Faith (pre- and transrational)
Falsification
Fana
Fear
Feedback loop
Feeling
Fine-tuning
Flow
Formal operationalFormative causation
Faith (pre- and transrational)
Word definition: confidence or trust in a person or thing: faith in another’s ability, belief that is not based on proof.
Etymology: Word Origin & History: mid-13c., “duty of fulfilling one’s trust,” from Old French feid, foi “faith, belief, trust, confidence, pledge,” from Latin fides “trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence, belief,” from root of fidere “to trust,” from PIE root *bheidh- (cf. Greek pistis; see bid). For sense evolution, see belief. Theological sense is from late 14c.; religions called faiths since c.1300.
Technical description: In the context of religion, one can define faith as confidence or trust in a particular system of religious belief, within which faith may equate to confidence based on some perceived degree of warrant, in contrast to a definition of faith as being belief without evidence. (Wikipedia)
Synonyms: believe, conviction, trust, confidence.
Schemas / Maps:
Stages of faith development
Main article: James W. Fowler § Stages of Faith
James W. Fowler (1940–2015) proposes a series of stages of faith-development (or spiritual development) across the human life-span. His stages relate closely to the work of Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg regarding aspects of psychological development in children and adults. Fowler defines faith as an activity of trusting, committing, and relating to the world based on a set of assumptions of how one is related to others and the world.
Stages of faith:
- Intuitive-Projective: a stage of confusion and of high impressionability through stories and rituals (pre-school period).
- Mythic-Literal: a stage where provided information is accepted in order to conform with social norms (school-going period).
- Synthetic-Conventional: in this stage the faith acquired is concreted in the belief system with the forgoing of personification and replacement with authority in individuals or groups that represent one’s beliefs (early-late adolescence).
- Individuative-Reflective: in this stage the individual critically analyzes adopted and accepted faith with existing systems of faith. Disillusion or strengthening of faith happens in this stage. Based on needs, experiences and paradoxes (early adulthood).
- Conjunctive faith: in this stage people realize the limits of logic and, facing the paradoxes or transcendence of life, accept the “mystery of life” and often return to the sacred stories and symbols of the pre-acquired or re-adopted faith system. This stage is called negotiated settling in life (mid-life).
- Universalizing faith: this is the “enlightenment” stage where the individual comes out of all the existing systems of faith and lives life with universal principles of compassion and love and in service to others for upliftment, without worries and doubt (middle-late adulthood (45–65 years old and plus).
No hard-and-fast rule requires individuals pursuing faith to go through all six stages. There is a high probability for individuals to be content and fixed in a particular stage for a lifetime; stages from 2-5 are such stages. Stage 6 is the summit of faith development. This state is often considered as “not fully” attainable. (Wikipedia)
Relevance of the concept: traditional conventional and pre-logical faith is conceptual, it is based upon trust in a belief system.
The trans-logical faith of the mystic is perceptual, it is based upon a direct contact with a transcendental reality. ( M.J.M.)
Falsification
Word definition: A statement, hypothesis, or theory has falsifiability (or is falsifiable) if it can logically be proven false by contradicting it with a basic statement.
Etymology: Word Origin & History: 1560s, from Late Latin falsificationem (nominative falsificatio), noun of action from past participle stem of falsificare (see falsify).
Technical description:
Falsifiability, according to the philosopher Karl Popper, defines the inherent testability of any scientific hypothesis.
Relevance of the concept: Popper’s ultimate discovery, he claimed, was that adopting falsification, instead of verification, would solve both of those problems. “Only after some time did I realize that there was a close link, and that the problem of induction arose essentially from a mistaken solution to the problem of demarcation—from the belief that what elevated science over pseudoscience was the “scientific method” of finding true, secure, and justifiable knowledge, and that this method was the method of induction: a belief that erred in more ways than one.”
Popper noticed a logical asymmetry between verification and falsification. Attempts at verification rely on the invalid and discredited inductive logic. But falsification relies on the deductive and wholly valid inference of Modus Tollens. (New World Encyclopedia)
Citations: Albert Einstein is reported to have said something that can be paraphrased into: No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
Popper said in Conjectures and Refutations,
… the criterion of the scientific status of a theory is its falsifiability, or refutability, or testability.
— Popper
Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Popper, Karl (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery
Fana
Word definition: the Sufi term for “passing away” or “annihilation” (of the self).
Etymology: Sufi term.
