The article gives a brief overview of the problems faced by materialism in connection with the phenomenon of consciousness. Yet new arguments help to uncover the problems of alternative positions to materialism, above all, the dualism of properties. Key arguments show that it is difficult for non-physical consciousness to perceive its own nature even when it has direct access to experience....
The explanatory challenge of sentience is known as the “hard problem of consciousness”: How does subjective experience arise from physical objects and their relations? Despite some optimistic claims, the perennial struggle with this question shows little evidence of imminent resolution. In this article I focus on the “why” rather than on the “how” of sentience. Specifically, why did sentience...
The Indian spiritual thoughts are inundated with enduring values and timeless appeal, which has carved a niche in Eliot's mind. Its universal appeal has the ability to allure all categories of people starting from the illiterate to the elite, from the peasant to the perfectionist, from the writer to the religious preacher with a profound sense of high moral character and ethical living. The...
Abstract A central objection to McDowell’s conceptualism about empirical content concerns the fine-grained phenomenology of experience, which supposedly entails that the actual content of experience cannot be matched in its particularity by our concepts. While McDowell himself has answered this objection in recourse to the possibility of demonstrative concepts, his reply has engendered a...
Abstract Psychedelics are a broad class of drugs defined by their ability to induce an altered state of consciousness 1,2 . These drugs have been used for millennia in both spiritual and medicinal contexts, and a number of recent clinical successes have spurred a renewed interest in developing psychedelic therapies 3–9 . Nevertheless, a unifying mechanism that can account for these shared...
Psychedelic experiences have been shown to both facilitate (re)connection to one’s values and change values, including enhancing aesthetic appreciation, promoting pro-environmental attitudes, and encouraging prosocial behavior. This article presents an empirically informed framework of philosophical psychology to understand how self-transcendence relates to psychedelic value changes. Most of...
In response to a call for new conceptualizations of the self that avoid mind/body dualisms, recent research has introduced more flexible and fluid theorizations of personhood. This paper takes a phenomenological approach to examine the perceived shifts in body ownership and distribution of agency which underpin such theorizations. We focus on two dissociative experiences, namely, spirit...
Abstract This study examines non-Western perceptions of inclusion and exclusion through an examination of right mindfulness practitioners in Vietnam. It contributes to the critical inclusion literature that problematizes inclusion by showing how right mindfulness practitioners rejected the concepts of inclusion and exclusion, and moreover, resisted attachments to feelings of inclusion or...
Primary states of consciousness are conceived as phylogenetically older states of consciousness as compared to secondary states governed by sociocultural inhibition. The historical development of the concept in psychiatry and neurobiology is reviewed, along with its relationship to theories of consciousness. We suggest that primary states of consciousness are characterized by a temporary...
The phrase Idealism is not new for the students and readers of Philosophy, however, when the prefix German is added before it, it acquires a different meaning, mood, taste and inclination. German Idealism is distinguished from all other forms of European Idealisms. It concentrated on mind as an active and self-conscious entity. German Idealists suppressed the traditional ontologies based on...