Sydney Shoemaker
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199214396
- eISBN:
- 9780191706738
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214396.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This book addresses the question of how mental properties and other properties not thought of as physical can be instantiated in a world of which physicalism is true. In such a world, the ...
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This book addresses the question of how mental properties and other properties not thought of as physical can be instantiated in a world of which physicalism is true. In such a world, the instantiation of these properties must be ‘realized in’ something physical. One sort of realization is property realization, where the instantiation of the realized property is realized in the instantiation of some physical property — when a property is ‘multiply realized’, different instantiations of it can be realized in different physical properties. The account given of this is the ‘subset account’, which holds that one property realizes another in virtue of subset relations between their causal features. Another sort is microphysical realization, where the instantiation of a property is realized in a microphysical state of affairs. The accounts of these are designed to remove the threat that the causal efficacy of realized property is ‘preempted’ by their physical realizers. The book discusses the bearing of these accounts on the status of functional properties, on the nature of emergent properties, on the issue between ‘three-dimensionalist’ and ‘four-dimensionalist’ accounts of persisting entities, and on the status of ‘qualia’, the properties that give experiences their phenomenal character.Less
This book addresses the question of how mental properties and other properties not thought of as physical can be instantiated in a world of which physicalism is true. In such a world, the instantiation of these properties must be ‘realized in’ something physical. One sort of realization is property realization, where the instantiation of the realized property is realized in the instantiation of some physical property — when a property is ‘multiply realized’, different instantiations of it can be realized in different physical properties. The account given of this is the ‘subset account’, which holds that one property realizes another in virtue of subset relations between their causal features. Another sort is microphysical realization, where the instantiation of a property is realized in a microphysical state of affairs. The accounts of these are designed to remove the threat that the causal efficacy of realized property is ‘preempted’ by their physical realizers. The book discusses the bearing of these accounts on the status of functional properties, on the nature of emergent properties, on the issue between ‘three-dimensionalist’ and ‘four-dimensionalist’ accounts of persisting entities, and on the status of ‘qualia’, the properties that give experiences their phenomenal character.
Samir Okasha
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199267972
- eISBN:
- 9780191708275
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199267972.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Science
This chapter aims to resolve several outstanding philosophical debates over the levels of selection. A number of suggested criteria in the literature for determining the ‘real’ level(s) of selection ...
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This chapter aims to resolve several outstanding philosophical debates over the levels of selection. A number of suggested criteria in the literature for determining the ‘real’ level(s) of selection involving the notions of additivity, screening-off, emergent relations, and emergent properties are assessed in the light of the previous chapters' analysis. The doctrine known as pluralism — which says that there may be ‘no fact of the matter’ about the level(s) at which selection is acting — is critically examined. Finally, the notion of reductionism as it relates to the levels of selection debate is briefly explored.Less
This chapter aims to resolve several outstanding philosophical debates over the levels of selection. A number of suggested criteria in the literature for determining the ‘real’ level(s) of selection involving the notions of additivity, screening-off, emergent relations, and emergent properties are assessed in the light of the previous chapters' analysis. The doctrine known as pluralism — which says that there may be ‘no fact of the matter’ about the level(s) at which selection is acting — is critically examined. Finally, the notion of reductionism as it relates to the levels of selection debate is briefly explored.
Rupert Taylor
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195125924
- eISBN:
- 9780199833894
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195125924.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
Participation in civil society was one of the few options for the pursuit of peaceful progressive change in apartheid South Africa, and a range of peace and conflict‐resolution organizations (P/CROs) ...
