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
    2. Characterizing rationality
    3. Designing minds

  3. Why mechanics now?
    1. Impediments to understanding
    2. Vital analogy
    3. Physical analogy
    4. Machine analogy
    5. Appraisal

Part II: Reconstructing Rational Mechanics

  1. What is mechanics?
    1. The nature of mechanics
    2. The structure of modern mechanics
    3. A path to a general mechanics
    4. Organization of the exposition

  2. Kinematics
    1. Bodies
    2. Events
    3. Time
    4. Space
    5. Bodies in space
    6. Motion in space

  3. Dynamics
    1. Mass
    2. Momentum
    3. Force
    4. Force and motion
    5. Energy

  4. The character of mechanical law
    1. Mechanical processes
    2. Determinism
    3. Continuity
    4. Conservation
    5. Economy
    6. Reversibility
    7. 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?
    4. An example: reason maintenance

  2. Mind and body
    1. Bodies
    2. Forces

  3. Attitudes, outlook, and memory
    1. Attitudinal structure and variety
    2. Discrete binary information space
    3. Motion
    4. Mass
    5. Momentum
    6. Force
    7. Energy
    8. Illustration: simple computation

  4. Reasoning
    1. Reasons
    2. Reasoned positions
    3. Reasoned motion
    4. Reason forces
    5. Reason stresses

  5. Rationality
    1. Limits on rationality
    2. Inherent rationality
    3. Rational motives

  6. Learning
    1. Accretion
    2. Stretching
    3. Shearing
    4. Configurational intentions
    5. Relaxation and adaptation
    6. Evolution of geometry

  7. Uncertainty
    1. Measurement uncertainty
    2. Probabilistic indeterminism
    3. Self-measurement

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?
    4. Science without reductionism
    5. The end(s) of science

  3. Effectiveness
    1. What is effective computation?
    2. Why effectiveness?
    3. Is computation effective?

  4. Finitism
    1. What is finitism?
    2. Why finitism?
    3. Is finitism true?
    4. Summary

Part V: Conclusion of the Matter

  1. Reflections
    1. Assessment
    2. Prospects
    3. Perspective