06 MAR 2016 by ideonexus
Cognitive Framing Differences Between Liberals and Conser...
I work in the cognitive and brain sciences. In the 1990's, I undertook to answer a question in my field: How do the various policy positions of conservatives and progressives hang together? Take conservatism: What does being against abortion have to do with being for owning guns? What does owning guns have to do with denying the reality of global warming? How does being anti-government fit with wanting a stronger military? How can you be pro-life and for the death penalty? Progressives have t...
1 02 JUN 2015 by ideonexus
Language as Set Theory
The revolution in our understanding of the logic of names began with a basic question: Where do the meanings of words live? There are two likely habitats. One is the world, where we find the things that a word refers to. The other is in the head, where we find people’s understanding of how a word may be used.
For anyone interested in language as a window into the mind, the external world might seem to be an unpromising habitat. The word cat, for example, refers to the set of all the cats t...Folksonomies: semantics set theory
Folksonomies: semantics set theory
1 
notes
notes02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Failure as a Prerequisite to Success
If a man wants to succeed in his work, that is, to achieve the anticipated results, he must bring his ideas into correspondence with the laws of the objective external world; if they do not correspond, he will fail in his practice. After he fails, he draws his lessons, corrects his ideas to make them correspond to the laws of the external world, and can thus turn failure into success; this is what is meant by "failure is the mother of success" and "a fall into the pit, a gain in your wit".
"... 1 notes
notesAlso experience is a product of failure.
24 MAR 2013 by ideonexus
Attentive States of Mind
Whether you think of it as a sin, a
temptation, a lazy habit of mind, or a
medical condition, the phenomenon begs
the same question: why is it so damn hard
to pay attention?
It’s not necessarily our fault. As
neurologist Marcus Raichle learned after
decades of looking at the brain, our minds
are wired to wander. Wandering is their
default. Whenever our thoughts are
suspended between specific, discrete,
goal-directed activities, the brain reverts
to a so-called baseline, “resting” state...Folksonomies: attention mindfulness
Folksonomies: attention mindfulness
Why is it so hard to maintain? The brain has a default "resting" state of inattetiveness, multitasking confuses our attentiveness.
06 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
Humanity is Like an Infant
Taking a very gloomy view of the future of the human race, let us suppose that it can only expect to survive for two thousand millions years longer, a period about equal to the past age of the earth. Then, regarded as a being destined to live for three-score years and ten, humanity although it has been born in a house seventy years old, is itself only three days old. But only in the last few minutes has it become conscious that the whole world does not centre round its cradle and its trapping...Folksonomies: metaphor perspective
Folksonomies: metaphor perspective
In a house 70 years old, but it is only three days old, and starting to see the house around it.
28 APR 2012 by ideonexus
The Idea of Objective Truth
Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavour to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quit...Folksonomies: truth objective truth
Folksonomies: truth objective truth
1 notes
notesIs still like trying to figure out the inner workings of a watch without being able to look inside of it.
08 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Psychological VS Mechanical Causality in Infant Understan...
As scientists we think that everything is mediated by physical causality of some sort, including our interactions with other people. There are, in fact, light and sound waves that go from one person to another even if we can't see them with the naked eye. But from our everyday point of view, it appears we are able to influence people without any direct physical contact at all. (It's probably that fact that makes telepathy seem plausible to so many people.) After all, just looking at someone a... 1 notes
notesBabies learn the differences between psychological and physical causality, before this they tend to make the mistake of using psychological means to influence the physical world... Magical thinking in adults may be a holdover of this habit.
