The activity view of inner speech

We distinguish two general approaches to inner speech (IS) the "format" and the "activity" views and defend the activity view. The format view grounds the utility of IS on features of the representational format of language, and is related to the thesis that the proper function of IS is to make conscious thinking possible. IS appears typically as a product constituted by representations of phonological features. The view also has implications for the idea that passivity phenomena in cognition may be misat-tributed IS. The activity view sees IS as a speaking activity that does not have a proper function in cognition. It simply inherits the array of functions of outer speech. We argue that it is methodologically advisable to start from this variety of uses, which suggests commonalities between internal and external activities. The format view has several problems; it has to deny "unsymbolized thinking"; it cannot easily explain how IS makes thoughts available to consciousness, and it cannot explain those uses of IS where its format features apparently play no role. The activity view not only lacks these problems but also has explanatory advantages: construing IS as an activity allows it to be integrally constituted by its content; the view is able to construe unsymbolized thinking as part of a continuum of phenomena that exploit the same mechanisms, and it offers a simple explanation for the variety of uses of IS

Tédio como tonalidade afetiva da era da técnica: esboço de uma psicologia de resistência

A presente dissertação de mestrado tem em vista adentrar a noção heideggeriana de tédio, de um tal modo que seja possível delinear sua relação com o horizonte histórico da era da técnica e o modo como a psicologia, em meio a um tal cenário, se encontra em crise enquanto disciplina acadêmica. A trajetória percorrida será a de, a princípio, indicar as principais influências ao pensamento heideggeriano, i.e., a fenomenologia e a hermenêutica em busca da mudança que Heidegger imprime a tais disciplinas. Posteriormente será visto que a noção de ser-aí se torna essencial para a compreensão do que está em jogo com a tonalidade afetiva do tédio. Dito de maneira enxuta, a tonalidade do tédio é inerente ao esquecimento e abandono do modo de ser do ser-aí, enquanto ente marcado fundamentalmente por ser abertura de mundo. A partir de um tal esquecimento e abandono, o homem da técnica se pauta pela animalidade para encontrar sua própria essência. A partir da certeza da animalidade como critério para o homem avaliar a si mesmo, a psicologia se encontra rebaixada a uma posição de subdisciplina das ciências biológicas, em particular das neurociências. Em um cenário como esse urge a construção de uma psicologia de resistência, que se paute pela medida do homem como ente originariamente livre

Discurso sociológico da modernidade

O que se pretende nesta tese é fazer uma arqueologia da sociologia, tendo como objeto principal de análise aquilo que chamaremos de seu discurso, o discurso sociológico da modernidade, procurando mostrar o vínculo substancial da sociologia com a episteme da modernidade, especialmente na figura do homem duplo empírico-transcendental: a sociologia seria, assim, uma derivação da episteme da modernidade e o conceito de sociedade, realidade social e as diversas teorias da simultaneidade estrutura e agência, seriam a versão sociológica do homem duplo empírico-transcendental, objeto e fundamento do saber ao mesmo tempo. Levando em consideração que a arqueologia estuda a constituição de formações discursivas e não teorias ou a validade de proposições científicas, como faz a epistemologia, histórica ou não, inicialmente fazemos uma gênese da constituição do conceito de arqueologia e de episteme em Michel Foucault, que se desenvolve em contraponto à fenomenologia como antropologia filosófica, ao estruturalismo e à epistemologia histórica. Depois apresentamos os conceitos de epistemes do Renascimento e Episteme Clássica, a fim de chegar à constituição da episteme da modernidade e mostrar, assim, os vínculos com o conceito de sociedade, realidade social e a simultaneidade estrutura e agência. No final tratamos dos temas da morte do homem, do pós-humanismo e do trans-humanismo que, neste caso, significam a perda de centralidade do homem como objeto e fundamento do saber, desestabilizando assim a episteme da modernidade e abrindo espaço para pensarmos em sua mutação arqueológica num processo de desantropologização do saber.

