Explorations that go beyond what we assume to not be scientific may actually
be steming from in skepticism and critical inquiry, as Simon suggests. As
such, these explorations may be an honest search for possibilities that are
not constrained by postmodernist interpretations of the world, which in my
view tend to be dystopic.
All my best,
Natasha
Natasha Vita-More
-----Original Message-----
From: yasmin_discussions-bounces@estia.media.uoa.gr
[mailto:yasmin_discussions-bounces@estia.media.uoa.gr] On Behalf Of Pier
Luigi Capucci
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 5:08 AM
To: YASMIN DISCUSSIONS
Subject: Re: [Yasmin_discussions] Around Simulation II - Simulating
Empathyand Subjective Experience
Dear Simon,
thank you for your post, I quote part of it because I think it perfectly
fits inside the limits of the simulation processes and the un-simulatable.
About the simulation of empathy, raised from Jennifer, maybe we reach the
limits of the simulation issue too. I would emphasize the fact that maybe
empathy may not be only - or at all - a mind affair.
The discovery of the mirror neurons put a new way to watch to empathy, and
in general to some formerly mind related issues. In this respect Vittorio
Gallese, one of the members of the group of Giacomo Rizzolatti, who
discovered the mirror neurons system, speaks about "embodied simulation" as
the ability to "provide the means to share communicative intentions, meaning
and reference, thus granting the parity requirements of social
communication".
"The automatic translation of folk psychology into newly formed brain
modules specifically dedicated to mind-reading and other social cognitive
abilities should be carefully scrutinized. Searching for the brain location
of intentions, beliefs and desires-as such-might not be the best epistemic
strategy to disclose what social cognition really is. The results of
neurocognitive research suggest that in the brain of primates, mirror
neurons, and more generally the premotor system, play a major role in
several aspects of social cognition, from action and intention understanding
to language processing. This evidence is presented and discussed within the
theoretical frame of an embodied simulation account of social cognition.
Embodied simulation and the mirror neuron system underpinning it provide the
means to share communicative intentions, meaning and reference, thus
granting the parity requirements of social communication."
This is the paper:
http://www.unipr.it/arpa/mirror/pubs/pdffiles/Gallese/PhilTrans2007.pdf
Best,
Pier Luigi
Il giorno 24/gen/2011, alle ore 10.47, Simon Biggs ha scritto:
> I would propose that our understanding of ourselves, of the world
> around us, remains very limited. As a consequence of our limited
> knowledge I would argue that to date most things remain beyond our
capacity to simulate them.
> To claim we do have the capacity to simulate things is to assume we
> have knowledge of them we most likely do not possess. This would seem
> arrogant in the extreme. Further to this, a simulation is only a
> knowledge modelling activity. Even where we do have enough information
> about something to build what seems to be a useful and functional
> simulation it does not mean we have made an accurate copy of
> something. It is only as accurate as we are able to test its accuracy
> and that testing is constrained by what we know. Even the best
> simulations are likely to be incomplete or even erroneous in their
> conception. To assume otherwise is to consider oneself to have
> complete and irrefutable knowledge of something. That does not seem like
good (sceptical) science or philosophy. It starts to sound like arrogant
dogma.
--
Pier Luigi Capucci
e-mail: plc@noemalab.org
web: http://www.noemalab.org/plc/plc.html
skype: plcapucci
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