Closed Systems and Open Minds

Closed Systems and Open Minds PDF Author: Thomas Szasz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351527827
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Social anthropology, defined operationally in terms of what social anthropologists have done in the last fifty years, is the study and comparison of tribal societies and of small fields of social life with emphasis on the role of custom. When a social anthropologist's research leads him into any field, which belongs to other disciplines, what line should he adopt? What use may he make of the results that other scholars have already achieved? Must he knowingly make naive assumptions concerning events, which they have regarded as complex? In each of the fascinating essays which in turn form the core of this book - V. W. Turner's on symbols in Ndembu ritual; F.G. Bailey's on disputes which occurred in two Orissa villages; A. L. Epstein's on urban communities in Africa; T. Lupton's and S. Cunnison's on the relationship between behaviour in three Manchester workshops and certain events which happened outside; and W. Watson's on social mobility and social class in a coalmining Scottish burgh-several social anthropologists attempt to answer these questions by discussing the problems of method that they have encountered in their own recent research; and in the searching discussion which sum up the results. To analyze one first has to circumscribe one's field, and then simplify within the area of circumscription. Both circumscription and simplification may involve procedures of absorbing, abridging, and making naive assumptions. The contributors draw attention to the attempt to distinguish between psychical facts (emotions, thoughts, etc.) and psychological, which we believe should apply only to statements within the science of psychology, and not to be used by the former. They similarly distinguish between social facts and sociological or social-anthropological statements. ""Psychological"" and ""sociological"" are so well established in common parlance as adjectives to categorize facts that attempts to specialize them as hopeless.

Closed Systems and Open Minds

Closed Systems and Open Minds PDF Author: Thomas Szasz
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351527827
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
Social anthropology, defined operationally in terms of what social anthropologists have done in the last fifty years, is the study and comparison of tribal societies and of small fields of social life with emphasis on the role of custom. When a social anthropologist's research leads him into any field, which belongs to other disciplines, what line should he adopt? What use may he make of the results that other scholars have already achieved? Must he knowingly make naive assumptions concerning events, which they have regarded as complex? In each of the fascinating essays which in turn form the core of this book - V. W. Turner's on symbols in Ndembu ritual; F.G. Bailey's on disputes which occurred in two Orissa villages; A. L. Epstein's on urban communities in Africa; T. Lupton's and S. Cunnison's on the relationship between behaviour in three Manchester workshops and certain events which happened outside; and W. Watson's on social mobility and social class in a coalmining Scottish burgh-several social anthropologists attempt to answer these questions by discussing the problems of method that they have encountered in their own recent research; and in the searching discussion which sum up the results. To analyze one first has to circumscribe one's field, and then simplify within the area of circumscription. Both circumscription and simplification may involve procedures of absorbing, abridging, and making naive assumptions. The contributors draw attention to the attempt to distinguish between psychical facts (emotions, thoughts, etc.) and psychological, which we believe should apply only to statements within the science of psychology, and not to be used by the former. They similarly distinguish between social facts and sociological or social-anthropological statements. ""Psychological"" and ""sociological"" are so well established in common parlance as adjectives to categorize facts that attempts to specialize them as hopeless.

Open Minds

Open Minds PDF Author: Wolfgang Prinz
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026230094X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 359

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Book Description
A novel proposal that the cognitive architecture for volition and cognition arises from particular kinds of social interaction and communication. In Open Minds, Wolfgang Prinz offers the novel claim that agency and intentionality are first perceived and understood in others, and that it is only through practices and discourses of social mirroring that individuals come to apply these features to themselves and to shape their architectures for volition and cognition accordingly. Developing a (social science) constructive approach within a (cognitive science) representational framework, Prinz argues that the architectures for agency (volition) and intentionality (cognition) arise from particular kinds of social interaction and communication. Rather than working as closed, individual systems, our minds operate in ways that are fundamentally open to other minds. Prinz describes mirror systems and mirror games, particular kinds of representational mechanisms and social games that provide tools for aligning closed individual minds with other minds. He maps the formation of an architecture for volition, addressing issues of agency and intention-based top-down control, then outlines the ways the same basic ideas can be applied to an architecture for cognition, helping to solve basic issues of subjectivity and intentionality. Addressing the reality and efficacy of such social artifacts as autonomy and free will, Prinz contends that our beliefs about minds are not just beliefs about their workings but powerful tools for making them work as we believe. It is through our beliefs that our minds work in a particular way that we actually make them work in that way.

