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The Mechanical Mind
by Tim CraneThis edition has been fully revised and updated, and includes a new chapter on consciousness and a new section on modularity. There are also guides for further reading, and a new glossary of terms such as mentalese, connectionism, and the homunculus fallacy.
The Mechanical Mind: A Philosophical Introduction to Minds, Machines and Mental Representation
by Tim CraneHow can the human mind represent the external world? What is thought, and can it be studied scientifically? Should we think of the mind as a kind of machine? Is the mind a computer? Can a computer think? Tim Crane sets out to answer these questions and more in a lively and straightforward way, presuming no prior knowledge of philosophy or related disciplines. Since its first publication, The Mechanical Mind has introduced thousands of people to some of the most important ideas in contemporary philosophy of mind. Crane explains the fundamental ideas that cut across philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence and cognitive science: what the mind-body problem is; what a computer is and how it works; what thoughts are and how computers and minds might have them. He examines different theories of the mind from dualist to eliminativist, and questions whether there can be thought without language and whether the mind is subject to the same causal laws as natural phenomena. The result is a fascinating exploration of the theories and arguments surrounding the notions of thought and representation. This third edition has been fully revised and updated, and includes a wholly new chapter on externalism about mental content and the extended and embodied mind. There is a stronger emphasis on the environmental and bodily context in which thought occurs. Many chapters have been reorganised to make the reader's passage through the book easier. The book now contains a much more detailed guide to further reading, and the chronology and the glossary of technical terms have also been updated. The Mechanical Mind is accessible to anyone interested in the mechanisms of our minds, and essential reading for those studying philosophy of mind, philosophy of psychology, or cognitive psychology.
The Mechanical World: The Metaphysical Commitments of the New Mechanistic Approach (Studies in Brain and Mind #13)
by Beate KrickelThis monograph examines the metaphysical commitments of the new mechanistic philosophy, a way of thinking that has returned to center stage. It challenges a variant of reductionism with regard to higher-level phenomena, which has crystallized as a default position among these so-called New Mechanists. Furthermore, it opposes those philosophers who reject the possibility of interlevel causation. Contemporary philosophers believe that the explanation of scientific phenomena requires the discovery of relevant mechanisms. As a result, new mechanists are, in the main, concerned solely with epistemological questions. But, the author argues, their most central claims rely on metaphysical assumptions. Thus, they must also take into account metaphysics, a system of thought concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world around it. This branch of philosophy does indeed matter to the empirical sciences. The chapters investigate the nature of mechanisms, their components, and the ways in which they can bring about different phenomena. In addition, the author develops a novel account of causation in terms of activities. The analysis provides the basis for many further research projects on mechanisms and their relations to, for example, the mind-body problem, realization, multiple realization, natural kinds, causation, laws of nature, counterfactuals, and scientific levels.
Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics
by Szu-Ting Chen Hsiang-Ke Chao Roberta L. MillsteinThis volume addresses fundamental issues in the philosophy of science in the context of two most intriguing fields: biology and economics. Written by authorities and experts in the philosophy of biology and economics, Mechanism and Causality in Biology and Economics provides a structured study of the concepts of mechanism and causality in these disciplines and draws careful juxtapositions between philosophical apparatus and scientific practice. By exploring the issues that are most salient to the contemporary philosophies of biology and economics and by presenting comparative analyses, the book serves as a platform not only for gaining mutual understanding between scientists and philosophers of the life sciences and those of the social sciences, but also for sharing interdisciplinary research that combines both philosophical concepts in both fields. The book begins by defining the concepts of mechanism and causality in biology and economics, respectively. The second and third parts investigate philosophical perspectives of various causal and mechanistic issues in scientific practice in the two fields. These two sections include chapters on causal issues in the theory of evolution; experiments and scientific discovery; representation of causal relations and mechanism by models in economics. The concluding section presents interdisciplinary studies of various topics concerning extrapolation of life sciences and social sciences, including chapters on the philosophical investigation of conjoining biological and economic analyses with, respectively, demography, medicine and sociology.
