- Bruce J. MacLennan
Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science
The University of Tennessee
401 Min Kao EECS Bldg.
Knoxville, TN 37996
- Bruce J. MacLennan, PhD, has a BS with honors in mathematics (1972) from Florida State University and an MS (1974) an... moreBruce J. MacLennan, PhD, has a BS with honors in mathematics (1972) from Florida State University and an MS (1974) and PhD (1975) in computer science from Purdue University. He worked for Intel Corp. and taught at the Naval Postgraduate School and, from 1987 to 2020, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is also a Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Collegium Budapest (1997) and a Fellow of the Foro di Studi Avanzati “Gaetano Massa” (2019). MacLennan’s university research focuses on artificial intelligence, philosophy of mind, phenomenology, cognitive neuroscience, and self-organizing systems. He has more than one hundred academic publications and several computer science books.edit
- Victor Schneideredit
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Research Interests: Physics and Morphogenesis
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Physical competence is acquired through animals' embodied interaction with their physical environments, and psychological competence is acquired through situated interaction with other agents. The acquired neural models essential to... more
Physical competence is acquired through animals' embodied interaction with their physical environments, and psychological competence is acquired through situated interaction with other agents. The acquired neural models essential to these competencies are implicit and permit more fluent and nuanced behavior than explicit models. The challenge is to understand how such models are acquired and used to control behavior.
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... PO Sangamner Sakhar Karkhana, Tal - Sangamner, Dist.- A. Nagar, Pin - 422 608, Phone - 9850163354. Navneet Kendra "Kshitij", Lane No. ... Saraswati Granth Bhandar Lane, Near Ratan... more
... PO Sangamner Sakhar Karkhana, Tal - Sangamner, Dist.- A. Nagar, Pin - 422 608, Phone - 9850163354. Navneet Kendra "Kshitij", Lane No. ... Saraswati Granth Bhandar Lane, Near Ratan Sweets. Pune -411002, Phone - (020) 24473410 Goel Book Agencies 31, Budhwar Peth. ...
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We present an analog implementation of a dynamical system for solving Boolean satisfiability, an NP-complete problem. Simulations of modest-sized hardware implementations in the presence of noise and integrator offset demonstrate that the... more
We present an analog implementation of a dynamical system for solving Boolean satisfiability, an NP-complete problem. Simulations of modest-sized hardware implementations in the presence of noise and integrator offset demonstrate that the algorithm is suitable for implementation in analog electronics.
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This paper addresses the problem of how to coordinate the behavior of very large numbers of microrobots in order to assemble complex, hierarchically structured physical objects. The approach is patterned after morphogenetic processes... more
This paper addresses the problem of how to coordinate the behavior of very large numbers of microrobots in order to assemble complex, hierarchically structured physical objects. The approach is patterned after morphogenetic processes during embryological development, in which masses of simple agents (cells) coordinate to produce complex three-dimensional structures. In order to ensure that the coordination mechanisms scale up to hundreds of thousands or millions of microrobots, the swarm is treated as a continuous mass using partial differential equations. The paper presents algorithms and simulations for assembling segmented structures (artificial spines and legs) and for routing artificial neural fiber bundles.
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Google, Inc. (search). ...
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The soul must take the hint from the relics our scientists have so marvelously gathered out of the forgotten past, and from the hint develop a new living utterance. The spark is from dead wisdom, but the fire is life.
Based on results from evolutionary psychology, we discuss important functions that can be served by consciousness in autonomous robots. These include deliberately controlled action, conscious awareness, self-awareness, metacognition, and... more
Based on results from evolutionary psychology, we discuss important functions that can be served by consciousness in autonomous robots. These include deliberately controlled action, conscious awareness, self-awareness, metacognition, and ego consciousness. We distinguish intrinsic intentionality from consciousness, but argue it is also important to understanding robot cognition. Finally, we explore the Hard Problem for robots (i.e., whether they can experience subjective awareness) from the perspective of the theory of protophenomena.En s’appuyant sur les résultats de la psychologie évolutionniste, nous examinons les différentes fonctions importantes que puisse remplir la conscience dans les robots autonomes : action contrôlée, prise de conscience, conscience de soi, métacognition, conscience du moi. Nous distinguons l’intentionnalité intrinsèque de la conscience, mais soutenons également l’importance de la compréhension de la cognition robotique. Enfin, nous étudions le « Hard Prob...
This article is published under the terms of Creative Commons Licence BY 4.0 Attribution —You must give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the... more
This article is published under the terms of Creative Commons Licence BY 4.0 Attribution —You must give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. No additional restrictions —You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
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Page 1. ARTICLE IN PRESS Nano Communication Networks ( ) Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nano Communication Networks journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/ locate/nanocomnet Electromagnetic wireless nanosensor networks ...
