White matter tracts are known to be susceptible to injury following concussion. The objective of this study was to determine whether contact play in sport could alter white matter metabolite levels in female varsity athletes independent of changes induced by long-term exercise. Metabolite levels were measured by single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in the prefrontal white matter at the beginning and end of season in contact and non-contact varsity athletes. Sedentary women were scanned once, at a time equivalent to (...) the Off-Season time point. Metabolite levels in non-contact athletes did not change over a season of play, or differ from age matched sedentary women except that non-contact athletes had a slightly lower myo-inositol level. The contact athletes had lower levels of myo-inositol and glutamate, and higher levels of glutamine compared to both sedentary women and non-contact athletes. Lower levels of myo-inositol in non-contact athletes compared to sedentary women indicates long-term exercise may alter glial cell profiles in these athletes. The metabolite differences observed between contact and non-contact athletes suggest that non-contact athletes should not be used as controls in studies of concussion in high-impact sports because repetitive impacts from physical contact can alter white matter metabolite level profiles. It is imperative to use athletes engaged in the same contact sport as controls to ensure a matched metabolite profile at baseline. (shrink)

A substantial guide providing an overview of both physicalism and metaphysical naturalism, reviewing both questions of formulation and justification for both doctrines. Includes a diagnostic strategy for understanding talk of naturalism as a metaphysical thesis.

The article went deeper into Richard Rorty’s texts that address the self as “a set of beliefs and desires.” In an imbrication of philosophy with psychoanalysis, Rorty’s hermeneutics accompanies the critique of psychoanalysis regarding the self-centralization from Metaphysical tradition, one of the strategies of self-redescription. The other strategy is aesthetic redescription. This redescription is based on understanding the psychic world as an encounter of “beliefs and desires” as “quasi-people.” The thread of our argument is the articulation of psychoanalysis with the (...) concept of “hegemony.” This reflexive line occurs due to the agonist and conflicting context of internal alterity from the “interpersonal” relationship between conscious and unconscious, rediscovering the self. (shrink)

A importância da memória na Subida do Monte Carmelo advém de sua capacidade de manter as experiências agradáveis ou desagradáveis, permitindolhes que se aprofundem e se ramifiquem na alma, com graves repercussões na vida espiritual. A memória busca, no arquivo de imagens e vivências, dados que alimentem a agressividade, a cobiça, a paixão, soberba e vingança; com o agravante de que não tem limites de duração, o que lhe permite realizar continuamente esta sua ação. A alma, quando retém e apreende (...) preferencialmente a lembrança de amarguras passadas, acaba não se abrindo para a ação divina que ora se lhe manifesta. Por isso, para que participe diretamente da comunhão divina,da mesma forma que as demais potências espirituais, a memória deve esvaziarse. A purificação e o esvaziamento da memória não prescrevem o esquecimento do que se conhece ou se lembra, apenas manifestam a necessidade de ela ficar livre de considerações particulares numa esperança que a purifica a fim de deixá-la livre para receber a comunicação divina. (shrink)

O artigo compara duas propostas de educação da areté nos textos de Platão: o “mito de Prometeu” no Protágoras e o “mito da caverna” no Livro VII de A República. Isso se deve à ambiguidade do termo areté, que pode ser virtude moral ou competência. Esse debate se traduziu, acompanhando a terminologia de Francis Wolff, numa abordagem complementar da “verdade jurídica” defendida pelo personagem de Protágoras em contexto democrático, com a “competência técnica” do personagem Sócrates, na segunda perspectiva. Debate que (...) acarreta, até hoje, respectivos desdobramentos pedagógicos. Palavras-chave : Platão. Areté. Democracia. Competência. Educação. (shrink)

Gianni Vattimo associates “mystic” and metaphysics. The “forgetting of the being” would be coextensive to the abandonment (Gelassenheit) or to the mystic “losing oneself” (Versenkung) in the absolute. Based on this, the article analyzes the relevance and the possibility of the vattimiana hermeneutics referring to (Verwindung) “the mystic” to surpass it. The perspective of the hermeneutic ethics of Vattimo defends that the history of modernity, in its nihilism and secularization, keeps traces of the history of the salvation inaugurated by the (...) Jewish-Christian perspective. The “mystical losing oneself” contradicts the Pauline experience of the preparation of parusía. Based on Heidegger, the Italian philosopher defends that, considering the imminent parusía, the authenticity of the temporal experience to the Pauline Christian, meant going through, with faith, the present tribulation in the caducity of the historical contingency, hindering the mystical Versenkung and its respective evasion in the daily efforts. In favor of this persistence/effort, it is glimpsed cáritas, inaugurated by the kénosis in the East, as the optimum authenticity criterion for a contemporary spirituality; because cáritas would imply, in its opposition to the implicit violence of the absolute fundamentals, the recognition of the bond between the spiritual and the nihilist and secularized East. (shrink)

