TY  - GEN
ID  - cogprints408
UR  - http://cogprints.org/408/
A1  - Gabora, Liane M.
Y1  - 1999///
N2  - In order to become aware of inconsistencies, one must first construe of the world in a way that reflects its consistencies. This paper begins with a tentative model for how a set of discrete memories transforms into an interconnected worldview wherein relationships between memories are forged by way of abstractions. Inconsistencies prompt the invention of new abstractions. In regions of the conceptual network where inconsistencies abound, a cognitive analog of simulated annealing is in order; there is a willingness to question previous assumptions—to ‘loosen’ conceptual relationships—so as to let new concepts thoroughly percolate through the worldview and exert the needed revolutionary effect. In so doing there is a risk of assimilating dangerous concepts. Repression arrests the process by which dangerous thoughts infiltrate the conceptual network, and deception blocks thoughts that have already been assimilated. These forms of self-initiated worldview inconsistency may evoke feelings of fragmentation at the level of the individual or the society.
KW  - abstraction
KW  -  annealing
KW  -  associations
KW  -  assumptions
KW  -  autocatalysis
KW  -  censorship
KW  -  creativity
KW  -  criticality
KW  -  cognitive development
KW  -  cognitive origins
KW  -  concept
KW  -  consciousness
KW  -  cultural evolution
KW  -  deception
KW  -  distorted reality
KW  -  emergence
KW  -  fragmentation
KW  -  inconsistency
KW  -  invention
KW  -  memory
KW  -  memetics
KW  -  noveltiy
KW  -  reality
KW  -  relationship
KW  -  repression
KW  -  representation
KW  -  representational redescription
KW  -  self-organization
KW  -  worldview
TI  - Weaving, Bending, Patching, Mending the Fabric of Reality: A Cognitive Science Perspective on Worldview Inconsistency
SP  - 395
AV  - public
EP  - 428
ER  -

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