WAYS OF KNOWING
How are the rudiments of perception, language and logic inextricable from the fine microstructure of the brain?
How do we make sense of our biologically driven emotions and predispositions?
How much of what we are and what we know is innate, or genetically determined, and how much will always remain to be learned?
Homo perspicax ― ACTIVE SENSE PERCEPTION
Seven senses
Active vision―saccades
Color
Optical illusions
A musical ear
Umwelt
Extending our sensory range using technology
Homo agnoscens ― RECOGNITION
Problems of recogniton
Memory
Consciousness as qualia
What is it like to be a bat?
Edelman’s Neural Darwinism
Self determination
The primacy of pattern recognition
Wittgenstein’s family resemblances
The paradox of Meno
Can a machine think?
Homo loquens ― LANGUAGE
Dwelling in language
Is there a language instinct?
Deacon’s co-evolution of language and the brain
The messiness of everyday speech
The Map is not the Territory
In praise of the poetic voice
Pidgins, creoles and sign languages
Narrative and emplotment
Non-linguistic forms of representation
Animal language
Gorilla language and personhood
Homo logicus ― REASON
Our predisposition for systematic thinking
Meaning and the general significance of things
Induction and continuity
Analytical vs. Synthetic knowledge
Deductive logic and syllogisms
Informal fallacies
Models
Bronowski's path from metaphor to algorithm
Occam's razor
What babies know―a priori knowledge
Locke's tabula rasa
Hume’s impressions
Knowledge as justified—true—belief
Descartes and radical doubt
Homo ardens ― EMOTION
Fired up
Damasio's Feeling of What Happens
Tension and release
The “big five” personality traits
The madding crowd
Homo introspiciens ― INTUITION
Seemingly effortless, self-evident insights
Polanyi’s Tacit Knowledge