Feeling and Form
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Empathy, Mirror Neurons and SYNC
Mind Soc (2016) 15:1–25 DOI 10.1007/s11299-014-0160-x Empathy, mirror neurons and SYNC Ryszard Praszkier Received: 5 March 2014 / Accepted: 25 November 2014 / Published online: 14 December 2014 Ó The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract This article explains how people synchronize their thoughts through empathetic relationships and points out the elementary neuronal mechanisms orchestrating this process. The many dimensions of empathy are discussed, as is the manner by which empathy affects health and disorders. A case study of teaching children empathy, with positive results, is presented. Mirror neurons, the recently discovered mechanism underlying empathy, are characterized, followed by a theory of brain-to-brain coupling. This neuro-tuning, seen as a kind of synchronization (SYNC) between brains and between individuals, takes various forms, including frequency aspects of language use and the understanding that develops regardless of the difference in spoken tongues. Going beyond individual- to-individual empathy and SYNC, the article explores the phenomenon of syn- chronization in groups and points out how synchronization increases group cooperation and performance. Keywords Empathy Á Mirror neurons Á Synchronization Á Social SYNC Á Embodied simulation Á Neuro-synchronization 1 Introduction We sometimes feel as if we just resonate with something or someone, and this feeling seems far beyond mere intellectual cognition. It happens in various situations, for example while watching a movie or connecting with people or groups. What is the mechanism of this ‘‘resonance’’? Let’s take the example of watching and feeling a film, as movies can affect us deeply, far more than we might realize at the time. -
Leonard Bernstein
chapter one Young American Bernstein at Harvard In 1982, at the age of sixty-four, Leonard Bernstein included in his col- lection of his writings, Findings, some essays from his younger days that prefi gured signifi cant elements of his later adult life and career. The fi rst, “Father’s Books,” written in 1935 when he was seventeen, is about his father and the Talmud. Throughout his life, Bernstein was ever mind- ful that he was a Jew; he composed music on Jewish themes and in later years referred to himself as a “rabbi,” a teacher with a penchant to pass on scholarly learning, wisdom, and lore to orchestral musicians.1 Moreover, Bernstein came to adopt an Old Testament prophetic voice for much of his music, including his fi rst symphony, Jeremiah, and his third, Kaddish. The second essay, “The Occult,” an assignment for a freshman composi- tion class at Harvard that he wrote in 1938 when he was twenty years old, was about meeting Dimitri Mitropoulos, who inspired him to take up conducting. The third, his senior thesis of April 1939, was a virtual man- ifesto calling for an organic, vernacular, rhythmically based, distinctly American music, a music that he later championed from the podium and realized in his compositions for the Broadway stage and operatic and concert halls.2 8 Copyrighted Material Seldes 1st pages.indd 8 9/15/2008 2:48:29 PM Young American / 9 EARLY YEARS: PROPHETIC VOICE Bernstein as an Old Testament prophet? Bernstein’s father, Sam, was born in 1892 in an ultraorthodox Jewish shtetl in Russia. -
A Century of Mathematics in America, Peter Duren Et Ai., (Eds.), Vol
Garrett Birkhoff has had a lifelong connection with Harvard mathematics. He was an infant when his father, the famous mathematician G. D. Birkhoff, joined the Harvard faculty. He has had a long academic career at Harvard: A.B. in 1932, Society of Fellows in 1933-1936, and a faculty appointmentfrom 1936 until his retirement in 1981. His research has ranged widely through alge bra, lattice theory, hydrodynamics, differential equations, scientific computing, and history of mathematics. Among his many publications are books on lattice theory and hydrodynamics, and the pioneering textbook A Survey of Modern Algebra, written jointly with S. Mac Lane. He has served as president ofSIAM and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Mathematics at Harvard, 1836-1944 GARRETT BIRKHOFF O. OUTLINE As my contribution to the history of