The currently leading cognitive theory of consciousness, Global Workspace Theory (Baars 1988, 2003), postulates that the primary functions of consciousness include a global broadcast serving to recruit internal resources with which to deal with the current situation and to modulate several types of learning. In addition, conscious experiences present current conditions and problems to a “self ”...
In this chapter, the following are explained in detail and evaluated: (1) Schopenhauer's transcendental idealism; (2) Schopenhauer's metaphysics of Will, which may be described as a kind of animism or panpsychism; and (3) Schopenhauer's views on freedom and determinism, which are probably best described as compatibilist. Realism, anti-realism, and idealism are discussed. It is argued that...
CortexMay 18, 2009Jiongjiong Yang, Xuchu Weng, Yufeng Zang et al.
Recent neuroimaging studies have shown that several brain regions--namely, the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and the bilateral angular gyrus--are more active during resting states than during cognitive tasks (i.e., default mode network). Although there is evidence showing that the default mode network is associated with unconscious state, it is...
This chapter develops a naive realist theory of veridical perception. It begins from the thought that the phenomenal character of our visual experiences is simply a matter of the scene before us but finds this to be open to criticism. In light of these criticisms, together with the empirical findings of change/inattentional blindness experiments and considerations concerning the conceptual...
Abstract After a quiet period for much of the twentieth century, presumably reflecting the influence of various forms of behaviourism, in recent years philosophical writing on consciousness has reached epidemic proportions. A well-known philosophical website lists almost a thousand online articles on the philosophy of consciousness, and no doubt there are another thousand not so available. This...
This paper has four parts. First, I attempt to pinpoint how and why Merleau-Ponty was driven to go beyond Husserlian phenomenology, and did so for what are, largely, Hegelian reasons. Second, I trace the parallels between Hegel’s “metaphysics of Spirit” and Merleau-Ponty’s “ontology of the Flesh,” stressing the thinkers’ consensus about the nature of philosophical method. Third, I identify...
Embodiment is a universal feature of human life, and so is body consciousness. Body consciousness, as I understand it, is not merely the consciousness that a mind may have of the body as an object, but includes the embodied consciousness that a living, sentient body directs at the world and also experiences in itself (and through which it indeed can experience itself as both subject and...
Two studies are reported in which participants’ reports of altered states of consciousness (ASC) were manipulated using priming methods. Study 1 used both subtle and blunt supraliminal priming methods, while Study 2 used a subliminal priming method. Across the two studies, two different methods for inducing ASC were used. In both studies a direct and an indirect measure of ASC was employed in...
May 1, 2009Amberlee Woods, Ellen Schelly Hill1 citation
The purpose of the study was to research trance and altered states of consciousness (ASC), within dance, psychotherapy and anthropological literature, so that dance/movement therapists may practice with an informed understanding of the altered state experience, its potential therapeutic benefit, and methods for working with altered states in the practice of dance/movement therapy (DMT). The...
The authors used a 5-round Delphi study with a panel of 7 experts in meditation research to achieve agreement on a set of criteria for a working definition of “meditation” for use in a comprehensive systematic review of the therapeutic use of meditation. Participants agreed that essential to a meditation practice is its use of (a) a defined technique, (b) logic relaxation, and (c) a...