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Participation in civil society was one of the few options for the pursuit of peaceful progressive change in apartheid South Africa, and a range of peace and conflict‐resolution organizations (P/CROs) explored this option. These P/CROs were staffed mainly by middle class, white, university educated, English‐speaking males, exhibited significant levels of formalization and centralization, depended heavily on international funding, and were often harassed by the apartheid state. P/CROs were active in antimilitarization activities, mediation, promoting contact between white and black communities, encouraging dialog between elites, and research. Extensive links developed amongst P/CROs, between P/CROs and other kinds of antiapartheid nongovernmental organizations, and between some P/CROs and the mass‐based resistance movements; collectively, these organizations formed a “multiorganizational field.” P/CROs, in concert with the rest of the multiorganizational field, helped project an “emergent reality” – a nonracial and democratic South Africa; established channels of communication between the apartheid state and the resistance movement; and ripened the climate for political change.Less
Participation in civil society was one of the few options for the pursuit of peaceful progressive change in apartheid South Africa, and a range of peace and conflict‐resolution organizations (P/CROs) explored this option. These P/CROs were staffed mainly by middle class, white, university educated, English‐speaking males, exhibited significant levels of formalization and centralization, depended heavily on international funding, and were often harassed by the apartheid state. P/CROs were active in antimilitarization activities, mediation, promoting contact between white and black communities, encouraging dialog between elites, and research. Extensive links developed amongst P/CROs, between P/CROs and other kinds of antiapartheid nongovernmental organizations, and between some P/CROs and the mass‐based resistance movements; collectively, these organizations formed a “multiorganizational field.” P/CROs, in concert with the rest of the multiorganizational field, helped project an “emergent reality” – a nonracial and democratic South Africa; established channels of communication between the apartheid state and the resistance movement; and ripened the climate for political change.
Paul Noordhof
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199583621
- eISBN:
- 9780191723483
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199583621.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science
The chapter defends the application, and verdicts of a counterfactual theory of causation, to the question of property causation. In particular, the challenges that non‐reductive physicalism and ...
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The chapter defends the application, and verdicts of a counterfactual theory of causation, to the question of property causation. In particular, the challenges that non‐reductive physicalism and emergent dualism place upon such an account are evaluated. This involves providing a particular characterization of the difference between non‐reductive physicalism and emergent dualism, considering whether this characterization is defensible under various views about the nature of properties, and distinguishing two types of emergent causation only one type of which involves emergent properties.Less
The chapter defends the application, and verdicts of a counterfactual theory of causation, to the question of property causation. In particular, the challenges that non‐reductive physicalism and emergent dualism place upon such an account are evaluated. This involves providing a particular characterization of the difference between non‐reductive physicalism and emergent dualism, considering whether this characterization is defensible under various views about the nature of properties, and distinguishing two types of emergent causation only one type of which involves emergent properties.
Hal Culbertson
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395914
- eISBN:
- 9780199776801
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395914.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
An appropriate evaluation of peacebuilding initiatives is a pressing concern for improving and legitimizing peacebuilding efforts. Culbertson provides a helpful comparison of accountability-based and ...
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An appropriate evaluation of peacebuilding initiatives is a pressing concern for improving and legitimizing peacebuilding efforts. Culbertson provides a helpful comparison of accountability-based and learning-based evaluation models and demonstrates that while not mutually exclusive, accountability-based evaluation can inhibit learning. Evaluations that do not sufficiently assess how initiatives can and do contribute to broader peacebuilding efforts, for instance, through strategic engagement and coordination with other actors, are losing valuable learning opportunities. Similarly, the field needs assessment tools that consider the role of emergent planning (as opposed to deliberate planning), particularly given the volatile and dynamic environments in which peacebuilding occurs.Less
An appropriate evaluation of peacebuilding initiatives is a pressing concern for improving and legitimizing peacebuilding efforts. Culbertson provides a helpful comparison of accountability-based and learning-based evaluation models and demonstrates that while not mutually exclusive, accountability-based evaluation can inhibit learning. Evaluations that do not sufficiently assess how initiatives can and do contribute to broader peacebuilding efforts, for instance, through strategic engagement and coordination with other actors, are losing valuable learning opportunities. Similarly, the field needs assessment tools that consider the role of emergent planning (as opposed to deliberate planning), particularly given the volatile and dynamic environments in which peacebuilding occurs.
Sydney Shoemaker
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199214396
- eISBN:
- 9780191706738
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214396.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
This chapter argues that functional properties are not the only properties that can be realized by other properties, and are not a distinct ontological category of properties. The ‘mixed view’ that ...