Technical description: Fana means “to die before one dies”, a concept highlighted by famous notable Muslim saints such as Rumi and later by Sultan Bahoo. Fana represents a breaking down of the individual ego and a recognition of the fundamental unity of God, creation, and the individual self. Persons having entered this enlightened state obtain awareness of the intrinsic unity (Tawhid) between Allah and all that exists, including the individual’s mind. It is coupled conceptually with baqāʾ, subsistence, which is the state of pure consciousness of and abidance in God. (Wikipedia)
Phenomenological description: Fanā’. ‘Annihilation, dissolution’, the Sūfī state of attainment or perfection, achieved by the annihilation of all human attributes until God is all. It is ‘to die before one dies’. It is the threshold of baqāʾ’, perpetual being in relation to God, i.e. eternal life.
Synonyms: Nirvana, kenosis
Cross-cultural comparisons:
Fana fi Shaikh – Nirvana
Fana fi Rasoul – Parinirvana
Fana Fillah – Mahaparinirvana
( M.J.M.)
Relevance of the concept: Central concept within spiritual development.
The concept in mythology: Dying before death.
Supporting evidence: Cross-cultural similarities with the Buddhist concept of nirvana.
Fear
Word definition: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.
Etymology: Word Origin & History: Old English fær “calamity, sudden danger, peril,” from Proto-Germanic *feraz “danger” (cf. Old Saxon far “ambush,” Old Norse far “harm, distress, deception,” Dutch gevaar, German Gefahr “danger”), from PIE root *per- “to try, risk, come over, go through” (perhaps connected with Greek peira “trial, attempt, experience,” Latin periculum “trial, risk, danger”). Sense of “uneasiness caused by possible danger” developed late 12c. Old English words for “fear” as we now use it were ege, fyrhto; as a verb, ondrædan.
Technical description: Fear is a feeling induced by perceived danger or threat that occurs in certain types of organisms, which causes a change in metabolic and organ functions and ultimately a change in behavior, such as fleeing, hiding, or freezing from perceived traumatic events. Fear in human beings may occur in response to a specific stimulus occurring in the present, or in anticipation or expectation of a future threat perceived as a risk to body or life. The fear response arises from the perception of danger leading to confrontation with or escape from/avoiding the threat (also known as the fight-or-flight response), which in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) can be a freeze response or paralysis.
In humans and animals, fear is modulated by the process of cognition and learning. Thus fear is judged as rational or appropriate and irrational or inappropriate. An irrational fear is called a phobia. (Wikipedia)
Phenomenological description: Fear is a thought movement in which one tries to avoid something that is experienced as negative.
Synonyms: Anxiety, angst, apprehension, concern, despair.
Relevance of the concept: Fear is a movement of thought, and to be in a meditative state where all thoughts are absent (not repressed), removes all fear.
( M.J.M.)
The concept in mythology: The abyss.
Citations: “There is no fear for one whose mind is not filled with desires.” Buddha.
Supporting evidence: Introspection.
Feedback loop
Word definition: Channel or pathway formed by an ‘effect’ returning to its ’cause,’ and generating either more or less of the same effect.
Technical description: The section of a system that allows for feedback and self-correction and that adjusts its operation according to differences between the actual and the desired or optimal output.
Relevance of the concept: The process of the divinisation of matter is based upon feedback loops. ( M.J.M.)
The concept in mythology: The return of a hero to his homeland.
Feeling
Word definition: The capacity to experience refined emotions; sensitivity; sensibility.
Etymology: Word Origin & History: late 12c., “act of touching, sense of touch,” verbal noun from feel (v.). Meaning “emotion” is mid-14c. Meaning “what one feels (about something), opinion” is from mid-15c. Meaning “capacity to feel” is from 1580s.
Technical description: In psychology, the word is usually reserved for the conscious subjective experience of emotion. Phenomenology and heterophenomenology are philosophical approaches that provide some basis for knowledge of feelings. Many schools of psychotherapy depend on the therapist achieving some kind of understanding of the client’s feelings, for which methodologies exist. (Wikipedia)
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/Lists/List%20of%20emotions/
Phenomenological description: qualia.
Synonyms: sensitivity, responsiveness.
Cross-cultural comparisons: Universal descriptions within the world literature.
Relevance of the concept: The philosophical problem of Qualia, which cannot be explained by physiological mechanisms. There is obvious a correlation with neurological processes, but correlation isn’t causation. ( M.J.M.)
The concept in mythology: references to the heart.
Supporting evidence: Introspection.
Fine-tuning
Word definition: adjustment.
