Contributed research papers presented at an International Seminar on "Science and Spirituality: Bridages of Understanding" held at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in November 2016.

Stanford argues that cooperators achieve and maintain correlated interaction through the objectification of moral norms. We first challenge the moral/non-moral distinction that frames Stanford's discussion. We then argue that to the extent that norms are objectified (and we hold that they are at most objectified in a very thin sense), it is not for the sake of achieving correlated interaction.

There are a number of conflicting accounts of thought insertion, the delusion that the thoughts of another are inserted into one’s own mind. These accounts share the common assumption of _realism_: that the subject of thought insertion has a thought corresponding to the description of her thought insertion episode. I challenge the assumption by arguing for an anti-realist treatment of first-person reports of thought insertion. I then offer an alternative account, _simulationism_, according to which sufferers merely simulate having a thought (...) inserted into their heads. By rejecting realism, the paper undermines a widespread explanatory framework that unites otherwise competing cognitive models of thought insertion. (shrink)

Theorists have found it difficult to reconcile the unity of inner speech as a mental state kind with the diversity of its manifestations. I argue that existing views concerning the content of inner speech fail to accommodate both of these features because they mistakenly assume that its content is to be found in the ‘speech processing hierarchy’, which includes semantic, syntactic, phonemic, phonetic, and articulatory levels. Upon rejecting this assumption, I offer a position on which the content of inner speech (...) is determined by voice processing, of which speech processing is but one component. The resulting view does justice to the idea that inner speech is a motley assortment of episodes that nevertheless form a kind. (shrink)

This paper is going to be a small study in the arena of comparative philosophy of the east and west. This study will show that ancient philosophies of India are still relevant in the modern world, and the modern philosophies in the western world is not a fruit of frustration, but both of them are two chief currents of thebrilliancy of human mind according to the development of human being and their need. Advaita Vedanta finds its extreme in nonduality, or (...) non-existence of brahman, which is the negation of all materialistic subjects\ topics \things in this world, or basically it denies the complete existence of the present world. On the other hand, Post Modernism finds its goal in decentralization of any object\theory in this world. Therefore, we can say that the both the systems have almost same conclusion regarding the non-existence or decentralization, but there is a radical difference in their dates. Advaita Vedanta and Post Modernism have also similarity in their methods to find their conclusions: “netineti” is a prime tool for Advaita Vedanta to prove the non-existence of brahman, and Post Modernism follows the “logic of Difference” to decentralize any existence in this world. This study will explore the differences and similarities of both of the systems, and will try to present a common conclusion, which should be acceptable for both of the systems. (shrink)

... Achievement motivation in Gita 99-125 characteristics of achievement- oriented individual 100-103 its significance for Indian management 108-109 Aquinas ...

On the conception of God in the philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1941.

Religion of the Rabaris of the Rajasthan, India; a study.

Boundary extension is a memory phenomenon in which an individual reports seeing more of a scene than they actually did. We provide the first examination of boundary extension in individuals diagnosed with depression, hypothesising that an overemphasis on pre-existing schema may enhance boundary extension effects on emotional photographs. The relationship between boundary extension and overgeneralisation in autobiographical memory was also explored. Individuals with (n = 42) and without (n = 41) Major Depressive Disorder completed a camera paradigm task utilising positive, (...) negative, and neutral stimuli. Across all participants, positive (d = 0.37) and negative (d = 0.66) stimuli were extended more than neutral stimuli. This effect did not differ between depressed and never-depressed participants. Across all participants, images containing objects were extended more than images containing faces. An association was also evident between extension effects in memory for perceptual space and extensions of autobiographical memory across time. (shrink)

The claim that perfect hallucination is introspectively indistinguishable from perception has been a centrepiece of philosophical theorizing about sense experience. The most common interpretation of the indistinguishability claim is modal: that it is impossible to distinguish perfect hallucination from perception through introspection alone. I run through various models of introspection and show that none of them can accommodate the modal interpretation. Rejecting the modal interpretation opens up two alternative interpretations of the indistinguishability claim. According to the generic interpretation, hallucination is (...) indistinguishable from perception despite the existence of possible exceptions, while according to the actuality interpretation, the indistinguishability of hallucination from perception consists in the actual failure to distinguish hallucination from perception. These alternative understandings of the indistinguishability claim have a number of significant implications for the problem of perception, including the rejection of perfect hallucination and illusion in favour of our ordinary, non-philosophical concepts of these states. (shrink)

A common but overlooked form of explanation in psychiatry is what I label ‘empathetic explanation’. Empathetic explanations invoke empathetic variables, which, in addition to providing an explanation of the target phenomenon, also afford an empathetic understanding of it. Focusing on the case of auditory verbal hallucination (AVH), I argue that empathetic explanation fails to provide an adequate account of the phenomenon, perniciously shapes empirical research, and confuses empathetic understanding with scientific understanding. I close by providing a general condition on the (...) legitimate application of empathetic explanation. (shrink)

