The assertion by Simmons and Park that the dynamical map associated with the Bloch equations of nuclear magnetic resonance is not completely positive is wrong.

En este artículo analizo primero la significación de la filosofía matemática de Kant para la investigación de fundamentos; paso luego a mostrar su función en la Crítica de la Razón Pura; finalmente rastreo algunos antecedentes históricos.: In the first part of the paper the author describes the reception of the kantian philosophy of mathematics in the foundational research from Frege to Cohen. The second part deals with the question whether Kant has rejected or not the ideal of mathematizing philosophy. In (...) the third part a new interpretation of Descartes philosophy of mathematics is proposed. According to a very natural reading of the Regulae Descartes becomes a forerunner of Kant and the modern constructivists. (shrink)

Bernays' idea of the power-set is neither univocal nor ambiguous. according to its domain of application it has a different mathematical meaning in spite of its identical logical definition. in his last axiomatisation of set-theory bernays' introduced a very powerful axiom stating that every property of the universe of all sets is mirrored by some set. this is a most peculiar application of the general--philosophical and theological--principle of analogy as a key principle in the foundations of mathematics.

Este artículo analiza “Contéstame, Baila mi danza”, la antología de seis poetas norteamericanas que tradujera y publicara Diana Bellesi en 1984. El objetivo es comprender las implicancias políticas, artísiticas e ideológicas de la misma. La antología editada por Bellesi incluye poemas de las autoras estadounidenses Muriel Rukeyser, Denise Levertov, June Jordan, Diane Di Prima, Adrienne Rich, Irena Klepfisz, y un ensayo de Barbara Deming. El volumen mostró al público hispanohablante algunas de las escritoras más relevantes del siglo XX, que en (...) algunos casos no habían sido traducidas antes al español. Bellesi considera que las seis autoras que seleccionó comparten el espíritu rebelde, un lenguaje potente, una historia común, pero sobre todo, sus voces de mujeres. Esta ponencia se propone leer la antología como un diálogo político, artístico y de género entre la poeta-traductora argentina y sus seis pares norteamericanas. A través de la lectura de la Intro-ducción, las notas de presentación de las escritoras, y las traducciones propiamente dichas, la labor de investigación busca demostrar la importancia de la traducción literaria como un programa artístico e ideológico que resulta en un fructífero diálogo entre las lenguas y las culturas. (shrink)

La traducción literaria ocupa un papel fundamental en toda literatura, ya que produce dos efectos: por un lado, amplía el espectro literario-cultural al que tendrán acceso los lectores que hablan la lengua de llegada; y por otro, permitirá renovar la expresión poética en esa lengua. Esta propuesta implica analizar las dos antologías de poesía anglófona traducida en Argentina en la revista SUR, dirigida por V. Ocampo, para estudiar los dos efectos mencionados, como así también el canon de dicha poesía que (...) se ha conformado en este país a partir de las dos antologías mencionadas, cuya publicación sancionó lo que se entiende como un canon válido de poetas angloparlantes para los lectores argentinos, y en muchos casos, latinoamericanos en general. De este modo, resultaría que la traducción antologada da lugar no solo a un diálogo inter, sino también intra cultural. (shrink)

Charles Simic escribe y publica desde hace décadas, ha sido Poeta Laureado de Estados Unidos, y es una de las voces más reconocidas de la poesía norteamericana contemporánea. Todo esto puede atribuirse, hipotéticamente, al hecho de que Simic escribe en, desde, y acerca del mundo contemporáneo con una visión irónica que habla directa-mente a los lectores actuales. De ahí que la traducción de sus obras, como parte de un intercambio literario-cultural y de redes intelectuales y literarias, vaya cobrando importancia en (...) el mundo español. Si bien en España hay varias traducciones de obras de Simic, en el ámbito latinoamericano es conocido apenas por un puñado de versiones en revistas de poesía. La consideración de su obra y de su poética puede redundar en una mayor difusión en Hispanoamé-rica, mediante la propuesta de versiones alternativas que muestren a este público hispanohablante que Simic “lee” e interpreta, en sus poemas, nuestro siglo, más allá de las fronteras de los Estados Unidos. (shrink)

