1.
Fact
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A fact is something that has occurred or is correct. The usual test for a statement of fact is verifiability—that is, standard reference works are often used to check facts. Scientific facts are verified by repeatable careful observation or measurement, the word fact derives from the Latin factum, and was first used in English with the same meaning, a thing done or performed, a meaning now obsolete. The common usage of something that has occurred or is the case dates from the middle of the sixteenth century. Fact is sometimes used synonymously with truth, as distinct from opinions, falsehoods and this use is found in such phrases as, It is a fact that the cup is blue or Matter of fact, and. Not history, nor fact, but imagination, filmmaker Werner Herzog distinguishes between the two, claiming that Fact creates norms, and truth illumination. Fact also indicates a matter under discussion deemed to be true or correct, alternatively, fact may also indicate an allegation or stipulation of something that may or may not be a true fact. This alternate usage, although contested by some, has a history in standard English. Fact may also indicate findings derived through a process of evaluation, including review of testimony, direct observation, or otherwise and this use is reflected in the terms fact-find and fact-finder. Facts may be checked by reason, experiment, personal experience, roger Bacon wrote If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics. In philosophy, the fact is considered in epistemology and ontology. Questions of objectivity and truth are closely associated with questions of fact, a fact can be defined as something that is the case—that is, a state of affairs. Facts may be understood as information that makes a sentence true. Facts may also be understood as things to which a true sentence refers. The statement Jupiter is the largest planet in the system is about the fact Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Engels version of the theory of truth explains that what makes a sentence true is that it corresponds to a fact. This theory presupposes the existence of an objective world, the Slingshot argument claims to show that all true statements stand for the same thing - the truth value true. If this argument holds, and facts are taken to be what true statements stand for, any non-trivial true statement about reality is necessarily an abstraction composed of a complex of objects and properties or relations
2.
Unbiased
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Bias is an inclination or outlook to present or hold a partial perspective, often accompanied by a refusal to consider the possible merits of alternative points of view. Biases can be learned implicitly within cultural contexts, biased means one-sided, lacking a neutral viewpoint, or not having an open mind. Bias can come in forms and is related to prejudice. In science and engineering, a bias is a systematic error, statistical bias results from an unfair sampling of a population, or from an estimation process that does not give accurate results on average. A cognitive bias is a repeating or basic misstep in thinking, assessing, recollecting and that is, a pattern of deviation from standards in judgment, whereby inferences may be created unreasonably. People create their own subjective social reality from their own perceptions, thus, cognitive biases may sometimes lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, illogical interpretation, or what is broadly called irrationality. However some cognitive biases are taken to be adaptive, and thus may lead to success in the appropriate situation, furthermore, cognitive biases may allow speedier choices when speed is more valuable than precision. Other cognitive biases are a by-product of human processing limitations, coming about because of an absence of appropriate mental mechanisms, anchoring is a psychological heuristic that describes the propensity to rely on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions. According to this heuristic, individuals begin with an implicitly suggested reference point, apophenia, also known as patternicity, or agenticity, is the human tendency to perceive meaningful patterns within random data. Apophenia is well documented as a rationalization for gambling, gamblers may imagine that they see patterns in the numbers which appear in lotteries, card games, or roulette wheels. One manifestation of this is known as the gamblers fallacy, pareidolia is the visual or auditory form of apophenia. It has been suggested that combined with hierophany may have helped ancient societies organize chaos. An attribution bias can happen when individuals assess or attempt to discover explanations behind their own, people make attributions about the causes of their own and others’ behaviors, but these attributions dont necessarily precisely reflect reality. Rather than operating as objective perceivers, individuals are inclined to perceptual slips that prompt biased understandings of their social world, there are a wide range of sorts of attribution biases, such as the ultimate attribution error, fundamental attribution error, actor-observer bias, and self-serving bias. The effect is stronger for emotionally charged issues and for deeply entrenched beliefs, people also tend to interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position. Biased search, interpretation and memory have been invoked to explain attitude polarization, belief perseverance, confirmation biases contribute to overconfidence in personal beliefs and can maintain or strengthen beliefs in the face of contrary evidence. Poor decisions due to these biases have been found in political and organizational contexts, framing involves the social construction of social phenomena by mass media sources, political or social movements, political leaders, and so on. It is an influence over how people organize, perceive, and it can be positive or negative - depending on the audience and what kind of information is being presented
3.
Evidence
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Evidence, broadly construed, is anything presented in support of an assertion. This support may be strong or weak, the strongest type of evidence is that which provides direct proof of the truth of an assertion. At the other extreme is evidence that is consistent with an assertion but does not rule out other, contradictory assertions. In law, rules of evidence govern the types of evidence that are admissible in a legal proceeding, types of legal evidence include testimony, documentary evidence, and physical evidence. The parts of a case which are not in controversy are known, in general. Beyond any facts that are undisputed, a judge or jury is usually tasked with being a trier of fact for the issues of a case. Evidence and rules are used to decide questions of fact that are disputed, Evidence in certain cases must be more compelling than in other situations, which drastically affects the quality and quantity of evidence necessary to decide a case. In philosophy, the study of evidence is tied to epistemology. The burden of proof is the obligation of a party in an argument or dispute to provide sufficient evidence to shift the other partys or a third partys belief from their initial position, the burden of proof must be fulfilled by both establishing confirming evidence and negating oppositional evidence. Conclusions drawn from evidence may be subject to criticism based on a failure to fulfill the burden of proof. Two principal considerations are, On whom does the burden of proof rest, to what degree of certitude must the assertion be supported. The latter question depends on the nature of the point under contention, in a criminal trial in the United States, for example, the prosecution carries the burden of proof since the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Similarly, in most civil procedures, the plaintiff carries the burden of proof, other legal standards of proof include reasonable suspicion, probable cause, prima facie evidence, credible evidence, substantial evidence, and clear and convincing evidence. In a philosophical debate, there is a burden of proof on the party asserting a claim. Each party in a debate will therefore carry the burden of proof for any assertion they make in the argument, although some assertions may be granted by the other party without further evidence. If the debate is set up as a resolution to be supported by one side and refuted by another, in scientific research evidence is accumulated through observations of phenomena that occur in the natural world, or which are created as experiments in a laboratory or other controlled conditions. Scientific evidence usually goes towards supporting or rejecting a hypothesis, one must always remember that the burden of proof is on the person making a contentious claim. Within science, this translates to the burden resting on presenters of a paper and this paper is placed before a panel of judges where the presenter must defend the thesis against all challenges
4.
Monitoring (medicine)
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In medicine, monitoring is the observation of a disease, condition or one or several medical parameters over time. It can be performed by continuously measuring certain parameters by using a monitor, and/or by repeatedly performing medical tests. Transmitting data from a monitor to a distant monitoring station is known as telemetry or biotelemetry, a small monitor worn by an ambulatory patient for this purpose is known as a Holter monitor. Cardiac monitoring can also involve cardiac output monitoring via an invasive Swan-Ganz catheter, hemodynamic monitoring, which monitors the blood pressure and blood flow within the circulatory system. Blood pressure can be measured either invasively through a blood pressure transducer assembly. Also, there are special patient monitors which incorporate the monitoring of brain waves, gas concentrations, bispectral index. They are usually incorporated into anesthesia machines, in neurosurgery intensive care units, brain EEG monitors have a larger multichannel capability and can monitor other physiological events, as well. Blood glucose monitoring Childbirth monitoring Body temperature monitoring through an adhesive pad containing a thermoelectric transducer and these allow for continuous monitoring of a patient, with medical staff being continuously informed of the changes in general condition of a patient. Some monitors can even warn of pending fatal cardiac conditions before visible signs are noticeable to clinical staff, a medical monitor or physiological monitor is a medical device used for monitoring. It can consist of one or more sensors, processing components, display devices, sensors of medical monitors include biosensors and mechanical sensors. Besides the tracings of physiological parameters along time, digital medical displays have automated numeric readouts of the peak and/or average parameters displayed on the screen, old analog patient displays, in contrast, were based on oscilloscopes, and had one channel only, usually reserved for electrocardiographic monitoring. Therefore, medical monitors tended to be highly specialized, one monitor would track a patients blood pressure, while another would measure pulse oximetry, another the ECG. Later analog models had a second or third channel displayed in the screen, usually to monitor respiration movements. Ambulatory telemetry can also be achieved by portable, battery-operated models which are carried by the patient and this newer method of charting patient data reduces the likelihood of human documentation error and will eventually reduce overall paper consumption. In addition, automated ECG interpretation incorporates diagnostic codes automatically into the charts, long-distance connectivity can avail for telemedicine, which involves provision of clinical health care at a distance. A medical monitor can also have the function to produce an alarm to alert the staff when certain criteria are set, an entirely new scope is opened with mobile carried monitors, even such in sub-skin carriage. This class of monitors delivers information gathered in body-area networking to e. g. smart phones, monitoring of clinical parameters is primarily intended to detect changes in the clinical status of an individual. For example, the parameter of oxygen saturation is usually monitored to detect changes in respiratory capability of an individual, when monitoring a clinical parameters, differences between test results can reflect either an actual change in the status of the condition or a test-retest variability of the test method
5.
Egocentrism
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Egocentrism is the inability to differentiate between self and other. More specifically, it is the inability to untangle subjective schemas from objective reality, although egocentrism and narcissism appear similar, they are not the same. A person who is egocentric believes they are the center of attention, like a narcissist, both egotists and narcissists are people whose egos are greatly influenced by the approval of others, while for egocentrists this may or may not be true. Therefore, egocentrism is found across the span, in infancy early childhood, adolescence. It contributes to the cognitive development by helping children develop theory of mind. As early as 15 months old, children show a mix of egocentrism, according to George Butterworth and Margaret Harris, during childhood, one is usually unable to distinguish between what is subjective and objective. According to Piaget, an egocentric child assumes that people see, hear. Jean Piaget developed a theory about the development of human intelligence and he claimed that early childhood is the time of pre-operational thought, characterized by childrens inability to process logical thought. According to Piaget, one of the obstacles to logic that children possess includes centration. A particular type of centration is egocentrism – literally, self-centeredness, Piaget claimed that young children are egocentric, capable of contemplating the world only from their personal perspective. Piaget was concerned with two aspects of egocentricity in children, language and morality and he believed that egocentric children use language primarily for communication with oneself. Piaget observed that children would talk to themselves during play, and he believed that this speech had no special function, it was used as a way of accompanying and reinforcing the childs current activity. He theorized that as the child matures cognitively and socially the amount of speech used would be reduced. However, Vygotsky felt that egocentric speech has more meaning, as it allows the growth in social speech. Piaget also believed that egocentrism affects the childs sense of morality, due to egocentrism, the child is only concerned with the final outcome of an event rather than anothers intentions. For example, if someone breaks the toy, the child would not forgive the other. Piaget did a test to investigate egocentrism called the mountains study and he put children in front of a simple plaster mountain range and then asked them to pick from four pictures the view that he, Piaget, would see. The younger children before age seven picked the picture of the view they themselves saw and were found to lack the ability to appreciate a viewpoint different from their own
6.
Socrates
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Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is a figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon. Platos dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which Socrates himself is hidden behind his best disciple, nothing written by Socrates remains extant. As a result, information about him and his philosophies depends upon secondary sources, furthermore, close comparison between the contents of these sources reveals contradictions, thus creating concerns about the possibility of knowing in-depth the real Socrates. This issue is known as the Socratic problem, or the Socratic question, to understand Socrates and his thought, one must turn primarily to the works of Plato, whose dialogues are thought the most informative source about Socrates life and philosophy, and also Xenophon. These writings are the Sokratikoi logoi, or Socratic dialogues, which consist of reports of conversations apparently involving Socrates, as for discovering the real-life Socrates, the difficulty is that ancient sources are mostly philosophical or dramatic texts, apart from Xenophon. There are no straightforward histories, contemporary with Socrates, that dealt with his own time, a corollary of this is that sources that do mention Socrates do not necessarily claim to be historically accurate, and are often partisan. For instance, those who prosecuted and convicted Socrates have left no testament, historians therefore face the challenge of reconciling the various evidence from the extant texts in order to attempt an accurate and consistent account of Socrates life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, even if consistent, amid all the disagreement resulting from differences within sources, two factors emerge from all sources pertaining to Socrates. It would seem, therefore, that he was ugly, also, Xenophon, being an historian, is a more reliable witness to the historical Socrates. It is a matter of debate over which Socrates it is whom Plato is describing at any given point—the historical figure. As British philosopher Martin Cohen has put it, Plato, the idealist, offers an idol, a Saint, a prophet of the Sun-God, a teacher condemned for his teachings as a heretic. It is also clear from other writings and historical artefacts, that Socrates was not simply a character, nor an invention, the testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes work, is useful in fleshing out a perception of Socrates beyond Platos work. The problem with discerning Socrates philosophical views stems from the perception of contradictions in statements made by the Socrates in the different dialogues of Plato and these contradictions produce doubt as to the actual philosophical doctrines of Socrates, within his milieu and as recorded by other individuals. Aristotle, in his Magna Moralia, refers to Socrates in words which make it patent that the virtue is knowledge was held by Socrates. Within the Metaphysics, he states Socrates was occupied with the search for moral virtues, however, in The Clouds, Aristophanes portrays Socrates as accepting payment for teaching and running a sophist school with Chaerephon. Also, in Platos Apology and Symposium, as well as in Xenophons accounts, more specifically, in the Apology, Socrates cites his poverty as proof that he is not a teacher. Two fragments are extant of the writings by Timon of Phlius pertaining to Socrates, although Timon is known to have written to ridicule, details about the life of Socrates can be derived from three contemporary sources, the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of Aristophanes
7.
Operational definition
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Since the degree of operationalization can vary itself, it can result in a more or less operational definition. The procedures included in definitions should be repeatable by anyone or at least by peers, according to it, the weight can be any of the numbers shown on the scale after, including the very moment the object is put on it. Clearly, the inclusion of the moment when one can start reading the numbers on the scale would make it more fully an operational definition, nonetheless, it is still in contrast to those purely theoretical definitions. Properties described in this manner must be accessible, so that persons other than the definer may independently measure or test for them at will. An operational definition is generally designed to model a theoretical definition, the most operational definition is a process for identification of an object by distinguishing it from its background of empirical experience. The binary version produces either the result that the object exists, or that it doesnt, the classifier version results in discrimination between what is part of the object and what is not part of it. This is also discussed in terms of semantics, pattern recognition, operationalize means to put into operation. Operational definitions are used to define system states in terms of a specific, publicly accessible process of preparation or validation testing. For example,100 degrees Celsius may be defined by describing the process of heating water at sea level until it is observed to boil. An item like a brick, or even a photograph of a brick, likewise, iron may be defined in terms of the results of testing or measuring it in particular ways. Vandervert described in detail a simple, everyday illustration of an operational definition in terms of making a cake. Similarly, the saying, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be kind of duck. Despite the controversial philosophical origins of the concept, particularly its close association with logical positivism and this is especially so in the social and medical sciences, where operational definitions of key terms are used to preserve the unambiguous empirical testability of hypothesis and theory. Operational definitions are also important in the physical sciences, inspired by Ernst Mach, in 1914 Bridgman attempted to redefine unobservable entities concretely in terms of the physical and mental operations used to measure them. Accordingly, the definition of each unobservable entity was uniquely identified with the used to define it. From the beginning objections were raised to this approach, in part around the inflexibility. According to a pure operationalist conception, these sorts of modifications would not be methodologically acceptable, in quantum mechanics the notion of operational definitions is closely related to the idea of observables, that is, definitions based upon what can be measured. Such definitions are used as a follow up to a theoretical definition, a behaviorist psychologist might define intelligence as that score obtained on a specific IQ test by a human subject
8.
Ancient history
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Ancient history is the aggregate of past events from the beginning of recorded human history and extending as far as the Early Middle Ages or the Postclassical Era. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with Sumerian Cuneiform script, the term classical antiquity is often used to refer to history in the Old World from the beginning of recorded Greek history in 776 BC. This roughly coincides with the date of the founding of Rome in 753 BC, the beginning of the history of ancient Rome. In India, ancient history includes the period of the Middle Kingdoms, and, in China. Historians have two major avenues which they take to better understand the ancient world, archaeology and the study of source texts, primary sources are those sources closest to the origin of the information or idea under study. Primary sources have been distinguished from secondary sources, which cite, comment on. Archaeology is the excavation and study of artefacts in an effort to interpret, archaeologists excavate the ruins of ancient cities looking for clues as to how the people of the time period lived. The study of the ancient cities of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, the city of Pompeii, an ancient Roman city preserved by the eruption of a volcano in AD79. Its state of preservation is so great that it is a window into Roman culture and provided insight into the cultures of the Etruscans. The Terracotta Army, the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in ancient China, the discovery of Knossos by Minos Kalokairinos and Sir Arthur Evans. The discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann, most of what is known of the ancient world comes from the accounts of antiquitys own historians. Although it is important to take account the bias of each ancient author. Some of the more notable ancient writers include Herodotus, Thucydides, Arrian, Plutarch, Polybius, Sima Qian, Sallust, Livy, Josephus, Suetonius, furthermore, the reliability of the information obtained from these surviving records must be considered. Few people were capable of writing histories, as literacy was not widespread in almost any culture until long after the end of ancient history, the earliest known systematic historical thought emerged in ancient Greece, beginning with Herodotus of Halicarnassus. He was also the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, the Roman Empire was one of the ancient worlds most literate cultures, but many works by its most widely read historians are lost. Indeed, only a minority of the work of any major Roman historian has survived, prehistory is the period before written history. The early human migrations in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spread across Eurasia 1.8 million years ago, the controlled use of fire occurred 800,000 years ago in the Middle Paleolithic. 250,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged in Africa, 60–70,000 years ago, Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reached Australia
9.
Teachings and philosophy of Swami Vivekananda
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Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk from India. He played significant role in the growing Indian nationalism of the 19th and 20th century, According to Vivekananda a countrys future depends on its people, stating that man-making is my mission. Religion plays a role in this man-making, stating to preach unto mankind their divinity. Vivekananda played a role in the growing Indian nationalism in the late 19th. His example helped to build pride in Indias cultural and religious heritage, Swami Vivekananda believed that India is the blessed punyabhumi, the land of virtue. The land where humanity has attained its highest towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, According to Swami Vivekananda it is coordinated willpower that leads to independence. He gave the British colonial system as an example, with forty millions of Englishmen ruling three hundred millions of people in India, According to Vivekananda, the forty millions put their wills together and that resulted infinite power, and that was the reason of their success. Vivekananda prescribed, to make a great future India the whole serest will lie in organization, accumulation of power, According to Vivekananda the Indian race never cared about physical wealth, although they acquired immense wealth. Religion played a role in Vivekanandas ideas. To Vivekananda religion was not only talk or doctrine or theory and he said, t is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging, it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes. He also felt religion is the gist of all worship is to be pure, According to Swami Vivekananda, religion is the idea which is raising the brute into man, and man unto God. Vivekananda was deeply influenced by the Brahmo Samaj, and by his guru Ramakrishna, who regarded the Absolute, According to Michael Taft, Ramakrishna reconciled the dualism of form and formless, regarding the Supreme Being to be both Personal and Impersonal, active and inactive. Ramakrishna, The Personal and Impersonal are the thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other, the Divine Mother and Brahman are one. Swami Vivekananda compared human mind with a monkey who is always restless and he noticed, the human mind naturally wants to get outside, to peer out of the body, as it were, through the channels of the organs. So, he stressed on practice of concentration, as he felt there is no limit to the power of the mind, the more concentrated it is. Swami Vivekananda suggested not to do anything which disturbs the mind or makes it restless, although embracing and propagating Universalism, he regarded Hinduism the best of all religions, and Advaita Vedanta the best of what Indian religious thought had to offer. According to Vivekananda the greatest misfortune of the world is we do not tolerate, Swami Vivekananda concluded the story, According to Vivekananda we must not only tolerate other religions, but positively embrace them, since the truth is the basis of all religions
10.
Knowledge
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Knowledge can refer to a theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It can be implicit or explicit, it can be more or less formal or systematic, however, several definitions of knowledge and theories to explain it exist. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes, perception, communication, and reasoning, the eventual demarcation of philosophy from science was made possible by the notion that philosophys core was theory of knowledge, a theory distinct from the sciences because it was their foundation. Without this idea of a theory of knowledge, it is hard to imagine what philosophy could have been in the age of modern science, the definition of knowledge is a matter of ongoing debate among philosophers in the field of epistemology. Some claim that conditions are not sufficient, as Gettier case examples allegedly demonstrate. Richard Kirkham suggests that our definition of knowledge requires that the evidence for the belief necessitates its truth. In contrast to this approach, Ludwig Wittgenstein observed, following Moores paradox, that one can say He believes it, but it isnt so, but not He knows it, but it isnt so. He goes on to argue that these do not correspond to distinct mental states, what is different here is not the mental state of the speaker, but the activity in which they are engaged. For example, on account, to know that the kettle is boiling is not to be in a particular state of mind. Wittgenstein sought to bypass the difficulty of definition by looking to the way knowledge is used in natural languages and he saw knowledge as a case of a family resemblance. Following this idea, knowledge has been reconstructed as a concept that points out relevant features. Symbolic representations can be used to indicate meaning and can be thought of as a dynamic process, hence the transfer of the symbolic representation can be viewed as one ascription process whereby knowledge can be transferred. Other forms of communication include observation and imitation, verbal exchange, philosophers of language and semioticians construct and analyze theories of knowledge transfer or communication. In his collection of essays Technopoly, Neil Postman demonstrates the argument against the use of writing through an excerpt from Platos work Phaedrus, in this excerpt, the scholar Socrates recounts the story of Thamus, the Egyptian king and Theuth the inventor of the written word. In this story, Theuth presents his new invention writing to King Thamus, King Thamus is skeptical of this new invention and rejects it as a tool of recollection rather than retained knowledge. Media theorists like Andrew Robinson emphasise that the depiction of knowledge in the modern world was often seen as being truer than oral knowledge. It is harder to preserve records of what was said or who originally said it – usually neither the nor the content can be verified. Gossip and rumors are examples prevalent in both media, major libraries today can have millions of books of knowledge
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Thought
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Thought refers to ideas or arrangements of ideas that are the result of the process of thinking. Though thinking is an activity considered essential to humanity, there is no consensus as to how we define or understand it. Thinking allows humans to sense of, interpret, represent or model the world they experience. It is therefore helpful to an organism with needs, objectives, the word thought comes from Old English þoht, or geþoht, from stem of þencan to conceive of in the mind, consider. Definitions of thought may also be derived directly or indirectly from theories of thought, the notion of the fundamental role of non-cognitive understanding in rendering possible thematic consciousness informed the discussion surrounding Artificial Intelligence during the 1970s and 1980s. Phenomenology, however, is not the approach to thinking in modern Western philosophy. The mind-body problem concerns the explanation of the relationship exists between minds, or mental processes, and bodily states or processes. The main aim of working in this area is to determine the nature of the mind and mental states/processes. Someones desire for a slice of pizza, for example, will tend to cause that person to move his or her body in a specific manner and in a specific direction to obtain what he or she wants. The question, then, is how it can be possible for conscious experiences to arise out of a lump of gray matter endowed with nothing but electrochemical properties. A related problem is to explain how propositional attitudes can cause that individuals neurons to fire. These comprise some of the puzzles that have confronted epistemologists and philosophers of mind from at least the time of René Descartes, the above reflects a classical, functional description of how we work as cognitive, thinking systems. Therefore, functional analysis of the mind alone will always leave us with the problem which cannot be solved. A neuron is a cell in the nervous system that processes. Neurons are the components of the brain, the vertebrate spinal cord, the invertebrate ventral nerve cord. Motor neurons receive signals from the brain and spinal cord and cause muscle contractions, interneurons connect neurons to other neurons within the brain and spinal cord. Neurons respond to stimuli, and communicate the presence of stimuli to the nervous system. Neurons do not go through mitosis, and usually cannot be replaced after being destroyed, psychologists have concentrated on thinking as an intellectual exertion aimed at finding an answer to a question or the solution of a practical problem
12.
Learning
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The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, plants and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow a learning curve, Learning does not happen all at once, but it builds upon and is shaped by previous knowledge. To that end, learning may be viewed as a process, Learning produces changes in the organism and the changes produced are relatively permanent. Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development, schooling and it may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. The study of how learning occurs is part of psychology, neuropsychology, learning theory. Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness, Learning that an aversive event cant be avoided nor escaped is called learned helplessness. Play has been approached by several theorists as the first form of learning, children experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact through play. Lev Vygotsky agrees that play is pivotal for childrens development, since they make meaning of their environment through playing educational games, non-associative learning refers to a relatively permanent change in the strength of response to a single stimulus due to repeated exposure to that stimulus. Changes due to such factors as sensory adaptation, fatigue, or injury do not qualify as non-associative learning, non-associative learning can be divided into habituation and sensitization. Habituation is an example of learning in which the strength or probability of a response diminishes when the response is repeated. The response is typically a reflex or unconditioned response, thus, habituation must be distinguished from extinction, which is an associative process. In operant extinction, for example, a response declines because it is no longer followed by reward. An example of habituation can be seen in small song birds—if a stuffed owl is put into the cage, soon the birds react less, showing habituation. If another stuffed owl is introduced, the birds react to it again as though it were a predator, habituation has been shown in essentially every species of animal, as well as the sensitive plant Mimosa pudica and the large protozoan Stentor coeruleus. Sensitization is an example of learning in which the progressive amplification of a response follows repeated administrations of a stimulus. An everyday example of this mechanism is the repeated stimulation of peripheral nerves that occurs if a person rubs their arm continuously. After a while, this creates a warm sensation that eventually turns painful. The pain results from the progressively amplified synaptic response of the peripheral nerves warning that the stimulation is harmful, sensitisation is thought to underlie both adaptive as well as maladaptive learning processes in the organism
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Logical reasoning
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Informally, two kinds of logical reasoning can be distinguished in addition to formal deduction, induction and abduction. Example, When it rains, things outside get wet, the grass is outside, therefore, when it rains, the grass gets wet. Mathematical logic and philosophical logic are commonly associated with type of reasoning. Inductive reasoning attempts to support a determination of the rule and it hypothesizes a rule after numerous examples are taken to be a conclusion that follows from a precondition in terms of such a rule. Example, The grass got wet numerous times when it rained, therefore, while they may be persuasive, these arguments are not deductively valid, see the problem of induction. Science is associated with type of reasoning. Abductive reasoning, a. k. a. inference to the best explanation, given a true conclusion and a rule, it attempts to select some possible premises that, if true also, can support the conclusion, though not uniquely. Example, When it rains, the grass gets wet and this kind of reasoning can be used to develop a hypothesis, which in turn can be tested by additional reasoning or data. Diagnosticians, detectives, and scientists use this type of reasoning. Analogy Argument Defeasible reasoning Fallacy Inference Reason
14.
