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Dear Hans Kuijper,<br>
<br>
I am glad that you wrote to us. Do you think that human societies,
countries, and politics, can be viewed effectively from basic
principles of natural sciences to more scientifically address many
problems facing us?<br>
<br>
"Lifting the study of China onto a higher plane": Did you post the
entire article? I did not see the article, only a title.<br>
<br>
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<a
href="http://www.brain-mind-magazine.org/read.php?file=BMM-V1-N2-paper5-Obama.pdf#view">The
2nd Open Letter to the US President Obama: Why US Should Be
Friendly with Every Government?</a> <br>
In the above letter, I thought about international relations from a
viewpoint of basic science. Interestingly, humans repeat mistakes
over and over again in history. It is hard for them to see complex
things through basic sciences.<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
-John<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 2/14/13 5:38 PM, hans kuijper wrote:<br>
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<div><font face="Arial">Dear BMILISTS,</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Over the last three months or so, I have
been following some of your work with great interest, trying
to understand it in the context of fast developing cognitive
science(s?). I do believe that <strong>the mind is embodied</strong>
and consequently biologists, particularly brain scientists,
(will) have a lot to say about this ill-defined 'thing'. </font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">However, educated in the humanities (I
graduated in sinology from Leyden University) and becoming
increasingly interested in the science of complexity, I
believe that <strong>the mind is also embedded</strong>. For,
as Lev Vygotsky already argued in his book <em>Mind in Society</em>
(1930): 'The mind cannot be understood in isolation from the
surrounding society', an original idea revisited in Andrzej
Nowak, Katarzyna Winkowska-Nowak and David Brée (eds.), <em>Complex
Human Dynamics: From Mind to Society</em>, Springer, 2013.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Culture (that other notoriously difficult
to describe 'thing', about which many books have been written)
seems to be the missing link between mind and society. So the
conundrum workers in the natural and cultural (<em>i.e. </em>social
and human) sciences should address collaboratively is the
identification, characterisation and understanding of <strong>the
intimate connection between</strong> <strong>mind's
embodiedness and embeddedness</strong>.<strong> </strong></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><strong></strong></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Arguably, there is nothing more complex
than a country, or a culture, being a hypercomplex system of
complex systems in context (its outside world). If 'a
revolution is occurring in the social sciences', as the
editors of <em>Complex Human Dynamics </em>claim, that
easily overlooked point is to be taken into account. See
the article 'Lifting the study of China onto a higher plane'
that I recently posted on the website <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.academia.edu">www.academia.edu</a>.
<strong><em> </em></strong></font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Since I am currently working on a book
provisionally entitled <em>The Complexity of Countries</em>,
I wonder if anyone of you could suggest what I should
definitely read to be well-informed about the cutting edge
research not only on <u>brain</u>, <u>mind</u>, <u>society</u>
and <u>culture</u> but also (and perhaps in the first place)
on the relationships between these intricately patterned
entities. </font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Needless to say, I would be most grateful
if you could help me.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Yours sincerely,</font> </div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Hans Kuijper</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Joliotplaats 5</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">3069 JJ Rotterdam</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">The Netherlands</font></div>
<div> </div>
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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
--
Juyang (John) Weng, Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
MSU Cognitive Science Program and MSU Neuroscience Program
3115 Engineering Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824 USA
Tel: 517-353-4388
Fax: 517-432-1061
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:weng@cse.msu.edu">weng@cse.msu.edu</a>
URL: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/">http://www.cse.msu.edu/~weng/</a>
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