This is a book about the philosophy of Henri Bergson which shows how relevant Bergson is to much contemporary philosophy. The book takes as its point of departure Bergson's insistence on precision in philosophy. It then discusses a variety of topics including laughter, the nature of time as experienced, how intelligence and language should be construed as a pragmatic product of evolution, and the antinomies of reason represented by magic and religion. This is not just another exposition of Bergson's work. (...) It offers an account of why Bergson commanded such a massive reading public in his own day and why he deserves to be read now. Written in a terse and clear style, this book will prove appealing to teachers and students of philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, religious studies and literature. (shrink)

ABSTRACT A comparative analysis of Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and Flora Nwapa's Efuru suggests the importance of romantic love to the self- actualization of the heroines of these novels, whose authors share similar biographies, concerns, and literary positions in the spheres of African American and African literatures respectively. For Hurston, eros paradoxically represents the ultimately unfulfilled possibility for self-realization that finally may be achieved only in and through the self. By contrast, for Nwapa, the focus shifts (...) from the centrality of romantic love to the complex and contradictory place of childbearing in female self-realization. However, finally, self-actualization is achieved with other women in identification with Mammywater, the powerful Igbo lake goddess. (shrink)

Scribal copying is investigated as a test case for the memetic and epidemiological models for explaining the distribution of cultural items. We may hypothesize that the incidence of errors could be low enough to allow two conditions for neo-Darwinian explanation (or an analogue of it) to be fulfilled: first, that there be a rather reliable mechanism for heredity, and second that occasional mutations might produce a version more likely to survive and be propagated than the exemplar. Scriptorial conventions are reviewed. (...) Textual criticism is investigated. Finally, some attention is given to the psychology of language perception and production. In conclusion, it is argued that the memetic model for cultural transmission is not generally fecund while the epidemiological model is. (shrink)

Scribal copying is investigated as a test case for the memetic and epidemiological models for explaining the distribution of cultural items. We may hypothesize that the incidence of errors could be low enough to allow two conditions for neo-Darwinian explanation (or an analogue of it) to be fulfilled: first, that there be a rather reliable mechanism for heredity, and second that occasional mutations might produce a version more likely to survive and be propagated than the exemplar. Scriptorial conventions are reviewed. (...) Textual criticism is investigated. Finally, some attention is given to the psychology of language perception and production. In conclusion, it is argued that the memetic model for cultural transmission is not generally fecund while the epidemiological model is. (shrink)

If we are eventually to understand the capability of higher organisms for perceptual recognition, generalization, recall, and thinking, we must first have answers to three fundamental questions: 1. How is information about the physical world sensed, or detected, by the biological system? 2. In what form is information stored, or remembered? 3. How does information contained in storage, or in memory, influence recognition and behavior? The first of these questions is in the.

The globalization in business and tourism becomes crucial more and more for the economical sustainability of local communities. In the presence of an epidemic outbreak, there must be such a decision on the policy by the host community as whether to accept visitors or not, the number of acceptable visitors, or the condition for acceptable visitors. Making use of an SIRI type of mathematical model, we consider the influence of visitors on the spread of a reinfectious disease in a community, (...) especially assuming that a certain proportion of accepted visitors are immune. The reinfectivity of disease here means that the immunity gained by either vaccination or recovery is imperfect. With the mathematical results obtained by our analysis on the model for such an epidemic dynamics of resident and visitor populations, we find that the acceptance of visitors could have a significant influence on the disease’s endemicity in the community, either suppressive or supportive. (shrink)

