Philosophy Commons^™

Pretense Theory And The Imported Background, Jeffrey C. Goodman

Faculty Scholarship

Kendall Walton’s pretense theory, like its rivals, says that what’s true in a fiction F depends in part on the importation of background propositions into F.  The aim of this paper is to present, explain, and defend a brief yet straightforward argument – one which exploits the specific mechanism by which the pretense theory says propositions are imported into fictions – for the falsity of the pretense theory.

Phenomenotechnique In Historical Perspective: Its Origins And Implications For Philosophy Of Science, Teresa Castelao-Lawless

Articles, Book Chapters, Essays

This article provides an overview of the historical and philosophical contexts from which G. Bachelard’s concept of “phenomenotechnique” originated. It shows why phenomenotechnique is crucial for science studies. By incorporating the concept of phenomenotechnique into Hacking’s and Galison’s models of science, I argue that we can avoid the radicalism of both while preventing the analysis of scientific practices from collapsing into the interpretive frames mandated by social constructivists.

Co-Creation Of Experiential Qualities, Vuk Uskoković

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Cognitive sciences have been interminably in search for a consistent philosophical framework for the description of perceptual phenomena. Most of the frameworks in usage today fall in-between the extremes of constructivism and objective realism. However, whereas constructivist cognitive theories face difficulties when attempting to explain the experiential commonality of different cognitive entities, objectivistic theories fail in explaining the active role of the subject in the formation of experiences. This paper undertakes to compare and eventually combine these two major approaches to describing cognitive phenomena. It is argued that constructivist explanations inevitably refer to a ‘hidden’ ontological source of experience, and …

Anthoethnography: Emerging Research Into The Culture Of Flora, Aesthetic Experience Of Plants, And The Wildflower Tourism Of The Future, John C. Ryan

Research outputs 2011

How does anthoethnography contribute to the development of understandings of aesthetic experiences of wild plants and wildflower tourism? As exemplified by the quintessentially aesthetic industry of wildflower tourism, the culture of flora represents diverse engagements between people and plants. Such complex engagements offer further avenues for research. The critical methodology of anthoethnography has been one such approach to circumscribing the values, practices and rhetoric of wildflower tourism. Interviews have revealed perceptual phenomena such as the orchid and everlasting effects as two counterpoised examples of the differences between visual aesthetic values occurring in the region. For appreciators such as Tinker, botanical …

Contemplation And The Human Animal In The Philosophy Of St. Thomas Aquinas, Edyta M. Imai

Dissertations

This dissertation explores how, according to Thomas Aquinas, the operations of the sensitive soul are necessary for ordinary (i.e., not mystical) human contemplation, and for the acquisition of knowledge which precedes contemplation.

The sensitive soul is the soul possessed by all sentient beings, that is, animals, and thus, in examining the role of the sensitive soul in human contemplation we learn about the way the animal side of our nature participates in contemplation.

According to Aquinas, we possess natural inclinations, which direct us to our proper ends, our proper good. Knowledge of truth is also a good to which we …

Editor's Introduction, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment For Incarcerated Youth: A Mixed Method Pilot Study, Sam Himelstein

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The current study investigated the effects of an 8-week mindfulness-based substance use intervention

on self-reported impulsiveness, perceived drug risk, and healthy self-regulation in a sample of 60

incarcerated youth. Forty-eight participants completed questionnaires pre and post intervention.

Additionally, 16 participants from two of the final 8-week cohorts were interviewed in focus groups

about their experience of the program immediately following its completion. A mixed-method

embedded model was used, in which qualitative data was used in support of quantitative data. Paired

t-tests revealed a significant decrease (p < .01) in impulsiveness and a significant increase (p < .05)

in perceived risk of drug use from pretest to posttest. No …

Why Altered States Are Not Enough: A Perspective From Buddhism, Igor Berkhin, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal psychology has at times employed Buddhist terminology in ways that do not

reflect distinctions that underlie these tightly defined terms. From a Buddhist perspective,

attempts to equate Buddhist terms with language from other traditions are misdirected, and

produce results that no longer represent Buddhism. For example, it is an error to translate

certain Buddhist terms as referring to a shared universal consciousness; Buddhism explicitly

rejects this idea. Nor is it appropriate to assume that the generic, cross-traditional altered

state of nondual awareness postulated in some transpersonally-related circles is in any way

related to nirvana or other advanced states described …

Rethinking Prayer And Health Research: An Exploratory Inquiry On Prayer’S Psychological Dimension, Adrian Andreescu

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A brief literature review of cancer survival trials is employed by the author to raise questions

on their design and to bring speculatively into discussion concepts such as “worldview”,

“intentional normative dissociation”, and “psychosomatic plasticity-proneness”. Using prayer’s

psychological dimension as a way to unite such elements opens new fertile perspectives on

the academic study of prayer and health. In this context, it is suggested that a consistent

interdisciplinary research agenda is required in order to understand those biopsychosocial

factors interconnected within the process and outcome of prayer before attempting to

decipher the big answers laying dormant probably within the transpersonal …

On A Physical Scientific Approach To Transperson Al Psychology, Alan Haas

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal psychology involves an approach to behavior and the self that transcends

ordinary states of mind as well as extends to the larger environment as a whole. Treating

the individual, their mind, and behavior in relation to others and the larger natural system

utilizing properly developed and practically applicable concepts from physics, chemistry, and

biology may provide a successful interpretation that may be more powerful than the standard

views of psychology. For instance, basic concepts such as charge pair attraction‑repulsion,

bonding, and synchronous behavior may be transformed into highly effective and even