Cognition
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Cognition is the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses. Human cognition is conscious and unconscious, concrete or abstract, as well as intuitive, cognitive processes use existing knowledge and generate new knowledge. These and other different approaches to the analysis of cognition are synthesised in the field of cognitive science. Within psychology and philosophy, the concept of cognition is closely related to concepts such as mind. It encompasses the functions, mental processes, and states of intelligent entities. It is also used in a branch of psychology called social cognition to explain attitudes, attribution. In cognitive psychology and cognitive engineering, cognition is typically assumed to be processing in a participant’s or operator’s mind or brain. Cognition can in specific and abstract sense also be artificial. The term cognition is often used to mean cognitive abilities or cognitive skills. The word cognition comes from the Latin verb cognosco meaning to conceptualize or to recognize, Cognition is a word that dates back to the 15th century, when it meant thinking and awareness. Attention to the process came about more than eighteen centuries ago, beginning with Aristotle and his interest in the inner workings of the mind. Aristotle focused on cognitive areas pertaining to memory, perception, wilhelm Wundt heavily emphasized the notion of what he called introspection, examining the inner feelings of an individual. With introspection, the subject had to be careful to describe his or her feelings in the most objective manner possible in order for Wundt to find the information scientific, Hermann Ebbinghaus conducted cognitive studies that mainly examined the function and capacity of human memory. Ebbinghaus developed his own experiment in which he constructed over 2,000 syllables made out of nonexistent words and he then examined his own personal ability to learn these non-words. He purposely chose non-words as opposed to words to control for the influence of pre-existing experience on what the words might symbolize. Ebbinghaus observed and hypothesized a number of variables that may have affected his ability to learn, one of the reasons, he concluded, was the amount of time between the presentation of the list of stimuli and the recitation or recall of same. Ebbinghaus was the first to record and plot a curve. His work heavily influenced the study of serial position and its effect on memory, mary Whiton Calkins was an influential American pioneer in the realm of psychology
15.
Imagination
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Imagination, also called the faculty of imagining, is the creative ability to form images, ideas, and sensations in the mind without direct input from the senses, such as seeing or hearing. Imagination helps make knowledge applicable in solving problems and is fundamental to integrating experience, a basic training for imagination is listening to storytelling, in which the exactness of the chosen words is the fundamental factor to evoke worlds. It is accepted as the ability and process of inventing partial or complete personal realms within the mind from elements derived from sense perceptions of the shared world. The term is used in psychology for the process of reviving in the mind. Imagined images, both novel and recalled, are seen with the minds eye, Imagination can also be expressed through stories such as fairy tales or fantasies. Children often use such narratives and pretend play in order to exercise their imaginations, Imagination, not being limited to the acquisition of exact knowledge by the requirements of practical necessity is largely free from objective restraints. The ability to imagine ones self in another place is very important to social relations. Albert Einstein said, Imagination. is more important than knowledge, the same limitations beset imagination in the field of scientific hypothesis. Imagination is a partition of the mind used to develop theories. Taking objects from real perceptions, the imagination uses complex IF-functions to develop new or revised ideas and this part of the mind is vital to developing better and easier ways to accomplish old and new tasks. In sociology, Imagination is used to part ways with reality and have an understanding of interactions derived from a perspective outside of society itself. This leads to the development of theories through questions that wouldnt usually be asked and these experimental ideas can be safely conducted inside a virtual world and then, if the idea is probable and the function is true, the idea can be actualized in reality. Imagination is the key to new development of the mind and can be shared with others, ruth M. J. Byrne has proposed that everyday imaginative thoughts about counterfactual alternatives to reality may be based on the same cognitive processes on which rational thoughts are also based. Children can engage in the creation of alternatives to reality from their very early years. Memory and imagination have been shown to be affected by one another, images made by functional magnetic resonance imaging technology show that remembering and imagining sends blood to identical parts of the brain. This is significant because experiences stored as long term memories are easier to be recalled, each of these forms require information to be taught in a specific manner so as to use various regions of the brain when being processed. This information can help develop programs for young students to cultivate or further enhance their creative abilities from a young age. The neocortex and thalamus are responsible for controlling the brains imagination, along many of the brains other functions such as consciousness
16.
Intuition
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Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without proof, evidence, or conscious reasoning, or without understanding how the knowledge was acquired. The word intuition comes from the Latin verb intueri translated as consider or from late middle English word intuit, both Eastern and Western philosophers have studied the concept in great detail. Philosophy of mind deals with the concept of intuition, there are philosophers who contend that this concept is often confused with other concepts such as truth, belief, and meaning in philosophical discussion. In the East intuition is mostly intertwined with religion and spirituality, in Hinduism various attempts have been made to interpret the Vedic and other esoteric texts. However with knowledge by identity which we currently only gives the awareness of human existence can be extended further to outside of ourselves resulting in intuitive knowledge. He finds that this process seems to be a decent, is actual a circle of progress. As a lower faculty is being pushed to take up as much from a way of working. Advaita vedanta takes intuition to be an experience through which one can come in contact with, in Zen Buddhism various techniques have been developed to help develop ones intuitive capability, such as kó-an – the resolving of which leads to states of minor enlightenment. In parts of Zen Buddhism intuition is deemed a state between the Universal mind and ones individual, discriminating mind. In Islam there are scholars with varied interpretation of intuition. While Ibn Sīnā finds the ability of having intuition as a prophetic capacity terms it as a knowledge obtained without intentionally acquiring it and he finds regular knowledge is based on imitation while intuitive knowledge as based on intellectual certitude. In the West, intuition does not appear as a field of study. In his book Republic he tries to define intuition as a capacity of human reason to comprehend the true nature of reality. In his discussion with Meno & Phaedo, he describes intuition as a pre-existing knowledge residing in the soul of eternity, and he provides an example of mathematical truths, and posits that they are not arrived at by reason. He argues that these truths are accessed using an already present in a dormant form. This concept by Plato is also referred to as anamnesis. The study was continued by his followers. In his book Meditations on first philosophy, Descartes refers to an intuition as a pre-existing knowledge gained through rational reasoning or discovering truth through contemplation and this definition is commonly referred to as rational intuition
17.
Mind
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The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory. It is usually defined as the faculty of an entitys reasoning and it holds the power of imagination, recognition, and appreciation, and is responsible for processing feelings and emotions, resulting in attitudes and actions. One open question regarding the nature of the mind is the mind–body problem, pre-scientific viewpoints included dualism and idealism, which considered the mind somehow non-physical. Modern views center around physicalism and functionalism, which hold that the mind is identical with the brain or reducible to physical phenomena such as neuronal activity. Another question concerns which types of beings are capable of having minds, the concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different cultural and religious traditions. Some see mind as a property exclusive to humans whereas others ascribe properties of mind to non-living entities, to animals, important philosophers of mind include Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, Searle, Dennett, Fodor, Nagel, and Chalmers. Psychologists such as Freud and James, and computer scientists such as Turing, the original meaning of Old English gemynd was the faculty of memory, not of thought in general. Hence call to mind, come to mind, keep in mind, to have mind of, the word retains this sense in Scotland. Old English had other words to mind, such as hyge mind. The meaning of memory is shared with Old Norse, which has munr, the word is originally from a PIE verbal root *men-, meaning to think, remember, whence also Latin mens mind, Sanskrit manas mind and Greek μένος mind, courage, anger. The generalization of mind to all mental faculties, thought, volition, feeling and memory. The attributes that make up the mind is debated, some psychologists argue that only the higher intellectual functions constitute mind, particularly reason and memory. In this view the emotions — love, hate, fear, joy — are more primitive or subjective in nature and should be seen as different from the mind as such. Others argue that rational and emotional states cannot be so separated, that they are of the same nature and origin. In popular usage, mind is frequently synonymous with thought, the conversation with ourselves that we carry on inside our heads. Thus we make up our minds, change our minds or are of two minds about something, one of the key attributes of the mind in this sense is that it is a private sphere to which no one but the owner has access. No one else can know our mind and they can only interpret what we consciously or unconsciously communicate. Broadly speaking, mental faculties are the functions of the mind
18.
