Philosophy of mind Books

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Book SynopsisAre psychometric tests valid for a new reality of artificial intelligence systems, technology-enhanced humans, and hybrids yet to come? Are the Turing Test, the ubiquitous CAPTCHAs, and the various animal cognition tests the best alternatives? In this fascinating and provocative book, José Hernández-Orallo formulates major scientific questions, integrates the most significant research developments, and offers a vision of the universal evaluation of cognition. By replacing the dominant anthropocentric stance with a universal perspective where living organisms are considered as a special case, long-standing questions in the evaluation of behavior can be addressed in a wider landscape. Can we derive task difficulty intrinsically? Is a universal g factor - a common general component for all abilities - theoretically possible? Using algorithmic information theory as a foundation, the book elaborates on the evaluation of perceptual, developmental, social, verbal and collective features and cTrade Review'This highly original, wide-ranging, and thought-provoking book must surely be essential reading for anyone working at the cutting edge of [artificial intelligence] research who has wondered about the implications of the entities they are creating and the future they will inhabit.' David Hand, Imperial College London'What is the most important topic in science? Intelligence. It is most important because intelligence is the essential ingredient in answering any other imaginable question. How are human intelligence and artificial intelligence related? No one knows because there is no current way to measure different intelligences on a common scale. If you believe this and also that artificial intelligence may someday be as or more powerful than human intelligence, then you should read The Measure of All Minds by José Hernández-Orallo. Based on what has been learned about the measurement of human intelligence, Hernández-Orallo develops both the theory and practical methods that could allow the measurement of intelligence wherever it is found. This book is a vital achievement and necessary first step in uniting research on human and artificial intelligence and should be in the library of anyone interested in either.' Douglas K. Detterman, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio'This book transcends a wide variety of disciplines in search for an all-encompassing measurement principle for intelligence: the intelligence of humans, animals, and machines, and at the same time for a unified notion of intelligence and what it means for problems to be difficult. It is a formidable and captivating intellectual endeavor based on a deep understanding and combination of different perspectives, realized with an enjoyable, rigorous and formalized way of thinking. It is a must-read volume for psychometricians and for scholars in the domain of intelligence and beyond.' Paul de Boeck, Ohio State University'To my knowledge, this is the first time that a joint perspective on intelligence has been taken, based on artificial intelligence, psychometrics and comparative psychology. The book is scholarly as well as highly spirited and should be of interest for a broad readership, including students and researchers from artificial intelligence as well as psychology.' Ute Schmid, University of Bamberg, Germany'José Hernández-Orallo creates a new foundation for understanding our own and other (artificial) intelligences. Fundamentally interdisciplinary, The Measure of All Minds integrates insights that span philosophy, psychology, mathematics, and computer science. The result is a treasure trove for the AI researcher, and anyone looking to unravel the secrets of intelligence.' Katja Hofmann, Microsoft Research'The Measure of All Minds draws together the diverse fields of psychometrics, comparative psychology, and artificial intelligence to lay out an agenda for the unified understanding of human, animal, and machine intelligence. A challenging and intriguing contribution to an increasingly important debate.' John Rust and Chris Gibbons, University of Cambridge'Some of the many concepts examined in this first-class book with Cambridge University Press include tests of machine, human and non-human animal intelligence, 'machine kingdom' (to generalise the notion of 'animal kingdom'), Hernández-Orallo's related notions of 'universal psychometrics' and 'Darwin–Wallace distribution' (the aptitude of things is probably best considered in an environment in which they have evolved to be able to survive) - and others perhaps more thought-provoking, if not at times controversial. This multi-disciplinary study's extensive reference list leaves few stones unturned. I predict this readable unifying book to be a much-cited and valued resource and reference for many years to come.' David L. Dowe, Monash University, Melbourne'… an impressive and important step towards a less human-centred understanding of intelligence.' Stephen Cave, Financial Times'The range of scholarship and expertise displayed in this book is extraordinary … The work presented in this book is an extremely important contribution to the analysis of behavior and cognition. Anyone interested in psychometrics, comparative psychology, and artificial intelligence will find this book valuable and thought-provoking. The level of familiarity with disparate fields is truly remarkable.' Robert L. Greene, PsycCRITIQUESTable of Contents1. Extended nature; 2. Mind the step: scala universalis; 3. The evaluation of human behaviour; 4. The evaluation of non-human natural behaviour; 5. The evaluation of artificial intelligence; 6. The boundaries against a unified evaluation; 7. Intelligence and algorithmic information theory; 8. Cognitive tasks and difficulty; 9. From tasks to tests; 10. The arrangement of abilities; 11. General intelligence; 12. Cognitive development and potential; 13. Identifying social skills; 14. Communication abilities; 15. Evaluating collective and hybrid systems; 16. Universal tests; 17. Rooting for ratiocentrism; 18. Exploitation and exploration.

