Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint

Brentano, Franz

doi:10.4324/9780203202883

Cited by 122 publications

(151 citation statements)

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“…In the cognitive sciences, neurosciences, and the philosophy of mind, the concept of representation has been used to try and explain naturalistically how the fundamental property of 'aboutness' or 'intentionality' emerges in living systems (Brentano, 1973). Indeed, living creatures must interact with the world in which they are embedded, and must distinguish environmental features and other organisms that are relevant for their survival, from those that are not.…”

Section: Introduction: Neural Representations and Their (Dis)contentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Free-Energy Principle a Formal Theory of Semantics? From Variational Density Dynamics to Neural and Phenotypic Representations

Ramstead

Friston

Hipólito

2020

Entropy

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The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to assess whether the construct of neural representations plays an explanatory role under the variational free-energy principle and its corollary process theory, active inference; and (2) if so, to assess which philosophical stance—in relation to the ontological and epistemological status of representations—is most appropriate. We focus on non-realist (deflationary and fictionalist-instrumentalist) approaches. We consider a deflationary account of mental representation, according to which the explanatorily relevant contents of neural representations are mathematical, rather than cognitive, and a fictionalist or instrumentalist account, according to which representations are scientifically useful fictions that serve explanatory (and other) aims. After reviewing the free-energy principle and active inference, we argue that the model of adaptive phenotypes under the free-energy principle can be used to furnish a formal semantics, enabling us to assign semantic content to specific phenotypic states (the internal states of a Markovian system that exists far from equilibrium). We propose a modified fictionalist account—an organism-centered fictionalism or instrumentalism. We argue that, under the free-energy principle, pursuing even a deflationary account of the content of neural representations licenses the appeal to the kind of semantic content involved in the ‘aboutness’ or intentionality of cognitive systems; our position is thus coherent with, but rests on distinct assumptions from, the realist position. We argue that the free-energy principle thereby explains the aboutness or intentionality in living systems and hence their capacity to parse their sensory stream using an ontology or set of semantic factors.

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Section: Introduction: Neural Representations and Their (Dis)contentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Free-Energy Principle a Formal Theory of Semantics? From Variational Density Dynamics to Neural and Phenotypic Representations

Ramstead

Friston

Hipólito

2020

Entropy

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“…Relationship ( 4) is often referred to as Ekman's law and below the coefficient κ e will be called Ekman fraction. It should be noted that Ekman's law as a conjecture was put forward by Franz Brentano (1838Brentano ( -1917 whose work influenced also the development of phenomenology as a branch of philosophy [28]. Keeping in mind my further constructions I want to emphasize that Ekman's law:…”

Section: Basic Psychophysical Laws and Fechner-stevens Dilemmamentioning

confidence: 90%

Psychophysical laws as reflection of mental space properties

Lubashevsky

2019

Physics of Life Reviews

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The paper is devoted to the relationship between psychophysics and physics of mind. The basic trends in psychophysics development are briefly discussed with special attention focused on Teghtsoonian's hypotheses. These hypotheses pose the concept of the universality of inner psychophysics and enable to speak about psychological space as an individual object with its own properties. Turning to the two-component description of human behavior (I. Lubashevsky, Physics of the Human Mind, Springer, 2017) the notion of mental space is formulated and human perception of external stimuli is treated as the emergence of the corresponding images in the mental space. On one hand, these images are caused by external stimuli and their magnitude bears the information about the intensity of the corresponding stimuli. On the other hand, the individual structure of such images as well as their subsistence after emergence is determined only by the properties of mental space on its own. Finally, the mental operations of image comparison and their scaling are defined in a way allowing for the bounded capacity of human cognition. As demonstrated, the developed theory of stimulus perception is able to explain the basic regularities of psychophysics, e.g., (i ) the regression and range effects leading to the overestimation of weak stimuli and the underestimation of strong stimuli, (ii ) scalar variability (Weber's and Ekman' laws), and (iii ) the sequential (memory) effects. As the final result, a solution to the Fechner-Stevens dilemma is proposed. This solution posits that Fechner's logarithmic law is not a consequences of Weber's law but stems from the interplay of uncertainty in evaluating stimulus intensities and the multi-step scaling required to overcome the stimulus incommensurability.

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“…We used a phenomenological approach (Brentano, 2012) to qualitatively investigate and deepen our understanding of the lived experiences of health care providers, including their attitudes, perceived competence, and ability to prioritize delivering HIV-related services to TW and MSM patients. Qualitative data were gathered using semi-structured, one-on-one interviews until data saturation (Saunders et al, 2018) was reached with regard to our primary aims.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prioritizing HIV Services for Transgender Women and Men Who Have Sex With Men in Manila, Philippines: An Opportunity for HIV Provider Interventions

Restar¹,

Chan²,

Adia³

et al. 2020

J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care

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Transgender women (TW) and men who have sex with men (MSM) are highly affected by the rising HIV epidemic in the Philippines. HIV providers are essential to curbing the epidemic. Between July and August 2017, we conducted one-on-one qualitative interviews with 15 HIV providers in Manila, Philippines. Overall, providers reported tension between willingness to provide care versus actual competencies. Most discussed treating every patient equally regardless of gender or sexual identities. However, many expressed hesitancies in providing HIV services due to (a) not knowing the health needs of TW and MSM, (b) having little to no training in HIV, and difficulty being sensitive to patient gender and sexuality. Although providers were unsure about how to prioritize HIV services for TW and MSM, some expressed interest in learning and engaging these populations in their practices. Our findings suggest the importance of providerfocused interventions to prioritize TW and MSM health needs.

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Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint

Cited by 122 publications

References 0 publications

Is the Free-Energy Principle a Formal Theory of Semantics? From Variational Density Dynamics to Neural and Phenotypic Representations

Is the Free-Energy Principle a Formal Theory of Semantics? From Variational Density Dynamics to Neural and Phenotypic Representations

Psychophysical laws as reflection of mental space properties

Prioritizing HIV Services for Transgender Women and Men Who Have Sex With Men in Manila, Philippines: An Opportunity for HIV Provider Interventions

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