Logic
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Logic, originally meaning the word or what is spoken, is generally held to consist of the systematic study of the form of arguments. A valid argument is one where there is a relation of logical support between the assumptions of the argument and its conclusion. Historically, logic has been studied in philosophy and mathematics, and recently logic has been studied in science, linguistics, psychology. The concept of form is central to logic. The validity of an argument is determined by its logical form, traditional Aristotelian syllogistic logic and modern symbolic logic are examples of formal logic. Informal logic is the study of natural language arguments, the study of fallacies is an important branch of informal logic. Since much informal argument is not strictly speaking deductive, on some conceptions of logic, formal logic is the study of inference with purely formal content. An inference possesses a purely formal content if it can be expressed as an application of a wholly abstract rule, that is. The works of Aristotle contain the earliest known study of logic. Modern formal logic follows and expands on Aristotle, in many definitions of logic, logical inference and inference with purely formal content are the same. This does not render the notion of informal logic vacuous, because no formal logic captures all of the nuances of natural language, Symbolic logic is the study of symbolic abstractions that capture the formal features of logical inference. Symbolic logic is divided into two main branches, propositional logic and predicate logic. Mathematical logic is an extension of logic into other areas, in particular to the study of model theory, proof theory, set theory. Logic is generally considered formal when it analyzes and represents the form of any valid argument type, the form of an argument is displayed by representing its sentences in the formal grammar and symbolism of a logical language to make its content usable in formal inference. Simply put, formalising simply means translating English sentences into the language of logic and this is called showing the logical form of the argument. It is necessary because indicative sentences of ordinary language show a variety of form. Second, certain parts of the sentence must be replaced with schematic letters, thus, for example, the expression all Ps are Qs shows the logical form common to the sentences all men are mortals, all cats are carnivores, all Greeks are philosophers, and so on. The schema can further be condensed into the formula A, where the letter A indicates the judgement all - are -, the importance of form was recognised from ancient times
19.
Intellect
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Intellect is a term used in studies of the human mind, and refers to the ability of the mind to come to correct conclusions about what is true or real, and about how to solve problems. Historically the term comes from the Greek philosophical term nous, which was translated into Latin as intellectus, discussion of the intellect can be divided into two broad areas. In both of these areas, the intellect and intelligence have continued to be used as related words. In philosophy, especially in classical and medieval philosophy the intellect or nous is an important subject connected to the question of how humans can know things, also see, passive intellect and active intellect. In modern psychology and neuroscience, intelligence and intellect are used as terms describing mental ability that people to understand. A distinction is sometimes made whereby intellect is considered to be related to facts in contrast to intelligence concerning feelings, intellect refers to the cognition and rational mental processes gained through external input rather than internal. A person who uses intelligence and critical or analytical reasoning in either a professional or a capacity is often referred to as an intellectual. Intellect is often considered to be a branch of intelligence reflecting mainly its logical and rational side, because of the lack of emotional and sensitive engagement, intellect is sometimes considered to be strictly limited to the facts and not going beyond mere raw knowledge. However, intellect can carry a high level of complexity and thus avoid linear and formal logic patterns by referring to such processes as, for example, fuzzy logic. Experience plays a role in the formation of intellect. Through solving life problems people can reach intellectual enlightenment and improve their behavioral patterns to act reasonably and appropriately in the future. Therefore, intellectual development is encouraged by the feeling of dissatisfaction gained from particular situation’s outcome, only experience can provide people with genuine and thoughtful understanding of reality, which consequently contributes to intellectual development. Understanding is built upon creating a model of the reality through human perception, the process of finding solutions to life problems enriches human mental “database” of reality attributes. Intellect that reaches its maturity is referred as self-management, at this state intellect can encounter every problem it faces and not only change itself in the most efficient manner, but also alter the reality in the most desirable way. Overall, success and failure turn to depend primarily on the extent of intellectual capabilities, according to J. P. Guilford, intellect consists of three key parameters, operations, contents and products. Each parameter contains specific elements, which are independent and therefore should be measured individually, operations are represented by cognition, memory, divergent production, convergent production and evaluation. Content can be figural, symbolic, semantic and behavioral, products are divided into units, classes, relations, systems, transformations and implications. Intellectualization is a method, which is based on avoiding emotional penetration through intense intellectual focus
20.
Accuracy and precision
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Precision is a description of random errors, a measure of statistical variability. The two concepts are independent of other, so a particular set of data can be said to be either accurate, or precise. In the fields of science, engineering and statistics, the accuracy of a measurement system is the degree of closeness of measurements of a quantity to that quantitys true value. The precision of a measurement system, related to reproducibility and repeatability, is the degree to which repeated measurements under unchanged conditions show the same results. Although the two words precision and accuracy can be synonymous in colloquial use, they are contrasted in the context of the scientific method. A measurement system can be accurate but not precise, precise but not accurate, neither, for example, if an experiment contains a systematic error, then increasing the sample size generally increases precision but does not improve accuracy. The result would be a consistent yet inaccurate string of results from the flawed experiment, eliminating the systematic error improves accuracy but does not change precision. A measurement system is considered if it is both accurate and precise. Related terms include bias and error, the terminology is also applied to indirect measurements—that is, values obtained by a computational procedure from observed data. Statistical literature prefers to use the terms bias and variability instead of accuracy and precision, bias is the amount of inaccuracy and variability is the amount of imprecision. In military terms, accuracy refers primarily to the accuracy of fire, ideally a measurement device is both accurate and precise, with measurements all close to and tightly clustered around the true value. The accuracy and precision of a measurement process is established by repeatedly measuring some traceable reference standard. Such standards are defined in the International System of Units and maintained by national organizations such as the National Institute of Standards. This also applies when measurements are repeated and averaged, further, the central limit theorem shows that the probability distribution of the averaged measurements will be closer to a normal distribution than that of individual measurements. With regard to accuracy we can distinguish, the difference between the mean of the measurements and the value, the bias. Establishing and correcting for bias is necessary for calibration, the combined effect of that and precision. A common convention in science and engineering is to express accuracy and/or precision implicitly by means of significant figures, here, when not explicitly stated, the margin of error is understood to be one-half the value of the last significant place. For instance, a recording of 843.6 m, or 843.0 m, or 800.0 m would imply a margin of 0.05 m, while a recording of 8,436 m would imply a margin of error of 0.5 m
21.
