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The dual hierarchy of language and cognition. Language learning is grounded in surrounding language at all levels of the hierarchy. Learning of embodied cognitive models is grounded in direct experience of sensory-motor perceptions only at the lower levels. At higher levels, their learning from experience has to be guided by contents of language models. Language representations are crisp after about age of five; cognitive representations gradually acquire crisper content throughout life and at high levels remain vague and unconscious.
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Free will is fundamental to morality, intuition of self, and normal functioning of the society. However, science does not provide a clear logical foundation for this idea. This paper considers the fundamental scientific argument against free will, called reductionism, and explains the reasons for choosing dualism against monism. Then, the paper sum...
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... to the given references, these and other properties of cognition-language interaction are explained due to the mechanism of the dual model hierarchy (Figure 1). This figure illustrates the dual hierarchy of the mind, a cognitive hierarchy from sensory signals, to objects, to situations, to abstract con- cepts… and a parallel hierarchy of language from words, to phrases, from concrete to abstract meanings. ...
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... discussion is directly relevant to Maimonides' interpret- tation of the Original Sin ( Levine & Perlovsky, 2008), Adam was expelled from paradise because he did not want to think, but ate from the tree of knowledge to acquire existing knowl- edge ready-made. In terms of Figure 1, he acquired language knowledge from surrounding language but not in cognitive representations from his own experience. This discussion is also directly relevant to the difference between much discussed (Noble Prize 2002) irrational heuristic decision-making discov- ered by Tversky & Kahneman (1974, 1981 and decision- making based on personal experience and careful thinking, grounded in learning and driven by the knowledge instinct (Levine & Perlovsky, 2008;Perlovsky, Bonniot-Cabanac, & Cabanac, 2010). ...
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Free will is fundamental to morality, intuition of self, and normal functioning of the society. However, science does not provide a clear logical foundation for this idea. This paper considers the fundamental scientific argument against free will, called reductionism, and explains the reasons for choosing dualism against monism. Then, the paper sum...
Citations
... Studies on free will as the basis of libertarianism usually assume that human beings can decide on their own their good or bad, have proved repeatedly that mind is not "free" but a bunch of neural circuitry that obeys certain rules. Thus free will may not be free from encumbrances (15). Added to that, Perlovsky brings in Foucault's biopolitical securitization as an invasion of the modern personal space where he states that the surveillance measures deployed during the pandemic and the lockdowns or containment zones are in direct opposition with the modern space. ...
It is now apparent that as a measure to contain Covid-19 pandemic the scope for strict lockdown is rather limited because of its serious negative impact on the lives and livelihood of people. Therefore measures such as wearing masks, washing hands and avoiding crowded places turn out to be the most important ways of preventing spread of the virus. However, adoption of and adherence to these practices depends largely on voluntary compliance as it is difficult to strictly monitor people’s behavior. In this paper the authors argue that for better results we need to first understand the reasons for non-adherence, and in an attempt to understand, the emerging field of behavioral economics can be of help. Different elements of behavioral economics, such as, the prospect theory with its cognitive biases like heuristics, anchoring, salience, and above all, social norms are capable of explaining many of the behaviors that have relevance to management of the pandemic. The moral philosophic position that underlies behavioral economics can be located somewhere between libertarianism and paternalism. While libertarianism tends to prioritize an individual’s freedom to choose, paternalism takes the view that the individual may not always know what is good for her/him. ‘Libertarian paternalism’, on the other hand, would allow public institutions to influence one’s behavior while respecting freedom of choice. In the absence of hard data, popular media reports and anecdotal evidence have been used in this essentially interpretative exercise.
... Every attempt to forget this circumstance brings to aporias and circularities. In this connection, the discussion may be interesting about the role of language in the development of cognitions given in Perlovsky (2012), in the perspective of Free Will and Cognitive Science and references therein. ...