Mechanism, Life and Mind in Modern Natural Philosophy (International Archives of the History of Ideas Archives internationales d'histoire des idées #240)
by Charles T. Wolfe Paolo Pecere Antonio ClericuzioThis volume emphasizes the diversity and fruitfulness of early modern mechanism as a program, as a concept, as a model. Mechanistic study of the living body but also of the mind and mental processes are examined in careful historical focus, dealing with figures ranging from the first-rank (Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza, Cudworth, Gassendi, Locke, Leibniz, Kant) to less well-known individuals (Scaliger, Martini) or prominent natural philosophers who have been neglected in recent years (Willis, Steno, etc.). The volume moves from early modern medicine and physiology to late Enlightenment and even early 19th-century psychology, always maintaining a conceptual focus. It is a contribution to a newly active field in the history and philosophy of early modern life science. It is of interest to scholars studying the history of medicine and the development of mechanistic theories.
Mechanismen der Polarisierung von Parteiensystemen: Ideologische Dynamiken im Kontext von Angebot, Nachfrage und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen
by Johannes SchmittIn der vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft ist der Indikator der Polarisierung zur Analyse von Parteiensystemen seit dem zentralen Werk von Giovanni Sartori etabliert. Sowohl eine zu niedrige als auch eine zu hohe Polarisierung charakterisieren einen dysfunktionalen Parteienwettbewerb. Allerdings sind die Ursachen, welche die Entstehung von Polarisierung erklären, nicht ausreichend erforscht. Die Arbeit widmet sich deshalb der Frage: Warum polarisieren sich demokratische Parteiensysteme und, unter welchen Bedingungen ist wiederum eine Entpolarisierung zu erwarten? Im Rahmen einer international-vergleichenden, quantitativen Analyse wird eine Antwort auf diese Frage gesucht. Zusammenfassend zeigt sich, dass insbesondere in den westeuropäischen Verhältniswahlsystemen die Polarisierung immer dann hoch ist, wenn sich der politische Wettbewerbsraum auf eine Dimension reduziert, eine Zentrumskoalition mit einer schwachen Opposition konfrontiert ist, das Parteiensystem gleichzeitig fragmentiert ist, das Elektorat in seinen Präferenzen polarisiert ist und die Wähler sowie Wählerinnen mit der Regierung unzufrieden sind.
Mechanisms and Consciousness: Integrating Phenomenology with Cognitive Science (Routledge Research in Phenomenology)
by Marek PokropskiThis book develops a new approach to naturalizing phenomenology. The author proposes to integrate phenomenology with the mechanistic framework that offers new methodological perspectives for studying complex mental phenomena such as consciousness. While mechanistic explanatory models are widely applied in cognitive science, their approach to describing subjective phenomena is limited. The author argues that phenomenology can fill this gap. He proposes two novel ways of integrating phenomenology and mechanism. First, he presents a new reading of phenomenological analyses as functional analyses. Such functional phenomenology delivers a functional sketch of a target system and provides constraints on the space of possible mechanisms. Second, he develops the neurophenomenological approach in the direction of dynamic modeling of experience. He shows that neurophenomenology can deliver dynamical constraints on mechanistic models and thus inform the search for an underlying mechanism. Mechanisms and Consciousness will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and the cognitive sciences.
Mechanisms in Molecular Biology (Elements in the Philosophy of Biology)
by Tudor BaetuThe new mechanistic philosophy is divided into two largely disconnected projects. One deals with a metaphysical inquiry into how mechanisms relate to issues such as causation, capacities and levels of organization, while the other deals with epistemic issues related to the discovery of mechanisms and the intelligibility of mechanistic representations. Tudor Baetu explores and explains these projects, and shows how the gap between them can be bridged. His proposed account is compatible both with the assumptions and practices of experimental design in biological research, and with scientifically accepted interpretations of experimental results.