mathematics in America, I decided to write a connected account of mathematical activity at Harvard from 1836 (Harvard's bicentennial) to the present day. During that time, many mathe maticians at Harvard have tried to respond constructively to the challenges and opportunities confronting them in a rapidly changing world. This essay reviews what might be called the indigenous period, lasting through World War II, during which most members of the Harvard mathe matical faculty had also studied there. Indeed, as will be explained in §§ 1-3 below, mathematical activity at Harvard was dominated by Benjamin Peirce and his students in the first half of this period. Then, from 1890 until around 1920, while our country was becoming a great power economically, basic mathematical research of high quality, mostly in traditional areas of analysis and theoretical celestial mechanics, was carried on by several faculty members. -
101 Empathy and Dyspathy with Androids: Philosophical
Konturen II (2009) 101 Empathy and Dyspathy with Androids: Philosophical, Fictional and (Neuro-)Psychological Perspectives Catrin Misselhorn University of Tübingen The fact that we develop feelings towards androids, i.e., objects with a humanlike appearance, has fascinated people since ancient times. However, as a short survey of the topic in history, science fiction literature and film shows, our emotional reactions towards them are ambivalent. On the one hand, we can develop feelings of empathy almost as we do with real human beings; on the other hand, we feel repulsion or dyspathy when those creatures show a very high degree of human likeness. Recently, Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori coined the term “uncanny valley” to refer to this effect. The aim of this essay is, first, to give an explanation as to why we feel empathy towards androids although we know that they do not have feelings themselves. This presupposes a perception-based concept of empathy which is going to be developed on the basis of some of Theodor Lipps’ ideas. The second question to be answered is why empathy with androids turns into dyspathy when they become very humanlike. As I will argue, this is due to a particular kind of interference between perception and the imagination when confronted with very humanlike objects. This makes androids quite special objects right at the divide between humans and non-humans. They are non-human, but we feel ill at ease when treating them as mere objects. 1. Emotional responses towards androids The human capacity to feel emotions towards inanimate objects that are humanlike – emotions which we normally only feel towards real humans—has fascinated people since ancient times. -
Vernon Lee's Psychological Aesthetics Carolyn Burdett Revi
‘The subjective inside us can turn into the objective outside’: Vernon Lee’s Psychological Aesthetics Carolyn Burdett Reviewing Vernon Lee’s Beauty and Ugliness, which appeared in 1912, the New York Times concluded that it ‘is simply a “terrible” book: Long, involved sentences, long scientific terms, queerly inverted thoughts, French words and Latin and German, all hammer at one’s cerebral properties with unquenchable vehemence’. The review, entitled ‘What is Beauty?’, quotes for illustration of its assessment a paragraph, taken ‘almost at random from the middle of the work’.1 It makes the point well enough: its technical, reference-laden sentences are bafflingly opaque to a reader unfamiliar with the largely German-authored debate about aesthetics with which Lee is engaging. Wittingly or not, however, the New York Times’s disgruntled reviewer has selected a key passage. It takes us to the heart of the debate about psychology and about aesthetics, and about the relationship between the two, which was taking place at the end of the nineteenth century. At its simplest, Lee’s objectionable paragraph concerns the question of whether aesthetic responsiveness is primarily bodily or mental, and what it means to try to make a distinction between the two. By the time she compiled Beauty and Ugliness, a collection which included work dating back to the 1890s, Lee was making use of a newly translated word, ‘empathy’. For Lee, empathy was the mechanism which explained aesthetic experience and thus a good deal about emotion as such. She saw it as -
