Mind

What words mean plays a role in determining when they would be true; but not an exhaustive one. For that role leaves room for variation in truth condi-tions, with meanings fixed, from one speaking of words to another. What role meaning plays depends on what truth is; on what ...

As hundreds of so-called "psychotherapies" have been foisted onto the public, all claiming to treat "mental illness," newer understandings of how the human brain actually works and the processes which drive the formations of mentation that we refer to as "the mind," demand a reassessment of what exactly we are referring to by the term "mental illness" and what kinds of intervention would be feasible in both the prevention of and recovery from cognitive and behavioral disorder. A fundamental process in the formation of an individual's mentation is the associations of experience. These associations not only account for constructive behavior, but can also lead to deleterious or negative behavior, suggesting that some associations are negative and therefore the negative behavior can be remolded through contrasting positive associations; however, to understand what this really means and how it works, we must start at the beginning and define what exactly is this negative behavior that we refer to by the term "mental illness." One of the most important axioms of life so simply but profoundly phrased by Oscar Wilde, is that "the truth is rarely pure and NEVER simple" (emphasis mine). Nothing can ever be explained by simple sound bites – oversimplification is just another word for misrepresentation – so to understand, we must truly engage the subject, and to engage the subject, we must first and foremost clearly define what it is that we are seeking to understand. In this case, it demands that we understand what exactly is mental illness.

Pada tahun 2010, menurut hasil penelitian Computer Technology Reaserch (CTR), menyatakan bahwa manusia memiliki daya ingat sekitar 20% dari apa yang dilihat dan memiliki daya ingat sekitar 30% dari apa yang didengar. Sementara itu manusia memiliki daya ingat sekitar 50% dari apa yang dilihat dan didengar dalam waktu yang bersamaan. Persentasi daya ingat manusia yang terbesar adalah 80%, jika ditampilkan sesuatu yang dilihat, didengar dan sesuatu yang dipraktekkan secara bersamaan. Untuk mencapai persentasi ingatan manusia hingga 80%, dibutuhkan suatu metode yang membutuhkan penggunaan indera penglihatan, pendengaran dan gerak tubuh secara bersamaan salah satunya adalah pembelajaran yang interaktif seperti game educative. Untuk membuat berhitung lebih menyenangkan dan bisa mengingat sebesar lebih dari 50%, maka dirancanglah sebuah game yang bernama “Tembak Matematika” yang memiliki tampilan berupa gambar-gambar dan angka hitungan matematika serta audio. Game Tembak Matematika bisa di...

This paper addresses the following questions from the point of view of Nietzsche’s philosophy: What is the mind, and which kind of relationship does it hold to the body? Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to show that Nietzsche’s philosophy suggested a view of the mind that allows to outline an alternative stance to both mentalism and physicalism, as well as to both dualism and reductionism. It is argued that Nietzsche’s rehabilitation of the body as the specific seat of the mind in opposition to the Cartesian supremacy of the Ego still is of a great interest for contemporary philosophy, since it is not equivalent either to a reversed form of Cartesian dualism or to a physicalist reductionism. It is argued that Nietzsche did restrict the concept of the mind but in order not to eliminate it, rather to “de-substantialise” it. As the body is described as “Leib-Organisation”, the mind becomes the course of various and manifold mental states that depend on a bodily basis.

Three-, 4- and 5-year-old children were asked to report something that they did do yesterday and something that they were going to do tomorrow. They were also asked to recall events that had not occurred yesterday, and predict events that would not occur tomorrow. In two studies these simple questions revealed striking age differences in the ability to report personal events from the past and the future. Only a minority of 3-year-olds but a majority of the older children were able to appropriately answer these questions. These findings substantiate the proposal that the ability to recall past events and the ability to predict future events (i.e., mental time travel), emerge in tandem between the ages of 3 and 5 years.