Mechanisms in Science: Method or Metaphysics?
by Stavros Ioannidis Stathis PsillosIn recent years what has come to be called the 'New Mechanism' has emerged as a framework for thinking about the philosophical assumptions underlying many areas of science, especially in sciences such as biology, neuroscience, and psychology. This book offers a fresh look at the role of mechanisms, by situating novel analyses of central philosophical issues related to mechanisms within a rich historical perspective of the concept of mechanism as well as detailed case studies of biological mechanisms (such as apoptosis). It develops a new position, Methodological Mechanism, according to which mechanisms are to be viewed as causal pathways that are theoretically described and are underpinned by networks of difference-making relations. In contrast to metaphysically inflated accounts, this study characterises mechanism as a concept-in-use in science that is deflationary and metaphysically neutral, but still methodologically useful and central to scientific practice.
Mechanistic Explanations in Physics and Beyond (European Studies in Philosophy of Science #11)
by Brigitte Falkenburg Gregor SchiemannThis volume offers a broad, philosophical discussion on mechanical explanations. Coverage ranges from historical approaches and general questions to physics and higher-level sciences . The contributors also consider the topics of complexity, emergence, and reduction. Mechanistic explanations detail how certain properties of a whole stem from the causal activities of its parts. This kind of explanation is in particular employed in explanatory models of the behavior of complex systems. Often used in biology and neuroscience, mechanistic explanation models have been often overlooked in the philosophy of physics. The authors correct this surprising neglect. They trace these models back to their origins in physics. The papers present a comprehensive historical, methodological, and problem-oriented investigation. The contributors also investigate the conditions for using models of mechanistic explanations in physics. The last papers make the bridge from physics to economics, the theory of complex systems and computer science . This book will appeal to graduate students and researchers with an interest in the philosophy of science, scientific explanation, complex systems, models of explanation in physics higher level sciences, and causal mechanisms in science.
The Mechanization of Natural Philosophy
by Dan Garber Sophie RouxThe Mechanisation of Natural Philosophy is devoted to various aspects of the transformation of natural philosophy during the 16th and 17th centuries that is usually described as mechanical philosophy .Drawing the border between the old Aristotelianism and the « new » mechanical philosophy faces historians with a delicate task, if not an impossible mission. There were many natural philosophers who actually crossed the border between the two worlds, and, inside each of these worlds, there was a vast spectrum of doctrines, arguments and intellectual practices. The expression mechanical philosophy is burdened with ambiguities. It may refer to at least three different enterprises: a description of nature in mathematical terms; the comparison of natural phenomena to existing or imaginary machines; the use in natural philosophy of mechanical analogies, i.e. analogies conceived in terms of matter and motion alone.However mechanical philosophy is defined, its ambition was greater than its real successes. There were few mathematisations of phenomena. The machines of mechanical philosophers were not only imaginary, but had little to do with the machines of mecanicians. In most of the natural sciences, analogies in terms of matter and motion alone failed to provide satisfactory accounts of phenomena.By the same authors: Mechanics and Natural Philosophy before the Scientific Revolution (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science 254).
The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Birth of Global Economic Governance
by Jamie MartinA pioneering history traces the origins of global economic governance—and the political conflicts it generates—to the aftermath of World War I. International economic institutions like the IMF and World Bank exert incredible influence over the domestic policies of many states. These institutions date from the end of World War II and amassed power during the neoliberal era of the late twentieth century. But as Jamie Martin shows, if we want to understand their deeper origins and the ideas and dynamics that shaped their controversial powers, we must turn back to the explosive political struggles that attended the birth of global economic governance in the early twentieth century. The Meddlers tells the story of the first international institutions to govern the world economy, including the League of Nations and Bank for International Settlements, created after World War I. These institutions endowed civil servants, bankers, and colonial authorities from Europe and the United States with extraordinary powers: to enforce austerity, coordinate the policies of independent central banks, oversee development programs, and regulate commodity prices. In a highly unequal world, they faced a new political challenge: was it possible to reach into sovereign states and empires to intervene in domestic economic policies without generating a backlash? Martin follows the intense political conflicts provoked by the earliest international efforts to govern capitalism—from Weimar Germany to the Balkans, Nationalist China to colonial Malaya, and the Chilean desert to Wall Street. The Meddlers shows how the fraught problems of sovereignty and democracy posed by institutions like the IMF are not unique to late twentieth-century globalization, but instead first emerged during an earlier period of imperial competition, world war, and economic crisis.
