Mental Concepts Research Articles

WHAT CAN EVOLVED MINDS KNOW OF GOD? AN ASSESSMENT FROM THE STANDPOINT OF EVOLUTIONARY EPISTEMOLOGY

AbstractHumans can only act successfully in the world because many of their mental concepts of that world—for example, three‐dimensional space—are objectively valid: hence the approach of evolutionary epistemology (EE). An overall world picture, “Umwelt,” is peculiar to each animal species as their sensory functions differ, but the concept of Cause is widespread and fundamental: it leads humans to an idea of God as Cause of creation. But further certain knowledge of God is impossible, theology must be Apophatic: Pseudo‐Dionysius and Wordsworth provide examples. The Apostles’ Creed is considered from the standpoint of EE: its metaphysical claims are meaningless but the human aspects remain wholly acceptable. Fuller theological pictures will be sustainable only on an “as if” basis. Any more positive theological position is increasingly dangerous, and claims of certainty can never be upheld.

Nominal Conceptualism and Logical Modelling of Agents’ Conceptions

In the view of my philosophical position ‘nominal conceptualism’, cognitive/knowledge agents, who are in some way aware of expressing the world based on their mental concepts, deal with their linguistic and/or symbolic expressions. In this paper I rely on nominal concep- tualism to logically characterise agents’ concept-based descriptions of the world and analyse a undamental logical system for conception representation.

Barthes’ Semiotic Theory and Interpretation of Signs

The current survey paper aimed to shed light on the science of signs in general, and Barthes’ semiotic theory to interpret signs in particular. In order to achieve this objective, the researchers reviewed the prominent works of Barthes on this respect to develop an understanding of his semiotic theory. They also displayed some conducted research applying Barthes’ semiotic theory. The researchers also intended to answer the question: How can researchers interpret signs using Barthes’ semiotic theory? Barthes’ major studies reviewed were Mythologies, Elements of semiology, The five codes, The rhetoric of the image, The death of the author, and From work to text. The conclusion answered the question in that the focus of the theory is on three levels: denotative which describes the literal meaning, connotative which is related to the mental concepts, and mythology which is related to the history, and culture of viewers.

Bindung und Lebensqualität bei Kindern psychisch kranker Eltern

The stresses of parenthood are exacerbated by the mental illness of at least one parent in the family. These stresses have a negative effect on the children‘s attachment development. A subjectively perceived high quality of life could have a resilient effect and a positive influence on this relationship. Results of the practice research study Mental Illness and Parenting in Family Counseling (Köhler-Saretzki, 2020; Köhler-Saretzki u. Lenz, 2019) from which three of the results presented below were selected confirm this assumption. Health-related quality of life represents the physical, psychological/mental, and social dimensions of well-being and functioning in relevant areas of life. Results from the BELLA study show that family protective factors, such as intra-family communication, emotional connectedness and family relationship climate, positively influence the quality of life in the family. The concept of mentalizing and the mentalization-based interventions developed from it point to an effective way for targeted promotion of family resilience. Mentalizing refers to the ability to perceive and reflect on thoughts, feelings, desires, needs (mental states) in oneself and in others.

The Reasons for and the Consequences of Averroes’ Saying Essence to God Abstract

This article deals with the relative reasons and consequences of Averroes’ saying God the essence. Thus, based on the example of Averroes, it is desired to show that the philosophers’ conception of God is actually directly related to the subject of metaphysics. The distinctions between potential and actual, being-essence and matter-form, which are thought to have strong forms of explanation, will be applied when needed. According to Averroes, his research of being is basically an investigation of essence. Although the concept of being/existence does not represent a higher level of being above the substance, it takes place in metaphysics as a higher concept with different meanings. However, according to Ibn Avicenna, the existing meets a higher level of being than the substance, and therefore its inquiry cannot be only the one for substance. Therefore, according to him, the subject of metaphysics is not a substance qua substance. In short, the possible reasons for Averroes to call God essence are as follows: First, God is the most suitable for the definition of essence in all existence. The second is that, keeping other meanings of being in mind, he accepted the concept of “mawjūd” as a mental concept that has no reality in the external world, that is, as a genus, and therefore only recognized the substance as reality. The third is the idea that the celestial bodies move endlessly. The fourth is his view on the relationship between universals and discrete entities and tangible individual essences. Following Aristotle, Averroes thinks that universals and ideas do not contribute to the existence of individual essences. The possible consequences of Averroes’ calling God a substance are as follows: The first is his Hanbalī attitude towards God in his books Fasl al-maqāl and al-Kashf an manāhij al-adilla, which he wrote on the relationship between religion and philosophy. Secondly, what was mentioned above as a cause, is a cyclical thing that can be expressed as a result here. In other words, while accepting the celestial bodies and the universe as eternal, causes God to be called essence, calling God essence results in the idea that the universe exists only apart and disconnected from him under the influence of God. The third is his rejection of the doctrines of creation out of nothing and sudūr (emanation). The refusal to create out of nothing is based on a general ontological principle -as the ancient philosophers openly expressed- “absolute absence cannot be the source of existence”.

