A Framework for Evolution and Consciousness: Panpsychism Without Tears?

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 77-101
Author(s):  
Jonathan C.W. Edwards

Giving an account of the relation between evolution and consciousness is painted as posing a dilemma between panpsychism, with minimal consciousness in every grain of matter, and radical emergence, with consciousness appearing as from nowhere in living structures. Panpsychism has been seen as suffering from a combination problem and radical emergence as unjustified in physics. The underpinning of physics now lies in field theory, which may provide a way out on both sides. Only, and always, in a field theory account do influences at different points in space-time combine in the same indivisible event. Radical emergence is also inherent to field theory. Moreover, by providing rich patterns of influence involving both discrete identities and quantitative values, field theory might provide a basis for sensed propositional meaning with subjects and predicates. Ordered condensed matter within living tissue may support unusual emergent dynamic units uniquely suited to building representations of the world with sensed meaning. The evolution of consciousness may then be seen as a tractable biological problem centred on increasingly sophisticated ways for external world dynamics to be mirrored by internal representations with semantic content, based in field relations within condensed matter with genetically encoded complex order.

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Clayton McReynolds

In this paper, I draw on Barfield's theory of the evolution of consciousness and language to argue that William Butler Yeats employs language in his poetry in a way which resembles the older, ‘organic’ poetry Barfield describes. I observe how Yeats's ‘concrete’ understanding allowed him to weave a rich web of meaning into his poetry without feeling confined by T.S. Eliot's ‘dissociation of sensibility’. Many of Yeats's Modernist contemporaries struggled to bridge a perceived gap between thought and feeling, but Yeats's view of the world as innately symbolic allowed him to use language both literally and symbolically at once, speaking simultaneously of a literal rock, a symbol for stasis, and an emblem of the idée fixe. Thus, Yeats creates, in Barfield's terms, ‘organic’ poetry where the multilayered meanings arise naturally from Yeats's understanding. I further note how Yeats attempts to create a mythology in A Vision that would function much as Barfield describes mythology operating in ancient, concrete societies. Through this study, I hope to illuminate both the interconnectedness of Yeats's symbolic metaphysic and poetic technique and the relevance of Barfield for understanding Yeats and, perhaps, other poets finding new ways to communicate through an evolving language.


This volume contains lectures delivered at the Les Houches Summer School ‘Integrability: from statistical systems to gauge theory’ held in June 2016. The School was focussed on applications of integrability to supersymmetric gauge and string theory, a subject of high and increasing interest in the mathematical and theoretical physics communities over the past decade. Relevant background material was also covered, with lecture series introducing the main concepts and techniques relevant to modern approaches to integrability, conformal field theory, scattering amplitudes, and gauge/string duality. The book will be useful not only to those working directly on integrablility in string and guage theories, but also to researchers in related areas of condensed matter physics and statistical mechanics.


Author(s):  
Guoqing Ma

Abstract Island studies play an important role in the development of anthropology. It is of academic value and practical significance to understand the island world as the field where multiple modernization forces and globalization interwine. This paper explores the intricate and diverse connections between continental and marine culture from a perspective of “viewing the world through the island”. In terms of overall diversity and exoteric mobility, this paper reviews the various aspects of island studies, examines the internal and external transformation of islands within land-sea interaction, and analyzes the dynamic historical process of the island world’s involvement in the global network, which blends and integrates various cultural elements of the external world. In the context of globalization, the island world is undergoing dramatic changes and in coping with them generating its new features.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Gallegos ◽  
U. Gürsoy ◽  
S. Verma ◽  
N. Zinnato

Abstract Non-Riemannian gravitational theories suggest alternative avenues to understand properties of quantum gravity and provide a concrete setting to study condensed matter systems with non-relativistic symmetry. Derivation of an action principle for these theories generally proved challenging for various reasons. In this technical note, we employ the formulation of double field theory to construct actions for a variety of such theories. This formulation helps removing ambiguities in the corresponding equations of motion. In particular, we embed Torsional Newton-Cartan gravity, Carrollian gravity and String Newton-Cartan gravity in double field theory, derive their actions and compare with the previously obtained results in literature.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadashi Takayanagi ◽  
Takahiro Uetoko

Abstract In this paper we provide a Chern-Simons gravity dual of a two dimensional conformal field theory on a manifold with boundaries, so called boundary conformal field theory (BCFT). We determine the correct boundary action on the end of the world brane in the Chern-Simons gauge theory. This reproduces known results of the AdS/BCFT for the Einstein gravity. We also give a prescription of calculating holographic entanglement entropy by employing Wilson lines which extend from the AdS boundary to the end of the world brane. We also discuss a higher spin extension of our formulation.