¾Sthetik/Ästhetisch
308 ¾sthetik/ästhetisch ¾sthetik/ästhetisch Einleitung: Zur Aktualität des ¾sthetischen (engl. aesthetics, aesthetic, aesthetical; frz. esthØtique; ital. estetica, estetico; span. estØtica, Der Begriff ¾sthetik¬, im zweiten Drittel des estØtico; russ. 1stetika, 1stetiheskoe) 18. Jh. von Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten ge- prägt, um die als niedere Erkenntnisvermögen dis- Einleitung: Zur Aktualität des ¾sthetischen; kriminierten Sinne philosophisch zu legitimieren, 1. Wandel der ¾sthetik; 2. Selbstreflexion der ¾sthetik; hat in Deutschland Karriere gemacht. Bevor er a) Erfahrung contra Wahrnehmung; b) Ethik und ¾sthe- sich auch auûerhalb seines Ursprungslandes durch- tik; 3. ¾sthetisierung; I. Der europäische Kontext setzen konnte, hat es fast anderthalb Jahrhunderte einer deutschen Gründung; II. Die Institutiona- lisierung der ¾sthetik; 1. Der Weg zu Baumgartens gebraucht. Nach weiteren hundert Jahren ist nun Aesthetica¬; 2. ¾sthetik als Lebenskunst: Der felix der Begriff ¾sthetik weltweit ebenso allgemein aestheticus bei Baumgarten; 3. ¾sthetik¬ und die Theo- wie von seinem ursprünglichen Bedeutungsum- rien der schönen Wissenschaften und Künste¬; 4. ¾stheti- fang entfernt. Daran muûte erinnert werden. sche Pathologie; 5. Der Streit um die neue Wissenschaft; »Pourquois appeler esthØtique un jugement de goßt? III. Kant: Transzendentale ¾sthetik und Kritik des Geschmacks; IV.¾sthetik als Philosophie der schö- [¼] Le jugement de goßt n'est pas un jugement de nen Kunst; 1. Die romantische Kritik der ¾sthetik; connaissance, il n'est pas logique¬ mais subjectif et 2. Hegels ¾sthetikbegriff; V.Der europäische Be- donc esthØtique: rapport à l'affect (aisthesis).«1 Man griffstransfer; 1. Frankreich; a) EsthØtique ± cette hat von einer »aesthetic world-view« gesprochen science d'importation¬. Von der thØorie des sensations¬ zur science du beau¬ und philosophie des beaux-arts¬; und ¾sthetik sogar eine »guiding science in a gene- b) Zwischen Künstlerästhetik und wissenschaftlicher ral epistemology of the modern age« genannt, die ¾sthetik; 2. -
Organic Dreams of Electric Sheep: Image, Empathy and Pulse
Organic dreams of Electric Sheep: Image, Empathy and Pulse (After Philip K Dick) Concept Note Exhibiting the works of Baiju Parthan, Pooja Iranna, Mithu Sen and Gigi Scaria, the exhibit, ‘Organic dreams of electric sheep: Image, Empathy and Pulse: After Philip K Dick’, seeks to weave together an accumulation of questions that are indicated by the transference of images across the forms of photography and video; the implications of such transference on the image or images that make this journey, the subtle and perhaps meta changes that this journey results in for the language of images, as well as the role of the image in language formation and the ethical impulses of images so traveled that distance and reiteration begets the question of our relation to images as ‘electric sheep’, i.e. as fabrications with conditionality. The exhibits asks in effect; if we are implicated in the predominance of the image in our language, and thus also in the consequent separation, fabrication, presentation and animation of images, then what ethical considerations arise when distance mitigates the relations between image as experiential and image as construct and lastly what is the agency of the artistic within the formation of ‘electric sheep’? Empathy and Image The philosophic and aesthetic discussions of empathy dating from the translation of the term “Einfuhlung” from its German to its English, “empathy” by Edward Titchener in 1909, positioned empathy as an ability to feel into things; notably in aesthetics, into inanimate images. A central figure is Theodor Lipps (1851- 1914), who was responsible for placing empathy as the central ability through which we can examine our aesthetic responses. -
Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism By
Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism by Nicholas Walter Baer A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Media and the Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Anton Kaes, Chair Professor Martin Jay Professor Linda Williams Fall 2015 Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism © 2015 by Nicholas Walter Baer Abstract Absolute Relativity: Weimar Cinema and the Crisis of Historicism by Nicholas Walter Baer Doctor of Philosophy in Film and Media Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory University of California, Berkeley Professor Anton Kaes, Chair This dissertation intervenes in the extensive literature within Cinema and Media Studies on the relationship between film and history. Challenging apparatus theory of the 1970s, which had presumed a basic uniformity and historical continuity in cinematic style and spectatorship, the ‘historical turn’ of recent decades has prompted greater attention to transformations in technology and modes of sensory perception and experience. In my view, while film scholarship has subsequently emphasized the historicity of moving images, from their conditions of production to their contexts of reception, it has all too often left the very concept of history underexamined and insufficiently historicized. In my project, I propose a more reflexive model of historiography—one that acknowledges shifts in conceptions of time and history—as well as an approach to studying film in conjunction with historical-philosophical concerns. My project stages this intervention through a close examination of the ‘crisis of historicism,’ which was widely diagnosed by German-speaking intellectuals in the interwar period. -
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A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick Permanent WRAP URL: http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/136077 Copyright and reuse: This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. For more information, please contact the WRAP Team at: [email protected] warwick.ac.uk/lib-publications The Myth o f Psychical Distance in Aesthetic Experience Jacqueline H.M. Bazin Submitted for the Degree of Ph.D. University of Warwick Department of Philosophy October 1997 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements 1 Summary 2 PART ONE The Concept of ‘Distance’ in Aesthetic Experience Chapter I Introduction to the Concept of ‘Aesthetic Experience’ 3 Chapter II An Account of Psychical Distance in Aesthetic Experience 9 Introduction 9 Edward BULLOUGH’s theory of ‘Psychical Distance’ 10 Conclusion 35 PART TWO An Investigation into Modes of Aesthetic Experience Chapter III The Aesthetic Experience of Natural Beauty 40 Chapter IV A Comparative Analysis of Craftsmanship and Art 58 Chapter V Genius in Creative Art 71 PART THREE Art and Symbolic Expression Chapter VI 80 1. The Concept of ‘Expression’ in Art 80 2. LANGER’s Theory of Symbolic Art 94 Introduction 94 Symbolic Agency in Art 101 Implementation of Symbolic Agency in Art 108 Representational Symbolism in Literature 117 A View of ‘Psychical Distance’ in Aesthetic Experience -
19Chronology of Works in Aesthetics and Philosophy Of
Chronology of 19 Works in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art Darren Hudson Hick Notes on Selection This chronology, as with this Companion as a whole, focuses on those works that contribute to the Western tradition of aesthetics, and, beginning in the twentieth century, in the analytic current of thought within that tradition (as opposed to the Continental one). As with the history of Western philosophy in general, the study of philosophical problems in art and beauty dates back to the ancient period, and is infl uenced by the major philosophical and cultural move- ments through the centuries. Much of what survives from the ancient to the post-Hellenistic period does so in fragments or references. In cases where only fragments or references exist, and where dating these is especially problematic, the author or attributed author and (where available) his dates of birth and death are listed. Where works have not survived even as fragments, these are not listed. As well, much of what sur- vives up to the medieval period is diffi cult to date, and is at times of disputable attribution. In these cases, whatever information is available is listed. Aesthetics in the period between the ancients and the medievals tends to be dominated by adherence to Platonic, Aristotelian, and other theories rooted in the ancient period, and as such tends to be generally lacking in substantive the- oretical advancements. And while still heavily infl uenced by ancient thinking, works from the medieval period tend also to be heavily infl uenced by religious thinking, and so many issues pertaining to art and aesthetics are intertwined with issues of religion as “theological aesthetics.” Movements in art theory and aes- thetics in the Renaissance, meanwhile, were largely advanced by working artists, and so tend to be couched in observational or pedagogical approaches, rather than strictly theoretical ones. -