On the concept of honor in mentality of the Russian landowners of the XVII century

The interdisciplinary approach that takes into account various points of view allows revealing the representations of honor in mentality of the Russian landowners of the XVII century. These representations are analyzed both in the context of national mentality of the XVII century overall, and within the privileged class. The article examines different meanings of honor typical to Russia of the XVII century: ancestral, official, corporate, spiritual, as well as assumptions on the presence of personal honor. Plausible mental representations of the honor of county landowners of the XVII century are viewed from the social, legal, spiritual, moral, and military-professional perspectives. The author goes along with the concepts that attribute honor to the fundamental concepts of national mentality of the XVII century. There are several meanings of honor: the medieval ideal of honor as virtue prevalent in Moscow society, honor of the rank, although the complete dominance of the latter in mentality of the XVII century seems exaggerated. The entire privileged class of the Russian society attached great importance to the meaning of “homeland”, while the provincial landowners valued the length of service. The author believes that the idea of syncretism of honor expressed by the scholars about Middle Ages also pertains to the Moscow period. The honor of noblemen and children of court nobility on the ancestral, corporate and personal levels was an achievement based on “accumulative” principle. The resentment of duels by the Russian privileged ranks of the XVII century, who defended their honor in a lawful manner, deserves particular attention. The representations of honor of the county landowners was stressed by mass poverty and closeness to the lower social classes, which encouraged to stay in the privileged environment. This was accompanied by continuous struggle for retaining paternal, official, corporate, personal honor.

THE CONCEPT OF NATIONAL MENTALITY AND ITS MAIN FUNCTIONS

The article analyzes the content of the concept of national mentality and its main functions, and classifies the study of problems related to mentality by specialists in social philosophy, psychology, sociology from different angles. Also, the main functions of the concept of national mentality are revealed on a scientific basis.

The Concept of THOUGHT in the Mirror of Cultural Codes (based on the Texts of Fiction)

Modern linguistics, within the framework of the anthropocentric paradigm, tries to solve the fundamental issues of the trichotomy "reality-consciousness-language", therefore, the issues of consideration of various concepts presented in language are of particular relevance. The conceptual analysis of abstract concepts is difficult for researchers, so the problem of reflecting the inner world of a person in the language of concepts is of particular interest. The purpose of this study is not to describe the entire structure of the concept of THOUGHT in its linguistic expression, but only to analyze the cultural codes that this concept, which relates to the mental sphere of the inner world, is represented in language. The study showed that the mental concept of THOUGHT, passing through the prism of metaphorical comparison, is represented through such cultural codes as cosmic, natural, biomorphic and objective. The conclusion is made that in the consciousness of the Russian person there are ideas about the universal mind, about thought as a material, living entity, capable of continuing to live after the death of its bearer and becoming the property of other people.

PROMOTING SPIRITUALITY IN THE ARCHITECTURAL THOUGHT OF THE MOSQUE: A SENSE OF PLACE APPROACH

This research aims to study the effects of meaning, body, and activity on increasing the sense of spirituality in a mosque. To this end, a descriptive-analytic methodology was formulated in three stages based on the mutual relations between the independent variables of the structure's body and the dependent variables of mental concepts and activities. Initially, the pattern of people's movement from the entrance to the praying niche and the degree of proximity of the spaces were studied using the material flow patterns technique and the diagram for the relationship between activities. Then, the relationship between the ritual movements of the prayer and the mosque's architecture was analyzed. The magnitude of load in the human body caused by the movements in the prayer was measured using the OWAS technique. Finally, the spiritual moods and the meaningful concepts affected by light and color were analyzed based on the movement patterns of the prayers in the mosques. The results indicated that Islamic wisdom (including spatial order) directly affects and plays a significant role in determining the relationship between the mosque's various spaces and the mosque's structure in general

Beyond technology, drips, and machines: Moral distress in PICU nurses caring for end-of-life patients.

