We present and develop Local Prospect Theory (LPT) as a novel framework for understanding consciousness, and in particular subjective experience and free will. While Predictive Processing (PP) theories model the brain as minimizing uncertainty, LPT sees uncertainty as an essential feature of conscious decision making. This is achieved by creating a "local prospect"—a range of potential...
While PTSD continues to be researched in great depth, less attention has been given to the continuum of traumatic responses that resides outside this diagnosis. This investigation begins with a literature review examining the spectrum of responses through the lens of the default mode network (DMN). To build upon this literature, a systematic exploratory study was incorporated, examining...
This text is an attempt at a synthetic analysis of the relationship between the embodied subject and the environment, taking into account the first‑person perspective in the philosophy of Shaun Gallagher and Dan Zahavi. In their work titled The Phenomenological Mind, the researchers reject the traditional mind‑body dualism and present the body as a key element of consciousness and individual...
The comparison between Hesychasm and Sufism focuses on their respective mystical practices: the Jesus Prayer in Hesychasm and Dhikr in Sufism. Both traditions emphasize withdrawing from worldly distractions to achieve spiritual purity and communion with the divine. In Hesychasm, practitioners use the Jesus Prayer to attain inner stillness and experience divine light, aiming for a state of...
ABSTRACT To secure the scientific credibility of its theoretical foundations, CSR needs to update its cognitive model. Seminal work in CSR, and much contemporary research, employs a model of cognition that is subject to mounting criticism (i.e., cognitivism). The most significant of these critiques come from 4E cognition. This paper focuses on enactive cognition, arguing that reconstructing CSR...
This paper explores the intersection of Yoga-Samkhya philosophy with contemporary debates in the philosophy of mind. While mainstream philosophy of mind has primarily embraced physicalism, asserting that everything has an underlying physical basis, it still fails to account satisfactorily for why or how exactly consciousness, and in particular its phenomenal aspect, would arise from neural...
Descriptive metaphysics only describes the structure of thought about the world, according to P. F. Strawson, but revisionary metaphysics aims to produce a better structure. This article introduces a cross-cultural revisionary metaphysics, Nondual Panpsychism. It is cross-cultural in engaging with Indian philosophy. It is nondual in claiming that reality, although neither plural nor dual, is...
This article discusses the idea of contemplation in the paintings of Michael Willmann. Though contemplation does not make itself present immediately in his works, the nature of his painting may both stimulate the practice of contemplation and visually exemplify the contemplative practice. In the paper, I consider several alternative ways of understanding contemplation which may be found...
This study explores the use of immersive Virtual Reality (VR) cave environments to investigate hypotheses concerning altered states of consciousness, creativity, and flexible thinking in archaeological contexts. Building on the premise that ancient humans used caves as sites for rituals involving altered consciousness, we recreated a virtual cave environment to simulate these experiences and...
Our conscious experience seemingly involves the subjective sense or feeling of the passage of time. However, in recent years, several authors have denied that such an aspect or feature of experience can be found. If the experience of the flow of time exists, it remains elusive and intangible. My aim here is to try to pin it down. For this purpose, I will investigate acute disturbances of normal...