private sector produced the majority of all new houses in the real estate market. This book demonstrates that capitalist entrepreneurialism was not the result of state initiative, properly incentivized policies, or individual personality traits. Rather, a society-wide reconstruction of cognitive paradigms enabled entrepreneurs to emerge and transform Vietnam from a poor, centrally planned economy into one of the fastest growing, market economies in the world.Less
Why have some countries been able to escape the usual dead end of international development efforts and build explosively growing capitalist economies? Based on years of fieldwork, this book provides an account of the first generation of entrepreneurs in Vietnam in comparison to those in other transition countries. Focusing on the emergence of private land development firms in Ho Chi Minh City, this book shows how within seven years the private sector produced the majority of all new houses in the real estate market. This book demonstrates that capitalist entrepreneurialism was not the result of state initiative, properly incentivized policies, or individual personality traits. Rather, a society-wide reconstruction of cognitive paradigms enabled entrepreneurs to emerge and transform Vietnam from a poor, centrally planned economy into one of the fastest growing, market economies in the world.
D. Jason Slone
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195169263
- eISBN:
- 9780199835256
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195169263.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
People believe what they shouldn’t because they have active minds that are continuously engaged in the construction of novel thoughts, and in the transformation of culturally transmitted ideas. The ...
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People believe what they shouldn’t because they have active minds that are continuously engaged in the construction of novel thoughts, and in the transformation of culturally transmitted ideas. The key to understanding religion is to identify the aspects of cognition that constrain religious behavior. Given the fact that religion is a natural by-product of cognition, studies of religion should include cognitive psychology in addition to theology and ethnography.Less
People believe what they shouldn’t because they have active minds that are continuously engaged in the construction of novel thoughts, and in the transformation of culturally transmitted ideas. The key to understanding religion is to identify the aspects of cognition that constrain religious behavior. Given the fact that religion is a natural by-product of cognition, studies of religion should include cognitive psychology in addition to theology and ethnography.
Sally Sedgwick
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199698363
- eISBN:
- 9780191738692
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698363.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This is a study of Hegel’s critique of Kant’s theoretical philosophy. Its main purpose is to defend the thesis that Hegel offers us a compelling critique of, and alternative to, the conception of ...
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This is a study of Hegel’s critique of Kant’s theoretical philosophy. Its main purpose is to defend the thesis that Hegel offers us a compelling critique of, and alternative to, the conception of cognition Kant argues for in his ‘Critical’ period. It examines key features of what Kant identifies as the ‘discursive’ character of our mode of cognition, and considers Hegel’s reasons for arguing that these features condemn Kant’s theoretical philosophy to skepticism as well as dualism. This study presents in a sympathetic light Hegel’s claim to derive from certain Kantian doctrines clues to a superior form of idealism, a form of idealism that better captures the nature of our cognitive powers and their relation to objects.Less
This is a study of Hegel’s critique of Kant’s theoretical philosophy. Its main purpose is to defend the thesis that Hegel offers us a compelling critique of, and alternative to, the conception of cognition Kant argues for in his ‘Critical’ period. It examines key features of what Kant identifies as the ‘discursive’ character of our mode of cognition, and considers Hegel’s reasons for arguing that these features condemn Kant’s theoretical philosophy to skepticism as well as dualism. This study presents in a sympathetic light Hegel’s claim to derive from certain Kantian doctrines clues to a superior form of idealism, a form of idealism that better captures the nature of our cognitive powers and their relation to objects.
Sharon B. Berlin
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195110371
- eISBN:
- 9780199865680
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195110371.001.0001
- Subject:
- Social Work, Health and Mental Health
This is a book about how people change their minds and how mental health practitioners can help this process along. It addresses a gap in the literature on cognitive therapy that results from an ...
