Let’s take the example of offloading our mental calculation to the body (counting through fingers). This mental calculation can be done more subtly, by just keep tracking of the position of the fingers. To an external observer it does not seem any movement but for the cognizer job will be done same like the earlier case where actual twisting of fingers happened. This is a kind of pushing activity inward, allowing only the conceptualizing the movement but no overt movement. Many abstract cognitive activities functions in this covert way. Mental structures which should be evolved from perception-action, but here it works ‘off-line’. In these cases mental structures are decoupled from the physical inputs and outputs which were important for thinking …show more content…
It covers almost, if not all, possible aspects in which cognitive activity occurs. The crux of the whole discussion is that characteristics of the cognition are deeply dependent upon the characteristics of the physical body of the agent. These beyond-the-brain body features plays causal and constitutive role in the cognitive processes. This make a sharp distinction with the views that mind is dominant in the cognitive processes. Till now this is very much clear that an agent’s body plays significant causal and constitutive role in the cognition. So, now there is need to specify the nature of dependence of cognition on the body. What significant roles a body plays on an agent’s cognition? How a body proves useful in the process of cognition? At the most general level I think there are three distinct role which a body plays in the whole cognitive processes. Sometimes a body helps to generate some content for the cognition, it helps to distribute some cognitive processes, and it operates the overall cognitive activity also. Talking metaphorically, Body behaves as GOD for the cognition. Let’s discuss one by …show more content…
It regulate the cognition activities over space and time. As we already saw that one of the main purpose of cognition is to perform actions to cope with the environment. An agent’s body functions to regulate the co-ordination between cognition and action. Bodily structures of the agent facilitates the real-time execution of the complex behavioral activities in response to complex and fast changing environmental events. Body functions to extract information from the world in the form of cognition and later it delivers the output into the world in the form of behavior or action; but it is also integral to the online control of the cognition in real time. Body plays a feedback-driven role in cognitive processes. In this case body is more like dynamical system which perform their functions without any central controller, solely based on the external
One of the major differences between humans and animals is our ability to reason and differentiate our actions from our instincts (Barrett, 2011, p. 3). Justin Barrett further explains this distinction in the first chapter of his book, Cognitive Science Religion and Theology. He explains that cognitive science recognizes the uniqueness of the human mind and focuses on explaining the thinking processes that take place(Barrett, 2011, p. 5). This may seem similar to what the field of neuroscience aims to do but, cognitive science is not as interested with the biological functions of the brain. Instead of looking at physical structures Barrett writes, that cognitive science focuses on broader processes such as perception, attention, memory, reasoning and learning (Barrett, 2011, p. 7). All of these processes interact with each other to create the big questions asked in cognitive science. Some of these big underlying questions of cognitive science are explored in this first chapter, questions such as “What is innate?” or “How are mind and bodies
... cognitive acts, more generally, any mental acts, are not isolated particulars, coming or going in the stream of consciousness without any interconnections. As they are ESSENTIALLY related to one another, they display a teleological coherence and corresponding connections ... And on these connections, which present an intelligible unity a great deal depends.
Taylor, Richard. "The Mind as a Function of the Body." Exploring Philosophy. 4th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. 131-138. Print.
The mind-body problem can be a difficult issue to discuss due to the many opinions and issues that linger. The main issue behind the mind-body problem is the question regarding if us humans are only made up of matter, or a combination of both matter and mind. If we consist of both, how can we justify the interaction between the two? A significant philosophical issue that has been depicted by many, there are many prominent stances on the mind-body problem. I believe property dualism is a strong philosophical position on the mind-body issue, which can be defended through the knowledge argument against physicalism, also refuted through the problems of interaction.