O artigo preconiza a relevância pedagógica da filosofia da não-significação de Albert Camus, especialmente em O Mito de Sísifo. O eixo argumentativo segue a última frase deste livro: “É preciso imaginar Sísifo feliz”. A certeza da existência e a estranheza de se inserir num cenário de catástrofe, sem esperança, suscita em estudantes, especialmente da rede pública, um “sentimento da absurdidade”, mas esse estado não há de ser visto como maldição. A liberdade paradoxalmente advém quando se assume o absurdo como meio (...) de se afirmar a vida, contra os suicídios físico e filosófico, tornando Sísifo o “herói absurdo”. Camus atribui ao pensamento de Søren Kierkegaard a proposta do suicídio filosófico como sacrifício do intelecto pelo salto kiekegaardiano da fé porque ele entende a felicidade encontrada na vida eterna como uma superação e cura da doença mortal do desespero. O esforço dialético de autorreflexão da consciência entre o finito e o infinito faz da resignação infinita uma preparação para o salto da fé. Para nosso autor, porém, o pior mal é não ter sofrido desespero, pois é a partir dele que imaginativamente o absurdo, como potência existencial, transfigura-se numa “revolta metafísica” — uma posição a ser desenvolvida no processo de ensino-aprendizagem em Filosofia. Palavras-chave: Albert Camus. Absurdo. Imaginação. Ensino de Filosofia. (shrink)

We perceive smells as perduring complex entities within a distal array that might be conceived of as smellscapes. However, the philosophical orthodoxy of Odor Theories has been to deny that smells are perceived as having a distal location. Recent challenges have been mounted to Odor Theories’ veracity in handling the timescale of olfactory perception, how it individuates odors as a distal entities, and their claim that olfactory perception is not spatial. The paper does not aim to dispute these criticisms. Rather, (...) what will be shown is that Molecular Structure Theory, a refinement of Odor Theory, can be further developed to handle these challenges. The theory is further refined by focusing on distal perception that requires considering the perceptual object as mereologically complex persisting odor against a background scene conceived of as a smellscape. What will be offered is an expansion of Molecular Structure Theory to account for distal smell perception within natural environments. (shrink)

Inside What Would Plato Do?, you'll find the basics of philosophy, written in an easy, digestible way we can all understand, along with questions to help you apply these important theories to your own life. So, after you've learned about a philosophical concept, you'll then be challenged to test yourself and see how the results can impact your daily life. For instance, after learning about Kant's theory of morality and the importance of intention you're challenged with questions like: Can good (...) people do bad things? Was there a time when you intended to do something helpful that ended up being hurtful? Does that make you a good person (because you intended to do good) or a bad person (because the results were bad)? What Would Plato Do? will not only help you better understand some of the greatest thinkers ever but will also help you think of the world around you in a whole new way! (shrink)

We are immersed within an odorous sea of chemical currents that we parse into individual odors with complex structures. Odors have been posited as determined by the structural relation between the molecules that compose the chemical compounds and their interactions with the receptor site. But, naturally occurring smells are parsed from gaseous odor plumes. To give a comprehensive account of the nature of odors the chemosciences must account for these large distributed entities as well. We offer a focused review of (...) what is known about the perception of odor plumes for olfactory navigation and tracking, which we then connect to what is known about the role odorants play as properties of the plume in determining odor identity with respect to odor quality. We end by motivating our central claim that more research needs to be conducted on the role that odorants play within the odor plume in determining odor identity. (shrink)

Reflection Principles are commonly thought to produce only strong axioms of infinity consistent with V = L. It would be desirable to have some notion of strong reflection to remedy this, and we have proposed Global Reflection Principles based on a somewhat Cantorian view of the universe. Such principles justify the kind of cardinals needed for, inter alia , Woodin’s Ω-Logic.

When it originated in the late 19th century, psychometrics was a field with both a scientific and a social mission: psychometrics provided new methods for research into individual differences, and at the same time, these psychometric instruments were considered a means to create a new social order. In contrast, contemporary psychometrics - due to its highly technical nature and its limited involvement in substantive psychological research - has created the impression of being a value-free discipline. In this article, we develop (...) a contrasting characterization of contemporary psychometrics as a value-laden discipline. We expose four such values: that individual differences are quantitative (rather than qualitative), that measurement should be objective in a specific sense, that test items should be fair, and that utility of a model is more important than its truth. Our goal is not to criticize psychometrics for employing these values, but rather to bring them into the open and to show that these values are not inevitable and are in need of systematic evaluation. (shrink)

This is a book grounded in the real ethical challenges of modern business practice, with a world-religious perspective so necessary in an era of globalization.