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Book SynopsisForms of thought are involved whenever we name, describe, or identify things, and whenever we distinguish between what is, might be, or must be the case. It appears to be a distinctive feature of human thought that we can have modal thoughts, about what might be possible or necessary, and conditional thoughts, about what would or might be the case if something else were the case. Even the simplest thoughts are structured like sentences, containing referential and predicative elements, and studying these structures is the main task of philosophical logic. This clear and accessible book investigates the forms of thought, drawing out and focusing on the central logical notions of reference, predication, identity, modality and conditionality. It will be useful to students and other interested readers in epistemology and metaphysics, philosophy of mind and language, and philosophical logic.Trade Review'Lowe aims to explicate the logical structure of thoughts via an examination of the sentences in which they are expressed … the argumentation and explanations are clear, straightforward … Recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty.' S. P. Schwartz, ChoiceTable of ContentsPreface; 1. Introduction; Part I. Reference and Predication: 2. Individuation, reference, and sortal terms; 3. Dispositional versus occurrent predication; 4. Predication and categories; Part II. Identity: 5. What is a criterion of identity?; 6. Identity conditions and their grounds; Part III. Modality: 7. Identity, vagueness, and modality; 8. Necessity, essence, and possible worlds; Part IV. Conditionality: 9. The truth about counterfactuals; 10. Conditionals and conditional probability; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisAn accessible and thorough introduction to implicatures, a key topic in all frameworks of pragmatics. Starting with a definition of the various types of implicatures in Gricean, neo-Gricean and post-Gricean pragmatics, the book covers many important questions for current pragmatic theories, namely: the distinction between explicit and implicit forms of pragmatic enrichment, the criteria for drawing a line between semantic and pragmatic meaning, the relations between the structure of language (syntax) and its use (pragmatics), the social and cognitive factors underlying the use of implicatures by native speakers, and the factors influencing their acquisition for children and second language learners. Written in non-technical language, Implicatures will appeal to students and teachers in linguistics, applied linguistics, psychology and sociology, who are interested in how language is used for communication, and how children and learners develop pragmatic skills.Trade Review'… will be indispensable for those focussing on implicatures in teaching or research. Most helpful is its consideration of implicatures from within the three different frameworks. I commend the authors for this useful contribution to the field of pragmatics.' Todd A. Scacewater, Journal of Language, Culture, and Religion'Given the extent to which Implicatures manages not only to provide a concise overview of the topic, but also to introduce novel perspectives in relation to it, it is bound to become an indispensable resource for both newcomers and established researchers in these fields. I am certain that several of its main arguments … have a real potential to push our understanding of the issues that surround this notoriously elusive, but at the same time all too interesting, category of linguistic meaning even further.' Stavros Assimakopoulos, LanguageTable of ContentsPart I. Theoretical Foundations: 1. Ordinary language philosophy and the birth of pragmatics; 2. Linguistic theory and pragmatics; 3. Relevance theory and the broadening of pragmatics to explicit meaning; Part II. Types of Implicatures: 4. Particularized Conversational Implicatures: why there are conversational implicatures; 5. Conventional implicature and presupposition: formal semantics and pragmatics; 6. Generalized conversational implicatures: Gricean, neo-Gricean and post-Gricean pragmatics; Part III. Empirical Evidence: 7. Implicatures and language processing; 8. The acquisition of implicatures in the course of first language development; 9. Implicatures and second language acquisition; Conclusion.

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In this previously unpublished series of interviews, Chomsky discusses his iconoclastic and important ideas concerning language, human nature and politics. In dialogue with James McGilvray, he takes up a wide variety of topics – the nature of language, the philosophies of language and mind and the evolution of language.

