Essays on subjects tangential to the book.
- People overlap. - People overlap. Many of you will not understand me when I say this. Perhaps it will conjure up images of kissing or having sex, but I refer to the fact that the minds of people overlap. Brains, of course, do not overlap, so it means something different that minds overlap. That we can think the …
- A Common Framework for Cognitive Science - Cognitive science reports on many mental issues, but there is no model of the mind on which all cognitive scientists agree: at least explicitly. In this essay (published at https://cognitivesciencesociety.org/framework-cognitive-science/), I argue that cognitive science does in fact have a basic model which goes beyond either behaviorism or even the theory of categories which has …
- Theories of Cognitive Categorization - Within Cognitive Psychology, there is much debate about theories of categorization. Models such as Prototype Theory (popularized by Eleanor Rosch) and Exemplar Theory (popularized by Robert Nosofsky) are probably the most popular, and are both different from Aristotelian Categories. With respect to the basic model of cognition, categories are defined both in terms of concrete …
- The Psychology of Nondualism - The Psychology of Nondualism was a lecture that I gave for a Paideia class at Reed College, my Alma Mater. I am not sure how much sense can be made of the slides without the presentation, so they are mainly of interest to the attendees of that class. http://thewholepart.com/files/nondualPsych.pdf
- Infinite Tables - The use of completed infinity can become even more problematic when comparing multiple infinite sets, a practice pioneered by Georg Cantor. Here we analyze one of Cantor’s arguments commonly called the diagonalization argument. According to the diagonalization argument, if T is any infinite sequence of binary digits, then it is possible to use the …
- Infinite Representation - Personally, I believe in a constructivist approach to mathematics. As such, I do not believe in the notion of completed (actual) infinity: I am a classical finitist, which means I use infinity, but only when it is used in conjunction with a limit. One way in which the use of actual infinity seems problematic to …