Philosophical Probe
Asynchronous Session
Featured “Thoughts Are Thinkers”: Bioelectrical Emergence and Embodied Politics
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jovana Isevski
William James famously said that “thoughts are thinkers,” implying that it is not always individuals who produce thoughts but that, conversely, thoughts produce thinkers. Biologist Michael Levin builds on James’s assertion, proposing that memories are not passive imprints but semi-autonomous agents that actively shape a system’s future behavior rather than merely reflecting past experiences. Levin’s lab has shown that memories are not stored in any fixed physical space but emerge as patterns of bioelectrical signals, challenging the substantialist view that only material structures can be agents. I extend this perspective to political-cultural contexts, arguing that cultural-ideological patterns function as self-sustaining agents that operate through human bodies and behaviors. Politics, therefore, is not only an abstract set of externally imposed symbols but an embodied process reproduced through bioelectric networks. However, rather than being passively encoded, external symbols are differentially and dynamically internalized, shaped by context and prior experience. Moreover, ideological systems persist not merely through repetition but through the affective salience of memories, such as nationalist myths or traumatic historical events. Additionally, old memories do not simply fade—their strength is diminished by new repeated and/or affectively charged experiences. And crucially, thinkers are not reducible to thoughts; meta-cognition itself functions as another emergent and self-organizing agent capable of producing new memories and altering the topology of memory networks. By reconceptualizing ideology as bioelectrically mediated and affectively anchored, this framework illuminates how political transformation depends not just on counter-narratives but on interventions that restructure memory, perception, and behavior at the deepest neurophysiological levels.
Inscribed Inequality - Gender Bias in Chinese Characters: 女 (nǚ) Study of Cultural Memory, Linguistic Structure, and Patriarchal Ideology
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yixin Zhang
This interpretive study examines how the Chinese writing system inscribes and perpetuates gender inequality through characters containing the radical "女" (nǚ, female). Drawing from Shuowen Jiezi, one of the oldest Chinese character dictionaries, this research evaluates 200–300 characters by classifying their grammatical categories—nouns, verbs, and adjectives—and analyzing their semantic connotations as positive, neutral, or negative. Through this comparative lens, the study reveals how language not only reflects, but actively reinforces patriarchal ideology. By tracing the historical origins and evolving meanings of characters such as “婢” (maidservant), “奴” (slave), and “嫉妒” (jealousy), the research situates linguistic forms within broader cultural practices and Confucian gender norms. It also addresses how these biases persist in contemporary usage, shaping the way femininity is perceived in modern Chinese society. Rather than treating language as neutral, this study engages with it as a repository of cultural memory and an active participant in the social construction of gender. It argues that the Chinese script functions as an ideological structure that naturalizes male dominance and limits the expressive possibilities for women. By uncovering how meaning is encoded into writing at both semantic and symbolic levels, the paper contributes to critical cultural studies by demonstrating the epistemological and ethical stakes of language. This research invites a reevaluation of traditional humanistic disciplines, challenging inherited assumptions about language, objectivity, and cultural authority, and calls for a more critical, inclusive approach to the study of meaning in multicultural contexts.
