Closing in on secrets of our mental power

2019 ◽  
Vol 244 (3253) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Clare Wilsonthey
Keyword(s):  
1922 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 457-459
Author(s):  
Harry J. Baker
Keyword(s):  

1874 ◽  
Vol 20 (90) ◽  
pp. 259-262
Author(s):  
William T. Benham

Mary M., æt 14, was admitted into the Bristol Asylum July 15th, 1862. She is described in the case book as having a hydrocephalic cranium, measuring “24 inches in circumference, and 14 inches over vertex.” Trunk shortened and thickened; legs doubled up on the thighs, which were again slightly flexed on the abdomen. Quite unable to walk or stand, but could sit comfortably in a low chair. She possessed considerable intelligence; knew the name of the place from whence she came, and answered simple questions in a lively manner Had her bodily health and education have been well attended to, it is probable that she would have possessed a fair amount of mental power. She was dirty in her habits, but of a tractable disposition, and good tempered. During the year following her admission attempts were made to teach her to read, but without success; she, however, soon learnt to be cleanly in her person and habits.


At the end a recurring question remains: What good are ICTs to design education and practice? To answer that, it is necessary to focus on imagination and the production of visual images as the core activity of design. What is imagination? And can ICTs “think” imaginatively and see visions? No, they cannot. Imagination is a concept with a long and shifting course of progression through Western civilization. In ancient Athens both Plato and Aristotle regarded imagination as mimesis or imitation of nature. For neither of these philosophers does imagination directly apprehend reality – only reason, they argued, can do that. But for Aristotle, imagination is necessary to intelligent thinking because imagination links sensation to reason, even more than memory, which can only look backward in time, is capable of doing. For Aristotle, imagination is a formal representation of both sensation and reason, and it is therefore an important mental power. The Classical conceptualization of imagination as imitation or “holding a mirror up to nature” dominated the philosophy of art until the European Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. Then in the Romantic Age of the late 18th and early 19th centuries a new conceptualization of imagination claimed that imagination is not so much a mirror as a light that can actually apprehend and illuminate ultimate reality. The poet’s mind, the great Romantics believed, creates images of truth and beauty and goodness. Moreover, the modern philosopher Nietzsche in the late 19th century claimed that not only does imagination create visions of reality but it actually creates reality itself.


2009 ◽  
pp. 309-322
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Upham
Keyword(s):  

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 27-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ning Yu

AbstractFollowing the theory of conceptual metaphor in cognitive linguistics, this paper studies a predominant conceptual metaphor in the understanding of the heart in ancient Chinese philosophy: THE HEART IS THE RULER OF THE BODY. The most important conceptual mapping of this metaphor consists in the perceived correspondence between the mental power of the heart and the political power of the ruler. The Chinese heart is traditionally regarded as the organ of thinking and reasoning, as well as feeling. As such, it is conceptualized as the central faculty of cognition. This cultural conceptualization differs fundamentally from the Western dualism that upholds the reason-emotion dichotomy, as represented by the binary contrast between mind and heart in particular, and mind and body in general. It is found that the HEART AS RULER metaphor has a mirror image, namely THE RULER IS THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY. The ruler as the "heart" of the country leads his nation while guided by his own heart as the "ruler" of his body. It is argued that the two-way metaphorical mappings are based on the overarching beliefs of ancient Chinese philosophy in the unity and correspondence between the microcosm of man and the macrocosm of universe. It is suggested that the conceptualization of the heart in ancient Chinese philosophy, which is basically metaphorical in nature, is still spread widely across Chinese culture today.


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