“spiritual” concepts that can add sophistication to human …

The Indigenous Healing Tradition In Calabria, Italy, Stanley Krippner, Ashwin Budden, Roberto Gallante, Michael Bova

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

In 2003, the four of us spent several weeks in Calabria, Italy. We interviewed local people about folk

healing remedies, attended a Feast Day honoring St. Cosma and St. Damian, and paid two visits

to the Shrine of Madonna dello Scoglio, where we interviewed its founder, Fratel Cosimo. In this

essay, we have provided our impressions of Calabria and the ways in which its native people have

developed indigenous practices and beliefs around medicine and healing. Although it is one of the

poorest areas in Italy, Calabria is one of the richest in its folk traditions and alternative modes of …

Connectedness And Environmental Behavior: Sense Of Interconnectedness And Pro-Environmental Behavior, Robert E. Hoot, Harris Friedman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The expansion of one’s sense of identity to include various aspects of the world, both human

and non-human, may relate to how one treats the world. This sense of interconnectedness

can be domain specific, as through identification with nature and the future, or very

general, as through an expanded transpersonal identification with all of reality unlimited

by time and space. This study explored the relationship between these two specific and

the more general type of interconnectedness on environmental beliefs and behavior. A

sample of 210 participants completed a battery of interconnectedness measures, including

two specific measures, the Connectedness to Nature …

The Deep Ecology Movement: Origins, Development, And Future Prospects (Toward A Transpersonal Ecosophy), Alan Drengson, Bill Devall, Mark A. Schroll

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The deep ecology movement, which began with Arne Naess’ introduction of the term in

1972, is compared with other movements for social responsibility that developed in the

20th century. The paper discusses Naess’ cross-cultural approach to characterizing grassroots

movements via platform principles that can be supported from a diversity of cultures,

worldviews, and personal philosophies, and explains his use of “ecosophy.” The deep ecology

movement’s relationship with ecopsychology, ecocriticism, and humanistic and transpersonal

psychology is described as part of an emerging synthesis referred to as transpersonal ecosophy.

The inquiry concludes with a technical discussion of Naess’ Apron Diagram and reflections …

Ecopsychology, Transpersonal Psychology, And Nonduality, John V. Davis

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Nonduality is at the core of both transpersonal psychology and ecopsychology and provides a

means of finding common ground between these approaches. However, misunderstandings

and the lack of an adequate conceptual language for nonduality have limited the value

of this concept for ecopsychology. Nonduality is presented as a range of experiences and

stages of development in which particulars are perceived and understood as part of an allencompassing

totality. Specifically, nonduality is understood in terms of a self-identity

in which separating boundaries no longer isolate one from other expressions of Being. A

description of nondual dimensions of Being based on the …

Yamato Kotoba: The Language Of The Flesh, Yukari Kunisue, Judy Schavrien

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This inquiry builds on the work of such thinkers as David Abram and Maurice Merleau-

Ponty; like their work, it addresses the fact that people in the Western developed world,

through their acculturations, sacrifice intimacy with the natural world. The article explores

one remedial measure: the Yamato Kotoba language of the Japanese. This is a language

before the Chinese injection of spoken and written words, one that preserves the earlier

words better suited, the authors propose, to expressing the interpenetrating experience of

the person with—in this case the Japanese—natural setting. Such an intimacy appears, for

instance, in Basho’s Haiku. In …

Modern Materialism Through The Lens Of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Alan Pope

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The suffering that gives rise to and is perpetuated by contemporary culture’s addiction to

materialistic consumption is described surprisingly well by the ancient tradition of Indo-

Tibetan Buddhism. From this perspective, modern human beings exemplify hungry ghosts

trapped in a state of incessant greed and insatiability, which at its core reflects a desperate

attempt to maintain a sense of self that is out of accord with basic reality. The rich Tibetan

Buddhist understanding of the unfolding process by which the hungry ghost negotiates its

project, including its attempts to avoid greater suffering and to seek bliss, serves to elucidate

our …

Singing To The Plants: A Guide To Mestizo Shamanism In The Upper Amazon, John Harrison

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

Introduction To Special Topic Section: Ecopsychology’S Roots In Humanistic And Transpersonal Psychology, The Deep Ecology Movement, And Ecocriticism, Mark Schroll, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA

The Cognitive Neuroscience Of Consciousness, Mysticism And Psi, Les Lancaster

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The greatest contemporary challenge in the arena of cognitive neuroscience concerns the

relation between consciousness and the brain. Over recent years the focus of work in this

area has switched from the analysis of diverse spatial regions of the brain to that of the

timing of neural events. It appears that two conditions are necessary in order for neural

events to become correlated with conscious experience. First, the firing of assemblies of

neurones must achieve a degree of coherence, and, second, reflexive (i.e. top-down, or reentrant)

neural pathways must be activated. It does not, of course, follow that such neural …

Reflections On The Need For A More Complete History Of The Deep Ecology Movement And Related Disciplines, Michael E. Zimmerman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

NA