Mechanism and materialism in early modern German philosophy

ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on the gradual separation between materialism and mechanism in early modern German philosophy. In Germany the distinction between the two concepts, originally introduced by Leibniz, was definitively stated by Wolff who was the first to provide a definition of the new philosophical term Materialismus, and of the related philosophical sect. In the first part I describe the initial identification of mechanism and materialism in German philosophy between the last decades of the seventeenth century and 1720. Mechanism is here mostly conceived within a monistic metaphysics of body, which refers mainly to Hobbes and to some (unfaithful) interpretations of Spinoza’s pantheism. This tight connection between a mechanical explanation of nature and the Deus sive natura issue leads to a negative judgement on mechanism and its materialistic implications, both charged with a form of more or less explicit atheism. In the second part I describe the gradual emancipation in Germany of mechanism from materialism according to the distinction between a ‘good’ and a ‘bad’ materialism. In the third and final part, I sketch the first appearances of the entry ‘materialism’ in the philosophical encyclopaedias of early modern Germany, pointing out the by-then clear distinction between this metaphysical issue and the mechanical claim.     

Kant on materialism

ABSTRACT

In this paper I argue that Kant’s complex argument against materialism involves not only his generic commitment to the existence of non-spatio-temporal and thus non-material things in themselves (which follows directly from Transcendental Idealism), but also considerations pertaining to reason and the subject of our thoughts. Specifically, I argue that because Kant conceives of reason in such a way that it demands a commitment to the existence of the unconditioned so that we can account for whatever conditioned objects we encounter in experience, our thoughts, which are also conditioned, require something unconditioned that, because it is unconditioned, cannot be material. In this way, Kant’s attitude towards materialism is based not only on abstract features of his metaphysics and epistemology, but also on specific features that were under serious discussion in the early modern period.     

Descartes,Malebranche and Leibniz: conceptions of substance in arguments for the immateriality of the soul

ABSTRACT

The most prominent early modern argument against materialism is to be found in Descartes. Previously I had argued that this argument relies crucially on a robust conception of substance, according to which it has a single principal attribute of which all its other intrinsic qualities are modes. In the present paper I return to this claim. In Section 2, I address a question that is often raised about that conception of substance: its commitment to the idea that a substance has a single such principal attribute. Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra and Daniel Garber have argued that this claim relies on Descartes's identification of substance with attribute. But I argue that it relies on his view that a substance has a single, unitary nature. In Section 3, I examine the role of this conception of substance in arguments found in Malebranche and Leibniz and compare these arguments with Descartes's.     

Experimental insights into the socio-cognitive effects of viewing materialistic media messages on welfare support

ABSTRACT

This experimental study draws on cultivation, dispositional materialism, and schema theories to test the effects of commercial media viewing on material values and welfare support. Data were collected from a cross-sectional British sample using a web-survey priming methodology (N = 487, ages 18–49). Findings suggest that (a) materialism and anti-welfare orientations operate through associated and contiguous cognitive-affective mechanisms that can be triggered by momentary exposure to materialistic media messages (MMMs). (b) Heavy consumers of television shows that valorize and regularly portray wealth, fame, and luxury are significantly more materialistic and anti-welfare than lighter consumers. (b) Chronic attention to MMMs may indirectly increase support for the governmental enactment of punitive welfare policies via cultivating self-enhancement related schemas, which when instantiated, decrease dispositional orientations toward empathy, altruism, and communality. This research contributes nuanced theoretical and experimental insights into how ubiquitous commercial media potentially undermine prosocial development and societal well-being.     

The Church in the Postcommunist World

Abstract

The collapse of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe is evidence only of the triumph of Western‐style consumerism. The Church's influence on society, both in East and West, is very limited. This situation is the result of historical factors which may be traced back to the early Middle Ages. Historical materialism is the offspring of the medieval Western version of Christianity which, under rationalistic and moralistic pressure, transformed God into a dead authoritarian concept. A brief analysis of the terms ratio and logos is offered in illustration of the different mindsets of the Eastern and Western Churches. The metaphysical revolution which brought in the modern world was a rebellion against the Western understanding of God. Historically, Orthodoxy has lacked the confidence to advance its own view but it can contribute an understanding of the Church based on the notions of personhood and relation that offers the most fruitful way forward.     

