Consciousness Representation of consciousness from the seventeenth century At one time consciousness was viewed with skepticism by many scientists, but in recent years it has become a significant topic of research in psychology, neuropsychology and neuroscience. The primary focus is on understanding what it means biologically and psychologically for information to be present in consciousness—that is, on determining the neural and psychological correlates of consciousness. The majority of experimental studies assess consciousness by asking human subjects for a verbal report of their experiences (e.g., "tell me if you notice anything when I do this"). Issues of interest include phenomena such as subliminal perception, blindsight, denial of impairment, and altered states of consciousness produced by drugs and alcohol, or spiritual or meditative techniques. Etymology and early history[edit] John Locke, British philosopher active in the 17th century In the dictionary[edit] Philosophy of mind[edit]
Intuition (philosophy) Intuition is a priori knowledge or experiential belief characterized by its immediacy. Beyond this, the nature of intuition is debated. Roughly speaking, there are two main views. They are: Intuitions are a priori. This view holds that distinctions are to be made between various sorts of intuition, roughly corresponding to their subject matter (see George Bealer). In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, intuition is thought of as basic sensory information provided by the cognitive faculty of sensibility (equivalent to what might loosely be called perception). In contemporary analytic philosophy, appeals to our intuitions are an important method for testing claims. The metaphilosophical assumption that philosophy depends on intuitions has recently been challenged by some philosophers. Jump up ^ Immanuel Kant (1787) "Critique of Pure Reason", p35 et seq.
Qualia In philosophy, qualia (/ˈkwɑːliə/ or /ˈkweɪliə/; singular form: quale) are what some consider to be individual instances of subjective, conscious experience. The term "qualia" derives from the Latin neuter plural form (qualia) of the Latin adjective quālis (Latin pronunciation: [ˈkʷaːlɪs]) meaning "of what sort" or "of what kind"). Examples of qualia include the pain of a headache, the taste of wine, or the perceived redness of an evening sky. Daniel Dennett (b. 1942), American philosopher and cognitive scientist, regards qualia as "an unfamiliar term for something that could not be more familiar to each of us: the ways things seem to us".[2] Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961), the famous physicist, had this counter-materialist take: The sensation of color cannot be accounted for by the physicist's objective picture of light-waves. Definitions[edit] Saturated colors are a commonly used example of a quale. There are many definitions of qualia, which have changed over time. Daniel Dennett[edit]
Open-mindedness Open-mindedness is receptiveness to new ideas. Open-mindedness relates to the way in which people approach the views and knowledge of others, and "incorporate the beliefs that others should be free to express their views and that the value of others’ knowledge should be recognized. Open-mindedness is generally considered an important personal attribute for effective participation in management teams and other groups.[5] According to What Makes Your Brain Happy and Why You Should Do the Opposite, closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain's natural dislike for ambiguity. References[edit] Jump up ^ Tjosvold, Dean; Poon, Margaret (September 1998). Further reading[edit] Mather Jr., F.
Choiceless awareness Choiceless awareness is posited in philosophy, psychology, and spirituality to be the state of unpremeditated, complete awareness of the present without preference, effort, or compulsion. The term was popularized in mid-20th-century by Jiddu Krishnamurti, in whose philosophy it signifies a main theme. Similar or related concepts had been previously developed in several religious or spiritual traditions; the term or others like it has also been used to describe traditional and contemporary secular and religious meditation practices. However, Krishnamurti's approach to choiceless awareness was unique and differs from both prior and later notions. Jiddu Krishnamurti[edit] Choiceless awareness is a major concept in the exposition of Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986). Accordingly, Krishnamurti advised against following any doctrine, discipline, teacher, guru, or authority, including himself. Other representations[edit] See also[edit] Notes[edit] References[edit]
Risk Risk is the potential of losing something of value, weighed against the potential to gain something of value. Values (such as physical health, social status, emotional well being or financial wealth) can be gained or lost when taking risk resulting from a given action, activity and/or inaction, foreseen or unforeseen. Risk can also be defined as the intentional interaction with uncertainty. Risk perception is the subjective judgment people make about the severity of a risk, and may vary person to person. Any human endeavor carries some risk, but some are much riskier than others.[1] Definitions[edit] Firefighters at work Risk can be defined in a variety of ways. Basic definitions[edit] The probability of something happening multiplied by the resulting cost or benefit if it does. International Organization for Standardization[edit] The ISO 31000 (2009) / ISO Guide 73:2002 definition of risk is the 'effect of uncertainty on objectives'. Other[edit] History[edit] Practice areas[edit] Health[edit]
Sentience Philosophy and sentience[edit] In the philosophy of consciousness, sentience can refer to the ability of any entity to have subjective perceptual experiences, or as some philosophers refer to them, "qualia".[2] This is distinct from other aspects of the mind and consciousness, such as creativity, intelligence, sapience, self-awareness, and intentionality (the ability to have thoughts "about" something). Sentience is a minimalistic way of defining consciousness, which is otherwise commonly used to collectively describe sentience plus other characteristics of the mind. Some philosophers, notably Colin McGinn, believe that sentience will never be understood, a position known as "new mysterianism". Ideasthesia[edit] According to the theory of ideasthesia a sentient system has to have the capability to categorize and to create concepts. Indian religions[edit] Eastern religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism recognize non-humans as sentient beings. Science fiction[edit]