... The followings are adapted from (Vimal, 2010d). Science presumes causality, either deterministic or quantum; both are opposite to Free Will (Perlovsky, 2011(Perlovsky, , 2010 in addition to the suspicion raised on the existence of completely Free Will. Free Will is neither completely free as argued on complete (or quantum) randomness basis, nor completely deterministic as argued on pure Laplacian determinism basis (Brembs, 2010;Bruzzo and Vimal, 2007). ...
... Free Will is neither completely free as argued on complete (or quantum) randomness basis, nor completely deterministic as argued on pure Laplacian determinism basis (Brembs, 2010;Bruzzo and Vimal, 2007). Free Will depends on vagueness (uncertainty), crispness, and the hierarchical levels of neural processing in a complex manner (Perlovsky, 2010). We propose that Free Will Rām Lakhan Pāndey Vimal et al. ...
... Variability entails variable concept of Free Will, i.e., a degree/quantity of Free Will (Brembs, 2010). Variability (Brembs, 2010) is injected (a) in the physical aspect of a system as needed depending on the context via nonspecific (Vimal, 2008(Vimal, , 2010b and/or vague (Perlovsky, 2009(Perlovsky, , 2010 endogenous (independent of external stimuli) signals and (b) in the mental aspect of a state of a system via non-specificity due to superposition of multiple choices (Vimal, 2008(Vimal, , 2010b or vagueness in cognitive brain via dynamic logic iv (Perlovsky, 2009(Perlovsky, , 2010. ...
In our prior work, we reported: (i) the effects of transgenerational epigenetic information on unconscious cognitive abilities, behavioral and emotional patterns, as well as (ii) the essential role of unconscious mechanisms in human decision processes; (iii) the least problematic five component extended dual-aspect monism framework (eDAM) for experiential and functional aspects of consciousness; and (iv) the hypothesis of semi-Free Will. Here, we discuss Free Will in the eDAM framework, by reviewing some latest results regarding the transfer of specific information through transgenerational epigenetic mechanisms. We also briefly review sensory deprivation experiments and some new studies regarding unconscious creativity, also interpreted in the eDAM framework. These presented studies and notions necessarily challenge the traditionally conception of Free Will and supports the concept of semi-Free Will, as well as our definition of consciousness as the mental aspect of a state of brain-system or brain-process, which has two sub-aspects from the first person perspective: conscious experience and conscious function.
... A precise mechanism is not known yet. Monistic approach solves the question of causality by stating that any mental state is caused by organization of matter , therefore thoughts are mere products of matter and not a force influencing the matter [13]. Dualistic approach on the other hand presumes existence of a separate mental force that influences and changes the matter. ...
... Dualistic approach on the other hand presumes existence of a separate mental force that influences and changes the matter. This, however, makes a scientific approach impossible since it considers spiritual to be unexplainable [13]. The absence of scientific proof of free will represents the most serious limitation of its understanding. ...
... An argument against existence of deterministic free will based on causality was also made by Perlovsky. He claims that causality reflected in logic is prominent in consciousness, but consciousness does not represent " a fundamental mechanism of mind " [13]. According to him in computer science dynamic logic is necessary to overcome the issue of complexity of mind that has own hierarchy. ...
... A precise mechanism is not known yet. Monistic approach solves the question of causality by stating that any mental state is caused by organization of matter, therefore thoughts are mere products of matter and not a force influencing the matter [13]. Dualistic approach on the other hand presumes existence of a separate mental force that influences and changes the matter. ...
... Dualistic approach on the other hand presumes existence of a separate mental force that influences and changes the matter. This, however, makes a scientific approach impossible since it considers spiritual to be unexplainable [13]. ...
... An argument against existence of deterministic free will based on causality was also made by Perlovsky. He claims that causality reflected in logic is prominent in consciousness, but consciousness does not represent "a fundamental mechanism of mind" [13]. According to him in computer science dynamic logic is necessary to overcome the issue of complexity of mind that has own hierarchy. ...
