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== [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cognition_and_decision/Introduction '''Introduction''']<br> == | == [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cognition_and_decision/Introduction '''Introduction''']<br> == | ||
What is the relationship between life and thought? Are all living organisms capable of thinking? Or is thought restricted to animals with nervous systems and brains? Or is it restricted only to human beings, or to us and a few of the other ‘higher’ animals? In any case, what is the relation between thought (which takes place, we like to say, in the mind) and the actual physical processes that take place in the brains of animals and human beings when they are thinking? For that matter, what does it mean to say that thinking, like other forms of organic activity, is subject to, and determined by, physical laws? Is it meaningful to ascribe ‘free will’ to human beings and other organisms? Or are thought processes strictly deterministic, so that ‘free will’ is just an illusion? <br><br> These are all speculative, metaphysical questions, which philosophers have been actively discussing for at least several thousand years. They cannot be answered by science alone. But at the very least, biological research of the past several decades has given us vastly more information about cognition and thought, in human beings and in other organisms, than we ever possessed before. In what follows, I would like to look briefly at some of this research, and ponder its implications. [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cognition_and_decision/Introduction (more)] <br> | What is the relationship between life and thought? Are all living organisms capable of thinking? Or is thought restricted to animals with nervous systems and brains? Or is it restricted only to human beings, or to us and a few of the other ‘higher’ animals? In any case, what is the relation between thought (which takes place, we like to say, in the mind) and the actual physical processes that take place in the brains of animals and human beings when they are thinking? For that matter, what does it mean to say that thinking, like other forms of organic activity, is subject to, and determined by, physical laws? Is it meaningful to ascribe ‘free will’ to human beings and other organisms? Or are thought processes strictly deterministic, so that ‘free will’ is just an illusion? <br><br> These are all speculative, metaphysical questions, which philosophers have been actively discussing for at least several thousand years. They cannot be answered by science alone. But at the very least, biological research of the past several decades has given us vastly more information about cognition and thought, in human beings and in other organisms, than we ever possessed before. In what follows, I would like to look briefly at some of this research, and ponder its implications. [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cognition_and_decision/Introduction (more)] <br> | ||
== <br> '''Decision-Making and Free Will in Biological Organisms''' <br><br> == | == <br> '''Decision-Making and Free Will in Biological Organisms''' <br><br> == | ||
Gabor Balazsi, Alexander van Oudenaarden, and James J. Collins Cellular<br> | Gabor Balazsi, Alexander van Oudenaarden, and James J. Collins Cellular<br> [http://www.bu.edu/abl/files/cell_balazsi.pdf Cellular Decision Making and Biological Noise: From Microbes to Mammals] | ||
[http://www.bu.edu/abl/files/cell_balazsi.pdf Decision Making and Biological Noise: From Microbes to Mammals] | |||
Alexander Maye, Chih-hao Hsieh, George Sugihara, Bjorn Brembs<br> | Alexander Maye, Chih-hao Hsieh, George Sugihara, Bjorn Brembs<br> [http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0000443 Order in Spontaneous Behavior] | ||
[http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0000443 Order in Spontaneous Behavior] | |||
Björn Brembs<br> | Björn Brembs<br> [http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/12/14/rspb.2010.2325 Towards a Scientific Concept of Free Will as a Biological Trait: Spontaneous Actions and Decision-making in Invertebrates] | ||
[http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/12/14/rspb.2010.2325 Towards a Scientific Concept of Free Will as a Biological Trait: Spontaneous Actions and Decision-making in Invertebrates] | |||
== <br> '''Bacterial Cognition''' <br><br> == | == <br> '''Bacterial Cognition''' <br><br> == | ||
Eshel Ben Jacob, Yoash Shapira, Alfred I. Tauber<br> | Eshel Ben Jacob, Yoash Shapira, Alfred I. Tauber<br> [http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/papers/sdarticle.pdf Seeking the Foundations of Cognition in Bacteria: From Schrodinger's Negative Entropy to Latent Information] | ||
[http://star.tau.ac.il/~eshel/papers/sdarticle.pdf Seeking the Foundations of Cognition in Bacteria: From Schrodinger's Negative Entropy to Latent Information] | |||
== <br> '''Plant Cognition''' <br><br> == | == <br> '''Plant Cognition''' <br><br> == | ||
Anthony Trewavas<br> | Anthony Trewavas<br> [http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/1/1.full Aspects of Plant Intelligence] | ||
[http://aob.oxfordjournals.org/content/92/1/1.full Aspects of Plant Intelligence] | |||