El trabajo analiza las consecuencias que genera la mayor presencia de China en el eje estratégico argentino-brasileño. El análisis se centra en la década que transcurre entre el 2004 y el 2014. En esa etapa coincide la expansión de China con los cambios de gobierno en Argentina y Brasil. Los dos gobiernos fueron cuestionadores del modelo neoliberal y acordaron algunas líneas de acción. Se analizan las relaciones comerciales y los acuerdos de asociación estratégica con China y las consecuencias que se (...) han generado. El estudio señala que los cambios de gobierno fueron políticamente funcionales a las necesidades sistémicas planteadas por China. (shrink)

Bobbio, N. Hacia una teoría funcional del derecho.--Bulygin, E. Sobre la regla de reconocimiento.--Gargaglione de Yaryura Tobías, E.L. El conocimiento y su validación.--Gómez, A.C. Acerca de la vinculación de la regla de reconocimiento con las restantes reglas secundarias.--Grün, E. y Farrel, M.D. Problemas de verificación en el derecho. Guibourg, R.A. La nulidad y su definición.--Klug, U. Consideraciones sobre las definiciones semánticas en derecho.--Miró Quesada, F. Sobre el derecho justo.--Nino, C.S. El concepto de validez y el problema del conflicto entre normas (...) de diferente jerarquía en la teoría pura del derecho.--Raggio, A.R. La refexión.--Ross, A. La finalidad del castigo.--Soler, S. La idea de "bien común."--Spolansky, N.E. El castigo del acto anterior al hecho prohibido.--Vernengo, R.J. Norma jurídica y esquema referencial.--Wright, G.H. von. Reencuentro con la lógica deóntica. (shrink)

In this rejoinder to a critique by Raggio and Primas of our paper, “On Completely Positive Maps in Generalized Quantum Dynamics,” we acknowledge that, contrary to our original assertion, the Bloch equations are indeed completely positive. We then explain briefly why this modification of our analysis does not alter its main conclusions.

Gentzen writes in the published version of his doctoral thesis Untersuchungen über das logische Schliessen that he was able to prove the normalization theorem only for intuitionistic natural deduction, but not for classical. To cover the latter, he developed classical sequent calculus and proved a corresponding theorem, the famous cut elimination result. Its proof was organized so that a cut elimination result for an intuitionistic sequent calculus came out as a special case, namely the one in which the sequents have (...) at most one formula in the right, succedent part. Thus, there was no need for a direct proof of normalization for intuitionistic natural deduction. The only traces of such a proof in the published thesis are some convertibilities, such as when an implication introduction is followed by an implication elimination [1934–35, II.5.13]. It remained to Dag Prawitz in 1965 to work out a proof of normalization. Another, less known proof was given also in 1965 by Andres Raggio.We found in February 2005 an early handwritten version of Gentzen's thesis, with exactly the above title, but with rather different contents: Most remarkably, it contains a detailed proof of normalization for what became the standard system of natural deduction. The manuscript is located in the Paul Bernays collection at the ETH-Zurichwith the signum Hs. 974: 271. Bernays must have gotten it well before the time of his being expelled from Göttingen on the basis of the racial laws in April 1933. (shrink)