... Thus DL PSS simulators describe how logic appears from illogical processes, and actually model perception mechanisms of the brain-mind as processes from unconscious to conscious brain states. By connecting conscious and unconscious states DL resolves a long-standing difficulty of free will and explains that past difficulties related to the idea of free will are difficulties of logic, the mind and DL overcomes these difficulties [49,50]. ...
... Debates about the function and origin of music have a long history. Aristotle [35] listed the power of music among the unsolved problems: "How music being just sounds reminds states of soul?" Kant [50], who so brilliantly explained the epistemology of the beautiful and the sublime, could not explain music. According to Darwin [132], the human musical faculty "must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which (man) is endowed" because "music is a human cultural universal that appears to serve no obvious adaptive purpose" [133]. ...
Successes of information and cognitive science brought a growing understanding that mind is based on intelligent cognitive processes, which are not limited by language and logic only. A nice overview can be found in the excellent work of Jeff Hawkins "On Intelligence." This view is that thought is a set of informational processes in the brain, and such processes have the same rationale as any other systematic informational processes. Their specifics are determined by the ways of how brain stores, structures and process this information. Systematic approach allows representing them in a diagrammatic form that can be formalized and programmed. Semiotic approach allows for the universal representation of such diagrams. In our approach, logic is just a way of synthesis of such structures, which is a small but clearly visible top of the iceberg. However, most of the efforts were traditionally put into logics without paying much attention to the rest of the mechanisms that make the entire thought system working autonomously. Dynamic fuzzy logic is reviewed and its connections with semiotics are established. Dynamic fuzzy logic extends fuzzy logic in the direction of logic-processes, which include processes of fuzzification and defuzzification as parts of logic. This extension of fuzzy logic is inspired by processes in the brain-mind. The paper reviews basic cognitive mechanisms, including instinctual drives, emotional and conceptual mechanisms, perception, cognition, language, a model of interaction between language and cognition upon the new semiotic models. The model of interacting cognition and language is organized in an approximate hierarchy of mental representations from sensory percepts at the "bottom" to objects, contexts, situations, abstract concepts-representations, and to the most general representations at the "top" of mental hierarchy. Knowledge instinct and emotions are driving feedbacks for these representations. Interactions of bottom-up and top-down processes in such hierarchical semiotic representation are essential for modeling cognition. Dynamic fuzzy logic is analyzed as a fundamental mechanism of these processes. In this paper we are trying to formalize cognitive processes of the human mind using approaches above, and provide interfaces that could allow for their practical realization in software and hardware. Future research directions are discussed.
... Thus DL PSS simulators describe how logic appears from illogical processes, and actually model perception mechanisms of the brain-mind as processes from unconscious to conscious brain states. By connecting conscious and unconscious states DL resolves a long-standing difficulty of free will and explains that past difficulties related to the idea of free will are difficulties of logic, the mind and DL overcomes these difficulties [49,50]. ...
... Debates about the function and origin of music have a long history. Aristotle [35] listed the power of music among the unsolved problems: "How music being just sounds reminds states of soul?" Kant [50], who so brilliantly explained the epistemology of the beautiful and the sublime, could not explain music. According to Darwin [132], the human musical faculty "must be ranked amongst the most mysterious with which (man) is endowed" because "music is a human cultural universal that appears to serve no obvious adaptive purpose" [133]. ...
