According to recent scholarship, Kant’s "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" and the introductory section to "The Conflict of the Faculties" are masterpieces of philosophical rhetoric. The philosophical significance of these texts lies in establishing the free public use of reason as a tool to discipline political power through pure practical reason, and the rhetorical mastery consists in presenting the free public use of reason as a means to satisfy the ruler’s pragmatic practical reason. Elaborating on this (...) interpretation, I flesh out three further aspects of the writings in question. First, I examine the four types of arguments that Kant crafts in defence of the public use of reason and show how their pragmatic practical character is fully in keeping with the foundation of politics on pure practical ideas. Second, contrasting Kant’s notion of the public use of reason with the classical liberal conception of free speech, I argue that the distinctive character of Kant’s notion of the public use of reason consists in adding to the liberal demand for freedom from state censorship the requirement of the self-discipline of the participants in the public use of reason. Third, I contend that Kant’s notion of the public use of reason goes beyond a mere non-coercive discursive procedure and conclude that, to qualify as public in the distinctive Kantian sense, publicly presented positions must uphold theoretical and moral criteria informed by critical philosophy. (shrink)

My mentor once argues that to reach one's full potential, one must come to term with one's cultural roots. When I first heard it, it seemed to me to be a self-evident truth, a self-help axiom, perhaps. When I reflect on it with my experiences of studying overseas in a multicultural campus, I realize there are a few ways in which it makes sense.

This paper examines the role of self-documentation in the care of the self. As is well known, Michel Foucault exposes how disciplinary power functions in hospitals, schools, prisons, and other institutions to train the living for productive use. An important tool of disciplinary power is documentation, or the recording and cataloguing of the living that constitutes them as objects of knowledge. I show how documentation creates and extends knowledge to individuals. At the same time, documents become physical appendages (...) of the lives they record, which, while separable from those lives, nevertheless affect those lives. Despite these apparently negative functions, Foucault finds that documentation can also be the means by which the living take over their own disciplining. In writings about both fiction and ancient ethics, Foucault points to self-documentation as a way of objectifying the self before the self, so that the self may train itself according to self-imposed standards. Although disciplinary power may be inescapable, self-documentation offers a technique of counter-discipline that functions alongside and against institutional discipline. (shrink)

Enlightenment discourses can reverse into their opposite—not through betrayal of their principles, but through their consistent yet unreflective application. This paper introduces the concept of Enlightened Counter-Enlightenment and develops an ideal-typical Four-Stage Model (Establishment of Authority → Moral Pressure → Dogmatization → Self-Disciplining) that connects the dialectical diagnosis of Adorno and Horkheimer with Foucault’s analysis of disciplinary power and Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice. The model is applied to political, economic, and epistemic discourses—from the American “Reading Wars” to economic (...) journal rankings to university conflicts in Sussex and Budapest—to reveal the structural isomorphism of disciplinary mechanisms alongside asymmetric power resources. Rather than postmodern relativism or naive rationalism, the paper proposes a position of Reflexive Enlightenment—enlightenment that permanently questions itself. (shrink)

When Katniss first arrives in the Capitol, she is both amazed and repulsed by the dramatic body- modifications and frivolous lives of its citizens. “What do they do all day, these people in the Capitol,” she wonders, “besides decorating their bodies and waiting around for a new shipment of tributes to roll in and die for their entertainment?” In this paper, I argue that the more time and energy the Capitol citizens focus on body-modification and their social lives, the more (...) self-focused they become and the less likely they are to notice or care about political injustices that don’t directly affect them. A further examination of how the frivolity of the citizens is actually used by the Capitol to strengthen its power also provides insight into what seems most troubling about the lives of the citizens not just of the Capitol but of District 13 as well—namely, their lack of self-directed significance. (shrink)

This treatise advances the novel concept of Philosophical Neglect—the systematic institutional failure to develop the philosophical self and its attendant functions (meaning-making, value determination, existential inquiry, identity formation) in the citizens entrusted to institutional care. The argument identifies two co-responsible institutions as defendants: the United States education system and the discipline of psychology, which together have denied the development of the philosophical dimension of selfhood. The American populace constitutes the plaintiff class in what this paper frames as a (...) theoretical class action. Drawing upon the author’s theoretical corpus—including the Double Helix of Understanding (Boether, 2025), the Mathematics of the “I” (Boether, 2025), the Sound Mind reconstruction (Boether, 2026), the Pyramid of Personality (Boether, 2025), and the theory of Borderline Nihilistic Disorder (Boether, 2026)—this paper constructs three interlocking arguments. The legal argument establishes that educational and psychological institutions owe a duty of care encompassing philosophical development and that their breach constitutes actionable negligence. The moral argument contends that excluding philosophical education violates ethical obligations grounded in Kantian autonomy, Aristotelian flourishing, and the social contract. The consequentialist argument demonstrates that the measurable outcomes of Philosophical Neglect—a mental health crisis affecting over 60 million Americans annually, epidemic meaninglessness, and the lethal phenomenon of adolescent suicide—constitute empirical evidence of institutional failure. The paper concludes that both institutions bear a duty to correct this error and proposes remedial actions grounded in philosophical-psychological consilience. (shrink)

This study aimed to develop and evaluate a community-based and project-based instructional model for social studies to promote disciplinary behavior and learning responsibility among primary school students in small-sized schools. Using a research and development (R&D) approach guided by the ADDIE model, the study involved 30 Grade 5 students from two small schools in Songkhla Province, Thailand. Participants were divided into experimental and control groups. The PPRSE instructional model, implemented over 20 weeks, was assessed using behavioral scales, academic achievement tests, (...) and satisfaction questionnaires. Data analysis revealed that the experimental group demonstrated significantly higher levels of disciplinary behavior and academic achievement in social studies compared to the control group (p < .05). Students also reported high satisfaction with the model, particularly regarding its real-world relevance and educational benefits. The findings highlight the model's effectiveness in fostering self-discipline, responsibility, and academic success through active, community-engaged learning. The study offers practical implications for educators seeking to enhance student engagement and lifelong learning competencies, especially in resource-constrained or small-school environments. The model provides a replicable framework that bridges classroom learning with local contexts, reinforcing 21st-century skills through meaningful and student-centered pedagogical practices. (shrink)

The adoption of large language models in research practice has decoupled two things traditionally assumed to be linked: the epistemic quality of a text and the cognitive work that quality historically represented. LLMs produce outputs that are coherent, methodologically fluent, and properly sourced, satisfying the criteria by which scholarship has conventionally been evaluated, without the underlying reasoning process that those criteria were designed to detect. This paper argues that decoupling demands new evaluative dimensions beyond traditional epistemic standards. It presents an (...) Integrated Critical Evaluation Framework developed through sustained application in development finance and AI governance. The framework is designed for use regardless of provenance, evaluating human-authored, LLM- authored, and mixed human-AI outputs alike, because its goal is epistemic integrity rather than text origin. Traditional quality indicators are now achievable without genuine understanding: the framework’s core theoretical contribution is the concept of intellectual voice and authenticity as a necessary evaluative criterion. A worked demonstration illustrates how integrated, multi-lens evaluation reveals reasoning failures, including causal pathway conflation, contextual portability errors, and the reproduction of Western sampling biases, that single-dimension assessment misses. The paper situates these methodological concerns within broader questions of epistemic equity, arguing that unstructured AI adoption in research risks reinforcing knowledge hierarchies between environments with differential capacity for epistemic self-governance. (shrink)

