Natural Science Paradigm Research Articles

Phenomenology of Mystical Psychedelic Experiences: The Case of Existential Anxiety

AbstractThe essay offers an interpretation of psychedelic peak experiences. It criticizes the quasi-scientific naturalistic attempts to explain such experiences and offers an alternative ontology underlying a more complex sense of naturalism, thus defending an entheogenic view irreducible to mere psychological effects. First, the mainstream ontology in the paradigm of natural sciences is exposed as being a version of the ontology of presence. This fact is shown as the reason for the phenomenological gap and the impotence of the natural sciences to address human experience. Next, existential anxiety is interpreted in terms of Heidegger’s ontology and is suggested as the core dimension of possible spiritual transformation. Finally, the phenomenology of mystical psychedelic experiences (MPE) is interpreted in terms of overcoming existential anxiety– a well-documented effect of MPE – and explicated in ontological terms. The psychedelic experience is shown to be mystical in a sense of transcending the everyday mode of existential denial of the enigmatic nature of the universe by facing the nothingness in a way that transforms one’s stand within it into a stand of original belongingness to the field of emptiness (Nishitani). Different aspects of psychedelic experience are explained and co-related in terms of such a transformation.

Семантико-стилистические особенности трактата Канта «Наблюдения над чувством прекрасного и возвышенного»: искусство видения и описания объекта

Immanuel Kant’s Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime is examined in the context of the emergence of the epistemological practice of scientific observation. By focusing on the genre-stylistic and semantic-structural features of the text the authors demonstrate the mechanisms of observation as well as the methods of describing the results characteristic of mid-eighteenth century science. The authors consider Kant’s treatise to be a hybrid text: on the one hand, it attests to the importance of the natural science paradigm and the degree of its influence on the humanities in the modern period; and, on the other hand, it bears witness to the multi-genre character of philosophical treatises, combining as they do the considered and serious wisdom of philosophy, the precision of scientific terminology and the figurativeness of a work of fiction. Kant is perceived not only as a researcher and philosopher capable of bringing out the essence of the particular and changeable captured in observation, but as a writer with a consummate command of the apparatus for keeping the reader’s attention through linguistic devices and practices of image-creating. The authors demonstrate how the categories of the “beautiful” and “sublime” become a general framework for the description of the moral and mental properties of human nature. The authors show that Kant’s use of “aesthetic” wording in the title of his treatise does not announce that his aim is analysis of artistic perception and practices, but mainly refers to the form of his anthropological study and conceptualisation of scientific knowledge. Kant has transferred the technique of visualisation from natural sciences to the objects of philosophical inquiry, thus contributing to the development in the humanities of representative practices, the scientific method of observation as well as the corresponding epistemic and literary genre.

Preface

The 10th International Seminar on New Paradigm and Innovation on Natural Science and Its Application (10th ISNPINSA)“Developing Innovations and Challenges in Science And Technology For Better Living”September 24-25, 2020The International Seminar on New Paradigm and Innovation of Natural Sciences and its Application (ISNPINSA) is an annual conference organized by the Faculty of Sciences and Mathematics (FSM), Diponegoro University (UNDIP), Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. This seminar has been successfully conducted since 2011 and therefore becoming an annual event since then. This annual ISNPINSA has been intensively achieved high level improvement in strengthening the collaboration between scientists either from Indonesia or other countries, stimulating a new research partnership, and contributing to formulating policies to increase the important roles of science for the community.The 10th ISNPINSA was held on September 24-25, 2020 with the theme of “DEVELOPING INNOVATIONS AND CHALLENGES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR BETTER LIVING”. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the conference process was carried out virtually using licensed Zoom media. The presentations were categorized into two terms, which were plenary presentation and parallel presentation. Keynote speakers were invited to deliver their expertise and research findings at the plenary presentation and each had given 1 hour of speech. While invited speakers together with all parallel presenters delivered their presentation in parallel session with time of speech including Q&A for each of 15 minutes.The number of participants of the seminar were 313 including 7 keynote speakers, 5 invited speakers, presenters and non-presenters coming from various institutions of various countries consist of researchers, lecturers, postgraduate and undergraduate students from various universities. There were 263 papers presented in this seminar and after the review process, there are 199 articles to be published in the present conference proceeding. All published articles remain the sole responsibility of the author for the content of the paper.List of STEERING COMMITTEE & ADVISORY BOARD, ORGANIZING COMMITTEE, REFEREES AND EDITORS, SPEAKER and this titles are available in this pdf.