Relevance
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Relevance is the concept of one topic being connected to another topic in a way that makes it useful to consider the second topic when considering the first. The concept of relevance is studied in different fields, including cognitive sciences, logic. Most fundamentally, however, it is studied in epistemology, different theories of knowledge have different implications for what is considered relevant and these fundamental views have implications for all other fields as well. Something is relevant to an if it increases the likelihood of accomplishing the goal. A thing might be relevant, a document or a piece of information may be relevant, the basic understanding of relevance does not depend on whether we speak of things or information. For example, the Gandhian principles are of relevance in todays world. If you believe that schizophrenia is caused by bad communication between mother and child, then family interaction studies become relevant, if, on the other hand, you subscribe to a genetic theory of relevance then the study of genes becomes relevant. If you subscribe to the epistemology of empiricism, then only intersubjectively controlled observations are relevant, if, on the other hand, you subscribe to feminist epistemology, then the sex of the observer becomes relevant. Epistemology is not just one domain among others, epistemological views are always at play in any domain. Those views determine or influence what is regarded relevant, in formal reasoning, relevance has proved an important but elusive concept. It is important because the solution of any problem requires the identification of the relevant elements from which a solution can be constructed. It is elusive, because the meaning of relevance appears to be difficult or impossible to capture within conventional logical systems. The obvious suggestion that q is relevant to p if q is implied by p breaks down because under standard definitions of material implication, a false proposition implies all other propositions. However though iron is a metal may be implied by cats lay eggs it doesnt seem to be relevant to it the way in which cats are mammals and mammals give birth to living young are relevant to each other. If one states I love ice cream, and another person responds I have a friend named Brad Cook, more recently a number of theorists have sought to account for relevance in terms of possible world logics in intensional logic. Relevance is argued to depend upon the relationship between an actual world in which relevance is being evaluated and the set of possible worlds within which it is true. The implication was that subjects, e. g. the study of medieval poetry. The economist John Maynard Keynes saw the importance of defining relevance to the problem of calculating risk in economic decision-making
22.
Length
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In geometric measurements, length is the most extended dimension of an object. In the International System of Quantities, length is any quantity with dimension distance, in other contexts length is the measured dimension of an object. For example, it is possible to cut a length of a wire which is shorter than wire thickness. Length may be distinguished from height, which is vertical extent, and width or breadth, length is a measure of one dimension, whereas area is a measure of two dimensions and volume is a measure of three dimensions. In most systems of measurement, the unit of length is a base unit, measurement has been important ever since humans settled from nomadic lifestyles and started using building materials, occupying land and trading with neighbours. As society has become more technologically oriented, much higher accuracies of measurement are required in a diverse set of fields. One of the oldest units of measurement used in the ancient world was the cubit which was the length of the arm from the tip of the finger to the elbow. This could then be subdivided into shorter units like the foot, hand or finger, the cubit could vary considerably due to the different sizes of people. After Albert Einsteins special relativity, length can no longer be thought of being constant in all reference frames. Thus a ruler that is one meter long in one frame of reference will not be one meter long in a frame that is travelling at a velocity relative to the first frame. This means length of an object is variable depending on the observer, in the physical sciences and engineering, when one speaks of units of length, the word length is synonymous with distance. There are several units that are used to measure length, in the International System of Units, the basic unit of length is the metre and is now defined in terms of the speed of light. The centimetre and the kilometre, derived from the metre, are commonly used units. In U. S. customary units, English or Imperial system of units, commonly used units of length are the inch, the foot, the yard, and the mile. Units used to denote distances in the vastness of space, as in astronomy, are longer than those typically used on Earth and include the astronomical unit, the light-year. Dimension Distance Orders of magnitude Reciprocal length Smoot Unit of length
23.
Language
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Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly the human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system. The scientific study of language is called linguistics, questions concerning the philosophy of language, such as whether words can represent experience, have been debated since Gorgias and Plato in Ancient Greece. Thinkers such as Rousseau have argued that language originated from emotions while others like Kant have held that it originated from rational and logical thought, 20th-century philosophers such as Wittgenstein argued that philosophy is really the study of language. Major figures in linguistics include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky, estimates of the number of languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. However, any precise estimate depends on an arbitrary distinction between languages and dialects. Natural languages are spoken or signed, but any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli – for example, in whistling, signed and this is because human language is modality-independent. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings, human language has the properties of productivity and displacement, and relies entirely on social convention and learning. Its complex structure affords a wider range of expressions than any known system of animal communication. Language is processed in different locations in the human brain. Humans acquire language through interaction in early childhood, and children generally speak fluently when they are approximately three years old. The use of language is deeply entrenched in human culture, a group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family. The languages of the Dravidian family that are mostly in Southern India include Tamil. Academic consensus holds that between 50% and 90% of languages spoken at the beginning of the 21st century will probably have become extinct by the year 2100. The English word language derives ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s tongue, speech, language through Latin lingua, language, tongue, and Old French language. The word is used to refer to codes, ciphers. Unlike conventional human languages, a language in this sense is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information. This article specifically concerns the properties of human language as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics. As an object of study, language has two primary meanings, an abstract concept, and a specific linguistic system, e. g. French
24.
Curiosity
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Curiosity is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans and other animals. Curiosity is heavily associated with all aspects of development, in which derives the process of learning and desire to acquire knowledge. The term curiosity can also be used to denote the behavior or emotion of being curious, curiosity as a behavior and emotion is attributed over millennia as the driving force behind not only human development, but developments in science, language, and industry. Curiosity can be seen as a quality of many different species. It is common to human beings at all ages from infancy through adulthood, and is easy to observe in other animal species, these include apes, cats. Early definitions cite curiosity as a desire for information. This motivational desire has been said to stem from a passion or an appetite for knowledge, information, like other desires and need states that take on an appetitive quality, curiosity is linked with exploratory behavior and experiences of reward. Curiosity can be described as positive emotions and acquiring knowledge, when one’s curiosity has been aroused it is considered inherently rewarding, discovering new information may also be rewarding because it can help reduce undesirable states of uncertainty rather than stimulating interest. Theories have arisen in attempts to understand this need to rectify states of uncertainty. Curiosity-drive theory relates to the experiences of uncertainty. The reduction of these unpleasant feelings, in turn, is rewarding and this theory suggests that people desire coherence and understanding in their thought processes. Once understanding of unfamiliar has been achieved and coherence has been restored, causes can range from basic needs that need to be satisfied to needs in fear induced situations. Each of these theories state, that whether the need is primary or secondary curiosity is developed from experiences that create a sensation of uncertainty or perceived unpleasantness. Curiosity then acts as a means in which to dispel this uncertainty, by exhibiting curious and exploratory behavior, one is able to gain knowledge of the unfamiliar and thus reduce the state of uncertainty or unpleasantness. This theory, however, does not address the idea that curiosity can often be displayed even in the absence of new or unfamiliar situations and this type of exploratory behavior is common in many species. Take the example of a toddler who, if bored in his current situation devoid of arousing stimuli. The observation of curiosity even in the absence of novel stimuli pinpoints one of the shortcomings in the curiosity-drive model. Optimal-arousal theory developed out of the need to explain the desire for some to seek out opportunities to engage in exploratory behaviors without the presence of uncertain or ambiguous situations
25.
