DOCSLIB.ORG

The Core Psychophysical Process As a Bio-Logical Foundation

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Core Psychophysical Process As a Bio-Logical Foundation Equilibrium: Ethics as Harmony and Improvisation in Responsive as - the Core Psychophysical Process a bio logical foundation for ethical engagement -Bentley Suzanne Noel Universit A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to The y of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand Contents Abstract . v Introduction . 1 Chapter 1 – The Core Psychophysical Process Introduction . 9 1. The Core Psychophysical Process . 10 2. Introduction to F.M. Alexander: within his historical context . 12 3. Alexander’s Experimental Process . 16 4. The Alexander Technique in Teaching Practice . 18 5. Practical Descriptions of Balancing Mechanisms and Startle Reflex . 22 6. Startle Pattern: Hunt’s experiment and what it makes clear . 25 7. Habits of Mind . 27 8. Reflective Self-discipline . 29 9. The CPP, Fear, and Developmental and Learning Processes . 30 10. Alexander Technique Methodology Consistent with Core Psychophysical Processes: the interactive self as the instrument of experimentation . 34 11. The Cultural and Scientific Context . 40 12. Explaining Reflexes and Neuro-musculo-skeletal Interconnections . 45 13. The Core Psychophysical Process and Brains, Minds and Bodies . 52 14. Embodiment . 53 Chapter 2 – Susan Hurley’s Shared Circuits Model . 57 1. What is Cognitive Science – is it just about brains? . 57 2. Hurley’s Shared Circuits Model . 58 3. The SCM and Simulation –Theory, Theory –Theory: regarding understanding and communicating . 70 4. Imitation, Inhibition, and Making Embodied Sense Together . 72 5. The Articulation of Experience in Language . 78 6. Summary of the SCM and Extensions to Chapter 3 . 80 Endnote – Susan Hurley’s Chart . 82 Chapter 3 – The CPP and The SCM . 83 1. Key Commonalities Between the CPP and the SCM . 84 2. Inhibition . 85 3. Means and Ends . 86 4. Self–Other and Perception–Action Dynamics . 87 5. Empathy and Psychosocial Development . 88 6. Cognition, Communication and Ethics . 88 7. The CPP Flow of Perception, Reaction, Reflection and Choice of Action, and Hurley’s Levels of Human Function . 89 Chapter 4 – Dualisms versus Cognition as Embodied . 97 1. Dualism in Philosophy, Psychology, and Cognitive Neuroscience . 98 2. Alexander and Holistic Logic . 100 3. Perception and Action . 101 4. Variations of Cartesian Dualism and Its Origins in Atomism and Mechanism . 103 5. Language, Representationalism and Dualism . 105 6. Quantum Physics, Agential Realism and the CPP . 108 7. The Enactive Process . 110 8. Externalism and Sensory-motor Meaning-making . 114 9. Computational Minds . 116 10. Holistic Understandings . 117 Chapter 5 – Embodiment . 119 1. Multi-sensory Meaning-making and Perception . 121 1a.The Dominance of the Visual in Western Culture . 125 2. Emotion and Cognition – Two Integrative Perspectives . 127 3. Body schemas and the ‘Automaticity’ of Skilled Actions. 134 4. Attentive Expanded Awareness in Action . 141 5. Language and Embodiment . 143 Chapter 6 – The Arts, Embodiment and Ethics . 149 1. Music Explains Itself: meaning is embedded in culture and relationship . 149 2. Harmony, Resonance, and Metaphor . 151 3. Defining Music . 154 4. The Phenomenology of Engagements in the Arts . 155 5. Music-making is Embodied, Extended and Inclusive . 158 6. Improvisation and Arts Phenomenology . 159 7. The CPP, Propositionising, and Reflective Self-discipline . 168 Chapter 7 – Bodily ‘I’dentity . 172 1. The Self as Identified through Cognitive Neuroscience . 172 2. Self as sonzai of ningen . 177 3. Levinas: self and difference . 181 4. Self in Relationship – from Ego to Empathy . 184 5. Empathy and Responsibility . 187 6. Climate and Cultural Narratives . 189 Chapter 8 – Dark Ethics . 194 1. Conscious and Unconscious Minds and Intuition . 195 2. Language and Difference . 198 3. Embodiment and Sexualised Identity . 202 4. Touch – Reclaiming Sensory Meaning-making . 206 5. Sensuate Being-in-Relationship and the Aesthetic Dimension . 207 Chapter 9 – The CPP and the Phenomenology of the Arts as a Basis for Practical Ethics . 211 1. Holistic Embodied Learning through the Alexander Technique and the Arts . 212 2. Ethics as Harmony and Improvisation in Responsive Equilibrium. 217 3. Human action rides a current... 221 Chapter 10 – Illustrations and Applications – Signalling Future Directions of Research . 222 1. Traditional Western Medicine and Alternate Healthcare Practices . 222 2. Drugs and Psychosurgery . 224 3. Women’s Perspectives in Bioethics . 227 4. Cross-cultural Understanding . 229 5. Transplantation and Organ Donation . 230 Bibliography . 232 v Abstract In this thesis I address the ethics of corporeal being at a foundational level. Rather than starting the discussion of ethics at an abstract level founded in propositions and logical sensori- arguments about principles, I offer an holistic view of human engagement that recognises motor processes and our embodied engagements with the world as foundational to and integral with cognition and higher functions and social skills. I propose that the capacity of human beings to act in an ethically responsible way is built into our biological, psychosocial natures, and that ethical interaction is informed and enhanced by intentionally cultivating a particular psychophysical process. The Core Psychophysical Process (the CPP) that I have identified naturally underlies our interactions in the world as vertebrate creatures, grounds our primary and ongoing developmental and learning processes, and is integral with the process of developing neuro-musculo- our ethical ‘second nature.’ The CPP is expressed at a fundamental level in a reflexive experiential skeletal expansive and contractive process that is integral with an sequence of perception, reaction, and reflection leading to choice of action. which There is a constant ebb and flow of contraction and expansion throughout the body resonates with, in and through all of our experiences. It is integrated into processes of reasoning, interpretation, intentionality, emotion, valuing and habit, all of which, along with the abilities to inhibit, deliberate, and choose, are foundational to ethical action. Elements of the CPP are active at every level of corporeal being, from the fluent maintenance of equilibrium at neuronal level through to the dynamics of ethical deliberations and negotiations between people in society. In this thesis the Alexander s Technique and processes in the Arts provide exemplars wherein the foundational intrinsic aspects and expression of the CPP can be understood. In order to fully explore the impact of the CPP in human experience, I examine both theoretical and practical experimental experience with the CPP in relation to: historical and and contemporary readings from different cultures in bioethics, ethics, philosophy, feminist philosophy, the philosophy of mind; empirical investigations in cognitive - science, physiology, and neuroscience; and Susan Hurley’s Shared Circuits Model. This is a phenomenological study, from a feminist and arts based perspective. Arts Phenomenology starts with the question: ‘What is the experience of being with, acting with, with the intention to?’ That perspective leaves behind subject/object, mind/body interaction g dualities to understand human experience as extended and grounded in the embodied dentity s multi- - s of social bein . I offer alternate conceptions of embodiment, and explore Bodily ‘I’ that reflect sensory meaning making grounded in experience. 1 Introduction , a logic In this thesis I ddress the ethics of corporeal being at a foundational level. Rather than starting the discussion of ethics at an abstract level founded in propositions and al sensory- arguments about principles, I offer an holistic view of human engagement that recognises motor processes and our embodied engagements with the world as foundational to and integral with cognition and higher functions and social skills. I propose that the capacity of human beings to act in an ethically responsible way is built into our biological, psychosocial natures, and that ethical interaction is informed and enhanced by intentionally cultivating a particular psychophysical process. That process naturally underlies our interactions in the world as vertebrate creatures, grounds our ’. primary and ongoing developmental and learning processes, and is integral with the process of developing our ethical ‘second nature neuro-musculo- rocess I call this process the Core Psychophysical Process or the CPP. The CPP is grounded in a creatures ‘startl eflex’ skeletal reflexive movement p fundamental to all vertebrate experiential known as e r . That movement process is integral with an sequence of perception, reaction, and reflection leading to choice of action. - In a threatening situation, the startle reflexive response is activated by the perception of danger which then triggers the reaction associated with fear an inward contraction and immobility. Overt action ceases thereby creating an opportunity for a creature to take in - information on many levels and to consider its next most appropriate action. Whatever action subsequently occurs is energized by expansive movement through the musculo skeletal system that corresponds with brain activity and electrical and chemical processes throughout the body. - of The reflex element of the CPP is more than a survival oriented physiological response, in -spine- that there is a constant ebb and flow contraction and expansion that happens through the head pelvis structure, and which is integrated with movement throughout the body. Contraction reflects a gathering
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Emotions and Incommensurable Moral Concepts
