scholarly journals The Experimental Flesh: Incarnation in Terms of Quantum Measurement and Phenomenological Perception

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Johncock

What is the relation of the human to the world and the things in it? Do the various forms of human interrogation of the world discover things, and with them, a world? That is, can we reduce Being to a separation of knower from what can be known, or of observer from what can be observed? This article interrogates the question of the human-world relation via an inter-disciplinary analysis. The “flesh of the world” phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty problematises the assumption that there is an inherent distinction between subject and object, by instead identifying the incarnation of both in the embodied act of perception. Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of a reality-as-flesh will be employed alongside, and inside, physicist Niels Bohr’s demand that the constituent elements of physical reality emerge via the concurrent incarnation of the measurer and the measured during experimental procedures. Bohrian quantum physics is shown (in a manner which does not require the reader to be experienced in quantum theories) to evoke the co-manifestation of subject and object for which Merleau-Ponty argues. In blurring notions of observer and observed, an ontologically productive, rather than epistemologically interrogative, operation is identified. This is used to investigate the human-world relation, and to argue against the notion that this relation, as a condition for there being phenomena, separates knower from what can be known, or observer from what can be observed.

Author(s):  
Matthew Mutter

This chapter examines Auden’s vision of the body and the broader material character of existence by elaborating his critique of “magical thinking,” which for Auden marks an attempt to subsume the material otherness of the world into human subjectivity. As a late modernist, Auden is writing against what he takes to be two distorted modernist responses to secular “disenchantment”: magic, which disavows the gap between subject and object, and pagan immanence, which identifies with and seeks to resacralize the very inhumanness of the world’s material energy. Auden, rather, accepts the secular disenchantment of the world, which for him uncovers a new possibility: an ethical relation to material life, including the life of one’s own body, as the nonhuman other. But he simultaneously preserves a Christian, nonreductive vision of the human world as a domain of responsibility, original action, and transcendent aspiration. He thus develops what I call a nonhierarchical “affirmative dualism,” a vision of two distinct orders given equal standing.


Author(s):  
David Wallace

‘Quantum theory’ is not a single physical theory but a framework in which many different concrete theories fit. As such, a solution to the quantum measurement problem ought to provide a recipe to interpret each such concrete theory, in a mutually consistent way. But with the exception of the Everett interpretation, the main extant solutions either try to make sense of the abstract framework as if it were concrete, or else interpret one particular quantum theory under the fiction that it is fundamental and exact. In either case, these approaches are unable to help themselves to the very theory-laden, level-relative ways in which quantum theory makes contact with experiment in mainstream physics, and so are committed to major revisionary projects which have not been carried out even in outline. As such, only the Everett interpretation is currently suited to make sense of quantum physics as it is found.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajendra K. Bera

It now appears that quantum computers are poised to enter the world of computing and establish its dominance, especially, in the cloud. Turing machines (classical computers) tied to the laws of classical physics will not vanish from our lives but begin to play a subordinate role to quantum computers tied to the enigmatic laws of quantum physics that deal with such non-intuitive phenomena as superposition, entanglement, collapse of the wave function, and teleportation, all occurring in Hilbert space. The aim of this 3-part paper is to introduce the readers to a core set of quantum algorithms based on the postulates of quantum mechanics, and reveal the amazing power of quantum computing.


