In moments of polarization, an entire nation can be subjected to a deeply negative perception, one that may lead to—or be accompanied by—atrocities against its people. Edgar Morin understood this well. He refused to reduce post-WWII Germans to the actions of the Nazis, just as he refused to reduce any individual or group to their […]
Author: Omar Meriwani
.NET Developer, interested in linguistics and science.
The word “reality” and the adjective “real” might be among the most widely used terms to describe the whole human experience of the world and the fundamental structure of the world, regardless of our perception of it. But is the pathway where we receive information, process it, and store it within what we know as […]
The term “narrative psychology” was introduced by psychologist Theodor Sarbin (1911–2005) in the mid-1980s. Sarbin was a pioneer in a psychological theory known as role theory, which examines behaviour and its social acceptability based on individuals’ social and gender roles. Sarbin positioned narrative as the fundamental metaphor in psychology. Concurrently with Sarbin’s work, Dan McAdams, […]
After reading Daniel Dennett’s greatest book, Consciousness Explained, I conceived the idea of knitting as a metaphor for consciousness. Consciousness can happen in multiple degrees, from a lack of acknowledgement or control to intense experiences that can override any other experience in our brains. We learn some things permanently, notice others with errors in memory […]
(عربي) We live in an exception, the optimism inspired by technological advances is about to end, for reasons that were once motives for these advances. One of these reasons, the ghost of non-replenishable resources’ end, mainly the end of oil, looks visible on the horizon. I’ll call the fossil fuel in this article “the exceptional […]
(Turkce, عربي) As I remember, multilingualism hasn’t provided me many benefits, if anything, it was a problem. Learning Kurdish gave me a fake advantage, it enabled me to skip the meaningless discrimination against Arab and to prove myself as a Kurd. Turkish specifically wasn’t useful, when I learned it, it was an intellectual advantage to […]
(العربية) The Language bubble is to surround yourself with the language that you want to learn. Watching TV, reading the news, chatting, and many other methods that I am going to summarize here. Though a language bubble doesn’t necessarily mean not being exposed to any language. Still, the language targeted for learning means being exposed […]
In the audio lectures “the language and the mind” by Spencer Kelly, I learned how speaking more than one language can enhance cognitive control, which results from the continuous need to block the native language almost every time the speaker wants to use another language. I haven’t found the time yet to read more and […]
(عربي) A small radio in a bunker can make its owner feel like he’s connected to the world, even if no real mutual communication is happening with real people, the feeling of being associated with the world is still important. Probably that feeling isn’t as important as it is for all people, as some people […]
My siblings and I used to be able to walk to school in our neighborhood on Palestine Street, which was less than 700 meters from our house, entirely on the sidewalk. My mother could advise us to “stay on the sidewalk,” but today, she wouldn’t be able to offer the same advice to her grandson. […]