Modern educational formats: technology of flipped chemistry teaching

The article substantiates the need for the use of modern educational technology of blended learning flipped classroom in school education. The solution to the research problem is based on theoretical, methodological and practical issues that are considered in the research. The authors focus on the achievements of both modern sciences based on the formation of the natural science paradigm and the achievements of modern pedagogy aimed at the formation of natural science thinking. The study of chemistry at school is realized by the methodological potential of competence-based and personality-oriented approaches. The model of teaching chemistry consists of updated content, interactive methods and organizational forms, traditional and distance learning tools and a set of organizational and pedagogical conditions. The obtained results of the pedagogical experiment allow us to assume that the use of the flipped classroom blended learning technology has increased the level of internal motivation of students to study chemistry. This technology allows us to individualize and activate the educational process.

Binswanger's Existential Analysis and Dasein Analysis M. Boss: to the History of Formation of the Existential Approach in Psychology

The article is of an overview nature and aims at a preliminary analysis of the origins of the existential tradition in psychology. The author considers the existential analysis of L. Binswanger and the Dasein analysis of M. Boss as concepts that have arisen in contrast to the natural science paradigm in psychology, in particular, psychoanalysis. It shows that the existential approach in psychology arises as an attempt to form a new view of man in science, based on philosophical traditions: the phenomenology of E. Husserl and the fundamental ontology of M. Heidegger. At the same time, Binswanger’s teaching is defined as an anthropological type of scientific research aimed at studying the essence of human existence; the doctrine of M. Boss — as an ontological concept in psychology. Particular attention is paid to the issue of implementing the principles of the teachings under consideration in work of existentially oriented psychotherapists and counseling psychologists. The article shows that the basis of the both concepts is the phenomenological method.

New methodological approach to the development of the theory of electric traction of urban electric transport

The article presents the scientific hypothesis that the modes of operation of electric traction equipment as part of an automated electric drive of the rolling stock of urban electric transport are formed under the influence of a complexly organized technological process of electric traction and are the topological basis of its structure. The aim of the study was to study the process of converting electrical energy into a targeted mechanical movement of rolling stock in the implementation of all technological conditions of the production and technical system of urban electric transport. The theoretical study was carried out on the basis of a methodological analysis of the theory of electrical equipment, the theory of automatic control and an automated electric drive, the theory of electric traction, the theory of motion construction, a systematic approach and a synergistic natural science paradigm. The main result is a formulated scientific concept, which allows to present the process of electric traction as a system consisting of five levels that are in hierarchical relations and solve each specific problem of building the movement of electric transport. The obtained theoretical system will allow developing the general theory of electric traction of urban electric transport by improving the methodological principles of the formation of operating modes of electric traction equipment when implementing the transportation process technology in the production and technical system of urban electric transport.

Maslow’s Unacknowledged Contributions to Developmental Psychology

Few readily identify Maslow as a developmental psychologist. On the other hand, Maslow’s call for holistic/systemic, phenomenological, and dynamic/relational developmental perspectives in psychology (all being alternatives to the limitations of the dominant natural science paradigm) anticipated what emerged both as and in the subdiscipline of developmental psychology. In this article, we propose that Maslow’s dynamic systems approach to healthy human development served as a forerunner for classic and contemporary theory and research on parallel constructs in developmental psychology that provide empirical support for his ideas—particularly those affiliated with characteristics of psychological health (i.e., self-actualization) and the conditions that promote or inhibit it. We also explore Maslow’s adaptation of Goldstein’s concept of self-actualization, in which he simultaneously: (a) explicated a theory of safety versus growth that accounts for the two-steps-forward-one-step-back contiguous dynamic that realistically characterizes the ongoing processes of being-in-becoming and psychological integration in human development/maturity and (b) emphasized being-in-the-world-with-others with the intent of facilitating the development of an ideal society by promoting protective factors that illustrate Maslow’s safety, belonging, and esteem needs. Finally, we dialogue with the extant literature to clarify common misgivings about Maslow’s ideas.