Reason
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Reason, or an aspect of it, is sometimes referred to as rationality. Reasoning is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect, along these lines, a distinction is often drawn between discursive reason, reason proper, and intuitive reason, in which the reasoning process—however valid—tends toward the personal and the opaque. Reason, like habit or intuition, is one of the ways by which thinking comes from one idea to a related idea. For example, it is the means by which rational beings understand themselves to think about cause and effect, truth and falsehood, and what is good or bad. It is also identified with the ability to self-consciously change beliefs, attitudes, traditions, and institutions. In contrast to reason as a noun, a reason is a consideration which explains or justifies some event, phenomenon. The field of logic studies ways in which human beings reason formally through argument, the field of automated reasoning studies how reasoning may or may not be modeled computationally. Animal psychology considers the question of whether animals other than humans can reason, the original Greek term was λόγος logos, the root of the modern English word logic but also a word which could mean for example speech or explanation or an account. As a philosophical term logos was translated in its non-linguistic senses in Latin as ratio and this was originally not just a translation used for philosophy, but was also commonly a translation for logos in the sense of an account of money. French raison is derived directly from Latin, and this is the source of the English word reason. Some philosophers, Thomas Hobbes for example, also used the word ratiocination as a synonym for reasoning, Philosophy can be described as a way of life based upon reason, and in the other direction reason has been one of the major subjects of philosophical discussion since ancient times. Reason is often said to be reflexive, or self-correcting, and it has been defined in different ways, at different times, by different thinkers about human nature. Perhaps starting with Pythagoras or Heraclitus, the cosmos is even said to have reason, Reason, by this account, is not just one characteristic that humans happen to have, and that influences happiness amongst other characteristics. Within the human mind or soul, reason was described by Plato as being the monarch which should rule over the other parts, such as spiritedness. Aristotle, Platos student, defined human beings as rational animals and he defined the highest human happiness or well being as a life which is lived consistently, excellently and completely in accordance with reason. The conclusions to be drawn from the discussions of Aristotle and Plato on this matter are amongst the most debated in the history of philosophy. For example, in the neo-platonist account of Plotinus, the cosmos has one soul, which is the seat of all reason, Reason is for Plotinus both the provider of form to material things, and the light which brings individuals souls back into line with their source. The early modern era was marked by a number of significant changes in the understanding of reason, one of the most important of these changes involved a change in the metaphysical understanding of human beings
26.
Intelligence
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Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including as ones capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, planning, creativity and problem solving. It can be generally described as the ability to perceive information. Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also observed in non-human animals. Artificial intelligence is intelligence in machines and it is commonly implemented in computer systems using program software. Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to intelligence have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the public, as well as being the most researched. Intelligence derives from the Latin verb ability to think intelligere, to comprehend or perceive, a form of this verb, intellectus, became the medieval technical term for understanding, and a translation for the Greek philosophical term nous. Hobbes for example, in his Latin De Corpore, used intellectus intelligit as a example of a logical absurdity. The term intelligence has become less common in English language philosophy. The definition of intelligence is controversial, some groups of psychologists have suggested the following definitions, From Mainstream Science on Intelligence, an op-ed statement in the Wall Street Journal signed by fifty-two researchers. A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and it is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—catching on, making sense of things, Concepts of intelligence are attempts to clarify and organize this complex set of phenomena. Although considerable clarity has been achieved in areas, no such conceptualization has yet answered all the important questions. Indeed, when two dozen prominent theorists were recently asked to define intelligence, they gave two dozen, somewhat different, definitions, Intelligence enables humans to remember descriptions of things and use those descriptions in future behaviors. Intelligence enables humans to experience and think, note that much of the above definition applies also to the intelligence of non-human animals. Although humans have been the focus of intelligence researchers, scientists have also attempted to investigate animal intelligence, or more broadly. These researchers are interested in studying both mental ability in a species, and comparing abilities between species. They study various measures of problem solving, as well as numerical and verbal reasoning abilities, wolfgang Köhlers research on the intelligence of apes is an example of research in this area
27.
Inquiry
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An inquiry is any process that has the aim of augmenting knowledge, resolving doubt, or solving a problem. A theory of inquiry is an account of the types of inquiry. For if A is predicated of all B, and B of all C, A must necessarily be predicated of all C, I call this kind of figure the First. The locus classicus for the study of reasoning is found in Aristotles Prior Analytics, Book 2. Then that knowledge can be taught is evident, but whether virtue is knowledge is not clear, or again we have reduction if there are not many intermediate terms between B and C, for in this case too we are brought nearer to knowledge. For example, suppose that D is to square, E rectilinear figure, assuming that between E and F there is only one intermediate term — that the circle becomes equal to a rectilinear figure by means of lunules — we should approximate to knowledge. In the pragmatic philosophies of Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, borrowing a brace of concepts from Aristotle, Peirce examined three fundamental modes of reasoning that play a role in inquiry, commonly known as abductive, deductive, and inductive inference. In the pragmatic way of thinking everything has a purpose, the purpose of inquiry is to reduce doubt and lead to a state of belief, which a person in that state will usually call knowledge or certainty. For instance, the purpose of abduction is to generate guesses of a kind that deduction can explicate, in a similar fashion, each of the other types of inference realizes its purpose only in accord with its proper role in the whole cycle of inquiry. These ideas are summarize in the notion Community of inquiry, for our present purposes, the first feature to note in distinguishing the three principal modes of reasoning from each other is whether each of them is exact or approximate in character. Situated in this reality, approximations can be judged appropriate only in relation to their context of use. A parallel distinction that is made in this connection is to call deduction a demonstrative form of inference. Strictly speaking, the two modes of reasoning are not properly called inferences at all. They are more like controlled associations of words or ideas that just happen to be successful enough to be preserved as useful heuristic strategies in the repertoire of the agent. But non-demonstrative ways of thinking are inherently subject to error, and must be checked out. In a figurative sense, this means that only deductive logic can be reduced to a theoretical science. In describing the types of inference I will employ a few old terms of art from classical logic that are still of use in treating these kinds of simple problems in reasoning. Deduction takes a Case, the minor premise X ⇒ Y and combines it with a Rule, the major premise Y ⇒ Z to arrive at an Act, the demonstrative conclusion X ⇒ Z
28.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
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