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A revitalized practice of natural philosophy can help people to live a better life and promote a flourishing ecosystem. Such a philosophy is natural in two senses. First, it is natural by seeking to understand the whole of nature,... more
A revitalized practice of natural philosophy can help people to live a better life and promote a flourishing ecosystem. Such a philosophy is natural in two senses. First, it is natural by seeking to understand the whole of nature, including mental phenomena, In particular, a comprehensive natural philosophy should address the phenomena of sentience by embracing first- and second-person methods of investigation. Moreover, to expand our understanding of the world, natural philosophy should embrace a full panoply of explanations, similar to Aristotle’s four causes. Second, such a philosophy is natural by being grounded in human nature, taking full account of human capacities and limitations. Future natural philosophers should also make use of all human capacities, including emotion and intuition as well as reason and perception, to investigate nature. Finally, since the majority of our brain's activities are unconscious, natural philosophy should explore the unconscious mind ...
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Humans are becoming increasingly dependent on the ‘say-so' of machines, such as computers, smartphones, and robots. In epistemology, knowledge based on what you have been told is called ‘testimony' and being able to give and... more
Humans are becoming increasingly dependent on the ‘say-so' of machines, such as computers, smartphones, and robots. In epistemology, knowledge based on what you have been told is called ‘testimony' and being able to give and receive testimony is a prerequisite for engaging in many social roles. Should robots and other autonomous intelligent machines be considered epistemic testifiers akin to those of humans? This chapter attempts to answer this question as well as explore the implications of robot testimony for the criminal justice system. Few are in agreement as to the ‘types' of agents that can provide testimony. The chapter surveys three well-known approaches and shows that on two of these approaches being able to provide testimony is bound up with the possession of intentional mental states. Through a discussion of computational and folk-psychological approaches to intentionality, it is argued that a good case can be made for robots fulfilling all three definitions.
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In this paper, the author describes a systematic and general approach to nanostructure synthesis and control through autonomous molecular combinatory computing. Combinatory computing is based on simple network (graph) substitution... more
In this paper, the author describes a systematic and general approach to nanostructure synthesis and control through autonomous molecular combinatory computing. Combinatory computing is based on simple network (graph) substitution operations, deriving from combinatory logic (Curry, Feys, & Craig, 1958), which are sufficient for any computation. When these operations are implemented by autonomous molecular processes, they provide a means for computing within supramolecular networks, which may be used to assemble these networks or control their behavior. Further, the Church-Rosser Theorem (Curry, Feys, & Craig, 1958) proves that substitutions may be performed in any order or in parallel without affecting the computational result; this is a very advantageous property for autonomous molecular computation. In addition to the theoretical foundations of molecular combinatory computing, the author discusses possible molecular implementations as well as accomplishments in the (simulated) syn...
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The history of artificial intelligence (AI) is commonly supposed to begin with Turing’s (1950) discussions of machine intelligence, and to have been defined as a field at the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial... more
The history of artificial intelligence (AI) is commonly supposed to begin with Turing’s (1950) discussions of machine intelligence, and to have been defined as a field at the 1956 Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence. However, the ideas on which AI is based, and in particular those on which symbolic AI (see below) is based, have a very long history in the Western intellectual tradition, dating back to ancient Greece (see also McCorduck, 2004). It is important for modern researchers to understand this history for it reflects problematic assumptions about the nature of knowledge and cognition: assumptions that can impede the progress of AI if accepted uncritically.
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It is commonly supposed that software engineering is—and should be—focused on technical and scientific issues, such as correctness, efficiency, reliability, testability, and maintainability. Within this constellation of important... more
It is commonly supposed that software engineering is—and should be—focused on technical and scientific issues, such as correctness, efficiency, reliability, testability, and maintainability. Within this constellation of important technological concerns, it might seem that design aesthetics should hold a secondary, marginal role, and that aesthetic considerations might enter the design process, if at all, only after the bulk of the engineering is done. This article discusses the important role that aesthetics can play in engineering, and in particular in software engineering, and how it can contribute to achieving engineering objectives.
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For all animals, color is an indicator of the substance and state of objects, for which purpose reflectance is just one among many relevant optical properties. This broader meaning of color is confirmed by linguistic evidence. Rather than... more
For all animals, color is an indicator of the substance and state of objects, for which purpose reflectance is just one among many relevant optical properties. This broader meaning of color is confirmed by linguistic evidence. Rather than reducing color to a simple physical property, it is more realistic to embrace its full phenomenology.