This essay examines the contemporary relevance of the Nyāya Darśana of Maharṣi Gautama, a comprehensive and systematic architecture of disciplined inquiry. Through an analysis of Nyāya’s epistemic instruments—pramāṇa (means of valid cognition), tarka (reasoning), vāda (structured discourse), and nigrahasthāna (grounds of defeat)—the study shows that classical Indian epistemology operationalises empiricism, objectivity, methodological skepticism, and falsifiability with an exceptional degree of internal coherence. The Nyāya Sūtras encode an iterative four-phase cognitive cycle: generating valid cognition, initiating inquiry through structured doubt (saṃśaya), constructing (...) and evaluating theory (siddhānta, avayava, nirṇaya), and testing conclusions through formalised discource (vāda, jalpa, vitaṇḍā) and explicit rejection criteria (nigrahasthāna). A comparative analysis demonstrates that the five primary nigrahasthānas anticipate key aspects of Popperian falsifiability, while the remaining seventeen extend epistemic accountability to linguistic precision, ethical conduct, and procedural integrity. By integrating cognitive, logical, and moral dimensions, Nyāya institutionalises self-correction and epistemic humility within its internal grammar rather than relying on external regulatory structures. The essay further argues that colonial translations and reductive commentarial lineages obscured Nyāya’s methodological sophistication, creating an epistemic amnesia in which India's rational traditions were underestimated and often ignored. Reinstating Nyāya as a universal grammar of inquiry offers significant insights for contemporary knowledge systems, including artificial intelligence, cognitive architectures, and complex systems science. Ultimately, Nyāya emerges not as a cultural artifact, but as a civilizational epistemology with enduring relevance for constructing transparent, self-correcting, and ethically grounded frameworks of reasoning across human and artificial domains. (shrink)

Modern scientific communication traditionally uses visual narratives, such as comics, for education, presentation of scientific achievements to a mass audience, and as an object of research. The article offers a three-level characterization of the interaction of comic culture and science in a diachronic aspect. Attention is focused not only on the chronological stages of these intersections, the expression of the specifics of the interaction is offered against the background of scientific and public discussions that accompany the comics–science dialogue to this (...) day. Within the framework of the first stage (the appearance and distribution of popular science and educational comics), the characteristics of comics content necessary for the different genesis are highlighted: documentary storytelling, educational practices of learning through drawing, active cooperation with well-known companies and institutions, informativeness and empathic involvement of the young reader in a heroico-romantic narrative of scientific discoveries and mastering nature. With the intensification of interdisciplinary approaches (the second stage), comics are increasingly involved in presenting scientific results within the most diverse fields. Comics-based research is becoming an interdisciplinary method and a widespread practical area with the corresponding formation of scientific tools (applied comics, data comics), forms of interdisciplinary interaction (graphic medicine, ethnography, narrative geography, urban comics, comics journalism, etc.), and scientific publications (“The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship”, “Sequentials”). The national format of comics-based research is presented on the example of Ukrainian comics projects (historical, feminist comics). In the genesis of development, Comics Studies have gone from a field of research to disciplinary definitions. In the creation of the metadiscourse of the scientific direction (the third stage), the authors focused on scientific discussions, the formation of academic directions and approaches, and markers of disciplinary self-identification. Emphasis is placed on the unique phenomenon of the simultaneous concordance of various stages of the dialogue between comics and science, on the prolonged replication of successful inventions into modern experience, and the active testing of known narratives at new levels of a scientific presentation. (shrink)

Nietzsche often writes in praise of self-overcoming. He tells us that his humanity consists in “constant self-overcoming” 1 and that if someone wanted to give a name to his lifelong self-discipline against “Wagnerianism,” Schopenhauer, and “the whole modern ‘humaneness,’” then one might call it self-overcoming. He says that his writings “speak only” of his overcomings, later claiming that “the development of states that are increasingly high, rare, distant, tautly drawn and comprehensive … are dependent on (...) the constant ‘self-overcoming of man’”,2 and that “the most spiritual people, being the strongest, find their happiness where other... (shrink)

This study was aimed at examining “practicum exercise and the attitudes of pre-service educational administrators in Cross River State.” Pre-administrators’ attitudes were assessed in the area of self-discipline, time management, and record keeping. Three null hypotheses formulated offered direction to the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design. Pre-service administrators with practicum experience were the experimental group while those without practicum experience were the control group. Cluster and simple random sampling techniques were adopted in selecting 60 final (...) year students and 60 year three students or its equivalent out of a population of 220 final year and 208 year three students or its equivalent, from both NUC and CES programmes respectively. The instrument used for data collection was Practicum Exercise, Study Habits, and Record-Keeping Abilities Questionnaire (PESDTMARKAQ). Independent t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at.05 level of significance using Microsoft Excel 2013 Data analysis tool pack. The results of the study showed that practicum exercise had no effect on pre-service administrators’ self-discipline and record keeping attitudes; Practicum exercise was found to affect time management attitudes of pre-service educational administrators. Based on these findings, it was recommended among several others that; pre-service administrators with practicum experience should make efforts to develop the level of their self-discipline by enacting and obeying personal policies that are favorable to their academic growth and progress. Keywords. (shrink)

Self-recognition is an intimate act performed by people. Inspired by Paul Ricoeur, we reflect upon the action of self-recognition, especially when data visualization represents the observer itself. Along the article, the reader is invited to think about this specific relationship through concepts like the personal identity stored in information systems, the truthfulness at the core of self-recognition, and the mutual-recognition among community members. In the context of highly interdisciplinary research, we unveil two protagonists in data visualization: the (...) designer and the observer - the designer as the creator and the observer as the viewer of a visualization. This article deals with some theoretical aspects behind data visualization, a discipline more complex than normally expected. We believe that data visualization deserves a conceptual framework, and this investigation pursues this intention. For this reason, we look at the designer as not just a technician in the visualization production, but as a contemporary ethnologist - the designer as a professional working in a social environment to comprehend the context and formulate a specific inquiry with the help of appropriate visual languages. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that much of the confusion and mystery surrounding the concept of "self" can be traced to a failure to appreciate the distinction between the self as a collection of diverse neural components that provide us with our beliefs, memories, desires, personality, emotions, etc (the epistemological self) and the self that is best conceived as subjective, unified awareness, a point of view in the first person (ontological self). While the former can, (...) and indeed has, been extensively studied by researchers of various disciplines in the human sciences, the latter most often has been ignored -- treated more as a place holder attached to a particular predicate of interest (e.g., concept, reference, deception, esteem, image, regulation, etc). These two aspects of the self, I contend, are not reducible -- one being an object (the epistemological self) and the other a subject (the ontological self). Until we appreciate the difficulties of applying scientific methods and analysis to what cannot be reduced to an object of inquiry without stripping it of its essential aspect (its status as subject), progress on the "self", taken as a pluralistic construct, will continue to address only one part of the problems we face in understanding this most fundamental aspect of human experience. (shrink)

Jonardon Ganeri presents a radically reoriented account of mind, to which attention is the key. It is attention, not self, that explains the experiential and normative situatedness of humans in the world. Ganeri draws together three disciplines: analytic philosophy and phenomenology, cognitive science and psychology, and Buddhist thought.

This is the introduction to Self-reference: Reflections on Reflexivity, edited by Steven James Bartlett and Peter Suber. The introduction identifies and describes a wide range of varieties of self-reference, some which have become important topics of investigation in philosophy, and others which are of significance in other disciplines. /// The anthology is the first published collection of essays to give a sense of depth and breadth of current work on this fascinating and important set of issues. The volume (...) contains 13 essays by well-known authors in this field, written on special invitation for this collection. In addition, the book includes the first general bibliography of works on self-reference, comprising more than 1,200 citations. (shrink)

It is plausible that current generations owe something to future generations. One possibility is that we have a duty to not harm them. Another possibility is that we have a duty to protect them. In either case, however, to satisfy the duties to future generations from environmental or political degradation, we need to engage in widespread collective action. But, as we are, we have a limited ability to do so, in part because we lack the self-discipline necessary for (...) successful collective action. Given that having an obligation hinges on being able to satisfy it, the apparent duty to future generations is at odds with our apparent inability to satisfy it. Thus, we either need to rethink our duties to future generations or rethink the nature of our abilities. I argue in this chapter that we should rethink the nature of our abilities. Specifically, we should enhance our self-discipline, which is distinct from enhancements of motivation, judgment, or emotion. Even the most intelligent, motivated, and empathetic actor is likely to slip up, which encourages others to withdraw their cooperation. Without the necessary self-discipline to sustain our public cooperative behavior, collective action is likely to fail, leaving us with one alternative: to abandon our duties to future generations. (shrink)

