scholarly journals Psychology, Meaning Making, and the Study of Worldviews

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Taves ◽  
Egil Asprem ◽  
Elliott Daniel Ihm

To get beyond the solely negative identities signaled by atheism and agnosticism, we have to conceptualize an object of study that includes religions and non-religions. We advocate a shift from “religions” to “worldviews” and define worldviews in terms of the human ability to ask and reflect on “big questions” ([BQs], e.g., what exists? how should we live?). From a worldviews perspective, atheism, agnosticism, and theism are competing claims about one feature of reality and can be combined with various answers to the BQs to generate a wide range of worldviews. To lay a foundation for the multidisciplinary study of worldviews that includes psychology and other sciences, we ground them in humans’ evolved world-making capacities. Conceptualizing worldviews in this way allows us to identify, refine, and connect concepts that are appropriate to different levels of analysis. We argue that the language of enacted and articulated worldviews (for humans) and world-making and ways of life (for humans and other animals) is appropriate at the level of persons or organisms and the language of sense making, schemas, and meaning frameworks is appropriate at the cognitive level (for humans and other animals). Viewing the meaning making processes that enable humans to generate worldviews from an evolutionary perspective allows us to raise news questions for psychology with particular relevance for the study of nonreligious worldviews.

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 337-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Tateo

The aesthetic dimension of meaning-making in human conduct has been often overlooked. In this article, “aesthetic” refers to an immediate form of experiencing in which affective, ethical and cognitive dimensions are experienced as a totality, rather than a more restrictive meaning of artistic experience. The philosopher Giambattista Vico (1670–1744) developed the concept of “poetic logic,” that is a specific mode of thought typical of early stages of civilization. Poetic logic is the first form of collective elaboration of experience, a way of creating universals concepts based on sensory, affective sense-making and religious thinking. Vico claims that poetic logic was the cornerstone for the elaboration of whole systems of collective knowledge (poetic economy, science, geography, history, law, etc.) crystallized in myths. Poetic logic, based on imaginative function is a proper epistemological stance that, though overcome by rationality at a later stage of civilization, still plays an important function in keeping alive the ethical dimensions of collective life against the “barbarism of reflection.” Two centuries later, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), one of the fathers of Pragmatism, developed an idea of poetic and imagination as forms of knowledge. Though echoing Vico’s ideas, he represents the aggressiveness of modernity. From the discussion of their ideas, I will try to sketch the psychological aspects of the aesthetic dimension of experience that can be found in a wide range of human activities, including actions of killing, overpowering and social injustice. I will try to argue that meaning-making is oriented through processes that affect such aesthetic dimension.


2013 ◽  
Vol 113 (2) ◽  
pp. 605-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felipe N. Castro ◽  
Wallisen T. Hattori ◽  
Maria Emília Yamamoto ◽  
Fívia A. Lopes

This study used the biological market perspective and influential statistical models from the marketing field to investigate males' and females' expectations regarding which combination of characteristics are most relevant in ensuring desirable partnerships for same-sex individuals. Thus, 358 Brazilian undergraduates assessed eight descriptions of same-gender stimulus targets (formulated with different levels of physical attractiveness, social skills, and current or prospective social status) and evaluated the overall desirability of the targets' expected or probable partners. From the possible combinations, three groups emerged: for one group, mainly composed of men, status characteristics were the most important attributes; for the others, mostly composed of women, social skills or physical characteristics were identified as most important in appealing to a desirable partner. This work expands the understanding of variability in male and female romantic expectations, and its implications are discussed from an evolutionary perspective.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raphael Jospe

Jewish theology is compatible with religious pluralism, based on the paradigm of the Jewish obligation to live in accordance with the commandments of the Torah while accepting the legitimacy of other ways of life in accordance with the paradigm of the universal “seven commandments of the children of Noah.” Jospe here answers two challenges to this thesis, one, voiced by Christian theologians, that pluralism equals relativism, and a second, voiced by the Jewish scholar, Menachem Kellner, that there are no sources for pluralism in Jewish tradition and that pluralism itself makes no sense. In presenting his arguments, Jospe invokes a wide range of ancient, medieval and modern thinkers, probing the theological possibilities for pluralism within Jewish tradition and its boundaries with relativism. In doing so, he argues that one should differentiate between moral relativism, a non-negotiable category, and epistemological relativism, where there is room for compromise.


Author(s):  
Androniki Kavoura

Are there theoretical foundations that may substantiate communication in an online environment in regard to accounting reporting and implementation of information via mobile accounting technologies that brings together communication, numbers and computing? This conceptual paper explores the creation of an imagined community that has all the characteristics to connect accountants together with the implementation of mobile devices based on Anderson's theory of imagined communities. It describes a wide range of trends in relation to current and emerging technologies used and maps processes of financial reporting into this milieu via the notion of imagined communities. It argues that a sense of coherence exists between its members who feel a sense of belonging to the same group, even if they have never met. The paper examines for the first time in this conceptual multidisciplinary study whether the characteristics of the imagined communities that construct identity are related to accounting community formation and this is the theoretical contribution of the paper.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-324
Author(s):  
Elena Zakirovna Kireeva ◽  