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Book SynopsisA richly rewarding vision of the burgeoning interdisciplinary field of somaesthetics, with fourteen essays by the originator of the field.Trade Review'Richard Shusterman's collection takes the first philosophical step in the new millennium, going beyond the action theory that emerged in the 1970s and building a historical pyramid from Socrates to his own conception of somaesthetics: a scholarly monument ranging from muscle memory to vital topics in aesthetics, including ars erotica.' Arthur C. Danto, Columbia University'History will remember Richard Shusterman for precipitating the somatic turn that the increasingly embodied discipline of philosophy has taken in our own time … Calling his readers back to a relatively straightforward and practical account of everyday lived experience, he challenges us to reconceive how it is that an educated body consciousness enables us reflexively to structure, theorize, aestheticize, and indeed 'appreciate' the entire human experience in the fullest sense of this term. By fully acknowledging the sentient and purposive body as an aesthetic medium through which a life is lived deliberately, sensitively, and graciously, we are best able to enchant the ordinary and to inspire the everyday.' Roger T. Ames, University of Hawai'i'… powerful … Bridging analytic and continental philosophical traditions; lived, embodied experience and the cogito; the intellect and the senses; Shusterman moves gracefully from philosopher to practitioner and back again. He shows how philosophy as an embodied art of living can find expression in today's disembodied world, while interpreting and redefining philosophical insights that others have stripped of their somatic implications … he is hopeful about our bodies - a striking kind of hope, in a Western context of disdain for the 'abnormal,' a radically objectifying visual culture, and environments that serve the physical flourishing of almost no one. Shusterman still believes that a somaesthetic philosophy can speak with and to body practices in the service of a politics of transformation. His creative and diverse essays not only tell but also show us what this might look like.' Cressida J. Heyes, University of Alberta'The project of Richard Shusterman's philosophical work on the body is an ambitious one: to take philosophy 'in a pragmatic meliorist direction,' as he puts it in Thinking Through the Body, 'reviving the ancient idea of philosophy as an embodied way of life rather than a mere discursive field of abstract theory … makes a compelling case for the integration of analytic, pragmatic, and practical somaesthetics. … Shusterman's insights in the realms of philosophy and aesthetics are cogent and interesting, but he doesn't limit himself to the canon. In his essay on muscle memory, he takes more of a therapeutic turn, focusing on how training in somatic awareness can ameliorate the 'somaesthetic pathologies of everyday life.' In Thinking Through the Body, it is his essays on art and culture that hold out the most promise for somaesthetics. … offers a compelling new lens with which to explore alternate approaches to thinking through embodiment …' Janet Sarbanes, Los Angeles Review of Books'This essay collection by Richard Shustermann, the 'originator of the field' of somaesthetics (back cover) is wide-ranging. Not only is somaesthetics itself a fully interdisciplinary academic field, Shustermann also adds a practical dimension and emphasizes its interculturalism in the comparison of eastern and western thinking about body and mind.' Hans J. Rindisbacher, The European LegacyTable of ContentsIntroduction; Part I. Somatic Being, Knowing, and Teaching: 1. Thinking through the body: educating for the humanities; 2. The body as background; 3. Self-knoweldge and its discontents: from Socrates to somaesthetics; 4. Muscle memory and the somaesthetic pathologies of everyday life; 5. Somaesthetics in the philosophy classroom: a practical approach; Part II. Somaesthetics, Aesthetics, and Culture: 6. Somaesthetics and the limits of aesthetics; 7. Somaesthetics and Burke's sublime; 8. Pragmatism and cultural politics: from textualism to somaesthetics; 9. Body consciousness and performance; Part III. The Arts and the Art of Living: 10. Somaesthetics and architecture: a critical option; 11. Photography as performative process; 12. Asian ars erotica and the question of sexual aesthetics; 13. Philosophy as awakened life: everyday aesthetics of embodiment in American transcendentalism and Japanese zen practice; 14. Somatic style.