Finansowy wymiar psychoterapii a relacja psychoterapeutyczna

This paper aims to discuss selected issues related to the effect exerted by the financial aspects of psychotherapy on a psychotherapeutic relationship. At the beginning, I consider the effect that remuneration received by the therapist directly from the customer can have on their therapeutic relationship. Then I discuss the issues related to the compensation for psychotherapy services and show the consequences which the criteria of compensating for specific therapeutic methods have for the quality of psychotherapeutic relationships, as well as the influence which the requirement to study the effectiveness of psychotherapy in the natural science paradigm has on psychotherapeutic services. The arguments I put forward lead to the conclusion that the criteria of the compensation for psychotherapeutic services can change the psychotherapeutic relationship into a business relationship and, as a result, the therapist can start to treat the customer instrumentally.

Can nursing epistemology embrace p-values?

The use of correlational probability values (p-values) as a means of evaluating evidence in nursing and health care has largely been accepted uncritically. There are reasons to be concerned about an uncritical adherence to the use of significance testing, which has been located in the natural science paradigm. p-values have served in hypothesis and statistical testing, such as in randomized controlled trials and meta-analyses to support what has been portrayed as the highest levels of evidence in the framework of evidence-based practice. Nursing has been minimally involved in the rich debate about the controversies of treating significance testing as evidentiary in the health and social sciences. In this paper, we join the dialogue by examining how and why this statistical mechanism has become entrenched as the gold standard for determining what constitutes legitimate scientific knowledge in the postpositivistic paradigm. We argue that nursing needs to critically reflect on the limitations associated with this tool of the evidence-based movement, given the complexities and contextual factors that are inherent to nursing epistemology. Such reflection will inform our thinking about what constitutes substantive knowledge for the nursing discipline.

Kategoria rozwoju w psychologii life-span i jej metodologiczne implikacje

The subject of this paper is the concept of development in life span psychology. The claim was put forward that the picture of human development presented by contemporary developmental psychology is unsatisfactory, and that the reason for this is the incompatibility of the methodological paradigm of natural sciences adopted by psychology with the specificity of the object of study of developmental psychology. An analysis of the nature of development within Bernard Kaplan’s genetic-dramatism perspective and John R. Searle’s theory of mind and social reality was presented. Also, its methodological implications were delineated, drawing attention to the attempt of both perspectives to coordinate the logic of cause and effect with the one of intention, purposes and aims in studying human development

Konflikt und Potenz innerhalb und zwischen Gruppen/ Conflict and Potency Within a Group and Between Different Groups

Summary Group analysts tend to shy away from conflict and avoid difficult conversations about the potency of power and authority. As a community group analysts assume in a socially unconscious way that all power is malignant and that all groups are without hierarchy. The civilising or destructive potency of conflict within a group or between different groups is not really studied. In addition, group analysts tend to practice „ancestor worship“ and avoid competitive research, which can live up to the dominant natural science paradigm. We show our potency by quoting our founding gods, rather than through our own, and validated, discoveries.

