Thesis advisor: Ronald K. Tacelli / This dissertation arose from concerns that the prevalent philosophy of materialism which reduces everything to matter has inadvertently contributed to the ecological destruction of the planet, and an impoverished understanding of human nature. Conceptual arguments and empirical data cry out for a philosophy beyond materialism (or its current avatar Physicalism) that moves us beyond 17th century classical science, making use of 20th century quantum science to better understand our world. Such a new philosophy would embed a new scientific paradigm that incorporates both the first person point of view and the third person "no point of view."The main issue I engage in this dissertation is whether consciousness can be explained by Physicalism. While functionalism, the dominant theory of Physicalism, answers many questions related to consciousness, it leaves major ones unanswered. I offer a critique of Physicalism using conceptual arguments and empirical data encompassing what I call the "chemistry of attention." I also offer innovative proposals toward a philosophical approach I term "Aspect Monism" that builds on earlier monist philosophies (Spinoza) while incorporating dualistic features, suggesting that this new approach would better account for consciousness. The proximate history of Physicalism to either explain the mind away or reduce it to the brain from Behaviorism through Identity Theory to Functionalism is laid out as well as the difficulty in establishing the boundaries of Physicalism.The project utilizes conceptual arguments to critique Physicalism in three areas of concern: What is left out? What is assumed? What is causing methodological confusion? The areas of qualia, cognition, intentionality, meaning and personhood are left out. This is demonstrated, in part, by various thought experiments like the inverted spectrum argument, the Chinese nation argument, the zombies' argument, the knowledge argument and the Chinese room argument. The problem of causal closure of the physical is that which is assumed. The ambiguity with respect to method is that which causes confusion.Empirical data from the neurosciences (EEG, ERP, fMRI experiments during meditation; OCD and phobia treatment; placebo and nocebo effect) are used to critically analyze Physicalism with respect to mental states and causation and the analysis of such data points to a close relationship between attention and changes in the brain, and subsequently to the collapse of Physicalism into Epiphenomenalism. Such a metaphysical approach to consciousness is suggested from, and provides a home for, the neurophysical approaches to the origins of consciousness. I present a neuro-quantum perspective using Stapp and Penrose-Hameroff who suggest these origins via neuroscience and quantum physics.As we search for a new scientific paradigm and consequently a new metaphysics that takes into consideration the objective and the subjective, and the inner and the outer, a new philosophy and a new scientific paradigm which incorporates both the first person point of view and the third person "no point of view" data is the need of the hour. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Submitted by Edilene de Souza Leite null (edilenesz@hotmail.com) on 2017-04-07T12:30:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 EdileneSz Meditação e Monismo publicada.pdf: 1502925 bytes, checksum: e1bd0b706103c532c177742e1d1d732e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luiz Galeffi (luizgaleffi@gmail.com) on 2017-04-17T13:53:59Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 leite_es_me_mar.pdf: 1502925 bytes, checksum: e1bd0b706103c532c177742e1d1d732e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-17T13:53:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 leite_es_me_mar.pdf: 1502925 bytes, checksum: e1bd0b706103c532c177742e1d1d732e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-02-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Pesquisas sobre meditação em muitos campos de investigação cresceram amplamente no Ocidente no último século, principalmente por causa de seus benefícios. No entanto, não há um conceito bem definido do que é meditação. Há uma diversidade de técnicas e tradições de culturas diferentes que a cultivam, de tal forma que podemos encontrá-la em todos os continentes. No campo científico, a maioria dos pesquisadores procura pelas relações da meditação e atividades cerebrais, contribuindo para investigações sobre a consciência e para filosofia da mente, e ajudando a abordar debates não resolvidos sobre percepção, atenção e processos de aprendizagem. Neste trabalho enfrentamos o desafio de abordar filosoficamente a meditação, considerando a variedade de abordagens disponíveis e a diversidade de achados empíricos. Revisamos teorias e interpretações sobre a natureza da mente, e abordamos a hipótese de Walach (2014) que a meditação seria uma capacidade epistêmica da consciência que acessa uma realidade objetiva. Partindo do Monismo de Triplo Aspecto de proposto por Pereira Jr. (2013, 2015) assumimos que a marca da consciência é o sentimento, e resgatamos os antigos argumentos budistas de Nagarjuna sobre o sofrimento para conceber a meditação como uma experiência que é sobre o sentimento. Sugerimos também ao final da dissertação que a intuição pode ser vista como uma maneira de conhecer o mundo por meio de práticas de meditação. / Research on meditation in many fields of investigation has been widely growing in the Occident in the last century, mainly because of its benefits. However, there isn‘t a well-defined concept of what is meditation and there is a vast quantity of technics and traditions from different cultures that cultivate it, in a way that we can find it in every continent. On the scientific field, most of the researchers are looking for the relations of meditation and brain activities, contributing to investigations on consciousness and to the philosophy of the mind, helping to approach unsolved debates about perception, attention, and learning processes. In this work we present the challenge of working with meditation, considering the many approaches available and the diversity of empirical findings. We review theories and interpretations about the nature of the mind and address a hypothesis by Walach (2014) that meditation would be an epistemic capacity of the consciousness that accesses an objective reality. Starting up from Monism of Triple Aspect proposed by Pereira Jr. (2013, 2015) we assume that the mark of consciousness is feeling, and rescue the ancient Buddhist arguments of Nagarjuna about suffering to conceive meditation as an experience that is about feeling. We also suggest by the end of the dissertation that intuition can be regarded as a way of knowing about the world by means of meditation practices.

Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology

Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology