Abstract: This paper looks first at the scope of religious experience, offering some representative examples of phenomena that typically give rise to spiritual experiences. This leads on a consideration of the phenomenology of such experiences – the particular way in which they present themselves to the conscious subject. Lastly, the paper tackles the vexed question of the source of such...
This article addresses Husserl’s attempt to differentiate between transcendental phenomenology and eidetic psychology. The thesis is: The distinction remained problematic so that Husserl’s analyses are often valuable contributions to psychology that, however, are mistaken to be epistemology. It is shown how and why the confusion of epistemological and psychological investigations harbors the...
Abstract Dualism holds that experiences and physical states are distinct in that neither sort of state is identical with or grounded in the other. Cognitive phenomenal realism holds that cognitive experiences are irreducible to sensory experiences. While dualism and cognitive phenomenal realism are logically orthogonal and usually discussed separately, I argue that dualism’s plausibility is...
This text is a review of the collective monograph «Soviet Philosophy of Mind: Etudes on History of Ideas» edited by A.D. Maydanskiy. It is highly improbable that someone will dispute that philosophy of mind is the central (if not main) discipline of contemporary analytic philosophy. Of great importance was identifying the parallels between discussions in analytic philosophy and in what was...
Even though conscious experiences are explored in contemporary psychology with different methodological approaches significant questions remain: Can we explore first-person experiences with reliable methods? Why and in which circumstances should we trust first person reports? And how can we ensure that the process of verbalising mental experiences is not only a construction process but a...
Ketamine and its enantiomers are widely researched and increasingly used to treat mental disorders, especially treatment-resistant depression. The phenomenology of ketamine-induced experiences and their relation to its psychotherapeutic potential have not yet been systematically investigated. To describe the phenomenology of patient experiences during oral esketamine treatment for...
Nightmares are a re-experiencing symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Complex PTSD (CPTSD). They are intrusive, involuntary and have a significant impact on wellbeing, suggesting they have substantial clinical relevance. However, little is known about the phenomenological features of post-traumatic nightmares and how they impact the severity of PTSD and CPTSD symptoms....
Abstract We propose a non-representationalist framework for deep learning relying on a novel method computational phenomenology, a dialogue between the first-person perspective (relying on phenomenology) and the mechanisms of computational models. We thereby propose an alternative to the modern cognitivist interpretation of deep learning, according to which artificial neural networks encode...
This chapter presents in detail the main reasons offered for a pessimistic belief in the hard problem, notably the five central arguments offered by David Chalmers. These arguments are rooted in our first-person access to consciousness, and they provide the central line of justification for our problem intuitions about consciousness. The chapter then introduces Derk Pereboom’s “qualitative...
Abstract: In order to count as genuinely transcendental, a philosophical theory must seek to uncover necessary, universal structures that shape our perspective on the world. Chapters 3 and 6 provide evidence that Merleau-Ponty did engage in this style of analysis in Structure and Phenomenology. But there are aspects of his views that work against this interpretation as well. He explicitly blurs...