Research on aggression and terror management theory suggests shortcomings in Nell's analysis of cruelty. Hostile aggression and exposure to aggressive cues are not inherently reinforcing, though they may be enjoyed if construed within a meaningful cultural framework. Terror management research suggests that human cruelty stems from the desire to defend one's cultural worldview and to participate in a heroic triumph over evil.

Bering's analysis is inadequate because it fails to consider past and present adult soul beliefs and the psychological functions they serve. We suggest that a valid folk psychology of souls must consider features of adult soul beliefs, the unique problem engendered by awareness of death, and terror management findings, in addition to cognitive inclinations toward dualistic and teleological thinking.

If public self-expression is a crucial feature of democracy, how might it work on the democratic – or at least, mass – medium par excellence, television? Television talk shows often allow ‘ordinary’ participants the opportunity to express themselves, i.e. deploy identities, feelings and opinions, presumably to further their own ends. This article uses speech act theory and Bakhtinian genre theory to analyze the talk on Jan Publiek, a Flemish talk show. This close reading helps to determine how two of the (...) 20 ‘ordinary’ participants co-created shifting and even contradictory identities with other participants, the host, the producers, the conventions of television talk shows and larger discourses such as those of gender and class. In these two cases, the participants seem mostly to fail in employing the medium of Jan Publiekto achieve their stated aims. The authors claim that while discourses may never be completely transparent, their means of functioning can still be better understood. All participants of television – producers, actors, viewers, media scholars – can benefit from the kind of media literacy to which this article contributes. (shrink)

Recent innovations in computer software development have produced a new breed of pet, AIBO 2, a robotic pet that simulates the behavior of real pets. This paper argues that software developers who create such simulations have ethical responsibilities to product users and to society. The paper concludes with some general ethical guidelines for software developers to follow when engaged in projects involving real-world simulations.

Recurrent, unvarying, and seemingly purposeless patterns of action and cognition are part of normal development, but also feature prominently in several neuropsychiatric conditions. Repetitive stereotyped behaviors can be viewed as exaggerated forms of learned habits and frequently correlate with alterations in motor, limbic, and associative basal ganglia circuits. However, it is still unclear how altered basal ganglia feedback signals actually relate to the phenomenological variability of RSBs. Why do behaviorally overlapping phenomena sometimes require different treatment approaches−for example, sensory shielding strategies (...) versus exposure therapy for autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder, respectively? Certain clues may be found in recent models of basal ganglia function that extend well beyond action selection and motivational control, and have implications for sensorimotor integration, prediction, learning under uncertainty, as well as aesthetic learning. In this paper, we systematically compare three exemplary conditions with basal ganglia involvement, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Parkinson’s disease, and autism spectrum conditions, to gain a new understanding of RSBs. We integrate clinical observations and neuroanatomical and neurophysiological alterations with accounts employing the predictive processing framework. Based on this review, we suggest that basal ganglia feedback plays a central role in preconditioning cortical networks to anticipate self-generated, movement-related perception. In this way, basal ganglia feedback appears ideally situated to adjust the salience of sensory signals through precision weighting of new sensory information, relative to the precision of predictions based on prior generated models. Accordingly, behavioral policies may preferentially rely on new data versus existing knowledge, in a spectrum spanning between novelty and stability. RSBs may then represent compensatory or reactive responses, respectively, at the opposite ends of this spectrum. This view places an important role of aesthetic learning on basal ganglia feedback, may account for observed changes in creativity and aesthetic experience in basal ganglia disorders, is empirically testable, and may inform creative art therapies in conditions characterized by stereotyped behaviors. (shrink)

Resumo: Entre 1450 e 1750, na Europa e nas suas colônias, milhares de mulheres, mas não só, foram processadas pelo crime de bruxaria. A acusação se baseava em fofocas difundidas e muitas vezes acreditadas pela “má fama” dos acusados. Seria redutivo atribuir toda a responsabilidade a um complexo de crenças fruto de uma desordem mental generalizada. A caça às bruxas foi uma combinação de intervenções precisas e racionalizadas que objetivavam construir o espectro do monstro demoníaco. O tribunal inquisitório, formalmente obstinado, (...) na busca do crimine exceptum se transformou em um mecanismo infernal: uma engrenagem que produzia culpados. Poucos se deram conta do que estava acontecendo. Os mais doutos puseram à disposição a sua doutrina para sustentar culturalmente carnífices. Mas houve um pequeno rebanho que não se deixou envolver nesta “embriaguez”. Entre estes se encontrava um confessor de bruxas: o jesuíta alemão Friedrich von Spee. Redescobrir o seu pensamento, a sua doutrina, o seu empenho e a sua vida significa realizar uma obra obrigatória de reparação a um injustificado esquecimento. Mas também contribuir, com novos elementos, ao debate sobre o papel da Igreja Católica na “caça às bruxas”. Palavras-chave: Bruxas. von Spee. Exoterismo. (shrink)

Heinrich BECK: Kulturphilosophie der Technik. Perspektiven zu Technik - Menschheit - Zukunft, Trier: Spee Verlag 1979Günter ROPOHL: Eine Systemtheorie der Technik. Zur Grundlegung der allgemeinen Technologie, München: Hanser Verlag 1979.

Heinrich BECK: Kulturphilosophie der Technik. Perspektiven zu Technik - Menschheit - Zukunft, Trier: Spee Verlag 1979Günter ROPOHL: Eine Systemtheorie der Technik. Zur Grundlegung der allgemeinen Technologie, München: Hanser Verlag 1979.