Tillandsia Cyanea This Photo Was Taken by and Submitted by Bev Smith
CALOOSAHATCHEE BROMELIAD SOCIETY’s CALOOSAHATCHEE MERISTEM 3836 Hidden Acres Circle North Fort Myers Fl 33903 (239) 997-2237 [email protected] May 2006 Tillandsia cyanea This photo was taken by and submitted by Bev Smith. It demonstrates the inflorescence and flower of Tillandsia cyanea. Don’t miss the article “Tillandsia cyanea and Her Big Sister - Tillandsia lindenii”. CALOOSAHATCHEE BROMELIAD SOCIETY OFFICERS PRESIDENT Dianne Molnar ([email protected]) VICE-PRESIDENT Larry Giroux- ([email protected]) SECRETARY Tom Foley([email protected]); TREASURER Betty Ann Prevatt ([email protected]) PAST-PRESIDENT Steve Hoppin ([email protected]) STANDING COMMITTEES CHAIRPERSONS NEWSLETTER EDITOR Larry Giroux-([email protected]) FALL SHOW CHAIR No Show in 2006 FALL SALES CHAIR Brian Weber ([email protected]) FALL SALES Co-CHAIR David Prall ([email protected]) PROGRAM CHAIRPERSONS Debbie Booker/Tom Foley ([email protected] WORKSHOP CHAIRPERSON Eleanor Kinzie SPECIAL PROJECTS Deb Booker/Tom Foley FLORIDA COUNCIL CHAIRMAN Vicky Chirnside- ([email protected]) FCBS REPRESENTATIVES Debbie Booker & Tom Foley ALTERNATE FCBS Rep. Dale Kammerlohr ([email protected]) AUDIO/VISUAL SETUP Tom Foley- ([email protected]); BobLura - DOOR PRIZE Barbara Johnson -([email protected]) HOSPITALITY Mary McKenzie , ([email protected]); Martha Wolfe SPECIAL HOSPITALITY Betsy Burdette ([email protected]) RAFFLE TICKETS Greeter/Membership table volunteers - Luli Westra, Dolly Dalton, Eleanor Kinzie, etc. RAFFLE COMMENTARY Larry Giroux GREETERS/ATTENDENCE Betty Ann Prevatt, Dolly Dalton([email protected]), Luli Westra SHOW & TELL Dale Kammerlohr FM-LEE GARDEN COUNCIL Mary McKenzie LIBRARIAN Sue Gordon- ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN Kay Janssen The opinions expressed in the Meristem are those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor or the official policy of CBS. -
Empathy and Emotions
Empathy and Emotions On the Notion of Empathy as Emotional Sharing Errata p. 17, line 24 Change “he” to “she” p. 50, line 22 Insert “as” between “has” and “a” p. 50, line 25 Insert “as” between “has” and “a” p. 73, line 28 Change “asumptions” to “assumptions” p. 112, line 20 Insert “of” after “kind” p. 136, line 4 Change “(3)” to “(iii)” p. 139, line 33 Change “Davis 1996” to “Davis 1994” p. 140, line 3 Change “Davis 1996” to “Davis 1994” p. 154 Insert reference: Verducci, S. (2000) “A Conceptual History of Empathy and a Question it Raises for Moral Education”. In Educational Theory 50: pp. 63-80. p. 154 Insert reference: Wilson, M. D. (1996) “Spinoza’s Theory of Knowledge”. In The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza (1996). Pp. 89-141. Umeå Studies in Philosophy 7 Empathy and Emotions On the Notion of Empathy as Emotional Sharing Peter Nilsson Umeå 2003 © Peter Nilsson Series editors: Gunnar Andersson, Ingvar Johansson and Sten Lindström Department of Philosophy and Linguistics Umeå University SE-901 87 Umeå ISSN 1650-1748 ISBN 91-7305-428-3 Printed in Sweden by Print & Media, Umeå University, 2003:303057 Distributor: Department of Philosophy and Linguistics, Umeå University, SE-901 87 Umeå, Sweden. ABSTRACT The topic of this study is a notion of empathy that is common in philosophy and in the behavioral sciences. It is here referred to as ‘the notion of empathy as emotional sharing’, and it is characterized in terms of three ideas. If a person, S, has empathy with respect to an emotion of another person, O, then (i) S experiences an emotion that is similar to an emotion that O is currently having, (ii) S’s emotion is caused, in a particular way, by the state of O or by S’s entertaining an idea of the state or situation of O, and (iii) S experiences this emotion in a way that does not entail that S is in the corresponding emotional state.