Purpose. The article is devoted to horror films as forms of anthropological crisis in mass culture, which generate specific meanings and are presented in ways of control over consumer society, as well as act as unconscious ideological mediators of multiculturalism and globalization. Theoretical basis. The main working tool for the analysis of horror films is the method of historical amplification, developed by C. G. Jung, as a basis for comparative analysis of symbolic interpretations of cultural realities and traditions of American (...) horror films. On this basis, the authors propose their own methodological strategy for the analysis of horror films, complementing the theoretical potential of Jungianism with methodological developments of Marxism and neo-Marxism, which can be called "Jung-Marxism". It is distinguished by the orientation and content of socio-cultural phenomena, the essence of which is considered in the context of the interaction of social and archetypal meanings of life of man and society, as well as allows to identify latent unconscious trends in the emergence and functioning of social institutions. With this approach, horror films are not only institutes of production and introduction of fear in consumer society, but also the biotic basis of management at all levels of social communication. Originality. Horror films have a significant impact on the consumer society on the basis of a special mythology, in which the manipulative and propaganda methods of formation and transmission of modern power are sublimated. And the emergence of the horror film genre in American and world cinema means abandoning the model of classical political power based on the sacralisation and rationalization of personal authority and physical coercion. The scientific reflection on the films of this genre allows us to understand the biotic mechanisms of manipulation of social space and the formation of the state of biopower as a new qualitative state of social control. Conclusions. The anthropological model of horror films is concentrated in the following maxim: fear consumes a man a man consumes fear, and the biopower consumes all the subjects of fear consumption, and all their socio-cultural context of communication. Therefore, horror films are a productive means of ideologue-propaganda infection, subsequent deformation and consumer substitution of the mental nucleus of other cultural traditions. (shrink)

In recent decades, attempts to create and argue a new ontology of existence that could provide a robust alternative to the mainstream physicalist metaphysics have been made in science and philosophy. A new book by Bernardo Kastrup, a well-known specialist in the field of philosophy of mind and neuroscience of consciousness, offers the author's conceptually clear and rigorous formulation of the philosophical system. The author proves that appearance and reality in ontology are fundamentally experiential. A universal phenomenal consciousness is the (...) sole ontological primitive, which patterns of excitation constitute existence, and a human being is dissociated mental complexes of this universal consciousness, surrounded like islands by the ocean of its mentation. Kastrup’s idea of the World has an idealist ontological underpinning. The author contrasts his vision of the world with the existing ideas of the world perception, such as physicalism, microexperientialism and cosmopsychism. The quality of the argument, which is given in the book, suggests the revival of the philosophy of idealism as the next paradigm, according to which a form of universal mind will be viewed as nature's sole fundamental entity. (shrink)

> Context • The alleged dichotomy between mind and matter is pervasive. Therefore, the attempt to explain mat- ter in terms of mind (idealism) is often considered a mirror image of that of explaining mind in terms of mat- ter (mainstream physicalism), in the sense of being structurally equivalent despite being reversely arranged. > Problem • I argue that this is an error arising from language artifacts, for dichotomies must reside in the same level of abstraction. > Method • I (...) show that, because matter outside mind is not an empirical observation but rather an explanatory model, the epistemic symmetry between the two is broken. Consequently, matter and mind cannot reside in the same level of abstraction. > Results • It then becomes clear that attempting to explain mind in terms of matter is epistemically more costly than attempting to explain matter in terms of mind. > Implications • The qualities of experience are suggested to be not only epistemically, but also ontologically primary. > Constructivist content • I high- light the primacy of perceptual constructs over explanatory abstraction on both epistemic and ontic levels. > Key words • Idealism, physicalism, pancomputationalism, anti-realism, hard problem of consciousness, epistemic symmetry, explanatory abstraction, levels of abstraction. (shrink)

I propose an idealist ontology that makes sense of reality in a more parsimonious and empirically rigorous manner than mainstream physicalism, bottom-up panpsychism, and cosmopsychism. The proposed ontology also offers more explanatory power than these three alternatives, in that it does not fall prey to the hard problem of consciousness, the combination problem, or the decombination problem, respectively. It can be summarized as follows: there is only cosmic consciousness. We, as well as all other living organisms, are but dissociated alters (...) of cosmic consciousness, surrounded by its thoughts. The inanimate world we see around us is the extrinsic appearance of these thoughts. The living organisms we share the world with are the extrinsic appearances of other dissociated alters. (shrink)

This paper explores how process philosophy-and in particular an optimalism process philosophy that includes free will, such as Henry Stapp's realistically interpreted orthodox quantum theory-proves to be an excellent fit for quantum theory that answers the philosophical question "Why are things the way they are, instead of otherwise?" Viewing reality as a matter of optimalism is one of four practicable responses to this question, which requires linking Nature to existence. Henry Stapp's realistically interpreted orthodox quantum theory meets this requirement by (...) asserting that when a question is asked, "the thought itself is the thinker," in keeping with the views of James and Whitehead. In this process, an ensuing succession of questions arising in the minds of observers is received and responded to by Nature that chooses and implements responses in accordance with Born's Rule in a physically described universe represented by evolving quantum mechanics states. (shrink)

This thesis articulates an analytic version of the ontology of idealism, according to which universal phenomenal consciousness is all there ultimately is, everything else in nature being reducible to patterns of excitation of this consciousness. The thesis’ key challenge is to explain how the seemingly distinct conscious inner lives of different subjects—such as you and me—can arise within this fundamentally unitary phenomenal field. Along the way, a variety of other challenges are addressed, such as: how we can reconcile idealism with (...) the fact that we all inhabit a common external world; why this world unfolds independently of our personal volition or imagination; why there are such tight correlations between measured patterns of brain activity and reports of experience; etc. The core idea of this thesis can be summarized thus: we, as well as all other living organisms, are dissociated alters of universal phenomenal consciousness, analogously to how a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) manifests multiple disjoint centers of subjectivity also called ‘alters.’ We, and all other living organisms, are surrounded by the transpersonal phenomenal activity of universal consciousness, which unfolds beyond the dissociative boundary of our respective alter. The inanimate world we perceive around us is the extrinsic appearance—i.e. the phenomenal image imprinted from across our dissociative boundary—of this activity. The living organisms we share the world with are the extrinsic appearances of other alters. (shrink)