What Poetry Brings to the Table of Science and Religion

Ever since Plato's famous attack on artists and poets in Book 10 of The Republic, lovers of literature have felt pressed to defend poetry, and indeed from ancient times down to the present, literature and art have had to fight various battles against philosophy, religion, and science. After providing a brief overview of this conflict and then arguing that between poetry and science there are some noteworthy similarities—that is, that some of the basic mental structures with which the scientist studies the “text” of nature (facts, laws, theories) find their counterparts in ways an informed reader studies the poetic text, I develop what I see as the most important differences between poetry, on the one hand, and science, philosophy, and theology, on the other. These differences lie chiefly in two areas: (1) in the stance that each takes toward language itself and (2) in the stance each takes toward that ancient polarity between the one and the many. The aim of my argument is neither to privilege poetry over the other modes of knowing the world nor to grant, particularly to science in its reductive “objectivity,” a higher epistemological status than that accorded to poetry and the arts. Instead, I wish to argue that science, by pushing the boundaries of knowledge about the material world, shows the poet, as well as the theologian, some of the more important work to be done and that poetry, with its emphasis on the particular over the abstract and on the ambiguities and paradoxes of language as inherently metaphorical, serves science and religion by providing a caution against the naive acceptance of language as literal and the consequent enthrallment to the power of absolutes and totalizing abstractions.     

《系辞传》"易有太极"章要旨释论

《系辞传》“易有太极”章,其本旨既非解释易占中(?)卦的具体过程,也不是要创立一种宇宙生成模式,而是借用宇宙生成论的模式,解释八卦的起源．易占与易哲学之间没有直接关系．     

My brain's running slow today – The preference for “things ontologies” in research and everyday discourse on human thinking

The focus of the article is toreflect on the tendency of research traditionsin the areas of human learning, development,and communication, to use metaphors andanalogies that construe human mental activitiesand resources in terms of physical objects.This is evident, for instance, in moderncognitive science where computer metaphors(information processing and informationstorage) have been foundational for thediscipline. However, this tendency to reifyhuman activities can be found in many othertraditions, and it goes back to ancient Greekthinking. It is argued that the consequences ofthis tradition of reification are significantfor the human sciences. One important elementof these types of metaphors is that theydescribe people and their capacities in static,rather than developmental, terms.     

A sad thumbs up: incongruent gestures and disrupted sensorimotor activity both slow processing of facial expressions

Recognising a facial expression is more difficult when the expresser's body conveys incongruent affect. Existing research has documented such interference for universally recognisable bodily expressions. However, it remains unknown whether learned, conventional gestures can interfere with facial expression processing. Study 1 participants (N?=?62) viewed videos of people simultaneously producing facial expressions and hand gestures and reported the valence of either the face or hand. Responses were slower and less accurate when the face-hand pairing was incongruent compared to congruent. We hypothesised that hand gestures might exert an even stronger influence on facial expression processing when other routes to understanding the meaning of a facial expression, such as with sensorimotor simulation, are disrupted. Participants in Study 2 (N?=?127) completed the same task, but the facial mobility of some participants was restricted, which disrupted face processing in prior work. The hand-face congruency effect from Study 1 was replicated. The facial mobility manipulation affected males only, and it did not moderate the congruency effect. The present work suggests the affective meaning of conventional gestures is processed automatically and can interfere with face perception, but does not suggest that perceivers rely more on gestures when sensorimotor face processing is disrupted.     

道德概念垂直空间隐喻对空间关系判断的影响

本研究通过三个实验考察道德概念垂直空间隐喻对空间关系判断的影响。涉及的空间关系判断包括上下关系判断、远近关系判断和距离判断。研究结果显示：（1）上下判断中,在空间上方时,道德词的反应快于不道德词;在空间下方时,不道德词的反应快于道德词;（2）远近判断中,在空间上方时,个体更倾向于将道德词判断为"远",即道德词更偏上;在空间下方时,没有显著的偏向;（3）在距离判断中,个体对道德词的判断出现显著的向上偏移,对不道德词的判断则出现显著的向下偏移。由此得出结论：道德概念的垂直空间隐喻会影响个体对空间关系的判断,具体来说是"道德是上"的隐喻会导致空间关系判断产生"向上"的偏移效应;而"不道德是下"的隐喻则会导致空间关系判断产生"向下"的偏移效应。     

