An interview with LA Universal Self

LA Universal Self reports his phenomenology, according to which, as he puts it, ‘I am the universe’. The Interviewer challenges the report in a variety of ways, and LA Universal Self responds to each challenge. A traditional Universal Self mysticism is given a new physicalist interpretation.     

Two Kinds of Completeness and the Uses (and Abuses) of Exclusion Principles

I argue that the completeness of physics is composed of two distinct claims. The first is the commonly made claim that, roughly, every physical event is completely causally determined by physical events. The second has rarely, if ever, been explicitly stated in the literature and is the claim that microphysics provides a complete inventory of the fundamental categories that constitute both the causal features and intrinsic nature of all the events that causally affect the physical universe. After showing that these claims are distinct, I argue that they can be used to solve a difficulty with existing responses to the exclusion problem—namely, that these existing responses also undermine the powerful causal argument for physicalism. Recognizing that there are two kinds of completeness opens up room for the nonreductive physicalist to solve the exclusion problem while also endorsing a modified, cogent causal argument for a kind of physicalism compatible with her position.     

LATE NIGHT THOUGHTS ON THE COSMIC SELF–NEW AND OLD: A REFLECTION ON THE COSMIC SELF:

Abstract. Responding to Ted Peters's The Cosmic Self , the author finds parallels and dissonances between New Age assertions and traditional mysticism, East and West. The comprehensive consciousness and interconnectedness of life are addressed by various mysticisms in their search for spiritual realities. However, many of the most recent movements are distinguished by superficiality.     

Comparison of Privacy Consciousness Between Younger and Older Adults

The degree of being conscious about privacy for the self and others is known as privacy consciousness. This study aimed to compare privacy consciousness between younger and older adults. Japanese younger (n = 166) and older (n = 145) adults were requested to rate all items in the Privacy Consciousness Scale, which assessed their degree of consciousness about privacy for the self and others and behaviors for maintaining privacy based on this consciousness. Results indicated that older adults scored lower on Consciousness Regarding Privacy of Others and higher on Behaviors Regarding Privacy of Others than younger adults. However, no significant difference was found in Consciousness and Behaviors Regarding Privacy of the Self between younger and older adults.     

Exploring the Sacred Medieval Psyche: The Flowering of Feminine Mysticism, 1200–1350

Within the writings and teachings of three 13th-century female mystics, Hadewijch of Flanders, Mechthild of Magdeberg, and Marguerite Porete of Hainault, we discover a new beginning in Christian mysticism, where the unio mystico is brought up to a new level of relationship. While simultaneously redeeming and strengthening the feminine, both within the God-image and within medieval Christian society, this new relationship is now characterized as reciprocal, in that the mystic can influence God as much as God can influence the mystic.

Jung suggested that instead of imitating the spiritual techniques of the East, it would be better to find out whether an introverted tendency exists in the unconscious that is similar to this guiding principle so that “we would be in a position to build on our own ground with our own methods” (1958, par. 773). Jungian dream analysis and active imagination are methods of achieving this, and the roots of these methods in the West link back to Christian mysticism.

The similarities between Christian mysticism and depth psychology are numerous, but in particular it is the practice of sacrificing and withdrawing projections from the outer world that allows the internalized libidinal energy to activate the inner God-image. This leads us to the critical understanding that just as the mystics knew that God was within them, so we too in the modern age, thanks to Jung's work, understand that the Self exists within the individual psyche.     

Facets of private and public self‐consciousness: construct and discriminant validity

The construct and discriminant validity of proposed facets of private self‐consciousness (Self‐Reflectiveness and Internal State Awareness) and public self‐consciousness (Style Consciousness and Appearance Consciousness) was examined in two studies. In study 1 an exploratory factor analysis of 367 subjects' responses to a translated version of the Self‐Consciousness Scale (SCS) of Fenigstein, Scheir, and Buss confirmed the existence of two factors of private and public self‐consciousness. Confirmatory factor analysis of 199 university students' responses to the SCS confirmed the results from study 1. A two‐dimensional model of private and public self‐consciousness respectively represented a significant improvement in fit to data over single‐factor models. Further, the two facets of private and public self‐consciousness were related differently to measures representing different aspects of adjustment/maladjustment. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On implicit–explicit consistency: the moderating role of individual differences in awareness and adjustment

