Frontiers in Psychology
November 29, 2018
M. Ceruti, L. Damiano
This article focuses on a scientific approach to the study of cognition that Warren McCulloch introduced in the era of cybernetics as “experimental epistemology.” In line with recent attempts to highlight its contribution to cognitive science and AI, our article intends to draw attention to its unexplored influence on contemporary embodied approaches to the investigation of mind and...
Cogent Psychology
November 26, 2018
Philip James Behman, Joshua A. Rash, Mercedes Bagshawe et al.
The labyrinth is a simple geometric form with one path leading to the center and out. It is often used in religious and health-related institutions for quiet walking and meditation. It is considered a convenient tool for decreasing psychological and physical stress. This study sought to better understand and characterize the short-term physiological responses of the autonomic nervous system...
November 23, 2018
André Tomlin, The Mental Elf, interviews the Project PERFECT team at the University of Birmingham to find out how unusual beliefs offer philosophers of mind the opportunity to challenge mental health stigma.
Frontiers in Psychology
November 23, 2018
Albert Newen
Do we have to presuppose a self to account for human self-consciousness? If so, how should we characterize the self? These questions are discussed in the context of two alternatives, i.e., the no-self position held by Metzinger (2003, 2009) and the claim that the only self we have to presuppose is a narrative self (Dennett, 1992; Schechtman, 2007; Hardcastle, 2008) which is primarily an...
Oxford Scholarship Online
November 22, 2018
Gerald Vision
Unlike brute ‘entities’, if conscious states (c-states) are brute, it will be a consequence of their primitive—viz., not admitting further elaboration—connection to their material base, what is commonly known as emergence. One might suppose the chief challenge to emergence comes from various materialist counter-proposals. However, given the distinctive character of c-states, a class of critics...
Oxford Scholarship Online
November 22, 2018
Jaime Kucinskas
This chapter introduces the contemplative mindfulness movement, its successes in legitimizing and popularizing mindful meditation, and its shortcomings. This case demonstrates how elite movements can initiate widespread cultural change by combining elements of social movement mobilization, institutional entrepreneurship, field theory, and cultural diffusion. Investigating the contemplatives...
Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science
November 21, 2018
R. Jones
. Neuroscientific scanning of meditators is taken as providing data on mystical experiences. However, problems concerning how the brain and consciousness are related cast doubts on whether any understanding of the content of meditative experiences is gained through the study of the brain. Whether neuroscience can study the subjective aspects of meditative experiences in general is also...
Cancer Nursing
November 16, 2018
Jouhayna Bajjani-Gebara, P. Hinds, Kathleen C Insel et al.
BACKGROUND Childhood cancer profoundly impacts the well-being of many parental caregivers in the United States yearly. Empirical evidence is extensive for negative well-being and scarce for positive well-being in this population. OBJECTIVE Study aims were to (1) describe resilience, self-transcendence, and positive (general well-being) and negative well-being (depression and anxiety); (2)...
Scientific Reports
November 16, 2018
Dasom Lee, Do‐hyung Kang, Na-Hyun Ha et al.
Online mind-body training (MBT) programs can improve the psychological capabilities of practitioners. Although there has been a lot of effort to understand the neural mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of meditation, little is known about changes in electroencephalographic (EEG) functional connectivity that accompany mind-body training. The present study aimed to investigate how an...
Sophia
November 9, 2018
J. Leidenhag
A number of contemporary philosophers have suggested that the recent revival of interest in panpsychism within philosophy of mind could reinvigorate a pantheistic philosophy of religion. This project explores whether the combination and individuation problems, which have dominated recent scholarship within panpsychism, can aid the pantheist’s articulation of a God/universe unity. Constitutive...