Media and Global Civil Society
by Lina DencikA timely and critical investigation into the way media operates in a so-called global age, presenting new empirical data on key sites of news production and crucially tying these findings to ongoing debates on globalization and democracy.
Media and Moral Education: A Philosophy of Critical Engagement (Routledge International Studies in the Philosophy of Education)
by Laura D'OlimpioMedia and Moral Education demonstrates that the study of philosophy can be used to enhance critical thinking skills, which are sorely needed in today’s technological age. It addresses the current oversight of the educational environment not keeping pace with rapid advances in technology, despite the fact that educating students to engage critically and compassionately with others via online media is of the utmost importance. <P><P>D’Olimpio claims that philosophical thinking skills support the adoption of an attitude she calls critical perspectivism, which she applies in the book to international multimedia examples. The author also suggests that the Community of Inquiry – a pedagogy practised by advocates of Philosophy for Children – creates a space in which participants can practise being critically perspectival, and can be conducted with all age levels in a classroom or public setting, making it beneficial in shaping democratic and discerning citizens. <P><P>This book will be of interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of philosophy of education, philosophy, education, critical theory and communication, film and media studies.
Media and Society: Production, Content and Participation
by Nicholas Carah Eric Louw'This is the media and society text that critical scholars have been waiting for'. - Professor Mark Andrejevic, Pomona College This book unpacks the role of the media in social, cultural and political contexts and encourages you to reflect on the power relationships that are formed as a result. Structured around the three cornerstones of media studies; production, content and participation, this is an ideal introduction to your studies in media, culture and society. The book: Evaluates recent developments in media production, industries and platforms brought about the emergence of interactive media technologies. Examines the shifting relationship between media production and consumption instigated by the rise of social and mobile media, recasting consumption as ‘participation’. Explores the construction of texts and meanings via media representations, consumer culture and popular culture, as well as the relationship between politics and public relations. Assesses the debates around the creative and cultural labour involved in meaning-making. Includes a companion website featuring exercise and discussion questions, links to relevant blogs and web material, lists of further reading and free access to key journal articles.
Media and Society: Production, Content and Participation
by Nicholas Carah Eric LouwThis book unpacks the role of the media in social, cultural and political contexts and encourages you to reflect on the power relationships that are formed as a result. Structured around the three cornerstones of media studies; production, content and participation, this is an ideal introduction to your studies in media, culture and society. The book: Evaluates recent developments in media production, industries and platforms brought about the emergence of interactive media technologies. Examines the shifting relationship between media production and consumption instigated by the rise of social and mobile media, recasting consumption as 'participation'. Explores the construction of texts and meanings via media representations, consumer culture and popular culture, as well as the relationship between politics and public relations. Assesses the debates around the creative and cultural labour involved in meaning-making. Includes a companion website featuring exercise and discussion questions, links to relevant blogs and web material, lists of further reading and free access to key journal articles.
Media and Sovereignty: The Global Information Revolution and Its Challenge to State Power
by Monroe E. PriceHonorable Mention for the 2002 Communication Policy Research Award presented by The Donald McGannon Communication Research Center. Media have been central to government efforts to reinforce sovereignty and define national identity, but globalization is fundamentally altering media practices, institutions, and content. More than the activities of large conglomerates, globalization entails competition among states as well as private entities to dominate the world's consciousness. Changes in formal and informal rules, in addition to technological innovation, affect the growth and survival or decline of governments. In Media and Sovereignty, Monroe Price focuses on emerging foreign policies that govern media in a world where war has information as well as military fronts. Price asks how the state, in the face of institutional and technological change, controls the forms of information reaching its citizens. He also provides a framework for analyzing the techniques used by states to influence populations in other states. Price draws on an international array of examples of regulation of media for political ends, including "self-regulation," media regulation in conflict zones, the control of harmful and illegal content, and the use of foreign aid to alter media in target societies.