The utility of modern theories of intergroup bias for research on antecedents to team identification

ObjectivesMuch of the literature on team identification has focused on assessing outcomes to the construct rather than on motives for its development and maintenance. This article comments on research and theorising in social psychology that can contribute to an understanding of motives for team identification.DesignA review and comment on the application of theories of intergroup bias to the study of team identification.MethodFour modern theories of intergroup bias—social identity theory, optimal distinctiveness theory, uncertainty-identity theory, and terror management theory—are overviewed. Potential applications of these theories to future research on motives for team identification are also offered.ResultsIt is argued that the four theories share similar tenets with reference to motives for social identity. A programme of research that evaluates these motives in the context of sport team identification is offered.ConclusionsIt is hoped that this paper will stimulate research into precursors of team identification and that the findings from such research will help sport teams and governing bodies to promote or control certain types of spectator behaviour.     

An Historical Overview of Basic Approaches and Issues in Ethical and Moral Philosophy and Principles

Summary

This article provides a condensed history of ethics development for the purpose of exposing psychologists and other mental health professionals to ethical and moral bases upon which modern psychological ethics are founded. In addition, it focuses on contemporary theories, with an emphasis on professional ethics.     

The Mystery of Edwin Drood: a case study in creativity theories / El Misterio de Edwin Drood: estudio de un caso en las teorías de la creatividad

Abstract

This article analyses the Broadway musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, by Rupert Holmes, as a case study through which to discuss and highlight modern creativity theories. The musical is viewed through the lens of the Five As, Four Cs, and many other person and product approaches.     

Hobbes’s materialism and Epicurean mechanism

ABSTRACT

Hobbes belonged to philosophical and scientific circles grappling with the big question at the dawn of modern physics: materialism and its consequences for morality. ‘Matter in motion’ may be a core principle of this materialism but it is certainly inadequate to capture the whole project. In wave after wave of this debate the Epicurean view of a fully determined universe governed by natural laws, that nevertheless allows to humans a sphere of libertas, but does not require a creator god or teleology to explain it, comes up against monotheism and its insistence on the incoherence of an ordered world in the absence of a God and his purposes. The following questions were central to this debate: (1) Can we understand the universe as law-governed in the absence of a god? (2) If so, what room is there in a fully determined mechanical universe for human freedom? (3) If humans do enjoy freedom, does the same hold for other animals? (4) Is this freedom compatible with standard views of morality? (5) Is there an analogue between the material world as law-governed and human social order? (6) If so does it also obtain for other animals?     

Divine Omniscience: Is God's Foreknowledge at Risk in the Context of Contemporary Science?

Abstract

Does quantum indeterminacy threaten the classical theological doctrine of divine omniscience? Certain popular interpretations of quantum physics have challenged conventional ways of thinking about time and space, being and becoming. Consequently, the traditional doctrine that God knows all things, including future contingent events, has recently come under debate. This paper explores how the way we think about time affects the way we think about God's relation to time. Theologians need to be careful when appropriating scientific theories in their theological reflections because interpretations of those theories often bring along unnecessary metaphysical presuppositions. Using an interpretation of special relativity that focuses on the Lorentz transformation, this paper shows that modern physics does not truly challenge the doctrine of divine foreknowledge. In fact, modern physical theories can actually deepen theological reflection on the classical doctrine of divine omniscience.     