The Great Mental Models, Volume 1

The Great Mental Models, Volume 1 PDF Author: Shane Parrish
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593719972
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 209

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Book Description
Discover the essential thinking tools you’ve been missing with The Great Mental Models series by Shane Parrish, New York Times bestselling author and the mind behind the acclaimed Farnam Street blog and “The Knowledge Project” podcast. This first book in the series is your guide to learning the crucial thinking tools nobody ever taught you. Time and time again, great thinkers such as Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett have credited their success to mental models–representations of how something works that can scale onto other fields. Mastering a small number of mental models enables you to rapidly grasp new information, identify patterns others miss, and avoid the common mistakes that hold people back. The Great Mental Models: Volume 1, General Thinking Concepts shows you how making a few tiny changes in the way you think can deliver big results. Drawing on examples from history, business, art, and science, this book details nine of the most versatile, all-purpose mental models you can use right away to improve your decision making and productivity. This book will teach you how to: Avoid blind spots when looking at problems. Find non-obvious solutions. Anticipate and achieve desired outcomes. Play to your strengths, avoid your weaknesses, … and more. The Great Mental Models series demystifies once elusive concepts and illuminates rich knowledge that traditional education overlooks. This series is the most comprehensive and accessible guide on using mental models to better understand our world, solve problems, and gain an advantage.

Your Answers Questioned

Your Answers Questioned PDF Author: Osho
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312320775
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
s there a difference between loneliness and aloneness? What purpose does anger serve? Does forgiveness set wrongs right? Why are you bored? These ideas and many more are addressed in Your Answers Questioned, a collection of brief, accessible investigations into a variety of shared assumptions about life-love and rela-tion-ships, intelligence and wisdom, politics and power, and more. Each text is a focused yet approachable inquiry that helps readers think about inner emotional questions by gently point-ing them in new and interesting directions. The entries are thoughtful, humorous, and sometimes surprising; all of them liberate the reader to consider the world in a different way, from a different angle. This collection of ideas to read, think about, and react to addresses all aspects of the inner life. Your Answers Questioned is the ideal gift for spiritually seeking people of all ages, and will delight anyone searching for a new way of looking at life.

Displacements and Diasporas

Displacements and Diasporas PDF Author: Wanni Wibulswasdi Anderson
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813536118
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
Includes statistics.

Open Heart, Open Mind

Open Heart, Open Mind PDF Author: Clara Hughes
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476756996
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The long-awaited memoir by Canada’s most celebrated Olympian and advocate for mental health. From one of Canada’s most decorated Olympians comes a raw but life-affirming story of one woman’s struggle with depression. In 2006, when Clara Hughes stepped onto the Olympic podium in Torino, Italy, she became the first and only athlete ever to win multiple medals in both Summer and Winter Games. Four years later, she was proud to carry the Canadian flag at the head of the Canadian team as they participated in the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games. But there’s another story behind her celebrated career as an athlete, behind her signature billboard smile. While most professional athletes devote their entire lives to training, Clara spent her teenage years using drugs and drinking to escape the stifling home life her alcoholic father had created in Elmwood, Winnipeg. She was headed nowhere fast when, at sixteen, she watched transfixed in her living room as gold medal speed skater Gaétan Boucher effortlessly raced in the 1988 Calgary Olympics. Dreaming of one day competing herself, Clara channeled her anger, frustration, and raw ambition into the endurance sports of speed skating and cycling. By 2010, she had become a six-time Olympic medalist. But after more than a decade in the gruelling world of professional sports that stripped away her confidence and bruised her body, Clara began to realize that her physical extremes, her emotional setbacks, and her partying habits were masking a severe depression. After winning bronze in the last speed skating race of her career, she decided to retire from that sport, determined to repair herself. She has emerged as one of our most committed humanitarians, advocating for a variety of social causes both in Canada and around the world. In 2010, she became national spokesperson for Bell Canada’s Let’s Talk campaign in support of mental health awareness, using her Olympic standing to share the positive message of the power of forgiveness. Told with honesty and passion, Open Heart, Open Mind is Clara’s personal journey through physical and mental pain to a life where love and understanding can thrive. This revelatory and inspiring story will touch the hearts of all Canadians.