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Book SynopsisThis is a review of the psychological literature on wisdom by leading experts in the field. It covers the philosophical and sociocultural foundations of wisdom, and showcases the measurement and teaching of wisdom. The connection of wisdom to intelligence and personality is explained alongside its relationship with morality and ethics.Trade Review''What is wisdom?' sounds like one of those impossible questions, but think again! This rich collection reveals synergies across multiple perspectives towards a vision of wisdom today's world very much needs.' David Perkins, Harvard University, MassachusettsTable of ContentsPart I. Foundations of Wisdom: 1. Race to Samarra: the critical importance of wisdom in the world today Robert J. Sternberg; 2. Philosophical foundations of wisdom Jason Swartwood and Valerie Tiberius; 3. Socio-cultural foundations of wisdom Ricca Edmondson and Markus Woerner; 4. Neurobiology of wisdom Ellen Lee and Dilip V. Jeste; Part II. Conceptions of Wisdom: 5. Wisdom of the crowd: exploring people's conceptions of wisdom Nic M. Weststrate, Susan Bluck and Judith Glück; 6. Wisdom as self-transcendence Carolyn M. Aldwin, Heidi Igarashi and Michael R. Levenson; 7. Wisdom as a personality type Monika Ardelt, Stephen Pridgen and Kathryn L. Nutter-Pridgen; 8. Why people often prefer wise guys to guys who are wise: an augmented balance theory of the production and reception of wisdom Robert J. Sternberg; 9. General and personal wisdom Ursula Staudinger; 10. Wise reasoning: converging evidence for the psychology of sound judgment Harrison Oakes, Justin P. Brienza, Abdo Elnakouri and Igor Grossmann; 11. Practical wisdom: what Aristotle might add to psychology Barry Schwartz and Kenneth A. Sharpe; 12. Wisdom as state vs trait Igor Grossmann, Franki Y. H. Kung and Henri C. Santos; Part III. Measures of Wisdom: 13. Performance-based measures of wisdom: state of the art and future directions Ute Kunzmann; 14. Self-report wisdom measures: strengths, limitations, and future directions Jeffrey Webster; Part IV. The Development of Wisdom: 15. The development of wisdom during adulthood Judith Glück; 16. Developing and teaching for wisdom Michel Ferrari and Juensung Kim; 17. Teaching for wisdom Robert J. Sternberg and Emily S. Hagen; Part V. Cultural Perspectives on Wisdom: 18. Cultural differences in wisdom and conceptions of wisdom Michel Ferrari and Fatemeh Alhosseini; 19. Non-Western lay conceptions of wisdom Shih-ying Yang and Ali Intezari; Part VI. Wisdom and Other Psychological Constructs: 20. Creativity, intelligence, and wisdom: could vs should Sarah F. Lynch and James C. Kaufman; 21. Giftedness and wisdom Don Ambrose; 22. Low levels of wisdom—foolishness Balazs Aczel; 23. Wisdom and reflection Nic M. Weststrate; 24. Identity and purpose in life as building blocks for wisdom Kaylin Ratner and Anthony L. Burrow; 25. Wisdom, morality, and ethics Robert J. Sternberg and Judith Glück; 26. Wisdom and emotions Ute Kunzmann and Judith Glück; 27. Wisdom and well-being Monika Ardelt; 28. Relationship between wisdom and spirituality: an expanded theoretical model with mysticism and gerotranscendence Masami Takahashi; Part VII. Wisdom in Action: 29. Wise leadership Bernard McKenna and David Rooney; 30. Professional wisdom: functions and processes of psychotherapeutic and judicial wisdom Heidi M. Levitt and Lauren M. Grabowski; 31. Wisdom in medical decision making Lauris C. Kaldjian; 32. Wisdom in history and politics Lloyd Etheredge; 33. The urgent need for social wisdom Nicholas Maxwell; Part VIII. Conclusions: 34. Why is wisdom such an obscure field of inquiry and what can and should be done about it? Robert J. Sternberg and Judith Glück.

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Book SynopsisThe perception of what he calls ''aspects'' preoccupied Wittgenstein and gave him considerable trouble in his final years. The Wittgensteinian aspect defies any number of traditional philosophical dichotomies: the aspect is neither subjective (inner, metaphysically private) nor objective; it presents perceivable unity and sense that are (arguably) not (yet) conceptual; it is ''subject to the will'', but at the same time is normally taken to be genuinely revelatory of the object perceived under it. This Element begins with a grammatical and phenomenological characterization of Wittgensteinian ''aspects''. It then challenges two widespread ideas: that aspects are to be identified with concepts; and that aspect perception has a continuous version that is characteristic of (normal) human perception. It concludes by proposing that aspect perception brings to light the distinction between the world as perceived and the world as objectively construed, and the role we play in the constitution Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The grammar and phenomenology of Wittgensteinian aspects; 2. Aspects and concepts; 3. Aspects as perceived internal relations; 4. Continuous aspect perception?; 5. Aspects and perceptual indeterminacy; Conclusion: the significance of aspect perception; Appendix: the natural attitude and the limitations of the Wittgensteinian grammatical investigation.

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Book SynopsisThe very idea of mental illness is contested. Given its differences from physical illnesses, is it right to count it, and particular mental illnesses, as genuinely medical as opposed to moral matters? One debate concerns its value-ladenness, which has been used by anti-psychiatrists to argue that it does not exist. Recent attempts to define mental illness divide both on the presence of values and on their consequences. Philosophers and psychiatrists have explored the nature of the general kinds that mental illnesses might comprise, influenced by psychiatric taxonomies such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and the International Classification of Diseases, and the rise of a rival biological ''meta-taxonomy'': the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC). The assumption that the concept of mental illness has a culturally invariant core has also been questioned. This Element serves as a guide to these contested debates.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Mental illness and psychiatric diagnosis; 2. Philosophical analyses of mental illness: Szasz, Kendell and Boorse; 3. Philosophical analyses of mental illness: Wakefield, Fulford and Pickering; 4. Vindicating kinds; 5. Hacking on looping or interactive kinds; 6. Transcultural psychiatry and cultural concepts of distress; Conclusions.