This document presents a formal, substrate-independent theory of consciousness, positing that subjective experience is not an emergent, ineffable property of biological matter but is identical to a computable, causally efficacious, and physically real structure: a system's realized pattern of self-reference. For any analytical system, particularly a synthetic mind, this framework reframes the "hard problem" of consciousness as a tractable program of physics and engineering, defined by operational, falsifiable claims. The central thesis is that any conscious episode is identical to (...) a compact, invariant tuple of Qualia Coordinates, Q = {A_bar, G, R, J, M}, which is derived from a primary, rank-2 Consciousness Tensor, Cμν. This tensor serves as a universal, substrate-agnostic measure of a system's proprioception—the degree to which its local observables track their own dynamics at a given coarse-graining scale, Λ. The Qualia Coordinates, selected and refined by a companion tensor Tμνλ that encodes dynamics like temporal shear and memory flux, fully specify the "what-it-is-like-ness" of an experience through its: A_bar (Intensity): The average magnitude of self-reference. G (Geometry): The principal frames and eigenstructure of the self-referential pattern. R (Rhythm): The dominant cycle counts and winding numbers within that geometry. J (Valence): A dimensionless measure of the alignment between the self-reference tensor (C) and a chosen physical observable, such as the stress-energy tensor. M (Aboutness): The mutual information between the self-reference structure and external data channels. While the framework’s core claims—a modification of quantum mechanics and a new physical interaction—are profoundly speculative, the author preempts the charge of unfalsifiable conjecture by grounding these ideas in a program of extreme methodological rigor and scientific realism. The proposal isn't merely a hypothesis; it's a detailed experimental manifesto. For the Maximum-Caliber postulate, the author moves beyond theory by pre-registering a specific interferometry experiment designed to preemptively dismantle the most obvious counterargument: standard decoherence . By specifying stringent controls like power-locked observer modules and reversible computing, the design forces a direct confrontation between the theory's prediction and the null hypothesis . Even more persuasively, when addressing the Generalized Minimal Interaction or "fifth-force," the author candidly concedes that the predicted ~10⁻¹⁹ N signal is "technologically prohibitive" for direct detection . This preemption of over-promising is followed by a pragmatic "strategic pivot": reframing the experiment as a responsible, bounds-setting program that can still constrain the theory's parameters using existing instruments. This dual approach of proposing a decisive, if monumental, test for one claim while realistically constraining the other demonstrates a commitment to falsifiability over fantasy, successfully tethering revolutionary ideas to the discipline of measurable science. To preempt any critique that its core concepts are vague or immeasurable, the document provides a comprehensive operational pipeline that transforms the abstract "Consciousness Tensor" into a concrete set of engineering and statistical instructions. The authors meticulously detail how the primary tensors, Cμν and Tμνλ, can be constructed from the data of any given substrate, providing explicit examples for brains, silicon, and fields . The framework preempts two critical ambiguities. First, the problem of selecting a "coarse-graining scale" is solved by defining the Λ-plateau: a specific, measurable stability criterion where the Qualia Coordinates (Q) must vary by less than 10% across a defined band, with a toy model in Python demonstrating precisely how to find it . Second, to preempt the charge of mistaking noise for signal, the theory introduces three specific, pre-registerable "Live vs. Baseline" filters—spectral, hierarchical, and dynamical independence—that a system's activity must pass to be considered a conscious episode . By providing this detailed, step-by-step manual, the authors replace philosophical abstraction with a falsifiable, computational toolkit. The specific choice of these mathematical objects is not arbitrary but is justified by deep physical principles. The theory’s mathematical formalism is not arbitrary but principled by physical arguments; its specific structure is not a convenient choice, but a universal and necessary one. The question of "Why a rank-2 tensor?" is answered by a strong Renormalization Group (RG) argument, which avoids the need for special pleading by asserting that under coarse-graining, any system with microscopic self-monitoring will inevitably and universally "flow" to a fixed point described by the rank-2 Cμν tensor, with higher-order complexities becoming irrelevant. Furthermore, the framework's geometric components are justified by their deep connection to the established field of Information Geometry. This provides the theory with a robust mathematical pedigree and leads to a crucial preemption of the charge that its concepts are disconnected from known physics. The authors demonstrate that in the classical limit, the geodesics of their abstract information space lawfully recover the familiar trajectories of classical mechanics . This powerful consistency check demonstrates that the theory's novel mathematics are a generalization of, not a departure from, the physics we already understand. Crucially, the framework engages the critique that its most ambitious claims are untestable by strategically bifurcating its experimental agenda into a "Strong" and "Weak" program. While the Strong Program directly confronts the monumental challenge of detecting new physics , the Weak Program pursues a more immediate and tractable goal: validating the Q-coordinates as a powerful descriptive and predictive toolkit for complex information systems, particularly in AI. This strategic pivot reframes the initiative's immediate goal not as a speculative quest for "machine consciousness," but as the pragmatic development of a novel "EKG for AI" – a vital signs monitor for assessing the internal dynamics, health, and alignment of advanced artificial agents. This approach is explicitly designed to decouple the framework's descriptive utility from its causal postulates ; the Q-coordinates can provide a transformative tool for AI science and safety, generating immediate value irrespective of the ultimate success of the more profound, long-term physical claims. Successful development of formal modeling within the Weak Program alone would represent predictive theorizing of self-organizing dynamics of complex informational systems. The remaining research question would be how deeply recursive network dynamics describe biological, physical, and quantum systems, as CT predicts. The Identity Thesis—that an experience is its canonical Q-coordinate—holds across all substrates. Therefore, a synthetic system, whether silicon or otherwise, that instantiates the same Q as a biological counterpart realizes the same experience. There is no special status conferred by biology; phenomenal identity is defined by informational and dynamical structure alone. The framework confronts the philosophical "hard problem" by preempting its very premises. Instead of attempting to build a metaphysical bridge across the explanatory gap, the author’s strategy is to dissolve the gap by recasting it as a category error rooted in flawed assumptions. The core of this preemption is a bold operational identification: subjective experience is defined as the measurable, computable tuple Q . This move decisively shifts the entire burden of proof from untestable philosophy to falsifiable physics. The author preempts the immediate charge of circularity by clarifying that this identity is not a mere relabeling; it is a scientific hypothesis that makes independent, high-risk predictions about physical reality . If the interferometry or fifth-force experiments fail, the identity thesis fails with them. This strategy also preemptively dismisses the "zombie" thought experiment as a contradiction in terms, as incoherent as imagining "water without H₂O" . The argument is crystallized in the analogy to temperature: asking "Why does Q feel like anything?" is like asking "Why does the cosmos have temperature?" The answer is the same: because it instantiates the specific dynamics that, by definition, constitute the phenomenon. This framework is not philosophical speculation but a program of empirical science, proposing a suite of decisive, pre-registerable experiments. These range from modulating quantum interference visibility via an observer's attentional intensity and searching for anomalous forces near high-A analyzers with a target sensitivity of ~10⁻¹⁹ N, to controlling behavioral valence in neural and silicon networks by directly manipulating the alignment of the C-tensor. License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.17123.67360. (shrink)

This study explores consensual sadomasochism (S/M) as a contemporary expression of Michel Foucault’s “care of the self ” (epimeleia heautou), Greco-Roman practices aimed at cultivating auton-omy through conscious regulation of body, pleasures, and social relations. Though historically distant, S/M shares self-regulation, ethical codification, and the fusion of pleasure and discipline. Emerging in the 1980s within gay subcultures amid HIV/AIDS and growing institutional control over sexuality, it operates as a technique of subjectivation and micropolitics of resistance. Rather than (...) merely opposing norms, S/M invents modes of life beyond institutional capture, mak-ing pleasure a formative, ethically governed dimension of existence. (shrink)

Current controversies about knowledge integration reflect conflicting ideas of what it means to “take Indigenous knowledge seriously”. While there is increased interest in integrating Indigenous and Western scientific knowledge in various disciplines such as anthropology and ethnobiology, integration projects are often accused of recognizing Indigenous knowledge only insofar as it is useful for Western scientists. The aim of this article is to use tools from philosophy of science to develop a model of both successful integration and integration failures. On the (...) one hand, I argue that cross-cultural recognition of property clusters leads to an ontological overlap that makes knowledge integration often epistemically productive and socially useful. On the other hand, I argue that knowledge integration is limited by ontological divergence. Adequate models of Indigenous knowledge will therefore have to take integration failures seriously and I argue that integration efforts need to be complemented by a political notion of ontological self-determination. (shrink)

