Philosophy
July 1, 1999
Grant R Gillett
Consciousness and its relation to the unconscious mind have long been debated in philosophy. I develop the thesis that consciousness and its contents reflect the highest elaboration of a set of abilities to respond to the environment realized in more primitive organisms and brain circuits. The contents of the states lesser than consciousness are, however, intrinsically dubious and indeterminate...
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
Abstract In his landmark biography of Freud, Ernest Jones observed that no single topic in the Freudian corpus, excepting that of sexuality, had evoked more interest than that of religion. Although Freud’s views on religion are complex, Jones had in mind the definitive and pejorative conception of religion delineated in The Future of an Illusion. There Freud, defining religion in terms of “the...
The Enigma of the Oceanic Feeling
June 17, 1999
William B. Parsons
Abstract After Rolland sent Freud a copy of his biographies of the Hindu saints, each man now had the other’s views on the psychology of mysticism firmly in hand, a state of affairs that led to the debate carrying over into a new phase of their correspondence. The essential letters of the latter are but two in number: Freud’s letter of January 19, 1930, and Rolland’s of May 3, 1931. Although...
Trends in Neurosciences
June 1999
E Perry, M Walker, J Grace et al.
The cholinergic system is one of the most important modulatory neurotransmitter systems in the brain and controls activities that depend on selective attention, which are an essential component of conscious awareness. Psychopharmacological and pathological evidence supports the concept of a 'cholinergic component' of conscious awareness. Drugs that antagonize muscarinic receptors induce...
Consciousness and Cognition
June 1, 1999
J Smythies
29 citations
This paper concentrates on the basic properties of "consciousness" that temporal coding is postulated to relate to. A description of phenomenal consciousness based on what introspection tells us about its contents is offered. This includes a consideration of the effect of various brain lesions that result in cortical blindness, apperceptive and associative agnosia, and blindsight, together with...
Psychological Science
May 1, 1999
Eleanor Rosch
13 citations
their best, these traditions offer a portal into a radically new (lived) understanding of what it is to know, to be, to act, and to be an embodied self in time. Western approaches have so far tended only to nibble around the edges of these traditions. For example, meditation may be taken simply as a technology for therapy in which one's old notion of self can better get what it wants. Or...
Attachment & human development
April 1999
E Hesse, M H Van Ijzendoorn
Unresolved/disorganized (U) states of mind are identified in the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI) through brief lapses in the monitoring of reasoning or discourse during the discussion of potentially traumatic experiences such as loss or abuse. These lapses have been hypothesized to indicate temporary alterations in normal states of consciousness. In parents, U attachment status predicts a...
April 1, 1999
L. Troup, R. Lawson, Nicholas J. Ward
In some respects in reading this book I was reminded of the debate surrounding the publication of John Searle's paper entitled ``Minds, brains and programs''. Was I going to emerge from this process with a feeling of achieving some kind of `enlightenment', or was I going to be left in some kind of frustrating void? In 1994 David Chalmers presented a keynote paper to the `̀ Towards a scientific...
Philosophy
April 1, 1999
Rom Harré
Nagel has argued that the ‘mind-body’ problem, as traditionally conceived, is insoluble. His challenge to philosophers is to devise a metaphysical scheme that incorporates materialist concepts in describing first person experience and mentalistic concepts in describing third person experience, such that the internal relations between the concepts thereby constructed are necessary. Nagel's own...
Shofar
March 1, 1999
Richard G. Marks
2 citations
Jewish-Buddhist Meetings: Review Essay Jewish-Buddhist Meetings Review Essay Richard G. Marks Washington and Lee University 93 The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India, by Rodger Kamenetz. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. 304 pp. $12.00. That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist: On Being a Faithful Jew and a Passionate Buddhist, by Sylvia Boorstein. New York:...