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This chapter argues that functional properties are not the only properties that can be realized by other properties, and are not a distinct ontological category of properties. The ‘mixed view’ that functional properties have their causal profiles essentially while other properties have their causal profiles contingently has the unacceptable consequence that we can have no good reason for assigning any property to either of these categories. And on the view that all properties have their causal profiles, essentially there is no basis for marking off functional properties as a separate class. The existence of emergent properties is argued to be compatible with physicalism. The chapter ends with a discussion of how genuine properties can be distinguished from arbitrary disjunctions of properties.Less
This chapter argues that functional properties are not the only properties that can be realized by other properties, and are not a distinct ontological category of properties. The ‘mixed view’ that functional properties have their causal profiles essentially while other properties have their causal profiles contingently has the unacceptable consequence that we can have no good reason for assigning any property to either of these categories. And on the view that all properties have their causal profiles, essentially there is no basis for marking off functional properties as a separate class. The existence of emergent properties is argued to be compatible with physicalism. The chapter ends with a discussion of how genuine properties can be distinguished from arbitrary disjunctions of properties.
Sanford Schwartz
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195374728
- eISBN:
- 9780199871506
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195374728.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Literature
This chapter focuses on Perelandra, the second volume of the Space Trilogy. Once again Lewis’s target is the modern evolutionary or “developmental” paradigm, but in this novel the emphasis shifts ...
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This chapter focuses on Perelandra, the second volume of the Space Trilogy. Once again Lewis’s target is the modern evolutionary or “developmental” paradigm, but in this novel the emphasis shifts from the materialist “struggle for existence” to Henri Bergson’s more affirmative vitalist philosophy of creative (or emergent) evolution. Just as Martian civilization represents a transfiguration of the Darwinian view of the evolutionary process, the ever developing and open-ended character of the creation on Venus suggests that this new Eden is a sublimated version of creative evolution itself. In this way Lewis searches out the common ground, as well as the defining differences, between Christian tradition and the momentous intellectual changes that inverted the traditional priority of Being over Becoming at the turn of the twentieth century. As in the first novel, Lewis is “raising” or “taking up” the same evolutionary view he is simultaneously putting down.Less
This chapter focuses on Perelandra, the second volume of the Space Trilogy. Once again Lewis’s target is the modern evolutionary or “developmental” paradigm, but in this novel the emphasis shifts from the materialist “struggle for existence” to Henri Bergson’s more affirmative vitalist philosophy of creative (or emergent) evolution. Just as Martian civilization represents a transfiguration of the Darwinian view of the evolutionary process, the ever developing and open-ended character of the creation on Venus suggests that this new Eden is a sublimated version of creative evolution itself. In this way Lewis searches out the common ground, as well as the defining differences, between Christian tradition and the momentous intellectual changes that inverted the traditional priority of Being over Becoming at the turn of the twentieth century. As in the first novel, Lewis is “raising” or “taking up” the same evolutionary view he is simultaneously putting down.
Edward Sugden
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781479899692
- eISBN:
- 9781479843435
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479899692.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Cultural Studies
Emergent Worlds reframes the modernity of nineteenth-century America by displacing three central critical narratives about the era: the westward spread of imperialism, the redemptionist story of ...
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Emergent Worlds reframes the modernity of nineteenth-century America by displacing three central critical narratives about the era: the westward spread of imperialism, the redemptionist story of black freedom, and the notion that the United States constituted a new world. It begins by identifying dissonant forms of time that ought not to have existed if these three metanarratives were total: chance on a Pacific whaling vessel, a calm on a Caribbean slave ship, and a near apocalypse on an Atlantic merchant ship. These oceanic times provide a gateway into larger historical and geographical frames. They reveal that nineteenth-century America existed in historical interstices in the world-system: between colonialism and the nation, slavery and freedom, subject and citizen, old world and new. With this historical repositioning, Emergent Worlds makes visible a series of transitional ideologies and figures that emblematize them, such as the queer migrant, the suspended state, and the living dead, which are passed over if the modernity of the era is assumed. Such configurations in turn produced symptomatic forms of consciousness oriented around the perception of time. These four domains—oceanic space, transitional historical position, emergent ideology, and dissonant time—created the conditions of possibility for three previously uncataloged genres of the 1850s: the Pacific elegy, the black counterfactual, and the immigrant gothic. Emergent Worlds thus carries out a generic reclassification that brings together this international mix of canonical and noncanonical books of the 1850s, showing how they internalized and attempted to transcend their own historical conditions of possibility.Less
Emergent Worlds reframes the modernity of nineteenth-century America by displacing three central critical narratives about the era: the westward spread of imperialism, the redemptionist story of black freedom, and the notion that the United States constituted a new world. It begins by identifying dissonant forms of time that ought not to have existed if these three metanarratives were total: chance on a Pacific whaling vessel, a calm on a Caribbean slave ship, and a near apocalypse on an Atlantic merchant ship. These oceanic times provide a gateway into larger historical and geographical frames. They reveal that nineteenth-century America existed in historical interstices in the world-system: between colonialism and the nation, slavery and freedom, subject and citizen, old world and new. With this historical repositioning, Emergent Worlds makes visible a series of transitional ideologies and figures that emblematize them, such as the queer migrant, the suspended state, and the living dead, which are passed over if the modernity of the era is assumed. Such configurations in turn produced symptomatic forms of consciousness oriented around the perception of time. These four domains—oceanic space, transitional historical position, emergent ideology, and dissonant time—created the conditions of possibility for three previously uncataloged genres of the 1850s: the Pacific elegy, the black counterfactual, and the immigrant gothic. Emergent Worlds thus carries out a generic reclassification that brings together this international mix of canonical and noncanonical books of the 1850s, showing how they internalized and attempted to transcend their own historical conditions of possibility.