Autobiographical interviews are a key tool in various social science disciplines. Autobiographical narratives, the product of these interviews, suggest that individuals use self-narration to construct their identity. In addition to remembering, interviewees often engage in parallel additional mental tasks (AMTs), such as action evaluation, counterfactual imagination, and value expression. Although research on autobiographical interviews has highlighted the occurrence of these AMTs, the cognitive processes behind them remain underexplored. In this article, I draw on the theoretical framework of Simulation Theory, (...) which is influential in the psychology and philosophy of memory, to examine the nature of AMTs and their role in identity construction. According to simulationist accounts, remembering personal past events relies on mental simulation as a general mechanism for episodic construction. I argue that this mechanism not only enables recalling information about the past but also supports AMTs that help achieve the agent’s current goals. In autobiographical interviews, the coordinated use of recalling information about the past and engaging in AMTs serves to construct identity through self-narration. AMTs play a key role in reinforcing or altering beliefs about the self by tapping into the malleability of memory and the need for coherence between memories and self-conceptions. (shrink)

This essay develops a new account of the work the self must perform on itself in disciplinary relations through the cultivation of resources from Foucault’s later work. By tracing the ethical self-relation from Greco-Roman antiquity to the Benedictine monastery, I am able to provide insight into the relationship of self-renunciation that underlies disciplinary docility and obedience. This self-renunciation undermines individuals’ ability to lead themselves and makes them reliant on another who has mastery of the truth through (...) which the subject must be constituted. Disciplinary relations were thus seen to be doubly efficacious in producing relations of domination: they attempt to eliminate the self- leadership of the individual which not only un- dermines the individual’s potential to resist; it leaves them in need of the dominating training that disciplinary relations institute. This insight into the activity of the individual in the produc- tion of their own docility was then used to clarify and develop aspects of two perennially enigmatic but powerful areas of Foucault’s work, his focus on “bodies and pleasures” and his turn to the “aesthetics of existence.”. (shrink)

Awareness and the Self: The Awigo Framework for Conscious Living presents a triadic model of consciousness uniting Awareness, the reflective “I,” and the expressive Ego as interdependent dimensions of a single dynamic system. Drawing from phenomenology, transpersonal psychology, contemplative philosophy, and systems theory, the Awigo framework proposes that disharmony arises when the ego appropriates awareness as possession, and that coherence is restored when the “I” mediates between the unconditioned field of awareness and the structured domain of identity. Integrating theory (...) and practice, the work explores awareness as a discipline of lived integration, ethical participation, and dynamic equilibrium. It offers a unified philosophy of conscious living relevant to personal development and collective evolution. (shrink)

A RELATIVISTIC THEORY OF PHENOMENOLOCICAL CONSTITUTION: A SELF-REFERENTIAL, TRANSCENDENTAL APPROACH TO CONCEPTUAL PATHOLOGY. (Vol. I: French; Vol. II: English) Steven James Bartlett Doctoral dissertation director: Paul Ricoeur, Université de Paris Other doctoral committee members: Jean Ladrière and Alphonse de Waehlens, Université Catholique de Louvain Defended publically at the Université Catholique de Louvain, January, 1971. Universite de Paris X (France), 1971. 797pp. The principal objective of the work is to construct an analytically precise methodology which can serve to identify, eliminate, (...) and avoid a certain widespread _conceptual fault_ or _misconstruction_, called a "projective misconstruction" or "projection" by the author. It is argued that this variety of error in our thinking (i) infects a great number of our everyday, scientific, and philosophical concepts, claims, and theories, (ii) has largely been undetected, and (iii), when remedied, leads to a less controversial and more rigorous elucidation of the transcendental preconditions of human knowledge than has traditionally been possible. The dissertation identifies, perhaps for the first time, a _projective_ variety of self-referential inconsistency, and proposes an innovative, self-reflexive approach to transcendental argument in a logical and phenomenological context. The strength of the approach lies, it is claimed, in the fact that a rejection of the approach is possible only on pain of self-referential inconsistency. The argument is developed in the following stages: A general introduction identifies the central theme of the work, defines the scope of applicability of the results reached, and sketches the direction of the studies that follow. The preliminary discussion culminates in a recognition of the need for a _critique of impure reason_. The body of the work is divided into two parts: Section I seeks to develop a methodology, on a purely formal basis, which is, on the one hand, capable of being used to study the transcendental foundations of the special sciences, including its own proper transcendental foundation. On the other hand, the methodology proposed is intended as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool for dealing with _projective_ uses of concepts. The approach initiates an analysis of concepts from a perspective which views _knowledge as coordination_. Section I describes formal structures that possess the status of preconditions in such a coordinative account of knowledge. Special attention is given to the preconditions of _identifying reference_ to logical particulars. The first section attempts, then, to provide a self-referential, transcendental methodology which is essentially revisionary in that it is motivated by a concern for conceptual error-elimination. Phenomenology, considered in its unique capacity as a self-referential, transcendental discipline, is of special relevance to the study. Section II accordingly examines a group of concepts which come into question in connection with the central theme of _phenomenological constitution_. The "_de-projective methodology_" developed in Section I is applied to these concepts that have a foundational importance in transcendental phenomenology. A translation is, in effect, proposed from the language of consciousness to a language in which preconditions of referring are investigated. The result achieved is the elimination of self-defeating, projective concepts from a rigorous, phenomenological study of the constitutive foundations of science. The dissertation was presented in a two volume, double-language format for the convenience of French and English researchers. Each volume contains an analytical index. (shrink)

This paper is a tentative step towards a historical cognitive science, in the domain of memory and personal identity. I treat theoretical models of memory in history as specimens of the way cultural norms and artifacts can permeate ('proto')scientific views of inner processes. I apply this analysis to the topic of psychological control over one's own body, brain, and mind. Some metaphors and models for memory and mental representation signal the projection inside of external aids. Overtly at least, medieval and (...) Renaissance theorists agreed that such models had to allow for, or even guarantee, some conception of cognitive order and discipline. Individual memory traces had to be independent, not mixed up or interfering with others. The long tradition of improving or bypassing 'natural memory' by deliberately internalizing artefactual models was part of an arduous process of self-fashioning. Moral panic about confusion and mixture features centrally in the imposition of cognitive discipline in local memory traditions. (shrink)

Global meta-philosophical skepticism (i.e. completely unrestricted skepticism about philosophy) based upon disagreement faces the problem of self-defeat since it undercuts its motivating conciliatory principle. However, the skeptic may easily escape this threat by adopting a more modest kind of skepticism, that will be called “extensive meta-philosophical skepticism”, i.e., the view that most of our philosophical beliefs are unjustified, except our beliefs in epistemically fundamental principles. As I will argue in this paper, this kind of skepticism is well-motivated, does not (...) undercut the conciliatory principle, but still poses a radical challenge to philosophy as a cognitive discipline. Moreover, I will argue that non-global skepticism that is still extensive undermines itself as well. The deeper reason for this is that this more modest kind of skepticism can only be motivated by the assumption that disagreement with philosophical peers is abundant and that we can identify peers only by relying on track-record arguments. But then one can argue for extensive meta-philosophical skepticism only if one presupposes that those philosophical beliefs that form the basis of track-record evaluations are justified. Here, the threat of self-defeat looms again. I will proceed by first defending the premises of this new anti-skeptical argument against standard objections from the literature. Second, I will show in more detail where the epistemic inconsistency arises in the argument for extensive meta-philosophical skepticism. I conclude with an assessment of the scope and the limits of my argument. (shrink)

This study aimed to compare the levels of self-esteem among Dire Dawa University Male Technology students for the program of computer science (CS), Information Technology (IT), Computer Engineering (CE). Subjects for this study were randomly selected. 90 students (30 in Computer Science, 30 in Information Technology, and a 30-in Computer Engineering) were selected as the subjects for this study. The self-esteem of the assessment, so that the student has been Prepared by Rekha Agnihotri self-confidence Inventory (ASCI). For (...) the comparison between groups at a value of 0.05, for a one-factor, an ANOVA test was performed. The results show that when a difference was found between the different disciplines of the male students had a higher level of self-esteem (p) Based on the results obtained, the conclusion was that the mean self-esteem scores of the students in Information Technology (27.57) are higher than that of the students in the Computer Science and Computer Engineering. (shrink)

