Extending Mechanics to Minds

The Mechanical Foundations of Psychology and Economics

Jon Doyle

Contents

Part I: Reconciling Natural and Mental Philosophy

  1. Mechanical intelligence
    1. Mechanical philosophy
    2. The great divorce
    3. The awaiting reconciliation

  2. Why mechanics?
    1. Rethinking materialism
      1. Interacting minds and bodies
      2. Correlation
      3. Mechanical reasoning
        1. States of reasoning
        2. Structure of reasoning
        3. Reasoned motion
        4. Reason force
    2. Characterizing rationality
      1. What is rationality?
        1. Psychological rationality
        2. Logical rationality
        3. Economic rationality
      2. Human rationality
        1. Humane logical rationality
        2. Humane economic rationality
        3. Humane psychological rationality
        4. Do the differences matter?
      3. Mechanical rationality
        1. Mental inertia
        2. Mental effort
        3. Self-control
        4. Self-consciousness
    3. Designing minds
      1. Design specifications
      2. Predicting performance
      3. Achieving efficiency

  3. Why mechanics now?
    1. Impediments to understanding
      1. Phenomenal complexity
      2. Inadequate mathematics
      3. Piecemeal models
      4. Simplistic models
      5. Repugnant formalisms
    2. Vital analogy
      1. Biological analogy
      2. Anthropological analogy
      3. Theological analogy
    3. Physical analogy
      1. Chemical analogy
      2. Dynamical analogy
      3. Energetical analogy
      4. Thermodynamical analogy
    4. Machine analogy
      1. Examples and exceptions
      2. Machines without mechanics
      3. The costs of division
    5. Appraisal

Part II: Reconstructing Rational Mechanics

  1. What is mechanics?
    1. The nature of mechanics
      1. Mechanical laws
      2. Defining mechanics
      3. Distinguishing mechanics from mathematics
    2. The structure of modern mechanics
      1. General laws
      2. Special laws
    3. A path to a general mechanics
      1. Formal bases for mechanics
      2. Broadening the general laws
        1. Discrete mechanics
        2. Hybrid mechanics
        3. The bottom line
      3. Adding new special laws
    4. Organization of the exposition

  2. Kinematics
    1. Bodies
      1. Universes
        1. Ordering
        2. Bounding bodies
        3. Separation
        4. Overlap
        5. Subuniverses
        6. Substructure
        7. Examples
      2. Extensions
    2. Events
      1. Framings
      2. Neoclassical event worlds
    3. Time
      1. Continuous metric time
      2. Discrete time
        1. Ordering and intervals
        2. Temporal indices
        3. Duration
      3. Hybrid time
        1. Hybrid instants
        2. Hybrid order and duration
      4. Extensions
    4. Space
      1. Continuous Euclidean space
      2. Frame indifference
      3. Discrete space
        1. Algebraic structures
        2. Pseudo-Euclidean space
        3. Examples
        4. Extensions
      4. Hybrid space
        1. Hybrid translation space
        2. Hybrid frames
        3. Hybrid substructure
      5. Extensions
        1. Manifolds
        2. Discrete manifolds
        3. State space
        4. Event worlds
    5. Bodies in space
      1. Placements
      2. Examples
      3. Configurations
      4. Deformations
      5. Extensions
      6. Special kinematic laws
        1. Deformation classes
        2. Placement classes
    6. Motion in space
      1. Deformation processes
      2. Intrinsic motion
      3. Extrinsic motion
      4. Hybrid motion
      5. Discrete motion
      6. Motion from flows
      7. Nondeterministic motions

  3. Dynamics
    1. Mass
      1. Massy bodies
      2. Mass configurations
      3. Mass variation
      4. Mass, place, and body
      5. Discrete mass
        1. Mass values
        2. Examples
        3. Mass configurations
        4. Nonmassy bodies
      6. Hybrid mass
    2. Momentum
      1. Linear momentum
      2. Rotational momentum
      3. Discrete momentum
        1. Momentum values
        2. Bilinearity
        3. Dimensionality
        4. Geometry
        5. Duality
      4. Hybrid momentum
    3. Force
      1. Systems of forces
        1. Force values
        2. Additive forces
        3. Measurable forces
        4. Pairwise equilibrated forces
        5. Applied forces and self-forces
        6. Balanced forces
        7. Body and contact forces
      2. Torques
      3. Stress
      4. Discrete forces and torques
      5. Hybrid forces
    4. Force and motion
      1. Working
      2. Inertia
    5. Energy
      1. Energetic bodies
      2. Energy values
      3. Energy configurations
      4. Additive energies
      5. Heating
      6. Kinetic and total energy

  4. The character of mechanical law
    1. Mechanical processes
      1. Response functionals
      2. Frame indifference
    2. Determinism
      1. What is determinism?
      2. Why determinism?
      3. Is determinism true?
        1. Pseudoindeterminism
        2. Pseudodeterminism
        3. Human experience
        4. Free will
      4. Specializing determinism
    3. Continuity
      1. What is continuity?
      2. Why continuity?
      3. Is continuity true?
        1. Physical continuity
        2. Computational continuity
        3. Hybrid continuity
      4. Smoothness and relative continuity
      5. The character of discontinuities
    4. Conservation
      1. What are conservative systems?
      2. Why conservative systems?
      3. Are conservation principles true?
      4. Formalizing conservation principles
        1. Ordering changes
        2. Conservative histories
        3. Energetic conservatism
    5. Economy
      1. What is economy of action?
      2. Why economize action?
      3. Is economy of action true?
        1. Truth without consequences
        2. The simple truth
      4. Economy of action as physical law
    6. Reversibility
      1. What is reversibility?
      2. Why reversibility?
      3. Is reversibility true?
        1. Theoretical reversibility
        2. Theoretical irreversibility
        3. Phenomenological irreversibility
        4. Punctuated reversibility
    7. Locality
      1. What is locality?
      2. Why locality?
      3. Is locality true?
        1. Locality from local methodology
        2. Formal locality
        3. Intimations of nonlocality
      4. Localizing locality