    Emotions and Incommensurable Moral Concepts JEREMY RANDEL KOONS Many authors have argued that emotions serve an epistemic role in our moral practice.1 Indeed, it seems likely that emotions do play such a role. But at least one author (John McDowell) has taken the epistemic connection to be so strong as to make creatures who do not share our affective nature unable to grasp our moral concepts. Further, this incommensurability, or inability to understand certain moral concepts, might lead to relativism: you might think that if I cannot follow your moral concepts, then those concepts are not binding on me, and it might even be the case that moral claims that are true for you are not true for me. I would like to discuss the alleged incommensurability introduced into morality by emotion’s epistemic role, and its feared consequences. I conclude that although emotion might play an epistemic role in our moral prac- tice, this role does not lead to the incommensurability feared. In any case, such incommensurability would not entail moral relativism. Thus, if the argument of this paper is right, the epistemic role our emotions play in moral discourse does not relativize morality. McDowell and Concept Application The problem to be discussed has been suggested by John McDowell (although he doesn’t take it to be a problem). McDowell argues that one who didn’t share our characteristic concerns and affective nature couldn’t follow the contours of our moral concepts. We can’t ‘disentangle’ our evaluative concepts and our affective responses; they are bound up with each other so intimately that competent application of the former requires possession of the latter.
    [Show full text]
  • Davidson's Transcendental Externalism
    DAVIDSON’S TRANSCENDENTAL EXTERNALISM THIS IS A PRE-PRINT VERSION OF THE PAPER. THE FINAL VERSION IS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1933-1592.2006.tb00619.x Jason Bridges University of Chicago Abstract. One of the chief aims of Donald Davidson’s later work was to show that participation in a certain causal nexus involving two creatures and a shared environment—Davidson calls this nexus “triangulation”—is a metaphysically necessary condition for the acquisition of thought. This doctrine, I suggest, is aptly regarded as a form of what I call transcendental externalism. I extract two arguments for the transcendental-externalist doctrine from Davidson’s writings, and argue that neither succeeds. A central interpretive claim is that the arguments are primarily funded by a particular conception of the nature of non-human animal life. This conception turns out to be insupportable. The failure of Davidson’s arguments presses the question of whether we could ever hope to arrive at far-reaching claims about the conditions for thought if we deny, as does Davidson, the legitimacy of the naturalistic project in the philosophy of mind. Donald Davidson’s work in the years following the publication of his celebrated collections, Essays on Actions and Events and Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation, was largely devoted to two projects, one epistemological and one metaphysical. The epistemological project was to articulate and defend an account of human knowledge that opposes “empiricism” (“the view that the subjective is the foundation of objective empirical knowledge”)1 and in so doing undermines traditional arguments for skepticism that, by Davidson’s lights, assume empiricism.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    CURRICULUM VITAE Name: Philip Noel Pettit Address: 308 Marx Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1012, USA Email address: [email protected] Website: http://www.princeton.edu/~ppettit Citizenship Dual: Ireland (from birth 1945); Australia (naturalized 1988); permanent resident, USA (2005). Education and qualifications 1950-58 Primary education: National School, Ballygar, Co Galway, Ireland. 1958-63 Secondary education: St Joseph’s College, Garbally Park, Ballinasloe. 1963-67 Undergraduate and graduate at Maynooth College, Maynooth BA in Philosophy, First Class Honours, Autumn 1966 (National University of Ireland) LPh (by thesis) Summer 1967(Pontifical College, Maynooth). MA (by thesis), First Class honours, Autumn 1967 (National University). 1967-70 PhD student in Philosophy (part-time), Queen's University, Belfast. PhD conferred1970. 1972 MA (ex officio) Cambridge University, Autumn 2002 Appointments 1967-68 Lecturing Assistant at Queen's University, Belfast. 1968-72 Assistant Lecturer at University College, Dublin. 1972-75 Research Fellow, Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 1975-77 College Lecturer, University College, Dublin. 1977-83 Professor of Philosophy, University of Bradford. Chair, School of Interdisciplinary Human Studies. 1983-02 Professorial Fellow in Social and Political Theory, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra. Professor of Social and Political Theory, 1989, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University Canberra (Special appointment) Joint appointment within Social and Political
    [Show full text]
  • Thick Evaluation
    Thick Evaluation Thick Evaluation Simon Kirchin 1 OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 3/10/2017, SPi 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP, United Kingdom Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries © Simon Kirchin 2017 The moral rights of the author have been asserted First Edition published in 2017 Impression: 1 Some rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, for commercial purposes, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. This is an open access publication, available online and distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution –Non Commercial –No Derivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), a copy of which is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of this licence should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Control Number: 2017942551 ISBN 978–0–19–880343–0 Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and for information only.
