scholarly journals True Consciousness Science Requires Strongly Dynamically-Unorthodox Physics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Martin Rosseinsky
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Method ◽  
Physical Theory ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Mathematical Physics ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Subjective Report ◽  
The Hard Problem ◽  
True Science

Whether there can be a science of consciousness is both of the utmost importance, and a matter of intense current debate in the field. Recently, two major papers seemed to reach dramatically conflicting conclusions, one denying scientific method currently exists in the field, the other promoting a way to ‘make the hard problem easier’. Here I apply uncontroversial mathematical physics together with a new symbolism for conscious experience, to decisively resolve this issue. Under dynamically-orthodox physics (e.g. current physical theory), there can’t be a scientifically-reliable approach. But under a strong form of dynamically-unorthodox physics, subjective report is not provably unreliable, thus meeting the minimal necessary conditions for a true science. Implications for the epistemological foundations of science are briefly discussed.

On the Future of the Financial Redistribution across Member States in the EU

2006 ◽  
Vol 56 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-43
Author(s):  
Sándor Richter
Keyword(s):  
Value Added ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Member States ◽  
New Member States ◽  
Financial Position ◽  
Cross Member ◽  
Expenditure Structure ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Made In

The order and modalities of cross-member state redistribution as well as the net financial position of the member states are one of the most widely discussed aspects of European integration. The paper addresses selected issues in the current debate on the EU budget for the period 2007 to 2013 and introduces four scenarios. The first is identical to the European Commission's proposal; the second is based on reducing the budget to 1% of the EU's GNI, as proposed by the six net-payer countries, while maintaining the expenditure structure of the Commission's proposal. The next two scenarios represent radical reforms: one of them also features a '1% EU GNI'; however, the expenditures for providing 'EU-wide value-added' are left unchanged and it is envisaged that the requisite cuts will be made in the expenditures earmarked for cohesion. The other reform scenario is different from the former one in that the cohesion-related expenditures are left unchanged and the expenditures for providing 'EU-wide value-added' are reduced. After the comparison of the various scenarios, the allocation of transfers to the new member states in terms of the conditions prevailing in the different scenarios is analysed.

COMMUNICATING EMPIRE: THE HABSBURGS AND THEIR CRITICS, 1700–1919

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 117-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. J. W. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Free Standing ◽  
Power Base ◽  
The One ◽  
At Home

ABSTRACTIn the vibrant current debate about European empires and their ideologies, one basic dichotomy still tends to be overlooked: that between, on the one hand, the plurality of modern empires of colonisation, commerce and settlement; and, on the other, the traditional claim to single and undividedimperiumso long embodied in the Roman Empire and its successor, the Holy Roman Empire, or (First) Reich. This paper examines the tensions between the two, as manifested in the theory and practice of Habsburg imperial rule. The Habsburgs, emperors of the Reich almost continuously through its last centuries, sought to build their own power-base within and beyond it. The first half of the paper examines how by the eighteenth century their ‘Monarchy’, subsisting alongside the Reich, dealt with the associated legacy of empire. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 the Habsburgs could pursue a free-standing Austrian ‘imperialism’, but it rested on an uneasy combination of old and new elements and was correspondingly vulnerable to challenge from abroad and censure at home. The second half of the article charts this aspect of Habsburg government through an age of international imperialism and its contribution to the collapse of the Dual Monarchy in 1918.

Moving Beyond Procedure

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (7) ◽  
pp. 784-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
AMIE KREPPEL
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Decision Procedures ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Legislative Process ◽  
The European Union ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Legislative Influence

This article examines the influence of the European Parliament (EP) within the legislative process of the European Union. Although debate over the impact of the cooperation and co-decision I procedures continues, this article argues that, in part, the current theoretical debate is a false one that has caused many of the other important variables that affect EP legislative influence to be ignored. This article briefly revisits the current debate, then proceeds to an analysis of the success of more than 1,000 EP amendments under the cooperation and co-decision procedures. This evidence suggests that numerous other variables, such as internal EP unity and type of amendment made, have a significant impact on EP success, even controlling for procedure. In addition, this comparison points out some empirical differences between the two procedures that have been largely ignored in the theoretical debate but that nonetheless have a significant impact of EP success and merit further study.