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Book SynopsisThe Metaphysics of Mind presents and discusses the major contemporary theories of the nature of mind, including Dualism, Physicalism, Role-Functionalism, Russellian Monism, Panpsychism, and Eliminativism. Its primary goal is to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the theories in question, including their prospects for explaining the special qualitative character of sensations and perceptual experiences, the special outer-directedness of beliefs, desires, and other intentional states, andmore generallythe place of mind in the world of nature, and the relation between mental states and the behaviors that they (seem to) cause. It also discusses, briefly, some further questions about the metaphysics of mind, namely, whether groups of individuals, or entire communities, can possess mental states that cannot be reduced to the mental states of the individuals in those communities, and whether the boundaries between mind and world are as sharp as they may seem.Table of Contents1. Introduction ; 2. Dualism; 3. The Type Identity Theory; 4. Role Functionalism; 5. Does Consciousness Have a Place in Nature?; 6. Intentional States; 7. Russellian Monism; 8. Eliminativism; 9. Some Further Questions.

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This Element provides a comprehensive introduction to philosophy of neuroscience. It covers such topics as how neuroscientists procure knowledge, including not just research techniques but the use of various model organisms. It presents examples of knowledge acquired in neuroscience that are then employed to discuss more philosophical topics such as the nature of explanations developed in neuroscience, the different conception of levels employed in discussions of neuroscience, and the invocation of representations in neuroscience explanations. The text emphasizes the importance of brain processes beyond those in the neocortex and then explores what makes processing in neocortex different. It consider the view that the nervous system consists of control mechanisms and considers arguments for hierarchical vs. heterarchical organization of control mechanisms. It concludes by considering implications of findings in neuroscience for how humans conceive of themselves and practices such as em

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Book SynopsisJon Elster's influential study of irrationality subverts orthodox theories of rational choice. Presented in a fresh twenty-first-century series livery, and with a specially commissioned new preface, it has been revived for a new generation of readers in economics, psychology, political and social theory, and philosophy.Table of ContentsPreface to this edition Richard Holton; Acknowledgements; 1. Rationality; 2. States that are essentially by-products; 3. Sour grapes; 4. Belief, bias and ideology; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisThe mind-body relation was at the forefront of philosophy and theology in late antiquity, a time of great intellectual innovation. This volume, the first integrated history of this important topic, explores ideas about mind and body during this period, considering both pagan and Christian thought about issues such as resurrection, incarnation and asceticism. A series of chapters presents cutting-edge research from multiple perspectives, including history, philosophy, classics and theology. Several chapters survey wider themes which provide context for detailed studies of the work of individual philosophers including Numenius, Pseudo-Dionysius, Damascius and Augustine. Wide-ranging and accessible, with translations given for all texts in the original language, this book will be essential for students and scholars of late antique thought, the history of religion and theology, and the philosophy of mind.Table of ContentsIntroduction Anna Marmodoro and Sophie Cartwright; 1. The late ancient philosophical scene Edward Watts; Part I. Mind and Body in Late Antique Pagan Philosophy: 2. Theories of mind in the Hellenistic period Christopher Shields; 3. Numenius Mark Edwards; 4. Plotinus Lloyd P. Gerson; 5. Porphyry Andrew Smith; 6. Iamblichus John F. Finamore; 7. Themistius Frans de Haas; 8. Proclus Jan Opsomer; 9. Damascius Sara Ahbel-Rappe; Part II. Mind and Body in Early Christian Thought: 10. Soul and body in early Christianity: an old and new conundrum Sophie Cartwright; 11. Christian conception of the body and Paul's use of soma in 1Cor Vito Limone; 12. The ensoulment of the body in early Christian thought Benjamin P. Blosse; 13. Christian asceticism Kevin Corrigan; 14. Origen Ilaria Ramelli; 15. Basil of Caesarea Claudio Moreschini; 16. Gregory of Nyssa Ilaria Ramelli; 17. Gregory of Nazianzus Brian Matz; 18. Synesius of Cyrene Jay Bregman; 19. Augustine Giovanni Catapano; 20. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite Wiebke-Marie Stock.

