Download or read book Determinism Death and Meaning written by Stephen Maitzen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers new arguments for determinism. It draws novel and surprising consequences from determinism for our attitudes toward such things as death, regret, grief, and the meaning of life. The book argues that rationalism is the right attitude to take toward reality. It then shows that rationalism implies determinism and that determinism has surprising and far-reaching consequences. The author contends that the existence of all of humanity almost certainly depends on the precise time and manner of your death and mine; that purely retrospective regret, relief, gratitude, and grief are irrational for all but those who hold extreme values; and that everyone’s life has an unending impact on the future and thereby achieves the strongest kind of meaning that it makes sense to desire. Written in a direct and accessible style, Determinism, Death, and Meaning will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and value theory, as well as general readers with a serious interest in these topics.
Download or read book Magic and the Mind written by Eugene Subbotsky and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-03-31 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magical thinking and behavior have traditionally been viewed as immature, misleading alternatives to scientific thought that in children inevitably diminish with age. In adults, these inclinations have been labeled by psychologists largely as superstitions that feed on frustration, uncertainty, and the unpredictable nature of certain human activities. In Magic and the Mind, Eugene Subbotsky provides an overview of the mechanisms and development of magical thinking and beliefs throughout the life span while arguing that the role of this type of thought in human development should be reconsidered. Rather than an impediment to scientific reasoning or a byproduct of cognitive development, in children magical thinking is an important and necessary complement to these processes, enhancing creativity at problem-solving and reinforcing coping strategies, among other benefits. In adults, magical thinking and beliefs perform important functions both for individuals (coping with unsolvable problems and stressful situations) and for society (enabling mass influence and promoting social harmony). Operating in realms not bound by physical causality, such as emotion, relationships, and suggestion, magical thinking is an ongoing, developing psychological mechanism that, Subbotsky argues, is integral in the contexts of politics, commercial advertising, and psychotherapy, and undergirds our construction and understanding of meaning in both mental and physical worlds. Magic and the Mind represents a unique contribution to our understanding of the importance of magical thinking, offering experimental evidence and conclusions never before collected in one source. It will be of interest to students and scholars of developmental psychology, as well as sociologists, anthropologists, and educators.
Download or read book A Cognitive Theory of Magic written by Jesper Sørensen and published by Rowman Altamira. This book was released on 2007 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magic is a universal phenomenon. Everywhere we look people perform ritual actions in which desirable qualities are transferred by means of physical contact and objects or persons are manipulated by things of their likeness. In this book S rensen embraces a cognitive perspective in order to investigate this long-established but controversial topic. Following a critique of the traditional approaches to magic, and basing his claims on classical ethnographic cases, the author explains magic's universality by examining a number of recurrent cognitive processes underlying its different manifestations. He focuses on how power is infused into the ritual practice; how representations of contagion and similarity can be used to connect otherwise distinct objects in order to manipulate one by the other; and how the performance of ritual prompts representations of magical actions as effective. Bringing these features together, the author proposes a cognitive theory of how people can represent magical rituals as purposeful actions and how ritual actions are integrated into more complex representations of events. This explanation, in turn, yields new insights into the constitutive role of magic in the formation of institutionalised religious ritual.
Download or read book Magic s Reason written by Graham M. Jones and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-12-06 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Magic’s Reason, Graham M. Jones tells the entwined stories of anthropology and entertainment magic. The two pursuits are not as separate as they may seem at first. As Jones shows, they not only matured around the same time, but they also shared mutually reinforcing stances toward modernity and rationality. It is no historical accident, for example, that colonial ethnographers drew analogies between Western magicians and native ritual performers, who, in their view, hoodwinked gullible people into believing their sleight of hand was divine. Using French magicians’ engagements with North African ritual performers as a case study, Jones shows how magic became enshrined in anthropological reasoning. Acknowledging the residue of magic’s colonial origins doesn’t require us to dispense with it. Rather, through this radical reassessment of classic anthropological ideas, Magic’s Reason develops a new perspective on the promise and peril of cross-cultural comparison.
