3 private links
The mind and brain sciences began with consciousness as a central concern. But for much of the 20th century, ideological and methodological concerns relegated its empirical study to the margins. Since the 1990s, studying consciousness has regained a legitimacy and momentum befitting its status as the primary feature of our mental lives. Nowadays, consciousness science encompasses a rich interdisciplinary mixture drawing together philosophical, theoretical, computational, experimental, and clinical perspectives, with neuroscience its central discipline. Researchers have learned a great deal about the neural mechanisms underlying global states of consciousness, distinctions between conscious and unconscious perception, and self-consciousness. Further progress will depend on specifying closer explanatory mappings between (first-person subjective) phenomenological descriptions and (third-person objective) descriptions of (embodied and embedded) neuronal mechanisms. Such progress will help reframe our understanding of our place in nature and accelerate clinical approaches to a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders.
Ben-Ze’ev, A & Krebs, A. (2014). “Do only dead fish swim with the stream? The role
of intuition, emotion and deliberation in love and work.” In In Fröse, M. W.,
Kaudela-Baum, S., and Dievernich, E. P. F. (Eds.), Emotionen und Intuitionen in Führung
und Management – Eine Aufsatzsammlung. Springer Gabler Verlag.
PDF : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/300897006/download
Decision-making mechanisms
“Only dead fish swim with the stream.” Malcolm Muggeridge
“An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.” Aldous Huxley
Many people's long-term romantic behavior is similar to dead fish floating with the current, slowly drifting with the stream. Is such behavior damaging? Not always, it would seem.
Decision-making mechanisms :
- Deliberative thinking (Awareness : High, Control : High, Speed : Medium, Goal-direction : Medium)
- Emotional intuition (Awareness : Medium, Control : Medium, Speed : High, Goal-direction : High)
- Drifting (Awareness : Low, Control : Low, Speed : Low, Goal-direction : Low)
Deliberative thinking typically involves slow and conscious processes, which are largely under voluntary control.
Emotional intuition consists of a dispositional mechanism activating ready-made patterns that have been set during evolution, social, and personal development. Unlike deliberative thinking, emotional intuition is fast, automatic, and accompanied by considerably less awareness.
Drifting is another type of decision making; it is actually an avoidance mechanism involving not deciding, or deciding not to decide. The meaning of “drifting” that I use here is that of moving slowly and aimlessly, especially as a result of outside forces, with very little control over direction.