[Review of] Anne Wortham, The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness

The author, a freelance writer, editor, and broadcast researcher .... (presently) a doctoral candidate in sociology at Boston College, proposes to study blacks who advocate black consciousness. Wortham condemns ethnic or racial consciousness, and therefore characterizes the other side of racism as a dilemma of individual self-esteem as opposed to problems of group conflict in race relations

"The Paradox of Self-Consciousness" by José Luis Burmùdez

What José Luis Bermúdez calls the paradox of self-consciousness is essentially the conflict between two claims: (1) The capacity to use first-personal referential devices like “I” must be explained in terms of the capacity to think first-person thoughts. (2) The only way to explain the capacity for having a certain kind of thought is by explaining the capacity for the canonical linguistic expression of thoughts of that kind. (Bermúdez calls this the “Thought-Language Principle”.) The conflict between (1) and (2) is obvious enough. However, if a paradox is an unacceptable conclusion drawn from apparently valid reasoning from apparently true premises, then Bermúdez’s conflict is no paradox. It is rather a conflict between the view that thought must be explained in terms of language, and the view that first person linguistic reference must be explained in terms of first-person thought. Neither view is immediately obvious, and nor is it obvious that the arguments for either are equally compelling. What we have here is a difference of philosophical opinion, not a paradox

Conflict and double consciousness in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man

Conflict has been one of the greatest challenges that affect human relationship and coexistence. In a multicultural nation such as the United States of America, interracial conflict has been a dominant and recurrent one which has claimed many lives of the African Americans, and has also negatively affected their psychological makeup to the extent it has created what W.E.B. Du Bois called double consciousness. In view of the above, this paper examines the effects of racial conflict as enunciated in Du Bois’s Principle of Double Consciousness and how Ralph Ellison appropriated this concept in his novel, Invisible Man in his argument for a genuine multicultural United States of America

Panpsychism And J.R.R. Tolkien: Exploring A Universal Psyche in The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, And The Lord Of The Rings

An informal exploration of the concept of panpsychism in three of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy works, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, by using multiple consciousness theories from prominent consciousness authors. Plotlines, character compositions, and physical and mental interactions between individuals and entities are examined through multi-faceted panpsychic consciousness lenses. Those lenses include consciousness as a “stream,” integrality, evolutionary emergence of consciousness in all life forms, numinosity, liminality, the mythical trickster, major consciousness themes, precognitive and lucid dreaming, removal of self-identity through separation and burial, inner work, plurality and conflict, and enlightenment and synergism

Development of an Education Module on Conflict Resolution for Charge Nurses

A healthy work environment is essential for providing safe and efficient care for patients. When nurses avoid conflict on a patient care unit they create an unhealthy work environment by leaving problems unresolved. Avoiding conflict is common due to the perception that conflict is a negative outcome of dysfunctional relationships. In reality, conflict is a normal part of human interactions that stimulates individuals to adapt to the diversity that surrounds them. Increasing charge nurses‟ understanding of interpersonal conflict and improving their skills of constructive conflict resolution, supports the creation and maintaining of a healthy work environment. An education module titled Embracing Conflict: A Bridge to a Healthy Work Environment is offered as a component of an interactive learning lab for charge nurse orientation. The concepts mutuality, pattern of the whole, and expanding consciousness from Margaret Newman‟s Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness provides a theoretical framework for the module‟s development. As charge nurses model the skills of addressing and resolving conflict, they will increase the likelihood that others will recognize the benefits of constructively resolved conflict and modify their own response. Direct observation of participants practicing conflict resolution skills along with questions from and employee satisfaction survey are used to assess for immediate and long-term changes in behavior

Book review: activating human rights and peace

Activating Human Rights and Peace is an enlightening collection of well thought through cases aimed at academics and students of human rights, political science, law and justice, peace and conflict studies and sociology. It argues that we need to appreciate that cultivating a human rights and peace consciousness is choice-less: there is a moral imperative to engender and sustain an ethical praxis that is motivated by a concern and commitment for how we live with each other. Kristen Perrin notes that each chapter gives a glimpse into the diverse range of ideas encompassing contemporary human rights issues

Jean-Paul Sartre's concept of freedom.