Ian T. Baldwin, Rayko Halitschke, Anja Paschold, Caroline C. von Dahl, Catherine A. Preston<br> | Ian T. Baldwin, Rayko Halitschke, Anja Paschold, Caroline C. von Dahl, Catherine A. Preston<br> [http://www.uvm.edu/~biology/Classes/269/talking_trees.pdf Volatile Signaling in Plant-Plant Interactions: "Talking Trees" in the Genomics Era] | ||
[http://www.uvm.edu/~biology/Classes/269/talking_trees.pdf Volatile Signaling in Plant-Plant Interactions: "Talking Trees" in the Genomics Era] | |||
== <br> '''Cognition and Decision in Slime Molds''' <br><br> == | == <br> '''Cognition and Decision in Slime Molds''' <br><br> == | ||
Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Yasumasa Nishiura, and Tetsuo Ueda<br> | Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Yasumasa Nishiura, and Tetsuo Ueda<br> [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691859/ Obtaining Multiple Separate Food Sources: Behavioural Intelligence in the Physarum plasmodium] | ||
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691859/ Obtaining Multiple Separate Food Sources: Behavioural Intelligence in the Physarum plasmodium] | |||
Tanya Latty and Madeleine Beekman<br> | Tanya Latty and Madeleine Beekman<br> [http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/08/05/rspb.2010.1045 Irrational Decision-making in an Amoeboid Organism: Transitivity and Context-dependent Preferences] | ||
[http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/08/05/rspb.2010.1045 Irrational Decision-making in an Amoeboid Organism: Transitivity and Context-dependent Preferences] | |||
== <br> '''The Biological Basis of Cognition, Decision, Activity, and Moods''' <br><br> == | == <br> '''The Biological Basis of Cognition, Decision, Activity, and Moods''' <br><br> == | ||
Björn Brembs<br> | Björn Brembs<br> [http://bjoern.brembs.net/request79.html The Importance of Being Active] | ||
[http://bjoern.brembs.net/request79.html The Importance of Being Active] | |||
Melissa Bateson, Suzanne Desire, Sarah E. Gartside, and Geraldine A. Wright<br> | Melissa Bateson, Suzanne Desire, Sarah E. Gartside, and Geraldine A. Wright<br> [http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982211005446 Agitated Honeybees Exhibit Pessimistic Cognitive Biases] <br><br> [http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cognition_and_decision/Attributions Attributions] | ||
[http://www.cell.com/current-biology/retrieve/pii/S0960982211005446 Agitated Honeybees Exhibit Pessimistic Cognitive Biases] | |||
<br><br> | |||
[http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/books/Cognition_and_decision/Attributions Attributions] | |||
Revision as of 14:26, 29 August 2011
Cognition and Decision
edited by Steven Shaviro
Introduction
What is the relationship between life and thought? Are all living organisms capable of thinking? Or is thought restricted to animals with nervous systems and brains? Or is it restricted only to human beings, or to us and a few of the other ‘higher’ animals? In any case, what is the relation between thought (which takes place, we like to say, in the mind) and the actual physical processes that take place in the brains of animals and human beings when they are thinking? For that matter, what does it mean to say that thinking, like other forms of organic activity, is subject to, and determined by, physical laws? Is it meaningful to ascribe ‘free will’ to human beings and other organisms? Or are thought processes strictly deterministic, so that ‘free will’ is just an illusion?
These are all speculative, metaphysical questions, which philosophers have been actively discussing for at least several thousand years. They cannot be answered by science alone. But at the very least, biological research of the past several decades has given us vastly more information about cognition and thought, in human beings and in other organisms, than we ever possessed before. In what follows, I would like to look briefly at some of this research, and ponder its implications. (more)
Decision-Making and Free Will in Biological Organisms
Gabor Balazsi, Alexander van Oudenaarden, and James J. Collins Cellular
Cellular Decision Making and Biological Noise: From Microbes to Mammals
Alexander Maye, Chih-hao Hsieh, George Sugihara, Bjorn Brembs
Order in Spontaneous Behavior
Bacterial Cognition
Eshel Ben Jacob, Yoash Shapira, Alfred I. Tauber
Seeking the Foundations of Cognition in Bacteria: From Schrodinger's Negative Entropy to Latent Information
Plant Cognition
Anthony Trewavas
Aspects of Plant Intelligence
Ian T. Baldwin, Rayko Halitschke, Anja Paschold, Caroline C. von Dahl, Catherine A. Preston
Volatile Signaling in Plant-Plant Interactions: "Talking Trees" in the Genomics Era
Cognition and Decision in Slime Molds
Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Yasumasa Nishiura, and Tetsuo Ueda
Obtaining Multiple Separate Food Sources: Behavioural Intelligence in the Physarum plasmodium
Tanya Latty and Madeleine Beekman
Irrational Decision-making in an Amoeboid Organism: Transitivity and Context-dependent Preferences
The Biological Basis of Cognition, Decision, Activity, and Moods
Björn Brembs
The Importance of Being Active
Melissa Bateson, Suzanne Desire, Sarah E. Gartside, and Geraldine A. Wright
Agitated Honeybees Exhibit Pessimistic Cognitive Biases
Attributions