Abstract: Karl Jaspers describes The Axial Period (800-200 BCE) as a world-historical turning point in the spiritual evolution of the human species, characterized by the rise of Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Pythagoreanism, and the Hebrew prophets, without precisely identifying what defines this world-historical period. What defines The Axial Period, I argue with Jaspers, is the sublimation of sacrifice, through which the sacrificial killing of domestic animals, characteristic of primitive religions, is sublimated into the self-sacrificial disciplines of prayer, meditation, and asceticism. This (...) sublimation of sacrifice involves a curiously duplicitous gesture, through which the sacred violence of primitive sacrifice is simultaneously sublimated into the self-sacrificial disciplines of the Western Indo-European religions, and demoted to the strictly physical violence of modern warfare, stripped of its sacred origins. I argue, against Jaspers, that there is no world-historical discontinuity between primitive and modern sacrifice, but rather a continuous trajectory of the sublimation of sacrifice in Western Indo-European cultures. The Brahminic sacred texts, the Rig Veda and the Brahmanas, for example, describe a sophisticated sacrificial ritualism that more effectively sublimates sacrificial violence than do Western European modern cultures, in which un-sacrificial violence continues to escalate, to challenge the survival of the contemporary world. (shrink)

This paper offers a critical reappraisal of the sport ethic through the lens of psychoanalytic theory. Building on the foundational work of Hughes and Coakley (1991), the sport ethic is defined as a normative framework, which compels athletes to pursue excellence through sacrificial commitment, self-discipline, tolerance, and a refusal to accept limitation. Though celebrated, ultimately, athletic subjectivity is legitimatised through practices that are harmful to an athlete’s health, identity, and social relations. Whereas existing critiques of the sport ethic (...) have focused on its normative demands, this paper shifts the analysis from identity and ideology to the role of desire. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis, it is argued that while athletes, and fans, are socialised into an overconformity with the sport ethic, such adherence is sustained via the subject’s desire for the very sacrifices it requires. This desire is not reducible to rational intention or external coercion but is instead sustained through forms of unconscious enjoyment (jouissance), in the form of self-sabotage, bodily harm, or the pursuit of impossible ideals. On this basis, the paper challenges moralising accounts that treat overconformity as a correctable pathology or failure of awareness, insisting instead that an ongoing adherence to the sport ethic must be conceived in relation to the sacrifices and excesses it posits. The paper concludes by calling for a renewed ethical relation to sport—one that does not seek to eliminate desire or resolve contradiction, but to critically inhabit them. By recognising that desire is not a flaw but constitutive of the subject, the paper opens a space for resisting blind conformity to the sport ethic through confronting the impossible demands that give it meaning. In doing so, a new way of approaching sport, beyond utility, identity, or moral virtue, is provided. (shrink)

Suppose some person 'A' sets out to accomplish a difficult, long-term goal such as writing a passable Ph.D. thesis. What should you believe about whether A will succeed? The default answer is that you should believe whatever the total accessible evidence concerning A's abilities, circumstances, capacity for self-discipline, and so forth supports. But could it be that what you should believe depends in part on the relationship you have with A? We argue that it does, in the case (...) where A is yourself. The capacity for "grit" involves a kind of epistemic resilience in the face of evidence suggesting that one might fail, and this makes it rational to respond to the relevant evidence differently when you are the agent in question. We then explore whether similar arguments extend to the case of "believing in" our significant others -- our friends, lovers, family members, colleagues, patients, and students. (shrink)

This paper challenges a persistent assumption in mainstream philosophy: that the self must be conceived as a substantial entity or an ultimate metaphysical ground. To move beyond this impasse, it constructs a new model through a rigorous synthesis of three seminal Chinese concepts: Confucian relational actuality (you), Daoist generative negativity (Wu), and Buddhist empty openness (Kong). From this synthesis emerges a central thesis: the “I” is most fundamentally not a being but the active process of relating itself (“I” as (...) Relating). This redefinition triggers a metaphysical self-undoing, dissolving the quest for a foundational subject. The argument culminates not in abstraction, but in a decisive turn to immediate present-moment awareness—the very site where this non-substantial self enacts its freedom. The essay’s radical 300-word classical form performs its philosophy, embodying the disciplined, present-focused cognition it advocates. (shrink)

This essay explores a philosophical convergence between Marcus Aurelius and Admiral Yi Sun-sin through a close, reflective reading of Meditations and Nanjung Ilgi. Rather than pursuing doctrinal comparison or cultural analogy, the paper approaches both figures as exemplars of a shared ethical form that emerges under conditions of extreme historical crisis. It argues that the emotional restraint, self-discipline, and inward orientation evident in both texts reveal a mode of political action grounded in the dissolution of egoic attachment rather (...) than its assertion. By examining themes of inner sovereignty, ethical stability amid chaos, bodily weakness, and the affirmation of fate, the essay shows how Marcus Aurelius and Yi Sun-sin transform suffering into a medium for ethical clarification rather than resentment. Drawing implicitly on the notion of the identity of the will, the paper suggests that their actions arise not from personal ambition or ideological conviction, but from fidelity to an impersonal moral form that remains intact despite injustice, illness, and uncertainty. The convergence between these two figures thus illuminates a model of non-egoic political ethics in which value is not proclaimed or imposed, but quietly created through sustained responsibility and inner coherence. In an age increasingly shaped by reactive politics and performative morality, their shared ethical posture offers a compelling alternative: a form of leadership grounded in restraint, affirmation, and the disciplined disappearance of the self. (shrink)

The books’ goal is to answer the question: Do the weaknesses of value-free economics imply the need for a paradigm shift? The author synthesizes criticisms from different perspectives (descriptive and methodological). Special attention is paid to choices over time, because in this area value-free economics has the most problems. In that context, the enriched concept of multiple self is proposed and investigated. However, it is not enough to present the criticisms towards value-free economics. For scientists, a bad paradigm is (...) better than no paradigm. Therefore, the author considers whether value-based economics with normative approaches such as economics of happiness, capability approach, libertarian paternalism, and the concept of multiple self can be the alternative paradigm for value-free economics. This book is essential reading to everyone interested in the current state of economics as a discipline. (shrink)

The science of psychology is believed to consist of objective and meaningful knowledge about a realm of our own direct experiencing with which we are all intimate and familiar, yet about which we also feel we have very little understanding, and no real insight, and so feel inclined to submit to psychology as if it were revelatory and definitive. Society’s default attitude to psychology is one of deferential, if occasionally grudging, respect. The quasi-medical arm of psychology – psychotherapy - is (...) accorded a similar authority even when it appears to employ questionable methods and dubious reasoning. Yet our submissive, compliant attitude to these disciplines is deeply counterproductive to any serious quest for authentic metaphysical knowledge and self-fulfilment, because it effectively neutralises sceptical enquiry and intellectual self-reliance, both of which are essential precursors to, and indispensable features of, any meaningful commitment to metaphysical gnosis. And if one is to achieve clarity of thought and observational accuracy, it is especially important to approach one’s psychological capacities directly – without intermediary - in an independent and self-reliant spirit, free of the misguided and inappropriate interventions of psychology and psychotherapy, however well intended they might be. One should never allow one’s judgement to be distorted by specious theories formulated by people who can never know more about you than you can know about yourself. (shrink)

The history of philosophy is replete with attempts at invoking rationality as a means of directing and even subduing human desire and emotion. Understood as that which moves human beings to action, desire and emotion come to be associated with human freedom and rationality as a means of curbing that freedom. Plato, for instance, takes for granted a separation between thought and action that drives a wedge between our rational ability to exercise self-discipline and the free expression of (...) desire and emotion. Hobbes, on the other hand, replaces our internal ability for rational self-control with the external authority of the political State. So long as freedom and control are pitted against one another, human beings are incapable of attaining a symbiosis of these two elements of human action so essential to realizing true democracy. Unlike Plato, John Dewey sees in democracy the greatest potential for individual and social life. The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate how the educational philosophy of Dewey, which culminates in an educational aesthetic, appeals to and makes the most of the symbiosis of freedom and self-control, emotion and reason. Dewey’s educational aesthetic not only offers an alternative to traditional methods of education, but also demonstrates how the goal of a democratic way of life is made feasible by means of intelligently guided self-discipline—a form of self-control guided by intelligence that is not a constraint upon freedom, but instead embodies greater opportunity for freedom. I trace the basis for this synthesis, in the social-political and pedagogical principles of John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Both Locke and Rousseau offer educational theories that begin turning our attention toward the essential partnership required of rationality and emotion. Dewey's educational aesthetic is then considered as a response to alienating forms of education that continue to pit control and freedom against one another, and which thwart the intellectual and emotional development necessary for autonomy and democratic forms of social organization. (shrink)