Media and the Government of Populations: Communication, Technology And Power (Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media)
by Philip Dearman Cathy Greenfield Peter WilliamsThis book deals with the social, cultural and especially political significance of media by shifting from the usual focus on the public sphere and publics and paying attention to populations. It describes key moments where populations of different sorts have been subject to formative and diverse projects of governing, in which communication has been key. It brings together governmentality studies with the study of media practices and communication technologies. Chapters consider print culture and the new political technology of individuals; digital economies as places where populations are formed, known and managed as productive resources; workplaces, schools, clinics and homes as sites of governmental objectives; and how to appropriately link communication technologies and practices with politics. Through these chapters Philip Dearman, Cathy Greenfield and Peter Williams demonstrate the value of considering communication in terms of the government of populations.
Media Corruption in the Age of Information (Library of Public Policy and Public Administration #15)
by Edward H. SpenceThis book provides an applied model of corruption to identify, analyse, and assess the ethics of major types of corruption in the media involving practices such as cash-for-comment, media release journalism, including video news releases (VNRs), fake news, deep fakes, and staged news. The book starts with a conceptual philosophical analysis of corruption in general, followed by an in-depth analysis of media corruption, across its various transformations, from the legacy media of the 4th Estate (e.g. The UK Guardian) to the digital media of the 5th Estate (e.g. Social Media and Wikileaks) to the Network Media of the 6th Estate (e.g. Facebook and Google), and provides key case studies as practical illustrations and contextualisation of those major types of media corruption. It explains how the conversion of the two forms of media communication, corporate and social digital communication, as expressed in the symbiotic relationship between the 4th Estate and the 5th Estate exposes and enables the reporting of corruption, signalling a major shift in the way the media itself can provide an effective means for anti-corruption measures against major practices of corruption that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.
Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning
by Clifford G. Christians Mark Fackler Kathy Brittain Richardson Peggy KreshelMedia Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning challenges readers to think analytically about ethical situations in mass communication through original case studies and commentaries about real-life media experiences. This text provides a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical principles of ethical philosophies, facilitating ethical awareness. It introduces the Potter Box, with its four dimensions of moral analysis, to provide a framework for exploring the steps in moral reasoning and analyzing the cases. Focusing on a wide spectrum of ethical issues faced by media practitioners, the cases in this Eleventh Edition include the most recent issues in journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations and entertainment. Cases touch on issues and places worldwide, from Al Jazeera to the Xinhua News Agency, from Nigerian "brown envelopes" to PR professional standards in South Africa. Racially divisive language comes up in different communication contexts, as does celebrity influence on culture. A core textbook for classes in media ethics, communication ethics, and ethics in journalism, public relations, and advertising. The companion website [url] contains sample syllabi and lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, discussion and test questions, and a library of video and other media materials for class use.
Media Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning
by Mark Fackler Clifford G. Christians Kathy Brittain Richardson Peggy Kreshel Robert H. WoodsMedia Ethics: Cases and Moral Reasoning challenges readers to think analytically about ethical situations in mass communication through original case studies and commentaries about real-life media experiences. This text provides a comprehensive introduction to the theoretical principles of ethical philosophies, facilitating ethical awareness. It introduces the Potter Box, with its four dimensions of moral analysis, to provide a framework for exploring the steps in moral reasoning and analyzing the cases. Focusing on a wide spectrum of ethical issues faced by media practitioners, the cases in this Tenth Edition include the most recent issues in journalism, broadcasting, advertising, public relations, and entertainment. Visit the companion website at http://www.mediaethicsbook.com/.