Moral distress is an experience of profound moral compromise with deeply impactful and potentially long-term consequences to the individual. Critical care areas are fraught with ethical issues, and end-of-life care has been associated with numerous incidences of moral distress among nurses. One such area where the dichotomy of life and death seems to be at its sharpest is in the pediatric intensive care unit. The purpose of this study was to understand the moral distress experiences of pediatric intensive care nurses when caring for pediatric patients at the end of life. A secondary analysis was undertaken of seven transcripts from registered nurses across six Canadian pediatric intensive care units and produced three themes: under prioritization of child patient dignity, burden of insider knowledge, and environmental constraints on nursing roles and responsibilities. When caring for patients at the end of life, nurses experienced moral distress when a dignified death was not realized. Furthermore, despite interprofessional collaboration efforts in Canada, the concept of silo mentality persists and contributes to moral distress. Organizational involvement is needed to address moral distress in pediatric intensive care nurses both to achieve a dignified death for child patients and in addressing silo mentality.

Exposure to relaxing words during sleep promotes slow-wave sleep and subjective sleep quality.

Our thoughts alter our sleep, but the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. We propose that mental processes are active to a greater or lesser extent during sleep and that this degree of activation affects our sleep depth. We examined this notion by activating the concept of “relaxation” during sleep using relaxation-related words in 50 healthy participants. In support of our hypothesis, playing relaxing words during non-rapid eye movement sleep extended the time spent in slow-wave sleep, increased power in the slow-wave activity band after the word cue, and abolished an asymmetrical sleep depth during the word presentation period. In addition, participants reported a higher sleep quality and elevated subjective alertness. Our results support the notion that the activation of mental concepts during sleep can influence sleep depth. They provide a basis for interventions using targeted activations to promote sleep depth and sleep quality to foster well-being and health.

Sparks of Life: The Concept of Fire in Iron Working

The author discusses fire as a concept, with an emphasis on traditional iron working and its links with bodily based experiences played out as material metaphors as well as mental conceptions. In East African iron using communities, iron smelting was cloaked in secrecy, seclusion and gendered sexual connotations. An elaborate use of bodily based metaphors guided the use of magic and medicines and created moral laws during periods of smelting. The article will attempt to explain how concepts of fire were related to this. Some preliminary comparisons are made between Greek, Norse and African myths and legends about smiths and their role as 'masters of fire'. Finally, by drawing on case studies based on fieldwork among Fipa and Pangwa blacksmiths and former iron smelters, the author will explore the interconnections between concepts of fire, bodily based metaphors and metal production.

Architectural journey between gratitude and presence

The research deals with the journey of gratitude, then farewell architecture, as they are represented in the united architecture that contained them. Which defined as an architecture that combined to confront the epidemic, dealing with different theories, therefore, Architects have intellectual responses that seek to reach new formations. Consequently, the research problem emerged on the need to reveal the concept of gratitude architecture, and architecture as a farewell trip, in light of the global pandemic crisis. To be affected and interact with it, in search of balance and stability. To reach the goal of the research represented in the search for an intellectual product as a response and reaction to the architecture of gratitude and departure as part of the united architecture, whose concepts interact with the spatial, temporal in the midst of attending the epidemic crisis. The results are extracting mental concepts describing the architecture of gratitude, architecture as a farewell journey as a result of its interaction with the epidemic crisis.

PND57 Examining Fatigue in Progressive MS: Results from a Qualitative Study and Review of PRO Measures

