creators_name: Gabora, Liane M.
type: journalp
datestamp: 2000-06-15
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:53
metadata_visibility: show
title: Weaving, Bending, Patching, Mending the Fabric of Reality: A Cognitive Science Perspective on Worldview Inconsistency
ispublished: pub
subjects: bio-ani-cog
subjects: bio-evo
subjects: cog-psy
subjects: comp-psy
subjects: comp-sci-art-intel
subjects: comp-sci-complex-theory
subjects: comp-sci-mach-dynam-sys
subjects: dev-psy
subjects: evol-psy
subjects: phil-epist
subjects: phil-metaphys
subjects: phil-mind
full_text_status: public
keywords: abstraction, annealing, associations, assumptions, autocatalysis, censorship, creativity, criticality, cognitive development, cognitive origins, concept, consciousness, cultural evolution, deception, distorted reality, emergence, fragmentation, inconsistency, invention, memory, memetics, noveltiy, reality, relationship, repression, representation, representational redescription, self-organization, worldview
abstract: 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.
date: 1999
date_type: published
publication: Foundations of Science
volume: 3
number: 2
pagerange: 395-428
refereed: TRUE
citation:   Gabora, Liane M.  (1999) Weaving, Bending, Patching, Mending the Fabric of Reality: A Cognitive Science Perspective on Worldview Inconsistency.  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/408/1/index.htm