The impact of gratitude on adolescent materialism and generosity

ABSTRACT

Despite decades of research on materialism, there are few viable strategies for reducing materialism in younger consumers. In this paper, we present two studies conducted among over 900 adolescents that reveal a promising strategy for decreasing materialism: fostering gratitude. In Study 1, results from a nationally representative survey showed that children and adolescents with a grateful disposition were less materialistic. In Study 2, experimental evidence showed that an intervention designed to increase gratitude (i.e. keeping a gratitude journal) significantly reduced materialism among adolescents and also attenuated materialism’s negative effect on generosity. Using real money and donation as a behavioral measure, we found that adolescents who kept a gratitude journal donated 60% more of their earnings to charity compared to those in the control condition. We discuss the implications of our findings, offer some suggestions for putting our results into action, and provide an agenda for future research in this domain.     

Virtual reflection: Antoine Arnauld on Descartes' concept of conscientia

ABSTRACT

Although Descartes has often been portrayed as the father of the modern concept of mind, his approach to consciousness is notoriously problematic. What makes it particularly hard to assess his role in the development of the theories of consciousness is the difficulty of clarifying the kind of consciousness he might have in mind when using the associated Latin terms (conscius, cogitatio, conscium esse, etc.). In this article, I analyse Antoine Arnauld’s early interpretation of the passages in Descartes that refer to the issue of consciousness. I argue for two separate but interconnected claims. Firstly, I show that when Arnauld sets out to make a case for Descartes’ concept of cogitatio, he reads the central passages in light of some scholastic theories of cognition, in particular, the concept of ‘reflexio virtualis’ which, far from being a Cartesian invention, comes from the late scholastic discourse. Secondly, I argue that by talking about virtual reflection Arnauld provides an interpretation of Descartes’ views in terms of the intrinsic structure of the first-order thought – a reading which is still plausible, even by our contemporary standards.     

Materialism and ‘the soft substance of the brain’: Diderot and plasticity

ABSTRACT

Materialism is the view that everything that is real is material or is the product of material processes. It tends to take either a ‘cosmological’ form, as a claim about the ultimate nature of the world, or a more specific ‘psychological’ form, detailing how mental processes are brain processes. I focus on the second, psychological or cerebral form of materialism. In the mid-to-late eighteenth century, the French materialist philosopher Denis Diderot was one of the first to notice that any self-respecting materialist had to address the question of the status and functional role of the brain, and its relation to our mental life. After this the topic grew stale, with knee-jerk reiterations of ‘psychophysical identity’ in the nineteenth-century, and equally rigid assertions of anti-materialism. In 1960s philosophy of mind, brain–mind materialism reemerged as ‘identity theory’, focusing on the identity between mental processes and cerebral processes. In contrast, Diderot’s cerebral materialism allows for a more culturally sedimented sense of the brain, which he described in his late Elements of Physiology as a ‘book – except it is a book which reads itself’. Diderot thus provides a lesson for materialism as it reflects on the status of the brain, science and culture.     

“Me”, “We”, and Materialism: Associations between Contingent Self-Worth and Materialistic Values across Cultures

Abstract

Individuals with high levels of externally contingent self-worth tend to base their self-esteem on factors such as appearance, competitive success, and others’ approval. Such tendencies might also elevate people’s focus on material possessions. However, cultural moderation of these associations has yet to be explored. A cross-cultural survey among Chinese and Dutch college students examined the link between externally-based contingent self-worth and materialistic values, as well as the mediating roles of need to belong and need for self-enhancement. An initial multi-group path analysis indicated a stronger link between externally contingent self-worth and materialism for Chinese students than for Dutch students. For both Chinese and Dutch students, externally contingent self-worth was positively related to materialistic values, need to belong, and need for self-enhancement. Need to belong and need for self-enhancement were positively linked with materialism, and need to belong and need for self-enhancement mediated the link between externally contingent self-worth and materialism. Though the indirect effect via self-enhancement was somewhat stronger among Chinese participants, this research demonstrates that people’s externally contingent self-worth might be a factor predicting materialism across cultures, with need to belong and need for self-enhancement playing similar roles as underlying processes in different societies.     