    [Show full text]
  • GPI & IEG Newsletter
    09/09/2008 GPI & IEG Newsletter Volume 3, Issue 2 University of Hertfordshire research Group in Philosophy of Information University of Oxford Information Ethics research Group From the coordinator Dear Readers, here is the last Newsletter for the academic year 2007-8. It is a great pleasure to be able to say that it has been a very eventful and fruitful year. The two groups are growing and flourishing and in the following pages you will find detailed information about our Special Interest members’ publications, talks, projects and achievements. Articles: Several of our members have now become Senior Associates, of the IEG, holding postdoctoral and professorial positions in a variety of • Appointments 4 universities: Patrick Allo , Hilmi Demir , Mark Jago , Giuseppe • News 5 Primiero , Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh , Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson , Miguel Sicart and Sonja Smets . • Projects 7 I am also delighted to introduce a new Senior Research Associate of the IEG, Antonino Vaccaro , who is, together with Mariarosaria Individual Taddeo , the recipient of this year INSEIT Fellowship. They will Highlights: collaborate with the IEG in order to develop their investigations on topics related to computer ethics. Dr Vaccaro’s profile can be found Recent on the web pages of the IEG . publications 2 A special thank goes to Matteo Turilli for having re-styled and Forthcoming 4 upgraded the IEG website. Joanna Gillies has replaced Valeria Edited Books 5 Giardino as the person responsible for drafting the Newsletter and I Edited Volumes 6 am very grateful to both. Conferences and There are further news but they would be on a more personal note, so I shall leave them for the following pages.
    [Show full text]
  • Unger's Philosophy: a Critical Legal Study
    The Yale Law Journal Volume 97, Number 5, April 1988 Article Unger's Philosophy: A Critical Legal Study William Ewald t Of all the scholars associated with the CriticalLegal Studies movement, none has garnered greater attention or higher praise than Roberto Unger of Harvard Law School. In this Article, William Ewald argues that Professor Unger's reputation as a brilliantphilosopher of law is undeserved. Despite the seeming erudition of his books, Professor Unger's work displays little fa- miliarity with the basic philosophical literature, and the philosophical, legal, and political analysis in those works-in particular,the celebrated critique of liberalism in Knowledge and Politics-is so riddled with logical and histori- cal errors as to be unworthy of serious scholarly attention. t Junior Research Fellow, The Queen's College, Oxford. I should like to thank Robert Alexy, Delf Buchwald, Robert Clark, Jonathan Cohen, Ralf Dreier, Ronald Dworkin, Charles Fried, Geof- frey Hazard, Susan Hurley, Geoffrey Marshall, Brian McGuinness, Derek Parfit, Guinther Patzig, Hilary Putnam, W.V. Quine, Eric Rakowski, John Rawls, Joseph Raz, Paul Seabright, Thomasz Studnicki, and Robert Summers for their encouragement and suggestions. Much of the writing was done at the University of G6ttingen under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung; I am grateful to both institutions for their generous support. The Yale Law Journal [Vol. 97: 665 I. INTRODUCTION In his first book, Professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger of Harvard Law School announced that he had discovered "the context of ideas and sentiments within which philosophy and politics must now be practiced."' Since that time, he has become a prominent thinker in Critical Legal Studies (CLS), a movement that, in his own words, "has undermined the central ideas of modern legal thought and put another conception of law in their place." 2 If anyone in CLS can claim to have undermined the central ideas of modern legal thought, that person is Professor Unger.