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There is an idea, with some basis in historical data, that there were two Fausts, who were brothers or perhaps even twins (Butler 1948, 122). One, Johannes, graduated from the University of Heidelberg in record time and near the top of... more
There is an idea, with some basis in historical data, that there were two Fausts, who were brothers or perhaps even twins (Butler 1948, 122). One, Johannes, graduated from the University of Heidelberg in record time and near the top of his class, earning a bachelor's degree in 1484 and a master's degree in 1487 (Baron 1978, 17–22). Although we know little about him, we may imagine him as a typical Renaissance magus, on the model of Cornelius Agrippa, striving to harmonize his life with the occult powers of heaven and earth, and to ...
In this article I argue that modern Neoplatonism can contribute to a revitalization of science and an improved human relationship to nature. I begin by considering the role of Neoplatonism in the history of science, considering both ideas... more
In this article I argue that modern Neoplatonism can contribute to a revitalization of science and an improved human relationship to nature. I begin by considering the role of Neoplatonism in the history of science, considering both ideas that have contributed to the constitution of contemporary science, and those that have been abandoned by it. Then I mention two especially Pythagorean developments in contemporary science. Finally, I turn to the future, to the contributions that I believe Neoplatonic ideas can make toward the ...
My goal in this paper is to recontextualize the concept of computation. I review the historical roots of Church-Turing computation to show that the theory exists in a frame of relevance, which underlies the assumptions on which it rests... more
My goal in this paper is to recontextualize the concept of computation. I review the historical roots of Church-Turing computation to show that the theory exists in a frame of relevance, which underlies the assumptions on which it rests and the questions it is suited to answer. Although this frame of relevance is appropriate in many circumstances, there are many important applications of the idea of computation for which it is not relevant, especially in natural computation. As a consequence we need, not so much to abandon the Church- ...
1.58> For every x 2 L there is a Gammax 2 L such thatGammax Phi x= 0= x Phi Gammax: 2 CHAPTER 2. BANACH SPACEScommutative sum: x Phi y= y Phi x. right distribution: aOmega (x Phi y)=(aOmegax) Phi (aOmegay). left distribution:(a+ b)... more
1.58> For every x 2 L there is a Gammax 2 L such thatGammax Phi x= 0= x Phi Gammax: 2 CHAPTER 2. BANACH SPACEScommutative sum: x Phi y= y Phi x. right distribution: aOmega (x Phi y)=(aOmegax) Phi (aOmegay). left distribution:(a+ b) Omegax=(aOmegax) Phi (bOmegax), where+ is theaddition operation of the field. associative product: aOmega
My goal is to outline an evolutionary neuropsychological foundation for spiritual andreligious experiences. Central to this account are concepts from archetypal psychology, which, on the one hand, explain the structure of common religious... more
My goal is to outline an evolutionary neuropsychological foundation for spiritual andreligious experiences. Central to this account are concepts from archetypal psychology, which, on the one hand, explain the structure of common religious experiences, but, onthe other, are grounded in ethology and evolutionary biology. From this it follows thatcertain religious phenomena are objective, in that they are empirical, stable, and public. As a consequence, certain theological claims can be objectively confirmed or refuted. However, it would be a ...
My goal in this presentation is to recontextualize the concept of computation. I will begin by reviewing the historical roots of Church-Turing computation to remind us that the theory exists in a frame of relevance, which underlies the... more
My goal in this presentation is to recontextualize the concept of computation. I will begin by reviewing the historical roots of Church-Turing computation to remind us that the theory exists in a frame of relevance, which underlies the assumptions on which it rests and the questions it is suited to answer. I will argue that, although this frame of relevance is appropriate in many circumstances, there are many important applications of the idea of computation for which it is not relevant. These include natural computation (computation ...
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My goal is to outline an evolutionary neuropsychological and neurophenomenological foundation for spiritual and religious experiences. Central to this account are concepts from archetypal psychology, which, on the one hand, explain the... more
My goal is to outline an evolutionary neuropsychological and neurophenomenological foundation for spiritual and religious experiences. Central to this account are concepts from archetypal psychology, which, on the one hand, explain the structure of common religious experiences, but, on the other, are grounded in ethology and evolutionary biology. From this it follows that certain religious phenomena are objective, in that they are empirical, stable, and public. As a consequence, certain theological claims ...