James L. McClelland and Gautam Vallabha
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195300598
- eISBN:
- 9780199867165
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300598.003.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Developmental Psychology
This chapter attempts to underscore the common ground between connectionist and dynamical systems approaches. Central to both approaches is the emergent nature of system-level behavior and changes to ...
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This chapter attempts to underscore the common ground between connectionist and dynamical systems approaches. Central to both approaches is the emergent nature of system-level behavior and changes to such behavior through development. Topics covered in this chapter include mechanistic and emergent dynamics, examples of activation and weight-change dynamics, short-term emergent dynamics in perceptual classification, and perceptual and semantic learning.Less
This chapter attempts to underscore the common ground between connectionist and dynamical systems approaches. Central to both approaches is the emergent nature of system-level behavior and changes to such behavior through development. Topics covered in this chapter include mechanistic and emergent dynamics, examples of activation and weight-change dynamics, short-term emergent dynamics in perceptual classification, and perceptual and semantic learning.
Kathleen Lynch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199643936
- eISBN:
- 9780191738876
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199643936.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter examines the contests between Protestants and Catholics over the filial claims to Saint Augustine’s religious authority, as they played out in the competing translations of the ...
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This chapter examines the contests between Protestants and Catholics over the filial claims to Saint Augustine’s religious authority, as they played out in the competing translations of the Confessions into English in the 1620s. This was a constituent part of the battle that raged near the end of James I’s reign to establish religious orthodoxy and to maintain state control over it. The Confessions was not a useful polemical tool, but the chapter details the responsive confessional statements of one of its expert readers, John Donne. The two publications that framed his public life were Pseudo‐Martyr (1610) and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). In them, Donne challenged Augustine’s resolution of a spiritual crisis with a change of church. Donne complied, but only in respect of the body politic. He became an improbable literary spokesperson for the Protestant nation.Less
This chapter examines the contests between Protestants and Catholics over the filial claims to Saint Augustine’s religious authority, as they played out in the competing translations of the Confessions into English in the 1620s. This was a constituent part of the battle that raged near the end of James I’s reign to establish religious orthodoxy and to maintain state control over it. The Confessions was not a useful polemical tool, but the chapter details the responsive confessional statements of one of its expert readers, John Donne. The two publications that framed his public life were Pseudo‐Martyr (1610) and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). In them, Donne challenged Augustine’s resolution of a spiritual crisis with a change of church. Donne complied, but only in respect of the body politic. He became an improbable literary spokesperson for the Protestant nation.
Kathleen Lynch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199643936
- eISBN:
- 9780191738876
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199643936.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
This chapter examines the contests between Protestants and Catholics over the filial claims to Saint Augustine’s religious authority, as they played out in the competing translations of the ...