Freedom and the psychoanalytic ontology of quantum physics

Jung's paper ‘Synchronicity – an acausal connecting principle’, defining the phenomenon as a ‘meaningful’ coincidence depending on archetypal activation, was published in 1952, together with a conceptually related piece by physicist and Nobel Laureate Wolfgang Pauli entitled, ‘The influence of archetypal ideas on the scientific theories of Kepler’. Slavoj ?i?ek, in The Indivisible Remainder: On Schelling and Related Matters, suggests that, in contrast to any notion of a ‘pre‐modern Jungian harmony’, the main lesson of quantum physics was that not only was the psychoanalytic, empty subject of the signifier constitutively out‐of‐joint with respect to the world, but that the Real in itself was already incomplete, out‐of‐joint, ‘not‐all’. Yet while ?i?ek frequently tries to separate Jung from his own ontology, this paper shows that his ontology is not as different as he suggests. Consistent with our earlier publications on Jung and Zizek, a closer investigation reveals an underlying congruence of both of their approaches. In this paper we show that this affinity lies in the rejection by both Jung and ?i?ek of the ideology of reductive materialism, a rejection that demonstrably draws on quantum physics in similar ways. While Jung posits an inherently meaningful universe, ?i?ek attempts to salvage the freedom of human subjectivity by opposing his Lacanian ‘dialectical materialism’ to reductive materialism.     

Acting Theory Applied to Counseling: Stanislavski Continues to Contribute to Psychic Healing

ABSTRACT

This article explores a specific aspect of Stanislavski’s methods of training actors to examine the potential benefits for helping clients in the cultivation of new perceptions through empathy, which may, in turn, help toward psychic healing. Stanislavski’s methods of training actors, which is rooted in understanding the human condition, are the underpinnings for most modern acting theories. This discussion builds an additional bridge between acting theory and counseling theory to investigate additional therapeutic benefits of acting in a clinical setting. This article adds to the conversation of the possibility of expanding applications of drama therapy based on specific aspects of acting theories.     

Becoming the Men We're Ceasing to Be: A Gay Agenda for Aging in a Youth Culture

Abstract

In this wide-ranging article Long explores the spiritual problem of aging with particular reference to the gay male community. Long analyses the construction of beauty and its association with goodness and youth in contemporary (and indeed ancient Christian) culture. He rejects the transgressive gender theories that characterize queer theory, regarding modern homosexuality as a reinforcing and widening of masculinity. He argues that the process of ageing gives gay men the chance to become the men that their youthful looks declared them to be.     

Avoiding Authoritarianism: On the Problem of Justification in Contemporary Critical Social Theory

Abstract

Critical social theories look critically at the ways in which particular social arrangements hinder human flourishing, with a view to bringing about social change for the better. In this they are guided by the idea of a good society in which the identified social impediments to human flourishing would once and for all have been removed. The question of how these guiding ideas of the good life can be justified as valid across socio‐cultural contexts and historical epochs is the most fundamental difficulty facing critical social theories today. This problem of justification, which can be traced back to certain key shifts in the modern Western social imaginary, calls on contemporary theories to negotiate the tensions between the idea of context‐transcendent validity and their own anti‐authoritarian impulses. Habermas makes an important contribution towards resolving the problem, but takes a number of wrong turnings.     

Research methods in clinical psychospirituality

Abstract

Although most people acknowledge that the reality they live has three interconnecting spheres of experience—the physical, the mental or psychological, and the numinous or spiritual—the paradigm of scientific materialism has come to exercise a dominating influence over the ways we value, perceive and even conceptualize these perennially interconnecting spheres of experience. Scientific materialism has greatly devalued and even questioned the reality and legitimacy of the spiritual dimension of human experience. This paper supports the position that experience in the realms of the physical, the mental, and the spiritual are all dimensions human science and knowledge can and must explore, but that the criterions and canons of validity and verification of their disciplines and methodologies, are subject to the particular dictates and circumstances of each of these realms of experience.