A moderated process model is presented that attempts to explain the consistency between implicit and explicit indicators as a function of awareness, i.e. the degree to which persons become aware of their implicit attitude, and adjustment, i.e. the degree to which they adjust for the explicit response. In two experiments on attitudes of West Germans toward East Germans and Turks, a number of dispositional moderators pertaining to awareness and adjustment were tested. Concerning moderators affecting awareness, no reliable first‐order effects were found for Private Self‐Consciousness or Attitudinal Self‐Knowledge. However, Attitude Importance generated the expected effect. Concerning moderators influencing adjustment, consistent effects were obtained for Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions. Social Desirability and Self‐Monitoring did not moderate the implicit–explicit relationship in the expected direction. Some evidence was found for a second‐order moderator effect between awareness and adjustment, suggesting that adjustment effects may be more pronounced under conditions of high awareness. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Causal Exclusion Argument

Jaegwon Kim’s causal exclusion argument says that if all physical effects have sufficient physical causes, and no physical effects are caused twice over by distinct physical and mental causes, there cannot be any irreducible mental causes. In addition, Kim has argued that the nonreductive physicalist must give up completeness, and embrace the possibility of downward causation. This paper argues first that this extra argument relies on a principle of property individuation, which the nonreductive physicalist need not accept, and second that once we get clear on overdetermination, there is a way to reject the exclusion principle upon which the causal exclusion argument depends, but third that this should not lead to the belief that mental causation is easily accounted for in terms of counterfactual dependencies.     

Quantum Interactive Dualism, II: The Libet and Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen Causal Anomalies

Replacing faulty nineteenth century physics by its orthodox quantum successor converts the earlier materialist conception of nature to a structure that does not enforce the principle of the causal closure of the physical. The quantum laws possess causal gaps, and these gaps are filled in actual scientific practice by inputs from our streams of consciousness. The form of the quantum laws permits and suggests the existence of an underlying reality that is built not on substances, but on psychophysical events, and on objective tendencies for these events to occur. These events constitute intrinsic mind-brain connections. They are fundamental links between brain processes described in physical terms and events in our streams of consciousness. This quantum ontology confers upon our conscious intentions the causal efficacy assigned to them in actual scientific practice, and creates a substance-free interactive dualism. This putative quantum ontology has previously been shown to have impressive explanatory power in both psychology and neuroscience. Here it is used to reconcile the existence of physically efficacious conscious free will with causal anomalies of both the Libet and Einstein–Rosen–Podolsky types. This article is a sequel to Stapp [2005, Journal of Consciousness Studies 12(11), 43–58] but strives to be largely self-contained.     

Mental Causation: Unnaturalized but not Unnatural

The central problem for a realist about mental causation is to show that mental causation is compatible with the causal completeness of physical systems. This problem has seemed intractable in large part because of a widely held view that any sort of systematic overdetermination of events by their causes is unacceptable. I account for the popularity of this view, but argue that we ought to reject it. In doing so. I show how we thereby undermine the idea that mental causes must be naturalizable in order to be legitimate. Thus I argue that a non-naturalist conception of mental causation is compatible with a plausible kind of physicalism.     

未成年人法律自我保护意识的调查

本研究用自编“未成年人法律自我保护意识问卷”考察了1178名未成年人学生的法律自我保护意识的现状、性别差异及父母文化程度对其的影响。结果表明,大多数未成年人被试对《未成年人保护法》的熟悉度较低;未成年人被试法律自我保护意识的盲区主要表现在大多数未成年人没有意识到父母或其他监护人对其生命健康权和人格尊严权的侵犯是违法的行为;《未成年人保护法》的宣传教育应当更具科学性和针对性。     

The ability to tickle oneself is associated with level of psychometric schizotypy in non-clinical individuals