Part III: Mechanical Minds

  1. Mental varieties
    1. What is plural discrete affective cognition?
    2. Why plural discrete affective cognition?
    3. Are such minds mechanical?
      1. Psychological ambiguities
      2. Interpretational ambiguities
    4. An example: reason maintenance
      1. What is reason maintenance?
      2. Why reason maintenance?
        1. Computation
        2. Psychology
        3. Economics
        4. Summary

  2. Mind and body
    1. Bodies
      1. Simple dualism
      2. Mental sensorimotor substructure
      3. Mental substructure
    2. Forces
      1. Hybrid forces
      2. Body, contact, and self-forces
      3. Intentionality

  3. Attitudes, outlook, and memory
    1. Attitudinal structure and variety
    2. Discrete binary information space
      1. Binary translation space
      2. Binary algebra
      3. Other algebras
      4. Inner products and metrics
      5. Changes of frame
    3. Motion
      1. Velocity and acceleration
      2. Configuration and deformation
    4. Mass
      1. Mass values
      2. Spatial representations
    5. Momentum
    6. Force
      1. Environmental interactions
      2. Spatial and mass forces
    7. Energy
    8. Illustration: simple computation

  4. Reasoning
    1. Reasons
      1. Simple reasons
      2. Interval reasons
      3. Reasons as directional derivatives
    2. Reasoned positions
    3. Reasoned motion
      1. Single reason motion
      2. Multireason motion
      3. Removal of reasons
    4. Reason forces
      1. Friction and inertial motion
      2. Superposition and conflict resolution
      3. Frame indifference
    5. Reason stresses
      1. Reasons as tensors
      2. Reasoner surfaces
      3. Cauchy's first law of motion
      4. Serial composition

  5. Rationality
    1. Limits on rationality
      1. Work and effort
        1. Magnitude of force
        2. Channel capacity
        3. Rate of change
        4. Continuity
      2. Attention and volition
        1. Attention and stable deliberate response
        2. Couples and unstable wanton response
      3. Rigidity
    2. Inherent rationality
      1. Constitutive logics
      2. Information systems
        1. Limited consistency
        2. Limited entailment
        3. Information elements and approximation
        4. Frame indifference
      3. Admissible positions
    3. Rational motives
      1. Motivational forces
      2. Motivational character
      3. Utility gradient forces
      4. Cognitive forces
      5. Habit
      6. Refraction and elastic forces
      7. Conceptual forces

  6. Learning
    1. Accretion
    2. Stretching
    3. Shearing
      1. Intentions and differential effects
      2. Conservative response
    4. Configurational intentions
      1. Self-specifications
      2. Satisfaction systems
      3. Locality
      4. Frame indifference
      5. Constitutive self-specification
      6. Constructive configurations
        1. Grounded construction
        2. Rational construction
        3. Personal construction
    5. Relaxation and adaptation
      1. Integral motion
      2. Subintegral motion
      3. Applied forces and self-forces
      4. Conservatism
    6. Evolution of geometry

  7. Uncertainty
    1. Measurement uncertainty
    2. Probabilistic indeterminism
      1. Probabilities of states
      2. Probabilities of state transitions
        1. Markovian probabilities
        2. Constructive probabilities
        3. Inertial indeterminacy
      3. Probability of belief
    3. Self-measurement
      1. Subjective probability
      2. Weakness of will
      3. Consequential measurement
        1. Dyadic states
        2. Dyadic reasons
      4. Measurement operators
        1. Hermitian operators
        2. Probability amplitudes and graded states
        3. States versus actions
      5. Simultaneous measurability

Part IV: The Metaphysics of Mechanics

  1. Materialism
    1. What is materialism?
    2. Why materialism?
    3. Is materialism true?
    4. New materials for materialism

  2. Reductionism
    1. What is reducibility?
    2. Why reducibility?
    3. Is physical reducibility true?
      1. Successes of reducibility
      2. False successes
      3. Failures of reducibility
        1. Hopeless reductions
        2. Preposterous reductions
      4. Extrapolation from experience
    4. Science without reductionism
    5. The end(s) of science

  3. Effectiveness
    1. What is effective computation?
    2. Why effectiveness?
    3. Is computation effective?
      1. Physical computability
      2. Effective operations
      3. Physics of computation

  4. Finitism
    1. What is finitism?
    2. Why finitism?
    3. Is finitism true?
      1. Probabilities
      2. Initial conditions
      3. Mental materials
    4. Summary

Part V: Conclusion of the Matter

  1. Reflections
    1. Assessment
      1. Importance
      2. Interpretation
      3. Inspiration
    2. Prospects
      1. Axiomatic psychology
      2. Psychological engineering
      3. Is intelligence intelligible?
      4. Additional applications
    3. Perspective
      1. Mathematics
      2. Mechanics
      3. Mind
      4. Merging
      5. Moral