Creativity and Imagination

Mind Shift ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 140-154
Author(s):  
John Parrington

This chapter describes another aspect of human uniqueness—the links between consciousness, creativity, and imagination. Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky believed that human consciousness is transformed by social interactions, particularly through language, in a similar fashion to how tools have allowed us to transform the natural world. Vygotsky saw imagination as no less influenced by this social input than other aspects of consciousness. To deal with a changing environment, he argued that the human brain ‘combines and creatively reworks elements of this past experience and uses them to generate new propositions and new behaviour [making] the human being a creature oriented toward the future, creating the future and thus altering his own present’. Vygotsky thought that imagination was particularly stimulated in the developing child through the process of play. Some aspects of adult human culture have attributes in common with play, including the link with imagination.

Mind Shift ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 411-436
Author(s):  
John Parrington

This chapter returns to the various alternative views about human consciousness first mentioned at the start of this book, and assesses how this book’s account compares to, and hopefully builds on, these other viewpoints. The view of human consciousness developed in this book can explain the uniqueness of our species’ conscious awareness, but in an entirely materialistic fashion. This approach views language—the system of abstract symbols linked in a grammatical structure but also one that connects the individual to the world outside via word meaning—and other forms of human culture like music, art, and literature, as a material force that has reshaped human brain functions at every level. This has led to a qualitative shift in such functions, compared to that of every other species, including our closest animal cousins, the great apes. Unlike a purely ‘bottom up’ approach to human brain function, this view sees language, as well as other mediators of human culture, as imposing both structural and dynamic changes in our brains. Structurally, it sees the different brain regions, as well as their interconnections, as altered in humans. The chapter then reflects on what impact, if any, might this approach to understanding human consciousness have on diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.


2009 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-94
Author(s):  
I G. A. K. Wardani

Facing the rapid changing world, concern on the future of the nation is increasing. This is due to the fact that a lot of practices in schools, families, as welf as in society do not conform with the etical conduct, moral, and good manner that are universially accepted by human being. Therefore, all people who concern on the future of the nation, especially educators, should aware of the importance of character education, in order to save the future generation from moral degradation. Related to the problem, this aims at trigerring the awareness of educator to the importance of character education, by discussing the conceptual meanings ( what, why, and how) of character education, then followed by the possibility for implementation, and ended with the implication on education and teacher education.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eun-Ju Lee ◽  
Dong Hyun Kim ◽  
Yoonjeong Choi

Author(s):  
Ataullah Bogdan Kopanski

Abstract There is no agreement among psychologists on sources and outcomes of the dreams in human brain during sleep. Secularist scholars of Freudian school of psychoanalysis claim that human dreams reflect their highly subconscious libido. Jungian school of kollective Unbewessustes   disputes such extreme sexualized opinions and highlights the fact that rather large “collective unconscious” than sexuality is shared by representatives of all human cultures. But even without advanced studies, we can risk to believe that our dreams often predict coming events. Artemidoros Daldianus from Ephesus, the second century CE Hellenistic author of Oneirokritikon believed that dreams are human mind’s mirrors of the future. His magnum opus on the art of interpretation of dreams was translated into Arabic by famous Nestorian ophthalmologist Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Iohannitus) of Bayt al-Hikmah during the reign of Abbasid caliphs Maymun and Mutawakkil. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.) often interpreted his own and Sahabah’s dreams with perfect accuracy. In the Qur’an, especially in Surah 12: Yusuf, 36-37, 99-101, the dreams are vehicles of foretelling the future not only of individuals but also of whole nations and states. The paper is written from historical perspective of the Muslim interpretation of dreams which emphasizes the Islamic examination of human dreams in context of the primary sources to the ancient Greek oneiromancy, studied by the Muslim scholars in the early centuries of Islamic Civilization, and their contribution to development of modern oneirology. Keywords: Oneirology, Interpretation of Dreams, Artemidoros’ Oneirocritica, Islamic Ta‘bÊr. Abstrak Tidak ada sebarang persetujuan di kalangan ahli psikologi terhadap sumber dan hasil daripada mimpi di dalam otak manusia semasa tidur. Para sekular Sekolah Psikoanalisis Freud mendakwa bahawa mimpi manusia mencerminkan kesedaran libido. Sekolah Unbewessustes kollective Jungian pertikaikan pendapat seksual melampau tersebut dan menyerlahkan bahawa kebanyakkan kesedaran bukan daripada kesedaran libido dan didapati dalam semua budaya manusia. Tetapi walaupun tanpa kajian yang canggih, kita boleh mengambil risiko untuk mempercayai bahawa mimpi kita sering meramalkan peristiwa yang akan datang. Artemidoros Daldianus dari Efesus, pengarang Hellenistik Oneirokritikon abad kedua CE percaya bahawa mimpi mencerminkan masa depan manusia. Seni interpretasi mimpi beliau telah diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Arab oleh pakar mata Nestorian terkenal Hunayn ibn Ishaq (Iohannitus) dari Bayt al-Hikmah pada zaman pemerintahan khalifah Abbasiyah Maymun dan Mutawakkil. Nabi Muhammad (s.a.w.) sering mentafsirkan mimpi sendiri dan sahabat secara tepat. Dalam Al-Qur'an, terutamanya dalam Surah 12: Yusuf, 36-37, 99-101, mimpi adalah kenderaan untuk meramalkan masa depan bukan sahaja seorang individu tetapi keseluruhan negara dan negeri. Kajian ini ditulis dari perspektif sejarah interpretasi mimpi Islam yang menekankan pemeriksaan mimpi manusia dalam Islam dalam konteks sumber utama oneiromancy purba Yunani yang dikaji oleh para ulama Islam di abad-abad awal tamadun Islam, dan sumbangan mereka kepada pembangunan oneirologi moden. Kata Kunci: Oneirologi, Interpretasi mimpi, Oneirocritica Artemidoros, Ta‘bÊr Islam.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-367
Author(s):  
Roberto Paura

Transhumanism is one of the main “ideologies of the future” that has emerged in recent decades. Its program for the enhancement of the human species during this century pursues the ultimate goal of immortality, through the creation of human brain emulations. Therefore, transhumanism offers its fol- lowers an explicit eschatology, a vision of the ultimate future of our civilization that in some cases coincides with the ultimate future of the universe, as in Frank Tipler’s Omega Point theory. The essay aims to analyze the points of comparison and opposition between transhumanist and Christian eschatologies, in particular considering the “incarnationist” view of Parousia. After an introduction concern- ing the problems posed by new scientific and cosmological theories to traditional Christian eschatology, causing the debate between “incarnationists” and “escha- tologists,” the article analyzes the transhumanist idea of mind-uploading through the possibility of making emulations of the human brain and perfect simulations of the reality we live in. In the last section the problems raised by these theories are analyzed from the point of Christian theology, in particular the proposal of a transhuman species through the emulation of the body and mind of human beings. The possibility of a transhumanist eschatology in line with the incarnationist view of Parousia is refused.


Nanoscale ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yarong Wang ◽  
Weihong Huang ◽  
Lingchong Fan ◽  
Ziwei Zhang ◽  
Qiuyue Huang ◽  
...  

Emulating biological behavior of the human brain with artificial neuromorphic device is essential for the future development of human-machine interactive system, bionic sensing system and intelligent robot. In this paper,...


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