P. Davies

Bio: P. Davies is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Space (mathematics) & Superspace. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 2 publications receiving 15 citations.

Mrs. Dalloway's Postwar Elegy: Women, War, and the Art of Mourning

Abstract: Christine Froula teaches at Northwestern and is completing Virginia Woolf: Toward New Lands, New Civilizations. Her writings include Modernism’s Body: Sex, Culture, and Joyce (Columbia, 1996), To Write Paradise: Style and Error in Pound’s Cantos (Yale, 1984), A Guide to Ezra Pound’s Selected Poems (New Directions, 1983), and articles on modernist literature and art, feminist theory, and textual scholarship. Mrs. Dalloway’s Postwar Elegy: Women, War, and the Art of Mourning

The Thermodynamics of Ecosystems

Abstract: The properties of autonomous Arctic lake ecosystems, within the context of the whole living World, provide the basis for y development of a thermodynamic theory of the biosystem. The biosystem is now undergoing a process of internal reordering. Energy flow is being accelerated at all levels in virtually all ecosystems in order to support increased biomass at the terminal level. The thermodynamic constraints, particularly the need to maintain near-symmetry, impose limits on the capacity of the system to respond. This has important consequences for environmental management.

Organisms and Minds as Dynamic Forms

Abstract: This essay is an inquiry into the problem of biological form, which unites different aspects of the subject, from evolution to cognition, within a common perspective. Historical approaches to this problem have employed various dualisms to separate different parts of the processes that generate form, whether in organismic development, evolution or cognition, and to locate different causes and characteristics in these parts, to one of which is usually ascribed a distinct essence, which is regarded as the generator of distinctive form. A number of these dualisms are examined, starting with that of Descartes, out of which emerges an alternative approach to the problem.

"It's all too subjective": scepticism about the possibility or use of philosophical medical ethics.

Abstract: In one of a series of articles on philosophical medical ethics, Gillon rebuts the argument that moral claims are essentially different from scientific claims because scientific claims are objective and confirmable or refutable, while moral claims are subjective, unconfirmable, irrefutable, and their differences incapable of resolution. He contends that there is widespread agreement about many moral principles, that moral disagreement may arise from the use of ambiguous terminology, and that progress toward resolution may be accomplished by analysis of the logical validity and consistency of the arguments.

Seeing beauty : a visual exploration of transformative experience

Abstract: This thesis is concerned with developing a visual language to explore the concept of immaterial reality as encountered through transformative experience. Many individuals have had unique, and often profound, transformative experiences which have made them aware of a different order of reality. Following the experience, there is a certainty within the individual that an intangible aspect of reality exists, traditionally referred to as the immaterial or spiritual. The experiences are not exclusive to, or necessarily associated with, traditional forms of institutionalised religion and they are not automatically related to the occult. They can occur to any individual, regardless of age, sex, race or their location in time and space. The experiences are imbued with an archetypal form of beauty which permeates the individual’s vision of existence. This deepened vision becomes part of their daily experience of reality. Utilising archetypal imagery, light, pattern, symmetry, and geometry, I visually explore my transformative experiences. The exploration of the archetypal concepts of transformation, duality and the immaterial, has resulted in a body of work comprised of installations that incorporate video, photography and sound. Each of the seven works draws from my own subjective experience of reality, creating a highly personal, meditative, and immersive environment. Personal transformative experience has prompted me to examine the metaphysical questions surrounding the human condition. This has resulted in a multidisciplinary theoretical framework for my art practise. I have engaged with writings from psychology, philosophy, mythology, modern physics and comparative religion, including the works of C.G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, Fritjof Capra and Paul Davies. The same questions of existence stimulated by my transformative experiences have inspired artists throughout recorded history. My research is contextualised by contemporary artists who explore matters pertaining to the immaterial aspects of reality. Video artists, Bill Viola and Jordan Belson, explore their own subjective transformative experiences, while others explore humanity’s spiritual connection with nature, or imbue their work with an invisible presence through an engagement with human perception. I seek to contribute to my field through an examination of ancient archetypal symbols and ideas using new technologies. Thus I have utilised, computer generated imagery and digitally generated audio to represent the experience of revelation and create a metaphor for spiritual transformation. Additionally, my work links the idea of transformation and revelation to experiences of childhood; both through the recreation of experiences from my childhood as well as drawing on more recent events with my own children. These aspects combine to render an individual vision of a universal experience.