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Abstract
Purpose – The chapter provides an exposition both of Hayek's causal theory of the mind (especially as applied to intentionality) and of Popper's critique of causal theories, argues that Hayek fails successfully to rebut Popper's critique, and shows how the dispute between Hayek and Popper is relevant to controversies in contemporary philosophy of mind.
Methodology/approach –The chapter elucidates Hayek's ideas and Popper's by situating them within the history of the mind/body problem and comparing them to the views of contemporary philosophers like Fred Dretske, Jerry Fodor, and Hilary Putnam.
Findings – Popper's critique has yet to be answered, either by Hayek or by contemporary causal theorists.
Originality/value of the chapter –The chapter calls attention to some important but neglected ideas of Hayek and Popper and examines some of their as-yet-unpublished writings.
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Joan Carles Mico, Salvador Amigó, Antonio Caselles and Pantaleón D. Romero
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the body-mind problem from a mathematical invariance principle in relation to personality dynamics in the psychological and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the body-mind problem from a mathematical invariance principle in relation to personality dynamics in the psychological and the biological levels of description.
Design/methodology/approach
The relationship between the two mentioned levels of description is provided by two mathematical models as follows: the response model and the bridge model. The response model (an integro-differential equation) is capable to reproduce the personality dynamics as a consequence of a determined stimulus. The invariance principle asserts that the response model can reproduce personality dynamics at the two levels of description. The bridge model (a second-order partial differential equation) can be deduced as a consequence of this principle: it provides the co-evolution of the general factor of personality (GFP) (mind), the it is an immediate early gene (c-fos) and D3 dopamine receptor gene (DRD3) gens and the glutamate neurotransmitter (body).
Findings
An application case is presented by setting up two experimental designs: a previous pilot AB pseudo-experimental design (AB) pseudo-experimental design with one subject and a subsequent ABC experimental design (ABC) experimental design with another subject. The stimulus used is the stimulant drug methylphenidate. The response and bridge models are validated with the outcomes of these experiments.
Originality/value
The mathematical approach here presented is based on a holistic personality model developed in the past few years: the unique trait personality theory, which claims for a single personality trait to understand the overall human personality: the GFP.
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This paper aims to examine the feasibility of artificial intelligence (AI) performing as chief executive officer (CEO) in organizations.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the feasibility of artificial intelligence (AI) performing as chief executive officer (CEO) in organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors followed an explorative research design – classic grounded theory methodology. The authors conducted face-to-face interviews with 27 participants that were selected according to theoretical sampling. The sample consisted of academics from the fields of AI, philosophy and management; experts and artists performing in the field of AI and professionals from the business world.
Findings
As a result of the grounded theory process “The Vizier-Shah Theory” emerged. The theory consisted of five theoretical categories: narrow AI, hard problems, debates, solutions and AI-CEO. The category “AI as a CEO” introduces four futuristic AI-CEO models.
Originality/value
This study introduces an original theory that explains the evolution process of narrow AI to AI-CEO. The theory handles the issue from an interdisciplinary perspective by following an exploratory research design – classic grounded theory and provides insights for future research.
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Purpose – This chapter aims to critically examine how Hayek's philosophical psychology helps defend his liberalism.Methodology/approach – It is commonly argued that The Sensory…
Abstract
Purpose – This chapter aims to critically examine how Hayek's philosophical psychology helps defend his liberalism.
Methodology/approach – It is commonly argued that The Sensory Order enables Hayek to strengthen the epistemological theses of his social philosophy against constructivist rationalism by demonstrating why the mind as a complex order can never fully explain itself and why only “explanation of the principle” is possible for complex phenomena. Building on this argument, the chapter attempts to show that we can reconstruct a liberal conception of man who is distinct, creative yet culturally embedded from Hayek's philosophical psychology.
Findings – This chapter contends that a better understanding of Hayek's liberal self not only can enrich our analysis of the strengths and problems of Hayekian liberalism but also help counter some of the major criticisms against The Sensory Order.
Research limitations/implications – The findings of this chapter suggest that while Hayek's epistemological defense of liberalism is both powerful and thought-provoking, there is a danger that he tends to treat individual liberty as an instrumental value without adequately taking into account the intrinsic value of individuality. This chapter tries to offer some preliminary analysis of this problem and points to the direction that thinkers sympathetic to Hayek's liberalism can further develop his defense by making good this inadequacy in future research.
Originality/Value of the chapter – This chapter attempts to reconstruct a liberal self from Hayek's philosophical psychology and subject such a conception to critical scrutiny in the light of Hayek's defense of liberalism. This is an area that is relatively neglected and needs to be better explored by Hayek scholars.
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This chapter explores the ways in which cybernetics influenced the works of F. A. Hayek from the late 1940s onward. It shows that the concept of negative feedback, borrowed from…
Abstract
This chapter explores the ways in which cybernetics influenced the works of F. A. Hayek from the late 1940s onward. It shows that the concept of negative feedback, borrowed from cybernetics, was central to Hayek’s attempt to explain the principle of the emergence of human purposive behavior. Next, the chapter discusses Hayek’s later uses of cybernetic ideas in his works on the spontaneous formation of social orders. Finally, Hayek’s view on the appropriate scope of the use of cybernetics is considered.