Conscious and unconscious brain mechanisms, including cognition, emotions and language are considered in this review. The fundamental mechanisms of cognition include interactions between bottom-up and top-down signals. The modeling of these interactions since the 1960s is briefly reviewed, analyzing the ubiquitous difficulty: incomputable combinatorial complexity (CC). Fundamental reasons for CC are related to the Gödel's difficulties of logic, a most fundamental mathematical result of the 20th century. Many scientists still "believed" in logic because, as the review discusses, logic is related to consciousness; non-logical processes in the brain are unconscious. CC difficulty is overcome in the brain by processes "from vague-unconscious to crisp-conscious" (representations, plans, models, concepts). These processes are modeled by dynamic logic, evolving from vague and unconscious representations toward crisp and conscious thoughts. We discuss experimental proofs and relate dynamic logic to simulators of the perceptual symbol system. "From vague to crisp" explains interactions between cognition and language. Language is mostly conscious, whereas cognition is only rarely so; this clarifies much about the mind that might seem mysterious. All of the above involve emotions of a special kind, aesthetic emotions related to knowledge and to cognitive dissonances. Cognition-language-emotional mechanisms operate throughout the hierarchy of the mind and create all higher mental abilities. The review discusses cognitive functions of the beautiful, sublime, music.
... Because of this, consciousness and subjective intuition are biased towards logic. This bias affects scientists as well; therefore most scientific ideas and cognitive theories are biased toward logic and may lead to contradictions (Perlovsky, 2006(Perlovsky, , 2011a(Perlovsky, , 2012a. ...
The manuscript advances a hypothesis that there are few fundamental principles of neural organization of cognition, which explain several wide areas of the cognitive functioning. We summarize the fundamental principles, experimental, theoretical, and modeling evidence for these principles, relate them to hypothetical neural mechanisms, and made a number of predictions. We consider cognitive functioning including concepts, emotions, drives-instincts, learning, “higher” cognitive functions of language, interaction of language and cognition, role of emotions in this interaction, the beautiful, sublime, and music. Among mechanisms of behavior we concentrate on internal actions in the brain, learning and decision making. A number of predictions are made, some of which have been previously formulated and experimentally confirmed, and a number of new predictions are made that can be experimentally tested. Is it possible to explain a significant part of workings of the mind from a few basic principles, similar to how Newton explained motions of planets? This manuscript summarizes a part of contemporary knowledge toward this goal.
... Let ombined with magne sensory data. At the "lower"-obje tailed discussions can be found in [11][12][13]15,16,36,38,[40][41][42]54,66,83,88,89,93,95,96,100,101,[126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138]. ...
... Emotions in language and cognition have been addressed in [88,149]. Future research would explore roles of emotions (i) in language-cognition interaction), (ii) in symbol grounding, (iii) the role of aesthetic and musical emotions in cognition [36,54,128,131,[134][135][136]150], and (iv) emotions of cognitive dissonances [151,152]. ...
A mathematical model of perceptual symbol system is developed. This development requires new mathematical methods of dynamic logic (DL), which have overcome limitations of classical artificial intelligence and connectionist approaches. The paper discusses these past limitations, relates them to combinatorial complexity (exponential explosion) of algorithms in the past, and relates it further to the static nature of classical logic. DL is a process-logic; its salient property is evolution of vague representations into crisp. We first consider one aspect of PSS: situation learning from object perceptions. Next DL is related to PSS mechanisms of concepts, simulators, grounding, embodiment, productive-ity, binding, recursion, and to the mechanisms relating embodied-grounded and amodal symbols. We discuss DL capability for modeling cognition on multiple levels of abstraction. PSS is extended toward interaction between cognition and language. Experimental predictions of the theory are discussed. They might influence experimental psychology and impact future theoretical developments in cognitive science, including knowledge representation, and mechanisms of interaction between perception, cognition, and language. All mathematical equations are also discussed conceptually, so mathematical understanding is not required. Experimental evidence for DL and PSS in brain imaging is discussed as well as future research directions.
... Mathematical models and algorithms describing the closeopen-eyes experiment and the Bar et al experiment were published in (Perlovsky, 1987, 2001, 2005, 2006a, 2007a, 2010c; Perlovsky & McManus 1991). These models are based on a new type of logic, dynamic logic (Perlovsky 2006b, 2007c, 2012d; Kovalerchuk, Perlovsky, & Wheeler, 2012; Yardley, Perlovsky & Bar 2012). Whereas usual classical logic describes states (e.g. ...