获取无意识结构知识的机制:主观熟悉感与刺激重复结构在人工语法学习中的作用

The nature of the distinction between conscious and unconscious knowledge is a core issue in the implicit learning field. Furthermore, the phenomenological experience associated with having knowledge is central to the conscious or unconscious status of that knowledge. Consistently, Dienes and Scott (2005) measured the conscious or unconscious status of structure knowledge using subjective measures. Believing that one is purely guessing when in fact one knows indicates unconscious knowledge. But unconscious structural knowledge can also be associated with feelings of intuition or familiarity. In this thesis, we explored whether phenomenological feelings, like familiarity, associated with unconscious structural knowledge could be used, paradoxically, to exert conscious control over the use of the knowledge, and whether people could obtain repetition structure knowledge. We also investigated the neural correlates of awareness of knowing, as measured phenomenologically. In study one, subjects were trained on two grammars and then asked to endorse strings from only one of the grammars. Subjects also rated how familiar each string they felt and reported whether or not they used familiarity to make their grammaticality judgment. We found subjects could endorse the strings of just one grammar and ignore the strings from the other. Importantly, when subjects said they were using familiarity, the rated familiarity for test strings consistent with their chosen grammar was greater than that for strings from the other grammar. Familiarity, subjectively defined, is sensitive to intentions and can play a key role in strategic control. In study two, we manipulated the structural characteristic of stings and explored whether participants could learn repetition structures in the grammatical strings. We measured phenomenology again and also ERPs. Deviant letters of ungrammatical strings violating the repetition structure elicited the N2 component; we took this to be an indication of knowledge, whether conscious or not. Strings which were attributed to conscious categories (rules and recollection) rather than phenomenology associated with unconscious structural knowledge (guessing, intuition and familiarity) elicited the P300 component. Different waveforms provided evidence for the neural correlates of different phenomenologies associated with knowledge of an artificial grammar.

Choking RECtified: embodied expertise beyond Dreyfus

On a Dreyfusian account performers choke when they reflect upon and interfere with established routines of purely embodied expertise. This basic explanation of choking remains popular even today and apparently enjoys empirical support. Its driving insight can be understood through the lens of diverse philosophical visions of the embodied basis of expertise. These range from accounts of embodied cognition that are ultra conservative with respect to representational theories of cognition to those that are more radically embodied. This paper provides an account of the acquisition of embodied expertise, and explanation of the choking effect, from the most radically enactive, embodied perspective, spelling out some of its practical implications and addressing some possible philosophical challenges. Specifically, we propose: (i) an explanation of how skills can be acquired on the basis of ecological dynamics; and (ii) a non-linear pedagogy that takes into account how contentful representations might scaffold skill acquisition from a radically enactive perspective.

‘All the places we were not supposed to go’: a case study of formative class and gender habitus in adventure climbing

This paper explores the origins of meaning in adventurous activities. Specifically, the paper reports on a study of 10 adventure climbers in the Scottish mountaineering community. The study explores how formative experiences have influenced engagement in adventure climbing. Work has been done on the phenomenology of adventure and how individuals interpret and find meaning in the activity—this paper goes a step further and asks where do these dispositions come from? Using Bourdieu’s ideas of field, habitus and forms of capital to frame these experiences in the wider social environment, early experiences are identified that, for the subjects of this study, provide a framework for their later adoption of the ‘adventure habitus’. Among these influences are mainstream education, adventure education in particular, as well as broader formative experiences relating to factors such as gender and class. In addition, the study suggests that accounts differ between males and females in terms of their attitudes and dispositions towards adventure. This may relate to their respective experiences as well as expanding opportunities for both males and females. However, while the ‘adventure field’ provides a context where women can develop transformative identities, these are nearly always subject to male validation.

Radio i jego miejsce w życiu codziennym. Studium odbioru stacji radiowych w Polsce po 1989 roku. Analiza i interpretacja badań jakościowych

Wydział Historyczny: Instytut Etnologii i Antropologii Kulturowej

Fenomenologiczna myśl antropologiczna Edyty Stein

Edith Steins phänomenologische Anthropologie. Phänomenologische Anthropologie E. Steins zeichnet sich durch die Einfachheit der Ideen aus, die dennoch auf die konstitutivsten Elemente des menschlichen Seins hinweisen. Ihre leider unabgeschlossenen Analysen enthüllen Phänomene, die sich in der empirisch fassbaren, erfahrbaren Existenz der Menschen präsentieren. Dadurch leistet die treueste Schüler Husserls einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Deutung des menschlichen Wesens. Die von ihr hervorgehobenen Aspekte – wie die Seele, in ihrem Wesen und in ihrem Bezug zum Geist, wie die Beziehung des Geistes zur Kultur, wie die Erforschung der breiten Skala der Seelenzustände und Erlebnisse des Bewusstseins – führen ihre Analyse zu einem paradoxem Begriff des Menschen – eines Seienden, das uns zugleich am nächsten und am fernsten bleibt.

