The Shape Of Thought

Author : H. Clark Barrett
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2015-01-16
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780190463601

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The Shape of Thought by H. Clark Barrett Pdf

The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve presents a road map for an evolutionary psychology of the twenty-first century. It brings together theory from biology and cognitive science to show how the brain can be composed of specialized adaptations, and yet also an organ of plasticity. Although mental adaptations have typically been seen as monolithic, hard-wired components frozen in the evolutionary past, The Shape of Thought presents a new view of mental adaptations as diverse and variable, with distinct functions and evolutionary histories that shape how they develop, what information they use, and what they do with that information. The book describes how advances in evolutionary developmental biology can be applied to the brain by focusing on the design of the developmental systems that build it. Crucially, developmental systems can be plastic, designed by the process of natural selection to build adaptive phenotypes using the rich information available in our social and physical environments. This approach bridges the long-standing divide between "nativist" approaches to development, based on innateness, and "empiricist" approaches, based on learning. It shows how a view of humans as a flexible, culturally-dependent species is compatible with a complexly specialized brain, and how the nature of our flexibility can be better understood by confronting the evolved design of the organ on which that flexibility depends.

Author : H. Clark Barrett
Publisher : Evolution and Cognition
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2015
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780199348312

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The Shape of Thought by H. Clark Barrett Pdf

'The Shape of Thought' presents a road map for an evolutionary psychology of the twenty-first century. It shows how the brain can be both a complexly specialized organ and a dynamic and flexible self-organizing system, shaped by learning and culture.

Author : Lambros Malafouris
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2016-02-12
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780262528924

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How Things Shape the Mind by Lambros Malafouris Pdf

An account of the different ways in which things have become cognitive extensions of the human body, from prehistory to the present. An increasingly influential school of thought in cognitive science views the mind as embodied, extended, and distributed rather than brain-bound or “all in the head.” This shift in perspective raises important questions about the relationship between cognition and material culture, posing major challenges for philosophy, cognitive science, archaeology, and anthropology. In How Things Shape the Mind, Lambros Malafouris proposes a cross-disciplinary analytical framework for investigating the ways in which things have become cognitive extensions of the human body. Using a variety of examples and case studies, he considers how those ways might have changed from earliest prehistory to the present. Malafouris's Material Engagement Theory definitively adds materiality—the world of things, artifacts, and material signs—into the cognitive equation. His account not only questions conventional intuitions about the boundaries and location of the human mind but also suggests that we rethink classical archaeological assumptions about human cognitive evolution.

Author : Leonard Mlodinow
Publisher : Pantheon
Page : 273 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2022-01-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781524747596

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Emotional by Leonard Mlodinow Pdf

We’ve all been told that thinking rationally is the key to success. But at the cutting edge of science, researchers are discovering that feeling is every bit as important as thinking. You make hundreds of decisions every day, from what to eat for breakfast to how you should invest, and not one of those decisions would be possible without emotion. It has long been said that thinking and feeling are separate and opposing forces in our behavior. But as Leonard Mlodinow, the best-selling author of Subliminal, tells us, extraordinary advances in psychology and neuroscience have proven that emotions are as critical to our well-being as thinking. How can you connect better with others? How can you make sense of your frustration, fear, and anxiety? What can you do to live a happier life? The answers lie in understanding your emotions. Journeying from the labs of pioneering scientists to real-world scenarios that have flirted with disaster, Mlodinow shows us how our emotions can help, why they sometimes hurt, and what we can learn in both instances. Using deep insights into our evolution and biology, Mlodinow gives us the tools to understand our emotions better and to maximize their benefits. Told with his characteristic clarity and fascinating stories, Emotional explores the new science of feelings and offers us an essential guide to making the most of one of nature’s greatest gifts.

Author : Thomas McEvilley
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 1015 pages
File Size : 48,9 Mb
Release : 2012-02-07
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781581159332

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The Shape of Ancient Thought by Thomas McEvilley Pdf

Spanning thirty years of intensive research, this book proves what many scholars could not explain: that today’s Western world must be considered the product of both Greek and Indian thought—Western and Eastern philosophies. Thomas McEvilley explores how trade, imperialism, and migration currents allowed cultural philosophies to intermingle freely throughout India, Egypt, Greece, and the ancient Near East. This groundbreaking reference will stir relentless debate among philosophers, art historians, and students.