More
This chapter examines the contests between Protestants and Catholics over the filial claims to Saint Augustine’s religious authority, as they played out in the competing translations of the Confessions into English in the 1620s. This was a constituent part of the battle that raged near the end of James I’s reign to establish religious orthodoxy and to maintain state control over it. The Confessions was not a useful polemical tool, but the chapter details the responsive confessional statements of one of its expert readers, John Donne. The two publications that framed his public life were Pseudo-Martyr (1610) and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). In them, Donne challenged Augustine’s resolution of a spiritual crisis with a change of church. Donne complied, but only in respect of the body politic. He became an improbable literary spokesperson for the Protestant nation.Less
This chapter examines the contests between Protestants and Catholics over the filial claims to Saint Augustine’s religious authority, as they played out in the competing translations of the Confessions into English in the 1620s. This was a constituent part of the battle that raged near the end of James I’s reign to establish religious orthodoxy and to maintain state control over it. The Confessions was not a useful polemical tool, but the chapter details the responsive confessional statements of one of its expert readers, John Donne. The two publications that framed his public life were Pseudo-Martyr (1610) and Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624). In them, Donne challenged Augustine’s resolution of a spiritual crisis with a change of church. Donne complied, but only in respect of the body politic. He became an improbable literary spokesperson for the Protestant nation.
Philip Clayton and Steven Knapp
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199695270
- eISBN:
- 9780191731945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199695270.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Religion and Society
The foregoing chapters present a comprehensive case for what the authors call “Christian minimalism,” a position that affirms certain core claims of Christian theism (sometimes in a revised form) but ...
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The foregoing chapters present a comprehensive case for what the authors call “Christian minimalism,” a position that affirms certain core claims of Christian theism (sometimes in a revised form) but also acknowledges their controversial and uncertain status. The result is a form of Christian faith that combines abiding conviction with an attitude of humility and respect for non-Christian beliefs. This concluding chapter considers the implications of this position for Christian practice. It does so partly in light of current data on the dramatic decline of formal religious affiliation, especially among young people. Taken together, that trend and the authors’ conclusions point toward the emergence of Christian communities in which anxiety about consensus is set aside and belief in particular doctrines is subordinated to a shared commitment to Jesus’ example of self-surrendering obedience to the ultimate reality.Less
The foregoing chapters present a comprehensive case for what the authors call “Christian minimalism,” a position that affirms certain core claims of Christian theism (sometimes in a revised form) but also acknowledges their controversial and uncertain status. The result is a form of Christian faith that combines abiding conviction with an attitude of humility and respect for non-Christian beliefs. This concluding chapter considers the implications of this position for Christian practice. It does so partly in light of current data on the dramatic decline of formal religious affiliation, especially among young people. Taken together, that trend and the authors’ conclusions point toward the emergence of Christian communities in which anxiety about consensus is set aside and belief in particular doctrines is subordinated to a shared commitment to Jesus’ example of self-surrendering obedience to the ultimate reality.
Lori A. Custodero
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199568086
- eISBN:
- 9780191731044
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199568086.003.0023
- Subject:
- Psychology, Music Psychology, Social Psychology
This chapter examines the role of creativity in learning and teaching through research on how flow is experienced in music activity. Engagement in tasks whose challenges invite a person's best ...
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This chapter examines the role of creativity in learning and teaching through research on how flow is experienced in music activity. Engagement in tasks whose challenges invite a person's best efforts generates flow. In order to sustain this optimal experience, skills must improve to meet new challenges, and in turn, challenges must improve to continue attracting enhanced skills, thus creating an ideal learning situation. This dynamic interaction, also known as emergent motivation, is self-perpetuating: as an individual's skill level improves through practice, challenges must become increasingly complex. The chapter adopts a model of creativity involving an individual's active construction of musical meaning through responsive interaction with [culturally understood] musical materials. Music-making is interpreted as creative action, a framework evolving from a focus on the function and pervasiveness of music in the lives of young children and the unfettered, honest quality of their interactions with music.Less
This chapter examines the role of creativity in learning and teaching through research on how flow is experienced in music activity. Engagement in tasks whose challenges invite a person's best efforts generates flow. In order to sustain this optimal experience, skills must improve to meet new challenges, and in turn, challenges must improve to continue attracting enhanced skills, thus creating an ideal learning situation. This dynamic interaction, also known as emergent motivation, is self-perpetuating: as an individual's skill level improves through practice, challenges must become increasingly complex. The chapter adopts a model of creativity involving an individual's active construction of musical meaning through responsive interaction with [culturally understood] musical materials. Music-making is interpreted as creative action, a framework evolving from a focus on the function and pervasiveness of music in the lives of young children and the unfettered, honest quality of their interactions with music.
