Imaginative Capacity Research Articles

Reality and imagination intertwined: A sensorimotor paradox interpretation

As a hypothesis on the origins of mind and language, the evolutionary theory of the sensorimotor paradox suggests that capacities for imagination, self-representation and abstraction would operate from a dissociation in what is known as the forward model. In some studies, sensory perception is understood as a system of prediction and confirmation (feedforward and feedback processes) that would share common yet distinct and overlapping neural networks with mental imagery. The latter would then mostly operate through internal feedback processes. The hypothesis of our theory is that dissociation and parallelism between those processes would make it less likely for imaginary prediction to match and simultaneously coincide with any sensory feedback, contradicting the stimulus/response pattern. The gap between the two and the effort required to maintain this gap, born from the development of bipedal stance and a radical change to our relation to our own hands, would be the very structural foundation to our capacity to elaborate abstract thoughts, by partially blocking and inhibiting motor action. Mental imagery would structurally be dissociated from perception, though maintaining an intricated relation of interdependence. Moreover, the content of the images would be subordinate to their function as emotional regulators, prioritising consistency with some global, conditional and socially learnt body-image. As a higher-level and proto-aesthetic function, we can speculate that the action and instrumentalisation of dissociating imagination from perception would become the actual prediction and their coordination, the expected feedback.

Representation, Settler Colonialism and ‘the Aboriginal Child’: a Politics of Subalternity?

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak famously thematised the question ‘can the subaltern speak?’ through the dual meanings of ‘representation,’ as both depiction and political proxy. This paper draws on Spivak’s analysis to question the capacity of the settler-colonial Australian imagination to represent (or recognise) the sovereignty of Aboriginal peoples – and especially of children, as infants (in-fans, literally speechless). The former sense of representation (depiction) bears implications for the second, as Indigenous sovereignty is displaced by settler representations of indigeneity – and particularly of Indigenous ‘childhood’ and ‘children’ as neglected ‘piccaninnies,’ without parentage or inheritance. Such portrayals, in this light, may even be read as continuous with colonial logics of elimination, as strategies to sever the connection to land that undergirds Indigenous conceptions of sovereignty and to thwart Indigenous futures. The article interrogates settler colonial investments in representing Aboriginal childhood in the context of recent public discourse about the constitutional recognition of First Peoples, and a political imperative to re-present the Australian ‘nation’ as post- (rather than currently) colonial. The questions that animate this inquiry include: what, if anything, can a settler-Australian politics of recognition offer First Peoples? Is it possible to represent (or recognise) Blak sovereignty through modifications to the settler constitution? And how does the settler image repertoire of Aboriginal children speak to this possibility? If that fabricated ‘Aboriginal child’ could speak, what would this ultimate ‘subaltern’ say?

Reaching a Semiotic Reality through Signs’ Moveability

Either taken from the ontological or epistemological viewpoint, semiotics can exemplify almost all life contexts and “realities”. One concludes that more than one “reality” can exist in the “being” of semiotics itself. Such “realities”, however, can be “lived” realities or “fictive” ones, i.e., a product of human imaginative capacities. Intriguingly enough, such facts make semiotics omnipotent owing to a straightforward reason: all mentioned realities (or scientific fields, if one wants to use the word metaphorically) are said to convey meaning. Name it semantics generally, or, meaning specifically, it should represent a final empiric result of each semiotics. The critical question is, however, how many “realities” does semiotics have?

Brain-consistent architecture for imagination.

Imagination represents a pivotal capability of human intelligence. To develop human-like artificial intelligence, uncovering the computational architecture pertinent to imaginative capabilities through reverse engineering the brain's computational functions is essential. The existing Structure-Constrained Interface Decomposition (SCID) method, leverages the anatomical structure of the brain to extract computational architecture. However, its efficacy is limited to narrow brain regions, making it unsuitable for realizing the function of imagination, which involves diverse brain areas such as the neocortex, basal ganglia, thalamus, and hippocampus. In this study, we proposed the Function-Oriented SCID method, an advancement over the existing SCID method, comprising four steps designed for reverse engineering broader brain areas. This method was applied to the brain's imaginative capabilities to design a hypothetical computational architecture. The implementation began with defining the human imaginative ability that we aspire to simulate. Subsequently, six critical requirements necessary for actualizing the defined imagination were identified. Constraints were established considering the unique representational capacity and the singularity of the neocortex's modes, a distributed memory structure responsible for executing imaginative functions. In line with these constraints, we developed five distinct functions to fulfill the requirements. We allocated specific components for each function, followed by an architectural proposal aligning each component with a corresponding brain organ. In the proposed architecture, the distributed memory component, associated with the neocortex, realizes the representation and execution function; the imaginary zone maker component, associated with the claustrum, accomplishes the dynamic-zone partitioning function; the routing conductor component, linked with the complex of thalamus and basal ganglia, performs the manipulation function; the mode memory component, related to the specific agranular neocortical area executes the mode maintenance function; and the recorder component, affiliated with the hippocampal formation, handles the history management function. Thus, we have provided a fundamental cognitive architecture of the brain that comprehensively covers the brain's imaginative capacities.

