Browsing by Subject "Mind and body"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Chaos and consciousness
(1995) Newman, David Vincent, 1962-; Asher, Nicholas
In this dissertation, I argue that the mind-body problem is the result of seemingly incompatible intuitions regarding the mind and its nature. I suggest that the best approach to reconciling these intuitions and solving the mind-body problem is through the concept of emergence and the theory of chaotic nonlinear dynamical systems. I first review the historical intuitions about the mind that lead to the mind-body problem. I then examine the phenomenon of consciousness as the source of the problem, and I argue that four features of consciousness are the root of the problem: phenomenality and subjectivity, intentionality, the unity of consciousness, and introspectability. I next show that functionalism and connectionism are unable to solve the problem without additional resources. The central idea of the dissertation is then presented; this is the idea that the notion of emergence is superior to both reduction and functional realization as an account of the relation between mind and body, and that mental properties are emergent properties of the brain that arise because the brain is a chaotic nonlinear dynamical system. Finally, I conclude with an evaluation of the theory and a comparison of this result to other recent discussions of the mind-body problem
Doctoral thesis recital (flute) lecture
(2017-02-20) Bennett, Meghan; Not available;
Lecture: Music, the mind and martial arts.
Gender differences in the consequences of depressive symptomatology for educational attainment, social support, and health risk behavior during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood: implications for health disparities in mid to late life
(2006) Needham, Belinda LeeAnn; Umberson, Debra
Using data from three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, I examine the association between mental health problems experienced early in the life course and factors that impact physical health later in the life course, including educational attainment, social support, and health risk behavior. In addition, I consider whether these associations are conditioned by gender, an important aspect of social structural context. I find that adolescent depression is associated with increased odds of failure to complete high school for girls but not for boys. Among high school graduates of both genders, depressive symptomatology is associated with failure to enter college. In each case, trouble paying attention in school, grade point average, and educational expectations mediate the association between symptoms of depression and school termination. Next, I find that social support and depressive symptomatology interact with one another in a dynamic fashion across the transition from adolescence to young adulthood. Parental support during adolescence is inversely associated with initial symptoms of depression for girls and boys, although adolescent girls with low levels of parental support begin the study period with significantly higher levels of depressive symptomatology than their male counterparts. Furthermore, elevated symptoms of depression during adolescence negatively impact parent-child relationships during young adulthood. This association is stronger for girls than boys. Finally, I find that the association between depressive symptomatology and health risk behaviors is bidirectional. Adolescents who are initially more depressed begin the study period with substantially higher rates of binge drinking and drug use than their better-adjusted peers, yet they are less vulnerable to increases in these health risk behaviors across the transition to young adulthood. Also, adolescents who start out with higher than average cigarette, alcohol, and drug use experience a faster rate of decline in symptoms of depression over time compared to those who start out with lower levels of substance use. This association is more pronounced for girls than boys. Despite their faster rate of decline in depressive symptoms, girls and boys who have higher initial levels of substance use report higher levels of depressive symptomatology at all three time points.
Normativism and mental causation
(2007-05) Tiehen, Justin Thomas, 1977-; Sosa, David, 1966-
This dissertation defends a certain view of the mind/body relation, according to which although there is a sense in which everything is physical, there is also a sense in which mental phenomena are irreducible to physical phenomena. The reason for this irreducibility, according to the position defended in this work, is that the mental has a certain normative character which the physical lacks. The central thesis defended in the first part of the work is the claim, advanced by Donald Davidson among others, that the mental realm is governed by constitutive principles of rationality. I both attempt to explain what this means precisely and provide arguments as to why we should think that it is true. Having defended the thesis, I then turn to show that it entails that certain mental phenomena are normative. If the normative is generally irreducible to the non-normative -- as I argue there is good reason to hold -- it then follows as a special case that the mental phenomena in question are irreducible to any (non-normative) physical phenomena. Is this form of antireductionism scientifically respectable? In the second part of the dissertation I attempt to establish that it is by showing that the view can be reconciled with a physicalistically acceptable account of mental causation. Focusing on the causal exclusion problem advanced by Jaegwon Kim among others, I critically discuss both reductive and certain nonreductive solutions to the problem that have been advanced by various philosophers. I then propose my own nonreductive solution to the problem, and attempt to draw out some of the consequences of this solution both for physicalism and for the nature of normativity.