Etymology: also fine-tune, 1969, a back-formation from fine-tuning (1909 in reference to radio; earlier in various machinery contexts). From fine (adj.) + tune (v.). Related: Fine-tuning.
Technical description: The Fine Tuning of the Universe
by physicist Gerald Schroeder:
“According to growing numbers of scientists, the laws and constants of nature are so “finely-tuned,” and so many “coincidences” have occurred to allow for the possibility of life, the universe must have come into existence through intentional planning and intelligence.
In fact, this ” refinement ” is so pronounced, and the “coincidences” are so numerous, many scientists have come to espouse The Anthropic Principle, which contends that the universe was brought into existence intentionally for the sake of producing mankind. Even those who do not accept The Anthropic Principle admit to the “fine-tuning” and conclude that the universe is “too contrived” to be a chance event.
See further: https://marinusjanmarijs.com/evidence-based-approach/14-research-areas/cosmological-planning/cosmological-constants-and-fine-tuning/
Phenomenological description: Many top-level scientists and mathematicians had the intuitive feeling that there is a transcendent principle behind the physical world.
Synonyms: adjustment.
Supporting evidence: Mathematical data.
Flow
Word definition: to move along in a stream: to issue or proceed from a source:
Etymology: Old English flowan “to flow, stream, issue; become liquid, melt; abound, overflow” (class VII strong verb; past tense fleow, past participle flowen), from Proto-Germanic *flowan “to flow” (source also of Middle Dutch vloyen, Dutch vloeien, vloeijen “to flow,” Old Norse floa “to deluge,” Old High German flouwen “to rinse, wash”), from PIE root *pleu- “to flow.” The weak form predominated from 14c., but strong past participle flown is occasionally attested through 18c.
Technical description: Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, the concept of flow has been found valuable in Positive psychology, and has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.
In his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csikszentmihalyi outlined his theory that people are most happy when they are in a state of flow—a state of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation. The idea of flow is identical to the feeling of being, colloquially, “in the zone” or “in the groove.” The flow state is an optimal state of intrinsic motivation, where the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing. This is a feeling everyone has at times, characterized by a feeling of great freedom, enjoyment, fulfillment, and skill—and during which temporal concerns (time, food, ego-self, etc.) are typically ignored.
In an interview with Wired Magazine, Csikszentmihalyi described flow as
being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.
To achieve a flow state, a balance must be struck between the challenge of the task and the skill of the performer. If the task is too easy or too difficult, flow cannot occur.
The flow state also implies a kind of focused attention, and indeed, it has been noted that mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and martial arts seem to improve a person’s capacity for flow. Among other benefits, all of these activities train and improve attention.
In short; flow could be described as a state where attention, motivation, and the situation meet, resulting in a kind of productive harmony or feedback.
(New World Encyclopedia)
Group flow
Csikszentmihalyi suggests several ways in which a group could work together so that each individual member could achieve flow. The characteristics of such a group include:
- Creative spatial arrangements: Chairs, pin walls, charts; but no tables, therefore primarily work standing and moving
- Playground design: Charts for information inputs, flow graphs, project summary, craziness (here also craziness has a place), safe place (here all may say what is otherwise only thought), result wall, open topics
- Parallel, organized working
- Target group focus
- Advancement of existing one (prototyping)
- Increase in efficiency through visualization
- Existence of differences among participants represents an opportunity, rather than an obstacle
(New World Encyclopedia)
Phenomenological description: Nakamura and Csíkszentmihályi identify the following six factors as encompassing an experience of flow.
- Intense and focused concentration on the present moment
- Merging of action and awareness
- A loss of reflective self-consciousness
- A sense of personal control or agency over the situation or activity
- A distortion of temporal experience, one’s subjective experience of time is altered
- Experience of the activity as intrinsically rewarding, also referred to as autotelic experience. (Wikipedia)}
Synonyms: to proceed continuously and smoothly
Cross-cultural comparisons: The concept of the state of flow is similarly found in the traditions of the Far Eastern thoughts, such as Zen and Daoism. The concept is expressed in those traditions as a state of total oneness of mind-body, the oneness of the self and the world.
Csikszentmihalyi may have been the first to describe this concept in Western psychology, but as he himself readily acknowledged, he was most certainly not the first to describe the concept of Flow or develop applications based on the concept.
For millennia, practitioners of Eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism have honed the discipline of overcoming the duality of mind-body and the self and the world as a central feature of spiritual development. Eastern spiritual practitioners have developed a very thorough and holistic set of theories, tested, and refined through spiritual practices.
