Chaotic Logic: Language, Thought, and Reality from the Perspective of Complex Systems ScienceThis book summarizes a network of interrelated ideas which I have developed, off and on, over the past eight or ten years. The underlying theme is the psychological interplay of order and chaos. Or, to put it another way, the interplay of deduction and induction. I will try to explain the relationship between logical, orderly, conscious, rule-following reason and fluid, self organizing, habit-governed, unconscious, chaos-infused intuition. My previous two books, The Structure of Intelligence and The Evolving Mind, briefly touched on this relationship. But these books were primarily concerned with other matters: SI with constructing a formal language for discussing mentality and its mechanization, and EM with exploring the role of evolution in thought. They danced around the edges of the order/chaos problem, without ever fully entering into it. My goal in writing this book was to go directly to the core of mental process, "where angels fear to tread" -- to tackle all the sticky issues which it is considered prudent to avoid: the nature of consciousness, the relation between mind and reality, the justification of belief systems, the connection between creativity and mental illness,.... All of these issues are dealt with here in a straightforward and unified way, using a combination of concepts from my previous work with ideas from chaos theory and complex systems science. |
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 1 |
PATTERN AND PREDICTION | 13 |
THE STRUCTURE OF THOUGHT | 25 |
PSYCHOLOGY AND LOGIC | 43 |
LINGUISTIC SYSTEMS | 63 |
CRUCIAL CONNECTIONS | 89 |
SELFGENERATING SYSTEMS | 113 |
THE COGNITIVE EQUATION | 145 |
Other editions - View all
Chaotic Logic: Language, Thought, and Reality from the Perspective of ... Ben Goertzel Limited preview - 2013 |
Chaotic Logic: Language, Thought, and Reality from the Perspective of ... Ben Goertzel No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract analogy antibody antibody types basic behavior belief system Boolean logic brain chaos theory chaotic Chapter Church-Turing Thesis cognitive equation complex systems science component component-systems compositionality concept connected consciousness construction contains context creativity deductive defined definition degree denote dissociation dual network dual network model elements entity example expression Fanny finite formal function fundamental fuzzy set Geronimo given hard core Hattie hyperrelations hyperset idea immune system implies infon instance intelligence interaction intuitive involved iteration Jane's Kampis Kampis's language linguistic system mathematical mathematical logic meaning mental processes mind multilevel control Nietszche Nietzsche operations paradox perception person prediction problem produce psychological quantum quantum computation reasoning recognizes robot rules Sapir-Whorf hypothesis self-generating system self-organizing semantic system sense sentence sequence simple simulations situation specific stochastically computable strange attractor structural conspiracy structurally associative memory structured transformation system subnetworks subpersonalities suggest syntactic system things thought Whorf words