Lonergan's Cognitional Theory: Toward A Critical Human Science

1994 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-99
Author(s):  
David A. Nordquest
Keyword(s):  
Political Development ◽  
Human Science ◽  
The Self ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Invariant Structure ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Emergent Probability ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
The Mind

Lonergan's cognitional theory, though generally unknown in the discipline, points the way toward a more concrete understanding of politics through its emphasis on the self-appropriation of our knowing. This article examines the invariant structure or method Lonergan finds in all practical or scientific knowing, the precepts that can be derived from the operations of the mind, the continuity between cognitive and moral self-transcendence, and the different horizons which may confine our knowing. It considers the biases which distort personal and political development, the need for cosmopolis, an informal community which helps to save practicality by transcending it, the methodological natural right which may be derived from norms inherent in our knowing, and the emergent probability of progress or decline set by the stock of insights or oversights operative in a society. It concludes that Lonergan's work makes a substantial contribution to the critical human science he seeks and that it could play a helpful role in unifying the discipline.

Cartesian Fingerprints in Beckett's Imagination Dead Imagine

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-243
Author(s):  
Irit Degani-Raz
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Limiting Case

The idea that Beckett investigates in his works the limits of the media he uses has been widely discussed. In this article I examine the fiction Imagination Dead Imagine as a limiting case in Beckett's exploration of limits at large and the limits of the media he uses in particular. Imagination Dead Imagine is shown to be the self-reflexive act of an artist who imaginatively explores the limits of that ultimate medium – the artist's imagination itself. My central aim is to show that various types of structural homologies (at several levels of abstraction) can be discerned between this poetic exploration of the limits of imagination and Cartesian thought. The homologies indicated here transcend what might be termed as ‘Cartesian typical topics’ (such as the mind-body dualism, the cogito, rationalism versus empiricism, etc.). The most important homologies that are indicated here are those existing between the role of imagination in Descartes' thought - an issue that until only a few decades ago was quite neglected, even by Cartesian scholars - and Beckett's perception of imagination. I suggest the use of these homologies as a tool for tracing possible sources of inspiration for Beckett's Imagination Dead Imagine.

Nihilistic Thinking as the Self-Will of the Mind and the Projects of Its Overcoming

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 74-87
Author(s):  
Irina N. Sidorenko
Keyword(s):  
Significant Role ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Spatial Perspective ◽  
The World ◽  
The Will ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Radical Transformation

 The author analyzes the conceptions of ontological nihilism in the works of S. Kierkegaard, F. Nietzsche, M. Heidegger, E. Jünger. On the basis of this analysis, violence is defined as a manifestation of nihilism, of the “will to nothingness” and hypertrophy of the self-will of man. The article demonstrates the importance of the problem of nihilism. The nihilistic thinking of modern man is expressed in the attitude toward a radical transformation of the world from the position of his “absolute” righteousness. The paradox of the current situation is that there is the reverse side of this transformative activity, when there is only the appearance of action and the dilution of responsibility. Confidence in the rightness of own views and beliefs increases the risk of the violent imposition of own vision of reality. Historical and philosophical reconstruction of the conceptions of nihilism allowed to reveal the following projects of its comprehension and resolution: (1) the project of “positing of values,” which consists in the transformation of the evaluation, which is understood as another perspective of positing values, leading to the affirmation of being; (2) the project of overcoming nihilism from the space of temporality, carried out through the resoluteness to accept the historicity of own existence; (3) the project of overcoming nihilism as the oblivion of being from the spatial perspective of the “line,” allowing to realize the “glimpse” of being. The author concludes that it is impossible to solve the problem of violence and its various forms of its manifestation without overcoming “ontological nihilism.” Significant role in solving the problem of ontological violence is assigned to philosophy as a critical and responsible form of thinking, which is capable to help a person to bear the burden of the world, to provide meanings and affirm being, as well as to unite people and resist the fundamentalist claims of exclusivity and rightness.

