Inquire about purchasing the book | Table of Contents | Annotated Bibliography | Class on Nature of Mind
These are excerpts and elaborations from my book "The Nature of Consciousness"
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Biological Epistemology Solving a problem consists
in visualizing it correctly. In his opinion the brain produces many different
visualizations of the problem until one "fits". Then the solution is
obvious. The brain produces a large number of ideas. Those that are
"useless" are weakened; those that are useful are reinforced. The US
psychologist DonaldCampbell("Natural selection as an epistemological model", 1970),
viewed a selectionist process (blind variation and selective retention) at work
in all the brain functions, from perception (recognizing that something is
something) to problem solving. At all levels the brain does not really
"know" what to do: it just guesses, and the correct guesses are
rewarded. Thinking originates from a population of guesses that evolve based on
their usefulness or uselessness. Back to the beginning of the chapter "Cognition: A General Property of Matter " | Back to the index of all chapters |
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