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calculi (tree transformation systems, term rewriting systems) express computational processes by transformation rules operating on abstract structures (trees). They have applications to functional programming, logic programming,... more
calculi (tree transformation systems, term rewriting systems) express computational processes by transformation rules operating on abstract structures (trees). They have applications to functional programming, logic programming, equational programming, productions systems and language processors. We present proof of the Church-Rosser Theorem for a wide, useful class of abstract calculi. This theorem implies that terminating reductions always yield a unique reduced form in these calculi, which has the practical ...
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Relational programming is a style of programming in which entire relations are manipulated as data and in which programs are also considered relations. Extensive use is made of higher-order, finite and infinite relations and functions.... more
Relational programming is a style of programming in which entire relations are manipulated as data and in which programs are also considered relations. Extensive use is made of higher-order, finite and infinite relations and functions. This report demonstrates the relational programming language RPL by using it to develop four programs:(1) computing work frequencies from text;(2) minimizing deterministic finite state automata;(3) Gaussian elimination; and (4) a simple data processing example involving updating an employee ...
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Textbook for unconventional computation including quantum computation. September 1, 2021 edition.
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Jung's Red Book is remarkable: visually stunning, imposing (both the original and the facsimile), mysterious, illuminating the development both of C. G. Jung as an individual and of Jungian psychology as a movement. From another... more
Jung's Red Book is remarkable: visually stunning, imposing (both the original and the facsimile), mysterious, illuminating the development both of C. G. Jung as an individual and of Jungian psychology as a movement. From another perspective, as I argue, The Red Book is unexceptional (except for its aesthetic quality) for it is a typical product of a series of theurgical operations such as have been practiced for thousands of years. As such, The Red Book is especially valuable for our postmodern age, because it is an example of how the spirit of the depths can be encountered and accommodated in our time. This is an abridged preprint of a chapter to appear in Stein & Arzt (Eds.), Jung's Red Book for our Time, Vol. IV (Chiron, 2020).
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A revitalized practice of natural philosophy can help people to live a better life and promote a flourishing ecosystem. Such a philosophy is natural in two senses. First, it is natural by seeking to understand the whole of nature,... more
A revitalized practice of natural philosophy can help people to live a better life and promote a flourishing ecosystem. Such a philosophy is natural in two senses. First, it is natural by seeking to understand the whole of nature, including mental phenomena, In particular, a comprehensive natural philosophy should address the phenomena of sentience by embracing first-and second-person methods of investigation. Moreover, to expand our understanding of the world, natural philosophy should embrace a full panoply of explanations, similar to Aristotle's four causes. Second, such a philosophy is natural by being grounded in human nature, taking full account of human capacities and limitations. Future natural philosophers should also make use of all human capacities, including emotion and intuition as well as reason and perception, to investigate nature. Finally, since the majority of our brain's activities are unconscious, natural philosophy should explore the unconscious mind with the aim of deepening our relation to the rest of nature and enhancing well-being.
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Jung’s term “individuation” refers to the process of becoming psychologically "individuus," that is, undivided or indivisible; it could almost serve as a translation of henôsis. Moreover, practices in analytical psychology, such has... more
Jung’s term “individuation” refers to the process of becoming psychologically "individuus," that is, undivided or indivisible; it could almost serve as a translation of henôsis. Moreover, practices in analytical psychology, such has active imagination, have direct analogies in theurgy and are directed toward similar ends. In this paper I explore these parallels in order to understand better the means and ends of ancient theurgical practice. In particular, I discuss the experience and effect of henôsis from the perspective of analytical psychology.
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I’ve argue that numbers are not mere quantities and that the first four numbers, in particular, have rich qualitative structures; they are psychologically potent and numinous. Jung and the Jungians have explored these archetypal numbers,... more
I’ve argue that numbers are not mere quantities and that the first four numbers, in particular, have rich qualitative structures; they are psychologically potent and numinous. Jung and the Jungians have explored these archetypal numbers, which have psychodynamical properties common to all people, for they are rooted in the human brain. These properties agree with many of the qualities of the archetypal numbers described in the Theologumena Arithmeticae and other traditional arithmological sources. Therefore a complete Platonic philosophy of mathematics should include the interior, psychodynamical qualitive structure of the numbers as well as their external, formal quantitative structure. The numbers objectively exist, independent of our conscious construction, as potent forces in our psyches and as governors of our lives.
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Jung’s term “individuation,” which refers to the process of becoming psychologically individuus, that is, undivided or indivisible, could almost serve as a translation of henôsis. Practices in analytical psychology, such has active... more
Jung’s term “individuation,” which refers to the process of becoming psychologically individuus, that is, undivided or indivisible, could almost serve as a translation of henôsis. Practices in analytical psychology, such has active imagination, have direct analogies in theurgy and are directed toward similar ends. In this talk I will explore these parallels in order to understand better the means and ends of ancient theurgical practice. In particular, I will discuss the experience and effect of henôsis from the perspective of analytical psychology.
