Panpsychism and Spiritual Flourishing: Constructive Engagement with the New Science of Psychedelics

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (9) ◽  
pp. 268-288
Author(s):  
S.L. Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Work ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
Metaphysical Possibility ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
New Science ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Constructive Engagement

This article discusses the potential implications of panpsychism for the study and pursuit of spiritual flourishing, with a focus on emerging scientific and philosophical research on psychedelics. Psychedelics research (1) has the means to reliably and safely produce the conditions in which transformative experiences routinely occur, thereby allowing for robust neuroscientific and psychological research, and (2) has attracted a growing body of philosophical and theological work on the metaphysical and epistemological possibilities of such experiences. I begin with a discussion of recent scientific work on psychedelics. I then discuss the epistemic status of psychedelic experiences, where the metaphysics of panpsychism is particularly interesting. I suggest there exists a mutually reinforcing relationship between panpsychism and the metaphysical possibility of a veridical interpretation of psychedelic states, and that this conceptual congruence has important implications for research on spiritual flourishing. This flourishing need not be understood in a theological manner, although it is, I suggest, entirely consistent with at least some naturalistic theological frameworks: the main goal of the article is to map the conceptual terrain in which conversations about spiritual flourishing, psychedelics, and panpsychism might take place.

scholarly journals Love Slaves and Wonder Women: Radical Feminism and Social Reform in the Psychology of William Moulton Marston

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J Brown
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Health ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Individual Values ◽  
Basic Emotions ◽  
Radical Feminist ◽  
Wonder Woman ◽  
Science And Values ◽  
History Of

In contemporary histories of psychology, William Moulton Marston is remembered for helping develop the lie detector test. He is better remembered in the history of popular culture for creating the comic book superhero Wonder Woman. In his time, however, he contributed to psychological research in deception, basic emotions, abnormal psychology, sexuality, and consciousness. He was also a radical feminist with connections to women's rights movements. Marston's work is an instructive case for philosophers of science on the relation between science and values. Although Marston's case provides further evidence of the role that feminist values can play in scientific work, it also poses challenges to philosophical accounts of value-laden science. Marston's work exemplifies standard views about feminist value-laden research in that his feminist values help him both to criticize the research of others and create novel psychological concepts and research techniques. His scientific work includes an account of the nature of psycho-emotional health that leads to normative conclusions for individual values and conduct and for society and culture, a direction of influence that is relatively under-theorized in the literature. To understand and evaluate Marston's work requires an approach that treats science and values as mutually influencing; it also requires that we understand the relationship between science advising and political advocacy in value-laden science.

The Discourse of Gender and Sport: From Femininity to Feminism

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 330-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ann Hall
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Theoretical Category ◽  
Sociological Discourse

The argument presented here is that the sociological discourse of gender and sport, in other words the way the topic is approached, the assumptions surrounding its investigation, and the ways in which new knowledge is generated has been determined without sufficient recognition of its own ideological foundations. Gender, it is argued, is a major social and theoretical category that, along with social class, race, age, ethnicity, and others, must be incorporated into all theoretically based social analyses of sport. The paper reviews the development of the gender and sport discourse from its origins in social psychological research that focused on the supposed conflict between femininity and athleticism, to the more sophisticated yet functionalist notion of “sex roles” and its application to sport, and finally to the emerging feminist paradigm that is informed by a growing body of feminist social theory. The final section argues for a transformation of the gender and sport discourse toward a truly emancipatory one and provides some concrete suggestions as to how to bring this about.

scholarly journals Prejudice Reduction and Collective Action: A Conflict or Confluence of Interests?

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 291-309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas B. Mazur
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Prejudice Reduction ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Current Thinking ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Reduction Strategies ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Social Psychological Research

There is a growing body of research findings suggesting that prejudice reduction strategies can have unintended negative consequences, particularly by helping to stabilize systems of inequality. In light of these findings, a handful of scholars have suggested that the field be guided less by the prejudice reduction tradition, so as to focus more on collective action. While agreeing with the recent critiques of prejudice reduction, I argue that in more robustly embracing a collective action approach we should be careful not to abandon the notion of perceptualism that colored original thinking on prejudice reduction, lest we artificially narrow the scope of social psychological research and unintentionally ignore communities that do not fit well within current thinking in the collective action tradition.

scholarly journals Reforma y Contrarreforma. El debate teológico en el umbral de la nueva ciencia

2017 ◽  
pp. 117-128
Author(s):  
Alejandra Velázquez Zaragoza
Keyword(s):  
Natural Philosophy ◽  
Epistemic Status ◽  
New Science ◽  
Correct Reading ◽  
Theological Debate ◽  
Moral Certainty ◽  
The One ◽  
Problem Of The Criterion

