Attention is an art form

Archive

Finding the CenterUnderstanding centers may help architects actualize vigorous places and environments that sustain thriving human life.David SeamonMay 27, 2022Meaning and Affordance: Between Alexander and GibsonAssessing our ability to navigate the world in a meaningful way requires rethinking the subject-object stance.Benjamin ParryJanuary 11, 2022Complex Potential StatesA theory of change that can account for beauty and generate lifeBonnitta RoyNovember 30, 2021Why Christopher Alexander Failed to Humanize ArchitecturePractitioners who try to implement Alexander's toolkit find themselves marginalized in the architecture profession and shunned by academia. Why?Nikos A. SalingarosNovember 19, 2021Reckoning and Desire: First Critical TheoryLogos requires a faith in the reality of the good and the ordering of the human psyche to it. Without such an ordering, there could be no logos in the relevant sense.Stephen PimentelNovember 15, 2021The Deeper Order of CitiesSmall-scale urban planning coupled with decentralized, interactive local governance can enable patterns to emerge into a more complex form of citymaking.Joni BabociNovember 12, 2021Surviving the Show: The New Asceticism of Ivan IllichIllich invites us to consider what it might mean to discipline our vision. Doing so may help us reframe our relationship to the digital media ecosystem.L. M. SacasasNovember 10, 2021Restoring Architecture's Cosmic ContextBy ignoring the aesthetic testimony of feeling in favor of the computational power of its models, science has blinded itself to the vitality of the universeMatthew David SegallNovember 8, 2021The Role of Being: Philosophical Underpinnings in The Nature of OrderWhat do we mean when we talk about being? How can this inquiry help us as architects and designers?James M. MaguireNovember 5, 2021Rules of Thumb and Adaptive RationalityHuman cultures have used rules of thumb for centuries. During the past century, however, they have been vilified to near extinction. Is their demise justified?Roope KaaronenNovember 4, 2021The Zigzag Man: Christopher Alexander's Dual RegardAlexander is at once analytical, focused, and linear, but also intuitive, receptive, and embodied. His style is the summation of both attitudes.Jenny QuillienNovember 3, 2021The Votary: On Death and AskēsisThe meditation on death is an essential form of care for one's psyche, complementary to knowledge of the self.Stephen PimentelDecember 21, 2020Why Do Civilizations Collapse?We have to evaluate the perceptions that mint facts and theory, not merely peruse the body of theories handed down to us.Samo BurjaAugust 19, 2020The Contemplative's SocratesAn original gift to the Western philosophic and spiritual tradition.David L. CollinsAugust 4, 2020Cognition in the WildPerception and cognition grow out of holistically entangled events.Bonnitta RoyMay 20, 2020Collective NavigationIntroduction to Vol. 2 No. 1Adam RobbertMay 20, 2020Diagnosing the Current Age: A Symptomology of the Meaning CrisisA wisdom renaissance is underway.Christopher Mastropietro & John VervaekeMay 20, 2020Mapping Metamodernism for Collective IntelligenceWhat is metamodernism and how can it help us collectively navigate these times?Brent CooperMay 20, 2020Memetic Mediation: The Hard Problem of the Culture WarWe can view this new culture war, Culture War 2.0, as philosophical battles acted out in the noosphere.Peter LimbergMay 20, 2020Meta, ModernUnderstanding the phenomenology of consciousness.Jeremy JohnsonMay 20, 2020Power Exists: How Shall We Use It?A thought experiment in the question of rule.Wolf TivyMay 20, 2020Skillful Perception at the Scale of CivilizationCivilization-scale challenges call for civilization-scale perception.Nicholas Paul BrysiewiczMay 20, 2020Surfing Incoherence: Development and Navigation in an Uncertain FuturePersonal development is key to collective navigation.Jessica BurtonMay 20, 2020The Epistemic Burdens of the Atomized IndividualHow do we develop an understanding of the atomized individual?Davood GozliMay 20, 2020The Instrument of NavigationEmotions are a faculty of perception.Raymond FinzelMay 20, 2020The Psychodynamics of Memetic MediationMemetic mediation is an extension of our contemplative practice.Jason SnyderMay 20, 2020Warm Data and Iced LemonadeA deeply human response to complexity is possible.Nora Bateson & Explorers of LiminalityMay 20, 2020What Is Metamodernism and Why Does It Matter?Metamodernism and the structure of feeling.Greg DemberMay 20, 2020Again: Modern Science Does not Support the Stoic God, and That’s OkayMassimo Pigliucci, PhDMassimo PigliucciFebruary 10, 2020The Scientific God of the StoicsThe Stoic God sits perfectly well within a scientific worldview.James DaltreyDecember 20, 2019The Side View: Introduction