Recent calls for a return to aesthetics occur precisely at a moment when it is increasingly evident that nothing concerning aesthetics is self-evident anymore. Determined to recover the value of aesthetic experience for artistic, cultural, and social analysis, the contributors to this volume--prominent scholars in literature, philosophy, art history, architecture, history, and anthropology--begin from a shared recognition that ideological readings of the aesthetic have provided invaluable insights, in particular, that analyses of aesthetics within historical and social contexts tell us a great deal about the experience of aesthetic encounters. From multiple and complementary perspectives, the contributors address topics as varied as Nabokov and Dickens, Caravaggio and Shelley Winters, gender and sexuality, advertising and AIDS. Taken together, their essays constitute a sustained and multifarious effort to resituate aesthetic pleasure in the mixed, impure conditions characteristic of every social practice and experience, however privileged or marginalized, and to ask what happens to the aesthetic if we consider it apart from--or at least in tension with--its historically dominant discursive formulations. As such, this volume establishes a renewed sense of aesthetic discourse and its usefulness as a tool for understanding culture.
Patricia Rae's study, while accepting Rorty's view that there is philosophical solidarity between pragmatism and modernism, rejects his interpretation of both as forms of dogmatic skepticism. If pragmatism and modernism coincide, Rae argues, the case of these three writers suggests that the intersection lies not in a rejection of "truthfulness to experience" but in a cautious respect for it.
At the turn of the twentieth century, new technologies such as the phonograph, telephone, and radio changed how sound was transmitted and perceived. In Modernist Soundscapes, Angela Frattarola analyzes the influence of “the age of noise” on writers of the time, showing how modernist novelists used sound to bridge the distance between characters and to connect with the reader on a more intimate level. Frattarola tunes in to representations of voices, noise, and music in works by Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Jean Rhys, and Samuel Beckett. She argues that the common use of headphones, which piped sounds from afar into a listener’s headspace, inspired modernists to record the interior monologues of their characters in a stream-of-consciousness style. Woolf’s onomatopoeia stemmed from a desire to render the sounds of the world without mediation, similar to how some contemporaries hoped that recording technology would eliminate the need for musicians. Frattarola also explains how Beckett’s linguistic repetition mirrors the mechanical reproduction of the tape recorder. These writers challenged ocularcentrism, the traditional emphasis on vision in art and philosophy, and instead characterized the eye as distancing and analytical and the act of listening as immediate and unifying. Contending that the experimentation typically associated with modernist writing is partly due to this new attentiveness to sound, this book introduces a fresh perspective on texts that set the course of contemporary literature.
H.G. Callaway’s critical edition of William James's Essays in Radical Empiricism evaluates this classic work of American philosophy and the pragmatist tradition partly on the basis of the functional psychology of James's magnum opus, The Principles of Psychology. The edition also brings in later, Darwinian-functionalist, American psychology—which James did much to inspire—and contemporary developments in functional, cognitive psychology and neuroscience. James’s own text has been annotated throughout to render his references and theoretical concerns explicit and to briefly indicate points of criticism. The edition features an expanded bibliography that includes both historical and contemporary sources, as well as a new, comprehensive index. The chief arguments of the edition center on criticism of James's claims for "radical empiricism," his doctrine of "pure experience," and the doubtful role as evidence James attributed to stand-alone introspection and Jamesian “retrospection.” Enlisting results from the logic of relations, contemporary empiricism, historical and contemporary developments in cognitive psychology, and experimental neuroscience, Callaway argues for the importance of James on functional relations—to be interpreted in the manner of the scientific naturalism prominent in The Principles of Psychology. Too often, James’s late philosophical views have overshadowed the accomplishments of his earlier work in psychology. Overall, this new edition indicates the scientific virtues of functionalism in cognitive psychology and shows the relevance of James’s functional psychology to contemporary cognitive theory.
