What is the cognition?

Journal title PNEI REVIEW
Author/s Joseph LeDoux
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/2
Language Italian Pages 10 P. 76-85 File size 135 KB
DOI 10.3280/PNEI2024-002010
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In The four realms of existence. A new theory of being human, translated by Cortina under the title The four realms of existence. A new theory of being human, the renowned New York scientist tackles “the difficult problem” of consciousness. He does so by starting from a concept, which he already expresses in the Preface: «the conscious understanding you have of your mind is an interpretation, or a narrative, that flows spontaneously from nonconscious processes», which are not the Freudian unconscious, as he wants to point out. However, the book, some 400 pages long, tells a much broader story, «Where our biological structure is the foundation of our neuronal structure, which underlies our cognitive structure and makes our conscious structure possible». However, this is not a reductionist view, but a «description of the interaction between biological, neurobiological, cognitive and conscious modes of being». We reproduce here, with the Editor’s permission, the entire Chapter 15 of the volume. Finally, for followers of polyvagal theory and McLean’s triune brain theory, we point out its radical critique on pages 119-123 under the title «Nonsense about the forebrain: a magical tale of brain evolution».

Keywords: cognition, non-cognitive and non-conscious, cognitive but not conscious, cognitive and conscious, working memory, Kahneman

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Joseph LeDoux, Che cos’è la cognizione? in "PNEI REVIEW" 2/2024, pp 76-85, DOI: 10.3280/PNEI2024-002010