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This is a book about how people change their minds and how mental health practitioners can help this process along. It addresses a gap in the literature on cognitive therapy that results from an almost exclusive focus on the constructed aspects of personal meaning, and a lack of attention to the ways in which information that we pick up from life circumstances also influences what we know, feel, and do. Conceptions that ignore the role that current life conditions and interpersonal events play in creating or revising meanings limit the utility of cognitive therapy approaches for clients whose lives are marked by ongoing deprivation, threat, and vulnerability. In laying out a broader perspective, a Cognitive-Integrative perspective, the book expands the internal focus of traditional cognitive therapies to take more account of the role of information generated by environmental events and conditions in impeding or promoting change. It contends that mind draws on organized memories of previous experiences as well as currently available information to generate cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. The theoretical grounding for this perspective is drawn from a range of cognitive, neurological, social, psychological, and social work theories. Theoretical explanations are laid out. They are balanced with practice guidelines and grounded in an offering of clinical examples.Less
This is a book about how people change their minds and how mental health practitioners can help this process along. It addresses a gap in the literature on cognitive therapy that results from an almost exclusive focus on the constructed aspects of personal meaning, and a lack of attention to the ways in which information that we pick up from life circumstances also influences what we know, feel, and do. Conceptions that ignore the role that current life conditions and interpersonal events play in creating or revising meanings limit the utility of cognitive therapy approaches for clients whose lives are marked by ongoing deprivation, threat, and vulnerability. In laying out a broader perspective, a Cognitive-Integrative perspective, the book expands the internal focus of traditional cognitive therapies to take more account of the role of information generated by environmental events and conditions in impeding or promoting change. It contends that mind draws on organized memories of previous experiences as well as currently available information to generate cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. The theoretical grounding for this perspective is drawn from a range of cognitive, neurological, social, psychological, and social work theories. Theoretical explanations are laid out. They are balanced with practice guidelines and grounded in an offering of clinical examples.
Robert D. Rupert
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195379457
- eISBN:
- 9780199869114
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195379457.003.0012
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This chapter summarizes the book's arguments against the extended view, as well as the primary conciliatory contentions advanced with regard to the embedded and embodied views. The chapter closes ...
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This chapter summarizes the book's arguments against the extended view, as well as the primary conciliatory contentions advanced with regard to the embedded and embodied views. The chapter closes with comments on the positive importance of the embodied and embedded programs, particularly in respect of such philosophical issues as reductionism and naturalized epistemology.Less
This chapter summarizes the book's arguments against the extended view, as well as the primary conciliatory contentions advanced with regard to the embedded and embodied views. The chapter closes with comments on the positive importance of the embodied and embedded programs, particularly in respect of such philosophical issues as reductionism and naturalized epistemology.
David Wengrow
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691159041
- eISBN:
- 9781400848867
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691159041.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Historical Archaeology
It has often been claimed that “monsters”—supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species—play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. This book ...
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It has often been claimed that “monsters”—supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species—play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. This book advances an alternative view. Composite figurations are intriguingly rare and isolated in the art of the prehistoric era. Instead it was with the rise of cities, elites, and cosmopolitan trade networks that “monsters” became widespread features of visual production in the ancient world. Showing how these fantastic images originated and how they were transmitted, this book identifies patterns in the records of human image-making and embarks on a search for connections between mind and culture. It asks: Can cognitive science explain the potency of such images? Does evolutionary psychology hold a key to understanding the transmission of symbols? How is our making and perception of images influenced by institutions and technologies? The book considers the work of art in the first age of mechanical reproduction, which it locates in the Middle East, where urban life began. Comparing the development and spread of fantastic imagery across a range of prehistoric and ancient societies, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and China, the book explores how the visual imagination has been shaped by a complex mixture of historical and universal factors. Examining the reasons behind the dissemination of monstrous imagery in ancient states and empires, it sheds light on the relationship between culture and cognition.Less
It has often been claimed that “monsters”—supernatural creatures with bodies composed from multiple species—play a significant part in the thought and imagery of all people from all times. This book advances an alternative view. Composite figurations are intriguingly rare and isolated in the art of the prehistoric era. Instead it was with the rise of cities, elites, and cosmopolitan trade networks that “monsters” became widespread features of visual production in the ancient world. Showing how these fantastic images originated and how they were transmitted, this book identifies patterns in the records of human image-making and embarks on a search for connections between mind and culture. It asks: Can cognitive science explain the potency of such images? Does evolutionary psychology hold a key to understanding the transmission of symbols? How is our making and perception of images influenced by institutions and technologies? The book considers the work of art in the first age of mechanical reproduction, which it locates in the Middle East, where urban life began. Comparing the development and spread of fantastic imagery across a range of prehistoric and ancient societies, including Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and China, the book explores how the visual imagination has been shaped by a complex mixture of historical and universal factors. Examining the reasons behind the dissemination of monstrous imagery in ancient states and empires, it sheds light on the relationship between culture and cognition.