A recent study (Lemaitre et al., 2016, Consciousness and Cognition, 41, 64–71) found that non-clinical individuals who scored highly on a psychometric scale of schizotypy were able to tickle themselves. The present study aimed to extend this finding by investigating whether the ability to tickle oneself was associated with level of psychometric schizotypy considered as a continuous variable. One hundred and eleven students completed the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). A mechanical device delivered tactile stimulation to participants’ palms. The device was operated by the experimenter (External) or the participant (Self). Participants were asked to rate the intensity, ticklishness and pleasantness of the stimulation. A significant association was observed between participants’ tactile self-suppression (External minus Self) and their score on the SPQ. These results suggest that the ability to suppress the tactile consequences of self-generated movements varies across the general population, and maps directly onto the personality dimension of schizotypy.     

Self-focused attention in schizophrenic patients with and without auditory hallucinations and normal subjects: A comparative study

Self-focused attention has been implicated in a number of psychiatric disorders, but little research has examined this in schizophrenic subjects. In this study, a sample of schizophrenic patients experiencing auditory hallucinations, schizophrenic patients not experiencing auditory hallucinations and normal controls were asked to complete the private self-consciousness subscale of the Self Consciousness Scale. It was found that patients experiencing auditory hallucinations exhibited significantly higher levels of self-focus than those not experiencing hallucinations, although they did not differ from normal subjects. It was also shown that level of self-focus predicted whether or not subjects experienced hallucinations. These results, and their implications, are discussed with reference to the literature.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">The Self</Emphasis> restated

This is a short summary of the book The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness and the First-Person Stance (Oxford University Press 2012). It introduced an “author meets critics” panel at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division meeting in San Francisco 2016. I try to relate the discussion in the book to recent work that has appeared since its publication.     

What is consciousness for?

The answer to the title question is, in a word, volition. Our hypothesis is that the ultimate adaptive function of consciousness is to make volitional movement possible. All conscious processes exist to subserve that ultimate function. Thus, we believe that all conscious organisms possess at least some volitional capability. Consciousness makes volitional attention possible; volitional attention, in turn, makes volitional movement possible. There is, as far as we know, no valid theoretical argument or convincing empirical evidence that consciousness itself has any direct causal efficacy other than volition. Consciousness, via volitional action, increases the likelihood that an organism will direct its attention, and ultimately its movements, to whatever is most important for its survival and reproduction.     

Causal Compatibilism – What Chance?

Orthodox physicalism has a problem with mental causation. If physics is complete and mental events are not identical to physical events (as multiple-realisation arguments imply) it seems as though there is no causal work for the mental to do. This paper examines some recent attempts to overcome this problem by analysing causation in terms of counterfactuals or conditional probabilities. It is argued that these solutions cannot simultaneously capture the force of the completeness of physics and make room for mental causation.     

The importance of physicalism in the philosophy of religion

First, some say that core physicalism is not anti-religion. I argue that this seems to be incorrect. Physical completeness is a core element of contemporary physicalism; (the evidence for physical completeness is strong); and physical completeness both logically and not strictly logically rejects many central religious views. Consequently, there is a sense in which core physicalism is, in an important way, anti-religion. Second, physical completeness positively supports one significant religious view; and physical completeness permits one to hold two others. The view that physical completeness supports states that there is no natural grounding of the ordinarily taken boundary of the human body. The two views that physical completeness permits one to hold state that a person can be contrastlessly blissful in an ongoing way, and that a person can experience something like light circulating through the ordinary body in an ongoing way. It is further maintained that physicalism allows religious systems to develop in new forms.     

Exploring the Capacity of NEO PI‐R Facets to Predict Job Performance in Two French‐Canadian Samples

The capacity of personality facets to predict contextual performance (i.e., interpersonal facilitation and job dedication), task performance, and global performance was explored by means of two predictive validity field studies. In a preliminary way, Study 1 demonstrated that four personality facets – Self‐Consciousness, Excitement Seeking, Trust, and Competence – were related to at least one job performance dimension in a well‐structured occupation sample. Study 2 revealed that eight personality facets were linked to specific job performance dimensions in a professional occupation sample. Results indicate that a combination of facets is useful for predicting job performance.