Influence of creative, social, and practical imaginativeness on self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention of engineering students

Despite the importance of imagination to entrepreneurship, it is underexplored by researchers in the field. Imaginativeness is a cognitive ability that coalesces the capacity for imagination with the knowledge required to rationally conjure up a variety of task-related scenarios. It is especially helpful for those who lack prior experience and therefore can be beneficial for recent graduates and anyone who wants to launch their own business. In our study, we examine whether imaginativeness, in its three forms, can influence engineering students’ entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intention. Our study recorded 216 responses to prove the hypotheses employing partial least squares path modeling using SmartPLS3, and we inferred that creative imaginativeness, social imaginativeness, and practical imaginativeness are positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy thereby strengthening entrepreneurial intention. The study provides distinctive insights into the study of imagination in the formation of entrepreneurial intention among engineering students in a developing economy, where studies are few.

Calibrating care: Family caregiving and the social weight of sympathy (tình cảm) in Vietnam

AbstractThis article explores family caregiving in Vietnamese households affected by type 2 diabetes. Drawing on existential phenomenology and on fieldwork conducted in northern Vietnam, I develop the concept of care calibrations as a tool to understand how family members respond socially and morally to the needs for care that diabetes confronts them with. The concept of care calibrations highlights how chronic care is undertaken as an ethical endeavor within domestic environments characterized by multiple care needs. The article explores how caregivers find their bearings in complex care situations by looking toward dominant moral standards while also adjusting pragmatically to the contingencies of domestic lives, placing themselves in others’ situations. On this ethnographic basis, the article calls for more sustained anthropological attention to the social implications of human capacities for sympathetic co‐living and particularly to the intermediate realm between selves and others where capacities for moral imagination reside.

Integration of Narrative Strategies in Poster Design Education for Southeast Asian Students

Owing to the proactive implementation of the New Southbound Policy, the proportion of Southeast Asian students studying in Taiwan is steadily increasing. They exhibit variations in perceptions, communication, and cultural backgrounds in learning. These differences often lead to confusion and challenges during the coursework. In this study, we integrate narrative strategies into poster design education, where professors teach students textual contexts to identify and solve problems, and ultimately integrate design knowledge and skills. We investigated the differences in the student’s performance in poster design after the integration of narrative strategies and their reactions. Using a pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design with 40 Southeast Asian students, the 12-week experimental teaching was offered. Significant improvements in creativity, text composition, illustrations, layout, and color in poster design were observed after the period. The students could utilize transformation and metaphor as design techniques, demonstrating that integrating narrative strategies stimulated students’ imaginative capacities. Such a result indicates significant efficacy in enhancing the learning experiences of Southeast Asian students.

The researcher as instrument - how our capacity for empathy supports qualitative analysis of transcripts

ABSTRACT In this article we draw on literature from philosophy, history, and psychology to argue that empathy supports qualitative analysis of transcripts in several ways. We discuss examples of these processes both with data that we have co-created with our participants and data where we have not interacted with participants during data collection. What we suggest is not a new approach to analysis. Rather, we argue that the deliberate use of empathy bears potential to strengthen analysis across various analytical approaches. We explore five examples of how to access and harness our capacity for empathy as a resource in qualitative analysis: 1) Make time and room for prolonged engagement with data; 2) Use details and context actively when developing your understanding; 3) Practice decentering by actively seeking the perspective of the participants; 4) Attend to your own visceral experiences and body sensations; and 5) Utilize your capacity for imagination and creativity.