Niniejsza praca ma na celu przedstawienie teorii mitotwórczej J. R. R. Tolkiena, z perspektywy jej wymiaru duchowego. Od czasów antycznych teorie, tudzież filozofie, opierały się na myśleniu abstrakcyjnym i miały za zadanie wyjaśnienie ówczesnemu człowiekowi otaczającej go rzeczywistości. Nie inaczej było z Tolkienowską teorią, na potrzebę której ukuł swój termin Mitopoeia. „Duchowy wymiar Tolkienowskiej Teorii Mitotwórczej” – tłumacząc tytuł tej pracy na język Polski – przekłada się na wiele sfer życia Tolkiena. Pierwsza z tych płaszczyzn, to przypisywany mu przez niektórych krytyków program filozoficzny. Na tym wymiarze skupia się pierwszy rozdział tej pracy: „The Philosophical Disenchantment.” Jednak jak sugeruje tytuł, stanowi on zaledwie tło wszelkich dalszych poszukiwań, gdyż oferuje badaczom Tolkienowskiej myśli jedynie jej racjonalizację i demitologizację. Życiowa pasja Tolkiena, filologia komparatywna, daje wystarczające zrozumienie jego fenomenu, a przynajmniej zdaniem kilku krytyków. Niezaprzeczalnie stanowiła ona inspirację, a zarazem była narzędziem, którego Tolkien użył podług swej ogromnej wiedzy z zakresu językoznawstwa. Pomimo, iż w tej pracy „Comparative Philology” jest omawiana w drugiej kolejności, to właśnie ta dyscyplina była źródłem znajomości filozofii u Tolkiena. Podążając krokami Tolkieniany nie można jednak na tym poprzestać. Trzeci wymiar, jakże metafizyczny i filozoficzny w swych założeniach i implikacjach to odkrycie Owena Barfielda, znajomego Tolkiena. Barfield odkrył Teorię „Jedności Semantycznej,” co Tolkienowi przyszło łatwo przyjąć do wiadomości: język jako narzędzie może również być transcendentny, ze względu na swe początki. Dla Tolkiena była to jedna z tych rzeczy, która pozwoliła mu uwierzyć w smoki. „Philological Philosophy: Let There Be Dragons” – jest zatem łącznikiem między dwoma światami. Jednakże Tolkien nie był byle fantastą, oderwanym od ziemi. Teoria Barfielda, obudziła w nim nadzieję. Pomimo to, tak jak każdy rozsądny i racjonalny człowiek Tolkien musiał dowiedzieć się, „czy to prawda.” Potrzebował czegoś, aby idee odnieść do nie tyle rzeczywistego doświadczenia, ile prawdy. Prawda, bowiem wyzwala. Mimo nieustannego negowania jego wiary, to właśnie ona umożliwiła mu dalsze rozważanie tych teorii. I nie da się inaczej wytłumaczyć jego mitotwórstwa, jak przez uznanie jego wiary. Miłości do Boga, która była tak głęboka, że aż sięgała wiedzy teologicznej. Tego, między innymi, tyczy ostatni rozdział tej pracy: „Myth Becomes Truth.”
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The sustainable development indicators perform an essential function of incorporating knowledge about the development of human society into decision making at all stages from planning and implementation to evaluation of the policy impacts. This paper provides an overview of evolution and application experience of sustainability measuring practice. Researchers analyze the directions of measurement approach progress. Modern trends of indicators’ using are explored. From assessment of current status of sustainable development indicators authors reveal the main challenges in defining an appropriate set of them. The ways of overcoming the lack of harmonization in variety of conceptual and organizational frameworks used by the different countries are reviewed. Authors consider the direction of modernization of SDI system. The importance of measuring sustainable development at different scale levels: local, regional, enterprise and household levels is stressed. Researchers reveal the main task in division of responsibilities of national authorities, managing data quality and data accessibility. An additional challenge of providing better analysis of cross linkages between indicators is pointed out.

According to a wide variety of scholars, scientists, and policymakers, neuroscience promises to transform law. Many neurolegalists—those championing the power of neuroscience for law—proceed from problematic premises regarding the relationship of mind to brain. In ...

Among those who reflect on the nature of neuroscience, there is a view about its scope and limits which we will call, with a certain amount of historical license, the neuron doc-trine.1 Roughly, the neuron doctrine is the view that the framework within which the science of ...

