Embodied Perception and the Schemed World: Merleau-Ponty and John Dewey

It is now widely accepted that a mind that is saturated with bodily experience is necessary for the dual constitution of the self and the perceptual field, and that the deployment of perception is always associated with a double reafferent flow—a tactile flow and a proprioceptive flow. In this article, I will discuss this issue in a pragmatically orientated way (following John Dewey), with a possible rejoinder from the phenomenological tradition (specifically Merleau-Ponty). I make cross-references between the thought of Merleau-Ponty and of Dewey, and I believe that many insights can be drawn from such comparison. By bringing pragmatic insights into the phenomenological context, I will place Dewey’s pragmatic way of thinking about the embodied mind in a different light. However, different though they may seem, I will further argue that there is a deep sympathy between the phenomenological and pragmatic perspectives of these two thinkers, especially when we take Dewey’s existential ontology into consideration.     

对话心智与身体：具身认知的内感受研究转向

具身认知观念试图强调心智是根植于身体的,身体经验会对认知过程产生重要影响。但对于心智与身体的对话是如何进行的？身体通过何种渠道如何影响心智？等问题困扰着具身认知的支持者。传统的具身认知研究遭遇可重复性危机,身体状态改变影响高级认知的结论受到质疑。近年来,越来越多的证据表明内感受与身体表征、具身情绪以及社会认知等存在着密切的联系,因而内感受很有可能在身体加工和高级认知过程中起着重要的调节作用。     

Uncommon Schools: Stanley Cavell and the Teaching of Walden

Thoreau’s Walden is a text that has been misinterpreted in various ways, one consequence of which is a failure to appreciate its significance as a perfectionist and visionary text for education. This paper explores aspects of what might be called its teaching, especially via the kind of teaching that is offered by Stanley Cavell’s commentary, The Senses of Walden. Walden is considered especially in the light of its conception of language as the “father-tongue” and of the ideas of continual rebirth and departure that are associated with this. References to teaching and learning abound in the book, but it is Thoreau’s specific reference to the need for “uncommon schools” that provides a focus for the present discussion. Paul Standish is Professor of Philosophy of Education at the University of Sheffield. His recent books include The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Education (2003), co-edited with Nigel Blake, Paul Smeyers and Richard Smith. He is Editor of the Journal of Philosophy of Education and Co-editor of the online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy of Education.     

Three Educational Orientations: A Peircean Perspective on Education and the Growth of the Self

The theme of growth is amongst the most important and pervasive themes in the philosophy of Charles Peirce. This paper offers a synthesized account of the Peircean self drawn from his various discussions of the growth of ideas and then presents three educational orientations which, in turn, tend to foster or frustrate this growth. It concludes that the growth of the student depends significantly upon the ends or intent of the educator and upon an appropriate mean between freedom and constraint in the educational context. A commitment to such an orientation is taken to be a form of resistance to the narrowing ends of business-minded educational institutions     

Wittgensteinian Pedagogics: Cavell on the Figure of the Child in the Investigations

This paper discusses Stanley Cavell's approach to the Investigations,focusing upon his essay – `Notes and Afterthoughts on the Opening ofWittgenstein's Investigations'. First, the paper investigates the waysin which Cavell makes central the figure and `voice' of the child to hisreading of the opening of the Investigations. Second, it argues thatCavell's Notes provides a basis for a Wittgensteinian pedagogics,for not only does it hold up the figure of the child as central to the Investigations but it does so in a philosophical style that, thoughdistinctively Cavell's own, comes closest to the spirit of philosophizing inWittgenstein's sense. Third, the paper concludes by discussing the complexvocal and figural structure of the Investigations which serves tohighlight different aspects of the figure of the child and the child's `voice'.     

Personal and family perfectionism of Taiwanese college students: relationships with depression, self-esteem, achievement motivation, and academic grades

An increasing number of perfectionism studies have been conducted across different countries outside of the Western framework. Using an international egalitarian approach that adopts indigenous frameworks and concepts from the cultural context of the population studied is imperative. This study examines different groups of perfectionists with a sample of 348 Taiwanese college students, emphasizing the collectivistic culture. In particular, this is a follow-up study to further explore characteristics of a group with low standards/high discrepancy--a feeling that they are not good enough despite having low standards--found in a previous study with Taiwanese students. More specifically, this study investigates whether the source of the high discrepancy scores among this group is related to having higher perfectionistic standards from their family. Perfectionism was examined not only from a personal/individualistic perspective, but also from a familistic dimension to reflect Taiwanese collectivistic cultural values. Results partially supported the hypotheses--this group reported having higher family discrepancy, but not family standards, than nonperfectionists. However, this group of participants reported lower academic grades, which implies the possibility of their discrepancy being associated with poorer performance. Four cluster groups--adaptive perfectionists, maladaptive perfectionists, nonperfectionists, and those with low standards/high discrepancy--were compared on their levels of depression, self-esteem, achievement motivation, and academic grades. Maladaptive perfectionists reported the highest depression level, while adaptive perfectionists reported the highest self-esteem. Results also show that aspects of personal perfectionism and family perfectionism related to self-esteem differently among this sample. Findings and implications are discussed with consideration of the collectivistic cultural context in Taiwan.     

