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Ideas for 'Unconscious Cerebral Initiative', 'Phil Applications of Cognitive Science' and 'How the Laws of Physics Lie'

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2 ideas

7. Existence / E. Categories / 2. Categorisation
Infant brains appear to have inbuilt ontological categories [Goldman]
     Full Idea: Infant behaviour implies inbuilt ontological categories of thing, place, event, path, action, sound, manner, amount and number. ...There is an algebra of relationships between them.
     From: Alvin I. Goldman (Phil Applications of Cognitive Science [1993], p.109)
     A reaction: Interesting. We would expect the categories in infant brains to have instrumental value, but we don't have to accept them as true. Adults (even Aristotle) are big infants.
7. Existence / E. Categories / 4. Category Realism
Causality indicates which properties are real [Cartwright,N]
     Full Idea: Causality is a clue to what properties are real.
     From: Nancy Cartwright (How the Laws of Physics Lie [1983], 9.3)
     A reaction: An interesting variant on the Shoemaker proposal that properties actually are causal. I'm not sure that there is anything more to causality that the expression in action of properties, which I take to be powers. Structures are not properties.