The paper explores Aristotle’s notion of proairesis and its theoretical background, with the aim of presenting a novel interpretation of the concept, under five headings. These are: praxis and poiēsis are different aspects of human activity (energeia) rather than different kinds of it. End and means are correlative rather than complementary components of activity. Activity as praxis is continuous: there are no distinct, elementary, indivisible actions. Desire (orexis) and deliberation (bouleusis) are not distinct and complementary components of the mental process (...) that results in activity, but are the principles of proairesis. Since activity is identical with the individual’s entire and continuous lifespan, proairesis denotes a constant and perpetually present attitude of the human soul. (shrink)

Diese musikwissenschaftliche Studie untersucht jene Intentionen, die chinesische Komponistinnen und Komponisten nach 1976 dazu führten, Stille ins Zentrum ihrer Stücke zu stellen. Aus der chinesischen Kulturgeschichte heraus zeigen sich divergierende musikästhetische Konzepte der Stille weniger als Gegenpol zum Lärm als vielmehr im ambivalenten Austarieren einer harmonischen Mitte. Diskutiert werden heterogene Kompositionen von Qu Xiaosong, Chen Qigang und Chen Xiaoyong ebenso wie von Guo Wenjing und Jia Daqun. Einerseits wird dabei die Ästhetik der Stille bei Tan Dun als merkantiler Kunstanspruch hinterfragt, (...) andererseits etablierte Komponistinnen wie Chen Yi, Xu Yi und Wang Ying als musikalische Avantgarde besprochen. Die Werkanalysen und Gespräche exemplifizieren die künstlerischen Begegnungen als Einblick in zeitgenössische Klangsprachen: Die Semantik der Stille, deren Ästhetik zwischen Philosophie & Spiritualität und historisch zwischen Tradition und transkultureller Inszenierung."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Thinkers in related fields such as philosophy, psychology, and education define metacognition in a variety of different ways. Based on an emerging standard definition in psychology, we present evidence for metacognition in animals, and argue that mindreading and metacognition are largely orthogonal.

The Huguenot refugee artist Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues is traditionally known for his observations of North America and as the author of numerous albums of floral drawings. This article reassesses the attribution of several of these albums to Le Moyne based on documentary and stylistic evidence. It identifies the sixteenth-century Huguenot nobleman and diplomat Jacques de Morogues as the owner of one of the albums, and it discusses the production and early use of these albums as luxury gifts in (...) French diplomatic and courtly circles. We document connections between the albums associated with Le Moyne and other sixteenth-century and later works of floral imagery. We argue that the albums associated with Le Moyne show that developments in floral imagery in this period were driven by a distinct network of artists and collectors, and we offer a hypothesis of how members of this network may have interpreted them as an occasion to take pleasure in nature’s charming variety, to praise it as God’s work and to use flowers as symbols of feminine beauty and fertility. (shrink)

Smith et al. demonstrate the viability of animal metacognition research. We commend their effort and suggest three avenues of research. The first concerns whether animals are explicitly aware of their metacognitive processes. The second asks whether animals have metaknowledge of their own uncertain responses. The third issue concerns the monitoring/control distinction. We suggest some ways in which these issues elucidate metacognitive processes in nonhuman animals.