Evolving belief and being human: The emergence of religion in science and theology

Every human society as well as almost all human life is infused with ethics. There is common acknowledgement that morality and ethics are indispensable in addressing the serious global challenges humanity is faced with today. However, we seemed to have lost our grip on what morality is. How do we best understand human morality and ethics? This research argues that responsible ethics rests on a credible understanding of what it means to be human. The following exploration of the emergence of religion within the science and religion discourse formed part of a series of three seminars that have as their main objective to address a giant void regarding ethical and moral reflection within our society. This research was part of the discourse of the first seminar with the following main research question: What do we learn from the empirical study of morality (in the evolutionary sciences, the neurosciences, cultural anthropology, sociology, and moral psychology) about the sources, functions and characteristics of morality, and its relation to religion? This study offers an exploration of our capacity for religious awareness and belief against the background of niche construction theory. The capacity for imagination seems to have contributed to human evolutionary success and consequently our religious disposition. This transdisciplinary study combines perspectives of some of the most prominent interlocutors in the contemporary discourse on the emergence of religious awareness. By integrating the numerous perspectives evident in this study, this research explores how evolutionary thought can be constructively appropriated to interdisciplinary theology and ethics.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article explores the origin of religious awareness and belief as part of a larger discourse on morality in history. The interdisciplinary conversation covers the fields of evolutionary anthropology and theology within the contemporary science-theology discourses.

Geology as Unconforming Infrastructure For the Hosting of Nuclear Waste

As the dramatic consequences of climate change finally begin to motivate governments around the world to explore how to move away from a dependence on fossil fuels, nuclear power is back on the agenda in the UK as a potential energy source. However, this new-found enthusiasm confronts a fundamental challenge—namely, that the radioactive wastes, accumulating since the very first nuclear power stations were built in the 1950s, have yet to be made safe for the long-term future. At the governmental level, there is a clear international commitment to the view that the most secure option for the management of radioactive waste matter is burial deep underground in an engineered geological disposal facility (GDF). Finland leads the international field, and the repository at Onkalo is expected to be fully operational by 2025. The Swedish government approved plans for the construction of an underground repository for spent nuclear fuel in 2022, with Canada, France, Japan, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA all actively engaged in siting and design initiatives. Strategies for generating public acceptance of geological disposal vary, as do the modes of engagement, the investments of time and money afforded, and the decision-making processes. These processes are conceptually and politically challenging. They require not only technical expertise and scientific understanding across an entire range of disciplines, but also the imaginative capacity to think across scales of time and space in what Ele Carpenter (2016: 14) has suggestively referred to as ‘reverse mining’.

Subjectivity in Film: Mine, Yours, and No One’s

A classic and fraught question in the philosophy of film is this: when you watch a film, do you experience yourself in the world of the film, observing the scenes? In this paper, we argue that this subject of film experience is sometimes a mere impersonal viewpoint, sometimes a first-personal but unindexed subject, and sometimes a particular, indexed subject such as the viewer herself or a character in the film. We first argue for subject pluralism: there is no single answer to the question of what kind of subjectivity, if any, is mandated across film sequences. Then, we defend unindexed subjectivity: at least sometimes, films mandate an experience that is first-personal but not tied to any particular person, not even to the viewer. Taken together, these two theses allow us to see film experience as more varied than previously appreciated and to bridge in a novel way the cognition of film with the exercise of other imaginative capacities, such as mindreading and episodic recollecting.

Sounding Grief in Henry Dumas’s “Echo Tree”

“Sounding Grief in Henry Dumas’s ‘Echo Tree’” engages Dumas’s experimental short story about two youths discussing how to speak to the dead while on a Southern hillside at dusk. This article studies how this short story meditates on how grief affects our engagement with and reliance upon voiced languages to express a desire for communion that persists beyond death. “Echo Tree”, the article argues, reveals how openness to grief, and the subsequent desire for communication with the dead, improves the imaginative capacity needed for empathetic alignment among the living. In its presentation of the psychological and imaginative difficulties of performing a call-and-response with the dead, “Echo Tree” also analogizes how a reader engages in an act of call-and-response with a muted acousmatic voice from the printed page.

