H Kim

This article interrogates the way/s in which rival schools studying hypnotism in late 19th-century France framed what counts as valid evidence for the purposes of science. Concern over the scientific reality of results is particularly situated in the notion of simulation (the faking of results); the respective approaches to simulation of the Salpêtrière and Nancy schools are analysed through close reading of key texts: Binet and Féré for the Salpêtrière, and Bernheim for Nancy. The article reveals a striking divergence between their scientific frames, which helps account for the bitterness of the schools’ disputes. It then explores Bernheim’s construction of scientific authority in more detail, for insights into the messiness entailed by theorizing hypnotism in psychical terms, while also attempting to retain scientific legitimacy. Indicative of this messiness, it is argued, is the way in which Bernheim’s (apparently inconsistent) approach draws on multiple epistemic frames.

This paper attempts to reinterpret the idea of minjung messiah, a major doctrine of Korean minjung theology, in order to reveal its nondualistic understanding of Christian eschatology, by using process non-substantialist metaphysics. In a dialogue with process panentheism, minjung theology gets philosophical languages to articulate its organic ideas of the relationships between historical liberation and eschatological salvation, minjung’s self-transcendence and divine providence, and history and the Kingdom of God.

This article discusses the artist, filmmaker, and writer Lana Lin’s “revisioning” of Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals (1980) to consider how the poetic encounter between two artists from different generations exemplifies the relational praxis that Lorde pursued throughout her life. In revealing the ways in which Lorde opens acoustic sensory spaces for contemporary readers and listeners of her work, I specifically focus on the political and aesthetic dynamic of recitation in Lin’s experimental documentary The Cancer Journals Revisited (2018). I trace how recitation becomes a coalitional practice of feminist chorus through which readers and listeners embody the sonorous space they co-create through and with Lorde. The article further looks into the ways Lin pairs recitation performance with visceral images of body parts on the screen to argue that the film’s visuals dwell in and extend the form of the chorus; which is to say, the film expands the meaning and practice of chorus beyond the realm of the sonic. The bodies on the screen extend the chorus, immersing the audience in a participatory rethinking of the experience of cancer (particularly breast cancer) not merely as an individual misfortune or an aesthetic concern. In adjoining textual, visual, and acoustic elements, Lin’s film provides a powerful transformative sensory environment, reverberating through the reciters and the audience.

This study examined the effectiveness of two theoretical models for tracking the spiritual growth of Sundo Taoist practitioners: Wilber's Four Quadrants of Integral Development and Kim's Five Archetypes of Personal Growth. It asked: What if any, developmental changes occur in long-term Sundo practitioners? Do practitioners in Korea report the same experiences as those in North America? What if any, differences do the Korean and North American practitioners exhibit in terms of the two theoretical models? Does the Sundo practitioner show a different health profile as the length of Sundo practice increases? ;A total of 202 Sundo practitioners from both North America and the Republic of Korea participated . They included 103 males and 99 females who had practiced from 2 weeks to 15 years. This mixed-design study utilized three Likert-type questionnaires, one based on Wilber's model and one on Kim's model, both heuristically derived to assess spiritual growth. The third questionnaire was the Survey of Self-Rated Health, Wellness, and Quality of Life. Seven male and 7 female long-term North American practitioners were interviewed, using open-ended semi-structured questions designed to explore their experiences in relation to Sundo practice. Descriptive statistics supplemented with ANOVAs compared the effects of practice over time as well as gender and geographic location. The interviews were explored using content analyses that focused on thematic material. ;Significant findings included: long-term increases in spiritual development across all levels of practice on all measures; increases in health scores with length of practice; national differences with higher scores on both questionnaires for North American participants; larger increases for women in one of Wilber's Four Quadrants; and greater variability among females than males on both Wilber's and Kim's questionnaires. Subjective content analyses disclosed similar developmental patterns in spiritual growth. ;Overall, this investigation supported the validity of both Wilber's and Kim's developmental models, and suggested their usefulness for similar studies. It also lent support to Sundo practice as a valid and effective path to spiritual growth

Astroturf organizations are fake grassroots organizations usually sponsored by large corporations to support any arguments or claims in their favor, or to challenge and deny those against them. They constitute the corporate version of grassroots social movements. Serious ethical and societal concerns underline this astroturfing practice, especially if corporations are successful in influencing public opinion by undertaking a social movement approach. This study is motivated by this particular issue and examines the effectiveness of astroturf organizations in the global warming context, wherein large corporate polluters have an incentive to set up astroturf organizations to undermine the importance of human activities in climate change. We conduct an experiment to determine whether astroturf organizations have an impact on the level of user certainty about the causes of global warming. Results show that people who used astroturf websites became more uncertain about the causes of global warming and humans’ role in the phenomenon than people who used grassroots websites. Astroturf organizations are hence successful in promoting business interests over environmental protection. In addition to the multiple business ethics issues it raises, astroturfing poses a significant threat to the legitimacy of the grassroots movement.

There are two related but distinct questions concerning indexical expressions: What is the semantic feature that makes indexical expressions behave differently from non-indexical ones? And what is the special role that indexicals play in performing actions? The goal of my dissertation is to provide an adequate framework in which both questions are addressed. John Perry criticizes Frege claiming that there is no space for the meaning of an indexical expression within the Fregean semantics. In Chapter 1, however, I argue that Frege's scattered remarks on indexical expressions, despite prima facie inconsistency, have at least a plausible and promising interpretation. In Chapter 2, I turn to Perry's theories. I agree with Perry that both of the above two questions should be dealt with within one framework but disagree with him on the nature of the framework. Crudely speaking, Perry, at least in his early theories, takes the semantic feature of indexical expressions to be responsible for their special cognitive significance in performing actions. I show that this idea faces many problems. In Chapter 3 through 5, I develop the clues and lessons from Chapter 1 and 2. As for the semantic aspect of indexicality, I argue that the semantic job of indexical expressions is pointing, in order to produce effective content . In Chapter 4, I consider the action-theoretic aspect of indexicality. After examining various cases I argue that there are no essentially indexical thoughts that are responsible for performing actions. The explanation of whether one performs an action or fails to perform it lies fundamentally not in the existence of essentially indexical thoughts but in the availability of proper beliefs and the agent's success or failure in connecting those beliefs. In Chapter 5, I seek the grounds that make plausible the claim that indexicality is a pervasive phenomenon, not restricted only to expressions such as "I", "you", "now", etc