Communication and Information Technology has been used to support older and disabled people for over thirty years and there have been many successes in this field. Until recently, research has largely concentrated on people with physical or sensory dysfunction; computer technology has been increasingly used to support cognitive activities in able bodied people but its use to support people with disabilities has not had much widespread recognition. Yet well-designed C and IT systems have great potential to enhance the quality of life and independence of people with cognitive dysfunction, by: enabling them to retain a higher level of independence and control over their lives, providing appropriate levels of monitoring and supervision of 'at risk' people, without violating privacy, keeping people intellectually and physically active, and providing communications methods to reduce social isolation. This special issue of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation recognises the potential of information technology to provide support for people with cognitive dysfunction, including the use of computers to provide traditional prostheses, albeit within the cognitive domain. The selection of papers in this issue shows that the help and support available can be far more than the 'artificial replacement of part of the body' (the literal definition of prosthesis) and can include techniques to provide lifestyle support for people who would not be thought of as requiring 'prosthetic support'.
"Scientists other than quantum physicists often fail to comprehend the enormity of the conceptual change wrought by quantum theory in our basic conception of the nature of matter," writes Henry Stapp. Stapp is a leading quantum physicist who has given particularly careful thought to the implications of the theory that lies at the heart of modern physics. In this book, which contains several of his key papers as well as new material, he focuses on the problem of consciousness and explains how quantum mechanics allows causally effective conscious thought to be combined in a natural way with the physical brain made of neurons and atoms. The book is divided into four sections. The first consists of an extended introduction. Key foundational and somewhat more technical papers are included in the second part, together with a clear exposition of the "orthodox" interpretation of quantum mechanics. The third part addresses, in a non-technical fashion, the implications of the theory for some of the most profound questions that mankind has contemplated: How does the world come to be just what it is and not something else? How should humans view themselves in a quantum universe? What will be the impact on society of the revised scientific image of the nature of man? The final part contains a mathematical appendix for the specialist and a glossary of important terms and ideas for the interested layman. This new edition has been updated and extended to address recent debates about consciousness.
The Cone of Perception describes the algebra of orbifold circle folding into a cone with fixed parameters, i.e. an invariant. This is like a mathematical quest to discover a wealth of forms and equations. I began by deciding I was going to make a scientific discovery and by asking the simple question, "at what angle do we perceive two equal line segments in golden ratio with each other?" Diagramming out this scenario, I slowly realized that one could fold the lines of sight onto each other, and the resulting shape formed a cone. Then, I attempted to describe this action algebraically in a phenomenological manner. The difference between the circumferences of two circles equals an arc length of either circle, and this can be applied to the Pythagorean theorem, the realm of relativistic physics. I also illustrate where paradoxes arise in this train of thinking and in my later works, The Sphere of Realization and The Book of Eternity, ameliorate these paradoxes entirely. One can fold a circle into a cone. When a sector of a circle is collapsed (removed, we may, "fold up," the resulting shape into a cone. Over 500 pages of mathematical formulas and graphs at your fingertips. This is the research of several years piecing together potential visualizations of the perceptual cone phenomenon. Extensive, in depth description of perceptual forms included. However, with all these equations, finding a new solution is not difficult. Great for anyone who needs to come up with a mathematical thesis in algebra, geometry, topology, or philosophy. The Cone of Perception includes many graphs and solutions to the equations of perceiving a circle to be one size and then perceiving a circle of a different size. The Cone of Perception is a work that confronts the perceptually evident purely geometric truth. The quest to discover this wealth of mathematical forms and equations began by deciding I was going to make a scientific discovery and by asking the simple question, "at what angle do we perceive two equal line segments in golden ratio with each other?" Diagraming out this scenario, I slowly realized that one could fold the lines of sight onto each other, and the resulting shape formed a cone. Then, I attempted to describe this action algebraically. The difference in circumferences of two circles equals an arc length, and this can be applied to the Pythagorean theorem and the realm of relativistic physics. I discovered certain fundamental structures within the ideal Platonic forms in the Euclidean and Pythagorean sense that can be used to perform a phenomenological description of perception and our perceived reality which is more accurate to the true nature