Although fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) and several patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments assess MS-related fatigue, few PROs include the perspective of progressive MS (PMS) patients in their development. This qualitative study was conducted to understand fatigue in a PMS population and evaluate the conceptual frameworks of existing MS-specific PROs for use in this population. A previous targeted literature review identified MS-specific fatigue PROs. A discussion guide was developed with the concepts from these PROs. Following IRB approval and consent, adult PMS subjects who reported MS-related fatigue in the last 6 months were individually interviewed to elicit MS-related fatigue concepts. Data were analyzed and compared to concepts in existing PRO instruments to evaluate their relevance in a PMS population. Of the 30 PMS subjects that participated, 70% were female, mean age was 51 years [range 32–75 years] and 47% were primary PMS, 33% were active secondary PMS, and 20% were non-active secondary PMS. All participants reported fatigue had physical components, described commonly as feeling “tired”, “weak”, “exhausted”, or having “low energy”. Most participants (80%) noted fatigue had mental components including difficulty communicating, concentrating, or focusing. When comparing the qualitative interview findings to the concepts in the identified MS-specific fatigue PROs, the fatigue symptoms and impacts questionnaire (FSIQ-RMS) was the most suitable to PMS individuals as concepts in the qualitative research aligned with the FSIQ-RMS items. The modified fatigue impact scale (MFIS) was deemed suitable contingent on modifications. Other identified PRO instruments have low suitability as they omit key concepts and/or do not distinguish between mental and physical aspects of fatigue. This qualitative study provides meaningful physical and mental concepts of fatigue in a PMS population and preliminary support of the appropriateness of the FSIQ-RMS in assessing fatigue in PMS patients.

Children's conceptions of memory and imagination - from conceptual knowledge to metacognition. Phenomenographical study

The article presents a research project which applied the methodology of phenomenography to describe children's conceptions of memory and imagination. The comparison of two mental concepts was considered a natural cognitive procedure, conducive to reflection on one's own knowledge concerning the features of thought processes and relationships between them. The graphic and verbal explications developed in the course of the task were used to build a map of children's ways of conceptualizing memory and imagination. A group of 59 nine-year-old children (third grade students of several Polish public schools) participated in the research. The conceptions identified as a result of the phenomenographic analysis (a/ memory and imagination as a mental action; b/ memory and imagination as a mental product, and c/ memory and imagination as the subject's resource) proved to be cumulative and inseparable, i.e. the conceptions with a higher level of complexity and sophistication contained elements of simpler, less mature conceptualizations. The analysis of the collected materials leads to the conclusion that organizing one's own metacognitive knowledge in terms of similarities and differences between cognitive processes can provide an important mechanism for learning, allowing to trigger the meanings’ movement between different dimensions of subject's awareness - implicit and explicit, subjective and objective one. The task designed as research tool can be used by teachers as a sort of scaffolding for awakening and supporting children's abilities which are in the zone of proximal development, in the course of intensive development. Conclusions and implications for further research are presented in the summary of the text.

Construct Validity of the Mentalization Scale (MentS) Within a Mixed Psychiatric Sample.

Introduction: The concept of mentalizing is nowadays widely used in research as well as in clinical practice. Despite its popularity, the development of an economic assessment is still challenging. The Mentalization Scale appears to be a promising measurement with good psychometric properties but lacking convergent validity with the Reflective Functioning Scale.Objective: This study aims to test the construct validity of the Mentalization Scale through correlations with the gold standard, the Reflective Functioning Scale, within a clinical sample. Furthermore, it was of interest to replicate its internal consistency.Methods: Twenty-six inpatients of an acute psychiatric ward in Vienna were given the Mentalization Scale (MentS). They were interviewed with the Brief Reflective Function Interview, which was coded with the Reflective Functioning Scale. Correlations and internal consistency were calculated.Results: Concerning the primary aim of this study, the validity was satisfactory for the MentS whole-scale mentalizing as well as for the subscales self- and other-oriented mentalizing. Internal consistency was lower to the findings of the developer and close to the 0.70 threshold.Conclusion: Our findings could foster the psychometric properties of the MentS. Furthermore, the MentS seems to be a promising measurement tool for detecting different dimensions of reflective functioning. Limitations and further research are discussed.

