Religion, Cognition, and the Myth of Conscious Will

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-119
Author(s):  
Hugh Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Ritual Action ◽  
Spontaneous Action ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
Supernatural Agency ◽  
Conscious Will ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractCharacteristic of the recent cognitive approach to religion (CSR) is the thesis that religious discourse and practice are rooted in an inveterate human propensity to explain events in terms of agent causality. This thesis readily lends itself to the critical understanding of religious belief as “our intuitive psychology run amok.” This effective restriction of the scientific critique of agent causality to notions of supernatural agency appears arbitrary, however, in light of evidence from cognitive and social psychology that our sense of human agency, including our own, is interpretive in nature. In this paper I argue that a cognitive approach to religion that extends the critique of agent causality to the folk psychological experience of conscious will is able to shed light on several characteristically religious phenomena, such as spirit possession, ritual action, and spontaneous action in Zen Buddhism.

scholarly journals A set of distinct facial traits learned by machines is not predictive of appearance bias in the wild

AI and Ethics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Steed ◽  
Aylin Caliskan
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Processing Technology ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Interpretable Model ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractResearch in social psychology has shown that people’s biased, subjective judgments about another’s personality based solely on their appearance are not predictive of their actual personality traits. But researchers and companies often utilize computer vision models to predict similarly subjective personality attributes such as “employability”. We seek to determine whether state-of-the-art, black box face processing technology can learn human-like appearance biases. With features extracted with FaceNet, a widely used face recognition framework, we train a transfer learning model on human subjects’ first impressions of personality traits in other faces as measured by social psychologists. We find that features extracted with FaceNet can be used to predict human appearance bias scores for deliberately manipulated faces but not for randomly generated faces scored by humans. Additionally, in contrast to work with human biases in social psychology, the model does not find a significant signal correlating politicians’ vote shares with perceived competence bias. With Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME), we provide several explanations for this discrepancy. Our results suggest that some signals of appearance bias documented in social psychology are not embedded by the machine learning techniques we investigate. We shed light on the ways in which appearance bias could be embedded in face processing technology and cast further doubt on the practice of predicting subjective traits based on appearances.

What forms of socialization lead women to stop cycling during adolescence?

2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022110296
Author(s):  
David Sayagh ◽  
Clément Dusong
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Physical Activity ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Physical Activities ◽  
Ecological Health ◽  
Class Environment ◽  
Health Sport ◽  
Shed Light

Cycling in public spaces is both a mobility and a physical activity underpinned by considerable issues, but women practice significantly less, particularly during adolescence. A few studies have sought to study this phenomenon but mainly on the basis of social psychology theories. Based on 84 semi-structured biographical interviews conducted in France, this article aims to discuss their findings using gender, mobility and socialization sociology. We first show how a ‘feminine’ socialization to risk taking, body aesthetics, sport, street and mechanics is an obstacle to cycling during adolescence, especially in the working-class environment and all the more so in spatial contexts with strong norms of male appropriation of public space. We then show how the fact of having cyclists in one's social environment and a sporting inclination plays an important role in limiting the risk of abandonment. By highlighting processes of reinforcement of gendered bodily and spatial inclinations, our results shed light on the links between the socio-construction of inequalities in accessing public space and of inequalities in accessing physical activities. Furthermore, they encourage the study of bicycle socialisation in an intersectional way and suggest the interest of studying the links between urban, ecological, health, sport and mobility socialisations.

The History and Current State of Japanese Zen Buddhism in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 195-221
Author(s):  
Shūhei Fujii
Keyword(s):  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
The Other ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern Religion ◽  
Current State ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Contemporary Situation ◽  
East West ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract This paper will shed light upon the history and current state of Japanese Zen Buddhism in Europe. Japanese Zen has mainly been transmitted in two ways among European countries: via the group founded by Deshimaru Taisen, and through Christian Zen. Deshimaru went to Europe and taught Zen. His teaching represented Zen as a wholistic, scientific, and peaceful Eastern religion. Though his group initially expanded greatly, it split into several subgroups following Deshimaru’s death. On the other hand, Sanbō Kyōdan promoted ecumenical integration between Christianity and Zen. The longstanding interest in Zen among Christians can be seen in the contemporary “spiritual exchange of the East-West.” Concerning the current state of Zen in Europe, data show that there are more than 270 Zen centers in Europe, located in 24 countries. An analysis of the contemporary situation thus demonstrates that European Zen is mobile, has various forms, and has influenced Japanese institutions.

scholarly journals Local Energy Communities and Distributed Generation: Contrasting Perspectives, and Inevitable Policy Trade-Offs, beyond the Apparent Global Consensus

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moroni ◽  
Antoniucci ◽  
Bisello
Keyword(s):  
Distributed Generation ◽  
Energy Production ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Distributed Energy ◽  
Global Consensus ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
Distributed Energy Generation ◽  
Shed Light

Although a certain degree of consensus seems to pervade the ideas of “distributed energy systems” and “energy communities”, in truth, diverse views are involved. This article aims to shed light on the variety of interpretations of these two concepts. In particular, the article critically considers the answers to the following four questions: What exactly is meant by “distributed” in the expression “distributed energy generation”? Why is distributed generation (ethically) desirable? Why should people consider it a positive idea that “communities”—and not individuals or families—are invited to manage distributed generation systems? Lastly, can energy communities be considered different from standard state intervention and from market systems? Clearly defining these questions helps in emphasising crucial differences, and it is an important step toward achieving a critical understanding. The conclusion is that there is no single interpretation for either the idea of distributed energy or that of energy communities. Shifting emphasis from one feature to another can drastically affect what policies are required to foster the creation of such communities and of a distributed energy production scenario.

