Search results for "philosophy of Mind"
showing 10 items of 39 documents
Philosophy of Mind in the Early and High Middle Ages: The History of the Philosophy of Mind, Margaret Cameron (ed.)
2019
2013
This metatheoretical paper investigates mind wandering from the perspective of philosophy of mind. It has two central claims. The first is that on a conceptual level, mind wandering can be fruitfully described as a specific form of mental autonomy loss. The second is that most of what we call “conscious thought” is better analysed as a subpersonal process that more often than not lacks crucial properties traditionally taken to be the hallmark of personal-level cognition, such as mental agency, explicit, consciously experienced goal-directedness, or availability for veto control. I claim that for roughly two thirds of our life-time we do not possess mental autonomy (M-autonomy) in this sense…
Naturalizzazione, mente e conoscenza
2009
Naturalizzazione, mente e conoscenza - A controversial issue regarding Quine’s naturalised epistemology is that it may involve some form of reductionism. This article focuses on one of these forms, analysing the interplay of his philosophy of mind and epistemology. It aims to show that if we take into proper consideration the way in which the version of anomalous monism embraced affects his conception of mental states like sensations and propositional attitudes, Quine’s philosophy of mind should be regarded as anti-reductionist. Through a discussion of his theory of perception, I try to argue that what is entailed by it is, in a sense only partially accepted by Quine himself, that neither p…
The Nature of the ‘I Think’: Comments on Chapter 11 of Kant's Thinker
2014
AbstractThe article deals with Kant's theory of the self in Patricia Kitcher's Kant's Thinker in three respects: (1) I argue that it is doubtful whether accompanying representations with the ‘I think’ as such yields a principle for the categories since it does not require any strong kind of connection between them. (2) I discuss textual evidence for and against Kitcher's attempt to make sense of Kant's claim that the ‘I think’ requires the continued existence of cognizers per se. (3) I ask whether Kitcher's understanding of Kant's positive theory of the self leans towards minimal substantialism or towards functionalism.
Spin as Primordial Self-Referential Process Driving Quantum Mechanics, Spacetime Dynamics and Consciousness
2007
We have recently theorized that consciousness is intrinsically connected to quantum mechanical spin since said spin is embedded in the microscopic structure of spacetime and is more fundamental than spacetime itself, that is, spin is the “mind-pixel.” Applying these ideas to the particular structures and dynamics of the brain, we have developed a qualitative model of quantum consciousness. In this paper, we express our fundamental view that spin is a primordial self-referential process driving quantum mechanics, spacetime dynamics and consciousness. To justify such a view, we will draw support from existing literatures, discuss from a reductionist perspective the essential properties said s…
Representation
2020
Representation is a primitive notion of many philosophical theories and of cognitive science. It is assumed as an intuitively understandable label assigned to the functions by which a biological or an artificial agent takes part in the world in an epistemological or a behavioral manner. It is employed to define the conditions for the semantic individuation of the states of the agent. The notion of representation was introduced systematically in the Scholastics’ view of cognition. In modern philosophy, the term is often used as a verb. Representation becomes the function of a class of mental states. In contemporary philosophy, the debate over the semantic individuation of states is intertwin…
Perception / percept
2020
The term perception denotes the capacity of grasping something that to the common sense belongs to external world, which is the stable and persistent collection of things that are the natural and man-made furniture of the environment. Perception denotes also the capacity of sensing something, like warmth or pain, that is the effect of an external or internal cause localized on or inside one’s own body. Therefore, perception has subjective and objective factors as constituents of its conditions of satisfaction. The activity of perception is describable in terms of the percept, namely the objective constituent of its conditions of satisfaction
Arte, psicologia e realismo. Saggi in onore di Lucia Pizzo Russo
2011
This volume provides essays by psychologists and philosophers who deal with the insight that led L. Pizzo Russo's lifelong research work, that is understanding human mind amounts to a study of perception and thought at the boundary between psychology and philosophy. A research that is realized without disciplinary prejudices should be thus able to recover the logic of perception and the perceptual nature of thought. At the same time, the phenomenological objectitivity of values and artifacts must be accounted for.
Frankfurtian Reflections: A Critical Discussion of Robert Lockie’s “Three Recent Frankfurt Cases”
2016
In a recent article, Robert Lockie brings about a critical examination of three Frankfurtstyle cases designed by David Widerker and Derk Pereboom. His conclusion is that these cases do not refute either the Principle of Alternative Possibilities (PAP) or some cognate leeway principle for moral responsibility. Though I take the conclusion to be true, I contend that Lockie's arguments do not succeed in showing it. I concentrate on Pereboom's Tax Evasion 2 . After presenting Pereboom's example and analyzing its structure, I distinguish two strategies of Lockie's to defend PAP against it, which I call 'No True Alternative Decision' (NTAD) and 'No Responsibility' (NR), respectively. According to…
Values of love: two forms of infinity characteristic of human persons
2020
AbstractIn his late reflections on values and forms of life from the 1920s and 1930s, Husserl develops the concept of personal value and argues that these values open two kinds of infinities in our lives. On the one hand personal values disclose infinite emotive depths in human individuals while on the other hand they connect human individuals in continuous and progressive chains of care. In order to get at the core of the concept, I will explicate Husserl’s discussion of personal values of love by distinguishing between five related features. I demonstrate that values of love (1) are rooted in egoic depts and define who we are as persons, (2) differ from objective values in being absolute …