Three Centuries of Category Errors in Studies of the Neural Basis of Consciousness and Intentionality

Freeman, Walter J.

doi:10.1016/s0893-6080(97)00054-3

Cited by 28 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…Philosophical issues of intentionality and consciousness were fascinating Freeman thorough his life. He produced many valuable contributions, especially to intentional neurodynamics (Freeman 1995(Freeman , 1997(Freeman , 2000a) and the traditions of Thomism (Freeman 2009(Freeman , 2016. His philosophical work is related to the concept of embodied cognition, linked to Dreyfus critique of representationalism, along the traditions of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty Fig.…”

Section: Freeman's Legacy As a Launch Pad In Exploring Neocortexmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Freeman has been fascinated by philosophical implications of his groundbreaking neurodynamics studies and produced highly influential results on intentionality, consciousness, and the unity of brain, mind, and body (Freeman 1997;Núñez and Freeman 1999). The dynamics of interactive neurons in the brain reach out to the environment with the intent to manipulate it.…”

Section: Philosophical Essays On Intentionality and Embodied Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He has authored over 500 articles and 6 books: ''Mass Action in the Nervous System'' (Freeman 1975); ''Societies of Brains'' (Freeman 1995), ''Neurodynamics'' (Freeman 2000a), ''How Brains Make Up Their Minds'' (Freeman 2000b); ''Imaging Brain Function with EEG'' (Freeman and Quian-Quiroga 2013); and ''Cognitive Phase Transitions in the Cerebral Cortex'' (Kozma and Freeman 2016). Freeman has been a celebrity all over the world; still his pioneering vision was not fully appreciated by many of his fellow neuroscientists.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Reflections on a giant of brain science

Kozma

2016

Cogn Neurodyn

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Walter J. Freeman was a giant of the field of neuroscience whose visionary work contributed various experimental and theoretical breakthroughs to brain research in the past 60 years. He has pioneered a number of Electroencephalogram and Electrocorticogram tools and approaches that shaped the field, while ''Freeman Neurodynamics'' is a theoretical concept that is widely known, used, and respected among neuroscientists all over the world. His recent death is a profound loss to neuroscience and biomedical engineering. Many of his revolutionary ideas on brain dynamics have been ahead of their time by decades. We summarize his following groundbreaking achievements: (1) Mass Action in the Nervous System, from microscopic (single cell) recordings, through mesoscopic populations, to large-scale collective brain patterns underlying cognition; (2) Freeman-Kachalsky model of multi-scale, modular brain dynamics; (3) cinematic theory of cognitive dynamics; (4) phase transitions in cortical dynamics modeled with random graphs and quantum field theory; (5) philosophical aspects of intentionality, consciousness, and the unity of brain-mind-body. His work has been admired by many of his neuroscientist colleagues and followers. At the same time, his multidisciplinary approach combining advanced concepts of control theory and the mathematics of nonlinear systems and chaos, poses significant challenges to those who wish to thoroughly understand his message. The goal of this commemorative paper is to review key aspects of Freeman's neurodynamics and to provide some handles to gain better understanding about Freeman's extraordinary intellectual achievement.

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Section: Freeman's Legacy As a Launch Pad In Exploring Neocortexmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Philosophical Essays On Intentionality and Embodied Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Reflections on a giant of brain science

Kozma

2016

Cogn Neurodyn

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“…Resta saber qual possui maior relação com a realidade. Existem diversas evidências que indicam a correção do modelo construtivista (Diamond, 2001;Epstein, 2001;Freeman, 1997;Quartz, 1999;Quartz & Sejnowski, 1997;Rapoport, 1999).…”

Section: Os Modelos Matemáticos No Estudo Da Atividade Neuronalunclassified

Atualizando o debate entre Piaget e Chomsky em uma perspectiva neurobiológica

Eichler

Fagundes

2005

Psicol. Reflex. Crit.

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ResumoOs entendimentos sobre a aquisição da linguagem e sobre as estruturas cognitivas estão em debate no seio das ciências cognitivas. Isso se dá apesar de um grupo de acadêmicos, de forma retórica, insistir em desmerecer o modelo construtivista piagetiano, mantendo uma adesão ao inatista ponto de vista chomskyano. Nesse artigo, retoma-se o clássico debate entre esses dois sistemas de conhecimento, repensando-o em uma perspectiva psicobiológica e apresentando recentes estudos neurobiológicos que sugerem a correção do compromisso, apontado por Piaget, entre o inato e o adquirido. Palavras-chave: Construtivismo; inatismo; epistemologia genética; neurobiologia. Updating the Debate between Piaget and Chomsky in a Neurobiological Perspective AbstractThe understandings of language acquisition and of cognitive structures are in debate in the center of the cognitive sciences. It happens despite of a group of academics who, in a rhetorical way, insists on despising Piagets constructivist model, keeping a connection to Chomskys innatist theory. This paper recalls the classical debate between these two knowledge systems, rethinking it in a psychobiological perspective and presenting recent neurobiological studies that suggest a correction of commitment between innate and acquired as pointed by Piaget.

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“…This charter requires each empirical discipline to define explicitly to which objects in Nature its concepts refer: in the terminology inherited from pre-naturalistic Philosophy, what its "natural kind terms" designate in distinction from other discipline's classes of objects, at least in practices of inquiry [5]. Based on insights gained in experimental investigations [42], Freeman [10] emphasized the distinctiveness of the "tissue formed by neurons in animal brains" . Accordingly, he rejected the Machine Metaphor of brain function (and the various "crypto-Cartesian" forms it had taken since Descartes) as a "category error" in Ryle's [32] definition: to construe objects of inquiry that belong to one category in terms of concepts of another.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Siren Call of Metaphor: Subverting the Proper Task of Neuroscience

Werner¹

2004

J. Integr. Neurosci.

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Abstract:Under the assumption that nervous systems form a distinct category among the objects in Nature, applying metaphors of psychological and behavioral science disciplines is flawed and invites confusion. Moreover, such practices obscure and detract from the primary task of Neurophysiology: to investigate the intrinsic properties of nervous systems, uncontaminated with concepts borrowed from other disciplines. A comprehensive fundamental theory of nervous systems is expected to have the character of high dimensional nonlinear systems in which state space transitions, set in motion by external influences, self-organize to dynamic state space configuration with consequences for behavior.

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Three Centuries of Category Errors in Studies of the Neural Basis of Consciousness and Intentionality

Abstract: Abstract-Recent interest in consciousness and the mind-brain problem has been fueled by technological advances in

Cited by 28 publications

References 22 publications

Reflections on a giant of brain science

Reflections on a giant of brain science

Atualizando o debate entre Piaget e Chomsky em uma perspectiva neurobiológica

Siren Call of Metaphor: Subverting the Proper Task of Neuroscience

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