Mathematical Models of Desire, Need, Attention, and Will Effort

Alexander J. Ovsich

Source Title: Advanced Research on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures

ISBN13: 9781522519478|ISBN10: 1522519475|EISBN13: 9781522519485

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1947-8.ch009

MLA

Ovsich, Alexander J. "Mathematical Models of Desire, Need, Attention, and Will Effort." Advanced Research on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, edited by Jordi Vallverdú, et al., IGI Global, 2017, pp. 1-37. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-1947-8.ch009

APA

Ovsich, A. J. (2017). Mathematical Models of Desire, Need, Attention, and Will Effort. In J. Vallverdú, M. Mazzara, M. Talanov, S. Distefano, & R. Lowe (Eds.), Advanced Research on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures (pp. 1-37). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-1947-8.ch009

Chicago

Ovsich, Alexander J. "Mathematical Models of Desire, Need, Attention, and Will Effort." In Advanced Research on Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architectures, edited by Jordi Vallverdú, et al., 1-37. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2017. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-1947-8.ch009

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Abstract

According to Spinoza, “Love is nothing else but pleasure accompanied by the idea of an external cause”. Author proposes that desire is nothing else but a change of pleasure accompanied by the idea of its cause, that terms ‘desire', ‘want' and their cognates describe change of the pleasantness of the state of a subject (PSS in short) associated with X, that if change of PSS is positive/negative, then X is called desirable/undesirable correspondingly. Both positive and negative desires can be strong, so strength of desire characterizes its magnitude. Need of X is defined here as a cyclical desire of X that gets stronger/weaker with dissatisfaction/satisfaction of its need. Author also explores an idea that the stronger is desire of X by a subject, the more attention this subject pays to X. Distribution of attention and influence on it by the will effort are analyzed in this paper.