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE November 2019 Ruth Garrett Millikan Education
    CURRICULUM VITAE November 2019 Ruth Garrett Millikan Education A.B. Oberlin College, 1955 Ph.D. Yale University, 1969 Teaching 2007 September to December, Belle Van Zuylen Chair in the Humanities, Utrecht University, Netherlands 2004-2007 Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, teaching spring terms only 2001- Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor, University of Connecticut 2000 -2003 The Alumni Association's Distinguished Professor for 2000-2003 1998 Research Professsor, University of Stockholm, January through June 1996-2004 Full Professor, University of Connecticut, tenured full time. 1993-1996 Full Professor, University of Michigan, tenured 1/2 time. 1988-1991 Full Professor, University of Connecticut, not tenure track, 1/2 time. 1992-1996 Full Professor, University of Connecticut, not tenure track, 1/2 time. 1983-1988 Associate Professor, University of Connecticut, not tenure track, 1/2 time. 1977-1983 Adjunct Lecturer in Philosophy and Women's Studies, University of Connecticut 1971-1972 Assistant Professor, University of Western Michigan, tenure track, 2/3 time. 1969-1971 Assistant Professor, Berea College, tenure track, 1/2 time. 1962-1964 Instructor, University of Connecticut, tenure track, full time 1961-1962 Teaching Assistant, Yale University Areas of Specialty Philosophy of Mind and of Psychology Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics Philosophy of Biology Ontology Natural Epistemology Publications Books: 1 Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories, Bradford Books/MIT Press, 1984. Reprinted: Portions of Chapters 1 and 2, in David J. Buller ed. Function, Selection and Design, SUNY press, 1999, pp. 85-95. Reprinted: The Introduction (under the misleading title "Biosemantics"), in Andrea Nye, ed., Philosophy of Language; The Big Questions, Blackwells, 1998, 93-102.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association
    September 2008 Volume 82, Issue 1 Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association apa THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION Eastern Division Program University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716 www.apaonline.org The American Philosophical Association Eastern Division One Hundred Fifth Annual Meeting Philadelphia Marriott Downtown Philadelphia, PA December 27 - 30, 2008 Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association (ISSN 0065-972X) is published five times each year and is distributed to members of the APA as a benefit of membership and to libraries, departments, and institutions for $75 per year. It is published by The American Philosophical Association, 31 Amstel Ave., University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. Second-Class Postage Paid at Newark, DE and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Proceedings and Addresses, The American Philosophical Association, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716. Editor: David E. Schrader Phone: (302) 831-1112 Publications Coordinator: Erin Shepherd Fax: (302) 831-8690 Associate Editor: Richard Bett Web: www.apaonline.org Meeting Coordinator: Linda Smallbrook Proceedings and Addresses of The American Philosophical Association, the major publication of The American Philosophical Association, is published five times each academic year in the months of September, November, January, February, and May. Each annual volume contains the programs for the meetings of the three Divisions; the membership list; Presidential Addresses; news of the Association, its Divisions and Committees, and announcements of interest to philosophers. Other items of interest to the community of philosophers may be included by decision of the Editor or the APA Board of Officers.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    CURRICULUM VITAE Name: Philip Noel Pettit Address: 308 Marx Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544-1012, USA Email address: [email protected] Website: http://www.princeton.edu/~ppettit Citizenship Dual: Ireland (from birth 1945); Australia (naturalized 1988); permanent resident, USA (2005). Education and qualifications 1950-58 Primary education: National School, Ballygar. 1958-63 Secondary education: St Joseph’s College, Garbally Park, Ballinasloe. 1963-67 Undergraduate and graduate at Maynooth College, Maynooth BA in Philosophy, First Class Honours, Autumn 1966 (National University of Ireland) LPh (by thesis) Summer 1967(Pontifical College, Maynooth). MA (by thesis), First Class honours, Autumn 1967 (National University). 1967-70 PhD student in Philosophy (part-time), Queen's University, Belfast. PhD conferred1970. 1972 MA (ex officio) Cambridge University, Autumn 2002 Appointments 1967-68 Lecturing Assistant at Queen's University, Belfast. 1968-72 Assistant Lecturer at University College, Dublin. 1972-75 Research Fellow, Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 1975-77 College Lecturer, University College, Dublin. 1977-83 Professor of Philosophy, University of Bradford. Chair, School of Interdisciplinary Human Studies. 1983-02 Professorial Fellow in Social and Political Theory, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra. Professor of Social and Political Theory, 1989, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University Canberra (Special appointment) Joint appointment within Social and Political Theory and Philosophy Programs, 2000. Merit Award 1999-2004 1997-2001 Multi-year Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University, New York 2002- Laurance S.Rockefeller University Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values, Princeton University Affiliate Professor, Dept of Philosophy, Princeton University (W.N. Cromwell Professor of Politics, Princeton University 02-04) Awards and honours D.Litt.
    [Show full text]