Helen Morton

In this first detailed account of growing up in Tonga, Helen Morton focuses on the influence of anga fakatonga ("the Tongan way") in all facets of Tongan childhood, from the antenatal period to late adolescence. Childhood is a crucial period when cultural identity and notions of tradition are constructed, as well as beliefs about self, personhood, and emotion. Based on her anthropological fieldwork and her experiences in Tonga over several years, Morton traces the Tongan socialization process--from being vale (ignorant, socially incompetent) to becoming poto (clever, socially competent)--in fascinating detail. The socialization of emotion is also given detailed attention, especially the management of anger and emphasis on emotional restraint.

An Ethnography of Childhood

Becoming Tongan

Igor Aleksander

Aristotle's convincing philosophy is likely to have shaped (even indirectly) many of our current beliefs, prejudices and attitudes to life. This includes the way in which our mind (that is, our capacity to have private thoughts) appears to elude a scientific description. This book is about a scientific ingredient that was not available to Aristotle: the science of information. Would the course of the philosophy of the mind have been different had Aristotle pronounced that the matter of mind was information? This “mind is information” assertion is often heard in contemporary debates, and this book explores the verities and falsehoods of this proposition. Contents:Overview: From Aristotle to the Bits of an Informational MindShannon: The Reluctant Hero of the Information AgeBillions of Brain Cells: Guesses and ModelsImagination in the Circles of a NetworkPhenomenal Information: The World and Neural StatesInformation Integration: The Key to Consciousness?The Joy of Seeing: Gathering Visual InformationThe Informational Mind: Oxymoron or New Science?The Unconscious Mind: Freud's Influential VisionAristotle's Living Soul Readership: Philosophers, scientists and those interested in consciousness and machine consciousness; readers of multidisciplinary books on machine analyses of consciousness. Keywords:Aristotle;Consciousness;Machine Consciousness;Artificial Intelligence;Philosophy;Information;The Information Age;Information Theory;Automata TheoryReviews: “Individual chapters of this book might be used to introduce postgraduates to information theory, and this book is recommended for a university that offers courses in consciousness studies and/or in the history of science. In particular 'Shannon: The Reluctant Hero of the Information Age' provides some interesting information about several people from different areas of expertise who worked in Bell Labs and MIT.” Online Information Review

The Discovery of our Informational Mind

Aristotle's Laptop

Aristotle's convincing philosophy is likely to have shaped (even indirectly) many of our current beliefs, prejudices and attitudes to life. This includes the way in which our mind (that is, our capacity to have private thoughts) appears to elude a scientific description. This book is about a scientific ingredient that was not available to Aristotle: the science of information. Would the course of the philosophy of the mind have been different had Aristotle pronounced that the matter of mind was information? This “mind is information” assertion is often heard in contemporary debates, and this book explores the verities and falsehoods of this proposition.

Helen Morton

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