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Being the most complex cybernetic regulatory mechanism existing in the universe, the human brain has given birth to a plethora of theories and models. In this paper, some of the…
Abstract
Being the most complex cybernetic regulatory mechanism existing in the universe, the human brain has given birth to a plethora of theories and models. In this paper, some of the most important ideas of the area are discussed together with appurtenant concepts like emotions, feelings, and morality. A conclusion was that in comparison with other animals, human beings are physically slow and ineffective. Moreover, human beings are very subjective with senses easily saturated by information. In spite of these shortcomings, thanks to his self‐conscious and error‐tolerant brain, man has turned out to be extremely successful, specialized in the weighing of uncertainty and making creative associations between different objects.
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Purpose – The conceptual ideas of Hebb, Heisenberg, and Feynman are embedded in the framework Hayek's so-called New Psychology. The present survey tries to bridge these…
Abstract
Purpose – The conceptual ideas of Hebb, Heisenberg, and Feynman are embedded in the framework Hayek's so-called New Psychology. The present survey tries to bridge these concepts.
Methodology – A theoretical and empirical informed approach.
Findings – The theory of D. O. Hebb opened the way to “Neurobiology of Learning” in the past century. The S-Matrix theory of Werner Heisenberg and the so-called Feynman Diagrams that consider everything in the path-history of particles opened up new avenues to predict production of elementary particles. This as Hayek proposed or assumed in his theoretical monograph The Sensory Order.
Originality/value of paper – Besides Fuster and Edelman few (if any) currently practicing neuroscientists have any knowledge of or appreciation of Hayek's philosophical psychology.
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Philip Thomas, Pat Bracken and Sami Timimi
Evidence‐based medicine (EBM) is a technical and scientific paradigm in clinical practice that has delivered major improvements in the outcome of care in medicine and surgery…
Abstract
Purpose
Evidence‐based medicine (EBM) is a technical and scientific paradigm in clinical practice that has delivered major improvements in the outcome of care in medicine and surgery. However, its value in psychiatry is much less clear. The purpose of the paper is thus to examine its value by subjecting empirical evidence from EBM to a conceptual analysis using the philosophy of Thomas Kuhn.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors examine evidence drawn from meta‐analyses of RCTs investigating the efficacy of specific treatments for depression in the form of antidepressant drugs and CBT. This shows that the non‐specific aspects of treatment, the placebo effect and the quality of the therapeutic alliance as seen by the patient, are more important in determining outcome than the specific elements (active drug, specific therapeutic elements of CBT).
Findings
Using the philosophy of Thomas Kuhn, it is shown that these non‐specific and non‐technical elements are anomalies that indicate that the technological paradigm in the treatment of depression is fundamentally flawed.
Practical implications
Non‐specific elements of mental health care are essential in fostering hope, trust and meaning. They constitute non‐technical factors that are central to the concept of caring, and vital for recovery, and which resonate strongly with the growth of survivor and user‐led systems of support for people who experience distress and madness. As such they pose a major challenge to scientific psychiatry and mental health services based in this. The analysis has major implications for the primacy of the natural sciences in the education and training of those involved in mental health work, and demonstrates the importance of an open debate about the value of the scientific imagination in mental health work.
Social implications
This paper is important because it supports user‐led self‐defined notions and understandings of recovery, and does so using a philosophical conceptual analysis.
Originality/value
This conceptual analysis is highly original. To the authors' knowledge no one has subjected EBM to a detailed conceptual analysis using the ideas of Thomas Kuhn.
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Joseph M. Firestone and Mark W. McElroy
Knowledge management (KM) as a field has been characterized by great confusion about its conceptual foundations and scope, much to the detriment of assessments of its impact and…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge management (KM) as a field has been characterized by great confusion about its conceptual foundations and scope, much to the detriment of assessments of its impact and track record. The purpose of this paper is to contribute toward defining the scope of KM and ending the confusion, by presenting a conceptual framework and set of criteria for evaluating whether claimed KM interventions are bona fide instances of it or are interventions of another sort.
Design/methodology/approach
Methods used include conceptual evaluation and critique of a variety of types of “KM interventions” and presentation of a detailed analysis of an unambiguous case (The Partners HealthCare case) where KM has been successful.
Findings
The critical analysis indicates that the use of tools and methods associated with KM does not imply that interventions using them are KM interventions, and most “KM projects” are probably interventions of other types. The analysis also illustrates a pattern of intervention that can serve as the basis of a long‐term systematic strategy for implementing KM.
Originality/value
This is the first detailed examination of whether KM is really being done by those who claim to be doing it. It should be of value to all those who think about the scope of organizational learning and KM, and who care about unbiased assessments of its performance.
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Summarizes the basic principles of Bioenergetics along with its origin in Riechian psychology. Clarifies that Bioenergetics is used at Cranfield not as psychotherapy, but as an…
Abstract
Summarizes the basic principles of Bioenergetics along with its origin in Riechian psychology. Clarifies that Bioenergetics is used at Cranfield not as psychotherapy, but as an aid to personal development for a specific population of high‐functioning individuals, i.e. managers. Places the Bioenergetic body‐mind notion into a philosophical context of human goodness and potential; thus expanding the focus to body‐mind‐spirit. Examines five body‐mind types through the following aspects: how they operate at work; how they were formed; key attitudes; unique gifts; body shape; development path; how they are best managed. Case histories illustrating the different types in various modes of consultant intervention, i.e. individual development, team building and culture change.
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