Homotopic Hierarchies of Mental Content: A Structural Account of Percepts, Beliefs, and Artificial Cognition. This item is unavailable.Homotopic Hierarchies of Mental Content: A Structural Account of Percepts, Beliefs, and Artificial Cognition

What is the difference between seeing and believing? How does the mind transform raw perception into structured thought? In this interdisciplinary work, Francis Erdman proposes a new way of understanding mental content. Drawing on ideas from topology, he challenges the traditional divide between percepts and beliefs, arguing that both arise from a unified process of transformation across time. Rather than treating thoughts as fixed representations, this framework emphasizes what remains the same as experience changes. The book then extends this perspective into artificial intelligence. If human cognition depends on recognizing patterns that persist through variation, can machines be designed to do the same? In response, Erdman introduces a neural–topological–symbolic framework aimed at improving how AI systems generalize, recognize structure, and make decisions. Bridging philosophy of mind and modern AI, this work offers a fresh perspective on how meaning, identity, and belief emerge in both biological and artificial systems. It invites readers to reconsider intelligence not as static knowledge, but as the ability to preserve structure through change.