Paul Dudchenko
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199210862
- eISBN:
- 9780191594199
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199210862.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology
This book reviews the psychology and neuroscience of how we find our way. It starts with a history of studies on how organisms solve mazes. This work has its origins in the efforts of behaviourists, ...
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This book reviews the psychology and neuroscience of how we find our way. It starts with a history of studies on how organisms solve mazes. This work has its origins in the efforts of behaviourists, psychologists such as John Watson, who sought a firmer scientific footing for the field by focusing on measurable phenomenon, such as how rats solve spatial mazes. The book then reviews contemporary studies of spatial cognition and the wayfinding abilities of adults and children. In children, the perception of space can be distorted but improves with development. For adults, the ability to keep track of one's orientation in the absence of landmarks is limited. Next there is a consideration of how specific parts of the brain provide a cognitive map and a neural compass. A deeply influential view is that the hippocampus — a brain structure that in humans in essential for normal memory — contains of cognitive map. Work on place cells, the element of this map, and head-direction and grid neurons is summarised. This book also considers the neurology of spatial disorientation and the tendency of patients with Alzheimer's disease to lose their way. It concludes with the proposal that we get lost because our brain's compass becomes misoriented.Less
This book reviews the psychology and neuroscience of how we find our way. It starts with a history of studies on how organisms solve mazes. This work has its origins in the efforts of behaviourists, psychologists such as John Watson, who sought a firmer scientific footing for the field by focusing on measurable phenomenon, such as how rats solve spatial mazes. The book then reviews contemporary studies of spatial cognition and the wayfinding abilities of adults and children. In children, the perception of space can be distorted but improves with development. For adults, the ability to keep track of one's orientation in the absence of landmarks is limited. Next there is a consideration of how specific parts of the brain provide a cognitive map and a neural compass. A deeply influential view is that the hippocampus — a brain structure that in humans in essential for normal memory — contains of cognitive map. Work on place cells, the element of this map, and head-direction and grid neurons is summarised. This book also considers the neurology of spatial disorientation and the tendency of patients with Alzheimer's disease to lose their way. It concludes with the proposal that we get lost because our brain's compass becomes misoriented.
Masahiko Aoki
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199218530
- eISBN:
- 9780191711510
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199218530.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Corporate Governance and Accountability, Strategy
The 2008 financial crisis calls for a re-examination of the basic premise of the orthodox shareholder-oriented model of the corporate firm and its governance. This book tries to meet this challenge. ...
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The 2008 financial crisis calls for a re-examination of the basic premise of the orthodox shareholder-oriented model of the corporate firm and its governance. This book tries to meet this challenge. It posits that the primary raison d'être of business corporations is the organization of associative cognitive and physical actions to create corporate values broader than shareholders' values. It identifies five generic modes of organizational architecture distinguished by discrete combinations of human cognitive assets among management and workers, as well as their relationships to use-control rights of physical assets that are provided by the investors. For each of those architectural modes, a particular governance structure is associated as an essentially self-enforcing agreement among the three types of asset-holders. The selection of a corporate form from the possible varieties is evolutionarily conditioned and institutionally linked to stable outcomes of social and political games in which corporations are embedded and play. The book looks at the nature of the evolving diversity of the global corporate landscape and the rising importance of CSR, which contribute to the accumulation of corporate social capital. This evolving state appears to require the redefinition of the role of financial markets as informational, and governance infrastructures that are complimentary to diverse corporate organizations, rather than as dominant principals of corporations.Less
The 2008 financial crisis calls for a re-examination of the basic premise of the orthodox shareholder-oriented model of the corporate firm and its governance. This book tries to meet this challenge. It posits that the primary raison d'être of business corporations is the organization of associative cognitive and physical actions to create corporate values broader than shareholders' values. It identifies five generic modes of organizational architecture distinguished by discrete combinations of human cognitive assets among management and workers, as well as their relationships to use-control rights of physical assets that are provided by the investors. For each of those architectural modes, a particular governance structure is associated as an essentially self-enforcing agreement among the three types of asset-holders. The selection of a corporate form from the possible varieties is evolutionarily conditioned and institutionally linked to stable outcomes of social and political games in which corporations are embedded and play. The book looks at the nature of the evolving diversity of the global corporate landscape and the rising importance of CSR, which contribute to the accumulation of corporate social capital. This evolving state appears to require the redefinition of the role of financial markets as informational, and governance infrastructures that are complimentary to diverse corporate organizations, rather than as dominant principals of corporations.