Despite the attention given John B. Watson during the century since he introduced behaviorism, there remain questions about what he really contributed. He is still appropriately criticized for his arrogant self-promotion and especially for his perceived emphasis on a simple S-R reflexology. However, we argue that the former was necessary at the time and that criticism of Watson on the second count only diverts attention from the genuine contributions that he did make. In support of these contentions we examine several aspects of his contributions that warrant clarification, namely, his promotion of applied comparative psychology, his views on the nature of mind, his originality, criticism from and respect afforded by contemporaries, his relation to recent interest in "the embodiment of mind," his treatment of thinking, and his appreciation of Freud's work. We organize our discussion around specific chapters of the two editions of Behaviorism, but in support of our arguments we include publications of Watson that are less well known. Those works develop some important points that are only briefly treated in both editions of Behaviorism.

Dallo studio già affrontato sulle reazioni fisiologiche dell’organismo umano nelle situazioni di combattimento, conseguenti all’attivazione di alcuni sistemi neuronali, all’impiego di un’arma da fuoco, la pistola, nel tiro verso il bersaglio. Da qui il titolo dell’opera: Il Cervello…in Tiro.

"Carter's music poses struggles of opposition, for instance in timbre (Double Concerto), space (String Quartet No. 3) or pulse (String Quartet No. 5). His preference for the all-interval tetrachords, 4–Z15 [0, 1, 4, 6] and 4–Z29 [0, 1, 3, 7], is also well known. From these facets of Carter's music, I develop a narrative interpretation of his Petrarch sonnet–inspired solo flute piece, Scrivo in Vento (1991). Specifically, I forge narrative pathways by imagining the two tetrachords as active agents opposed in competition. Previous Scrivo analyses (Capuzzo 2002; Childs 2006) stress continuity by revealing Q-transforms and common-note voice leading between the tetrachords. While acknowledging such features, my analysis emphasises oppositional struggle by tracing the tetrachords as separate entities which cooperate and conflict as they manoeuvre to outdo each other.

The analysis advances three theses: (1) it guides listening to and reading Scrivo in a way which resonates with Carter's concern for the aesthetics of oppositional struggle, his choice of a sonnet as inspiration and his affinity for all-interval tetrachords; (2) it shows that music-analytical detail can be organised into dramatic narratives by (a) projecting dramatic roles onto categories asserted by a formal theory and (b) treating the formal theory's relations metaphorically as actions performed by each role as the musical work unfolds; and (3) it shows how detailed pc-set analysis can support a Heraclitean view of music: a flux of opposing forces seeking and resisting unity."

What sets human beings apart from animals? How does ‘‘mind’ ’ fit with soul? Different historical and contemporary views of the mind/soul are considered. A clinical case is used to argue that a strong dualistic position is not compatible with neuro-scientific evidence nor with the expectation of life after death found in the Abrahamic faiths. Reductive physicalism is a widely held view, but risks devaluing human life. Midgely’s ‘‘many maps’ ’ model is suggested to fit better with a faith commitment. Non-reductive physicalism states that mind/soul is an emergent property of the complexity of the brain. Suggesting that there is no separable ‘‘soul’ ’ raises ethical questions, and Singer’s philosophy is given as one consequent reading of the moral standing of human beings. Holistic (weak) dualism and non-reductive physicalism are suggested as possible models of the nature of persons that fits both the scientific data and the teaching of the Abrahamic faiths. It is important for mental ...

The experiences of the autoconscious mind are related to neural activity in the association areas of the brain, with a relative grade of correspondence but not identity. The unity of the conscious experience is based upon the autoconscious mind but not from the complexity of the neuronal wiring/ conexions in the association areas in the cortex. The hypothesis of Karl Popper of the Three Worlds permits to comprehend the reality and the autoconscious mind, trying to solve the perennial quest between body and mind.
The concept of cortical modules (paramount for the interactionism or interactionistic dualism) allows the interaction between the autoconscious mind and the brain cortex at the level of cortical modules, which permits to the autoconscious mind to scrutiny continuosly the conformation of the cortical modules, thus allowing a reciprocity between the modules and the autoconscious mind. The autoconscious mind implies the presence of attention as an integrating agent in the raising of conscious experience.