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural, physical, or material world or universe. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. It ranges in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic. The study of nature is a large part of science. Although humans are part of nature, human activity is often understood as a separate category from other natural phenomena. Within the various uses of the word today, "nature" often refers to geology and wildlife. Earth[edit] Main articles: Earth and Earth science View of the Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17astronaut crew. The atmospheric conditions have been significantly altered from the original conditions by the presence of life-forms,[7] which create an ecological balance that stabilizes the surface conditions. Geology[edit] Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. Geological evolution[edit] Historical perspective[edit] Water on Earth[edit] Media:
Relativism Forms of relativism[edit] Anthropological versus philosophical relativism[edit] Anthropological relativism refers to a methodological stance, in which the researcher suspends (or brackets) his or her own cultural biases while attempting to understand beliefs and behaviors in their local contexts. This has become known as methodological relativism, and concerns itself specifically with avoiding ethnocentrism or the application of one's own cultural standards to the assessment of other cultures.[3] This is also the basis of the so-called "emic" and "etic" distinction, in which: Philosophical relativism, in contrast, asserts that the truth of a proposition depends on the metaphysical, or theoretical frame, or the instrumental method, or the context in which the proposition is expressed, or on the person, groups, or culture who interpret the proposition.[4] Descriptive versus normative relativism[edit] Postmodernism and relativism[edit] Related and contrasting positions[edit] Leo XIII[edit]
Decision making Sample flowchart representing the decision process to add a new article to Wikipedia. Decision-making can be regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several alternative possibilities. Every decision-making process produces a final choice that may or may not prompt action. Overview[edit] Edit human performance with regard to decisions has been the subject of active research from several perspectives: Psychological: examining individual decisions in the context of a set of needs, preferences and values the individual has or seeks.Cognitive: the decision-making process regarded as a continuous process integrated in the interaction with the environment.Normative: the analysis of individual decisions concerned with the logic of decision-making and rationality and the invariant choice it leads to.[1] Decision-making can also be regarded as a problem-solving activity terminated by a solution deemed to be satisfactory. Problem analysis
Thought Thought can refer to the ideas or arrangements of ideas that result from thinking, the act of producing thoughts, or the process of producing thoughts. Despite the fact that thought is a fundamental human activity familiar to everyone, there is no generally accepted agreement as to what thought is or how it is created. Thoughts are the result or product of spontaneous act of thinking. Because thought underlies many human actions and interactions, understanding its physical and metaphysical origins, processes, and effects has been a longstanding goal of many academic disciplines including artificial intelligence, biology, philosophy, psychology, and sociology. Thinking allows humans to make sense of, interpret, represent or model the world they experience, and to make predictions about that world. Etymology and usage[edit] The word thought comes from Old English þoht, or geþoht, from stem of þencan "to conceive of in the mind, consider".[1] The word “thought” may mean[2],:[3] Theories[edit]
Lucid Dreaming: The Basics The following is excerpted from Lucid Dreaming: A Beginners Guide To Becoming Conscious In Your Dreams, to be published by Hay House Basics in February, 2015. “What is lucid dreaming?” Lucid dreaming is the art of becoming conscious within your dreams. A lucid dream is one in which you realize, ‘Aha! I’m dreaming!’ It allows you conscious access to the deepest depths of your mind, and the opportunity to guide your dreams at will. For me, one of the most revolutionary aspects of lucid dreaming is that it makes sleep fun! In fact, the term ‘lucid dreaming’ is a bit of a misnomer – it should really be ‘conscious dreaming’, because it’s the aspect of conscious awareness that defines the experience, rather than its lucid clarity, but for now we’ll stick with it. However, given that there’s so much misunderstanding around what lucid dreaming actually is, it’s worth taking a moment to look at what lucid dreaming is not… It’s not a half-awake/half-asleep state. It’s not just a very vivid dream.
Quantum indeterminacy Quantum indeterminacy is the apparent necessary incompleteness in the description of a physical system, that has become one of the characteristics of the standard description of quantum physics. Prior to quantum physics, it was thought that (a) a physical system had a determinate state which uniquely determined all the values of its measurable properties, and conversely (b) the values of its measurable properties uniquely determined the state. Albert Einstein may have been the first person to carefully point out the radical effect the new quantum physics would have on our notion of physical state.[1] Quantum indeterminacy can be quantitatively characterized by a probability distribution on the set of outcomes of measurements of an observable. Indeterminacy in measurement was not an innovation of quantum mechanics, since it had been established early on by experimentalists that errors in measurement may lead to indeterminate outcomes. Measurement[edit] Example[edit] The Pauli spin matrices A.
Finding German-Language Pen Pals (2) Finding German-Language Pen PalsPart 2 Of course, in order for any of this to work, you must first find someone with whom you can exchange mail! If you have been to a German-speaking country, you may know someone you can write. But even then, not all of the people you know will have email capabilities or even want to correspond on a regular basis. That's where pen-pal organizations come in. But many other pen-pal and e-pal services are now online offering email contacts. If you want to be listed yourself, so that others can find your email address and write to you, then you can fill out an online form. As with postal mail, once you contact an address there is no guarantee you will get a response. For language-learning purposes, it may be wise to avoid the romance-oriented pen-pal sites. Here's our listing of Online Pen Pal Services for German - Schreibt mal wieder!