William James
(Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi | Legal restrictions - Termini d'uso )

Philosophy of Mind
Philosophy of Nature
Psychology
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Synopsis:
  • Both matter and mind are constructed out of experience: the same reality is both in the mind and in the world, it is both an event of a person's biography and of the history of the world
  • Minds are made of experience (experienced events)
  • The function of mind is to help the body live in an environment
  • The brain is an organ that evolved because of its usefulness for survival
  • Consciousness is a sequence of conscious mental states, each state being the experience of some content
  • Consciousness is not a substance, it is a process ("the stream of consciousness")
  • Unitary and continuous consciousness (analogous to newton's unitary and continuous space)
  • Perception leads to action in the environment (not necessarily conscious)
  • The brain is organized as an associative network, and associations are governed by a rule of reinforcement
  • Long-term and short-term memory
  • Habits as built of stimulus-response patterns
  • Beliefs are rules for action
  • The function of thinking is to produce habits of action
  • Beliefs and habits are equivalent
  • A belief/habit gets reinforced as it succeeds

(Copyright © 2005 Piero Scaruffi | Legal restrictions - Termini d'uso )