Ontological Inquiry and Emblematic Meanings of Life

Ontological Inquiry and Emblematic Meanings of Life Angelica M. D. Tratter (bio) Keywords existential psychotherapy, ontological, implicit world-projection, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty I am grateful for the valuable commentaries to my paper that nicely complement each other in their general focus and, taken together, provide me with a welcome opportunity to further clarify a few central points. Melvin Woody spells out the philosophical context within which Heidegger’s ‘ontological turn’ can be appreciated by contrasting it, both, with Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology as well as with the epistemological premises of empirical sciences. He pays particular attention to the welcome possibilities as well as challenges of an existential–ontological approach for psychiatrists trying to make sense of the complex meaning dimensions in their patients’ lives and worldhood, while trained in the for the medical disciplines so central empirical–natural science paradigm. In turn, Kym Maclaren follows my elaborations on Binswanger’s world-design and Merleau-Ponty’s notion of emblems of Being and re-describes them as “matrices of meaning” and “characteristic forms of sense-making” that are present “not just with trauma, but in all lived experience, by virtue of our historicity” (2015, 148). This brings her to question the significance of the idea that ontical matters can become an ontological issue or problem. Maclaren also notes that there are still some traces of the subject–object divide in my language, despite my exposition and affirmation of a relational vision of human existence and the world. Questions about the place and role of existential ontology and its relation to the sciences are certainly of perennial interest; thus, Woody’s sketch of the broader philosophical landscape within which my inquiry can be situated is very helpful. I also find myself principally in agreement with Maclaren’s thoughts about the distinction of the ontical from the ontological being ‘tricky.’ I think it is so for a number of reasons, even when staying strictly within the Heideggerian frame of reference, not least of which being that no ontological inquiry could get off the ground without a pre-ontological relationship to the ontical. Typical critiques of a purported ‘erroneous’ ontical-ontological nexus would come in the form of ‘if it isn’t fundamental ontology, it isn’t ontological’ or ‘if it’s not among the existentials described by Heidegger, it’s not relevant for existential ontology.’ However, as I have suggested, there are good reasons to reach outside Heidegger’s thinking of Being and Time. Specifically, I have based my ‘breach’ of the Heideggerian frame on the critique of the validity of universal ontological structures. To this, other arguments could be summoned, for example, Gilles Deleuze (1994) questioned the purported unity of temporality as the basic structure of [End Page 155] Dasein in its Being-in-the-world. This could be of potential relevance to some aspects of temporality addressed in my case examples. Perhaps temporality does not just manifest in its ontical variations and (deficient) modifications of an ever-same unitary ontological structure of becoming but would appear as an altogether different ontological phenomenon, what Deleuze introduced as the temporality of ruptures. However, this may lead us too far afield so I shall return to Maclaren (2015), who approaches this question from the opposite direction: why can’t any ontical experience be of ontological significance? Specifically: why would ontological insecurity or oversensitivity be different from regular ‘unhappiness at work,’ because with ontological attunement any form of distress “could (within the therapeutic relationship) lead into an exploration of how being is at issue for us” (p. 149). Here my answer is, according to my own take on this issue, both, a qualified yes, and a general no. If an exploration of the unhappiness at work brings to light a pervasive implicit meaning projection that is co-constitutive of the whole meaning of Being-in-the-world and of which the unhappiness is an ontical sign or experience, then yes. However, it would still not be the unhappiness as such that would be of ontological significance, but the particular all-encompassing implicit world projection and world relationship which colors our historicity in a dominant way and is, of course, always embodied and in a...

Taking Darwin metaphorically and literally: genres and sciences in a survival struggle

The tendency to emulate the nomothetic discourse of the natural sciences appeared in the history of genre theory, including that of Darwin’s evolutionary theory. According to both the positivist history of literary genres (Brunetiere) and the materialistic-systemic approach (Moretti), the concept of evolution figures as an epistemic metaphor through which the discipline can re-conceptualize itself and thus achieve a scientific nomothetic character. During the present heyday of social Darwinism and global economism, the epistemological difference between the humanities and hard sciences is escalating into a struggle for the survival of both: the modern branch of literary Darwinism understands the theory of evolution literally and uses it to interpret literature (including its genres) as a phenomenon resulting from remote evolutionary adaptations of the human species. Neo-Darwinists advertise that a full harmonization of literary studies with the natural-science paradigm (“consilience”) will ensure the former’s survival; yet, they practice traditional literary interpretation, seeking in literary texts allegories of the biologically conceived “human nature.”

The Concept of the 'New Soviet Man' As a Eugenic Project: Eugenics in Soviet Russia after World War II

This article penetrates the idealistic, Marxist concept of the 'new Soviet man', linking it with the notion of eugenics. Departing from a reconstruction of the history and specificity of the eugenic movement in Russia since the late 19th century until the installation of Joseph Stalin as the only ruler of the Soviet Union, Lysenkoism paradigm of Soviet natural sciences is being evoked as a theoretical frame for Soviet-specific eugenic programme. Through referring to a number of chosen – both theoretical (classic Marxist works) and practical (chosen aspects of Soviet science and internal politics) – issues and cases, the concept of the 'new Soviet man' is being confronted with an original reading of eugenics, understood in neo-Lamarckian terms of direct shaping human beings through environmental conditions (comprehending the GULag system of labour camps, pseudo-medical experiments and other) and intergenerational transfer (through inheritance) of acquired traits.

