A Methodology of Human Knowledge


Graduate course for the Fall Semester of 2002 (starting with October 1.)
 
George Kampis
Fujitsu Chair of Complex Systems
School of Knowledge Science
mailto:g-kampis@jaist.ac.jp
 

This course is an introduction to the fundamental concepts and problems of knowledge.
It uses the perspective of the natural sciences, mostly biology and cognitive science.
Helps to understand the role of language and logic, both in nature and in human thinking.
Discusses the development of social and scientific knowledge on that basis.

Based on classics, as well as frontline research, in human ethology, cognitive linguistics,
developmental psychology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, etc.

 
 
  1. Introduction: the Concept of Knowledge for Science and Technology
  2. “knowledge society” and what it really means; history of concepts of knowledge and information;
    detached and immersed versions of knowledge; the Internet offers a new general model;
    knowledge is not an entity but a relation; how to handle relations, once you have to.


  3. Why Brain Science Failed: The Mistake from Writing
  4. concept of knowledge from notion of writing; writing is just an index of mental processes;
    proof that “writing has no meaning”; features writing has but knowledge has not;
    history of the idea of propositional mind; the alternative history of “wet mind”.


  5. The Biology of the Mind

  6. human knowledge is animal knowledge; proof from evolution and human ethology;
    evolution is not just adaptation but history of organisms: continuity, embodiment, entrenchment;
    how animals “think” as organisms; intentionality, agency and representation.



  7. Actions and Mechanisms as Fundamental Forms of Knowledge
  8. theory of actions in biological context; the ecological meaning of embodiment;
    mechanisms as partial explanations; mechanisms in science, narratives, and everywhere;
    mechanisms and the theory of causation; natural causation and causal depth.


  9. Causality and Logic in Science
  10. modus ponens is prior to connectives; positive thinking explains the origin of negation;
    elements of the logic of causation; logic as a partial (“ceteris paribus”) explanation.

  11. “Metaphors” and Mental Models as Basis of Meaning and Representation
  12. metaphor in cognitive linguistics; developmental psychology and origin of concepts in action;
    mental models as material complexes; mental objects experienced as pictures and animations
    derivation of linguistic meaning from models; abstract entities and mathematics as material models


  13. Linguistic and Propositional Knowledge is Social Knowledge
  14. the origin and function of language; language and action in groups;
    the social use of mental models; the populational character of language


  15. Causality and Logic in Thinking
  16. mental models incorporate tacit knowledge; mental causation goes without reasoning and inference;
    unlimited inconsistency tolerance in the mind; logic as an emerging feature in mental mechanisms


  17. Categories and Objects in Knowledge and Reality
  18. thinking in categories comes in different varieties; truth is non-fundamental and non-categorical;
    categories in real objects and folk ontology; populational thinking and a non-referential use of language
    more text is better than more picture.


    10. Knowledge and the Mind: from Rationalism to Materialism (an Outlook)
       
         rediscovery of the emotional mind; cognitive mechanisms in brain theory;
            the dominance of reason in Western thinking; matter and mind in biology’s perspective;
            a coming anti-Cartesian picture; organismic biology and Baconian science.



If necessary, the course is supplemented by special lectures on: or other topics, including various issues in philosophy, cognition and biology, depending on the audience.