Synesthesia
When I was very young, I experienced a recurring dream that I was staring, entranced, at a delicate white flower. It was like nothing I had seen or experienced in my waking life, because the pristine, thinly-veined petals were such an exquisite color that it manifested itself upon my dreaming brain as a color and a sound. The white song was a single note - like a distant choir lifting its voice in concerted wonder. I would wake from the dreams bewildered at the ease with which my brain, when asleep, could produce in me a tangle of sensations I could never enjoy while conscious.
The neurological phenomenon of cross-modal, or inter-sensory, perception stemming from a single stimulus is called "synesthesia." The word comes from the Greek syn-, meaning "union," and -aisthesis, meaning "sensation" (2). Although my childhood dreams had some synesthetic character, I have never had a comparable conscious experience. "Synesthesia proper," or neurologically-based synesthesia, is defined as the regular, involuntary experience of external, durable, and generic perceptions in senses not commonly associated with a certain stimulus (1,2) . Although there are numerous possible combinations of synesthetic events, not every permutation is observed. The estimated number of affected individuals ranges from one in five hundred, who perceive colored letters or musical notes, to one in three thousand, who experience colored sounds or colored tastes (2). It is estimated that one in fifteen thousand individuals experiences taste-touch overlap and other, rarer forms of the condition (2). Another, more conservative, estimate suggests that only one in twenty-five thousand individuals is a synesthete (3).
While certain synesthetic events are triggered by a sensory appeal to the imagination, i.e. as an artifice of literature or art, true synesthetes report only very rudimentary secondary sensory perceptions for a given input (1). That is, while many of us associate the smell of cut grass with the color green within our internal perception, a synesthete with a smell-sight perception overlap might perceive colored shapes or textures within the external environment upon smelling the grass.
Synesthesia is an additive sensory condition. Rather than replace one perception with another, a single sensory input stimulates simultaneous responses in two or more of the senses (2). It is most frequently experienced as a unidirectional condition; while one stimulus, such as sound, induces sensation within another sensory realm, such as sight, the converse does not usually occur (2).
In this week’s assignment I choose to write about Olaudah Equiano was born if Africa. He was kidnapped when he was around eleven years old and sold into slavery. He eventually was freed and supported Great Britain in the fight to end slavery. There have been statements made that he was not born in Africa but born here in South Carolina. This could change how people see his memoir when they read it.
First published in 1789, Volume I focuses on Equiano’s short time in Africa followed by his treacherous journey as a slave. He begins the narrative with an in depth description of his homeland of Nigeria, speaking of their food, clothes, and religious views. He then recounts the events following his kidnapping, as well as the treacherous expedition from Africa to the West Indies known as the Middle Passage. Once in the West Indies, Equiano saw firsthand the selling of his countrymen. While there, he was not purchased, so Equiano was taken to Virginia, where he labored in the fields of a plantation. Not long after arriving in Virginia, Equiano was sold to Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in the British navy. After purchasing Equiano, Pascal returned to England. During their journey, Pascal renamed Equiano Gustavus Vassa. Once in England, Equiano began to go to church with his new friend Robert Baker, who began to teach him to read and write. Pascal later sent Equiano to work for his sisters, the Guerins. The Guerins promoted his education and Christianity, and eventually, the sisters convinced Pascal to permit Equiano to be baptized. Eqiano was extremely loyal to Pascal, but after a few years the slave was sold to James Doran. Equiano was astonished th...
The novel The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano exists as an extremely important work in the abolitionist movement in England. As an 18th century narrative written by a former black slave the novel provides a glimpse into the lives of the African slaves involved in the slave trade as well as the slave traders themselves. Even with the controversy over the authenticity of Equiano’s claims on his origin in Africa and his subsequent voyage through the Middle Passage, this novel serves as a powerfully instructive piece of literature. Throughout the novel Equiano strives to impress upon the reader a certain set of moral standards or ideals that he desires to instruct the reader about. One such moral ideal that is prevalent throughout the entirety of the novel is Equiano’s construction of the idea of the value and worth of the African slaves, as opposed to the view of the African slaves as simply commodities or objects to be purchased and traded. Equiano argues and presses the reader and his audience to recognize that the African slave and the white slave owner are not as different as his audience may believe. In order to proclaim and showcase this idea of the value and worth of African slaves, Equiano uses the Christian religion to develop and sustain his argument. In many cases during Equiano’s time period, and for a while afterwards, Christianity and the Bible were used in defense of slavery, and this fact makes Equiano’s claim more powerful and groundbreaking. One of the key attributes of the novel is Equiano’s spiritual conversion and religious revelations. I believe that Equiano’s Christianity serves to connect him with his audience, increases his credibility as an author, and ultimately proclaims the disparity ...
Grant, M. (1962). Myths of the Greeks and Romans (1st ed.). Cleveland: World Pub. Co.
In this paper, I will argue that it is more likely that the qualia of colour could be explained by physicalism rather than by property dualism. Qualia are subjective experiences, such as our senses (pg. 3). Physicalism views every property as physical, and can be explained by science (pg. 29). Property dualism refers to the philosophical view that minds are made out of one substance, but contain physical properties, and a non-physical mind (qualia) that are not related to each other (pg. 29).