Download or read book Acts of Faith written by Rodney Stark and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2000-08-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finally, social scientists have begun to attempt to understand religious behavior rather than to discredit it as irrational, ignorant, or foolish—and Rodney Stark and Roger Finke have played a major role in this new approach. Acknowledging that science cannot assess the supernatural side of religion (and therefore should not claim to do so), Stark and Finke analyze the observable, human side of faith. In clear and engaging prose, the authors combine explicit theorizing with animated discussions as they move from considering the religiousness of individuals to the dynamics of religious groups and then to the religious workings of entire societies as religious groups contend for support. The result is a comprehensive new paradigm for the social-scientific study of religion.
Download or read book Medieval Robots written by E. R. Truitt and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-04-22 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A thousand years before Isaac Asimov set down his Three Laws of Robotics, real and imagined automata appeared in European courts, liturgies, and literary texts. Medieval robots took such forms as talking statues, mechanical animals, and silent metal guardians; some served to entertain or instruct while others performed disciplinary or surveillance functions. Variously ascribed to artisanal genius, inexplicable cosmic forces, or demonic powers, these marvelous fabrications raised fundamental questions about knowledge, nature, and divine purpose in the Middle Ages. Medieval Robots recovers the forgotten history of fantastical, aspirational, and terrifying machines that captivated Europe in imagination and reality between the ninth and fourteenth centuries. E. R. Truitt traces the different forms of self-moving or self-sustaining manufactured objects from their earliest appearances in the Latin West through centuries of mechanical and literary invention. Chronicled in romances and song as well as histories and encyclopedias, medieval automata were powerful cultural objects that probed the limits of natural philosophy, illuminated and challenged definitions of life and death, and epitomized the transformative and threatening potential of foreign knowledge and culture. This original and wide-ranging study reveals the convergence of science, technology, and imagination in medieval culture and demonstrates the striking similarities between medieval and modern robotic and cybernetic visions.
Download or read book Language and Magic written by Toshihiko Izutsu and published by The Other Press. This book was released on with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mechanisms of Character Formation written by William Alanson White and published by . This book was released on 1916 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Talismanic Magic for Witches written by Frater Barrabbas and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This book was released on 2023-02-08 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Power Your Witchcraft with the Celestial Magic of Talismans Filled with advanced planetary and zodiacal magic, this book shows you how to make talismans—materialized spells that are continually and perpetually operating for your benefit. It teaches you how to encapsulate a wish and charge it with the energies of the elements, spirits, and archetypes of the gods. You will also learn the best times to generate these magical artifacts using planetary hours, days, and astrological auspices. With this comprehensive explanation of celestial magic, you can make a charmed life possible for yourself, your loved ones, and even potential clients. A companion to Spirit Conjuring for Witches and Elemental Power for Witches, this book covers the mansions of the moon, the planets, and the zodiac signs. Frater Barrabbas also explains astrological decans and a new, elemental division of the zodiac signs called astrological septans. Through this book's rituals, you can work celestial magic and fashion a battery of specific talismans to help build the life you have always dreamed of having.
Download or read book Rituals of white magic written by Lucia Pavesi and published by Parkstone International. This book was released on 2019-07-15 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: * What are magic, spells and enchantments really? What is the difference between white, black and red magic? What are magical ceremonies for? * What are the different ancient and modern practices, such as voodoo, shamanism, ancient Egyptian ceremonies, etc.? In this book, the author explains with great clarity the characteristics of the main magical traditions and the theoretical principles related to them: the Kabbalah, alchemy, the Rosicrucian doctrine, etc. * What preparation must a true magician have? In this book, you will find all the exercises to strengthen the power of mental concentration and help you face the first magical operations. * How can pentacles and talismans be made that can bring fortune and protect against negative energies? In this book, you will find the necessary explanations about the magic symbols, the moment, the colours and the most appropriate materials to reach the objective.
Download or read book Downward Processes In The Perception Representation Mechanisms Proceedings Of The International School Of Biocybernetics written by Cloe Taddei-ferretti and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 1998-12-24 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Perception is the first step in the whole of the cognitive processes (attention, learning, memory, categorization, imagery, intuition, inference, comprehension, thought, judgement, expression) which culminate in the reasoning activity and to which emotions make a contribution. The production of perception representations is correlated with the perception events. Such perception representations occur by means of the contribution of two kinds of factors: sensory signals which reproduce the spatio-temporal characteristics of the receptor modifications, and interpretation of the intrinsic ambiguity of such signals by means of unconscious inferences. Various interactions intervene between bottom-up signals from peripheral receptors and top-down signals from higher centres.
