[Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World, Gerd Gigerenzer, Oxford University Press, 2000] Professor Gigerenzer starts off the introduction to Part IV with a strong claim: The study of human thinking is deeply suspicious of introducing anything genuinely social into the world of “pure” rationality. As in much of cognitive science, most researchers have fallen … [Read more…]
[“Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World”, Gerd Gigerenzer, Oxford University Press, 2000] In Part II, chapters 4-6, Professor Girgenzer provides a few arguments towards a view of what he labels ‘ecological rationality’ which he defines as follows: Ecological rationality refers to the study of how cognitive strategies exploit the representation and structure of information … [Read more…]
[“Adaptive Thinking: Rationality in the Real World”, Gerd Gigerenzer, Oxford University Press, 2000] Professor Gigerenzer states in the introduction of Part I of his book (“Where Do New Ideas Come From?”): Computers and statistics have both been used to fulfill the timeless longing to replace judgment by the application of content-blind, mechanical rules.” [page 1] … [Read more…]
Obviously God knows all. Perhaps the real question is: “What is there to be known?” But the questions are the same at a very fundamental level. What God knows is what there is to know and what there is to know is known by God. First, if things are true, that is — if Creation … [Read more…]
Reductionism is often seen as explaining something away and, unfortunately, that’s often the goal of those doing the reducing. This isn’t a new development in modern thought. When St. Augustine explained the mind in terms of three components — intellect, memory, and will — he was reducing a complex entity to three components he felt … [Read more…]
Even an armchair historian can tell you that a good general prepares for his retreat as soon as he sees the need for it. He tries to arrange an orderly retreat to minimize casualties and loss of equipment and other materiel. He knows not to try to hold ground which is indefensible, being well aware … [Read more…]
I’ve argued that the human mind is shaped by its immediate environments, including social relationships starting with that between infant and mother. From there, we expand out into larger sections of those immediate environments and may begin to interact with other environments. In this expansion into other environments, we’re like other opportunistic animals — bears … [Read more…]
Einstein gave a great gift to rational thinkers, Christian and non-Christian. He gave us a universe, that is, a coherent definition of a universe. And the definition is proving to be quite a bit different from the traditional metaphysical definitions. In fact, the simplest way to think of Einsteinian Universes as a class is to … [Read more…]
So, what is man? He’s intentional in his moral nature. He’s born to acquire certain moral behaviors towards mother and father and brethren but mostly towards his mother because of the special bond. He’ll recognize her very smell and her body is changing in certain ways to adapt itself to the care of a baby … [Read more…]
“BrainWork”is a free newsletter distributed by The Dana Foundation run by some of the most prominent neuroscientists, geneticists, and other biologists in the United States and — I believe — Canada. In the July-August, 2006 issue, there’s an interesting article, Out-of-body but in the Brain”. The article tells us: At every moment, the brain effortlessly … [Read more…]