自我感神经心理模型与人格同一性

如何解释“自我”是认知神经科学要面对的一个难题。临床研究发现,人脑右半球的联想区可将源自身体的感知和心智的理知整合成统一体验,即“自我感”,这是理解主观经验“我性”的一种新模型。这种新模型将神经层次的自我感与临床上对自我障碍症状研究相结合,为自我感的神经心理过程提供了一个统一解释框架,以说明人的自我认知特征和感知经验的神经心理过程。这种自我感的神经心理过程可被视为适应性表征过程,这为哲学上的人格同一性问题提供了临床经验解释,表明了神经心理过程可整合到统一经验中,从而形成一个统一的自我主观经验。

     

John Dewey and the Role of Scientific Method in Aesthetic Experience

In this paper I examine a controversy ongoingwithin current Deweyan philosophy of educationscholarship regarding the proper role and scopeof science in Dewey's concept of inquiry. Theside I take is nuanced. It is one that issensitive to the importance that Dewey attachesto science as the best method of solvingproblems, while also sensitive to thosestatements in Dewey that counter a wholesalereductivism of inquiry to scientific method. Iutilize Dewey's statements regarding the placeaccorded to inquiry in aesthetic experiences ascharacteristic of his method, as bestconceived.     

Embodied Paths in Aging: Body Journeys Towards Enhanced Agency and Self-Attunement

Informed by the Developmental Theory of Embodiment, the article describes the embodied journeys of 31 women, ages 50 to 70 years, who participated in 52 life-history interviews, and delineates the implications of the theory and the research program to the practice of feminist therapy with women in older adulthood. In the domain of Physical Freedom, a core construct of the theory, the research suggests that women at these ages often seek to re-capture experiences of joyful immersion and competence in physical action as well as of moving freely and taking space in the physical territory; safety where it has been violated; and attuned comfort and agency with physical desire. In the domain of Mental Freedom, another core construct of the theory, the research suggests that women in later adulthood aim to challenge long-held constraining ‘feminine’ molds, such as inhabiting the body as an object to be gazed at and as a deficient site, caring for others at the expense of oneself, or acting demure and submissive. Older adulthood seems to be a productive phase for transformations in the way women engage with the world.     

Justice as the Practice of Non-Coercive Action: A Study of John Dewey and Classical Daoism

In this essay, I will argue for an understanding of justice that is grounded in our imperfect world by drawing upon the works of John Dewey and the Classical Daoist philosophers. It will require a reconstructed understanding of persons as a field/continuum of interrelations and an updated understanding of human action and agency. This understanding of justice takes the form of non-coercive action, interaction that respects the particularity of each lived situation. The practice culminates in an ability to respond to the environment considered to be ziran (自然) or ‘self-so’ by the Daoist Philosophers. As described in the Dao De Jing, it is the cultivation of the ‘Three Jewels of the Dao’, the most central of them being compassion making, this practice of justice as non-coercive action also understandable as the practice of compassion as described by the Classical Daoist philosophers.     

Self and Identity in Later Life: Protecting and Enhancing the Self

Self and identity are central concepts in the social and behavioral sciences for multiple reasons. At least three major research traditions focus on the self. First, sociologists view the self as a primary bridge between social structures and individual attitudes and behaviors, as a mechanism by which social structures and individuals affect and are affected by each other. Second, self and identity are viewed as cornerstones of well-being. Thus, social and behavioral scientists have documented important links between the self and physical and mental health, role performance, the quality of interpersonal relationships, and subjective well-being. Third, the self is conceptualized as a central motivating force in human behavior. Issues as diverse as self-selection into specific environments, defense mechanisms, and the desire and ability to break addictive behaviors have been informed by attention to the motivational force of the self. This latter tradition serves as the conceptual bedrock of this paper. This paper examines three components of the self: self-efficacy, self-esteem, and a sense of authenticity. The first two have received substantial theoretical and empirical attention; the latter, much less. I argue that this unequal distribution of scientific inquiry is a result of too much emphasis on the motivation to protect the self, to the neglect of motivation to enhance the self. I make a case for the particular importance of examining self-enhancement in late life.     