Narcissism and Political Left-Right Orientation in view of Basic Human Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Ülkü Selçuk ◽  
Nil Demet Güngör
Keyword(s):  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Openness To Change ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Self Transcendence

<p>The study explores the relation of narcissism to political orientation and their association with basic human values, using an undergraduate sample from Turkey. Leftwing orientation is weakly and negatively correlated with narcissism, and specifically with its self-sufficiency dimension. Leftwing is correlated positively with universalism and negatively with tradition. Narcissism is positively correlated with the self-enhancement and openness to change dimensions and negatively correlated with the self-transcendence and conservatism dimensions of the basic values. Hierarchical regression results indicate that the value tradition is a stronger predictor of political orientation than narcissism. In multinomial logistic regression, for narcissism, statistical significance appears for only extreme right compared to moderate left political positions. We did not find power-hunger to be related to political orientation. We did not find pro-sociality to be related to familial-religious customs. We did not find any sex difference for mean narcissism scores. However, females are more leftwing oriented than males and they report more eagerness to strive for justice for others. Striving for justice for others is negatively correlated with the value power; positively correlated with leftwing orientation and striving for justice for self; and uncorrelated with narcissism. Males have higher mean scores for the value tradition and females have higher mean scores for the value security.</p>

Narcissism and Political Left-Right Orientation in view of Basic Human Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatma Ülkü Selçuk ◽  
Nil Demet Güngör
Keyword(s):  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
The Self ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Openness To Change ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Self Transcendence

<p>The study explores the relation of narcissism to political orientation and their association with basic human values, using an undergraduate sample from Turkey. Leftwing orientation is weakly and negatively correlated with narcissism, and specifically with its self-sufficiency dimension. Leftwing is correlated positively with universalism and negatively with tradition. Narcissism is positively correlated with the self-enhancement and openness to change dimensions and negatively correlated with the self-transcendence and conservatism dimensions of the basic values. Hierarchical regression results indicate that the value tradition is a stronger predictor of political orientation than narcissism. In multinomial logistic regression, for narcissism, statistical significance appears for only extreme right compared to moderate left political positions. We did not find power-hunger to be related to political orientation. We did not find pro-sociality to be related to familial-religious customs. We did not find any sex difference for mean narcissism scores. However, females are more leftwing oriented than males and they report more eagerness to strive for justice for others. Striving for justice for others is negatively correlated with the value power; positively correlated with leftwing orientation and striving for justice for self; and uncorrelated with narcissism. Males have higher mean scores for the value tradition and females have higher mean scores for the value security.</p>

William James, the Self, and the Selective Industry of the Mind

1990 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 688-698
Author(s):  
Jerry Suls ◽  
Christine A. Marco
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Mind

Liberate our Library: doing decolonisation work at Goldsmiths Library

2020 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 148-154
Author(s):  
Marilyn Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Study Skills ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o ◽  
The Self ◽  
Hierarchical Systems ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
The Mind

Library work now has a role to play when it comes to decolonisation. This article outlines what Goldsmiths Library, University of London is doing, through the Liberate our Library initiative, to diversify and decolonise its collections and practices against the backdrop of worldwide movements for education and social justice led by both students and academics to challenge the dominance of the ‘Westernised university’.2Examples of how we are doing this work are explained using critical librarianship as our guide, whilst recognising that we are still developing expertise in this evolving field of practice. This decolonisation work also uses critical race theory (CRT) as a means to dismantle racial inequality and its impact on higher education.Here, I would like to acknowledge the excellent and inspirational content of ALJ, Critical Librarianship: Special Issue (v.44, no.2) and I see this article as an ongoing companion piece.Goldsmiths Library's liberation work endeavours to empower its users with critical thinking and study skills whilst conducting their research using hierarchical systems and resources which in themselves are in the process of being decolonised.Decolonising a library collection and a profession must of course always begin or at least happen in tandem with the self, through a process that Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o describes as ‘decolonising the mind.’3

Reasons to be Fearful: Strawson, Death and Narrative

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 ◽  
pp. 133-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Behrendt
Keyword(s):  
Good Deal ◽  
The Self ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Internal View ◽  
Rational Discourse ◽  
Continental Thought ◽  
The Mind

