The shape of thought

When children learn the name of a novel object, they tend to extend that name to other objects similar in shape – a phenomenon referred to as the shape bias. Does the shape bias stem from learned associations between names and categories of objects, or does it derive from more general properties of children's understanding of language and the world? We argue here for the second alternative, presenting evidence that the shape bias emerges early in development, is not limited to names, and is intimately related to how children make sense of categories.     

The categorization of thought disorder

We describe the development of a new system for categorizing thought disorder. In the development phase (Study 1), we examined the degree to which speech samples and definitions of thought disorder subtypes taken from: (1) the Scale for the Assessment of Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC); (2) the Though Disorder Index (TDI); and (3) the Assessment of Bizarre-Idiosyncratic Thinking (BIT), reflected disturbances in form versus disturbances in content. Ratings were provided by naive judges, experienced clinicians, and linguistic experts. The results contributed to the development of a new system dividing thought disorder into disturbances in (1) fluency, (2) discourse coherence, (3) content, and (4) social convention. In the validation phase (Study 2), 21 schizophrenic and 19 manic subjects were interviewed, interpreted proverbs, and responded to Rorschach cards. Subjects' speech was rated using the TLC, TDI, and BIT. We also measured hallucinations, delusions, and digit span performance. The results of Study 2 provided evidence supporting the validity of our new categorization system.     

The logic of thought experiments

In this paper I argue that (at least many) philosophical thought experiments are unreliable. But I argue that this notion of unreliability has to be understood relative to the goal of thought experiments as knowledge producing. And relative to that goal many thought experiments in science are just as unreliable. But in fact thought experiments in science play a varied role and I will suggest that knowledge production is a goal only under quite limited circumstances. I defend the view that these circumstances can (sometimes) arise in philosophy as well.     

The dynamics of bidirectional thought

High-level judgement and decision-making tasks display dynamic bidirectional relationships in which salient cues determine how responses are evaluated by decision-makers, and these responses in turn determine the cues that are considered. In this paper, we propose Kosko's bidirectional associative memory (BAM) network, a minimal two-layer recurrent neural network, as a mathematically tractable toy model with which the properties of existing bidirectional models, and the behavioural implications of these properties, can be studied. We first derive results regarding the dynamics of the BAM network, and then show how these results can be used to provide an analytically sound explanation for a number of important findings, including coherence shifts in judgement and choice, anchoring effects, and reference point effects.     

丘处机的美学思想试探

本文在占有较翔实的资料基础之上 ,着重从两个方面论述了全真高道丘处机的美学思想 :一、在和成吉思汗的交谈中 ,反映出其丰富的社会内容美思想 ;二、在修炼内丹的过程中所体现出来的深刻的内丹模糊美思想。     

The persistent problem of targetless thought

Targetless thought raises a persistent problem for higher-order theories of consciousness. In cases of targetless thought, a subject represents herself as being in a mental state that she in fact lacks. One popular response among proponents of the higher-order theory is to say that it can appear to a subject that she is in a conscious mental state, even though that mental state doesn’t exist (Picciuto, 2017; Rosenthal 1997, 2011; Weisberg, 2010). Recently Brown and Lau (2019) and Lau and Rosenthal (2011) have shifted the debate to empirical ground, and offered evidence for real-world cases of targetless thought. In this paper, I give an alternate explanation of the evidence which avoids the need to posit targetless thoughts. As I argue, this challenges the empirical argument for the higher-order view because it shows that the evidence on offer does not discriminate between the first-order and higher-order theories of consciousness.     

《道德经》的和谐思想

"世界和谐"是所有人类共同期盼的目标,事实上,不只是人际之间需要和谐,就是人与大自然、人与社会,甚至个人的身心都需要和谐。一旦失去了     

浅谈《道德经》的和谐思想——兼论与佛法的相通之处

法不孤起,仗缘而生。去年于中国杭州召开首届世界佛教论坛而形成的《普陀山宣言》提出"人心和善、家庭和乐、人际和顺、     

司马承祯的美学思想

司马承祯,字子微,法号道隐,河内温人(今河南温县),为唐代著名道士,茅山宗第十二代宗师。自号“白云子”或“白云道士”,又号“天台白云”。作为上清派第十二代传人和有道高士,司马承祯受到历代唐帝王如武则天、睿宗、玄宗的优宠,被尊为帝王之师。他一生著述颇多,其中主要包括《坐忘论》,《天隐子》8篇,《修真秘旨》12篇,《修身养气诀》,《服气精义论》,《修真秘旨事目历》,《修真精义杂论》。其中,主要代表作为《坐忘论》和《天隐子》,蕴含了丰富的道教美学思想。本文从他对审美判断的主观性特点及“道”美的肯定和追求,“坐忘”修心的审美…