Self As System: Comparing the Grounded Theory of Protecting Self and Autopoiesis

The author compares the theoretical elements of her grounded theory, Protecting Self: Experiencing Organizational Change, with autopoiesis, a biological theory of living systems. Autopoiesis, meaning self-production, is a closed system that recursively generates the same organization, components, and network of processes from which they are produced. A cautious extrapolation of theoretical similarities between the two theories is presented, including self-referentiality, self-maintenance, circularity, individuality, and the maintenance of identity. The author concludes that this comparison provides a thought-provoking argument that supports the difficult process of individual and organizational learning, growth, and change.     

Bridging cultural divides with the power of poetry: an educator’s reflection

ABSTRACT

In this article I discuss the ways in which writing poetry and reflecting on its meanings may be a valuable tool for promoting an educator’s reflexivity surrounding issues of reconciliation. As Canada embarks on the work of healing the difficulties its colonial past has caused its original inhabitants (i.e. Indigenous peoples), educators must explore ways in which they can contribute to a more socially just, democratic, and healthy society. By utilising the theoretical framework of Dialogical Self Theory (DST) to describe and explore identity and the writing of poetry as an exploration of self, it becomes possible for myself, as an educator, to unearth my own biases and begin to create safe spaces for identity exploration, learning, and healing.     

Creativity and Aging: Personal Journals and the Creation of Self

This article considers the writing of personal journals as a process through which an individual constructs a linguistic representation of one's self, with the self constituting a narrative. Rather than a fixed narrative, one's life exists as a narrative subject to revision and reinterpretation. Through journal writing, then, one constructs and reconstructs his or her identity. Berman finds the value in personal journals not only in the themes that surface but also in the creative process they reveal. In this article, he examines passages from five journalists that demonstrate this process of creating and revising meaning in one's life.     

Self Psychology, Dreams and Group Psychotherapy: Working in the Playspace

This paper presents one leadership style within a self-psychological approach to working with dreams in group psychotherapy. It stresses an empathic attunement, the creation of safety, and an experience-near playful relationship. Playful is not used lightly here. It is used in the spirit of Winnicott's intermediate space where a mother suspends questions of what is real or not real and what is me and not me. Freud's analogy to a playspace forms a metaphor for the creation of a special atmosphere in a group, or for that matter in individual work as well, that encourages exploration, risk taking, and vulnerability. Working with dreams in this playspace deepens the curative process, not only for the dreamer, but for the entire group.     

Self creation and the limitless void of dissociation: the 'as if' personality

The concept of the 'as if' personality has been used variously in analytic literature without having formed part of a clinically based theoretical development over time. The author discusses the bases of her notion of the 'as if' personality, as observed across a number of patients and supervised patients in intensive, long term analytic treatment. In this composite clinical picture, a grouping of elements that form a particular kind of defence of the self is identified in certain patients with an exceptional capacity for creative engagement in the world, surpassing expectations given their background. The picture includes the presence of physical breakdown and illness, as psychic suffering arising from early narcissistic wounding and from a physical, emotional and/or sexual abusive familial environment, was held for too long in bodily memory but not in mind. A distinction is made between the 'as if' personality, the persona and the false self. The 'as if' personality concerns the action of defensive dissociation deriving from very early experiences of internalizing the presence of an absent object, creating the sense of an internal void at the core of the self. At the same time, the self is capable of acts of self creation through a succession of identifications and internalizations with other sources of environmental nourishment, which substitute for, and are constructed around, the original sense of internal emptiness. Thus are restored, but only up to a point, the resources of the originally diminished self. Until these resources have been used up, the self is often able to excel in activities to an exceptional degree. The countertransference is shown to be the means of both useful but often perilously obtained clinical experience and information, supporting the work along the hazardous analytic journey.     

From the Roots of Psychosocial Practice-Therapeutic Use of Self in the Classroom: Practical Applications for Occupational Therapy Faculty

The roots of occupational therapy stem from psychosocial practice and embrace concepts of humanism, client-centered practice and therapeutic use of self. These concepts are integral to both clinical and academic settings. As the profession has moved toward graduate level education, increased numbers of non-traditional students are entering the field. Models of teaching that incorporate principles of active learning and therapeutic use of self within the classroom provide a consumer-learner-based model of education that is uniquely suited to students of diverse backgrounds, lifestyles, and educational needs. This article presents a brief overview of andragogical principles and the development of the student-faculty relationship. Mosey's concepts of conscious use of self are introduced as a means by which positive faculty-student relationships can be formed in order to enhance student learning and educational outcomes.