scholarly journals When Spandrels Become Arches: Neural crosstalk and the evolution of consciousness

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrick Wallace ◽  
Rodrick Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
Neural Crosstalk

Yeats's Barfieldian Rebellion: Locating Yeats's Synthetic Symbolism in Barfield's Evolution of Consciousness

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Clayton McReynolds
Keyword(s):  
William Butler Yeats ◽  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
The World

In this paper, I draw on Barfield's theory of the evolution of consciousness and language to argue that William Butler Yeats employs language in his poetry in a way which resembles the older, ‘organic’ poetry Barfield describes. I observe how Yeats's ‘concrete’ understanding allowed him to weave a rich web of meaning into his poetry without feeling confined by T.S. Eliot's ‘dissociation of sensibility’. Many of Yeats's Modernist contemporaries struggled to bridge a perceived gap between thought and feeling, but Yeats's view of the world as innately symbolic allowed him to use language both literally and symbolically at once, speaking simultaneously of a literal rock, a symbol for stasis, and an emblem of the idée fixe. Thus, Yeats creates, in Barfield's terms, ‘organic’ poetry where the multilayered meanings arise naturally from Yeats's understanding. I further note how Yeats attempts to create a mythology in A Vision that would function much as Barfield describes mythology operating in ancient, concrete societies. Through this study, I hope to illuminate both the interconnectedness of Yeats's symbolic metaphysic and poetic technique and the relevance of Barfield for understanding Yeats and, perhaps, other poets finding new ways to communicate through an evolving language.

scholarly journals Evolutionary biology meets consciousness: essay review of Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka’s The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Browning ◽  
Walter Veit
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Essay Review ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
Initial Resistance ◽  
Metaphysical Claim ◽  
Mode Of Being

AbstractIn this essay, we discuss Simona Ginsburg and Eva Jablonka’s The Evolution of the Sensitive Soul from an interdisciplinary perspective. Constituting perhaps the longest treatise on the evolution of consciousness, Ginsburg and Jablonka unite their expertise in neuroscience and biology to develop a beautifully Darwinian account of the dawning of subjective experience. Though it would be impossible to cover all its content in a short book review, here we provide a critical evaluation of their two key ideas—the role of Unlimited Associative Learning in the evolution of, and detection of, consciousness and a metaphysical claim about consciousness as a mode of being—in a manner that will hopefully overcome some of the initial resistance of potential readers to tackle a book of this length.

A symposium on the evolution of consciousness

World Futures ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 25 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 197-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul C. Wohlmuth ◽  
Robert Artigiani
Keyword(s):  
Evolution Of Consciousness

Efficacy of Flumazenil in Acute Alcohol Intoxication: Double Blind Placebo-Controlled Evaluation

1991 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Lheureux ◽  
R. Askenasi
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Acute Alcohol Intoxication ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
Pure Alcohol ◽  
Controlled Evaluation ◽  
Cns Depression ◽  
Higher Doses ◽  
Glasgow Score

Flumazenil acts as an antidote for pharmacological and toxic effects due to benzodiazepines. Several isolated observations and short uncontrolled series have also suggested a possible effect against the impairement of consciousness induced by pure alcohol intoxication. Patients admitted in the emergency department with coma related to acute alcohol (ALC) or pure benzodiazepine (BZD) intoxication were randomized and treated blindly with either placebo or 1 mg flumazenil. A modified Glasgow score was used to observe the evolution of consciousness. In the 18 ALC patients, 1 mg flumazenil was not more effective than placebo, whereas it appeared to be very active in the BZD group. However, an open administration of higher doses of flumazenil (2-5 mg) in 11 ALC patients, whose condition had not initially improved, was followed by clear improvement of consciousness in five of them. Flumazenil, administered at a dose usually active against BZD sedation, does not improve CNS depression induced by ALC intoxication. Higher doses could be more effective in some patients, but it should also be verified in a placebo-controlled trial.

scholarly journals The concept of revelation in terms of the evolution of consciousness

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Nürnberger
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Process ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Evolutionary Trajectory ◽  
Evolution Of Consciousness ◽  
Realist Approach ◽  
Creative Power ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Social Environmental

Following Paul’s injunction in 1 Corinthians 9:19–23 we have to ‘become scientists’ to a scientifically informed audience. While theology cannot agree with the naturalist denial of transcendence, it can adopt the experiential-realist approach typical for the sciences in its description of the Christian faith as an immanent part of cosmic evolution, albeit at a higher level of emergence. The article begins with my understanding of evolutionary theory (big bang cosmology, entropy, emergence, neural networks as infrastructure of consciousness, evolution and differentiation, sequences of past, present and future, contingency etc.) It then describes God consciousness as the intuition, perception or conceptualisation of the transcendent Source and Destiny of experienced reality and locates God consciousness in the evolutionary process. Biblical God consciousness displays two distinct characteristics: God’s creative power is experienced in reality, while God’s benevolent intentionality is proclaimed on the basis of a religious tradition. The evolutionary trajectory of biblical God consciousness, culminating in the Christ-event, is sketched and the God consciousness of Jesus is deduced from its religious embeddedness, its social-environmental relationships and its religious impact. Implications of an experiential-realist approach are (1) a dynamic, rather than ontological Christology and (2) the cosmic significance of the sacrifice of God in Christ. On this basis revelation is described first in experiential-realist and then in theological terms. The tension between the experience of God’s creative power and the proclamation of God’s benevolence leads to a dynamic, rather than ontological rendering of the Trinity. Finally, traditional eschatological assumptions are reconceptualised as God’s dynamic vision of comprehensive well-being operating like a horizon that moves on as we approach it and displays ever new vistas, challenges and opportunities.

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