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this thesis is to present an exposition and interpretation of Jean-Paul Sartre's concept of freedom, as expressed in his major philosophical writings. This purpose calls for a consideration of the relationship between freedom and some of Sartre's other basic ontological concepts. The "other" concepts are those relating specifically to Sartre's theory of consciousness. To explore and make explicit the fundamental structures of consciousness is to take the front door into an understanding of Sartre's concept of freedom. Chapter II shows that the meaning of Sartre's concept of freedom widely diverges from various traditional and popular interpretations of freedom. It is concluded that the term freedom is intimately bound up with Sartre's conception of consciousness and that a consciousness which is free is, first, free because no determining motives affect the activities of consciousness and, second, consciousness is able to choose the "motives" which it pleases. In Chapter III it is learned that the cardinal activity of consciousness is its intentionality, that consciousness is always consciousness of something. The distinction is made between reflective and pre-reflective consciousness. It is further indicated in this chapter Sartre's rejection of a transcendental unifying and individualizing Ego and his replacement of it with a transcendent Ego, which, for Sartre, becomes an object for consciousness like any other object. In Chapter IV Sartre's ontology is developed by an analysis of all that which is not consciousness, or in Sartre's terminology, a being-in-itself. The in-it self is any transcendent object and its being is characterized by a massive, full identity with itself; being-in-itself is self-consistent, uncreated, and neither passivity nor activity. In Chapter V consciousness is identified with being-for-itself. Being-for-itself is empty of content, must make itself be, is its own nothingness, and introduces negations and temporality into the world. Consciousness will never be what it lacks, for its being lies outside, at a distance, and beyond; it is defined as not being that being. Ontologically speaking, man's being is nothingness. Chapter VI identifies Sartre's notion of freedom with the being of consciousness. Thus one meaning of Sartre's notion of freedom takes on an ontological dimension; man is freedom. The other meaning of freedom is assigned to the necessary activity of consciousness. This activity is characterized by the necessary, unceasing, yet interminable, desire of consciousness to choose or assume its own being, its essence. It has been objected by Wilfrid Desan that Sartre has made freedom itself into the essence of man. This thesis concludes, however, that only in defining freedom has Sartre made freedom an essence. Even in this sense, Sartre has made freedom an essence only if one is willing to identify man's ontological "condition" with the traditional notion of a fundamental "nature" of man. Desan further objects that Sartre's notion of "absolute" freedom results in a contradiction since absolute means unlimited, and Sartre's freedom is limited by freedom itself. The thesis concludes that this contradiction may be avoided by simply refraining from calling Sartre's concept of freedom "absolute" and accepting, along with Sartre, the existential condition that freedom is limited by one thing, namely, freedom itself. A final critical evaluation is made concerning the unavoidable conflict between Sartre's philosophy and philosophizing. It is asserted that this conflict is a conflict between fact and definition. It is the conflict between the fact of freedom and Sartre's definition of this fact

“All Mind? No Matter”: The Self-Regulation Paradigm

In this short article, the author discusses the conflict between materialistic and transcendental paradigms in accounting for the nature of reality. After speculating on the meaning and implications of an idealist perspective where consciousness is seen as the fundamental ground of all phenomena, the author reframes the consciousness versus matter debate in terms of complex systems theory. Such a reframing allows for the mutual coexistence of both matter and consciousness in a manner which is nonreductive and inclusive of different epistemologies

Features parameters of consciousness policemen with different levels of conflict

Гіренко С. П. Особливості параметрів самосвідомості працівників ОВС з різним рівнем конфліктності / Гіренко С. П. // Вісник Національного університету оборони України. - 2014. - Вип. 5 (42). - С. 30-35.Гіренко С. П. "Особливості параметрів самосвідомості працівників ОВС з різним рівнем конфліктності." Вісник Національного університету оборони України 5 (2014): 30-35.В статті розглянуто низку параметрів самосвідомості працівників ОВС, які мають різний рівень особистісної конфліктності. Окреслено зміст понять та особливості самооцінки, рівня домагань та значущості основних сфер життя працівників ОВС.The article describes a number of parameters self-consciousness of law enforcement officers to have a different level of personal conflict. Determine the content of the concepts and features of selfesteem, level of aspiration, and the significance of the main spheres of life of employees of police officers. The author examines the conflict as a special form of individual values clash motivation,behavioral change mechanism status of the individual in society. The article is an analysis of scientific papers on the problem of conflict and self-identity. The basic function and structure of psychological conflict consciousness - self-conflict and conflict self-esteem. The results of self-diagnosis, level of aspiration and performance significance of various walks of life police officers with different levels of conflict.В статье рассмотрен ряд параметров самосознания личности сотрудников ОВД с имеющими различный уровень личностной конфликтности. Определены содержание понятий и особенности самооценки, уровня притязаний и значимости основных сфер жизни работников ОВД