Review on «Dictionary of response remarks in Russian dialogical speech» by V. T. Bondarenko. The dictionary is based on a concept that is developed from the idea of dialogism of human consciousness. The object of study is response remarks, i.e. words and phraseological units whose illocutionary purpose is to respond to a word or phrase of another participant of the dialogue. They are characterized by stability in language and reproducibility in speech. Responses are defined as performative signs: they are used to express the psychological state (reaction) of the speaker, caused by an initiative phrase or ”hook”-word. The paper describes macro- and microstructure of the dictionary, characterizes the semantic and syntactic aspects of the response remarks, and enumerates their functions. The author of the review shows a number of ways to use the dictionary. Responses are linked to typical situations and everyday situations of communication (meeting, acquaintance, addressing, attracting attention, etc.), to conversation topics, and therefore, are of interest to researchers dealing with genres of oral speech. Since the responses are connected with the stereotypes of thinking, behavior and mental reactions of Russians, their research is important for ethnolinguists. The dictionary data can enrich linguistic and cultural studies of cultural concepts. Due to the playful (humorous) function inherent to responses, they may be of interest when studying the essence of the comic. The dictionary materials give a systematic idea of the expression of the comic in the Russian language. The open evaluability of response remarks makes them a unique research material for studying the categories of axiology, evaluability, and textual modality. The analysis of the context of responses, the system of marks and illustrations is valuable for researchers of speech culture and speech etiquette. It will be fruitful for psycholinguists developing a theory of reactivity. The dictionary has a wide range of response variations, so it is of great importance for phraseologists who study the variation of set phrases. Studying the response remarks will be useful to researchers of children’s speech as vocabulary, syntax, rhythm of response replicas, and images in them are organical for the child’s perception and can be easily reproduced. For gender studies of language, the research of these units is important because they allow you to get information about gender characteristics, and marks and illustrations – to compare the tactics of speech behavior of men and women. The dictionary has a great educational value for any person, because thanks to the non-standard and unusual material of the dictionary, everyone can enrich their speech.


2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-11
Author(s):  
Valentina A. Maslova ◽  

The article deals with the status of the speech genres theory (SGT) and its contribution to the development of modern linguistics. In his polemical article Professor V. V. Dementyev argues that SGT is characterized by the wide range of research problems, a close connection with such academic domains as the theory of speech acts, colloquial studies, discourse analysis, linguistic personology and other areas that study a human and their language. This thesis does not raise objections, as the 21st century is considered to be the century of syncretism and interpenetration of sciences, which has become one of the main features of the entire post-non-classical science. This approach provides a holistic reflection on the object of study, in this case, on the language. It is called syncretism, integrity, interdisciplinarity, polydisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity. In general, these terms are synonymous, because they are based on the idea of holism of everything in the world. In this sense, SGT is in line with modern science. The thesis of V. V. Dementyev on the diffusion of genres. Diffusion can be considered as the most important trend not only in science, but also in the entire modern culture, which is shown with the help of examples. However, some statements of V. V. Dementyev’s article seem debatable: the problem of the pervasiveness of SGT in linguistics in its entirety, which can give rise to a dangerous tendency – the absorption of linguistics by SGT. Their interests do often overlap, but each of the named areas solves the problem of personal communication in a social environment in its own way, and each of them has its own subject and its own history. Today SGT cannot take into account many of the processes occurring in discourse, but this is a relatively new science with a great future.


1975 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 253 ◽  
Author(s):  
HM Rawson ◽  
CL Craven

Changes in stomatal density and size were followed in tobacco and sunflower leaves expanding from 10% of final area (10% Amax) to Amax under different levels of radiation. Lower radiation increased final leaf area, reduced stomatal densities, and increased area per stoma but had little effect on stomatal area per unit leaf area at Amax. In very young leaves (20% Amax) there was a wide range in the sizes of individual stomata, some stomata being close to full size, but by Amax differences were small. The possible relationship between the developmental patterns described and photosynthesis is briefly discussed.


Weed Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-476 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmadreza Mobli ◽  
Ali Ghanbari ◽  
Mehdi Rastgoo

AbstractFlax-leaf alyssum (Alyssum linifoliumSteph. ex. Willd.) is a winter weed species in irrigated and dryland farming systems of Iran. Experiments were conducted to compare the cardinal temperatures ofA. linifoliumat different levels of drought, salt concentration, and pH. In all experiments, the dent-like model showed a better fit than the quadratic polynomial model.Alyssum linifoliumproduced the highest germination rates at pH 7 and a temperature of 20C in nonstress treatment. Minimum, optimum, and ceiling temperatures in the dent-like model were 4.1 (upper=26.8, lower=10.0) and 35C, and in the quadratic polynomial model were 3.3, 19.1, and 35.0C, respectively. At increased salinity and drought potential levels, the minimum temperature increased, while optimum and ceiling temperatures decreased. Seeds could germinate at up to 20 dS m−1and −1 MPa, respectively, but germination rate and percentage significantly decreased. The seeds of this weed germinated across a wide range of pH values (4≤pH≥8), but the temperature range at which seeds could germinate was reduced. These data serve as guidelines for species-specific propagation protocols and agricultural decision support systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-117

Abstract The phenomenon of transculturalism is capable of activating and generating meaning within various spaces, levels and layers of literature. The study discusses different levels of transculturalism through certain authors and texts in Slovakian Hungarian literature, along with transcultural authorial identity, the transcultural meaning-making machinery of texts, transcultural practices of the social context, and transcultural directions and gaps in reception. The purpose of the paper is to classify some of the transcultural phenomena we encounter and to unravel the relevant conceptual and interpretative levels.


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