Max Stirner's relevance to contemporary philosophy: a critical analysis

The aim of this dissertation is to revive the 19th-century thinker Max Stirner’s thought through a critical reexamination of his mistaken legacy as a ‘political’ thinker. The reading of Stirner that I present is one of an ontological thinker, spurred on as much—if not more—by the contents of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit as it is the radical roots that Hegel unintentionally planted. In the first chapter, the role of language in Stirner’s thought is examined, and the problems to which his conception of language seem to give rise are addressed. The second chapter looks at Stirner’s purportedly ‘anarchistic’ politics and finds the ‘anarchist’ reading of Stirner misguided. Rather than being a ‘political’ anarchist, it is argued that we ought to understand Stirner as advocating a sort of ‘ontological’ anarchism in which the very existence of authority is questioned. In the third chapter, I look at the political ramifications of Stirner’s ontology as well as the critique of liberalism contained within it, and argue that the politics implicit in his philosophy shares more in common with the tradition of political realism than it does anarchism. The fourth chapter is dedicated to an examination of Stirner’s anti-humanism, which is concluded to be much different than the ‘anti-humanisms’ associated with other, more famous thinkers, such as Foucault and Heidegger. In the fifth and final chapter, I provide an answer to the question(s) of how, if, and to what extent Friedrich Nietzsche was influenced by Stirner. It is concluded that the complete lack of evidence that Nietzsche ever read Stirner is proof enough to dismiss accusations of plagiarism on Nietzsche’s part, thus emphasizing the originality and singularity of both thinkers.

Migration: A Heideggerian analysis

The phenomenon of migration has been widely researched by the social sciences. Theories regarding the migrant have been developed in terms of the oppressive social context that is often encountered, proposing different alternatives to understand and overcome such oppression. Through the current project, an alternative view is presented that first, questions the accuracy of the social theories of migration and second, proposes an alternative understanding of this experience. Martin Heidegger’s phenomenology of Being offers a contextualized view of existence that nonetheless includes elements of our experience that are shared due to a common mode of being. I use Heidegger’s philosophy in order to broaden the understanding of the migrant’s experience analyzing those elements that he identifies as shared (for instance: human sociability, a desire for a home, the uncanny, etc.) and comparing them with common issues raised by migrants (identity, homesickness, belonging, etc.). In this way, I intend to present a more complete picture of the experience of migration that considers both empirical evidence of individual migrants and an existential analysis that incorporates the defining elements of our world and our existence as crucial means to understand any experience, including that of migration.

Merleau-Ponty and Nishida: Artistic expression as 'motor-perceptual faith'

This dissertation carries out a dialogue between Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Nishida Kitarō concerning their theories of artistic expression and faith. Both philosophers go through remarkably similar trajectories in their philosophic projects: In their early works they focus on the motor-perceptual body of the artist, and as they move towards the mature articulation of their ontologies, the concept of faith becomes central. I propose the term “motor-perceptual faith” to bring these seemingly diverse sets of concerns into a conceptual continuity. My study explores this connection, and argues that the artist’s motor-perceptual expressive body, as colourfully and sometimes poetically articulated in their early works, enacts the form of faith developed more abstractly in their later writings. Exploring these relations fosters a mutual expansion of the early by the later works, thus thickening the concept of faith by seeing it as enacted by the artist, while enlarging the concept of artistic expression by understanding it as a practice of motor‐perceptual faith. Framing these philosophers as putting forth a traditionally religious concept as illustrated by way of artistic expression, offers a new articulation of both of their writings, an important conceptual bridge between the two, while challenging un-ambiguous distinctions between art, philosophy and religion, and ultimately philosophy East and West.