Media Ethics and Accountability Systems
by Claude-Jean BertrandOver the last few years, the O.J. Simpson case, then the Lewinsky-Clinton affair, and scores of minor scandals have dominated the US press, often taking precedence over important domestic and international issues. This tabloidization of the news media, both here and abroad, has proved that "the market" cannot insure media quality. In a democracy, for media to function well, they must be free of both political and economic muzzling. The only solution is to add self-regulation, or quality control, by professionals and public to the other two forces, the market and state regulation.In this controversial volume, Claude-Jean Bertrand sets out to define a set of accountability systems--democratic, efficient, and harmless--to insure true freedom and quality of media. This brief, highly literate volume focuses not on philosophical foundations of media ethics or case stories, but on what is now missing in the codes. Many books deal with media ethics but few deal with accountability. Media Ethics and Accountability Systems zeroes in on the many nongovernmental methods of enforcing "quality control," and on the difficulty of getting the media microcosm to accept such accountability. To remedy this lack, Bertrand proposes rethinking existing "media accountability systems," some 30 to 40 in number, and creation of new ones. He observes that existing systems are rooted in four basic approaches: training: the education of citizens in media use and the incorporation of ethics courses in journalistic education; evaluation: criticism (positive and negative) not only from politicians, consumerists, and intellectuals, but from media professionals themselves; monitoring: by independent, academic experts over extended periods of time into the long-term effects; and feedback: giving ear to the various segments of media users and their needs and tastes, rather than scrutinizing sales and ratings.Media Ethics will be of particular interest to academics in the fields of communication and journalism, as well as to the general reader with an interest in public issues and a civic concern for society.
Media Ethics and Global Justice in the Digital Age (Communication, Society and Politics)
by Clifford G. ChristiansToday's digital revolution is a worldwide phenomenon, with profound and often differential implications for communities around the world and their relationships to one another. This book presents a new, explicitly international theory of media ethics, incorporating non-Western perspectives and drawing deeply on both moral philosophy and the philosophy of technology. Clifford Christians develops an ethics grounded in three principles - truth, human dignity, and non-violence - and shows how these principles can be applied across a wide range of cases and domains. The book is a guide for media professionals, scholars, and educators who are concerned with the global ramifications of new technologies and with creating a more just world.
Media Ethics Beyond Borders: A Global Perspective
by Stephen J.A. WardThis volume explores the construction of an ethics for news media that is global in reach and impact. Essays by international media ethicists provide leading theoretical perspectives on major issues and applies the ideas to specific countries, contexts and problems, addressing such questions as: Are there universal values in journalism? How would a global media ethics do justice to the cultural, political, and economic differences around the world? Can a global ethic based on universal principles allow for diversity of media systems and cultural values? What should be the principles and norms of practice of global media ethics? The result is a rich source of ethical thought and analysis on questions raised by contemporary global media.
Media Ethics, Free Speech, and the Requirements of Democracy (Routledge Research in Applied Ethics)
by Carl Fox Joe SaundersHow we understand, protect, and discharge our rights and responsibilities as citizens in a democratic society committed to the principle of political equality is intimately connected to the standards and behaviour of our media in general, and our news media in particular. However, the media does not just stand between the citizenry and their leaders, or indeed between citizens and each other. The media is often the site where individuals attempt to realise some of the most fundamental democratic liberties, including the right to free speech. Media Ethics, Free Speech, and the Requirements of Democracy explores the conflict between the rights that people exercise in, and through, the modern media and the responsibilities that accrue on account of its awesome and increasing power. The individual chapters—written by leading scholars from the US, UK, and Australia—address several recent events and controversial developments in the media, including Brexit, the rise of Trump, Lynton Crosby, Charlie Hebdo, dog-whistle politics, fake news, and political correctness. This much-needed philosophical treatment is a welcome addition to the recent literature in media ethics. It will be of interest to scholars across political and social philosophy, applied ethics, media and communication studies, and political science who are interested in the important issues surrounding the media and free speech and democracy.