scholarly journals The influence of resistivity gradients on shock conditions for a Petschek reconnection geometry

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-425
Author(s):  
Christian Nabert ◽  
Karl-Heinz Glassmeier
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Diffusion Region ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Characteristic Velocity ◽  
Magnetohydrodynamic Equations ◽  
One Dimensional ◽  
The Magnetic Field ◽  
Alfven Velocity

Abstract. Shock waves can strongly influence magnetic reconnection as seen by the slow shocks attached to the diffusion region in Petschek reconnection. We derive necessary conditions for such shocks in a nonuniform resistive magnetohydrodynamic plasma and discuss them with respect to the slow shocks in Petschek reconnection. Expressions for the spatial variation of the velocity and the magnetic field are derived by rearranging terms of the resistive magnetohydrodynamic equations without solving them. These expressions contain removable singularities if the flow velocity of the plasma equals a certain characteristic velocity depending on the other flow quantities. Such a singularity can be related to the strong spatial variations across a shock. In contrast to the analysis of Rankine–Hugoniot relations, the investigation of these singularities allows us to take the finite resistivity into account. Starting from considering perpendicular shocks in a simplified one-dimensional geometry to introduce the approach, shock conditions for a more general two-dimensional situation are derived. Then the latter relations are limited to an incompressible plasma to consider the subcritical slow shocks of Petschek reconnection. A gradient of the resistivity significantly modifies the characteristic velocity of wave propagation. The corresponding relations show that a gradient of the resistivity can lower the characteristic Alfvén velocity to an effective Alfvén velocity. This can strongly impact the conditions for shocks in a Petschek reconnection geometry.

scholarly journals Does study language (Dutch versus English) influence study success of Dutch and German students in the Netherlands?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna F. de Vos ◽  
Herbert Schriefers ◽  
Kristin Lemhöfer
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Drop Out ◽  
The Other ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
First Year ◽  
Study Success ◽  
Language Of Instruction ◽  
Drop Out Rates

Abstract We investigated whether the language of instruction (Dutch or English) influenced the study success of 614 Dutch and German first-year psychology students in the Netherlands. The Dutch students who were instructed in Dutch studied in their native language (L1), the other students in a second language (L2). In addition, only the Dutch students studied in their home country. Both these variables could potentially influence study success, operationalised as the number of European Credits (ECs) the students obtained, their grades, and drop-out rates. The L1 group outperformed the three L2 groups with respect to grades, but there were no significant differences in ECs and drop-out rates (although descriptively, the L1 group still performed best). In conclusion, this study shows an advantage of studying in the L1 when it comes to grades, and thereby contributes to the current debate in the Dutch media regarding the desirability of offering degrees taught in English.

scholarly journals Nietzsche’s Dionysos

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 604
Author(s):  
Dieter Mersch
Keyword(s):  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Central Point ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
The Aesthetic

Nietzsche’s Dionysus, admittedly, represents a direct provocation and an attack on the classical interpretation accepted since Winckelmann, an interpretation that elevates the Apollonian to its central point of focus; Nietzsche’s introduction of another principle to oppose it, rather than representing a genuine invention, in actuality bridges the small gap between Hegel and Hölderlin. If, namely, the Hegelian aesthetic from the very beginning points to Schein and Erscheinung – as necessary conditions of truth, for the truth would not exist if it were not to “superficially appear” (scheinen) and “make its appearance” (erscheinen), writes Hegel – Schein and Erscheinung would still nonetheless be bound up everywhere with the criterium of the absolute; after all, the untruth of the aesthetic rests squarely in the fact that it cannot do other than to draw upon the language of Erscheinung. For Hölderlin, on the other hand, the Dionysian advances to become a metapoetic symbol combining itself – the enigmatic and continually transforming – with the practice of art. Nietzsche follows those very same lines even while giving the metaphor a thoroughly different twist.