Cyriel M. A. Pennartz
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029315
- eISBN:
- 9780262330121
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029315.003.0004
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Behavioral Neuroscience
What are neural network models, what kind of cognitive processes can they perform, and what do they teach us about representations and consciousness? First, this chapter explains the functioning of ...
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What are neural network models, what kind of cognitive processes can they perform, and what do they teach us about representations and consciousness? First, this chapter explains the functioning of reduced neuron models. We construct neural networks using these building blocks and explore how they accomplish memory, categorization and other tasks. Computational advantages of parallel-distributed networks are considered, and we explore their emergent properties, such as in pattern completion. Artificial neural networks appear instructive for understanding consciousness, as they illustrate how stable representations can be achieved in dynamic systems. More importantly, they show how low-level processes result in high-level phenomena such as memory retrieval. However, an essential remaining problem is that neural networks do not possess a mechanism specifying what kind of information (e.g. sensory modality) they process. Going back to the classic labeled-lines hypothesis, it is argued that this hypothesis does not offer a solution to the question how the brain differentiates the various sensory inputs it receives into distinct modalities. The brain is observed to live in a "Cuneiform room" by which it only receives and emits spike messages: these are the only source materials by which it can construct modally differentiated experiences.Less
What are neural network models, what kind of cognitive processes can they perform, and what do they teach us about representations and consciousness? First, this chapter explains the functioning of reduced neuron models. We construct neural networks using these building blocks and explore how they accomplish memory, categorization and other tasks. Computational advantages of parallel-distributed networks are considered, and we explore their emergent properties, such as in pattern completion. Artificial neural networks appear instructive for understanding consciousness, as they illustrate how stable representations can be achieved in dynamic systems. More importantly, they show how low-level processes result in high-level phenomena such as memory retrieval. However, an essential remaining problem is that neural networks do not possess a mechanism specifying what kind of information (e.g. sensory modality) they process. Going back to the classic labeled-lines hypothesis, it is argued that this hypothesis does not offer a solution to the question how the brain differentiates the various sensory inputs it receives into distinct modalities. The brain is observed to live in a "Cuneiform room" by which it only receives and emits spike messages: these are the only source materials by which it can construct modally differentiated experiences.
Oran R. Young
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780262035934
- eISBN:
- 9780262338899
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262035934.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Governing for sustainability in a world of complex systems will require new social capital in the form of innovative steering mechanisms that differ in important respects from those familiar to us ...
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Governing for sustainability in a world of complex systems will require new social capital in the form of innovative steering mechanisms that differ in important respects from those familiar to us from past experience. Complex systems feature high levels of connectivity, nonlinear dynamics, directional change, and emergent properties. Creating effective governance arrangements in such settings calls for an ability to combine the durability required to guide behavior with the agility needed to adjust or reform institutional arrangements to cope with rapidly changing circumstances. Success in such endeavors will depend on a capacity to supplement mainstream regulatory approaches to governance with new governance strategies. Promising examples include governance through goal-setting and principled governance. But additional innovations in this realm will be necessary to address needs for governance arising in the Anthropocene. The way forward in this effort will be to build cooperative relations between analysts and practitioners rather than treating them as separate communities that respond to different incentives and operate in different worlds.Less
Governing for sustainability in a world of complex systems will require new social capital in the form of innovative steering mechanisms that differ in important respects from those familiar to us from past experience. Complex systems feature high levels of connectivity, nonlinear dynamics, directional change, and emergent properties. Creating effective governance arrangements in such settings calls for an ability to combine the durability required to guide behavior with the agility needed to adjust or reform institutional arrangements to cope with rapidly changing circumstances. Success in such endeavors will depend on a capacity to supplement mainstream regulatory approaches to governance with new governance strategies. Promising examples include governance through goal-setting and principled governance. But additional innovations in this realm will be necessary to address needs for governance arising in the Anthropocene. The way forward in this effort will be to build cooperative relations between analysts and practitioners rather than treating them as separate communities that respond to different incentives and operate in different worlds.
Patrick Le Galès
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199243570
- eISBN:
- 9780191697265
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243570.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
By the end of the Middle Ages, cities in Europe had become collective actors. There were two central variables favouring cities: a particular type of trade capitalism and a political situation in ...