COVID-19 forced lockdown in India, leading to the loss of job, crisis of food, and other financial catastrophes that led to the exodus migration of internal migrant workers, operating in the private sector, back to their homes. Unavailability of transport facilities led to an inflicted need to walk back to homes barefooted without lack of any other crucial resources on the way. The woeful state of internal migrant workers walking back, with all their stuff on their back, holding their children, (...) was trending on social media worldwide. Their problem continued even after reaching home, including misbehavior of villagers, indifferent mannerism of family members toward them, inability to fulfill family responsibility, and financial crisis, which led to stress, fear, and trauma for these internal migrant workers. The present paper aimed to assess the idiosyncratic stressors of internal migrant workers throughout the pandemic era and their responses toward those problems, which helped them cope with it. In-depth semistructured telephonic interviews were conducted with 25 internal migrant workers who were working in different cities in India before lockdown. The analyses revealed that multiple stressors include financial crisis, unavailability of food, inability to continue education, inability to pay house rent, lack of support from neighbors and family, and other psychological stressors that affected them. However, they also tried multiple strategies to deal with the problems, including a cognitive appraisal of the problem and making oneself psychologically competent to deal with the situation. Social support of family and friends played a vital role in enhancing hardiness and increasing the level of happiness at scarce times. At the same time, some of them could not deal with stressors and opted for psychiatric help to manage the physical symptoms of stress. (shrink)

One of the important aspects of educational philosophy is that it helps to construct a comprehensive system of education. During different periods, India has witnessed various stages of development. New priorities have emerged in education with the influences of monastic scholastic, realistic, idealistic and pragmatic trends. While education institutions have evolved, there remain several gaps between the philosophical ideals proposed by educational institutions and their everyday functioning. The paper brings forth the urgent need to bridge the gaps in order to (...) attain a comprehensive philosophy of education, in principle and in action. The authors posit that the Indian philosophy of education, normatively speaking, could extend the culture and tradition of the philosophical positions of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and Swami Vivekananda. Such an approach could help in developing an integrated approach of teachers towards education and assist in strengthening their role in shaping the inner potential of a learner in a constructive manner. (shrink)

Philosophers and psychologists assume that mental imagery is a cognitive state, that it represents things as being a certain way. However, I argue that imagery is a conative state: it represents things as to be made a certain way. I challenge the traditional assumption by targeting an increasingly popular cognitive account that identifies mental imagery, such as inner speech, with predictions of sensory input. This predictive account faces both empirical and theoretical problems. The account not only fails to capture the (...) salience effects exhibited by mental imagery, it also cannot explain why subjects should not spend their lives minimizing prediction error by engaging in fantasy. These shortcomings highlight what I call the conative profile of imagery, which includes its salience, motivational, and performance effects. I argue that an alternative, conative view of imagery, according to which mental images are goal states, is best able to account for its conative profile. (shrink)

The dissociation between statistical prediction and scientific explanation advanced by Bowers et al. for studies of vision using deep neural networks is also observed in several other domains of behavior research, and is in fact unavoidable when fitting large models such as deep nets and other supervised learners, with weak theoretical commitments, to restricted samples of highly stochastic behavioral phenomena.

This paper examines John Rawls' renowned theory of justice, which outlines two principles of justice and their respective significance. It explores how Rawls' notion of equality aligns with the philosophical concept of equity, emphasizing that his call for citizen equality inherently incorporates fairness. Additionally, the paper discusses the application of Rawls' "Difference Principle" to India's reservation policy. Rawls' principles, which aim to support the worst-off in society, are reflected in India's system of reservations for marginalized groups, including backward classes and (...) differently-abled individuals, to promote equitable opportunities. However, the paper cautions that excessive reservations could limit opportunities for more privileged groups. Ultimately, it is argued that Rawls' concept of social justice has contributed to the promotion of social justice in India. (shrink)

In this paper a new technique of dual image watermarking is proposed for protection of ownership rights which utilizes salient properties of homomorphic transform (HT), discrete wavelet transform (DWT), singular value decomposition (SVD) and Arnold transform (AT). In embedding algorithm host image is splitted into reflectance and illumination components using HT, DWT is further applied to the reflectance component resulting in frequency subbands (HL and LH) which are transformed by SVD. Two image watermarks are selected for embedding process whereas security (...) of proposed algorithm is strengthen by performing scrambling of second watermark through AT. Both watermarks are transformed with DWT and SVD. Singular values (SVs) of both transformed watermark are embedded into SVs of host image. Simulation results clearly signifies for high robustness and imperceptibility of proposed algorithm as it is examined under various attacks. Superiority of proposed technique is illustrated by comparing it with other reported methods. (shrink)

In this study, we develop a new theoretical framework of Coping Intelligence which examines relationships between coping strategies and organizational commitment among boundary spanning employees. We collected data from 452 boundary spanning salespeople using multiple sources. Results demonstrate that a formative model of Coping Intelligence is superior to a reflective model and that problem-focused coping contributes to CI which, in turn, is related to affective and normative commitment. Further, our more parsimonious formative model illustrates that positive problem-focused coping and negative (...) emotion-focused coping contribute to both affective and normative commitment. After controlling for gender and salespeople’s commission in separate analyses, results remain significant. We provide additional insights: Females are likely to use emotion-focused coping than males, but gender is not related to organizational commitment. Salespeople’s commission is positively related to both affective and normative commitment but unrelated to coping strategies. We shed new lights on boundary spanning employees’ Coping Intelligence and organizational commitment and offer theoretical, empirical, and practical implications to coping strategies and business ethics. (shrink)

3500 word interview with Tom Cochrane discussing his philosophical background, the nature of aesthetic value, the benefits of art, and aestheticism.

The identification of additional subunits of the cGMP-gated cation channel suggests exciting questions about their regulatory roles and about structure/functional relationships. How do the different subunits interact? How is the complex assembled into the plasma membrane? Divalent cations have been implicated in the regulation of adaptation. One often overlooked cation is magnesium. Could this ion play a role in phototransduction?