When attempting to face the prospect of one's own death, it has been said that ‘the mind blanks at the glare’. Perhaps we should not treat our attitude towards our death as rational or reflective of our views on the self and on life. But to exempt views on death from the scrutiny of rational discourse seems to be a last resort (albeit one we may need recourse to in the end). There is a general tendency to neglect death within those discussions of the self that fall outside the confines of a certain strain of continental thought roughly construed, or at best to treat it as a topic that resides beyond the borders of the rational. I do not aim to rectify this situation here, nor do I think it obvious that death is something that can be clearly and consistently dealt with by those theories of persons and selves that primarily represent, to use Thomas Nagel's words, ‘an internal view that sees only this side of death—that includes only the finitude of [one's] expected future consciousness’. But I do believe that those who have spent a good deal of time thinking about the life of the self ought to spare a thought or two for its demise, and that such thoughts may contribute to our over-all assessment of their view.

scholarly journals A categorical analysis of the «personality self-determination» concept in the context of the problem of students’ orientation towards moral self-determination

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-273
Author(s):  
Oksana Konstantinovna Pozdnyakova
Keyword(s):  
Moral Education ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Moral Choice ◽  
Moral Self ◽  
Categorical Analysis ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Level Of Analysis

The paper raises the problem of students orientation towards moral self-determination as one of the directions of moral education of students. The necessity of carrying out a categorical analysis of the personality self-determination concept to determine the content and methods of orientation of students towards moral self-determination is substantiated. Personality self-determination is considered at the philosophical, psychological and pedagogical levels of analysis. At the philosophical level of analysis, the essence of the personality self-determination phenomenon and the concept adequate to it is revealed; it consists in a persons choice of certain actions and deeds in a given situation; shows the role of moral choice in the self-determination of the individual. At the psychological level of analysis, the author substantiates the relationship between the self-determination of the individual and the system of his/her relations (to the surrounding reality, other people and himself/herself), which determine the content of the personalitys position. At the pedagogical level of analysis, the self-determination of a person is associated with his/her choice of values, the source of which is his/her needs. The paper argues that the self-determination of a person is both a process and a result of a persons choice of his/her own position, there is a choice of relations that form the content of a position, there is a choice of values, the focus on which constitutes the value orientations of a person, which become the core of self-determination. The author also has determined some practical pedagogical tasks, the solution of which is aimed at creating conditions for the orientation of students towards moral self-determination: the task of students moral principles development, which will ensure their choice of their position, goals and means of self-realization in life; the task of familiarizing students with the value of good, which is the essence of their ethical attitude to the world, to people and to themselves; the task of developing students ability to substantiate the foundations of moral choice and its principles to reflection.

scholarly journals On The Verge of the Hybrid Mind

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43
Author(s):  
Surjo Soekadar ◽  
Jennifer Chandler ◽  
Marcello Ienca ◽  
Christoph Bublitz
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Technological Artifacts ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Recent advances in neurotechnology allow for an increasingly tight integration of the human brain and mind with artificial cognitive systems, blending persons with technologies and creating an assemblage that we call a hybrid mind. In some ways the mind has always been a hybrid, emerging from the interaction of biology, culture (including technological artifacts) and the natural environment. However, with the emergence of neurotechnologies enabling bidirectional flows of information between the brain and AI-enabled devices, integrated into mutually adaptive assemblages, we have arrived at a point where the specific examination of this new instantiation of the hybrid mind is essential. Among the critical questions raised by this development are the effects of these devices on the user’s perception of the self, and on the user’s experience of their own mental contents. Questions arise related to the boundaries of the mind and body and whether the hardware and software that are functionally integrated with the body and mind are to be viewed as parts of the person or separate artifacts subject to different legal treatment. Other questions relate to how to attribute responsibility for actions taken as a result of the operations of a hybrid mind, as well as how to settle questions of the privacy and security of information generated and retained within a hybrid mind.

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