The theological debate that gave rise to the religious Reformation undertaken by Luther, extended to the epistemological problematic of the new science. The controversy between Reformers and Counter-reformers in the search for the correct reading of the Holy Scriptures -either from the sources or from the doctrine-, led to the rethinking of the problem of the criterion or norm of truth to establish the correct reading and the method of interpretation to reach the revealed truth of the sacred scriptures. The problem of the criterion not only had an impact on the religious sphere, when transferred to the field of natural philosophy, forced the impostors of the new science to take positions around its epistemic status: approximate truths (moral certainty) or absolute truths (metaphysical certainty). Here the above-mentioned panorama is exposed, to make clear the correlation between the theological and the epistemological querella that, in one of its main angles, can be stated as the opposition to authority, whether to the papal —like Luther— or to the tradition scholastic, in the manner of Galileo. In both cases it is required to go to the source: the sacred book or the one of nature.

scholarly journals Breaking groupthink: Why scientific identity and norms mitigate ideological epistemology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Joseph Van Bavel ◽  
Diego A. Reinero ◽  
Elizabeth Ann Harris ◽  
Claire Robertson ◽  
Philip Pärnamets
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Rigorous Analysis ◽  
Ideological Bias ◽  
Empirical Basis ◽  
Careful Scrutiny ◽  
The Social ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Scientific Claim ◽  
Scientific Identity

Can scientists be trusted to conduct unbiased science? There is a growing body of papers arguing that psychological research is guided by “ideological epistemology”. According to this account, people are innately tribal in their political dispositions and these allegiances inevitably produce groupthink and guide them away from the truth--leading to a body of flimsy or biased research. This is a serious claim and one that would likely have far-reaching implications for many fields in the social sciences, as well as branches of biology (e.g., genetics) and climatology. Yet, like any other scientific claim, it deserves careful scrutiny and rigorous analysis. In the current paper, we examine the theoretical and empirical basis for ideological epistemology in science, finding limited factual evidence for ideological bias in the published literature.

scholarly journals Scientific heritage of a genius. Of the memory of Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky

2021 ◽  
pp. 248-256
Author(s):  
Е.А. Зевелева ◽  
С.В. Лепилин ◽  
Н.М. Третьякова
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Geochemical Processes ◽  
Living Matter ◽  
World Science ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
Scientific Heritage ◽  
New Science ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The World

Владимир Иванович Вернадский принадлежит к числу крупнейших ученых XX века, чье имя навсегда вписано в мировую науку. Его научное творчество посвящено самым разнообразным направлениям наук о Земле: геологии, минералогии, геохимии, палеонтологии. Ему также принадлежит создание новой науки - биогеохимии, которая направлена на изучение химического состава живоговещества и геохимических процессов, происходящих в недрах Земли. Помимо уже отмеченных направлений В.И. Вернадский был организатором и историком науки, философом, общественным деятелем. С трудами Вернадского связано и учение о биосфере и ноосфере, ставшее сегодня основой глобальной экологии. В его честь сегодня названы: станция Московского метро, проспект в Киеве, железнодорожный вокзал в центральной России, вершины в Сибири и на Курильских островах, Институт геохимии и аналитической химии Российской академии наук, Музей биосферы (Российская академия наук, Санкт-Петербург). Авторы пытались понять и ответить на вопрос: почему такая огромная дань уважения и беспрецедентное внимание уделяется только одному человеку? В самой же работе приведены краткие сведения о биографии ученого, становлении иразвитии его учений. Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky is one of the greatest scientists of the XX century, whose name is forever inscribed in the world science. His scientific work is devoted to the most diverse areas of Earth sciences: geology, mineralogy, geochemistry, paleontology. He also created a new science biogeochemistry, which is aimed at studying the chemical composition of living matter and geochemical processes occurring in the bowels of the Earth. In addition to the already mentioned areas, V. I. Vernadsky was an organizer and historian of science, a philosopher, and a public figure. The doctrine of the biosphere and the noosphere, which has become the basis of global ecology, is also connected with the works of Vernadsky. The paper provides brief information about the biography of the scientist, the formation and development of his teachings. The world chronicle of history contains many personalities who have amazed and changed the world. A considerable part of it is occupied by the names of Russian scientists, and in particular Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky, who left the brightest mark in Russian and world science. In 2020, it will be exactly 75 years since he died. However, the thoughts, research and works of V. I. Vernadsky are not only not forgotten, but on the contrary are gaining popularity, becoming more relevant and feeding the minds of new generations of researchers.

Evolutionary Psychology: 'New Science of the Mind' or 'Darwinian Fundamentalism'?