Author(s):  
Muhittin Gümüş

ÖZET. Milletlerin çok eski zamanlardan bugüne kadar yaşayarak edinmiş oldukları tecrübeler, bilgiler, kazanımlar ve değerler o milletin kültürünü oluşturur. Edinilen değerlerin dil aracılığıyla hayat bulması kültürdilbilim alanı çerçevesinde kültür-dil-insan arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemeye değer bulmuştur. Herhangi bir varlığın şekline, işlevine, görevine, görüntüsüne her toplumda farklı anlam veya dilsel dünya görüşünü yansıtan adlar verilir. Kültür-dil-insan çerçevesinde dil ve kültür ilişkilerinin belli bir disiplin altında incelenmesi ancak kültürdilbilim yoluyla mümkündür. Dilbilim alanına ait kültürdilbilim çalışmalarında ele alınan dilsel dünya görüşü kavramı her bir dilin dolayısıyla toplumun ya da ortak değerlere sahip toplumlarının oluşturduğu milletlerin dünyayı nasıl algılayıp yansıttığını, çevresindeki varlıkların ve kavramların hangi niteliklerini ayırt ettiğini, insanın duygu ve düşüncelerini, değer yargılarını nasıl betimledikleri incelenmektedir. Bu makalede kültürdilbilim çerçevesinde Türkçede “gibi”, Kırgızcada -DAy eki ve “sıyaktuu”, “öndüü” bağlacıyla yapılan benzetmeler ve deyimler Türkçe ile karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenmekte, böylelikle iki toplum arasındaki dış dünya algısı arasındaki farklılıklar veya benzerlikler tespit edilecektir. Адам баласы алмустактан бери топтогон маалыматы, турмуштан топтогон тажрыйбасы жана баалуулуктары менен улуттук маданиятын түзгөн. Тилдик каражаттар аркылуу чагылдырылган турмуштук тажрыйбалар улуттук маданият чөлкөмүндө маданият-тил-адам баласы деген чөйрөдө изилдөөгө алынат. Сөз, форма, иш аракет, көрүнүштөр ар бир коомдо ар кандай маанини туюндурган лексикалар менен берилген. Маданият-тил-адам баласы аттуу чөйрөдө тилдик жана маданий байланыштар белгилүү бир тартипте изилдениши бир гана маданияттаануу жолу менен ишке ашат. Тил илимине тиешелүү маданияттаануу илиминде каралган тилдик дүйнө тааным түшүнүгү ар бир тилдин, ошол эле учурда орток баалуулуктарга ээ болгон коомдун дүйнөнү кабыл алышы жана аны чагылдырышы, анын чөйрөнү жана түшүнүктөрдү айырмалаган сапаттарын, адамдын ички уйгу-туйгусун жана түшүнүктөрүн кандай сүрөттөгөнүн изилденет. Бул макалада маданияттаанууда Түрк тилиндеги “gibi” Кыргыз тилиндеги –ДАй мүчөсү, сыяктуу жана өндүү жандоочтор менен бе-рилиши, фразеологиялык каражаттар Түрк тили менен салыштырылып, эки тилдин ортосундагы сырткы дүйнө тааным менен болгон айырмасы жана окшоштуктары аныкталат. The experiences, knowledge, achievements and values that have been gained by nations starting from ancient times and up today constitute the culture of that nation. It has become worthy of examining the relationship between culture-language-human within the frameworks of cultural linguistics. Names are attached to any entity in accordance with its shape, function, tasks, and appearance that reflect different meanings in each society or their linguistic worldview. Analyzing language and culture relations within the scope of a certain discipline in the frameworks of culture-language-human is only possible by means of Cultural Linguistics. The concept of linguistic worldview, which is discussed in cultural-linguistics studies in the field of linguistics, deals with studying how each language and therefore the societies or societies with common values perceive the world and reflect it through the language they use, what qualities of entities and concepts surrounding them they distinguish, how they describe feelings and thoughts of a human being and their value judgments. This paper studies analogies and idioms that are formed by means of preposition “gibi” in the Turkish language and “sıyaktuu” with the suffix –Day in the Kyrgyz language, which are examined in the context of comparative cultural linguistics. Thus, the differences and/or similarities between the perception of external world between the two societies are revealed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-262
Author(s):  
Svetlana S. Vasilenko

The paper discusses possibilities and ways of studying concepts in teaching foreign languages to students-interpreters. The author notes that modern didactic research has interdisciplinary nature, analyzes the theory of the concept from the point of view of linguistics, cultural studies and psycholinguistics. The author also notes the fact of creation of linguo-conceptodidactics as a new scientific direction. The paper presents a linguodidactic understanding of the concept, analyzes its structure and semantic content. The author describes in detail the process of foreign language concepts acquisition and presents it as a sequence of several stages. The acquisition of foreign language concepts is associated with the development of concept competence. The paper notes that the acquisition of foreign language concepts should go in parallel with the acquisition of foreign language lexis. In addition, it is necessary to use authentic materials in teaching foreign languages that allows forming a conceptual picture of the world of native speakers. Acquisition of foreign language concepts is especially important for students-interpreters who study several foreign languages and are faced with the problem of translating foreign concepts and phenomena of foreign language reality. The paper presents how conceptuality can be realized in teaching foreign languages. The author gives a practical example of studying the English concept Travel, offers examples of exercises and tasks for mastering it, as well as mnemonic techniques for memorizing lexemes that represent the concept. In the paper is stressed, that the concepts should be included in the content of foreign language teaching to students-interpreters. This contributes to the development of correct ideas about foreign language reality, understanding the facts of the native and foreign language culture, i.e. cultural reflection development.


Author(s):  
Alexander Altland ◽  
Ben D. Simons

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