The biopsychosocial model and its potential for a new theory of homeopathy

Since the nineteenth century the theory of conventional medicine has been developed in close alignment with the mechanistic paradigm of natural sciences. Only in the twentieth century occasional attempts were made to (re)introduce the 'subject' into medical theory, as by Thure von Uexküll (1908-2004) who elaborated the so-called biopsychosocial model of the human being, trying to understand the patient as a unit of organic, mental, and social dimensions of life. Although widely neglected by conventional medicine, it is one of the most coherent, significant, and up-to-date models of medicine at present. Being torn between strict adherence to Hahnemann's original conceptualization and alienation caused by contemporary scientific criticism, homeopathy today still lacks a generally accepted, consistent, and definitive theory which would explain in scientific terms its strength, peculiarity, and principles without relapsing into biomedical reductionism. The biopsychosocial model of the human being implies great potential for a new theory of homeopathy, as may be demonstrated with some typical examples.

Paradigmenkrise in der Homöopathie: homöopathische Medizin und naturwissenschaftliche Rationalität

In den letzten Jahrzehnten erlebt die Homöopathie eine Weiterentwicklung in viele neue Richtungen. Unter diesen Umständen ist es besonders wichtig, sich in kritischer Selbstreflexion des konstituierenden Rationalitätsbegriffs unserer Wissenschaft zu versichern. Dies soll hier zunächst in Abgrenzung zum naturwissenschaftlichen Paradigma durchgeführt werden.

A new scientific framework for quantitative risk assessments

Many analysts consider Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) to be an application of statistics and founded on the natural science paradigm. However, if the goal is the accurate estimation of some true underlying risk parameters, QRA fails as a scientific method. The alternative is to consider QRA to be a method for describing uncertainties. The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss a new scientific framework founded on such a perspective. The framework is based on knowledge-based (subjective) probabilities to express uncertainties about unknown quantities, as well as on the qualitative assessment of uncertainties extending beyond the probabilistic analysis. Risk is viewed as the combination of events/consequences and associated uncertainties. Critical methodological issues, such as model uncertainty, are clarified. Several examples are included to motivate and explain the basic ideas of the framework.

Evaluating organizational-level work stress interventions: Beyond traditional methods

Since the early 1990s, there has been a growing literature on organizational-level interventions for work-related stress, and associated calls for such interventions to be evaluated. At the same time, doubts have been expressed about the adequacy of traditional scientific research methods in applied psychology (the natural science paradigm) in providing an effective framework for such evaluations. This paper considers some of the philosophical and methodological issues raised by evaluation research in relation to organizational-level interventions for work-related stress. Four key issues are discussed: the concept of a study being “fit for purpose” in relation to research designs and the nature of acceptable evidence; the issue of control of research conditions in real-world studies; the need to evaluate process as well as outcome, including the interrelated nature of process and outcome; and the interpretation of imperfect evidence sets. The starting point of this paper is the reality of organizational life, which is complex and continually changing. Its main objective is not to offer an alternative to a scientific approach but to argue for a more broadly conceived and eclectic framework for evaluation that acknowledges the limitations of the traditional approach. It espouses an approach that is reflective of the reality of organizational life and in which the methods used for evaluating an intervention are fit for purpose. The paper concludes by offering an outline framework for this broader approach to the evaluation of interventions.

Is there an alternative to using the natural science paradigm?

Research using a phenomenological approach aims to capture the ‘lived experience’ of the subject. Andy Nott argues that it offers scope to see nursing as both an art and a science

Organizational interventions: facing the limits of the natural science paradigm.

This paper reviews current challenges in the conceptualization, design, and evaluation of organizational interventions to improve occupational health. It argues that attempts to confirm cause-and-effect relationships and allow prediction (maximize internal validity) are often made at the expense of generalizability (external validity). The current, dominant experimental paradigm in the occupational health research establishment, with its emphasis on identifying causal connections, focuses attention on outcome at the expense of process. Interventions should be examined in terms of (i) conceptualization, design and implementation (macroprocesses) and (ii) the theoretical mediating mechanisms involved (microprocesses). These processes are likely to be more generalizable than outcomes. Their examination may require the use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. It is suggested that such an approach holds unexplored promise for the healthier design, management, and organization of future work.