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti PDF Author: Milton Rokeach
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1590173848
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 369

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Book Description
On July 1, 1959, at Ypsilanti State Hospital in Michigan, the social psychologist Milton Rokeach brought together three paranoid schizophrenics: Clyde Benson, an elderly farmer and alcoholic; Joseph Cassel, a failed writer who was institutionalized after increasingly violent behavior toward his family; and Leon Gabor, a college dropout and veteran of World War II. The men had one thing in common: each believed himself to be Jesus Christ. Their extraordinary meeting and the two years they spent in one another’s company serves as the basis for an investigation into the nature of human identity, belief, and delusion that is poignant, amusing, and at times disturbing. Displaying the sympathy and subtlety of a gifted novelist, Rokeach draws us into the lives of three troubled and profoundly different men who find themselves “confronted with the ultimate contradiction conceivable for human beings: more than one person claiming the same identity.”

The New System of Global Governance

The New System of Global Governance PDF Author: Georg von Goldbach
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3758354307
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Book Description
CONTENT OF THE BOOK This book shows how the emerging new system of Global Governance will change due to China's economic rise and increasing political importance. There will be a paradigm shift in the functioning and interaction of the countries and nations of the earth. A New System of Global Governance is emerging. The New System of Global Governance will have to function according is to new rules to meet with the approval of the majority of the countries and nations. The hegemonic system of global governance that we have witnessed for more than a century, with the principle of armed conflict as the main political tool, will no longer be able to function. The main reasons for this are of cultural origin. A characteristic feature of "capitalist civilization" is its origin in Europe. With the re-entry of China as a player in world history the situation changed dramatically. China belongs to a different cultural area. Therefore, the further development of global capitalism, and in particular of the New System of Global Governance, will not remain one-dimensionally European, and will not develop in a linear sequence. A paradigm shift will occur.

Mutual Enrichment between Psychology and Theology

Mutual Enrichment between Psychology and Theology PDF Author: Russell Re Manning
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317131495
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The relationship between psychology and Christian theology has been one of the most important topics in the science and religion fields. Discussions, however, are too frequently one-sided. This book takes an alternative approach: following the lead of Fraser Watts, the contributions develop various aspects of the mutual enrichment of each discipline by the other. Moving beyond outdated models of conflict and independence, this book highlights areas of fruitful enhancement at the interface of Christian belief and practice with psychology. Set out in four sections the book’s chapters first engage methodological and substantive issues in the interdisciplinarity raised by the dialogue between psychology and theology. Second, chapters explore a variety of areas in which psychology enriches theology, looking at both historical and contemporary themes such as psychoanalysis, embodiment and mindfulness. Chapters in the third section explore some of the theological enrichments of psychology, with topics including character strengths, wisdom and forgiveness. The final section engages aspects of mutual enrichment in religious life and pastoral care with an applied focus on mental health, meditation, prayer, spiritual direction and spirituality. A refreshing alternative study of the mutual enrichment of psychology and theology with theoretical and practical applications, this book reinforces the need for both disciplines to pursue creative and constructive engagement with each other. Of interest to scholars in psychology, theology and religious studies this book will also be of interest more widely as a case study of successful interdisciplinary work.

Voices of Conflict

Voices of Conflict PDF Author: Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135578982
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
The South African higher education system has historically been characterized by racial and gender inequities inherited from the discriminatory policies of the apartheid era. Emerging from a higher education history plagued with deeply entrenched racial disparities, Voices of Conflict examines how academic programs and structures at the historically white universities have responded to the increasing enrollment of black students since the enactment of the Universities Amendment Act in 1983. Dr. Mabokela specifically seeks to understand the perceptions and attitudes of students, faculty, and administrators and to determine how these respective constituents have responded to changes in student demographics. Her study brings to light, with clarity and thoroughness, many too often overlooked and neglected issues in higher education in South Africa.