Firstly, there is various of sensing activities as in seeing and hearing as in a sense of understanding of what is seen and heard. Secondly the sense of feeling in numerous parts of the body from the head to the toes. The ability to recall past events, the sophisticated emotions and the thinking process. The cerebellum acts as a physiological microcomputer which intercepts various sensory and motor nerves to smooth out what would otherwise be jerky muscle motions. The medulla controls the elementary functions responsible for life, such as breathing, cardiac rate and kidney functions. The medulla contains numerous of timing mechanisms as well as other interconnections that control swallowing and salivations.
Biological focuses on the body and brain being the dominant influences of behavior and thinking.
The explanation of how the mind can discriminate towards stimuli, report information or even control behavior can easily be reduced with science. These are practical problems that can be solved and even be given a structure. Through the study of cognitive process, these problems can be solved systematically and mechanistically. However, what cannot be fully explained through cognitive process is our first person experience.
Historically, cognitive psychology was unified by an approach based on an resemblance between the mind and a computer, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). Cognitive neuroscientists argue convincingly that we need to study the brain while people engage in cognitive tasks. Clearly, the internal processes involved in human cognition occur in the brain, and several sophisticated ways of studying the brain in action, including various imaging techniques, now exist, (Sternberg and Wagner, 1999, page 34).Neuroscience studies how the activity of the brain is correlated with cognitive operations, (Eysenck and Keane, 2010). On the other hand, cognitive neuropsychologists believe that we can draw general conclusions about the way in which the intact mind and brain work from mainly studying the behaviour of neurological patients rather than their physiology, (McCarthy and Warrington, 1990).
Whilst evaluating the cognitive approach to psychology there are many strengths such as that the cognitive approach takes an understanding of the influence from mental processes on one’s behaviour, focusing on an individual’s thinking patterns and their perception. This approach also relates to many known functions and operations that the human body performs such as memory and problem solving.
The brain is the control center of the human body. It sends and receives millions of signals every second, day and night, in the form of hormones, nerve impulses, and chemical messengers. This exchange of information makes us move, eat, sleep, and think.
Toates, F. (2010) ‘Brains, bodies, behaviour and minds’ in SDK228 The science of the mind: investigating mental health, Book 1, Core concepts in mental health, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 29-90.
Most of the body’s functions such as, thinking, emotions, memories and so forth are controlled by the brain. It serves as a central nervous system in the human body. The mind is the intellect/consciousness that originates in the human brain and manifests itself in emotions, thoughts, perceptions and so forth. This means that the brain is the key interpreter of the mind’s content. Jackson and Nagel seem to resist identifying what we call “mental events” with brain events, for different reasons, while J.J.C. Smart takes the opposing view.
Are minds physical things, or are they nonmaterial? If your beliefs and desires are caused by physical events outside of yourself, how can it be true that you act the way you do of your own free will? Are people genuinely moved by the welfare of others, or is all behavior, in reality, selfish? (Sober 203). These are questions relevant to philosophy of the mind and discussed through a variety of arguments. Two of the most important arguments with this discussion are Cartesian dualism and logical behaviorism, both of which argue the philosophy of the mind in two completely different ways. Robert Lane, a professor at the University of West Georgia, define the two as follows: Cartesian dualism is the theory that the mind and body are two totally different things, capable of existing separately, and logical behaviorism is the theory that our talk about beliefs, desires, and pains is not talk about ghostly or physical inner episodes, but instead about actual and potential patterns of behavior. Understanding of the two arguments is essential to interpret the decision making process; although dualism and behaviorism are prominent arguments for the philosophy of the mind, both have their strengths and weaknesses.
The mind is the stage where perceptions make their appearance. They are like actors who walk across the stage and are exposed to different situations and environments. Just like various actors walk across the stage at various times with different perceptions to tell the same
While the great philosophical distinction between mind and body in western thought can be traced to the Greeks, it is to the influential work of René Descartes, French mathematician, philosopher, and physiologist, that we owe the first systematic account of the mind/body relationship. As the 19th century progressed, the problem of the relationship of mind to brain became ever more pressing.