4. A grand illusion

2017 ◽  
pp. 51-66
Author(s):  
Susan Blackmore
Keyword(s):  
Inattentional Blindness ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Sensorimotor Theory ◽  
Sensorimotor Contingencies ◽  
The Way

Is consciousness an illusion? If so, it isn’t that consciousness doesn’t exist, but that it isn’t what it seems. ‘A grand illusion’ considers change and inattentional blindness, challenging the way we think about our visual experiences. Traditional vision theories, with their detailed inner representations, cannot explain how or why those representations become conscious experiences or why we seem to be someone looking at those representations. Sensorimotor theory, proposed by psychologist Kevin O’Regan and philosopher Alva Noë, suggests vision means mastering sensorimotor contingencies. It turns the problem upside down, making the viewer into an actor and the visions into actions. This theory must now explain how actions can be subjective experiences.

The Great Beyond

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-170
Author(s):  
Drew Massey
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
The Way ◽  
Musical Styles

In the decade ending in 2016, Adès has gravitated toward larger-scale works including Tevot (2007), Totentanz (2013), and The Exterminating Angel (2016). The increasingly cosmic ambition of these works reflects a more “philosophical” footing for Adès’s largest works. Despite the heterogeneity of these pieces, each of these works carefully balances its subjective and objective dimensions. Each of them features a different primary means of musical signification: Tevot operates largely through the use and development of autonomous musical material, Totentanz relies heavily on stylistic allusion and the pre-existing musical technique of limited aleatory, and The Exterminating Angel is a combination of both strategies. Taken as a whole, what emerges from these pieces when viewed in this light is the way in which Adès increasingly uses musical styles and materials to engender subjective experiences which point to truths outside of the objectively observable—his own kind of great beyond.

scholarly journals On Dissipation: Goodbye, Dragon Inn and the “Death of Cinema”

Arts ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anders Bergstrom
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
Affect Theory ◽  
Affective Experience ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Late Capitalism ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
The Way

This paper explores the cinematic meta-theme of the “death of cinema” through the lens of Taiwanese director, Tsai Ming-liang’s 2003 film, Goodbye, Dragon Inn. In the film, the final screening of the wuxia pian classic, Dragon Inn, directed by King Hu, provides a focal point for the exploration of the diminished experience of institutional cinema in the post-cinematic age. Using the concept of “dissipation” in conjunction with a reappraisal of the turn to affect theory, this paper explores the kinds of subjective experiences that cinema can offer, and the affective experience of cinema-going itself, as portrayed in Goodbye, Dragon Inn. More specifically, in theorizing the role of dissipation in cinema-going, this paper explores the deployment of time and space in Goodbye, Dragon Inn and how it directs attention to the bodily action of cinema-going itself. The result is a critique of the possibilities of post-cinematic affects, rooted in an understanding of the way that late-capitalism continues to dominate and shape the range of experiences in the contemporary moment.

Violations of sensorimotor theories of visual experience

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 904-905 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Bridgeman
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Visual Experience ◽  
System Structure ◽  
Space Constancy ◽  
Sensorimotor Theory ◽  
Significant Step ◽  
Sensorimotor Contingencies ◽  
Visual Nervous System

Although the sensorimotor account is a significant step forward, it cannot explain experiences of entoptic phenomena that violate normal sensorimotor contingencies but nonetheless are perceived as visual. Nervous system structure limits how they can be interpreted. Neurophysiology, combined with a sensorimotor theory, can account for space constancy by denying the existence of permanent representations of states that must be corrected or updated.

Conclusions

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-170
Author(s):  
Joseph Sung-Yul Park
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Language User ◽  
Changing Economy ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Ideal ◽  
The Way

This chapter closes this book by summarizing the arguments made in the previous chapters and considering the implications for the study of language and political economy. Subjectivities of English in neoliberalism jointly work to present neoliberal subjecthood as the ideal way of living, thereby rationalizing the structures of control inherent in neoliberalism. Research on language and political economy has much to gain by attending to aspects of subjectivity that underlie the way language gets incorporated into the conditions of the changing economy, as language serves as an important channel through which neoliberalism extends its control over our minds, bodies, and sense of being. For this, we need to recognize that subjective experiences of being a language user is fraught with tensions based on material relations, and make them a serious focus for the study of language and political economy.

Protagonists of War

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Fagel
Keyword(s):  
Historical Novels ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
War Narratives ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
Alternative Reading ◽  
The Way

Julián Romero, Sancho Dávila, Cristóbal de Mondragón, and Francisco de Valdés were prominent Spanish military commanders during the first decade of the Revolt in the Low Countries (1567–1577). Occupying key positions in this conflict, they featured as central characters in various war narratives and episodical descriptions of the events they were involved in, ranging from chronicles, poems, theatre plays, engravings, and songs to news pamphlets. To this day, they still figure as protagonists of historical novels: brave heroes in some, cruel oppressors in others. Yet personal, first-hand accounts also exist. Archival research into the letters written by these commanders now makes it possible to include their perspectives and the way they describe their own experiences. Looking through the eyes of four Spanish commanders, Protagonists of War provides the reader with an alternative reading of the Revolt, contrasting the subjective experiences of these protagonists with fictionalised perceptions.

