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 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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
R.D. Alexander: 1975, The Search for a General Theory of Behavior. Behavioral Sciences 20: 77–100.
R.D. Alexander: 1979, Darwinism and Human Affairs. University of Washington Press.
P. Bak, C. Tang and K. Weisenfeld: 1988, Self-organized Criticality. Phys. Rev. A 38: 364.
L.W. Barsalou: in press, Perceptual Symbol Systems. Submitted to Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
F.C. Bartlett: 1932, Remembering. Columbia University Press.
F.C. Bartlett: 1958, Thinking: An Experiment and Social Study. Basic Books.
A.T. Beck, A. Freeman and Associates: 1990, Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders. Guilford.
S.C. Cemin and L. Smolin: in press, Coevolution of Membranes and Channels: A Possible Step in the Origin of Life. Submitted to Journal of Theoretical Biology (October, 1997), adap-org/9709004.
A.B. Cohen: 1994, Training Synaptic Delays in a Recurrent Neural Network. M.S. Thesis, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel. ftp://archive.cis.ohiostate. edu/pub/neuroprose/Thes is/cohen.thesis.ps.Z.
R.A. Cozzio-Bu: 1995, The Design of Neural Networks Using a Priori Knowledge. Ph.D. Thesis, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. ftp://archive.cis.ohio-state.edu/pub/neuroprose/Thes is/cozzio.thesis.ps.Z.
R. Dawkins: 1976, The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press.
R. Dawkins: 1982, The Extended Phenotype: The Gene as the Unit of Selection. W. H. Freeman and Company.
M. Donald: 1991, Origins of the Modern Mind. Harvard University Press.
M. Donald: 1993, Precis of Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16: 737–791.
J.D. Farmer, S.A. Kauffman and N.H. Packard: 1987, Autocatalytic Replication of Polymers. Physica D 22(50).
L. Gabora: 1997, The Origin and Evolution of Culture and Creativity. Journal of Memetics: Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission Vol. 1, Issue 1. http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1997/vol1/gabora_l.html.
L. Gabora: 1998, Autocatalytic Closure in a Cognitive System: A Tentative Scenario for the Origin of Culture. Accepted for publication in Psycholoquy 9(67). (Also available at http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane/ACSS/).
C.M. Heyes: 1998, Theory of Mind in Nonhuman Primates. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 21(1): 104–134.
P. Kanerva: 1988, Sparse Distributed Memory. MIT Press.
A. Karmiloff-Smith: 1992, Beyond Modularity: A Developmental Perspective on Cognitive Science. MIT Press.
S.A. Kauffman: 1993, Origins of Order. Oxford University Press.
J.R. Krebs and R. Dawkins: 1984, Animal Signals: Mind Reading and Manipulation, in: J.R. Krebs and N.B. Davies, eds., Behavioral Ecology. Sinauer Associates.
D.H. Lee, J.R. Granja, J.A. Martinez, K. Severin, and M.R. Ghadiri: 8 August 1996, A Self-Replicating Peptide. Nature 382: 525–528.
D.H. Lee, K. Severin, Yokobayashi and M.R. Ghadiri: 11 December 1997, Emergence of Symbiosis in Peptide Self-Replication through a Hypercyclic Network. Nature 390: 591–594.
B.B. Mandelbrot: 1982, The Fractal Nature of Geometry. W.H. Freedman and Company.
M. Minsky: 1985, The Society of Mind. Simon and Schuster.
R.W. Mitchell and N.S. Thompson (eds.): 1986, Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit. SUNY Press.
H.J. Morowitz: 1992, The Beginnings of Cellular Life. Yale University Press.
A.I. Oparin: 1971, Routes for the Origin of the First Forms of Life. Sub. Cell. Biochem. 1: 75.
M.W. Palmer: 1992, The Coexistence of Species in Fractal Landscapes. American Naturalist 139: 375–397.
J. Piaget: 1926, The Language and Thought of the Child. Harcourt Brace.
J. Piaget: 1936/52, The Origin of Intelligence in Children. International Universities Press.
E. Rosch: 1987, Principles of Categorization, in: E. Rosch and B.B. Lloyd, eds., Cognition and Categorization. Erlbaum.
K. Severin, D.H. Lee, A.J. Kennan and M.R. Ghadiri: 16 October 1997, A Synthetic Peptide Ligase. Nature 389: 706–709.
R. Schank and R.P. Abelson: 1977, Scripts, Plans, Goals, and Understanding: An Inquiry into Human Knowledge Structures. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
I. Scheuring and R.H. Riedi: 1994, Application of Multifractals to the Analysis of Vegetation Pattern. Journal of Vegetation Science 5: 489–496.
R.E. Steuer: 1986, Multiple Criteria Optimization: Theory, Computation, and Applications. John Wiley and Sons.
R.L. Trivers: 1976, Forward in R. Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. Oxford Press.
R.L. Trivers: 1985, Social Evolution. Cummings.
B. Wallace: 1973, Misinformation, Fitness, and Selection. American Naturalist 107: 1–7.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gabora, L. Weaving, Bending, Patching, Mending the Fabric of Reality: A Cognitive Science Perspective on Worldview Inconsistency. Foundations of Science 3, 395–428 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009646612330
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009646612330