Background A morally sound framework for benefit-sharing is crucial to minimize research exploitation for research conducted in developing countries. However, in practice, it remains uncertain which stakeholders should be involved in the decision-making process regarding benefit-sharing and what the implications might be. Therefore the study aimed to empirically propose a framework for benefit-sharing negotiations in research by taking HIV vaccine trials as a case. Methods The study was conducted in Tanzania using a case study design and qualitative approaches. Data were (...) collected using in-depth interviews (IDI) and focus group discussions (FGD). A total of 37 study participants were selected purposively comprising institutional review board (IRB) members, researchers, community advisory board (CAB) members, a policymaker, and HIV/AIDS advocates. Deductive and inductive thematic analysis approaches were deployed to analyze collected data with the aid of MAXQDA version 20.4.0 software. Results The findings indicate a triangular relationship between the research community, researched community and intermediaries. However, the relationship ought to take into consideration the timing of negotiations, the level of understanding between parties and the phase of the clinical trial. The proposed framework operationalize partnership interactions in community-based participatory research. Conclusion In the context of this study, the suggested framework incorporates the research community, the community being researched, and intermediary parties. The framework would guarantee well-informed and inclusive decision-making regarding benefit-sharing in HIV vaccine trials and other health-related research conducted in resource-limited settings. (shrink)

Mooney (philosophy, Sonoma State U.) explores Kierkegaard's creative invention, the contemporary relevance of his contrasts between resignation and faith, and his conceptual analysis of aesthetic, moral, and religious psychology and life ...

Ethics, Love, and Faith in Kierkegaard collects essays from 13 leading scholars that center on key themes that characterize Kierkegaard's philosophy of religion. With their unique focus on notions of the self, views on the command to love one's neighbor, thoughts on melancholy and despair, and the articulation of religious vision, the essays in this volume cover the breadth and depth of Kierkegaard's philosophical and religious writings. Poised at the intersection of Kierkegaard's moral psychology and its religious significance, they offer (...) vivid testimony to the ongoing power of his unique and fervent religious spirit. Students and scholars alike will find new light shed on questions that define Kierkegaard's philosophy and religion today. (shrink)

In ____Selves in Discord and Resolve__, Edward Mooney examines the Wittgensteinian and deconstructive accounts of subjectivity to illuminate the rich legacy left by Kierkegaard's representation of the self in modes of self-understanding and self-articulation. Mooney situates Kierkegaard in the context of a post-Nietzschean crisis of individualism, and evokes the Socratric influences on Kierkegaard's thinking and shows how Kierkegaard's philsophy relies upon the Socratic care for the soul. He examines Kierkegaard's work on Judge Wilhelm, from _Either/Or,_ Socrates, in the _Postscript_ and (...) Abraham and Job in _Repetition_ and _Fear and Trembling_. (shrink)

Subjectivity: exposure, care, response -- On self, others, goods, and final faith -- On style and pseudonymity -- A faith that defies self-deception -- On reflexivity, vision, and the self -- On faith, the maternal, and postmodernism -- Socratic self-sufficiency, Christian dependency -- On authenticity -- The garden of death: faith as interpersonal -- When is death?.

Tracing a path through Kierkegaard's writings, this book brings the reader into contact with various texts and purposes of this remarkable 19th century Danish writer and thinker. It sketches Kierkegaard's unfolding polyphonic humanistic self before embarking on a thematic tour of five of Kierkegaard's major texts. Tracing a path through Kierkegaard's writings, this book brings the reader into close contact with various texts and purposes of this remarkable 19th century Danish writer and thinker. Kierkegaard writes in a number of voices (...) and registers of concern, sometimes as a sharp observer and critic of Danish culture, at times as a moral psychologist and sometimes Kierkegaard's main concern is the evocation of a religious way of life. These multi fold concerns are close to contemporary struggles to understand self and self-development, the interweaving of spiritual concerns with the fabric of everyday life, the fragility of self and the openness of the human to artistic, moral, and religious modes of expression, in moments of insight and conflict. In developing these themes, Mooney sketches what he calls Kierkegaard's unfolding polyphonic humanistic self before embarking on a thematic tour of five of Kierkegaard's major texts, "Either/Or through Discourses" conveying throughout, a sympathy with much of Kierkegaard's accomplishments. (shrink)