Political Imagination and Utopian Pedagogy

ABSTRACT This article contributes to the theorisation of utopian pedagogy by exploring how arts-based exercises can be used in engaged pedagogy to facilitate the cultivation of political imagination. Engaging with theoretical discussions of utopian thought and political imagination, we draw on pedagogical experiments from our sociology course “Exercises in Political Imagination” to pose the following questions: How can arts-based exercises be used in engaged pedagogy to foster political imagination? What kinds of tensions or difficulties does this process involve? What kinds of conceptions of politics and social change do these exercises produce? On the basis of our pedagogical experiments, we suggest that the notion and practice of utopian pedagogy is characterised by the following features: disengagement from—and disinvestment in—the status quo as a means by which to open up imaginative capacities; an approach to politics as something that emerges from the process of exercising imagination and that emphasises complex interconnections between the personal and political; an understanding of imagination as a collective process rather than an individual disposition; and encouragement to embrace a variety of scales for social change, observing both their entanglement and emancipatory potential in everyday life. The article concludes that utopian pedagogy can serve as an important tool of transformative politics by facilitating political imagination and widening the horizon of the possible in the context of the neoliberalisation of higher education.

L’imagination soutenue par les thérapies brèves

L’imagination soutenue par les thérapies brèves

Analysis of Students’ Creative Thinking Ability by Utilizing the Environment in Economics Subjects at SMA Negeri 1 Air Sugihan, Ogan Komering Ilir

In this study at SMA Negeri 1 Air Suguhan Organ Komering Ilir, we examined students’ imaginative capacity to utilize the environment for economic issues. The question of this research was how the environmental changes of SMA Negeri 1 Air Suguhan Ogan Komering Ilir could be applied to the creative thinking abilities of students for business problems. The factors in this think about were imagination considering and environment. An expressive strategy was utilized in this consideration. The test comprised of his 53 understudies from SMA Negeri 1 Air Suguhan Ogan Komering Ilir. Data were collected through observation, questioning, and documentation. As a result of perception, it was found that students’ inventive considering is composed of five markers. Fluency standard is “very good” (83.76%), flexible skill standard is “very good” (89.1%), creative skill standard is “very good” (83.76%) “good” (79.25%).

Exposing Narratives in 21st Century Children's Literature for Holistic Development and Education in Strengthening Character Education for Elementary School Students

Children's literature serves as a catalyst for fostering creativity, a point emphasized by Norton, who underscores its vital part in nurturing and expanding youthful imaginations. This kidney plays a pivotal part in promoting the development of internal imaginative capacities in scholars. Beyond its part in individual growth, children's literature holds significant value in fostering personality and social development among youthful compendiums. The integration of children's literature into schoolteacher medication programs is purposeful, aiming to equip preceptors with the readiness to incorporate these textbooks into their classrooms. also, it seeks to empower preceptors to grease meaningful conversations on the motifs presented in these erudite workshops with scholars, academy administration brigades, and parents likewise. Achieving this requires schoolteacher preceptors to give ample openings for scholars to exercise the chops of opting, assaying, and agitating a different range of children's literature. In doing so, schoolteacher medication programs contribute not only to the professional development of preceptors but also to the broader educational geography by promoting the multifaceted benefits of children's literature in nurturing creativity and fostering holistic development in youthful minds.

Rethinking Erich Fromm’s Humanism and His View of Human Nature

ABSTRACT This article reviews Fromm’s view of human nature that is the basis for his existential humanism. Fromm’s core idea was that the combination of minimal instinctual endowment, enormous expansion of our neocortex, and being born in a helpless state created a set of existential contradictions or dichotomies. The main contradiction or dichotomy is being part of nature yet transcending it by being aware of our mortality. Not being able to go back to the previous “harmony” with nature, humans must develop their capacity for reason, symbolic capacities, imagination and human solidarity or regress to symbiotic and incestuous ties. I make two main arguments. I show that instead of losing our instincts, humans retain three social instincts that we share with other social species, namely attachment instincts (and forming attachment bonds), affiliation to groups (group instinct) and sexual instincts. I show how these three instincts have been significantly transformed in relation to our great ape relatives making us a more flexible, adaptive, cooperative and ultrasocial species. Second I describe a new evolutionary paradigm in which genes and culture coevolve and influence each other, also known as the dual inheritance model. The main effect of this dual inheritance is that cultures, like genes, transmit information and knowledge from one generation to the next. The cumulative effect of cultural knowledge transmitted through thousands of generations is that we develop new modes of production, new technologies, art forms, and new cultural rituals and practices. To which we must adapt. This new view of what made us human puts Fromm’s view of human nature and his radical humanism on a stronger sociobiological foundation. I close by making the argument that our group instinct is both our greatest strength and greatest weakness, making us a species with a “genius for good and evil”.

