Mind Science

0907 Submissions

[4] viXra:0907.0052 [pdf] replaced on 14 Apr 2010

Does Lateral Specialization in the Brain Arise from the Directionality of Processes and Time?

Authors: Jonathan J. Dickau
Comments: 8 pages, This paper, in its current form, was submitted to the journal Quantum Biosystems.

It has been accepted from about 1980 that there is lateral specialization of brain usage for humans, and it has more recently come to light that a lateral division of labor also takes place in the brains of other animals. However; during that time there has been no universally successful general model of cognitive lateralization. Instead, we have a topical landscape where there is no clear consensus, various models are cited in support of different research results, and there have been few comparative reviews of the available models as the topic has become too broad. This paper suggests a unifying principle that accounts for many aspects of lateral specialization in the brain, and offers tools to help develop a better general model of lateralization. Simply put; the two halves of the brain appear to address opposite phases of directional processes. While the left brain can take things apart and separate or distinguish the individual pieces, the right brain appears better at assembling those pieces, seeing how they fit together, and making them function as a congruent whole. But this same metaphor extends to a wide range of transformations which are directional and/or reversible. The key element, which makes this idea universal, is that many events in life are irreversibly directional, as they are tied to the ongoing flow of time. That is; time itself is a directional process which compels all creatures to move forward, in terms of our own evolution in time. This explains why even relatively primitive creatures develop brains that are laterally specialized.
Category: Mind Science

[3] viXra:0907.0051 [pdf] submitted on 31 Jul 2009

Logic, Nature and The Town Council

Authors: Marvin E. Kirsh
Comments: 10 pages, This manuscript is currently in peer review, accepted for conference proceeding (poster session) "Non Duality and Science" (San Francisco Otober 2009)

Consider, in the study of the evolution of human beings, consciousness, and intelligence, the hypothesis that men are a special instance of the reflection of nature, and later in return to this notion, as unproven hypothesis, consider the dynamics of a town meeting when asking about intelligence, consciousness, the genes or evolution, when questioning to scientific rigor, the origin and nature of the logic that pervades existence. If reasoning is a special (or specially evolved) property exclusive to humans how might one account for its lowered or appearing absent property in other species if each by necessity of the assumed hypothesis also reflect nature. Is there a separate nature for each species (excuse the pun) or is the nature of each species the same as a unique, one, nature (reflects) as a single unique entity.
Category: Mind Science

[2] viXra:0907.0050 [pdf] submitted on 31 Jul 2009

Induction, Space and Positive Ethics

Authors: Marvin E. Kirsh
Comments: 4 pages, available at: Ludus Vitalis, vol. XVI, num. 30, 2008, pp. 225-228.

One may purport that ones' awareness of space for scientific purposes comes about from a potential awareness of its' absence that is derived from times when ones attention is not focused on it. Yet simply one might extract the notion that space and entailed properties of it are elemental - i.e. conceptually non reducible and that from which all emanates. The words non-ethical induction, entailing the existence of ethical induction, if compared in a corresponding manner (to indivisible space and the attentive awareness of it), also entail that the ethics of induction in science are dependant on attentive focus. In the following description, I will attempt to draw some logical conclusions employing this analogy regardless of its potential validity or invalidity and then relate these conclusions to actual circumstances in order to lend them substance.
Category: Mind Science

[1] viXra:0907.0049 [pdf] submitted on 31 Jul 2009

The Hard Problem of Consciousness Studies

Authors: Marvin E. Kirsh
Comments: 14 pages

The question addressed by the hard problem of philosophy (3), how cognitive representation is acquired from the physical properties of self and the external, is examined from a perspective originating with Boethius(14) that knowledge is dependant on the nature of the perceiver and discussed with respect to the philosophy of George Berkeley (1,2,7) concerning the existence of matter with respect to perception. An account of the trails of history, scientific method, with respect to the naming and delineation of the hard problem suggest that its topic of address is a factor of plural elements-perceived as singular, a monism, only an aspect of its universality is perceived. A surface aspect is what seduces scientifically and, as a result, a confusion involving excessive abstraction and perceptually absent empirical fact, is postulated to accompany a false morality-an inclination to conquer it from scientific method is attributed to a seduction by naturally existing perplexity that is intermingled with unknown physical elements, themselves rooted from the same singular perplexity such that an ensuing interrogation targeted at the physical world and unavoidingly overlapping with the strictly philosophical has taken place. An invisible paper thin but sharp and self denigrating third facet to the commonly known philosophical walls, within the perplexing and the logical incongruence's, an artifact of perception and modeling of nature, results in a combined scientific (physical) and philosophical (reflective) assailing of natural paradox in a pursuit to summit human sufferings that are suggested to be, at least in part, of an unnatural and physical origin. Included as a conceptual tool is a section that discusses all possible human behavior as intuitively contained by the set of all the possible paths of nature emerged up to present and continued to emerge.
Category: Mind Science