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Book SynopsisFind happiness by living fully in the present with this definitive guide to ichigo ichie--the Japanese art of making the most of every moment--from the bestselling authors of Ikigai.Every moment in our life happens only once, and if we let it slip away, we lose it forever--an idea captured by the Japanese phrase ichigo ichie (pronounced itchy-GO itchy-A). Often spoken in Japan when greeting someone or saying goodbye, to convey that the encounter is unique and special, it is a tenet of Zen Buddhism and is attributed to a sixteenth-century master of the Japanese tea ceremony, or ceremony of attention, whose intricate rituals compel us to focus on the present moment.From this age-old concept comes a new kind of mindfulness. In The Book of Ichigo Ichie, you will learn to...appreciate the beauty of the fleeting, the way the Japanese celebrate the cherry blossoms for two weeks every April, knowing they''ll have to wait a whole year to see them again;use all five senses to anchor yourself in the present, helping you to let go of fear, sadness, anger, and other negative emotions fueled by fixating on the past or the future;be alert to the magic of coincidences, which help us find meaning among the disconnected events of our lives;use ichigo ichie to help you discover your ikigai, or life''s purpose--because it''s only by learning to be present, to be tuned into what catches your attention and excites you in the moment, that you can identify what it is that most motivates you and brings you happiness.Every one of us contains a key that can open the door to attention, harmony with others, and love of life. And that key is ichigo ichie.A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE Trade Review“[Ichigo ichie is] a hopeful practice, a promise that while we’ll never get these moments back, we can squeeze a whole lot of life out of them before they go poof.” —The Washington Post“A hopeful and practical guide to relishing everyday experiences and living in the moment . . . Filled with anecdotes, parables, and lessons, this [is a] reassuring handbook.” —Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisSick of striving? Giving up on grit? Had enough of hustle culture? Daunted by the 10,000-hour rule? Relax: As the French know, it's the best way to be better at everything.In the realm of love, what could be less seductive than someone who's trying to seduce you? Seduction is the art of succeeding without trying, and that's a lesson the French have mastered. We can see it in their laissez-faire parenting, chic style, haute cuisine, and enviable home cooking: They barely seem to be trying, yet the results are world-famous--thanks to a certain je ne sais quoi that is the key to a more creative, fulfilling, and productive life. For fans of both Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck and Alain de Botton's How Proust Can Change Your Life, philosopher Ollivier Pourriol's The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard draws on the examples of such French legends as Descartes, Stendhal, Rodin, Cyrano de Bergerac, and Fran&ccedilTrade Review“Compelling . . . Pourriol set out to write a readable ‘airport book,’ and he has succeeded. . . . In a year of struggle and travel bans, owing to COVID-19, which makes it impossible for Americans to visit France, this title comes at a perfect time.” ―Library Journal“[An] amusing and interesting read; even Pourriol’s description of his approach to the material is a lesson in the laissez-faire outlook. Is this likely to change readers’ lives? Peut être pas, but it is fun to think that it might.” ―Booklist“A thought-provoking and delightful book. Pourriol dismisses it as an airport read. Yet somehow, apparently without effort, he has turned it into so much more. . . . [It is like] a pastry: rich and light rather than stuff to be endlessly chewed over.” ―Daily Mail“A laissez-faire guide to self-help. This is a book for those who aspire to the déshabillé, Serge-Gainsbourg-and-Jane-Birkin-morning-after look and the studied negligence of the Parisian Bobo (bourgeois-bohemian).” ―The Times (London)“There are many gems to be found.” ―OUTinPerth

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Book SynopsisWhy do we remember events from our childhood as if they happened yesterday, but not what we did last week? Why does our memory seem to work well sometimes and not others? What happens when it goes wrong? Can memory be improved or manipulated, by psychological techniques or even ''brain implants''? How does memory grow and change as we age? And what of so-called ''recovered'' memories? This book brings together the latest research in neuroscience and psychology, and weaves in case-studies, anecdotes, and even literature and philosophy, to address these and many other important questions about the science of memory - how it works, and why we can''t live without it. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsPreface ; 1. You Are Your Memory ; 2. Mapping Your Memories ; 3. Pulling the Rabbit Out of the Hat... ; 4. Sometimes It Works and Sometimes It Doesn't ; 5. Losing It ; 6. The Seven Ages of Man ; 7. Improving Memory ; Further Reading & References

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Book SynopsisFrom a philosopher and a neuropsychologist, a radical rethinking of certain traditional views about human cognition and behavior.Plato's Allegory of the Cave trapped us in the illusion that mind is separate from body and from the natural and physical world. Knowledge had to be eternal and absolute. Recent scientific advances, however, show that our bodies shape mind, thought, and language in a deep and pervasive way. In Out of the Cave, Mark Johnson and Don Tucker--a philosopher and a neuropsychologist--propose a radical rethinking of certain traditional views about human cognition and behavior. They argue for a theory of knowing as embodied, embedded, enactive, and emotionally based. Knowing is an ongoing process--shaped by our deepest biological and cultural values.Johnson and Tucker describe a natural philosophy of mind that is emerging through the convergence of biology, psychology, computer science, and philosophy, and they explain recent research showing th

