Symbols and Embodiment

Symbols and Embodiment
Author: Manuel de Vega
Publisher:
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2008
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

Cognitive scientists have a variety of approaches to studying cognition: experimental psychology, computer science, robotics, neuroscience, educational psychology, philosophy of mind, and psycholinguistics, to name but a few. In addition, they also differ in their approaches to cognition - some of them consider that the mind works basically like a computer, involving programs composed of abstract, amodal, and arbitrary symbols. Others claim that cognition is embodied - that is, symbols must be grounded on perceptual, motoric, and emotional experience. The existence of such different approaches has consequences when dealing with practical issues such as understanding brain disorders, designing artificial intelligence programs and robots, improving psychotherapy, or designing instructional programs. The symbolist and embodiment camps seldom engage in any kind of debate to clarify their differences. This book is the first attempt to do so. It brings together a team of outstanding scientists, adopting symbolist and embodied viewpoints, in an attempt to understand how the mind works and the nature of linguistic meaning. As well as being interdisciplinary, all authors have made an attempt to find solutions to substantial issues beyond specific vocabularies and techniques.

Symbol Grounding

Symbol Grounding
Author: Tony Belpaeme
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2009-11-30
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027288747

When explaining cognition one must explain how representations in the mind, or symbols, become meaningful by connecting to the external world. This process of connecting symbols with sensorimotor experiences is known as symbol grounding. The classical view of symbol grounding is that it is an individual process: a person or machine interacts with the environment and associates symbols with external experiences. This volume contains views from different disciplines – ranging from psychology to robotics – on how this view can be extended by first extending symbol grounding to encompass semiotics and by showing how the classical view exaggerates the importance of written language: grounding does not necessarily involve written notations, but rather language is an external cognitive resource that allows us to acquire categories and concepts. Secondly, as symbol grounding relies on language to acquire and coordinate the process and language is a dynamical process rooted in both culture and biology, symbol grounding by extension is also sensitive to culture, emotion and embodiment. The contributions to this volume were previously published in Interaction Studies 8:1 (2007).

How the Body Shapes Knowledge

How the Body Shapes Knowledge
Author: Rebecca Fincher-Kiefer
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2019
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9781433829604

This text explores the theory of embodied cognition, which suggests that human cognition is "grounded" in the neural pathways linked to bodily sensation.

Ten Lectures on Figurative Meaning-Making: The Role of Body and Context

Ten Lectures on Figurative Meaning-Making: The Role of Body and Context
Author: Zóltan Kövecses
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 141
Release: 2019-09-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004364900

The present book contains a transcribed version of the lectures given by Professor Zoltán Kövecses in November 2010 as one of the three forum speakers for the 8th China International Forum on Cognitive Linguistics. The topics presented in this book deal with the language and conceptualization of emotions, cross-cultural variation in metaphor, metaphor and metonymy in discourse, and the issue of the relationship between language, mind, and culture from a cognitive linguistic perspective.

Hunab Ku

Hunab Ku
Author: Karen Speerstra
Publisher: Crossing Press
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2011-04-27
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0307785874

The Mayan symbol Hunab Ku represents movement and energy—the principle of life itself—in a spiraling design reminiscent of the Eastern yin-yang symbol. As an embodiment of harmony and balance, Hunab Ku invites us into the age of consciousness, which is predicted to begin on December 21, 2012.HUNAB KU prepares us for this cosmic awakening by presenting 77 sacred symbols that create an interactive system for learning, healing, and meditation. Beautifully illustrated and exhaustively researched, this virtual pilgrimage invites us to explore artifacts, earthworks, numerological patterns, and archetypes from diverse traditions the world over: ancient Greece, the Americas, Africa, the British Isles, Babylon, India, and beyond. Hunab Ku waits for you at the book’s center, the threshold between our present age and the coming age of enlightenment. Like runes, tarot, and other pathworking systems, the archetypes herein open doors, create bridges, and shed light on our past and our future. These spiritual signposts are all around us and within, waiting to be interpreted. Let HUNAB KU be your guide. A richly illustrated book that draws on cross-cultural ancient symbols, numerology, archetypes, and earthworks, and the chakras. Includes 77 vivid full-color illustrations placed within the framework and palette of the seven chakras. Builds on the growing popularity of José Arguelles’s The Mayan Factor and Carl Johan Calleman’s The Mayan Calendar and the Transformation of Consciousness.

The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics

The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
Author: Barbara Dancygier
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1427
Release: 2017-06-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1108146139

The best survey of cognitive linguistics available, this Handbook provides a thorough explanation of its rich methodology, key results, and interdisciplinary context. With in-depth coverage of the research questions, basic concepts, and various theoretical approaches, the Handbook addresses newly emerging subfields and shows their contribution to the discipline. The Handbook introduces fields of study that have become central to cognitive linguistics, such as conceptual mappings and construction grammar. It explains all the main areas of linguistic analysis traditionally expected in a full linguistics framework, and includes fields of study such as language acquisition, sociolinguistics, diachronic studies, and corpus linguistics. Setting linguistic facts within the context of many other disciplines, the Handbook will be welcomed by researchers and students in a broad range of disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, gesture studies, computational linguistics, and multimodal studies.

Embodiment and Experience

Embodiment and Experience
Author: Thomas J. Csordas
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 1994-11-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780521458900

Students of culture have been increasingly concerned with the ways in which cultural values are 'inscribed' on the body. These essays go beyond this passive construal of the body to a position in which embodiment is understood as the existential condition of cultural life. From this standpoint embodiment is reducible neither to representations of the body, to the body as an objectification of power, to the body as a physical entity or biological organism, nor to the body as an inalienable centre of individual consciousness. This more sensate and dynamic view is applied by the contributors to a variety of topics, including the expression of emotion, the experience of pain, ritual healing, dietary customs, and political violence. Their purpose is to contribute to a phenomenological theory of culture and self - an anthropology that is not merely about the body, but from the body.

Evolving Insight

Evolving Insight
Author: Richard W. Byrne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2016
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198757077

Coming 30 years after publication of Richard Byrne's seminal book The Thinking Ape, Evolving Insight develops a new theory of the evolutionary origins of our human ability to understand the world of objects and other people. In a clear and accessible style, the book reviews the evidence for insight in the cognition of animals.

New Thinking about Propositions

New Thinking about Propositions
Author: Jeffrey C. King
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191502707

Philosophy (especially philosophy of language and philosophy of mind), science (especially linguistics and cognitive science), and common sense all sometimes make reference to propositions—understood as the things we believe and say, and the things which are (primarily) true or false. There is, however, no widespread agreement about what sorts of things these entities are. In New Thinking about Propositions, Jeffrey C. King, Scott Soames, and Jeff Speaks argue that commitment to propositions is indispensable, and that traditional accounts of propositions are inadequate. They each then defend their own views of the nature of propositions.