Author : Jesse J. Prinz
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2012-01-26
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781846145728

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Beyond Human Nature by Jesse J. Prinz Pdf

In this provocative, revelatory tour de force, Jesse Prinz reveals how the cultures we live in - not biology - determine how we think and feel. He examines all aspects of our behaviour, looking at everything from our intellects and emotions, to love and sex, morality and even madness. This book seeks to go beyond traditional debates of nature and nurture. He is not interested in finding universal laws but, rather, in understanding, explaining and celebrating our differences. Why do people raised in Western countries tend to see the trees before the forest, while people from East Asia see the forest before the trees? Why, in South East Asia, is there a common form of mental illness, unheard of in the West, in which people go into a trancelike state after being startled? Compared to Northerners, why are people in the American South more than twice as likely to kill someone over an argument? And, above all, just how malleable are we? Prinz shows that the vast diversity of our behaviour is not engrained. He picks up where biological explanations leave off. He tells us the human story.

Author : K. Birth
Publisher : Springer
Page : 211 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2012-10-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781137017895

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Objects of Time by K. Birth Pdf

This is a book about time, but it is also about much more than time—it is about how the objects we use to think about time shape our thoughts. Because time ties together so many aspects of our lives, this book is able to explore the nexus of objects, cognition, culture, and even biology, and to do so in relationship to globalization.

Author : M.B. Pranger
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1994-08-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004247109

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Bernard of Clairvaux and the Shape of Monastic Thought by M.B. Pranger Pdf

This book examines the way Bernard of Clairvaux, in his writings, shapes the monastic existence as a subtle blend of biblical and liturgical texts and scenes on the one hand and uncontrollable events and emotions on the other.

Author : Frank Chimero
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 131 pages
File Size : 42,6 Mb
Release : 2012
Category : Design
ISBN : 0985472200

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The Shape of Design by Frank Chimero Pdf

Author : Arundhati Roy
Publisher : Penguin Books India
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Globalization
ISBN : 9780670082070

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The Shape of the Beast by Arundhati Roy Pdf

The Shape Of The Beast Is Our World Laid Bare, With Great Courage, Passion And Eloquence, By A Mind That Has Engaged Unhesitatingly With Its Changing Realities, Often Anticipating The Way Things Have Moved In The Last Decade. In The Fourteen Interviews Collected Here, Conducted Between January 2001 And March 2008, Arundhati Roy Examines The Nature Of State And Corporate Power As It Has Emerged During This Period, And The Shape That Resistance Movements Are Taking. As She Speaks, Among Other Things, About People Displaced By Dams And Industry, The Genocide In Gujarat, Maoist Rebels, The War In Kashmir And The Global War On Terror, She Raises Fundamental Questions About Democracy, Justice And Non-Violent Protest. Unabashedly Political, This Is Also A Deeply Personal Collection. Through The Conversations, Arundhati Talks About The Necessity Of Taking A Stand, As Also The Dilemma Of Guarding The Private Space Necessary For Writing In A World That Demands Urgent, Unequivocal Intervention. And In The Final Interview, She Discusses With Uncommon Candour Her Ambiguous Feelings About Success And Both The Pressures And The Freedom That Come With It.

Author : Isabella Sarto-Jackson
Publisher : Cognitive Science and Psychology
Page : 294 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2021-12-24
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1622733312

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The Making and Breaking of Minds by Isabella Sarto-Jackson Pdf