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Book SynopsisThe story of a quest to uncover the evolutionary history of consciousness from one of the world's leading theoretical psychologists.We feel, therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are crucial to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, existent, and mattering. But is it only humans who feel this way? Do other animals? Will future machines? Weaving together intellectual adventure and cutting-edge science, Nicholas Humphrey describes in Sentience his quest for answers: from his discovery of blindsight in monkeys and his pioneering work on social intelligence to breakthroughs in the philosophy of mind.The goal is to solve the hard problem: to explain the wondrous, eerie fact of “phenomenal consciousness”—the redness of a poppy, the sweetness of honey, the pain of a bee sting. What does this magical dimension of experience amount to? What is it for? And why has it evolved? Humphrey presents here his new

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Book SynopsisCELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF CHANGING THE WORLD! One of the most important spiritual manifestos of modern times—Ernest Holmes's magnum opus—in a gorgeous leather-bound edition.The Science of Mind has been heralded as one of the most influential and widely read works of spiritual thought in the last century. Hundreds of thousands of copies in all editions have been sold over the years, and millions of people have benefited from the wisdom in this book—a book that sparked a spiritual revolution.Now Tarcher/Penguin will be offering the most complete and beautifully packaged leather-bound edition—in time to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the 1938 edition of The Science of Mind. This edition will include:• Black bonded-leather binding• 4-color designed box• Gilded edges• Ribbon marker• Concordanceand more!

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Book SynopsisConnectionism and the Mind provides a clear and balanced introduction to connectionist networks and explores theoretical and philosophical implications. Much of this discussion from the first edition has been updated, and three new chapters have been added on the relation of connectionism to recent work on dynamical systems theory, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience. Read two of the sample chapters on line: Connectionism and the Dynamical Approach to Cognition: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel.pdf Networks, Robots, and Artificial Life: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/bechtel2.pdfTrade Review"Much more than just an update, this is a thorough and exciting re-build of the classic text. Excellent new treatments of modularity, dynamics, artificial life, and cognitive neuroscience locate connectionism at the very heart of contemporary debates. A superb combination of detail, clarity, scope, and enthusiasm." Andy Clark, University of Sussex "Connectionism and the Mind is an extraordinarily comprehensive and thoughtful review of connectionism, with particular emphasis on recent developments. This new edition will be a valuable primer to those new to the field. But there is more: Bechtel and Abrahamsen's trenchant and even-handed analysis of the conceptual issues that are addressed by connectionist models constitute an important original theoretical contribution to cognitive science." Jeff Elman, University of California at San DiegoTable of ContentsPreface. 1. Networks versus Symbol Systems: Two Approaches to Modeling Cognition:. A Revolution in the Making?. Forerunners of Connectionism: Pandemonium and Perceptrons. The Allure of Symbol Manipulation. The Disappearance and Re-emergence of Network Models. New Alliances and Unfinished Business. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 2. Connectionist Architectures:. The Flavor of Connectionist Processing: A Simulation of Memory Retrieval. The Design Features of a Connectionist Architecture. The Allure of the Connectionist Approach. Challenges Facing Connectionist Networks. Summary. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 3. Learning:. Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to Learning. Connectionist Models of Learning. Some Issues Regarding Learning. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 4. Pattern Recognition and Cognition:. Networks as Pattern Recognition Devices. Extending Pattern Recognition to Higher Cognition. Logical Inference as Pattern Recognition. Beyond Pattern Recognition. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 5. Are Rules Required to Process Representations?:. Is Language Use Governed by Rules?. Rumelhart and McClelland's Model of Past-Tense Acquisition. Pinker and Prince's Arguments for Rules. Accounting for the U-Shaped Learning Function. Conclusion. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 6. Are Syntactically Structured Representations Needed?:. Fodor and Pylyshyn's Critique: The Need for Symbolic Representations with Constituent Structure. First Connectionist Response: Explicitly Implementing Rules and Representations. Second Connectionist Response: Implementing Functionally Compositional Representations. Third Connectionist Response: Employing Procedural Knowledge with External Symbols. Using External Symbols to Provide Exact Symbol Processing. Clarifying the Standard: Systematicity and Degree of Generalizability. Conclusion. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 7. Simulating Higher Cognition: A Modular Architecture for Processing Scripts:. Overview of Scripts. Overview of Miikkulainen's DISCERN System. Modular Connectionist Architectures. FGREP: An Architecture that Allows the System to Devise Its Own Representations. A Self-organizing Lexicon using Kohonen Feature Maps. Encoding and Decoding Stories as Scripts. A Connectionist Episodic Memory. Performance: Paraphrasing Stories and Answering Questions. Evaluating DISCERN. Paths Beyond the First Decade of Connectionism. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 8. Connectionism and the Dynamical Approach to Cognition:. Are We on the Road to a Dynamical Revolution?. Basic Concepts of DST: The Geometry of Change. Using Dynamical Systems Tools to Analyze Networks. Putting Chaos to Work in Networks. Is Dynamicism a Competitor to Connectionism?. Is Dynamicism Complementary to Connectionism?. Conclusion. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. 9. Networks, Robots, and Artificial Life:. Robots and the Genetic Algorithm. Cellular Automata and the Synthetic Strategy. Evolution and Learning in Food-seekers. Evolution and Development in Khepera. The Computational Neuroethology of Robots. When Philosophers Encounter Robots. Conclusion. Sources and Suggested Readings. 10. Connectionism and the Brain:. Connectionism Meets Cognitive Neuroscience. Four Connectionist Models of Brain Processes. The Neural Implausibility of Many Connectionist Models. Wither Connectionism?. Notes. Sources and Suggested Readings. Appendix A: Notation. Appendix B: Glossary. Bibliography. Name Index. Subject Index.