Key words: autoconscious mind - Three worlds - cortical module - qualia - perennial question

Just a few decades ago, intuition was a dirty word in objective reductionist science every bit as much as mind and consciousness were absent from psychological studies. However, a crack began to appear in the stone façade of the scientific worldview by about 1970. Things began to slowly change in all of the sciences, but nowhere as much as in physics which had always been the stalwart and mainstay of the logic based disciplines of science. It is safe to say that mind was virtually lost after the first decade of the Second Scientific Revolution and science did not begin to regain consciousness until the 1970s. In other words, objective science and the non-scientific subjectivism of non-scientific disciplines seemed to be approaching a more common worldview if not merging together in the form of mystical thought and physics, just those two disciplines that claim the final word on our experiential interpretation of reality.  When this union of opposites finally happens, something new will appear - the MYSPHYT (pronounced misfit), literally a person who combines the conceptual methods of the MYStic and the PHYsicisT to further human knowledge. Although this article was written two decades ago and first published a few years later, it is more relevant today than ever before, which seems to verify the theory of the emerging MYSPHYT.

Interactive and immersive synthetic experiences design or utilize the sense of embodiment of the person experiencing it. At the same time, one could say that the ideal state of the person is that of mindful attention. How are mindfulness and embodiment part of an experience?

The topic of this paper is to discuss the occurrence of memory distortions in view of the false memories phenomenon.
The contents of a person’s memory plays a key role in defining that person’s identity. It decides the method of distincting oneself from the exogenous reality and among other cognitive processes, mediates in the creation of one’s mental representation.
The issue of how the mental record is compliant with the real occurrence is relevant not only from the psychological view stance. The question of memory’s adequacy, being the medium that shapes our cognition is valid for all epistemological sciences.
In order to explore the phenomenon of memory distortion and define its basic predicates, a Polish adaptation of the list of related words (as in the DRM paradigm – Deese, Roediger, McDermott; 1959, 1995) has been performed. The count and nature of false memory occurrences has been analyzed and the results compared to the original American research. Also the matter of result variation as per method of evaluation used, has been addressed.
Questions concerning measurements, scale and nature of memory distortion will be answered in reference to the Quillian’s Semantic Network Theory.

What happens when someone acts? A familiar answer goes like this. There is something that the agent wants, and there is an action that he believes conducive to its attainment. His desire for the end, and his belief in the action as a means, justify taking the action, and they jointly cause an intention to take it, which in turn causes the corresponding movements of the agent's body. Provided that these causal processes take their normal course, the agent's movements consummate an action, and his motivating desire and belief constitute his ...

A philosopher, a Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew walk into a ….

… [correction] write in a book.



Question: What would:



          Huston Smith, internationally renowned philosopher of religion 

          Brother David Steindl-Rast, Order of St. Benedict

          Rev. Mike Young, Unitarian-Universalist Minister

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., President of the Multidisciplinary Association for

Psychedelic Studies



and 22 other clergy, scientists, and mental health professionals ALL agree on?





Answer: the importance of entheogens for religion and spiritual growth 



Where can you find out what they all have to say?





Spiritual Growth with Entheogens:
Psychoactive Sacramentals and Human Transformation

Psychoactive Sacramentals and Human Transformation

The aim of the present study was to explore how teenagers explain why bullying takes place at school, and whether there were any differences in explaining bullying due to gender and prior bullying experiences. One hundred and seventy-six Swedish students in Grade 9 responded to a questionnaire. Mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative methods) were used to analyze data. The grounded theory analysis generated five main categories and 26 sub categories regarding accounts of bullying causes. Results indicated that youth tended to explain bullying in terms of individualistic reasons (bully attributing and victim attributing) than in terms of peer group, school setting, or human nature/society reasons. Girls were more likely to attribute bullying causes to the bully and much less to the victim, compared to boys. Moreover, youth classified as bullies were more likely to attribute the reason for bullying to the victim and much less to the bully, compared to victims, bystanders, and victims/bullies.

Hilary Putnam and Nelson Goodman are two of the twentieth century's most persuasive critics of metaphysical realism, however they disagree about the consequences of rejecting metaphysical realism. Goodman defended a view he called “irrealism” in which minds literally make worlds, and Putnam has sought to find a middle path between metaphysical realism and irrealism. I argue that Putnam's middle path turns out to be very elusive and defend a dichotomy between metaphysical realism and irrealism.