Download or read book Towards a Rational Philosophical Anthropology written by J. Agassi and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The thesis of the present volume is critical and dual. (1) Present day philosophy of man and sciences of man suffer from the Greek mis taken polarization of everything human into nature and convention which is (allegedly) good and evil, which is (allegedly) truth and fal sity, which is (allegedly) rationality and irrationality, to wit, the polar ization of all fields of inquiry, the natural and social sciences, as well as ethics and all technology, whether natural or social, into the totally positive and the totally negative. (2) Almost all philosophy and sci ences of man share the erroneous work ethic which is the myth of man's evil nature - the myth of the beast in man, the doctrine of original sin. To mediate or to compromise between the first view of human nature as good with the second view of it as evil, sociologists have devised a modified utilitarianism with deferred gratification so called, and the theory of the evil of artificial competition (capitalist and socialist alike) and of keeping up with the Joneses. Now, the mediation is not necessary. For, the polarization makes for abstract errors which are simplistic views of rationality, such as reductionism and positivism of all sorts, as well as for concrete errors, such as the disposition to condemn repeatedly those human weaknesses which are inevitable, namely man's inability to be perfectly rational, avoid all error, etc. , thus setting man against himself as all too wicked.
Download or read book Exploring the Religious Life written by Rodney Stark and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2004-04 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Together, the essays that constitute Exploring the Religious Life offer an engaging introduction to Rodney Stark's provocative insights and a fearless challenge to academic perceptions about religion's place in history, society, and private life.
Download or read book Meditation in Judaism Christianity and Islam written by Halvor Eifring and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-10-24 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meditative practices have flourished in widely different parts of Eurasia, yet historical research on such practices is limited. Research to date has focused on contexts rather than actual practices, and within individual traditions. For the first time in one volume, the meditative practices of the three traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam are examined. They are viewed in a global perspective, considering both generic and historical connections to practices in other traditions, particularly in India and East Asia. Their cultural and historical peculiarities are examined, comparing them both to each other and to Asian forms of meditation. The book builds on a notion of meditation as self-administered techniques for inner transformation, a definition which focuses on transformative practice rather than notions of meditative states and mystical experiences. It proposes ways of studying meditative practice historically, and concludes with an essay on the modern scientific interest in meditation.
Download or read book Odd Perceptions written by Richard L. Gregory and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-27 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Gregory was one of the major scientific thinkers of our time. Originally published in 1986, here he presents essays on the rich subject of perception. How we experience colours, shapes, sounds, touches, tickles, tastes and smells is a mysterious and rich inquiry. Wonderful as these sensations are, though, he argues that perception becomes really interesting when we consider how objects are identified and located in space and time as things we interact with, using our intelligence to understand them. Gregory’s essays convey the crucial importance of the major scientists and their achievements in the study of perception; but they also show us how much we can learn from our surroundings, our language, our times, our successes and our failures. Why are we so often fooled, in scientific as well as everyday life?
Download or read book Game Magic written by Jeff Howard and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Make More Immersive and Engaging Magic Systems in GamesGame Magic: A Designer's Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice explains how to construct magic systems and presents a compendium of arcane lore, encompassing the theory, history, and structure of magic systems in games and human belief. The author combines rigorous scholarly analysis wi
Download or read book The Architect as Magician written by Albert C. Smith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-05-07 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Architect as Magician explores the connection between magic and architecture. There is a belief that a greater understanding of the meaning of magic provides insights about architecture and architects’ design processes. Architects influence the effects of nature through the making of their buildings. In an analogous condition, magicians perform rituals in an attempt to influence the forces of nature. This book argues that architects could gain much by incorporating ideas from magic into their design process. The book demonstrates through historical and current examples the important influence magic has had on the practice of architecture. The authors explain how magic helps us to understand the way we infuse architecture with meaning and how magic affects and inspires architectural creation. Aimed at architects, students, scholars and researchers, The Architect as Magician helps readers discover the ambiguous and spiritual elements in their design process.