Birds Beyond Words: Fantastic Animals and Other Flights of Imagination

In ‘Nature in the Active Voice’, Val Plumwood called for a ‘thorough rethink’ of the logic of domination that has authorized both colonialism and the exploitation of animals (113). But this mandate creates a conundrum: that logic elevates mind over matter and cognition over emotion. If Audre Lorde was right that ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house’ (110), then we are unlikely to succeed in undermining that logic by rethinking it. We need practices that will expose the tedious nonsensicality of human supremacy while simultaneously awakening our capacities for empathy, imagination, and full-bodied ecological reasoning. Plumwood noted the power of poetry, but nonverbal methods of cognition and communication such as music, dance, and visual art may be even more vital to the struggle to think truly differently. Underground currents of art and activism including Dada, Tropicália, Afrofuturism, and surrealisms from around the world may offer both instructive and cautionary lessons. Kiwi and other category-defying animals, whose minds are very different from our own but whose ideas may be legible through their ways of being in the world, may be especially important instructors in the praxis of eco-logic.

Feminism on social media: Generalized misogyny

The following study focuses on one of the major aspects which is the portrayal of misogyny and gender discrimination on social media and its influence on societies’ perceptions and gender relations. In as much as power relations in speech are picturesquely framed with theories developed by Robin Lakoff and Deborah Tannen the study employs verbal constructions of gender disparity. These problems are aggravated with the dawn of the digital age that instantly transmits information and shares various content; social networks thus increase the use of sexist speech and cyberbullying. Combining the instinct to investigate and the imaginative capacity to construct a speculation on the reality, social networking uncovered the misery of a huge number of manhandled ladies with the hashtag #metoo, and simultaneously, kept an aggressive system of male privilege alive to torment more unfortunate ladies through distributed abuse. This is where the study resonates with its importance of making a deliberate attempt at a shift in current language practices towards altering the existing cultural and social inequalities when it comes to the gender aspects as well as online harassment.

Upaya Guru Pendidikan Agama Islam Dalam Pembinaan Etika Komunikasi Siswa

This exploration was roused by the way that analysts observed that there were still understudies at SMA Negri 1 Belitang Jaya who needed great and respectful correspondence morals. Understudies fail to see how to impart well. There are understudies who say brutal words toward the start of educating and learning exercises, talk or contend during class when the instructor is making sense of something, play hooky, or even need to smoke during class. In light of these issues, analysts are keen on assuming control over the examination area of SMA Negeri 1 Belitang Jaya. The detailing of the issue in this exploration is what endeavors do PAI educators make to further develop correspondence morals among understudies at SMA Negeri 1 Belitangg Jaya? The point is to see if the Islamic Strict Instruction Educator at Belitang Jaya Secondary School puts forth these attempts or not.
 This exploration philosophy is subjective and elucidating approach. Islamic strict schooling educators and understudies participated in this exploration. Essential and auxiliary sources were utilized to gather information. Perceptions and narratives are instances of essential sources, while diaries and logical articles are instances of auxiliary sources. Information examination utilizes interpretive examination, in particular utilizing the specialist's creative mind, instinct and imaginative capacities in a cycle called reflection to catch the significance of occasions connected with the exploration subject. The reason for this examination is to recognize and figure out the significance of the exploration subject.
 The consequences of the exploration show that Islamic strict educators attempt to show correspondence morals to understudies at SMA Negeri 1 Belitang Jaya. executes it utilizing three methodologies, in particular: To begin with, through giving inspiration, where the instructor attempts to stimulate, increment and keep up with the energy of understudies so they work on themselves and have great correspondence morals. Second, by giving direction, to be specific through headings and models given by educators to youngsters, empowering them to be considerate, regard guardians, educators and companions while connecting in the school and local area climate. Third, through adjustment, by shaking hands and making proper acquaintance while meeting an instructor or companion, as well as perusing petitions when learning. The point is for understudies to be prepared and familiar with continuously showing acceptable conduct and perspectives, since adjustment is a vital premise in the improvement of understudy correspondence morals.