111,865 research outputs found
A Peircean account of concepts: Grounding abstraction in phylogeny through a comparative neuroscientific perspective
No full textThe nature of concepts has always been a hotly debated topic in both philosophy and psychology and, more recently, also in cognitive neuroscience. Different accounts have been proposed of what concepts are. These accounts reflect deeply different conceptions of how the human mind works. In the last decades, two diametrically opposed theories of human cognition have been discussed and empirically investigated: the Computational Theory of Mind, on the one hand (Fodor 1983 The modularity of mind: an essay on faculty psychology; Pylyshyn 1984 Computation and cognition: toward a foundation for cognitive science), and Embodied Cognition (Barsalou 2008 Annu. Rev. Psychol. 59, 617-645. (doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.59.103006.093639); Gallese & Lakoff 2005 Cogn. Neuropsychol. 22, 455-479 (doi: 10.1080/02643290442000310); Shapiro 2011 Embodied cognition), on the other hand. The former proposes that concepts are abstract and amodal symbols in the language of thought, while the latter argues for the embodied nature of concepts that are conceived of as grounded in actions and perception. The embodiment of both concrete and abstract concepts has been challenged by many (e.g. Mahon & Caramazza 2008 J. Physiol. 102, 59-70. (doi: 10.1016/j.jphysparis.2008.03.004); Caramazza et al. 2014 Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 37, 1-15. (doi: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-071013-013950)). These challenges will be here taken seriously and addressed from a comparative perspective. We will provide a phylogenetic and neurobiologically inspired account of the embodied nature of both abstract and concrete concepts. We will propose that, although differing in certain respect, they both might have a bodily foundation. Commonalities between abstract and concrete concepts will be explained by recurring to the Peircean notions of icon and abductive inference (CP 2.247). According to Peirce, icons are the kind of signs on which abductive inferences rest (Peirce CS 1931 in Collected papers of Charles S. Peirce, Hartshorne C, Weiss P, Burks AW. (eds), 40; Peirce CS 1997 In The 1903 Harvard lectures on pragmatism (ed. A. Turrisi)). It will be claimed that the mechanism of Embodied Simulation (Gallese & Sinigaglia 2011 Trends Cogn. Sci. 15, 512-519. (doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2011.09.003)) can be described as an icon (Cuccio V & Caruana F. 2015 Il corpo come icona. Abduzione, strumenti ed Embodied Simulation. Versus, n. 119, 93-103), and it will then be suggested that on these, basic natural signs rest, both phylogenetically and ontogenetically, the capacity to conceptualize.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'
Sulla differenza tra “qualcosa” e “qualcuno”. Natura umana, persona e bioetica in Robert Spaemann, in V. Cuccio - A. Li Vigni (a cura di), Della natura umana, Mimesis, Milano 2009, pp. 143-156.
No full textOn Negation. What do we need to “say no”?
No full textBy looking at first-language learning, we can see three broad categories in the
acquisition of negation (see DIMROTH 2010 for a review):1) rejection/refusal; 2)
disappearance/ non-existence/unfulfilled expectation; 3) denial. Denial is the most complex
form of negation and the last to be acquired. I present the hypothesis that denial relies on
false belief understanding. Evidence from normally developed and from Autistic subjects
confirms this hypothesis. Competence in linguistic denial is usually acquired by the age of 2
years and a half and 3 years. According to this hypothesis, the attribution of false belief
understanding could be lowered to the age of about 2 and a half years. Hence,
psycholinguistic studies on linguistic negation add further evidence that shows that the false
belief test is not a reliable proof of a complex mindreading ability
Parole che risuonano. Usi linguistici e simulazione motoria
No full textOne of the great merits of the embodied language paradigm is that of highlighting the fact that language understanding has to be led back to action and perception. The comprehension of an action-related sentence activates the same neural structures that enable the execution of that action. However, embodied language studies have been mostly focused on descriptive usages of language. Notions such as those of usage, context or pragmatic intrusion have not been sufficiently considered. A usage-based model of language will be here presented. Embodied language studies will be discussed in the light of this model
Alessandro Capone (ed.). Perspectives on Language Use and Pragmatics. A Volume in Memory of Sorin Stati.
No full text
- …