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Jung’s term “individuation,” which refers to the process of becoming psychologically individuus, that is, undivided or indivisible, could almost serve as a translation of henôsis. Practices in analytical psychology, such has active... more
Jung’s term “individuation,” which refers to the process of becoming psychologically individuus, that is, undivided or indivisible, could almost serve as a translation of henôsis. Practices in analytical psychology, such has active imagination, have direct analogies in theurgy and are directed toward similar ends. In this talk I will explore these parallels in order to understand better the means and ends of ancient theurgical practice. In particular, I will discuss the experience and effect of henôsis from the perspective of analytical psychology.
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Noêta and Embodied Noera In a previous paper I presented my application of Edward Zalta's hyperintensional modal logic and abstract object theory to a Platonic understanding mathematical objects. For this purpose, I view this logic as an... more
Noêta and Embodied Noera In a previous paper I presented my application of Edward Zalta's hyperintensional modal logic and abstract object theory to a Platonic understanding mathematical objects. For this purpose, I view this logic as an instrument (organon) that facilitates reasoning precisely about abstract objects, which include the Platonic Forms and numbers. Here I will discuss what abstract object theory reveals about Platonic noêta (intelligibles), participation, the Monad, the Indefinite Dyad, and the archetypal symbolic properties of the numbers. Abstract object theory reveals a vast plenitude of abstract objects, and later in this paper I will argue that some of them, such as the numbers, have especial significance for humans because they exist as innate images or noera (intellectuals) within the embodied human psyche. The numbers thus provide a framework for understanding relations between abstract noêta and embodied noera more generally.
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This presentation (International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 2019) explores the question of whether Neoplatonic and Gnostic theurgy is a practice accessible to any suitably trained person, or whether it is a rare accomplishment of... more
This presentation (International Society for Neoplatonic Studies, 2019) explores the question of whether Neoplatonic and Gnostic theurgy is a practice accessible to any suitably trained person, or whether it is a rare accomplishment of exceptional individuals. On the one hand, Carl Jung's "Red Book" is the result of a unique series of theurgical operations that he conducted from 1913 to 1917, which he claimed to be source of all his ideas, but which he never repeated. In his "Catafalque," Peter Kingsley compares this singular revelation to that of prophets such as Pythagoras, Parmenides, Empedocles, Isaiah, Joachim of Fiore, and indeed Jesus. From this perspective, such divine revelations are rare and restricted to a few privileged individuals in each age. On the other hand, Jung's theurgical operations were the basis of the psychoanalytic practice of active imagination, which corresponds closely to Neoplatonic theurgy and operates on similar principles. Jungian psychologists recommend active imagination, either self-guided or under the guidance of an analyst, as a practice directed toward greater psychological integration. As Jung himself said, we should all be making our own Red Books. Ancient theurgists seem to agree: though individuals may differ in their aptitude (epitêdeiotês), in principle anyone can learn to practice theurgy and engage with divinity.
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Mark Balaguer (Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics, 2001) argues that fictionalism and full-blooded Platonism are the two equally viable philosophies of mathematics, but there is no fact of the matter to decide between them.... more
Mark Balaguer (Platonism and Anti-Platonism in Mathematics, 2001) argues that fictionalism and full-blooded Platonism are the two equally viable philosophies of mathematics, but there is no fact of the matter to decide between them. Full-blooded Platonism is the view -- roughly -- that any consistent mathematical system is true, and therefore that any self-consistent mathematical object exists (in a Platonic sense). I argue that there is a stronger sense of mathematical existence in that some mathematical objects are rooted in the neurodynamics of the brain, and therefore structure human psychodynamics. These are the mathematical structures that are potent and numinous in human experience. They include, as I will explain, the archetypal numbers, such as the Monad, Duad, Triad, and Tetrad. They include fundamental geometrical forms, such as circles, triangles, and mandala-like figures (whence the use of kharakteres as sunthemata in theurgy). And they also include fundamental intuitions of discreteness and definiteness, as opposed to continuity and indefiniteness. I will argue that as innate, unconscious psychodynamical Forms, certain mathematika, inherent in the human psyche, have qualitative psychological effects in addition to the quantitative properties studied in mathematics. Indeed, this is the valid core of Pythagorean numerology, as found in the Theologumena Arithmeticae. Therefore, a complete contemporary Platonic philosophy of mathematics must comprehend the inherent qualitative and quantitative aspects of mathematical objects.