Synonymous with Cinema: An Investigation into Ingmar Bergman’s Critical Reception in Italy

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Francesco Bono
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reception ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Ingmar Bergman ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
A Doll's House ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Selection Of

The present essay intends to investigate the critical fortune of the Swedish world-famous theater and film director Ingmar Bergman in Italy. In particular, attention will be devoted to the reception of Bergman’s theatrical productions that were shown on Italian stages between the early 1970s, when some of Bergman’s theater productions were first seen in Italy, and the early 1990s, when Bergman’s production of Ibsen‘s A Doll’s House was one of his last theatrical productions to be shown in Italy. On the whole, only minor consideration has been accorded by Italian scholars in their studies on Bergman to his work in the theater. This is well illustrated by the various books on Bergman that have appeared in Italy over the years, which scarcely deal with his theatrical work. One reason for this may lay, as shall be shown in this essay, in the lateness and scarcity with which Bergman’s productions reached Italy. By drawing on a selection of reviews of Bergman’s theater productions published in major Italian newspapers from the 1970s to the 1990s, the following investigation intends to give an account of the Italian reception of Bergman’s work in the theater, from the specific qualities acknowledged to the Swedish director to the formulas, as will be seen, increasingly characterizing the critics’ judgments on him over the years, with the aim to shed light on the critical understanding of Bergman’s oeuvre in Italy.

Acts That Work: A Cognitive Approach to Ritual Agency

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 281-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Close Attention ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
The Real ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Ritual Behavior ◽  
Action Representations ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractQuestions of agency are central for understanding ritual behavior in general and representations of ritual efficacy in particular. Religious traditions often stipulate who are entitled to perform particular rituals. Further, representations of unobservable superhuman agents are often explicitly described as the 'real' ritual agents. Recent investigations into the processes underlying action representations and social cognition can help explain how these representations arise. It is argued that paying close attention to details in the cognitive processing of ordinary actions can shed light on how ritual actions activate part of these systems while simultaneously leaving other aspects unaccounted for. This has particular effects that make culturally transmitted representations of superhuman agents highly relevant.

Links Between Cognitive-Behavioral Hope-Building and Positive Psychology: Applications to a Psychotic Patient

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Riskind
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Positive Psychology ◽  
Behavior Therapy ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cognitive Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Social Cognitive Theories

Several currently popular theories have emphasized the important role of hope in well-being. This article has outlined one framework for achieving hope via the normalizing and humanizing of patients, and the use of techniques such as priming or accessibility manipulation, reattribution, and other techniques derived from or inspired by current social-cognitive theories. As such they illustrate the possibilities for enriching the repertoire of cognitive therapists that can be offered by merging concepts from positive psychology and social psychology into a more ‘’hopeful’’ cognitive-behavior therapy. This social-cognitive approach is in line with the flexible and integrative underpinnings of cognitive therapy (Alford & Beck, 1996).

The Meaning within Moche Masks

2020 ◽  
pp. 180-212
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
North Coast ◽  
The North ◽  
Ritual Action ◽  
The World ◽  
Jequetepeque Valley ◽  
North Coast Of Peru ◽  
Shed Light

In this chapter, the author examines the remains of broken ceramic masks recovered in feasting middens at the Moche ceremonial center of Huaca Colorada (AD 650–900) in the southern Jequetepeque Valley of the North Coast of Peru. One objective of the chapter is to demonstrate that Moche masking traditions varied in terms of the rites and social context in which they were employed. The ceramic masks depicting Moche powerful beings became deeply meaningful and engines of semiosis in their own right within specific frames of ritual action. Those masks shed light on Moche theories of being and the workings of the world (i.e., “ontology”). Their iconography suggests they were worn by officiants who reenacted heroic myths and stories of creation in rites that promoted agricultural bounty, life, and fertility.

6. Ritual as performance

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
Performance Studies ◽  
Zen Buddhism ◽  
Performance Theory ◽  
Ritual Studies ◽  
Ritual Action ◽  
Performance Events ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Bodily Movements

Cross-culturally, ritual typically includes elements commonly associated with performance events: music or rhythmic accompaniment; dance or other stylized bodily movements; and masking, costuming, and makeup. ‘Ritual as performance’ considers performance theory and performance studies and some of the work of significant theorists in these fields: J. L. Austin and Richard Schechner. By looking at the kōan tradition of Zen Buddhism, Schechner's approach to ritual can be better understood. Schechner places performance on a continuum that runs from efficacy to entertainment. The notions of embodiment and inscription in ritual studies are also considered along with the noetic implications of ritual action, such as pilgrimage.

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