TY - JOUR

T1 - Purposefulness as a principle of brain activity

AU - Vityaev, Evgenii E.

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - This paper considers two cognate notions: task and goal. Samokhvalov and Ershov, in their “Contemporary Philosophy of Mathematics,” argued that existing problems in the foundations of mathematics follow from insufficient precision of the task notion. A mathematical task is set only if we have a criterion of verifying its proof. Similar considerations arise for the notions of purpose/goal. We cannot attain the goal without having a criterion of its attainment; otherwise we can assume that the goal is already attained. The theory of functional systems (TFS) developed by Anokhin and many other distinguished scientists of his school is one of the few known physiological theories in which the notions of goal/purpose, result, anticipation and goal-directed behavior are the principal ones. Hence, TFS is a theory in which purposefulness is regarded as a principle of physiological activity. We present TFS as a theory of anticipatory functional systems characterized by purposeful activity.

AB - This paper considers two cognate notions: task and goal. Samokhvalov and Ershov, in their “Contemporary Philosophy of Mathematics,” argued that existing problems in the foundations of mathematics follow from insufficient precision of the task notion. A mathematical task is set only if we have a criterion of verifying its proof. Similar considerations arise for the notions of purpose/goal. We cannot attain the goal without having a criterion of its attainment; otherwise we can assume that the goal is already attained. The theory of functional systems (TFS) developed by Anokhin and many other distinguished scientists of his school is one of the few known physiological theories in which the notions of goal/purpose, result, anticipation and goal-directed behavior are the principal ones. Hence, TFS is a theory in which purposefulness is regarded as a principle of physiological activity. We present TFS as a theory of anticipatory functional systems characterized by purposeful activity.

KW - Anticipatory systems

KW - Behavior

KW - Brain

KW - Cognitive model

KW - Functional Systems

KW - Goal-directedness

KW - Purposeful activity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84936997438&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-19446-2_13

DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-19446-2_13

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84936997438

VL - 25

SP - 231

EP - 254

JO - Cognitive Systems Monographs

JF - Cognitive Systems Monographs

SN - 1867-4925

ER -