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By the end of the Middle Ages, cities in Europe had become collective actors. There were two central variables favouring cities: a particular type of trade capitalism and a political situation in which powers were unevenly distributed. Emergent states were still fragile, and power and rules were enmeshed at different levels. Then, with varying degrees of difficulty, the nation-states established their authority. Society and capitalism were organized within the limits of the state and under its supervision. If the state was changing, a new set of constraints and opportunities was emerging for cities, a context in which some of them became actors of European governance and more structured as local societies.Less
By the end of the Middle Ages, cities in Europe had become collective actors. There were two central variables favouring cities: a particular type of trade capitalism and a political situation in which powers were unevenly distributed. Emergent states were still fragile, and power and rules were enmeshed at different levels. Then, with varying degrees of difficulty, the nation-states established their authority. Society and capitalism were organized within the limits of the state and under its supervision. If the state was changing, a new set of constraints and opportunities was emerging for cities, a context in which some of them became actors of European governance and more structured as local societies.
Emmanuel David
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780252041266
- eISBN:
- 9780252099861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5622/illinois/9780252041266.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Movements and Social Change
Women of the Storm: Civic Activism after Hurrican Katrina provides a sociohistorical account of the emergence of Women of the Storm in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After presenting a detailed ...
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Women of the Storm: Civic Activism after Hurrican Katrina provides a sociohistorical account of the emergence of Women of the Storm in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After presenting a detailed description of the group’s initial formation, the book chronicles its struggles from 2006 to 2012, beginning with the women’s efforts to invite lawmakers to see Katrina’s destruction firsthand and ending with their campaigns to restore the Gulf Coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Drawing on extensive interviews with Women of the Storm members, ethnographic observations, and historical documents, the book provides a detailed account of women’s civic activism in the wake of disaster, revealing the entire Katrina recovery in a more complex light. In addition to documenting the group’s influence on public policy, the book argues that members of Women of the Storm used post-disaster activism to establish meaningful cultural spaces in which they constructed gender solidarity, negotiated racial and socioeconomic differences, and crafted new forms of social and moral responsibility. The book addresses how Hurricane Katrina brought these women together and how they actively negotiated the everyday challenges of working across social divides.Less
Women of the Storm: Civic Activism after Hurrican Katrina provides a sociohistorical account of the emergence of Women of the Storm in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. After presenting a detailed description of the group’s initial formation, the book chronicles its struggles from 2006 to 2012, beginning with the women’s efforts to invite lawmakers to see Katrina’s destruction firsthand and ending with their campaigns to restore the Gulf Coast after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Drawing on extensive interviews with Women of the Storm members, ethnographic observations, and historical documents, the book provides a detailed account of women’s civic activism in the wake of disaster, revealing the entire Katrina recovery in a more complex light. In addition to documenting the group’s influence on public policy, the book argues that members of Women of the Storm used post-disaster activism to establish meaningful cultural spaces in which they constructed gender solidarity, negotiated racial and socioeconomic differences, and crafted new forms of social and moral responsibility. The book addresses how Hurricane Katrina brought these women together and how they actively negotiated the everyday challenges of working across social divides.
George F. R. Ellis
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199544318
- eISBN:
- 9780191701351
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544318.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter outlines a view of emergent reality in which it is clear that non-physical quantities such as information and goals can have physical effect in the world of particles and forces. It ...
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This chapter outlines a view of emergent reality in which it is clear that non-physical quantities such as information and goals can have physical effect in the world of particles and forces. It explains how complexity emerges at higher levels of the hierarchy of structure on the basis of the underlying physics, leading to emergent behaviours that cannot be reduced to a description at any lower level. The first key to handling complexity is hierarchical physical structuring and function. Such functioning involves the combination of bottom-up and top-down action in the hierarchy of structure. The second key to the emergence of truly complex properties is the role of hierarchically structured information in setting goals via feedback control systems. The development of complexity in living systems requires both evolutionary processes acting over very long time periods and developmental processes acting over much shorter times.Less
This chapter outlines a view of emergent reality in which it is clear that non-physical quantities such as information and goals can have physical effect in the world of particles and forces. It explains how complexity emerges at higher levels of the hierarchy of structure on the basis of the underlying physics, leading to emergent behaviours that cannot be reduced to a description at any lower level. The first key to handling complexity is hierarchical physical structuring and function. Such functioning involves the combination of bottom-up and top-down action in the hierarchy of structure. The second key to the emergence of truly complex properties is the role of hierarchically structured information in setting goals via feedback control systems. The development of complexity in living systems requires both evolutionary processes acting over very long time periods and developmental processes acting over much shorter times.