The human brain has a truly remarkable capacity. It reorganizes itself, flexibly adjusting to fluctuating environmental conditions - a process called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity provides the basis for wide-ranging learning and memory processes that are particularly profuse during childhood and adolescence. At the same time, the exceptional malleability of the developing brain leaves it highly vulnerable to negative impact from the surroundings. Abusive or neglecting social environments, as well as socioeconomic deprivation and poverty, cause toxic stress and complex traumas that can severely compromise cognitive development, emotional processing, self-perception, and executive brain functions. The neurophysiological changes entailed impair emotional regulation, lead to heightened anxiety, and afflict attachment and the formation of social bonds. Neuroplastic changes following severely adverse experiences are not something that a person grows out of and gets over. These experiences alter the neurobiological and biochemical makeup and cause people to live in an emotionally relabeled world in which the evaluation of any social cue, their behavior, cognition, and state of mind are biased towards the negative. Even more worrying, detrimental neurophysiological consequences are not limited to the traumatized individual but are often transmitted to subsequent generations through a process of social niche construction, thereby creating a vicious cycle. Thus, the making and breaking forces of the brain are epitomized by parents, alloparents, peers, and our socioeconomic niche. This book expounds on the formative role that the social environment plays in healthy brain development, especially during infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Based on scientific findings, the book advocates for bold measures and responsible stewardship to combat child abuse, maltreatment, and child poverty. By bringing together insights from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and social education work, it lays out a fact-based, transdisciplinary endeavor that aims at rising to the societal challenge of providing a rewarding perspective to youth at risk. It will be a valuable resource for academics from social education, pedagogy, cognitive science, neuroscience, as well as professionals in the fields of social work, pedagogy, education, child welfare.

Author : Jonas Taul
Publisher : Groundwood Books Ltd
Page : 71 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2020-04-01
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781773062303

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A Serious Thought by Jonas Taul Pdf

A boy ponders his place in the universe in this thoughtful story about the things that keep us up at night. One night, a little boy goes to bed, but instead of sleeping, he starts thinking all kinds of thoughts. Dangerous thoughts. Admirable thoughts. Questionable thoughts. Beautiful thoughts ... until a very serious thought occurs to him. If Earth is just a tiny marble floating in space, and he is but one child among many living on this marble, what does his existence matter in the grand scheme of things? Deceptively simple black-and-white drawings poignantly illustrate the boy’s journey as he considers this serious thought. This thought-provoking story by Estonian artist Jonas Taul will resonate with anyone who has ever been kept awake at night by life’s big questions. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2 Retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

Author : Barbara Tversky
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2019-05-21
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780465093076

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Mind in Motion by Barbara Tversky Pdf

An eminent psychologist offers a major new theory of human cognition: movement, not language, is the foundation of thought When we try to think about how we think, we can't help but think of words. Indeed, some have called language the stuff of thought. But pictures are remembered far better than words, and describing faces, scenes, and events defies words. Anytime you take a shortcut or play chess or basketball or rearrange your furniture in your mind, you've done something remarkable: abstract thinking without words. In Mind in Motion, psychologist Barbara Tversky shows that spatial cognition isn't just a peripheral aspect of thought, but its very foundation, enabling us to draw meaning from our bodies and their actions in the world. Our actions in real space get turned into mental actions on thought, often spouting spontaneously from our bodies as gestures. Spatial thinking underlies creating and using maps, assembling furniture, devising football strategies, designing airports, understanding the flow of people, traffic, water, and ideas. Spatial thinking even underlies the structure and meaning of language: why we say we push ideas forward or tear them apart, why we're feeling up or have grown far apart. Like Thinking, Fast and Slow before it, Mind in Motion gives us a new way to think about how--and where--thinking takes place.

Author : Lee Roy Beach
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
Page : 194 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2010-08-10
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781453542736

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The Psychology of Narrative Thought by Lee Roy Beach Pdf

This book is about how we think and how what we think shapes our attempts to manage the ongoing course of our lives. Our primary mode of thought is in the form of stories, called narratives, which help us make sense of what is going on around us and provide context for it by linking it to what has happened in the past. Moreover, narratives allow us to use the past and present to make educated guesses, called forecasts, about what will happen in the future. When the forecasted future is undesirable, we intervene to ensure that the actual future, when it arrives, is more to our liking. Narrative thought has its limits, particularly when logical rigor is required. The implications of these limits are discussed, as are the ways in which people have attempted to overcome them.

Author : Richard Seaford
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 387 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2019-12-05
Category : History
ISBN : 9781108499552

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The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and India by Richard Seaford Pdf

Explains for the first time the genesis and early form of both Indian and Greek philosophy, and their striking similarities.