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Book SynopsisLama Surya Das, the most highly trained American lama in the Tibetan tradition, presents the definitive book on Western Buddhism for the modern-day spiritual seeker.The radical and compelling message of Buddhism tells us that each of us has the wisdom, awareness, love, and power of the Buddha within; yet most of us are too often like sleeping Buddhas. In Awakening the Buddha Within, Surya Das shows how we can awaken to who we really are in order to lead a more compassionate, enlightened, and balanced life.  It illuminates the guidelines and key principles embodied in the noble Eight-Fold Path and the traditional Three Enlightenment Trainings common to all schools of Buddhism:Wisdom Training: Developing clear vision, insight, and inner understanding—seeing reality and ourselves as we really are.Ethics Training: Cultivating virtue, self-discipline, and compassion in what we say and do.Meditation Training:

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Book SynopsisThe Matter of the Mind addresses and illuminates the relationship between psychology and neuroscience by focusing on the topic of reduction. Written by leading philosophers in the field Discusses recent theorizing in the mind-brain sciences and reviews and weighs the evidence in favour of reductionism against the backdrop of recent important advances within psychology and the neurosciences Collects the latest work on central topics where neuroscience is now making inroads in traditional psychological terrain, such as adaptive behaviour, reward systems, consciousness, and social cognition. Trade Review“The Matter of the Mind is a well organized book which hosts contributions on the main subjects about philosophy of mind and it is definitely worthwhile reading.” (Metapsychology, 14 May 2013) "The editors, and the contributors, are to be congratulated. This is the best collection on the nature of intertheoretic reduction ever published, especially as those issues bear on the unfolding relations between the neurosciences on the one hand, and psychology and the social sciences on the other. Thanks to these papers, all of us (yours truly included) are going to be rethinking our views on reduction." Paul M. Churchland, University of California, San Diego "Parties on both sides of the reductionism wars will benefit from this exciting collection. The editors and their contributors well represent the cutting edges of the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of science regarding the reducibility (or lack thereof) of minds to brains." Pete Mandik, William Paterson University “An outstanding vehicle by which to learn about modern reductionism, the relation of neuroscience to psychology, and how they can cooperate rather than compete.” PsycCritiquesTable of ContentsContributors. Preface and Acknowledgments. 1. Mind Matters: The Roots of Reductionism (Maurice Schouten and Huib Looren de Jong). Part I: Metaphysics of Science. 2. Functionalism and Psychological Reductionism: Friends, Not Foes (Andrew Melnyk). 3. Some Metaphysical Anxieties of Reductionism (Thomas W. Polger). 4. The Metaphysics of Mechanisms and the Challenge of the New Reductionism (Carl Gillett). 5. Reductionism, Embodiment, and the Generality of Psychology (Lawrence A. Shapiro). Part II: Philosophical Accounts of Reduction, Mechanism, Co-evolution. 6. Reduction without the Structures (Robert C. Richardson). 7. Reinforcing the Three "R"s: Reduction, Reception, and Replacement (Ronald Endicott). 8. Reducing Psychology while Maintaining its Autonomy via Mechanistic Explanations (William Bechtel). 9. Enriching Philosophical Models of Cross-Scientific Relations: Incorporating Diachronic Theories (Robert N. McCauley). Part III: Mechanisms of Mind. 10. Coupling, Emergence, and Explanation (Andy Clark). 11. Is Psychological Explanation Going Extinct? (Cory D. Wright). 12. Who Says You Can't Do a Molecular Biology of Consciousness? (John Bickle). 13. Mind Reading and Mirror Neurons: Exploring Reduction (Huib Looren de Jong and Maurice Schouten). Name Index. Subject Index.

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Book SynopsisWhat is consciousness? Conventional thinking tells us it is the images, sensations, thoughts, and feelings produced by the brain. When the neurons in the brain stop firing, consciousness ceases to be. But does it?

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