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How to Explain Behavior: Author Precis
Full text linkThis is an author precis of the book How to Explain Behavior: A Critical Review and a New Approach by Sam S. Rakover (2018, Lexington). The precis has two sections. The first, basic methodological origin-points, treats the fundamental ideas and premises concerning explanation and understanding. The second section outlines the book's arrangement, and summarizes the content of each chapter
Psychology
No full textAt present there is no explanation for the Mind/Brain relationship. It is hard to conceive of mentalistic explanations in terms of mechanistic explanations, where mechanistic explanations refer to explanations common in the sciences such as neurophysiological and computational, and mentalistic explanations are based on the individual's inner world such as will, belief, intention, and purpose. And, it is difficult to provide a comprehensive explanation of behavior and its components by an appeal to mechanistic explanations only. Therefore, it makes sense to develop a new methodological approach, Methodological Dualism, which leads to the construction of a Multi-Explanation Framework for developing specific psychological theories. This approach is not based on the usual attempt to reduce mental processes to neurophysiological processes. It addresses complex behavior by means of multiple explanations (mechanistic and mentalistic), which are appropriately matched to behavior and its components. This approach offers a deeper understanding of behavior than that provided by mechanistic explanations alone
What will happen if science will develop a theory of consciousness? Negative Ramifications.
Full text linkFor a long time, philosophers and scientists have attempted without success to develop a mind-body theory, a consciousness theory (Tc) to explain the exact relation between the mind and the body, a solution which is based on an assumed connection between consciousness and the activity of the neurophysiological processes in the brain. An important concern of the present paper, then, is to address the question of why, despite the great research effort on the subject, no successful Tc has ever been developed. In response, McGinn (1989) proposes that the human being’s cognitive system is not equipped to solve the problem. The present paper suggests another possible answer: If Tc had been discovered, a number of “negative-ramifications” would have emerged. These ramifications would have interfered with the development of a Tc. The paper discusses these ideas and arguments and finally suggests that it would be helpful to conceive of consciousness as an explanatory concept, which has yet to be explained
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The Consciousness Unit (CU) Model
No full textThe present paper attempts to handle the question how an unconscious mental state (MS) is transformed into a conscious-MS, by developing an outline of a new model, the conscious unit (CU) model. The essential assumption of this model is as follows. In the cognitive system there is an inborn, special linking-mechanism that links to a MS a CU, i.e., a unit of consciousness (or a stream of such units when the represented by the MS is complex). As a result, the individual becomes aware (conscious) of the represented by the MS. This model was applied successfully to certain empirical observations and to several problems, which were directed toward the higher-order (HO) theories of consciousness [especially the higher-order thought (HOT) theory]
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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