Contemporary pilgrimage in Ireland: a cultural geographic perspective

Using the lenses of contemporary cultural geography, this research develops an understanding of pilgrimage as a relational and reciprocal process that co-produces self and world. Drawing on the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, I argue that through the performances and experiences of contemporary pilgrimage in Ireland, participants and locations emerge as pilgrims and pilgrimage places. This approach unites different strands of cultural geography, including the mobilities field, more-than representational concerns, discussions of embodiment and practice, emotional and affective geographies, and religious and spiritual geographies. I explore how pilgrimage is an active process in which self and world, belief and practice, and the numinous and material entwine and merge. An autoethnographic methodology is enacted as an embodied, intersubjective, and reflexive research approach that incorporates the motivations, experiences, and beliefs of research participants, alongside my own descriptions and reflections. The methodology is focused on encountering and documenting pilgrimage practices as they occur in place and relating these embodied spatial practices to the accounts of pilgrims. The insights generated by engagements with research participants and through my own pilgrimages, offer new appreciations of the enduring appeal of pilgrimage in Ireland as a religious-spiritual and cultural activity that allows people to express personal intentions, to develop their faith, and to seek numinous encounters. Through the pilgrimages at Lough Derg, Croagh Patrick, and three holy wells, I produce a layered account of the empirical circumstances of the practices. The presentation of these places and events is enhanced by the use of evocative images and audiovisual recordings. By centring my study on the practices and experiences of different pilgrimages in present-day Ireland, and critically deploying strands of cultural geography and pilgrimage studies, this research produces new qualitative understandings of pilgrimage and contributes to discussions concerned with the relationships between self and world.

Within the carnal: re-reading Merleau-Ponty through the language of drawing

In order to present visual art as a paradigm for philosophy, Merleau-Ponty investigated the creative processes of artists whose work corresponded closely with his philosophical ideas. His essays on art are widely valued for emphasising process over product, and for challenging the primacy of the written word in all spheres of human expression. While it is clear that he initially favoured painting, Merleau-Ponty began to develop a much deeper understanding of the complexities of how art is made in his late work in parallel with his advancement of a new ontology. Although his ontology remains unfinished and only exists as working notes and a manuscript entitled The Visible and Invisible, Merleau-Ponty had begun to appreciate the fundamental role drawing plays in the making of art and the creation of a language of expression that is as vital as the written or spoken word. Through an examination of Merleau-Ponty’s unfinished manuscript and working notes my thesis will investigate his working methods and use of materials and also explore how he processed his ideas by using my own art practice as the basis of my research. This research will take the form of an inquiry into how the unfinished and incomplete nature of text and artworks, while they are still ‘works in progress’, can often reveal the more human and carnal components of creative processes. Applying my experience as a practitioner and a teacher in an art school, I focus on the significance of drawing practice for Merleau-Ponty’s later work, in order to rebalance an overemphasis on painting in the literature. Understanding the differences between these two art forms, and how they are taught, can offer an alternative engagement with Merleau-Ponty’s later work and his struggle to find a language to express his developing new ontology. In addition, by re-reading his work through the language of drawing, I believe we gain new insights which reaffirm Merleau-Ponty's relevance to contemporary art making and aesthetics.

Event memory: A theory of memory for laboratory, autobiographical, and fictional events.

An event memory is a mental construction of a scene recalled as a single occurrence. It therefore requires the hippocampus and ventral visual stream needed for all scene construction. The construction need not come with a sense of reliving or be made by a participant in the event, and it can be a summary of occurrences from more than one encoding. The mental construction, or physical rendering, of any scene must be done from a specific location and time; this introduces a "self" located in space and time, which is a necessary, but need not be a sufficient, condition for a sense of reliving. We base our theory on scene construction rather than reliving because this allows the integration of many literatures and because there is more accumulated knowledge about scene construction's phenomenology, behavior, and neural basis. Event memory differs from episodic memory in that it does not conflate the independent dimensions of whether or not a memory is relived, is about the self, is recalled voluntarily, or is based on a single encoding with whether it is recalled as a single occurrence of a scene. Thus, we argue that event memory provides a clearer contrast to semantic memory, which also can be about the self, be recalled voluntarily, and be from a unique encoding; allows for a more comprehensive dimensional account of the structure of explicit memory; and better accounts for laboratory and real-world behavioral and neural results, including those from neuropsychology and neuroimaging, than does episodic memory.

A basic-systems approach to autobiographical memory

Memory for complex everyday events involving vision, hearing, smell, emotion, narrative, and language cannot be understood without considering the properties of the separate systems that process and store each of these forms of information. Using this premise as a starting point, my colleagues and I found that visual memory plays a central role in autobiographical memory: The strength of recollection of an event is predicted best by the vividness of its visual imagery, and a loss of visual memory causes a general amnesia. Examination of autobiographical memories in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) suggests that the lack of coherence often noted in memories of traumatic events is not due to a lack of coherence either of the memory itself or of the narrative that integrates the memory into the life story. Rather, making the traumatic memory central to the life story correlates positively with increased PTSD symptoms. The basic-systems approach has yielded insights into autobiographical memory's phenomenology, neuropsychology, clinical disorders, and neural basis. Copyright © 2005 American Psychological Society.