Terrence W. Deacon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199544318
- eISBN:
- 9780191701351
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199544318.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter defines three subcategories of emergent phenomena that can be arranged into a hierarchy of increasing topological complexity. Third-order emergent processes (teleodynamics) require ...
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This chapter defines three subcategories of emergent phenomena that can be arranged into a hierarchy of increasing topological complexity. Third-order emergent processes (teleodynamics) require self-amplifying second-order emergent processes (morphodynamics) to create their necessary conditions, which in turn require self-amplifying (non-equilibrium) first-order emergent processes (thermodynamics) to create their necessary conditions. Conversely, teleodynamics is a special limiting case of morphodynamics, which is a special limiting case of thermodynamics. Human consciousness, with its features of autonomous causal locus, self-origination, and implicit ‘aboutness’, epitomises the logic of emergence in its very form.Less
This chapter defines three subcategories of emergent phenomena that can be arranged into a hierarchy of increasing topological complexity. Third-order emergent processes (teleodynamics) require self-amplifying second-order emergent processes (morphodynamics) to create their necessary conditions, which in turn require self-amplifying (non-equilibrium) first-order emergent processes (thermodynamics) to create their necessary conditions. Conversely, teleodynamics is a special limiting case of morphodynamics, which is a special limiting case of thermodynamics. Human consciousness, with its features of autonomous causal locus, self-origination, and implicit ‘aboutness’, epitomises the logic of emergence in its very form.
Gerald Vision
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262015844
- eISBN:
- 9780262298599
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015844.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
The presence of sentience in a basically material reality is among the mysteries of existence. Many philosophers of mind argue that conscious states and properties are nothing beyond the matter that ...
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The presence of sentience in a basically material reality is among the mysteries of existence. Many philosophers of mind argue that conscious states and properties are nothing beyond the matter that brings them about. Finding these arguments less than satisfactory, this book offers a nonphysicalist theory of mind. Revisiting and defending a key doctrine of the once widely accepted school of philosophy known as emergentism, it proposes that conscious states are emergents, but they depend for their existence on their material bases. Although many previous emergentist theories have been decisively undermined, the book argues that emergent options are still viable on some issues. The book explores the question of conscious properties arising from brute, unthinking matter, making the case that there is no equally plausible non-emergent alternative. It defends emergentism even while conceding that conscious properties and states are realized by or strongly supervene on the physical. The book argues, however, that conscious properties cannot be reduced to, identified with, or given the right kind of materialist explanation in terms of the physical reality on which they depend. Rather than use emergentism simply to assail the current physicalist orthodoxy, it views emergentism as a contribution to understanding conscious aspects. After describing and defending its version of emergentism, the book reviews several varieties of physicalism and near-physicalism, finding that its emergent theory does a better job of coming to grips with these phenomena.Less
The presence of sentience in a basically material reality is among the mysteries of existence. Many philosophers of mind argue that conscious states and properties are nothing beyond the matter that brings them about. Finding these arguments less than satisfactory, this book offers a nonphysicalist theory of mind. Revisiting and defending a key doctrine of the once widely accepted school of philosophy known as emergentism, it proposes that conscious states are emergents, but they depend for their existence on their material bases. Although many previous emergentist theories have been decisively undermined, the book argues that emergent options are still viable on some issues. The book explores the question of conscious properties arising from brute, unthinking matter, making the case that there is no equally plausible non-emergent alternative. It defends emergentism even while conceding that conscious properties and states are realized by or strongly supervene on the physical. The book argues, however, that conscious properties cannot be reduced to, identified with, or given the right kind of materialist explanation in terms of the physical reality on which they depend. Rather than use emergentism simply to assail the current physicalist orthodoxy, it views emergentism as a contribution to understanding conscious aspects. After describing and defending its version of emergentism, the book reviews several varieties of physicalism and near-physicalism, finding that its emergent theory does a better job of coming to grips with these phenomena.