to Issue 2Conversions of being.Adam RobbertOctober 23, 2019The Conservation of SufferingEmpirical and theoretical lines of research point back to truths once taken at face value as the foundation of the human conditionMatthew PirkowskiSeptember 13, 2019Meditative Awareness and the Symbiotic RealMeditation aids the process of turning away from anthropocentrism and toward solidarity with other beings.Jane Affleck, PhDSeptember 11, 2019The Stoic God Is Untenable in the Light of Modern ScienceWhy do modern Stoics have animated discussions about ancient Stoic metaphysics?Massimo PigliucciJuly 26, 2019Into a Quiet Within: Reflections on Arboreal PhenomenologyReconsidering arboreal phenomenology has implications for our human relationships to trees and forests, both personal and societal.Laura Pustarfi, PhDJuly 16, 2019Evagrius’s DemonsThe world offers resistance, sometimes it even overwhelms us, and we are compelled to theorize in order to regain balance, to find relief.Jacob GivenJuly 11, 2019The Stoic God: A Call to Science or Faith?A rational belief in the Stoic god can enhance your connection to and understanding of yourself and the world you inhabit.Kai WhitingJune 28, 2019On Stoic TranscendenceStoic transcendence is an active exercise that takes us to a new level of understanding about the world.Brittany PolatJune 7, 2019Dust to Dust: A Geology of ColorMetals and pigments are co-directors of our creative, evolutionary process.Heidi GustafsonJune 5, 2019Why I am not a PhysicalistQuestioning the assumptions of physicalism opens one up to new worlds of possibility.Peter Sjöstedt-H, PhDMay 29, 2019The Side View: Introduction to the SeriesAttention is an art form. Perception is a skill.Adam RobbertApril 15, 2019Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a Form of Stoic AskēsisBrazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), a modern grappling martial art, can be one of the best contemporary forms of Stoic askēsis for those wishing to improve themselves.Michael TremblayFebruary 7, 2019Mixing It Up: The Ecological Psychology of First ImpressionsEcological psychology highlights that perception is an active process. Person perception should be understood in the same way.Liam Satchell, PhDJanuary 16, 2019Deconstructing Mindfulness: Embracing a Complex SimplicityThere’s been a marked increase in studies of mindfulness and meditation in recent years. I’m worried that many of today’s researchers may think they know what they’re doing.David L. Collins, PhDJanuary 12, 2019Generating WholesIn living systems, the whole generates the parts. The parts do not exist a priori .Joe NormanJanuary 11, 2019The Art of Mushroom ForagingMushroom foraging is an art of active perception that deserves to be studied with patience, taught with rigor, and passed on to future generations with contagious enthusiasm.Roope Kaaronen, PhD(c)November 26, 2018Introducing Ecobehavioral DesignBehavior change can be difficult to achieve, and just trying can quickly become the work of the weary. However, much of the struggle arises from how we conceive what is changing.Mark JamesNovember 23, 2018Culturing ConsciousnessThe essence of philosophy is to practice the death of our self-models, thereby opening attention to broader terrains of awareness.Oshan JarowOctober 26, 2018Decentralizing CognitionThe primary goal of meditation is to temporarily suspend the sense that there is a self riding around in the head who is somehow separate from the rest of the body and the world. Why would somebody want to do this?Jason Snyder, PhDOctober 4, 2018The Ecology of DesignDesign is the bootstrap by which animals, humans in particular, become capable of lifting themselves up to novel levels of existence.Roope Kaaronen, PhD(c)October 4, 2018Inscription on the HeartThe self is surely more than the sum of its parts, but summing the parts is a way of beginning to think about who or what a self is.Claire Fanger, PhDOctober 4, 2018Practice is not a Life HackPeople say that practice is something you do with your body, but that's backwards. Your body is something you do with your practice.Sam Mickey, PhDOctober 4, 2018The Contemplative’s ConscienceWhen we practice contemplative unknowing, we let go of all of our conceited conceptualizations, and we come to rest in a more fundamental experience of being alive.David L. Collins, PhDOctober 4, 2018The Hidden SelfSitting meditation is a kind of ascetic practice, like fasting, that helps us widen and deepen the aperture of our attention so that the subtleties of Being can show themselves.Jacob GivenOctober 4, 2018Why German Idealism MattersGerman idealism is an invitation to exercise our freedom of thought and to consider that what at first appears impossible may become necessary.Matthew T. Segall, PhDOctober 4, 2018