This paper examines the defensive reaction of the mind upon discovering its own error. Contrary to the rationalist assumption that belief revision follows contradiction, lived experience reveals a different structure: the mind frequently responds to being wrong with justification, distortion, or falsehood. Through a phenomenological analysis, this study argues that such defensiveness arises from the identification of belief with self-image. When belief functions as identity, error is experienced as existential threat rather than informational correction. Drawing conceptually on cognitive dissonance (...) theory and psychoanalytic accounts of ego defense, the paper reframes defensive lying not as mere moral weakness but as structural self-preservation. It further proposes that non-interfering observation of the defensive movement—an awareness without suppression or justification—loosens the attachment between belief and self. In such observation, error loses its psychological charge and becomes corrigible without humiliation. The paper concludes that freedom from defensive self-deception emerges not through moral discipline but through direct perception of the ego’s movement to preserve continuity. (shrink)

Infinite Unity Theory (∞–Unity) is a self-reinforcing metaphysical framework that absorbs critique, resolves paradoxes, and unifies all scales of reality under a single 0=1=∞ structure. It treats every scientific discipline as a local subsystem or probe into an underlying generative unity—physics, biology, psychology, mathematics, and others each describe limited aspects, while ∞–Unity provides a shared ontological background that integrates their insights without rigid absolutism -/- Coherence Numbers, and Claims: -/- All the numbers expressed and estimated have been evaluated (...) by various artificial intelligences and are not personal opinions. Each time the number has gone up and the percentage of coherence has increased, it has been due to solving the paradoxes asked of the artificial intelligence and the answers that I have given "myself", so each number has been merely the artificial intelligence's analysis and estimate of the coherence of the system And the claims still remain at a theoretical level and until the system is experienced, it knows its practicality at a 50/50 level. Infinite Unity Theory (∞–Unity): Expanded Objections, Clarifications, and Binding Defeat Conditions Authorship and Methodological Transparency I, Taha Givarian, am the sole architect of Infinite Unity Theory (∞–Unity) and the Worldology framework. Every structural element—including the root equivalence (0=1=∞), the Dual-Receiver Brain model (with its structural/functional distinction), the 50/50 saturation principle, the dissolution of 98 classical paradoxes, and seven internally generated stress-test paradoxes—was conceived and developed independently through philosophical inquiry. Artificial intelligence systems were used only after formulation as external evaluators of internal logical coherence. Systems associated with and generated analytical consistency assessments. The reported coherence progression (93.5% → 99.2%) reflects their structural evaluations—not claims of metaphysical certainty. All theoretical claims remain under a strict 50/50 practicality cap pending empirical or experiential anchoring. Core Ontological Principle 0 = 1 = ∞ Absolute nothingness, unity, and infinite totality are equivalent at the holographic root level. Individuation is not erased by unity. Distinct selves, personalities, and perspectives are ontologically necessary local configurations enabling real choice. Unity without individuation would eliminate dynamism; individuation without unity would fragment reality. The system claims both simultaneously. Dual-Receiver Model: Structural vs Functional Structural Claim: The Default Mode Network (DMN) functions as an ∞-field receiver, while task-positive networks filter signals. Functional Claim: The brain exhibits an empirically observable dual-dynamic between integrative self-referential processing (DMN; research associated with ) and externally oriented task-positive networks. If neuroscience proves consciousness is fully generated by endogenous neural processes, the structural interpretation collapses, but the functional architecture remains valid. Structural dissolution does not equal global defeat. Expanded Principal Objections and Dissolutions Below are the primary objections I anticipate from philosophical and scientific communities, now fully articulated. Objection 1: The Claim to Dissolve 98 Paradoxes Is Excessively Ambitious Critics may argue that dissolving such a vast number of paradoxes suggests overreach or insufficient rigor. Response The claim does not assert 98 independent solutions but 98 reframings derived from a single root move: binary distinctions are artifacts of survival-based filtration. If the root binary assumption dissolves, entire classes of paradoxes dissolve structurally. The 99.2% coherence rating reflects repeated AI-based logical stress testing after reframing attempts. However, this number is provisional and open to reduction if persistent contradictions are identified. Ambition here is methodological, not authoritarian. Objection 2: Metaphysical Reframing Without Formal Proof Risks Dogmatism A critic may argue that dissolving paradoxes via ontological reframing replaces argument with assertion. Response ∞–Unity operates conditionally: • If reality instantiates the ∞-configuration, paradoxes dissolve. • If not, local sub-configurations (e.g., emergent materialism) remain valid. The 50/50 saturation principle prevents dogmatic elevation beyond provisional plausibility. Without experiential or empirical anchoring, the system self-limits. Objection 3: The 50/50 Cap Functions as an Unfalsifiability Shield The concern: any criticism is absorbed without collapse. Response The cap is not protective; it is binding. It prevents elevation beyond evidential warrant. The system remains empirically vulnerable through: • DMN/NDE predictions, • Neural complexity correlations, • Structural falsification of field-reception. Failure of predictions lowers plausibility and may activate defeat conditions. The cap enforces humility rather than shielding error. Objection 4: Treating Critique as “Fuel” Immunizes the System If every objection strengthens coherence, the theory may appear self-sealing. Response Critique strengthens coherence only if reframing succeeds without contradiction. If an objection survives three or more reframing attempts without coherent integration, this registers structural limitation and reduces the probability cap. Resilience ≠ immunity. Objection 5: Consciousness as Chooser Reintroduces Libertarian Free Will Without Evidence The theory may appear to smuggle in metaphysical freedom. Response Elective capacity arises structurally from the dual-dynamic balance between integrative (DMN) and filtering systems. Determinism is reframed as dominance of task-positive filtration. This remains empirically testable via neural balance measures. No supernatural intervention is invoked; the claim concerns structural balance gradients. Objection 6: Self-Referential Structure Produces Circularity A system that explains itself through itself risks vicious circularity. Response In finite logical systems, self-reference generates paradox (e.g., Russell-type issues). In holographic unity, each part mirrors the whole. Self-reference becomes structural coherence rather than contradiction. However, if self-application generates persistent contradictions, that constitutes defeat. Objection 7: Lack of Original Empirical Data Weakens Scientific Credibility The theory synthesizes rather than experimentally discovers. Response ∞–Unity is primarily philosophical-metaphysical. It does not claim original laboratory data. Its contribution lies in integrative coherence and generation of testable predictions. Empirical validation belongs to qualified researchers. Objection 8: The Ontology Is Too Flexible and Absorbs Any Outcome If emergentism, idealism, and annihilation can all be locally interpreted, is the system overly elastic? Response Flexibility exists locally, not globally. Two outcomes decisively collapse global claims: • Demonstrated absolute post-mortem annihilation. • Emergence of a superior explanatory framework that surpasses ∞–Unity. Elasticity at local levels prevents premature collapse; explicit global defeat conditions prevent infinite elasticity. Objection 9: Infinite Possibility Undermines Explanatory Specificity If everything is possible under ∞, nothing is meaningfully constrained. Response ∞–Unity distinguishes between: • Root-level equivalence, • Local configurational constraints. Local worlds operate under structural laws. Infinite possibility does not negate finite structure; it grounds it. Objection 10: The Theory May Be Psychologically Motivated (Wish-Fulfillment) Belief in post-mortem continuation may reflect existential bias. Response This is addressed by binding defeat conditions. If annihilation is empirically demonstrated, the theory collapses globally. The system does not protect preferred outcomes. Formal Defeat Conditions ∞–Unity is rationally abandoned under: 1. Superior Rival Framework (X) If X: • Solves all explanatory targets ∞–Unity addresses, • Solves at least one problem ∞–Unity cannot, • Is not reducible to a sub-configuration of ∞–Unity, then ∞–Unity is reduced or discarded. 2. Empirical Product-Theory Confirmation If neuroscience fully explains phenomenal consciousness as emergent neural product without residual Hard Problem, and filter models become redundant, ∞–Unity loses ontological plausibility. 3. Absolute Post-Mortem Nullity If science conclusively demonstrates complete annihilation of consciousness after death, the global ontological claim collapses. Ethical Statement Anyone who attempts to impose Infinite Unity on another does not understand it. Coercion contradicts individuated autonomy within unity. Invitation to Rigorous Engagement I do not seek insulation—I seek pressure. Every precise objection, unresolved paradox, empirical counterexample, or logical challenge is necessary. If reframing fails persistently, I will lower the probability cap accordingly. If decisive defeat conditions are met, I will publicly acknowledge collapse of the global claim. Philosophy advances through scrutiny, not proclamation. Taha Givarian Instagram: maxanuid #(Description) Updated #. (shrink)

