dualism
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It’s not over our heads: Why human language needs a body
n the ‘orthodox’ view, cognition has been seen as manipulation of symbolic, mental representations, separate from the body. This dualist Cartesian approach characterised much of twentieth-century thought and is still taken for granted by many people today. Language, too, has for a long time been treated across scientific domains as a system operating largely independently from perception, action, and the body (articulatory-perceptual organs notwithstanding). This could lead one into believing that to emulate linguistic behaviour, it would suffice to develop ‘software’ operating on abstract representations that would work on any computational machine. Yet the brain is not the sole problem-solving resource we have at our disposal. The disembodied picture is inaccurate for numerous reasons, which will be presented addressing the issue of the indissoluble link between cognition, language, body, and environment in understanding and learning. The talk will conclude with implications and suggestions for pedagogy, relevant for disciplines as diverse as instruction in language, mathematics, and sports.
Associations between brain interoceptive network dysconnectivity and heightened peripheral inflammation in depression
Are the immune system, brain, mind and mood related? Could this explain why chronic low-grade peripheral inflammation is also noted in approximately 1/3 of those with major depressive disorder (MDD)? The field recognized today as immunopsychiatry was founded on scientific evidence that germinated over 30 years ago. Since, it has been understood that (i) there could be a causal link between inflammation and depression, (ii) select blood immune markers show robust potential as biomarkers for inflammation-linked depression, and more generally, (iii) Descartes' theories on mind-body dualism were biologically erroneous. Nonetheless, the mechanistic brain-immune axis in the trinity formulating inflammation-linked depression i.e. psycho-neuro-immunology, still remains unclear. This talk will discuss findings from our recent investigation endeavored to unpack this by linking functional connectivity abnormalities with peripheral immune markers.
The social contract in miniature: Virtual Bargaining and the theory of joint action, meaning and the foundations of culture
How can people coordinate their actions or make joint decisions? One possibility is that each person attempts to predict the actions of the other(s), and best-responds accordingly. But this can lead to bad outcomes, and sometimes even vicious circularity. An alternative view is that each person attempts to work out what the two or more players would agree to do, if they were to bargain explicitly. If the result of such a "virtual" bargain is "obvious," then the players can simply play their respective roles in that bargain. I suggest that virtual bargaining is essential to genuinely social interaction (rather than viewing other people as instruments), and may even be uniquely human. This approach aims to respect methodological individualism, a key principle in many areas of social science, while explaining how human groups can, in a very real sense, be "greater" than the sum of their individual members.
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