Some reflections on the possibility of naturalizing the mind

Andrej Ule ()
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Andrej Ule: Faculty of Arts – University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems - scientific journal, 2015, vol. 13, issue 4, 501-510

Abstract: The article examines whether it is possible to provide a coherent naturalist account of the emergence of the mind (spirit), construed as a plethora of mental abilities that are present in living beings. I analyze Bateson’s information-system theory of mind, Peirce’s theory of semiotics, and some biosemiotic proposals. All of these conceptions fail to provide a plausible theoretical explanation of the emergence of the mind, particularly (i) the emergence of the interpreters of signs, and (ii) the emergence of the experiential perspective out of the non-living nature. I argue for a hypothesis based on the idea of the trans-objective perspectivity dimension, i.e. the real possibility of acquiring a more or less distinctive experiential perspective in the form of like-to-be-X for all sufficiently developed natural entities. Taking on an experiential perspective also entails a greater sensitivity to not only actual, but also potential events, e.g. a greater sensitivity to everything that can be “useful” or “harmful” to the system in question.

Keywords: mind (spirit); information system; semiosis; biosemantics; experiential perspective (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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