As I have been studying the subject of cognition, I have been running into all sorts of questions without answers. So, I've decided to read about related topics and have come to learn that cognition is not just one single thing - so many different factors intertwined with each other make up cognition.
As I was reading about cognition, I came across this article called "Introduction: Addressing the Hard Problem" by John R. Searle. He firstly answers the hard question of what consciousness is by saying that consciousness is "all of our states of feeling or sentience or awareness". Then he answers the following question of what the relation between consciousness and the brain is. He says what the theorists and scientist say about neurons being the basic functional unit of the brain can be proven wrong in the future because it is a theory. He also says that consciousness is a biological naturalism. Just as the organs in our bodies do their biological jobs, brain does the same things, which happens to be thinking, and being aware. To reiterate, "the mind is a natural biological phenomenon that is as much a art of nature as photosynthesis, lactation, or digestion, but at the same time the right level to discuss it is the level of biological processes".
Very interesting.
So basically according to Searle and numerous scientists, the brain works thanks to millions of neurons. And when they start working, we are conscious/aware of who we are, and what we do.
But this still doesn't really answer the question of how and why different people think in certain ways, or the way the act, or the way they think. Like the common saying, "you are wired differently", why is it that people are "wired" in certain ways?
Every morning when I get ready, I always put on Friends so that I have something to listen to, and I have a sense of time. One episode is approximately 20 minutes, so I try to get my makeup done and get dressed within an episode. Because I have been a fan of Friends for a long time, and because I have been watching it for about 10 years now, I have memorized the lines. And I think that subconsciously, the punch lines, the jokes, and the situational comedy is embedded in my mind that comes out in real life.
A week ago, I was hanging out with my friends at a restaurant, and my guy friend had a pink shirt on. It was a very chic button down shirt. As we were having lunch, a man in his 60s, wearing a hot pink shirt, walks by our table. Unfortunately for this man, the shirt looked ridiculous on him. So we started cracking jokes about the man's shirt, which eventually led to my friend's salmon button down. Although it wasn't exactly hot pink, we still thought it was funny how the man and my friend matched. And in his defense I said, "it's okay because your shirt is more salmon than pink". Then he got more frustrated because I recognized his shirt as salmon rather than pink.
I definitely thought that he was going to thank me like Ross did,
As I was reading about cognition, I came across this article called "Introduction: Addressing the Hard Problem" by John R. Searle. He firstly answers the hard question of what consciousness is by saying that consciousness is "all of our states of feeling or sentience or awareness". Then he answers the following question of what the relation between consciousness and the brain is. He says what the theorists and scientist say about neurons being the basic functional unit of the brain can be proven wrong in the future because it is a theory. He also says that consciousness is a biological naturalism. Just as the organs in our bodies do their biological jobs, brain does the same things, which happens to be thinking, and being aware. To reiterate, "the mind is a natural biological phenomenon that is as much a art of nature as photosynthesis, lactation, or digestion, but at the same time the right level to discuss it is the level of biological processes".
Very interesting.
So basically according to Searle and numerous scientists, the brain works thanks to millions of neurons. And when they start working, we are conscious/aware of who we are, and what we do.
But this still doesn't really answer the question of how and why different people think in certain ways, or the way the act, or the way they think. Like the common saying, "you are wired differently", why is it that people are "wired" in certain ways?
Every morning when I get ready, I always put on Friends so that I have something to listen to, and I have a sense of time. One episode is approximately 20 minutes, so I try to get my makeup done and get dressed within an episode. Because I have been a fan of Friends for a long time, and because I have been watching it for about 10 years now, I have memorized the lines. And I think that subconsciously, the punch lines, the jokes, and the situational comedy is embedded in my mind that comes out in real life.
A week ago, I was hanging out with my friends at a restaurant, and my guy friend had a pink shirt on. It was a very chic button down shirt. As we were having lunch, a man in his 60s, wearing a hot pink shirt, walks by our table. Unfortunately for this man, the shirt looked ridiculous on him. So we started cracking jokes about the man's shirt, which eventually led to my friend's salmon button down. Although it wasn't exactly hot pink, we still thought it was funny how the man and my friend matched. And in his defense I said, "it's okay because your shirt is more salmon than pink". Then he got more frustrated because I recognized his shirt as salmon rather than pink.
I definitely thought that he was going to thank me like Ross did,
It was so weird, My friends don't watch Friends like I do. They didn't get my joke.
And I didn't even refer to Ross's salmon shirt intentionally. It just slipped out, hoping my friend to thank me.
Then I got to thinking, what if people are wired differently according to what they watch, or hear? Of course everybody has different personalities and traits that distinguishes him/her apart from others since the beginning. But what if what we read, hear, and watch sets our minds in a certain way to think?
This is where narrative theories come into play. According to Ohio State University, narrative theory "starts from the assumption that narrative is a basic human strategy for coming to terms with fundamental elements of our experience, such as time, process, and change, and it proceeds from this assumption to study the distinctive nature of narratives and its various structures, elements, uses, and effects".
This may actually not be related to cognitive science at all, but maybe it is!
And I didn't even refer to Ross's salmon shirt intentionally. It just slipped out, hoping my friend to thank me.
Then I got to thinking, what if people are wired differently according to what they watch, or hear? Of course everybody has different personalities and traits that distinguishes him/her apart from others since the beginning. But what if what we read, hear, and watch sets our minds in a certain way to think?
This is where narrative theories come into play. According to Ohio State University, narrative theory "starts from the assumption that narrative is a basic human strategy for coming to terms with fundamental elements of our experience, such as time, process, and change, and it proceeds from this assumption to study the distinctive nature of narratives and its various structures, elements, uses, and effects".
This may actually not be related to cognitive science at all, but maybe it is!