Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Material World (material + world)
Selected AbstractsExperiencing the Production of SoundsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2001Matthew Nudds It is often supposed that our experience of sounds is as of things distinct from the material world of sight and touch: reflecting on the character of our auditory experience might seem to confirm that. This paper describes the features of our auditory experience that can lead one to think of sounds in this way. It then describes a way we can experience sounds as being part of the material world. Since this is a kind of experience that essentially involves more than one sense, the paper ends by drawing some conclusions about how we should think about the senses. [source] A much needed macro level view: A commentary on Henriques' "Psychology Defined"JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 12 2004Paul Gilbert To develop greater coherence, psychology must develop its macro and integrative approaches to the mind. In this illuminating paper, Henriques (this issue) outlines the kind of thinking that is needed. He skillfully illuminates the levels of emergence of mind from the material world and argues that the recursive self-regulative abilities of self-awareness set us apart from other animals. The interaction between an evolved mind, adapted to pursue strategic goals, while also being phenotypically shaped by both environment and our recently evolved cognitive competencies, is a core focus of psychology. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol. [source] Putting Concepts to Work: Some Thoughts for the Twentyfirst CenturyMIND & LANGUAGE, Issue 1 2004Jesse Prinz It allows for an inactive agent or pure reflector, and for agents whose actions in various ways seem to float free of their own conceptual repertoires. We show that naturally evolved creatures are not like that. In the real world, thinking is always and everywhere about doing. The point of having a brain is to guide the actions of embodied beings in a complex material world. Some of those actions are, to be sure, more recondite than others. But in every case the contents of thoughts still look to depend, in some non-unique but vitally important way, on the kinds of doings they support. [source] The Gilded Age and Working-Class Industrial CommunitiesAMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 4 2006PAUL A. SHACKEL In the United States, industrial management techniques shifted from strong paternalistic controls to absentee forms of ownership in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tracing the change of industrial management techniques in a mill community that survived through the Gilded Age shows the impact of industrialization on consumerism and health in working-class households. Initial examination of the archaeological record shows that the domestic material world of workers' households became similar to each other while consumer goods increased significantly. We suggest that with the transition of management techniques from minimal paternalism to absenteeism, a trend developed toward homogenization of some everyday material culture. However, living in a marginal geography promoted a countertrend among workers and their families, and alternatives to market-oriented consumption allowed for "insurgent" forms of citizenship. Understanding the historical consequences of industry for workers and their families is relevant for understanding the situation of marginalized labor today. [source] The Enchantment of Stanley SpencerNEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1034 2010Keith Tester Abstract In the early 1930s the artist Stanley Spencer committed himself to working on the never-achieved Church-House project. It was intended to reflect his understanding of God and religion as love, and, furthermore, of the sacred being fully integrated in secular times and places. The first painting he finished for the project was,Villagers and Saints,(1933), now in the collection of the University of Hull. This paper uses,Villagers and Saints,as a way into a reading of Spencer's work, drawing on insights from Charles Taylor's,A Secular Age,to explore how Spencer sacramentalises the material world. The first part of the paper contextualises,Villagers and Saints, and the second part identifies its vision with what appears to have been a conversion experience, discussed by Spencer in his public writing. [source] Mind, World and Language: McDowell and KovesiRATIO, Issue 3 2002Brian Morrison The ideas of John McDowell concerning the relations between mind, world and language are brought into contact with those of Julius Kovesi, with a view to seeing whether the latter can illuminate and flesh out the former. McDowell's dialectic in Mind and World is expounded and reviewed, hinging on the notion of ,conceptual second nature' as his suggested way of showing that there is nothing mysteriously non,natural in human animals learning to find their way about both in a world characterised by lawlike connections and in one characterised by rational connections. Kovesi's redrawing, in Moral Notions, of the Aristotelian material/formal metaphysical distinction as one between the logical elements of concepts, is adduced to show how the world is ,shot through' with concepts and reasons: the formal elements of concepts are nothing other than the reasons we have for collecting varied features of the material world under a concept, to meet our bodily and social needs. The mind can then be treated as a set of acquired capacities and dispositions to become conversant with these features and with the corresponding needs. Some possible objections to this bringing together of the two sets of ideas are briefly examined, and overall conclusions drawn. [source] Material civilization: things and societyTHE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2006Tim Dant Abstract This paper argues that although classical sociology has largely overlooked the importance of social relations with the material world in shaping the form of society, Braudel's concept of ,material civilization' is a useful way to begin to understand the sociological significance of this relationship. The limitations of Braudel's historical and general concept can be partially overcome with Elias's analysis of the connection between ,technization' and ,civilization' that allows for both a civilizing and a de-civilizing impact of emergent forms of material relation that both lengthen and shorten the chains of interdependence between the members of a society. It is suggested that the concept of the ,morality of things' employed by a number of commentators is useful in summarizing the civilizing effects of material objects and addressing their sociological significance. From the sociology of consumption the idea of materiality as a sign of social relationships can be drawn, and from the sociology of technology the idea of socio-technical systems and actor-networks can contribute to the understanding of material civilization. It is argued that the concept of ,material capital' can usefully summarize the variable social value of objects but to understand the complexity of material civilization as it unfolds in everyday life, an analysis of ,material interaction' is needed. Finally the paper suggests some initial themes and issues apparent in contemporary society that the sociological study of material civilization might address; the increased volume, functional complexity and material specificity of objects and the increased social complexity, autonomy and substitutability that is entailed. A theory of ,material civilization' is the first step in establishing a sociology of objects. [source] Photoswitches: From Molecules to MaterialsADVANCED MATERIALS, Issue 31 2010Maria-Melanie Russew Abstract Small organic molecules, capable of undergoing efficient and reversible photochemical reactions to switch them between (at least) two (meta)stable isomers associated with markedly different properties, continue to impact the materials world. Such photoswitches are being implemented in a variety of materials for applications ranging from optical devices to "smart" polymers. All approaches exploit the photoswitching molecular entities as gates, which translate an incoming light stimulus to trigger macroscopic property changes of the materials. In this progress report, the most promising recent examples in this field are highlighted and put in perspective. Moving from supramolecular systems in solution to surfaces and finally to bulk materials, important design concepts are discussed, emphasizing both the challenges as well as the great promise of such truly advanced materials. [source] | ||||||||||