An Encounter with the Other: A Thematic Analysis of Accounts of DMT Experiences from a Naturalistic Field Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Michael ◽  
David Luke ◽  
Oliver Robinson
Keyword(s):  
Field Study ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
The Other ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Death Experience ◽  
Extraordinary Experiences ◽  
Alien Abduction ◽  
Increasing Trends

Introduction: N, N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) is an endogenous serotonergic psychedelic capable of producing radical shifts in conscious experience. Increasing trends in its use, as well as new trials administering DMT to patients, indicate the growing importance of a thorough elucidation of the phenomenology the drug may occasion. This is particularly in light of the hyper-real, otherworldly, and often ontologically challenging yet potentially transformative, nature of the experience, not least encounters with apparently non-self social agents. Laboratory studies have been limited by clinical setting and lacking qualitative analyses, while online surveys’ limitations lie in retrospective design, recreational use, and both of which not guaranteeing ‘breakthrough’ experiences. Methods: We report on the first naturalistic field study of DMT use including its qualitative analysis. Screened, healthy, anonymised and experienced DMT users (40-75mg inhaled) were observed during their non-clinical use of the drug at home. Semi-structured interviews using the micro-phenomenological technique were employed immediately after their experience. This paper reports on the thematic analysis of one major domain of the breakthrough experiences elicited; the ‘other’. Thirty-six post-DMT experience interviews with mostly Caucasian (83%) males (8 female) of average 37 years were predominantly inductively coded. Results: Invariably, profound and highly intense experiences occurred. The main overarching category comprised the encounter with other ‘beings’ (94% of reports), with further subordinate themes including the entities’ role, appearance, demeanour, communication and interaction; while the other over-arching category comprised experiences of emerging into other ‘worlds’ (100% of reports), in turn consisting of the scene, the content and quality of the immersive spaces. Discussion: The present study provides a systematic and in-depth analysis of the features of the otherworldly encounter within the breakthrough DMT experience, as well as elaborating on the resonances with both previous DMT studies and other types of extraordinary experiences which also entail entity encounters. These include the alien abduction, folkloric, shamanic and near-death experience. Putative neural mechanisms of these features of the DMT experience and its promise as a psychotherapeutic agent are discussed in light of such findings.

Contemporary Echoes of the World Soul

2021 ◽  
pp. 320-342
Author(s):  
Valia Allori
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Mechanics ◽  
Quantum Theory ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Hard Problem ◽  
Quantum Theories ◽  
The World ◽  
The Hard Problem ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Way

Quantum mechanics is a groundbreaking theory: it not only is extraordinarily empirically adequate but also is claimed to having shattered the classical paradigm of understanding the observer-observed distinction as well as the part-whole relation. This, together with other quantum features, has been taken to suggest that quantum theory can help one understand the mind-body relation in a unique way, in particular to solve the hard problem of consciousness along the lines of panpsychism. In this chapter, after having briefly presented panpsychism, Valia Allori discusses the main features of quantum theories and the way in which the main quantum theories of consciousness use them to account for conscious experience.

The Credulity of Conspiracy Theorists

2018 ◽  
pp. 422-431
Author(s):  
Brian L. Keeley
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Scientific Explanation ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Rational Inquiry

Where does entertaining (or promoting) conspiracy theories stand with respect to rational inquiry? According to one view, conspiracy theorists are open-minded skeptics, being careful not to accept uncritically common wisdom, exploring alternative explanations of events no matter how unlikely they might seem at first glance. Seen this way, they are akin to scientists attempting to explain the social world. On the other hand, they are also sometimes seen as overly credulous, believing everything they read on the Internet, say. In addition to conspiracy theorists and scientists, another significant form of explanation of the events of the world can be found in religious contexts, such as when a disaster is explained as being an “act of God.” By comparing conspiratorial thinking with scientific and religious forms of explanation, features of all three are brought into clearer focus. For example, anomalies and a commitment to naturalist explanation are seen as important elements of scientific explanation, although the details are less clear. This paper uses conspiracy theories as a lens through which to investigate rational or scientific inquiry. In addition, a better understanding of the scientific method as it might be applied in the study of events of interest to conspiracy theorists can help understand their epistemic virtues and vices.

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