Conscious Procedures Research Articles

On the Indian tradition of mathematical names: A scientific analysis

The current paper explores the potential interlink between names of individuals in a society and its collective social consciousness, particularly with reference to the pervasive occurrence of the ‘mathematical names’ in the current Hindu society spanning the Indian subcontinent and beyond. Initially, an attempt is made to put things into mathematical perspective by drawing a quick sketch of some of the stellar achievements of the Indian mathematicians. Under the six broad categories of geometry, trigonometry, numeration, arithmetic, algebra, and mathematics in the Vedic tradition, a concise simple description of these subdivisions is presented, underlining selected mathematical concepts and terms, sometimes by producing the textual references. We hypothesize that such terms permeate as names in the current Hindu society, reflecting the impressions of the tremendously rich mathematical heritage left by the stalwart Hindu mathematicians. Accordingly, an attempt is made to juxtapose these terms with the names current in the Indian Hindu society. By employing an extensive dataset of university student names in India and the directories of Facebook and LinkedIn, we produce both qualitative and quantitative evidence of the presence of such names in the Indian subcontinent. Our hypothesis has also been examined by taking surveys of people bearing these mathematical names, as well as by documenting the ‘conscious procedures’ that go behind the naming of a Hindu Indian child. In trying to investigate if such a phenomenon is unique to the Indian tradition, a stark contrast with the ‘names in mathematics’ as prevalent in the post-renaissance Europe is presented, as cultural roots of mathematics are explored. Evidently, the large magnitude and the span of such names substantiates the presence of these names as the extant remains of the colossal impact of multifarious mathematical traditions existing in India. Interestingly, the present research also brings to the fore, certain unseen facets of the Indian Hindu society as regards the education of mathematics to women – through an indirect exploration of their names. We also show that the pervasive occurrence of these names is not merely the result of semantic chance events, but must denote the richness of the Indian mathematical legacy. By presenting some cross-cultural comparisons, we bring about the specific uniqueness of Indian mathematical and scientific traditions that led to the pervasiveness of ‘mathematical names’ in India vis-a-vis other cultures. Finally, an attempt is made to clarify some subtle points on the associations between mathematics and religion in India and other cultures of the world. It is sincerely hoped that the present study may shed light on the cultural roots of mathematics and may furnish a new dimension in the study of mathematics, culture, and civilizations across the world.

Feeling lonely in the lab: A literature review and partial examination of recent loneliness induction procedures for experiments

Few laboratory experiments have been conducted in loneliness research in the past. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to review, partially investigate and discuss loneliness induction procedures in order to facilitate future laboratory experiments in loneliness research (e.g. to examine the link between loneliness and social cognition). Previous studies have found both unconscious (i.e. professional hypnosis) and conscious (i.e. recalling and calling out lonely experiences) procedures to be successful in inducing loneliness. Another conscious procedure (i.e. recalling and writing down lonely experiences) that has been described in recent literature has not yet been examined. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine this procedure using a one-group before-after design. However, this procedure, in which the participants had to recall and write down two lonely situations, was not found to significantly induce loneliness. Of 16 participants, only three reported at least some higher feelings of loneliness following this procedure.

Mechanisms of Augmentation in Proprioceptive Media Art

In this paper, I explore the phenomenon of augmentation by questioning its representational nature and analyzing aesthetic modes of our interrelationship with the environment. How can senses be augmented and how do they serve as mechanisms of enhancing the feeling of presence? Media art practices offer particularly valuable scenarios of activating such mechanisms, as the employment of digital technology allows them to operate on a more subtle level of perception. Given that these practices are continuously evolving, this analysis cannot claim to be a comprehensive one, but rather aims to introduce aspects of the specific relations between augmentation, sense of proprioception, technology, and art. Proprioception is one of the least detectable and track-able human senses because it involves our intuitive sense of positionality, which suggests a subtle equilibrium between a center (our individual bodies) and the periphery (our immediate environments). Yet, as any sense, proprioception implies a communicational chain, a network of signals traveling and exchanging information within the body-mind complex. The technological augmentation of this dynamic process produces an interference in our understanding of the structure and elements, the information sent/received. One way to understand the operations of the senses is to think about them as images that the mind creates for itself. Artistic intervention (usually) builds upon exactly this logic: representation of images generated in mind, supplementing or even supplanting the existing collection of inner images with new, created ones. Yet, in case of proprioception the only means to interfere with and augment these inner images is on bodily level. Hence, the question of communication through images (or representations) should be extended towards a more complex theory of embodied perception. Drawing on phenomenology, cognitive science, and techno-cultural studies, I focus on the potential of biofeedback technologies to challenge and transform our self-perception by conditioning new pathways of apprehension (sometimes by creating mechanisms of direct stimulation of neural activity). I am particularly interested in how the awareness of the self (grounded in the felt relationality of our body parts) is most significantly activated at the moments of disturbance of balance, in situations of perplexity and disorientation. Projects by Marco Donnarumma, Sean Montgomery, and other artists working with biofeedback aesthetically validate and instantiate current research about neuroplasticity, with technologically mediated sensory augmentation as one catalyst of this process.

Skillful Means and the Interpretation of Christianity

The purpose of this article is to reflect briefly on the significance of the Buddhist concept of skillful means in the wider interpretation of religion, with special reference to Christianity.1 Needless to say, to take a concept from one religious tradition and to consider its possible application in another is an extremely complex exercise, so that these remarks must be taken as nothing more than a few preliminary suggestions. Complex religious traditions are continuously subject to the interpretative efforts of their exponents, and in the case of Buddhism and Christianity some structural similarities are readily apparent, for example with respect to the nature and effect of such religious drives as mission and reform, and with respect to the way in which each is related to its successive environments in terms of adaptation or indigenization. Such processes often take place without a high degree of self-conscious reflection. On the other hand, reflection on these processes does occur in sophisticated traditions such as Buddhism and Christianity, so that the act of interpretation becomes self-conscious. The specific study which I call comparative hermeneutics2 is an attempt to draw comparisons with respect to these more conscious procedures of interpretation employed by exponents of the two traditions. The objectives of such study are twofold. First, it may help to bring greater clarity into our theoretical understanding of the way in which the traditions are handled by believers. A concept articulated in one tradition may be helpful in understanding a state of affairs or a process that is less explicitly understood in another tradition but that nevertheless turns out to be similar in structure. All comparative work helps us to gain a steadier theoretical perspective than would otherwise be possible. Second, such reflections may be of use to exponents of the traditions themselves whether in the further interpretation of their tradition, or in the development of dialogue with the other traditions. This second objective does not form part of the scientific study of religion, and we should be careful to observe the distinction between the study of religion in a scientific sense and the pursuit of theology or interreligious dialogue. However in the