心真的会“软”吗?软硬感受与语义改变道德判断

近年来诸多研究发现,物理变量对心理变量尤其是道德会产生影响,而其机制通常是具身认知与隐喻语言两种。本研究意在通过软硬的具身感受以及软硬的隐喻式意义联系来探讨它对于道德判断的影响。实验一通过操纵被试的软硬身体感受,发现感受到软的被试会比感受到硬的被试更倾向于作出义务论判断。而实验二通过启动被试的软硬语义联接,发现在启动了软的意义之后,对比与启动了硬的意义来说,被试体验到了更少的厌恶情绪,并对同样的道德错误表现得更宽容。这表明软与硬这对物理变量在具身认知与隐喻语言两种机制上都对道德判断起到了影响。     

Representational Momentum Beyond Internalized Physics

Abstract— Prediction of future motion is necessary in order to successfully deal with moving objects. Implicit measures have been used to evaluate the sources of information used in this task. For instance, observers may be asked to localize the final position of a moving target. Judgments have been found to be displaced in the direction of motion (forward displacement), suggesting that observers have internalized a mental analogue of physical momentum. However, more recent studies have shown that forward displacement may not be caused by cognitive mechanisms alone. Rather, predictive mechanisms at the perceptual and motor levels may contribute to the forward error. Supporting the notion that mechanisms of anticipation may be embodied, the forward error was found to depend on the execution of eye and pointing movements. Also, forward displacement depended on the motion type that was presented (smooth vs. jerky or implied), which suggests that attention moves to the next expected target position to facilitate responses to this position.     

Sexual metaphor and the language of unconscious phantasy

This paper investigates the attempt to find a 'bedrock' for psychic life in the idea of unconscious phantasy. Through a detailed examination of the development of the concept of unconscious phantasy, especially in Kleinian discourse, it is argued that unconscious phantasies are inherently metaphorical and have no 'concrete' existence in the unconscious. The use of unconscious phantasy as metaphor enables a 'two-way' form of interpretation that describes sexual behaviour and fantasy in terms of object relations (interpreting 'away from sex', while simultaneously describing object relations in terms of the sexual body (interpreting 'towards sex').     

Clocks,Creation and Clarity: Insights on Ethics and Economics from a Feminist Perspective

This essay discusses the origins, biases, and effects on contemporary discussions of economics and ethics of the unexamined use of the metaphor an economy is a machine. Both neoliberal economics and many critiques of capitalist systems take this metaphor as their starting point. The belief that economies run according to universal laws of motion, however, is shown to be based on a variety of rationalist thinking that – while widely held – is inadequate for explaining lived human experience. Feminist scholarship in the philosophy of science and economics has brought to light some of the biases that have supported the mechanistic worldview. Possible alternatives to the an economy is a machine include an economy is a creative process and an economy is an organism. Such metaphors are intellectually defensible as guides to scientific inquiry and provide a richer ground for moral imagination.     

QEEG markers of superior shooting performance in skilled marksmen: An investigation of cortical activity on psychomotor efficiency hypothesis

For elite performers, psychomotor behavior's success or failure can be traced to differences in brain dynamics. The psychomotor efficiency hypothesis suggests refined cortical activity through 1) selective activation of task-relevant processes and 2) inhibition of non-essential processes. The use of electroencephalography (EEG) has been applied to investigate psychomotor performance's neural processes. The EEG markers that reflect an elevation of psychomotor efficiency include left temporal alpha (T3 alpha), frontal midline theta (Fm theta), sensorimotor rhythm (SMR), and the coherence between frontal and left temporal regions. However, the relationship between elite performers' task-relevant and non-essential neural processes is still not well understood. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how each task-relevant and inhibition of non-essential processes contribute to superior psychomotor behavior. Thirty-five highly skilled marksmen were recruited to perform 30 shots in the shooting task while the EEG was recorded. The marksmen were divided into two groups (superior & inferior) based on a median split of shooting performance. The superior group exhibited higher accuracy and precision, with a reduction in movement jerk. EEG measures revealed that the superior group exhibited higher SMR before the trigger pull than the inferior group. In addition, the superior group demonstrated reduced Fz-T3 coherence in their bull's eye shots than the missed shots. These results suggest that the superior group exhibited less effortful engagement of task-relevant processes and lower interference from non-essential cortical regions than the inferior group. The study's overall findings support the psychomotor efficiency hypothesis. When comparing highly skilled performers, the slight differences in brain dynamics ultimately contribute to the success or failure of psychomotor performance.