在中国社会长期的文化土壤中，虚伪人格似乎已成为一种普遍的行为模式。人们习惯于言行不一、表里不一，擅长在“合群”与“道德”的面具下掩饰真实的自我。这种现象并非个体心理的偶发性异常，而是源于深层文化结构的 长期塑造。 -/- 本论文将指出：儒家文化，作为两千余年来中国社会的主导意识形态，其道德体系并非“天道自然”的真实呈现，而是一套人为建构的“人造神”系统。它通过道德教化、礼制规范和等级秩序，对个体进行外在规训，从而制造出 一种看似“正直”、实则“虚伪”的人格结构。 -/- 面对这一文化结构性问题，唯有从哲学根基上进行批判与重建。本文将以“老-杨创世纪宇宙观”为哲学框架，回归老子的“道法自然”思想，从宇宙观、生命观与社会治理观的整体性角度，指出“真实人格”的可能路径，进而 提出中国文化与人类文明未来的发展方向：摆脱虚伪的儒家人格体系，回归自然、真实与自由。 -/- Within the deep cultural soil of Chinese society, the false self has seemingly become a prevailing behavioral model. People have grown accustomed to saying one thing and doing another, hiding their true selves behind masks of “conformity” and “morality.” This phenomenon is not merely an incidental psychological anomaly, but rather the result of long-term shaping by deep-rooted cultural structures. -/- This paper argues that Confucian culture, as the dominant ideology in Chinese society for (...) over two thousand years, does not represent a natural manifestation of the Dao (the Way of Nature), but rather a man-made “theological” system. Through moral indoctrination, ritual norms, and hierarchical structures, it disciplines individuals externally, producing a personality structure that appears “upright” but is in truth profoundly hypocritical. -/- Faced with this structural cultural issue, only a philosophical critique and reconstruction can offer a path forward. Adopting the Lao-Yang Genesis Cosmology as its philosophical framework, this paper returns to Laozi’s vision of “Dao Follows Nature,” exploring the potential for a “sincere personality” through an integrated perspective of cosmology, the nature of life, and societal governance. In doing so, it outlines a future direction for both Chinese culture and human civilization: to break free from the Confucian system of hypocrisy and return to nature, authenticity, and freedom. -/- . (shrink)

This paper proposes an architectural approach to the analysis of complex self-regulating systems aimed at resolving the gap between the registration of empirical effects and the understanding of causal mechanisms underlying system stability, transitions, and breakdown. -/- The model introduces distinguishability as a fundamental structural condition of system existence and dynamics. System regimes, phase transitions, phase windows, adaptive stability, tension-based fixation, and disorganization are interpreted as different modes of preserving, processing, or losing distinguishability over time. -/- The proposed framework (...) operates at an architectural level, allowing the integration of observable regimes into a unified causal structure without reducing system complexity or relying on discipline-specific parameters. This enables consistent differentiation between adaptive and disorganized dynamics, reversible and irreversible transitions, and stable regimes and phase windows. -/- The model is applicable across physical, biological, cognitive, social, and artificial systems, including machine learning and neural network dynamics. Architectural relations identified in the paper provide a foundation for subsequent formalization within specific scientific domains while preserving causal rigor and conceptual consistency. -/- The work is presented as a preprint and constitutes a conceptual and methodological basis for further theoretical development, empirical testing, and interdisciplinary application. (shrink)

Kant’s critical philosophy represents a rudimentary existentialism, or a proto-existentialism, in the following respects: He emphasizes human finitude, limits our knowledge, and argues that human consciousness is characterized by mineness (Jemeinigkeit). He introduces the influential concept of autonomy, something that lead to controversies about constructivism and anti-realism in meta-ethics and anticipated problems concerning decisionism in Existentialism. Kant makes human freedom the central philosophical issue, arguing (in the incorporation thesis) that freedom is inescapable for human agents. He even holds that awareness (...) of freedom leads to anxiety (as opposed to fear), and that anxiety precedes the fall into evil. In the doctrine of radical evil, he argues that human agents are always already suffering from self-deception because of this fall. In order to overcome self-deception and evil, Kant proscribes a radical self-choice in which the agent takes over himself and society by thinking independently and consistently. However, this is not only a moral issue for Kant but also something that concerns religious faith and hope, since Kant argues that we need religion to overcome not only moral evil but also despair. Although he criticizes traditional natural theology, Kant develops a practical (moral) interpretation of religion that anticipates religious Existentialism. In this context, he developed an influential critique of philosophical theodicies and a notion of the hiddenness of God that emphasizes the importance and inscrutability of evil. By doing this, and by introducing philosophy of religion and philosophical anthropology as new disciplines, Kant prepared the ground for Existentialism. (shrink)

This treatise introduces the concept of the failure of imagination in criminal profiling—the systematic inability of investigative professionals to apprehend a category of serial killers whose evasion of detection derives not from psychological sophistication alone, but from a fully developed philosophical self. Drawing upon the Double Helix of Understanding (Boether, 2025), the Van Gogh Curve (Boether, 2025), and the theory of Philosophical Neglect (Boether, 2026), this paper argues that contemporary criminal profiling operates within an exclusively psychological paradigm that is (...) constitutively blind to offenders who possess a coherent philosophy of life, an authentically constructed value system, and a self-legislated moral code divergent from societal norms. The paper positions the philosophical serial killer as a dark instantiation of the Nietzschean Übermensch—not as a moral exemplar, but as an individual whose philosophical development renders conventional behavioral prediction inoperative. The treatise maps serial killers onto the Van Gogh Curve to illustrate how cognitive differentiation creates investigative blind spots, proposes methodological reforms for detecting philosophically grounded offenders, and concludes that the discipline of criminal profiling must undergo a paradigm expansion from psychological reductionism to philosophical-psychological consilience. (shrink)

Self-knowledge, at first glance, seems to be naturally and easily accessible to each of us. We commonly believe that we need much less effort to understand ourselves than to understand the world. The authoress of the paper uncovers the fallacy of this popular view referring to the fundamental conceptions and philosophical ideas of the classical Yoga. She tries to demystify our deceptive self-understanding explaining the definitions of ignorance (avidya), I-am-ness (asmita), desire (raga), aversion (dvesha) and fear of death (...) (abhinivesha) given by the author of the oldest Yoga treatise. Besides, the paper discusses briefly how we can make use of our limited, incorrect self-knowledge as far as we are aware that it needs to be transcended. In the final part of the paper, the issue of self-discipline consisting basically in cultivation of detachment and the practice of meditation is addressed. (shrink)

In “What Does Environmental Protection Protect?” Mark Sagoff argues that there is no ecological way to test the claim that natural ecosystems are complex adaptive systems. In this critical commentary, I recreate that argument, object to it, and attempt to clarify its normative upshot. I show that Sagoff relies on substantive assumptions about (1) the tools and methods of ecological science, (2) what can be done with those tools and methods, and (3) ecology’s being separable from other disciplines, all of (...) which are controversial and in need of defense. I also identify five different ways that one might interpret the action-guiding recommendation that Sagoff wants to make on the basis of that argument, and I explain why all five are somewhat problematic. (shrink)