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viren Swami
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Interpersonal Attraction ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Developmental Systems Theory ◽  
Developmental Systems ◽  
Rigorous Approach ◽  
New Science ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind

AbstractAs practitioners of a putative science of the mind, evolutionary psychologists have earned a degree of cachet with their provocative and sometimes controversial pronouncements about human nature and behaviour. In this article, I briefly survey the history of an evolutionary approach to the psychological sciences before considering the core assumptions of the field that has come to be known as 'evolutionary psychology'. By examining one particular example of evolutionary psychological research – on interpersonal attraction – I find this 'new science of the mind' to be lacking. Rather, I propose that developmental systems theory, buffered by a reconsideration of the dialectical sciences, offers a more comprehensive and rigorous approach to psychology. I further propose that historical materialists and those on the Left generally should take a keen interest in these issues as they have a bearing on social and political outcomes.

THE COMMON WORLD: HISTORIES OF SCIENCE AND DOMESTIC INTIMACY

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 417-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBORAH R. COEN
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Private Life ◽  
First Century ◽  
Transformative Experiences ◽  
Professional Norms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Growth And Change ◽  
First Time ◽  
At Home

Let us begin by considering a series of letters written in 1863 by Max Vigne, a humble imperial surveyor in India, to his wife at home in England. In the course of his affectionate and finely observed correspondence, Vigne comes to think of himself for the first time as a naturalist. He recounts his growing fascination with botany, particularly the new field of plant geography, and he expresses a keen desire to share this new knowledge—and his newfound identity—with his faraway wife, Clara.Everything I am seeing and doing is sonew. . . When I lie down to sleep everything spins in my brain. I can only make sense of my life the way I have made sense of everything, since we first met: by describing it to you. That great gift you have always had oflistening, asking such excellent questions—when I tell you enough to let you imagine me clearly, then I can imagine myself.In these lines Vigne is proposing what might strike us at first as a surprising connection between scientific observation and private life. He seems to derive his standard of clear description—the backbone of his scientific work as a naturalist—not from professional norms or philosophical reflections, but rather from an ideal of intimacy. In subsequent letters Vigne makes clear that his study of the geographical relations among plants is part of a more personal quest for knowledge: an attempt to make sense of the persistence of his own identity during his transformative experiences of travel. “Only now do I begin to grasp the principles of growth and change in the plants I learned to name in the woods, those we have grown at home—there is ascienceto this. Something that transcends mere identification.” He likens the plant's essential and enduring form to the bond he shares with Clara:The point, dear heart, is that through all these transformations one can still discern the original morphology; the original character is altered yet not lost. In our separation our lives are changing, our bond to each other is changing. Yet still we are essentially the same.These letters never reached Vigne's wife, because neither he, nor Clara, nor the letters themselves ever really existed. They are fictions, penned not by a nineteenth-century naturalist but by the twenty-first-century novelist, Andrea Barrett. Why begin a historiographical essay with fiction? In part because in very few cases have historians yet gone to the trouble of reconstructing such profound resonances between familial and scientific experiences. As historians, we are not yet sure how to read domestic documents as sources for the history of knowledge production. “Flimsy lists of things to do, large parchment mortgages, ‘private letters of no consequence’”—these are among the historical documents that we need to learn to read for their clues to intellectual history.

Artificial Chemistries—A Review

2001 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Dittrich ◽  
Jens Ziegler ◽  
Wolfgang Banzhaf
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Biochemical Evolution ◽  
Broad Application ◽  
Application Range ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
The Right ◽  
Artificial Chemistries

This article reviews the growing body of scientific work in artificial chemistry. First, common motivations and fundamental concepts are introduced. Second, current research activities are discussed along three application dimensions: modeling, information processing, and optimization. Finally, common phenomena among the different systems are summarized. It is argued here that artificial chemistries are “the right stuff” for the study of prebiotic and biochemical evolution, and they provide a productive framework for questions regarding the origin and evolution of organizations in general. Furthermore, artificial chemistries have a broad application range of practical problems, as shown in this review.

scholarly journals Using LЕGО-technologies for the correction of misinformation among young schoolchildren because of the mental development

New Collegium ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (103) ◽  
pp. 95-99
Author(s):  
I. Dorozhko ◽  
O. Malykhina ◽  
L. Turishcheva
Keyword(s):  
Mental Retardation ◽  
Scientific Work ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Mental Development ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
Theoretical Substantiation ◽  
Correction Program

Scientific work contains an analysis of psychological research on the problem of thinking of younger schoolchildren with mental retardation. The characteristics of the types of construction are presented, a theoretical substantiation of the effectiveness of the correction of thinking in younger schoolchildren in the process of LEGO technologies is given, the influence of classes with a designer on the development of thought processes in younger students with mental retardation is revealed. A correction program for working with younger schoolchildren with mental retardation has been tested.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document