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Your search keyword '"Nagarjuna, G."' showing total 2 results
Start Over Author "Nagarjuna, G." Topic developmental psychology
2 results on '"Nagarjuna, G."'

1. Layers in the Fabric of Mind: A Critical Review of Cognitive Ontogeny

Author

Nagarjuna, G., Ramadas, Jayashree, and Chunawala, Sugra

Subjects
Psychology: Developmental Psychology, Psychology: Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy: Philosophy of Mind, Psychology: Evolutionary Psychology, Philosophy: Epistemology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy of Mind, Evolutionary Psychology, Epistemology
Abstract

The essay is critically examines the conceptual problems with the influential modularity model of mind. We shall see that one of the essential characters of modules, namely informational encapsulation, is not only inessential, it ties a knot at a crucial place blocking the solution to the problem of understanding the formation of concepts from percepts (nodes of procedural knowledge). Subsequently I propose that concept formation takes place by modulation of modules leading to cross-representations, which were otherwise prevented by encapsulation. It must be noted that the argument is not against modular architecture, but a variety of an architecture that prevents interaction among modules. This is followed by a brief argument demonstrating that module without modularization, i.e. without developmental history, is impossible. Finally the emerging picture of cognitive development is drawn in the form of the layers in the fabric of mind, with a brief statement of the possible implications.

Published
2006

2. Tracing the Biological Roots of Knowledge

Author

Nagarjuna, G. and Rangaswamy, N.S.

Subjects
Psychology: Developmental Psychology, Philosophy: Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy: Epistemology, Developmental Psychology, Philosophy of Mind, Epistemology
Abstract

The essay is a critical review of three possible approaches in the theory of knowledge while tracing the biological roots of knowledge: empiricist, rationalist and developmentalist approaches. Piaget's genetic epistemology, a developmentalist approach, is one of the first comprehensive treatments on the question of tracing biological roots of knowledge. This developmental approach is currently opposed, without questioning the biological roots of knowledge, by the more popular rationalist approach, championed by Chomsky. Developmental approaches are generally coherent with cybernetic models, of which the theory of autopoiesis proposed by Maturana and Varela made a significant theoretical move in proposing an intimate connection between metabolism and knowledge. Modular architecture is currently considered more or less an undisputable model for both biology as well as cognitive science. By suggesting that modulation of modules is possible by motor coordination, a proposal is made to account for higher forms of conscious cognition within the four distinguishable layers of the human mind. Towards the end, the problem of life and cognition is discussed in the context of the evolution of complex cognitive systems, suggesting the unique access of phylogeny during the ontogeny of human beings as a very special case, and how the problem cannot be dealt with independent of the evolution of coding systems in nature.

Published
2006

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