Behind the Mirror: A Search for a Natural History of Human Knowledge
Encyclopedia
Behind the mirror, a search for a natural history of human knowledge was published by Konrad Lorenz
in 1973 as Die Rückseite des Spiegels, Versuch einer Naturgeschichte menschlichen Erkennens. The direct translation of the German title is "The back side of the mirror". Lorenz summarizes his life's work into his own philosophy: Evolution
is the process of growing perception of the outer world by living nature itself. Stepping from simple to higher organized organisms, Lorenz shows how they gain and benefit from information
. The methods mirrored by organs have been created in the course of evolution as the natural history
of this organism.
In the book, Lorenz uses the mirror as a simple model of the human brain
that reflects the part of the stream of information from the outside world it is able to "see". The backside of the mirror was created by evolution to gather as much information as needed to better survive. The picture in the mirror is what we see within our mind
. Within our cultural evolution we have extended this picture in the mirror by inventing instruments that transform the most needed of the invisible to something visible. The back side of the mirror is acting for itself as it processes the incoming information to improve speed and effectiveness. By that human inventions like logical conclusions are always in danger to be manipulated by these hardwired prejudices in our brain. The book gives a hypothesis how consciousness
was invented by evolution.
Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch...
in 1973 as Die Rückseite des Spiegels, Versuch einer Naturgeschichte menschlichen Erkennens. The direct translation of the German title is "The back side of the mirror". Lorenz summarizes his life's work into his own philosophy: Evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
is the process of growing perception of the outer world by living nature itself. Stepping from simple to higher organized organisms, Lorenz shows how they gain and benefit from information
Information
Information in its most restricted technical sense is a message or collection of messages that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or it is the meaning that can be interpreted from such a message or collection of messages. Information can be recorded or transmitted. It can be recorded as...
. The methods mirrored by organs have been created in the course of evolution as the natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
of this organism.
In the book, Lorenz uses the mirror as a simple model of the human brain
Brain
The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals—only a few primitive invertebrates such as sponges, jellyfish, sea squirts and starfishes do not have one. It is located in the head, usually close to primary sensory apparatus such as vision, hearing,...
that reflects the part of the stream of information from the outside world it is able to "see". The backside of the mirror was created by evolution to gather as much information as needed to better survive. The picture in the mirror is what we see within our mind
Mind
The concept of mind is understood in many different ways by many different traditions, ranging from panpsychism and animism to traditional and organized religious views, as well as secular and materialist philosophies. Most agree that minds are constituted by conscious experience and intelligent...
. Within our cultural evolution we have extended this picture in the mirror by inventing instruments that transform the most needed of the invisible to something visible. The back side of the mirror is acting for itself as it processes the incoming information to improve speed and effectiveness. By that human inventions like logical conclusions are always in danger to be manipulated by these hardwired prejudices in our brain. The book gives a hypothesis how consciousness
Consciousness
Consciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
was invented by evolution.
Main topics
- Fulguratio, the flash of lightning, denotes the act of creation of a totally new talent of a system, created by the combination of two other systems with talents much less than those of the new system. The book shows the "invention" of a feedback loop by this process.
- ImprintingImprintingImprinting may refer to:* Genomic imprinting , a mechanism of regulating gene expression* Imprinting , in psychology and ethology* Molecular imprinting, in polymer chemistry...
, is the phase-sensitive learning of an individual that is not reversible. It's a static program run only once. - HabituationHabituationHabituation can be defined as a process or as a procedure. As a process it is defined as a decrease in an elicited behavior resulting from the repeated presentation of an eliciting stimulus...
is the learning method to distinguish important information from unimportant by analysing its frequency of occurrence and its impact. - ConditioningConditioningConditioning may refer to:* In psychology, the process of performing some particular action to directly influence an individual's learning; see education...
by reinforcementReinforcementReinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behavior analysis for the process of increasing the rate or probability of a behavior in the form of a "response" by the delivery or emergence of a stimulus Reinforcement is a term in operant conditioning and behavior analysis for the process of...
, occurs when an event following a response causes an increase in the probability of that response occurring in the future. The ability to do this kind of learning is hardwired in our brain and is based on the principle of causalityCausalityCausality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
. The discovery of causalityCausalityCausality is the relationship between an event and a second event , where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first....
(which is a substantial element of scienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and BuddhismBuddhismBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
) was a major step of evolution in analysing the outer world. - Pattern matchingPattern matchingIn computer science, pattern matching is the act of checking some sequence of tokens for the presence of the constituents of some pattern. In contrast to pattern recognition, the match usually has to be exact. The patterns generally have the form of either sequences or tree structures...
is the abstraction of different appearances into the identification of being one object and is available only in highly organized creatures - Exploratory behaviour is the urge of the highest developed creatures on earth to go on with learning after maturity and leads to self-exploration which is the base for consciousnessConsciousnessConsciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
.
See also
- Evolutionary EpistemologyEvolutionary epistemologyEvolutionary epistemology refers to two distinct topics - on the one hand, the biological evolution of cognitive mechanisms in animals and humans, and on the other hand, a theory in that knowledge itself evolves by natural selection....
- Karl PopperKarl PopperSir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
- Karl PopperKarl PopperSir Karl Raimund Popper, CH FRS FBA was an Austro-British philosopher and a professor at the London School of Economics...
& Konrad LorenzKonrad LorenzKonrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch...
(1983). Die Zukunft ist offen, (The future is open) ISBN 3-492-10340-5
External links
- http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/58757/Behind-the-Mirror-A-Search-for-a-Natural-History-of-Human-Knowledge Comment
- http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Konrad_Lorenz Philosophy
- Karl Popper and Konrad Lorenz talk in German about "Die Rückseite des Spiegels" and their philosophy
- Konrad Lorenz shows the results of imprinting in a short video