The phrase, “being at one with things” is a metaphor of Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow concept. Practitioners of the varied schools of Zen Buddhism apply concepts similar to Flow to aid their mastery of art forms, including, in the case of Japanese Zen Buddhism, Aikido, Kendo, and Ikebana.
The idea of overcoming duality of self and object is a key theme of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, by Robert Pirsig (1974). “When you’re not dominated by feelings of separateness from what you’re working on, then you can be said to ‘care’ about what you’re doing. That is what caring really is: ‘a feeling of identification with what one’s doing.’ When one has this feeling then you also see the inverse side of caring, quality itself.” (New World Encyclopedia)
Relevance of the concept: Relevant to high functional and creative performing.
The concept in mythology: sailing with a very strong supporting wind.
Supporting evidence: accounts by creative people of their experiences.
Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: “Flow.”
Formal operational
Word definition: One of the stages of cognitive development.
Etymology: Formal: late 14c., “pertaining to form or arrangement;” also, in philosophy and theology, “pertaining to the form or essence of a thing,” from Old French formal, formel “formal, constituent” (13c.) and directly from Latin formalis, from forma “a form, figure, shape” (see form (n.)). From early 15c. as “in due or proper form, according to recognized form,” As a noun, c. 1600 (plural) “things that are formal.
Operational: 1922, “pertaining to operation,” from operation + -al (1). Meaning “in a state of functionality” is from 1944.
Technical description: The period of formal operations, begins at age 12 and extends into adulthood. It is characterized by an orderliness of thinking and a mastery of logical thought, allowing a more flexible kind of mental experimentation. The child learns in this final stage to manipulate abstract ideas, make hypotheses, and see the implications of his own thinking and that of others. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
Phenomenological description: Thinking in concepts, categories and other intangible characteristics such as potentials and limitations, commonalities and differences.
Synonyms: Logical.
Relevance of the concept: The stages of cognitive development:
Piaget is best known for organizing cognitive development into a series of stages—the levels of development corresponding to infancy, early childhood, later childhood, and adolescence. These four stages are called the Sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to age two (children experience through their senses), the Preoperational stage, which occurs from ages two to seven (motor skills are acquired), the Concrete Operational stage, which occurs from ages seven to eleven (children think logically about concrete events), and the Formal Operational stage, which occurs after age eleven (abstract reasoning is developed here). Advancement through these levels occurs through the interaction of biological factors and experience; through a mechanism he called “equilibration.” He believed that children (and indeed adults) are continually generating theories about the external world (which are kept or dismissed depending on whether we see them working in practice).
(New World Encyclopedia)
Literature: Books / Articles / Websites:
Jean Piaget: “The early growth of logic in the child.” (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964
Formative causation
Word definition: A theory concerned with the origin and growth of form and characteristics in nature.
Etymology: This theory was proposed by bio-chemist and plant researcher Rupert Sheldrake in his book A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation.
Technical description: For many years, embryologists have used the general term morphogenetic fields to indicate the mysterious factors that influence the development of growth and characteristics in plants and animals. The term is derived from the Greek morphe (form) and genesis (coming into being) and is usually assumed to embrace a complex of inherited characteristics programmed in DNA molecules. Sheldrake’s theory, however, proposes a literal interpretation of morphogenetic fields as structures independent of time and space. All the past fields of a given type are available instantly to, or coexist with, subsequent similar systems.
The genes only define parameters within which development takes place and do not determine the future form of the organism. The fertilization of a seed or egg, says Sheldrake, is a “morphogenetic germ” for development that is influenced by “previous systems of which structures similar to these morpho-genetic germs were a part. thus becomes surrounded by, or embedded within, the morphogenetic field of the higher-level system [i.e., the cell is influenced by the tittuse-field, the tissue by the organ-field], which then shapes or moulds the process of development towards the characteristic form.”
Relevance of the concept: Sheldrake calls the influence of one morphogenetic field upon another “morphic resonance,” involving a new kind of action at a distance, independent of space and time. This influence does not appear to be electromagnetic and may involve some as yet undiscovered method of action, a theory that clear-ly has relevance to such parapsychological phenomena as telepathy and clairvoyance.
Supporting evidence: Sheldrake did develop a number of ways to test his hypothesis. It is remarkable that his theory has great similarities with some aspects of Theoretical physicist David Bohm’s theory of implicated orders.
( M.J.M.)
Rupert Sheldrake “A New Science of Life: The Hypothesis of Formative Causation.”
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