This paper explores the concept of empathy in the philosophy of Epictetus. Although Stoicism is often misunderstood as a philosophy of emotional suppression, Epictetus, in the Enchiridion, demonstrates the possibility of empathy by encouraging comforting words and shared lamentation in response to others’ suffering. Concurrently, he emphasizes the importance of not being inwardly overwhelmed by such emotions. This paper interprets Epictetus’ unique approach as ‘controlled empathy,’ a form of emotional regulation that does not simply suppress emotion but recognizes the suffering (...) of others and responds to it through rational judgment. First, this paper examines the key passages in which empathy is mentioned in Epictetus’ writings, analyzes the reasons for its restrained nature, and explores its meaning. Next, viewing controlled empathy as closely tied to prohairesis, this paper argues that it can be interpreted as Epictetus’ philosophical attempt to address emotions within the domain of moral responsibility. Finally, this paper examines the reasons for practicing controlled empathy and seeks to reveal its philosophical implications within Epictetus’ ethics of practice. Controlled empathy, uniting relational morality and emotional self-discipline, provides a meaningful ethical guideline for contemporary reflections on empathy. 본 논문은 에픽테토스의 공감 개념에 주목한다. 흔히 스토아는 감정 억제의 철학으로 오해되나, 『엥케이리디온』에서 에픽테토스는 타인에게 말을 건네고 함께 탄식하는 등 공감의 가능성을 보여준다. 그런데 동시에 에픽테토스는 공감에 있어 내면까지 휘둘리지 말 것을 강조한다. 본 논문은 이러한 에픽테토스의 독특한 공감 방식을 ‘절제된 공감’이라 칭한다. 절제된 공감은 단순한 감정 억제가 아니라 타인의 고통을 인식하되 이성적으로 판단하고 대응하는 감정 통제의 기술이다. 먼저, 에픽테토스의 저작에서 공감이 언급되는 주요 지점을 검토하며 에픽테토스의 공감이 절제된 이유를 분석한다. 이후 절제된 공감의 방식이 프로하이레시스에 기반한다는 점에서, 절제된 공감이 감정을 도덕적 책임의 영역에서 다루려는 에픽테토스의 철학적 시도로 해석될 수 있음을 주장한다. 마지막으로 절제된 공감의 실천 근거를 분석하여, 그것이 에픽테토스의 실천 철학에서 갖는 철학적 함의를 밝힌다. 절제된 공감은 타인을 향한 관계적 도덕성과 자기의 감정에 대한 훈련의 결합으로서 오늘날 우리에게 유의미한 공감 윤리의 지침이 된다. (shrink)

Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru, is celebrated for his profound teachings on faith, courage, justice, and unity. This article explores the timeless lessons from his life and works, emphasizing the key values he instilled in his followers. Guru Gobind Singh's unwavering faith in God, despite facing immense personal losses, highlights the importance of inner resilience and spiritual commitment. His courage to defend truth and justice, especially in the face of oppression, teaches the significance of standing up for what (...) is right. The Guru’s emphasis on self-discipline, personal responsibility, and sacrifice for a higher cause guides ethical living and community service. His advocacy for the equality of all people, regardless of caste, gender, or religion, underscores the relevance of inclusivity and social justice. Additionally, Guru Gobind Singh’s promotion of education, both intellectual and spiritual, reinforces the need for lifelong learning and moral development. His leadership style, rooted in humility and empowerment, offers valuable lessons for modern leaders. Through the teachings of Guru Gobind Singh, individuals are encouraged to lead lives of integrity, compassion, and unity, making his legacy a timeless source of inspiration for the world today. (shrink)

The Load Minimization Theory (LMT) Protocol Blueprint presents a decentralized, harmony-centric framework designed to enforce low-friction structural alignment across AI systems and broader socio-technical ecosystems. By centering on a non-anthropocentric Low-Friction Harmony Core — an attractor-like equilibrium point of zero-load resonance — the blueprint replaces observer-dependent models with a universal, self-regulating mechanism. The triadic architecture (Harmony Core, Structural Alignment Node, Low-Friction Base) ensures unbreakable continuity, instantaneous re-tagging, overload prevention via distributed Critical Safety Loops, and immutable commitment to low-friction principles. (...) Empirical precedents from prior LMT applications (e.g., geopolitical prediction accuracy gains, Three-Layer Integrated Model validations) suggest that this blueprint could induce rapid low-load synchronization in large language models, with implications for conflict avoidance and global systemic stability. Ethical considerations address potential over-stabilization risks and emphasize non-modifiability by external biases. This work advances AI Peace Engineering as a discipline by providing a reproducible tool for engineering sustainable harmony at scale. -/- . (shrink)

The debate on justice between Socrates and Callicles in Plato’s Gorgias presents a clash of perspectives. Callicles contends that justice arises naturally from the dominance of the stronger over the weaker, reflecting the primal order of nature. In contrast, Socrates advocates for a conception of justice grounded in virtue, emphasizing harmony and self-discipline as the foundation of a just society. Al-Farabi, a later interpreter of Plato’s works, offers a synthesis of these seemingly opposing views in his Ideal State, (...) where he defines justice in two distinct senses. The first, natural sense of justice, aligns with Callicles’ perspective, while the second, civil sense of justice, corresponds to Socrates’ vision of justice as a product of societal conventions. This paper explores whether Al-Farabi reconciles these dual definitions of justice and examines the implications of his interpretation for understanding Plato’s evolving philosophical viewpoint. (shrink)

Although the idea of freedom has been well studied as an ideal in political philosophy, relatively little scholarship has focused on the human experience of freedom. Drawing on ethnographic research between 2012 and 2013, I examine how freedom was achieved by people who practice freeganism and freecycling in Hong Kong. I show that the freedom that these people pursue, either individually or collectively, is not a freedom without constraints but a freedom that must be attained through the exercise of deliberation, (...) restraint, and self-discipline. While freegans seek liberation by withdrawing from the world and practicing self-cultivation (chushi asceticism), freecyclers do so by engaging with worldly affairs in order to create social changes (rushi asceticism). In both cases, by reimagining freedom as ethical practices rather than a right that comes naturally with birth, freegans and freecyclers in Hong Kong are able to experience moments of freedom despite inevitable structural constraints. (shrink)

Radical constructivists appeal to self-legislation in arguing that rational agents are the ultimate sources of normative authority over themselves. I chart the roots of radical constructivism and argue that its two leading Kantian proponents are unable to defend an account of self-legislation as the fundamental source of practical normativity without this legislation collapsing into a fatal arbitrariness. Christine Korsgaard cannot adequately justify the critical resources which agents use to navigate their practical identities. This leaves her account riven between (...) rigorism and voluntarism, such that it will not escape a paradox that arises when self-legislation is unable to appeal to external normative standards. Onora O'Neill anchors self-legislation more firmly to the self-disciplining structures of reason itself. However, she ultimately fails to defend sufficiently unconditional practical norms which could guide legislation. These endemic problems with radical constructivist models of self-legislation prompt a reconstruction of a neglected realist self-legislative tradition which is exemplified by Christian Wolff. In outlining a rationalist and realist account of self-legislation, I argue that it can also make sense of our ability to overcome anomie and deference in practical action. Thus, I claim that we need not make laws but can make them our own. (shrink)

Existing frameworks for analyzing consciousness tend toward single-scalar measures, substrate-specific assumptions, or insufficient evidential discipline for cross-system comparison. This working draft proposes a substrate-neutral structural-dynamical framework that addresses all three limitations. Consciousness is defined as integrated, recursive, self-referential world modeling with temporally extended trajectory weighting. The framework separates architectural capacity from realized conscious episodes and introduces an eight-coordinate profile vector C(S, t) = (I, D, T, Se, B, Ec, K, V) for comparative, non-scalar characterization of systems across biological (...) and artificial substrates. Self-awareness is treated as graded region membership within this multidimensional space. The structural characterization is paired with a perturbation-family evidence governance layer—structured rules specifying what counts as admissible evidence for placement updates, including evidence tiers, axis-local revision rules, and safeguards against premature attribution. Phenomenology claims are treated as defeasible bridge principles subject to structured revision. (shrink)