First collected in Italy in 1985, _Art's Claim to Truth_ is considered by many philosophers to be one of Gianni Vattimo's most important works. Newly revised for English readers, the book begins with a challenge to Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel, who viewed art as a metaphysical aspect of reality rather than a futuristic anticipation of it. Following Martin Heidegger's interpretation of the history of philosophy, Vattimo outlines the existential ontological conditions of aesthetics, paying particular attention to the works of (...) Kandinsky, which reaffirm the ontological implications of art. Vattimo then builds on Hans-Georg Gadamer's theory of aesthetics and provides an alternative to a rationalistic-positivistic criticism of art. This is the heart of Vattimo's argument, and with it he demonstrates how hermeneutical philosophy reaffirms art's ontological status and makes clear the importance of hermeneutics for aesthetic studies. In the book's final section, Vattimo articulates the consequences of reclaiming the ontological status of aesthetics without its metaphysical implications, holding Aristotle's concept of beauty responsible for the dissolution of metaphysics itself. In its direct engagement with the works of Gadamer, Heidegger, and Luigi Pareyson, _Art's Claim to Truth_ offers a better understanding of the work of Vattimo and a deeper knowledge of ontology, hermeneutics, and the philosophical examination of truth. (shrink)

In Nicomachean Ethics X.7–8, Aristotle defends a striking view about the good for human beings. According to Aristotle, the single happiest way of life is organized around philosophical contemplation. According to the narrowness worry, however, Aristotle's contemplative ideal is unduly Procrustean, restrictive, inflexible, and oblivious of human diversity. In this paper, I argue that Aristotle has resources for responding to the narrowness worry, and that his contemplative ideal can take due account of human diversity.

O artigo procura fornecer elementos para uma leitura positiva do atual fenômeno de folclorização do religioso. A folclorização evocaria uma dupla laicidade, que se coloca dialeticamente quanto à institucionalidade religiosa e independente no tocante à verticalidade dos saberes especializados e seus procedimentos metodológicos, numa perspectiva que se pretende pós-metafísica e democrática. Faz-se, de início, uma síntese atual sobre a relação entre secularização e religiosidade para ilustrá-la com o relato de experiências religiosas específicas, todas anglicanas e localizadas na sociedade estadunidense; além (...) de um estudo sobre a recepção estadunidense ao filme "A Última Tentação de Cristo". Depois, a partir de algumas observações de Althaus-Reid sobre a Teologia da Libertação, o artigo analisa o conceito de "inculturação". Graças à sua volatilidade, o conceito antropológico de "folclorização", enfim, é proposto como uma maneira ampla e flexível de se abordar o pluralismo religioso em contexto (pós) secular ante uma crescente e inexorável influência da "indústria cultural". Palavras-chave : Folclorização; Pós-metafísica; Democracia; (Pós) secularização; Pluralismo ReligiosoThe attempts searched to provide elements for a positive reading of the current phenomenon of religious folklorization. Folklorization would suggest a double laity, which arises dialectically by religious institutionalism and independent from verticality of specialized knowledge and its methodological procedures, which would be a post-metaphysics and democratic perspective. First of all, it creates a synthesis upon the relationship between secularization and religion to illustrate it with a retake of specific religious experiences, every one Episcopalian and located in American society, including a study of the U. S. reception of the film, "The Last Temptation of Christ". Next, from some observations by Althaus-Reid on Liberation Theology, the paper analyzes the concept of "inculturation". Because of its volatility, the anthropological concept of "folklorization", finally, is proposed as an extended and flexible way to focus religious plurality in a (post)secular context in an increasing and inexorable influence of "cultural industries". Key words : Folklorization; Post-metaphysics; Democracy, (Post) secularization; Religious Pluralism. (shrink)

The central insight of Darwin's Origin of Species is that evolution is an ecological phenomenon, arising from the activities of organisms in the 'struggle for life'. By contrast, the Modern Synthesis theory of evolution, which rose to prominence in the twentieth century, presents evolution as a fundamentally molecular phenomenon, occurring in populations of sub-organismal entities - genes. After nearly a century of success, the Modern Synthesis theory is now being challenged by empirical advances in the study of organismal development and (...) inheritance. In this important study, D. M. Walsh shows that the principal defect of the Modern Synthesis resides in its rejection of Darwin's organismal perspective, and argues for 'situated Darwinism': an alternative, organism-centred conception of evolution that prioritises organisms as adaptive agents. His book will be of interest to scholars and advanced students of evolutionary biology and the philosophy of biology. (shrink)

Father Williams explains how the conscience is formed through our training and experiences and informed by the Holy Spirit, making it an essential tool for daily living. He uses familiar and surprising characters to illustrate the positive choices conscience can direct--and the disaster that results when a conscience is undeveloped or ignored. Questions he tackles include "Is it more important to be smart or good?""Is there a morally right thing to do in every situation?" and "Is the Christian moral life (...) an exciting adventure, or a necessary burden?" Rich, provocative, and practical for everyday decision making, KNOWING RIGHT FROM WRONG is a must-read for all who hunger for personal holiness. (shrink)

Man (Islam); Islamic philosophy; Islamic ethics.