Merleau-Ponty distinguishes three aspects of the psychological process; basic sensations, perception, and the associations of memory (Merleau-Ponty, 1994). Basic sensations receive raw information from the world and transduce them for our perceptual processes. Perception unifies the infinite amount of information about our environment, from our environment, into a meaningful structure. Perception is interpretive, but its presentation of the world is as distal and objective. There are three central features of perception for Merleau-Ponty. First, perception is synthesized independently by the body and not by the mind (consciousness).
Webster, Michael. “Greek History and the Gods.” Grand Valley State University. Web. 15 Dec. 2009 .
Olaudah Equiano had very obvious motives for lying about his roots in West Africa. This novel was published in the height of the debate over the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. Equiano’s lie would have changed the impact of the book entirely. Since the debate at the time was over the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade and not the abolition of slavery, people were not interested in the evils of slavery, they were interested in the evils of the middle passage and taking people out of their natural African habitats. Therefore, without Equiano’s description of his “idealic” African village of which he grew up and the evils of the middle passage he experienced, his novel would have been useless for the time to which it was written (Carey 241).
History shows that both Africans and African Americans alike faced unique problems prior to and during the 1800's, particularly prior to 1865. One such problem is the issue of Diaspora and how culture and slavery has affected the choice of religion. It is the purpose of this paper to expose comparatively the extent to which individuals have been influenced by these issues. One such individual is Olaudah Equiano. By following and analyzing some of the key moments of faith in his life, this paper seeks to expose the extent to which the series of controversial dialectical incidents that happen throughout his early life, i.e., his cultural African religious traditions (thesis), and Christianity as taught by his slave masters (antithesis), had a direct influence in developing his own understanding of religion (synthesis). Furthermore, this paper will demonstrate Olaudah Equiano's decision was based on the impact of both the influences of culture and slavery, and a personal experience based on his perspective of divine intervention.
Ancient Roman mythology consisted of a combination of rituals, beliefs, and observances of supernatural occurrences. They were based heavily on the idea of Greek mythology. As legend has it, the gods resembled human figures but they were bigger stronger and much more beautiful than that of the ancient roman gods. Even though the Roman gods were not depicted to be as beautiful they still were thought of with high admiration by roman citizens. The roman’s paid homage to the gods, in doing so they expected protection, fertility, prosperity, and good health in return for their allegiance.
Webster dictionary defines synaesthesia as “a subjective sensation or image of a sense other than the one being stimulated” (Wyld,1963). Synaesthesia is a condition that causes someone to have associations of usually color with certain everyday things, such as numbers or letters. There are several different types of synaesthesia that will be discussed in this paper digit-color synaesthesia, odor-color synaesthesia, and person- and music-color synaesthesia. A common effect that is discussed when talking about synaesthesia is the McCollough effect. This effect is a wonder of humans and their visual perception where colorless gratings appear to have a color.
Physicalism is the position that nothing can exceed past what is physically present, and what is physical is all that there can be. This idea is reductive in that it suggests there is no more to the universe than physical matters, including brain processes, sensations, and human consciousness. J.J.C. Smart explains sensations as a means of commentary on a brain process. He believes that, essentially, brain processes and what we report as sensations are essentially the same thing in that one is an account of the other. He writes in “Sensations and Brain Processes” that “…in so far as a sensation statement is a report of something, that something is in fact a brain process. Sensations are nothing over and above brain processes,” (145). Though
It is an incredibly common phenomenon, something so common that it is rarely ever defined. Michael Tye, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, states that when an individual experiences something with the senses, he is “the subject of a mental state with a very distinctive subjective character” (“Qualia”). Color, taste, mood, and sound are all considered to be qualia, according to Tye. He also elucidates the standard definition of qualia, stating that it is “the introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of our mental lives.” Qualia is experienced only subjectively, and it is essentially impossible to say what it is. Tye references a thought experiment about the exact nature of qualia that makes this clear; one can know all objective knowledge about a color, but until one actually sees a color, one knows nothing of it. The essence of the thought experiment can be expressed in this rhetorical question: is it possible to explain what a color is without using examples? This seems like a simple question, but it boggles the mind. We must conclude that qualia is a strange
A recent neurobiological approach to understanding consciousness, at least on a perceptual level, has involved the study of the phenomenon of blindsight. Damage to areas of the visual cortex often result in complete or partial blindness. Although the eye itself is undamaged, patients report an inability to detect any light input in part of (or the entire) visual field. However, experiments regularly show that somehow, visual cues are processed. Visual inputs presented to the blind field affect the patient's response to stimulus in the normal visual field. Reaction times to stimuli are affected as well as the interpretation of the stimuli. A visual cues presented in the blind field may suggest a certain interpretation of an ambiguous stimuli. For example, the interpretation of the word "bank", presented as an auditory cue, differs depending on whether the word "river" or "money" is presented to the blind field, even though the patient does not...
Have you ever wondered where things in our everyday lives get their names from? Well the answer could be from Greek or Roman gods. So many things are indeed named after the gods. Like the car company Mercury or the shoe company Nike. There are many gods in both mythologies but this essay will talk about 12 of them, six gods from Greek mythology and six gods from Roman mythology. Each god will have their own corresponding god from the other mythology. Although they might be from different mythologies in essence they are all very similar.