Dominic McIver Lopes
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199277346
- eISBN:
- 9780191602641
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199277346.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Pictures are vehicles for seeing-in—they enable us to see scenes in marked surfaces. However, seeing-in takes several forms. In some cases, the scene is seen together with the marked surface, and, in ...
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Pictures are vehicles for seeing-in—they enable us to see scenes in marked surfaces. However, seeing-in takes several forms. In some cases, the scene is seen together with the marked surface, and, in other cases, seeing the scene excludes seeing the marked surface. In every case, evaluating a picture as a picture involves evaluating it as a vehicle for seeing-in. But evaluation, like seeing-in, comes in many flavours. Aesthetic, cognitive, and moral evaluations of pictures are especially prominent in picture criticism. These three types of evaluation of pictures interact, for one may imply another. Moreover, aesthetic, cognitive, and moral evaluations of pictures asvehicles for seeing-in may also interact. This result overturns the intellectual basis for recent criticism of pictures, such as that found in scepticism about political hotography and in critiques of the male gaze.Less
Pictures are vehicles for seeing-in—they enable us to see scenes in marked surfaces. However, seeing-in takes several forms. In some cases, the scene is seen together with the marked surface, and, in other cases, seeing the scene excludes seeing the marked surface. In every case, evaluating a picture as a picture involves evaluating it as a vehicle for seeing-in. But evaluation, like seeing-in, comes in many flavours. Aesthetic, cognitive, and moral evaluations of pictures are especially prominent in picture criticism. These three types of evaluation of pictures interact, for one may imply another. Moreover, aesthetic, cognitive, and moral evaluations of pictures as
vehicles for seeing-in may also interact. This result overturns the intellectual basis for recent criticism of pictures, such as that found in scepticism about political hotography and in critiques of the male gaze.
Axel Honneth
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195320466
- eISBN:
- 9780199851591
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320466.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
In the early 20th century, Marxist theory was enriched and rejuvenated by adopting the concept of reification, introduced by the Hungarian theorist Georg Lukács to identify and denounce the ...
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In the early 20th century, Marxist theory was enriched and rejuvenated by adopting the concept of reification, introduced by the Hungarian theorist Georg Lukács to identify and denounce the transformation of historical processes into ahistorical entities, human actions into things that seemed part of an immutable “second nature.” For a variety of reasons, both theoretical and practical, the hopes placed in de-reification as a tool of revolutionary emancipation proved vain. This book attempts to rescue the concept of reification by recasting it in terms of the philosophy of recognition that has been developed over the past two decades. Three political and social theorists: Judith Butler, Raymond Geuss, and Jonathan Lear, respond with hard questions about the central anthropological premise of the book's main argument, the assumption that prior to cognition there is a fundamental experience of intersubjective recognition that can provide a normative standard by which current social relations can be judged wanting.Less
In the early 20th century, Marxist theory was enriched and rejuvenated by adopting the concept of reification, introduced by the Hungarian theorist Georg Lukács to identify and denounce the transformation of historical processes into ahistorical entities, human actions into things that seemed part of an immutable “second nature.” For a variety of reasons, both theoretical and practical, the hopes placed in de-reification as a tool of revolutionary emancipation proved vain. This book attempts to rescue the concept of reification by recasting it in terms of the philosophy of recognition that has been developed over the past two decades. Three political and social theorists: Judith Butler, Raymond Geuss, and Jonathan Lear, respond with hard questions about the central anthropological premise of the book's main argument, the assumption that prior to cognition there is a fundamental experience of intersubjective recognition that can provide a normative standard by which current social relations can be judged wanting.
Masahiko Aoki
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199218530
- eISBN:
- 9780191711510
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199218530.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Corporate Governance and Accountability, Strategy
This introductory chapter first revisits the generic nature of corporations as perpetual entities that first emerged in non-business domains such as religion, education, and city learning before the ...
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This introductory chapter first revisits the generic nature of corporations as perpetual entities that first emerged in non-business domains such as religion, education, and city learning before the birth of modern nation states. It prompts an inquiry into aspects of business corporations such as associative cognitive systems, self-governing perpetual entities and so on, which tended to be neglected in the orthodox approach to modern corporations. It examines those aspects in the context of contemporary business corporations by using game-theoretic language and tools. That is, varied forms of corporate organizational architecture and governance are to be understood as stable multiple equilibria of the organization field, while a particular choice from the many possible forms may be conditional on equilibrium linkages to the outcomes of political and social games that corporations play.Less
This introductory chapter first revisits the generic nature of corporations as perpetual entities that first emerged in non-business domains such as religion, education, and city learning before the birth of modern nation states. It prompts an inquiry into aspects of business corporations such as associative cognitive systems, self-governing perpetual entities and so on, which tended to be neglected in the orthodox approach to modern corporations. It examines those aspects in the context of contemporary business corporations by using game-theoretic language and tools. That is, varied forms of corporate organizational architecture and governance are to be understood as stable multiple equilibria of the organization field, while a particular choice from the many possible forms may be conditional on equilibrium linkages to the outcomes of political and social games that corporations play.
Nikolas Rose and Joelle M. Abi-Rached
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149608
- eISBN:
- 9781400846337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149608.003.0001
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Development
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the emergence of a neuromolecular vision of the brain. This means a new scale at which the brain and nervous system was conceptualized, and a new way ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the emergence of a neuromolecular vision of the brain. This means a new scale at which the brain and nervous system was conceptualized, and a new way in which their activities were understood. At this molecular level, the structure and processes of the brain and central nervous system were made understandable as material processes of interaction among molecules in neurons and the synapses between them. These were conceived in terms of the biophysical, chemical, and electrical properties of their constituent parts. At this scale, in a profoundly reductionist approach, despite the recognition that there was much that could not yet be explained, there seemed nothing mysterious about the operations of the nervous system. Indeed, mental processes—cognition, emotion, volition—could be explained in entirely material ways, as the outcome of biological processes in the brain.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the emergence of a neuromolecular vision of the brain. This means a new scale at which the brain and nervous system was conceptualized, and a new way in which their activities were understood. At this molecular level, the structure and processes of the brain and central nervous system were made understandable as material processes of interaction among molecules in neurons and the synapses between them. These were conceived in terms of the biophysical, chemical, and electrical properties of their constituent parts. At this scale, in a profoundly reductionist approach, despite the recognition that there was much that could not yet be explained, there seemed nothing mysterious about the operations of the nervous system. Indeed, mental processes—cognition, emotion, volition—could be explained in entirely material ways, as the outcome of biological processes in the brain.
Nikolas Rose and Joelle M. Abi-Rached
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691149608
- eISBN:
- 9781400846337
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691149608.003.0004
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Development
This chapter discusses the use of animals to explore issues relating to human cognition, emotion, volition, and their pathologies. Researchers who use animal models in their work point to ...
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This chapter discusses the use of animals to explore issues relating to human cognition, emotion, volition, and their pathologies. Researchers who use animal models in their work point to similarities in the genomes of the two species, in the structure of mouse and human brain, in patterns of brain activation, in neural mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level, in responses to drugs and so forth, perhaps with reference to evolution and the principle of conservation across species when it comes to the most basic aspects of living organisms, including their brains. The chapter then examines four interconnected themes: the question of the artificiality of the laboratory situation within which animal experiments are conducted; the idea of a model in behavioral and psychiatric research; the specificity of the human and the elision of history and human sociality; and the problem of translation.Less
This chapter discusses the use of animals to explore issues relating to human cognition, emotion, volition, and their pathologies. Researchers who use animal models in their work point to similarities in the genomes of the two species, in the structure of mouse and human brain, in patterns of brain activation, in neural mechanisms at the cellular and molecular level, in responses to drugs and so forth, perhaps with reference to evolution and the principle of conservation across species when it comes to the most basic aspects of living organisms, including their brains. The chapter then examines four interconnected themes: the question of the artificiality of the laboratory situation within which animal experiments are conducted; the idea of a model in behavioral and psychiatric research; the specificity of the human and the elision of history and human sociality; and the problem of translation.