of the Universe than current physics and beliefs about our physical reality. One can fold a circle into a cone. When a sector of a circle is collapsed (removed), we may "fold up" the resulting shape into a cone. The book relates the system of a circle transforming through a cone to the perceptual theories of Gibson, Koffka, Husserl, and Sense Data theory. It also delves into the mathematics of perceiving a difference in circumferences and presents a computational solution to the velocity variable within the Lorentz transformation. This solution is found only when using the exact speed of light in scientific notation. The auspicious symbols of the umbrella and the conch in Buddhist philosophy are perhaps a hidden message, or a hint to the true nature of reality delivered down through the ages to those who might seek to perceive and inquire. However, the mathematical expression of the, "umbrellic transformation," is one rarely discussed in Buddhist circles that I have encountered if ever, and it is certainly not vocally embodied in the vibrant message promoted and propagated by the majority of the Buddhist community, though many Buddhists do have a respect for the sciences, and math is highly prized in the societies of India and Nepal. We are only beginning to understand what the meaning of the, "phenomenological velocity," solution truly is and how the curvatures that result from the solutions to the v-variable are effecting the perceived phenomena in our reality. The idea that we can solve for something that cancels out with itself, that we can prove it cancels out with itself, yet we can solve in a non-trivial way that there is a complex polynomial equation that fits as a solution is a bit mystifying, however it is real. We ask ourselves, "why do the galaxies spiral?" We ask ourselves, what is the phenomenon of, "dark matter," and we lack answers to these basic questions, but with the new dimension (or metric) that has emerged from within the structure of the circle's folding into a cone, and the new solution to the v-variable within Lorentz coefficient as presented within The Geometric Patterns of Perception (Emmerson, 2009), we have a way forward. Physicists have assumed that mass is a real phenomenon, and have based all their formulations upon this concept. However functional the postulate of mass's, "being," is, it is still an assumption on its face. Just because a theory works, does not mean it's technically correct. Does one actually perceive a mass? Or has one inferred that a concept of mass must exist as the basis of reality, and if so, "on what notion was this inference based?" The Geometric Pattern of Perception Theorems base their functionality of describing the motion of and perceived being of, "objects," in the world through pure algebra and geometry of the transformation of ideal shapes. Through perceiving and describing these transformations phenomenologically, we can extract a plentitude of equations describing transformation and motion, which act as articulation of perceived phenomena of transformation and motion and may suffice for explaining curvature of space time relating with gravity, including the curvature perceived as correlating with dark matter. People speak of Energy to describe the phenomenon of that which is neither created nor destroyed, but really, all that is needed to describe that phenomenon is contained within the phenomenological velocity," equation, also known as V-Curvature, since it's not really even necessary to consider it velocity. We have a wave equation within the fabric of perceived reality, the expressions of which were derived from the most basic, fundamental ideal forms, that never equals zero, meaning it most likely never began, and it certainly will never end (or it can't be created, and it can't be destroyed). From this (loose) definition of Energy, we now have a theoretical "mass-energy," relation, if we still need to cling to the concepts of mass and energy.
The Cone of Perception is a work that confronts the perceptually evident purely geometric truth. The difference in circumferences of two circles equals an arc length, and this can be applied to the Pythagorean theorem and the realm of relativistic physics. Over 500 pages of mathematical formulas and graphs at your fingertips. This is the research of several years piecing together potential visualizations of the perceptual cone phenomenon. Extensive, in depth description of perceptual forms. However, with all these equations, finding a new solution is not difficult. Great for anyone who needs to come up with a mathematical thesis in algebra, geometry, topology, or philosophy.
In this rich study of noise in American film-going culture, Meredith C. Ward shows how aurality can reveal important fissures in American motion picture history, enabling certain types of listening cultures to form across time. Connecting this history of noise in the cinema to a greater sonic culture, Static in the System shows how cinema sound was networked into a broader constellation of factors that affected social power, gender, sexuality, class, the built environment, and industry, and how these factors in turn came to fruition in cinema's soundscape. Focusing on theories of power as they manifest in noise, the history of noise in electro-acoustics with the coming of film sound, architectural acoustics as they were manipulated in cinema theaters, and the role of the urban environment in affecting mobile listening and the avoidance of noise, Ward analyzes the powerful relationship between aural cultural history and cinema's sound theory, proving that noise can become a powerful historiographic tool for the film historian.