The claim that Spinoza has a conception of animal mentality and consciousness that is superior to Descartes's is criticized. It is also argued that Spinoza fails to provide a coherent way of establishing what he considers to be our morally unconstrained “rights” with regard to brutes. Despite Spinoza's claim that brutes “feel,” i.e., are capable of sentience, his view that we are nonetheless entitled to treat animals in any way convenient to us is criticized. Questions are also raised as to (...) whether Spinoza is entitled to distinguish human from bestial nature on the basis of the possession of reason. (shrink)

First collected in Italy in 1985, _Art's Claim to Truth_ is considered by many philosophers to be one of Gianni Vattimo's most important works. Newly revised for English readers, the book begins with a challenge to Plato, Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel, who viewed art as a metaphysical aspect of reality rather than a futuristic anticipation of it. Following Martin Heidegger's interpretation of the history of philosophy, Vattimo outlines the existential ontological conditions of aesthetics, paying particular attention to the works of (...) Kandinsky, which reaffirm the ontological implications of art. Vattimo then builds on Hans-Georg Gadamer's theory of aesthetics and provides an alternative to a rationalistic-positivistic criticism of art. This is the heart of Vattimo's argument, and with it he demonstrates how hermeneutical philosophy reaffirms art's ontological status and makes clear the importance of hermeneutics for aesthetic studies. In the book's final section, Vattimo articulates the consequences of reclaiming the ontological status of aesthetics without its metaphysical implications, holding Aristotle's concept of beauty responsible for the dissolution of metaphysics itself. In its direct engagement with the works of Gadamer, Heidegger, and Luigi Pareyson, _Art's Claim to Truth_ offers a better understanding of the work of Vattimo and a deeper knowledge of ontology, hermeneutics, and the philosophical examination of truth. (shrink)

In Plato’s Symposium, the mysterious Apollodorus recounts to an unnamed comrade, and to us, Aristodemus’ story of just what happened at Agathon’s drinking party. Since Apollodorus did not attend the party, however, it is unclear what relevance he could have to our understanding of Socrates’ speech, or to the Alcibiadean “satyr and silenic drama” (222d) that follows. The strangeness of Apollodorus is accentuated by his recession into the background after only two Stephanus pages. What difference—if any—does Apollodorus make to the (...) Symposium? Does his inclusion call the dramatic and philosophical unity of the work into question? I argue that despite initial appearances, Plato has important philosophical reasons for including Apollodorus as a character. Far from being an odd appendage to an otherwise complete narrative, the figure of Apollodorus is useful for our understanding of Socrates’s conception of eros later in the work. (shrink)

There is increased interest in deviant behavior in the workplace. However, research is lacking on the moral economy of such behavior. Moral economy is particularly important in contexts where syncretic forces impinge on deviant behavior. Consequently, we use moral economy reasoning to examine the relationship between ethnic obligation and deviant behavior in the African context. In Study 1, data (_N_ = 27, 148) show an inverted U-shape effect of meta-agency and deviant behavior. In Study 2, difference-in-difference (DID) analysis of data (...) (_N_ = 25,387 in 2005 and _N _= 51,587 in 2013) shows significant DID effect of meta-agency. Primary data from Study 3 (_N_ = 229) shows a U-shaped effect of agency and deviant behavior. In Study 4 (_N_ = 333), a replication shows support for the U-shape effect in Study 3. The four studies thus show complex patterns that reflect U-shape and inverted U-shape relationships between ethnic obligation and deviant behavior as indicated by bribery, corruption, and unethicality. Robustness checks support the curvilinear relationships suggesting that the effects are not due to chance. We discuss implications for research and practice. (shrink)

According to historical theories of biological function, a trait's function is determined by natural selection in the past. I argue that, in addition to historical functions, ahistorical functions ought to be recognized. I propose a theory of biological function which accommodates both. The function of a trait is the way it contributes to fitness and fitness can only be determined relative to a selective regime. Therefore, the function of a trait can only be specified relative to a selective regime. Apart (...) from its desirable pluralism, only this view of relational function can support the function/accident and function/malfunction distinctions commonly thought to be part of the concept of function. Furthermore, only relational function correctly characterizes the explanatory consequences of function attributions in evolutionary biology. (shrink)