... These instinctual things affect cognition occur during the dynamic logic process, before recognition occurs; so we are smart not because we understand everything equally well, but because we preferentially understand what we need at every moment. Most psychological research in emotions concentrates on so called basic emotions, which are described by words and correspond to bodily instincts (see Petrov, Fontanari, & Perlovsky, 2012). ...
The talk discusses a mathematical theory for cognitive engineering, which significantly improves solutions of many engineering problems and at the same time models spiritual feelings in the human brain-mind. This convergence of scientific, engineering, and religious theories indicates a possibility of signal developments. C. Jung wrote that schism between science and religion points to a psychosis of contemporary collective psyche; survival of culture demands repairing of this schism. Many outstanding scientists are trying to mend this schism. Many books are written arguing that the newest scientific discoveries in molecular biology, evolution, and cosmology do not contradict the main tenets of the world's religions. But there is no scientific theory, explaining spiritual dimension of the mindbrain. "Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe." This Einsteinian statement remains outside of science. Understanding of the mind mechanisms today came close to explaining spirituality from scientific point of view. The talk tells about the knowledge instinct, driving growth of the mind, responsible for our higher mental abilities of abstract symbolic thinking, for beautiful and sublime, and for evolution of cultures. A mathematical theory is presented. This theory is a mathematical breakthrough that overcame decades of limitations in AI, pattern recognition, neural networks, and other attempts to solve complex problems by modeling the brain-mind. Solutions of engineering problems are presented that overcome previous difficulties of computational complexity, and result in orders of magnitude improvements in detection, prediction, tracking, fusion, and learning situations. This theory is extended to higher cognitive functions. It models the knowledge instinct operating on the hierarchy of the human brain-mind. At the bottom of the hierarchy are simple objects, higher up are situations, general and abstract concepts, unifying contents of lower levels. At the top are concepts unifying our entire knowledge; we perceive them as concepts of the meaning and purpose of our existence. The mathematical theory explains why these concepts are inherently vague and unconscious and our consciousness is in great doubt about their very existence. When we feel that we have understood them a bit better or our belief in their existence got a bit firmer, we feel the emotion of beautiful. In parallel with the concepts of understanding the meaning and purpose, we have concepts of behavior needed to realize the beauty in our life. When we feel that we have understood these behavioral concepts a bit better or our belief in their existence got a bit firmer, we feel the emotion of spiritually sublime. Science explains that beautiful and sublime are not final notions. It follows from Godel theory, that mechanisms of the highest aspirations of human spirit are not logically reducible to finite statements. Attempts to compute them logically exceed in complexity all elementary interactions in the Universe in its entire lifetime and therefore choices of beautiful and sublime involve more information than is available in the Universe. A possibility of these choices is called a miracle in traditional language. A computational theory of these choices goes together with a proof that science is not reducible. Laws governing our highest values would not be reduced to laws governing a leaf flying with the wind. Hamiltonian formulation of the fundamental laws of physics leads to what is commonly considered a scientific causality: particles and fields move under forces, and the next moment is a consequence of the previous one. Lagrangian formulation leads to teleological formulation: particles and fields move toward a purpose, maximum of Lagrangian function ("minimum of energy" in the parlance of the middle school physics). The Lagrangian equivalence of causality and purpose exists in physics of few particles, but it does not exist in statistical physics of complex systems. The mathematical theory of the knowledge instinct made equivalent causality and teleology for very complex systems, the human mind and culture evolve causally according to dynamic logic and evolve teleologically toward maximization of knowledge. This defines the new "arrow of time." The talk discusses brain imaging experiments conducted at Harvard Brain Imaging Lab confirming this theory. Contents of models of beautiful and sublime are unconscious; they do not belong to our consciousness. They are "collective," outside of consciousness. Consciousness does not control them, they control our consciousness. Therefore, we feel them as a source of agency outside of ourselves. In recent discussions it is called Designer.