POLITICAL POWER: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES

Problem setting. There is evidence that Political power plays a crucial role in regulating social processes. But it is also a difficult concept to understand and define. That`s why this phenomenon has been studied by many researchers using different methods and absolutely different scientific approaches, what has made it an ambigious term. It causes an actuality of synthesizing the most significant innovative concepts into unite theoretical background.
 Resent research and publication analysis. Previous research has established that Political power is related to Power of law. A number of cross-sectional studies suggest an association between Political power and Public governance, State Power. The issue has been a controversial and much disputed subject within the multidisciplinary field of sociological, culturelogical, psychological and even linguistical researches. As a result, this concept has recently been challenged by postmodernist`s studies demonstrating its hidden features. We should notice a big number of scholars, from M. Faucault and P. Bourdieu to S. Lukes and K. Dowding, whose developments in the field of Cratology have led to a renewed interest in political power.
 Paper objective. The purpose of this investigation is to explore the innovative approaches to political power understanding and to give own definition of this phenomenon.
 Paper main body. The methodological approach taken in this study is a mixed methodology based on qualitative and quantative, theoretical and empirical studies. The overall structure of the study takes the form of two conditional parts. The first part of this paper examines the innovative approaches to general power understanding. In the section we are proving that power is based on information. The second part also begins by laying out the theoretical dimensions of the research, and looks what is political power at postmodernist`s context. In summary, information is seemed to be the most efficient power resource, because it touches each part of people existence.
 Conclusions of the research. So, we can confirm that political power is perceived rather as communicative, mental concept than a part of state`s institution system. In other words, now it is believed that modern power as kind of social influence is appearing from every part of social life due to its cognitive nature, but at the same time it is almost disappearing as traditional part of government structure. The result of the analysis is also proclaimed by the author's approach to the rationalization of “political power”: “classical” (power and political power are the same), “institutional” (based on the law and the state form of political power) and “functional” (based on the information power that is aimed to political processes. The next result of the article is our political power clarifying. According to the R. Dahl’s definition and the V. Ledyaev’s classification we define political power as a “A`s possibility to construct B`s “picture of the world”. So, this study seems to be relevant. In conclusion I’d like to say that this topic is perceived as inexhaustible and that theme is still so actual for further multidisciplinary researches.

A Model to Enhance Overall Well-being, Mental Health Practice and Professional Development among Division III Student-Athletes as They Transition from Athlete to Professional

The goal of this project was to create an impactful program, entitled “PROF Academy”, to assist Division III college student-athletes as they transition into the professional environment by providing education on mental health and overall well-being concepts, such as mindfulness, stress management, anxiety reduction techniques and understanding depression. PROF Academy consisted of workshops and online modules addressing the above topics, as well as career development skills, focused on resume and cover letter writing, interviewing skills and networking. This innovative program was designed to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration among a Division III campus to holistically bolster the psychosocial well-being and mental health of student-athletes.

035 Activating the concept of “relaxation” during sleep using relaxation-related words

Abstract Introduction Cognitive processes (e.g., rumination, perception of an unfamiliar sleeping environment, relaxation techniques) alter our sleep, but the underlying mechanisms are still unknown. Theories of embodied or grounded cognition assume that semantic meaning is stored in multimodal neuronal networks. We therefore assume that cognitive concepts are closely linked to related bodily functions. We propose that mental processes are active to a greater or lesser extent during sleep and that this degree of activation affects our sleep depth. Methods We examined this notion by activating the concept of “relaxation” during sleep using relaxation-related words in 50 healthy participants. After an adaption night, subjects slept in the sleep laboratory for two experimental nights according to a within-subject cross-over design. During one experimental night, relaxing words (e.g., “sea”, “relax”) were presented to promote sleep depth. During the other experimental night, control words were presented (e.g., “produce”, “materials”). As the amount of SWS peaks within the first sleep cycle, words were presented during NREM sleep starting with the second sleep cycle (at the latest 120 min after sleep onset). In addition, a mood and a subjective sleep quality questionnaire was conducted. Results In support of our hypothesis, playing relaxing words during non-rapid eye movement sleep extended the time spent in slow-wave sleep during the period, when words were presented. Furthermore, power in the slow-wave activity band was increased several seconds after the cue for relaxing compared with control words. The increased sleep depth by means of relaxing words was accompanied by a reduced interhemispheric asymmetry of SWA and slow-wave density in the during-cueing period. The changes observed in objective sleep translated to the subjective level with an increase in subjective sleep quality and alertness ratings. Conclusion The present study showed that the semantic meaning of words presented during NREM sleep is capable of affecting sleep physiology, SWS maintenance and the subjective evaluation of sleep quality. Our results support the notion that the activation of mental concepts during sleep can influence sleep depth and provide a basis for interventions using targeted activations to promote sleep depth and sleep quality to foster well-being and health. Support (if any):

Whitehead and the Pittsburgh School: Preempting the Problem of Intentionality

Whitehead and the Pittsburgh School: Preempting the Problem of Intentionality