The Construction of RealityIn this book, Michael Arbib, a researcher in artificial intelligence and brain theory, joins forces with Mary Hesse, a philosopher of science, to present an integrated account of how humans "construct" reality through interaction with the social and physical world around them. The book is a major expansion of the Gifford Lectures delivered by the authors at the University of Edinburgh in the autumn of 1983. The authors reconcile a theory of the individual's construction of reality as a network of schemas "in the head" with an account of the social construction of language, science, ideology, and religion to provide an integrated schema-theoretic view of human knowledge. The authors still find scope for lively debate, particularly in their discussion of free will and of the reality of God. The book integrates an accessible exposition of background information with a cumulative marshalling of evidence to address fundamental questions concerning human action in the world and the nature of ultimate reality. |
Contents
Chapter | 1 |
Chapter 3 | 19 |
23585 | 42 |
Chapter 5 | 85 |
Chapter 6 | 105 |
from the individual to the social | 127 |
Language metaphor and a new epistemology | 147 |
Interpretation and reality | 171 |
Religions as social schemas | 197 |
The Great Schema | 222 |
Secular schemas | 244 |
| 268 | |
| 277 | |
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Common terms and phrases
accept action activity analysis Arbib argue argument artificial intelligence behavior belief Bible Biblical biological causal Chapter claim cognitive science coherence complex concepts conscious construction criteria critique culture decisionist discussion embodied epistemology ethics evolution example experience explanation external fact Freud function goals Gödel's incompleteness theorem hermeneutics holistic human ideal ideology individual interaction interpretation knowledge language linguistic literal logic machine Marxist meaning mechanisms mental metaphor metonymy mind moral myth natural science neural norms notion object Oedipus complex ontology particular person perspective philosophy philosophy of science physical Piaget pragmatic criterion question rational reality reductionism relation religion religious ritual schema assemblage schema theory scientific models scientific theory Section secular schema secularist semantic semantic network sense social anthropology social schemas society sociobiology spatiotemporal story structure superego symbol systems theology tion tradition transcendent truth understanding voluntarist words