Author(s):  
T. N. Palmer

A new law of physics is proposed, defined on the cosmological scale but with significant implications for the microscale. Motivated by nonlinear dynamical systems theory and black-hole thermodynamics, the Invariant Set Postulate proposes that cosmological states of physical reality belong to a non-computable fractal state-space geometry I , invariant under the action of some subordinate deterministic causal dynamics D I . An exploratory analysis is made of a possible causal realistic framework for quantum physics based on key properties of I . For example, sparseness is used to relate generic counterfactual states to points p ∉ I of unreality, thus providing a geometric basis for the essential contextuality of quantum physics and the role of the abstract Hilbert Space in quantum theory. Also, self-similarity, described in a symbolic setting, provides a possible realistic perspective on the essential role of complex numbers and quaternions in quantum theory. A new interpretation is given to the standard ‘mysteries’ of quantum theory: superposition, measurement, non-locality, emergence of classicality and so on. It is proposed that heterogeneities in the fractal geometry of I are manifestations of the phenomenon of gravity. Since quantum theory is inherently blind to the existence of such state-space geometries, the analysis here suggests that attempts to formulate unified theories of physics within a conventional quantum-theoretic framework are misguided, and that a successful quantum theory of gravity should unify the causal non-Euclidean geometry of space–time with the atemporal fractal geometry of state space. The task is not to make sense of the quantum axioms by heaping more structure, more definitions, more science fiction imagery on top of them, but to throw them away wholesale and start afresh. We should be relentless in asking ourselves: From what deep physical principles might we derive this exquisite structure? These principles should be crisp, they should be compelling. They should stir the soul. Chris Fuchs ( Gilder 2008 , p. 335)


Author(s):  
Abbas Mohammadi

Cinema consists of two different dimensions of art and instrument. A tool that mixes with art and represents society in which anything can be depicted for others. But art has always sought to portray the beauties of this universe. The beauty that lies within philosophy. Since the advent of human beings, men have always sought to dominate and abuse women for their own benefit. In the 19th century, cinema entered the realm of existence and found its place in the human world. With the empowerment of cinema in the world, filmmakers tried to achieve their goals by using this tool.Many filmmakers use women as a propaganda tool to attract a male audience. In many films, when the hero of a movie succeeds in reaching a woman, or in doing so, she is succeeded by a woman. In this way, of course, women themselves are not faultless and have helped men abuse women. Afghanistan, a traditional and male-dominated country, has not been the exception, and in many Afghan films women have been instrumental zed and used in various ways to benefit men, and we have seen fewer films in which women be a movie hero or a woman in a movie like a man. This kind of treatment of women in Afghan films has caused other young Afghan girls to not have a positive view of Afghan cinema.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-101
Author(s):  
Marina V. Pimenova ◽  
◽  
Aigul A. Bakirova ◽  

The article analyzes the cognitive signs of the macroconcept universe in Russian linguoculture. The relevance of the research is determined by the prospect of studying a new type of mental structures - symbolic macroconcepts. The purpose of the article is to describe the specifics of the macroconcept universe structure formation from the standpoint of the definition of syncretic primordial signs. The main methods in the work are the historical and etymological analysis of the studied macroconcept representative, descriptive and interpretive methods. During the study, seven motivating signs of the macroconcept universe were noted: 'earth', 'live', ‘world’,‘inhabit’,‘inhabited’,‘settlement’,‘light’. All identified motivating signs are syncretic symbolic primordial signs 'house' (conceptum, according to V. V. Kolesov). Motivating signs express two main symbolic meanings of Russian linguoculture: home is a place where people live, settle; home is the world of people and all living beings, this world-light (unlike that world-light where the souls of the dead go: that world-light is located in the sky), it is built on earth. The macroconcept universe is objectified by erased metaphors of a closed space (in particular, the metaphor of a key), which has an internal volume, center-middle, limits, parts, edges, corners, people live in this house, they live and exist in it, it is inhabited and settle down in Russian linguoculture. The model of the universe in the Russian language picture of the world is three-parted: the middle part in it represents the human world, in which the principle of anthropocentrism is manifested - a person measures space and chooses himself as a reference point. The syncretic primary sign ‘house’ unites in itself all the motivating signs of the studied macroconcept, keeping their relevance to our days. Keywords: macroconcept, motivating signs, first sign, language picture of the world, linguoculture, comparative studies