scholarly journals Protagonists of War

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Fagel
Keyword(s):  
Historical Novels ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Archival Research ◽  
Low Countries ◽  
War Narratives ◽  
Military Commanders ◽  
Central Characters ◽  
Alternative Reading ◽  
The Way

Julián Romero, Sancho Dávila, Cristóbal de Mondragón, and Francisco de Valdés were prominent Spanish military commanders during the first decade of the Revolt in the Low Countries (1567–1577). Occupying key positions in this conflict, they featured as central characters in various war narratives and episodical descriptions of the events they were involved in, ranging from chronicles, poems, theatre plays, engravings, and songs to news pamphlets. To this day, they still figure as protagonists of historical novels: brave heroes in some, cruel oppressors in others. Yet personal, first-hand accounts also exist. Archival research into the letters written by these commanders now makes it possible to include their perspectives and the way they describe their own experiences. Looking through the eyes of four Spanish commanders, Protagonists of War provides the reader with an alternative reading of the Revolt, contrasting the subjective experiences of these protagonists with fictionalised perceptions.

scholarly journals Proprioception in Action: A Matter of Ecological and Social Interaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ximena González-Grandón ◽  
Andrea Falcón-Cortés ◽  
Gabriel Ramos-Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Perceptual Experience ◽  
Body Position ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Formal Framework ◽  
Sensorimotor Theory ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Internal Motor ◽  
Sensorimotor Contingencies ◽  
Kinesthetic System

The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical and formal framework to understand how the proprioceptive and kinesthetic system learns about body position and possibilities for movement in ongoing action and interaction. Whereas most weak embodiment accounts of proprioception focus on positionalist descriptions or on its role as a source of parameters for internal motor control, we argue that these aspects are insufficient to understand how proprioception is integrated into an active organized system in continuous and dynamic interaction with the environment. Our strong embodiment thesis is that one of the main theoretical principles to understand proprioception, as a perceptual experience within concrete situations, is the coupling with kinesthesia and its relational constitution—self, ecological, and social. In our view, these aspects are underdeveloped in current accounts, and an enactive sensorimotor theory enriched with phenomenological descriptions may provide an alternative path toward explaining this skilled experience. Following O'Regan and Noë (2001) sensorimotor contingencies conceptualization, we introduce three distinct notions of proprioceptive kinesthetic-sensorimotor contingencies (PK-SMCs), which we describe conceptually and formally considering three varieties of perceptual experience in action: PK-SMCs-self, PK-SMCs-self-environment, and PK-SMC-self-other. As a proof of concept of our proposal, we developed a minimal PK model to discuss these elements in detail and show their explanatory value as important guides to understand the proprioceptive/kinesthetic system. Finally, we also highlight that there is an opportunity to develop enactive sensorimotor theory in new directions, creating a bridge between the varieties of experiences of oneself and learning skills.

scholarly journals Psychology of Religion Approaches to the Study of Religious Experience

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Taves
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Religious Experience ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Spiritual Experiences ◽  
Subjective Experiences ◽  
Psychological Study ◽  
And Coping ◽  
The Way

Religious experience played a prominent role in the psychological study of religion in the early decades of the twentieth-century, then waned as behaviorist and quantitative approaches became more prominent, and reemerged in the second half of the twentieth century alongside, and largely distinct from, mystical experience and, more recently, spirituality. Compared to the past, current research places less stress on sudden subjective experiences and more on ordinary (spiritual) experiences and gradual (spiritual) transformations that can take place in the context of practices or everyday life (struggle and coping). Ralph Hood, who is widely recognized as the leading expert in this area, makes a sharp distinction between religious and spiritual experiences, which must be defined by individuals and/or traditions, and mystical experience, which he views as a cross-culturally stable experiential core of religion and spirituality. Consideration of research on religious, mystical, anomalous, and pathological experiences, however, highlights considerable overlap between them and a lack of attention to the processes whereby they are differentiated within and across cultures. Researchers are developing new measures that separate experiences and appraisals, as well as new methods for ensuring that respondents understand queries in the way researchers intend. These innovations should allow us to better understand the effects of culture and tradition on the way unusual experiences are constituted in the context of everyday life.

Self-sacrifice for in-group's history: A diachronic perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Babińska ◽  
Michal Bilewicz
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Psychology ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Emotional Events ◽  
Reciprocal Process ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe problem of extended fusion and identification can be approached from a diachronic perspective. Based on our own research, as well as findings from the fields of social, political, and clinical psychology, we argue that the way contemporary emotional events shape local fusion is similar to the way in which historical experiences shape extended fusion. We propose a reciprocal process in which historical events shape contemporary identities, whereas contemporary identities shape interpretations of past traumas.

What is the purpose of cognition?

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aba Szollosi ◽  
Ben R. Newell
Keyword(s):  
Infinite Number ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
The Way

Abstract The purpose of human cognition depends on the problem people try to solve. Defining the purpose is difficult, because people seem capable of representing problems in an infinite number of ways. The way in which the function of cognition develops needs to be central to our theories.

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