Author(s):  
Nataliya Alekseevna Zavyalova

The analysis of civilizational pictures of the world through the prism of linguistic universals allows one to reveal the general and the particular in the «human — world» system, which contributes to a more complete understanding of their cultural semantics. Cultural standards vary across civilizations. Their description on the material of multi-structural, genetically heterogeneous languages, civilizations and cultures makes it possible to reveal the common foundations of people's social life despite the fact that their cultural codes are different, often creating the impression of a complete incompatibility of the thinking and behavior of their representatives. Therefore, studies based on the description of fundamentally dissimilar civilizations and cultures, demonstrating the groundlessness of such impressions, are relevant. The article examines cultural and communicative formulae as a reflection of the civilizational pictures of the world. Cultural and communicative formulae (CCF) are defined by the author as the simplest, stable, high-frequency units of culture used at all levels of social and cultural life, which, being a combination of signs, compactly represent the culture in its similarity and difference with other cultures and make it possible to establish a dialogue of cultures in minimum of data involved. CCF provide communication through verbal forms of language, gestures, styles, etc., i.e. through all cultural forms that can be translated into signs of a given culture and are sufficient to have a minimal idea of it. The article examines the CCF using the example of concise verbal forms belonging to folk speech, which include proverbs and sayings, «winged words», precedent phrases that are a component of the civilizational picture of the world. The materials of the article may be of interest for preparation at the higher educational institution in the framework of the fields of «Linguistics», «International relations» and «Culturology».


Sociologus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Guido Sprenger

The term “animism” is at once a fantasy internal to modernity and a semiotic conduit enabling a serious inquiry into non-modern phenomena that radically call into question the modern distinction of nature and culture. Therefore, I suggest that the labelling of people, practices or ideas as “animist” is a strategic one. I also raise the question if animism can help to solve the modern ecological crisis that allegedly stems from the nature-culture divide. In particular, animism makes it possible to recognize personhood in non-humans, thus creating moral relationships with the non-human world. A number of scholars and activists identify animism as respect for all living beings and as intimate relationships with nature and its spirits. However, this argument still presupposes the fixity of the ontological status of beings as alive or persons. A different view of animism highlights concepts of fluid and unstable persons that emerge from ongoing communicative processes. I argue that the kind of attentiveness that drives fluid personhood may be supportive of a politics of life that sees relationships with non-humans in terms of moral commitment.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natália Peroni Pellin ◽  
Alex Weymer ◽  
Leila Andressa Dissenha ◽  
Márcio André Leal Bauer

PurposeThe aim of this article was to analyze how the presence of the elements that constitute organizational links are related to sensemaking in a cooperative system of medical work.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis was conducted following interviews with the managers of the cooperative, which is a member of the Brazilian cooperative system and one of the largest in the world. This analysis enabled the systematization of the categories that were identified through the coding of responses, aided by Atlas.ti 8.0 software.FindingsAfter the analysis, it was possible to resize the constitutive elements identified in the specialized literature into three categories: identification, cooperation and recognition. The proposed resizing does not preclude the presence of the constitutive elements identified in the analysis, but it evidences the presence of these elements in a contextualized manner, suggesting a model of an organic organizational link that is dependent on the relationship between subject–object (organization), in which the different perceptions of meanings affect identification, and this can strengthen or weaken the link in a constant process of resignification.Originality/valueWith regard to its theoretical relevance, the work helps to bring concepts related to organizational links and sensemaking closer together as a process in the realm of intersubjectivity. This provides evidence of the presence of constituent elements of ties in a contextualized manner, demonstrating that the interpretation of managers aids sensemaking in a process of circularity and resignification.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-107
Author(s):  
Y. Domanskii

Using an excerpt from Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, this article explores the idea that, in a literary text, a fictional world and the world of physical reality may interact to form such a reality that can paradoxically turn out to be more real than what we believe to be the actual reality. It is also shown that the fictional world realized in a literary text may bring the reader to certain conclusions about the world in which he or she lives. Thus, even if literature is in­capable of affecting reality, it can change the way the latter is perceived. A fictional world is not just a reality — it is a reality of a higher order.


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