: This paper uses Extended Mind Theory to explore Brain-Computer Interfaces, demonstrating how this conceptual framework provides a wide-ranging interpretation of the potential integration of user and computer. After a preliminary analysis of first- and second-wave EMT arguments and other pragmatic criteria, I present BCI technology, addressing the issues that arise. Can BCIs extend our mental processes and to what degree? What EMT criteria should be applied to this technology? What is the role of the body in the process of (...) integrating user and computer? What are current limits to complete cognitive and bodily extension by BCIs? In line with this discussion, I suggest a pluralist approach to BCIs, allowing for specific and appropriate application of the various models and paradigms. I also advocate greater focus on the integration of body and tool, primarily for clinical purposes, but also for applications that will meet daily needs in the future. Keywords : Extended Mind; Brain-Computer Interface; Embodiment; Parity Principle; Cognitive Artefacts. Mente estesa e brain-computer interface. Un approccio pluralista all’integrazione uomo-macchina Riassunto: Il presente articolo fa uso della Extended Mind Theory per indagare le Brain-Computer Interfaces, dimostrando che questo framework concettuale offre un’interpretazione ad ampio raggio della potenziale integrazione tra utente e computer. Dopo un’analisi preliminare degli argomenti della EMT di prima e seconda generazione e altri criteri pragmatici, presenterò la tecnologia delle BCIs, affrontando alcune questioni a essa collegate. Le BCIs possono estendere i nostri processi mentali e fino a che punto? Quali criteri della EMT dovrebbero essere applicati a questa tecnologia? Qual è il ruolo del corpo nel processo di integrazione utente-computer? Quali sono gli attuali limiti per completare l’estensione cognitiva e corporea da parte delle BCIs? In linea con questa discussione, suggerirò un approccio pluralistico alle BCIs che permetta un’applicazione specifica e appropriata dei vari modelli e paradigmi. Sosterrò inoltre la necessità di una maggiore attenzione all’integrazione tra corpo e strumento, principalmente per scopi clinici ma anche per applicazioni future che soddisfino le esigenze quotidiane. Parole chiave: Mente estesa; Brain-Computer Interface ; Incorporamento; Principio di Parità; Artefatti cognitivi. (shrink)

Gentzen writes in the published version of his doctoral thesis Untersuchungen über das logische Schliessen that he was able to prove the normalization theorem only for intuitionistic natural deduction, but not for classical. To cover the latter, he developed classical sequent calculus and proved a corresponding theorem, the famous cut elimination result. Its proof was organized so that a cut elimination result for an intuitionistic sequent calculus came out as a special case, namely the one in which the sequents have (...) at most one formula in the right, succedent part. Thus, there was no need for a direct proof of normalization for intuitionistic natural deduction. The only traces of such a proof in the published thesis are some convertibilities, such as when an implication introduction is followed by an implication elimination [1934–35, II.5.13]. It remained to Dag Prawitz in 1965 to work out a proof of normalization. Another, less known proof was given also in 1965 by Andres Raggio.We found in February 2005 an early handwritten version of Gentzen's thesis, with exactly the above title, but with rather different contents: Most remarkably, it contains a detailed proof of normalization for what became the standard system of natural deduction. The manuscript is located in the Paul Bernays collection at the ETH-Zurichwith the signum Hs. 974: 271. Bernays must have gotten it well before the time of his being expelled from Göttingen on the basis of the racial laws in April 1933. (shrink)

Gentzen writes in the published version of his doctoral thesis Untersuchungen über das logische Schliessen that he was able to prove the normalization theorem only for intuitionistic natural deduction, but not for classical. To cover the latter, he developed classical sequent calculus and proved a corresponding theorem, the famous cut elimination result. Its proof was organized so that a cut elimination result for an intuitionistic sequent calculus came out as a special case, namely the one in which the sequents have (...) at most one formula in the right, succedent part. Thus, there was no need for a direct proof of normalization for intuitionistic natural deduction. The only traces of such a proof in the published thesis are some convertibilities, such as when an implication introduction is followed by an implication elimination [1934–35, II.5.13]. It remained to Dag Prawitz in 1965 to work out a proof of normalization. Another, less known proof was given also in 1965 by Andres Raggio.We found in February 2005 an early handwritten version of Gentzen's thesis, with exactly the above title, but with rather different contents: Most remarkably, it contains a detailed proof of normalization for what became the standard system of natural deduction. The manuscript is located in the Paul Bernays collection at the ETH-Zurichwith the signum Hs. 974: 271. Bernays must have gotten it well before the time of his being expelled from Göttingen on the basis of the racial laws in April 1933. (shrink)

Einstein's philosophy of physics was predicated on his Trennungsprinzip, a combination of separability and locality, without which he believed objectification, and thereby "physical thought" and "physical laws", to be impossible. Bohr's philosophy, on the other hand, was grounded in a seemingly different doctrine about the possibility of objective knowledge, namely the necessity of classical concepts. In fact, it follows from Raggio's Theorem in algebraic quantum theory that - within an appropriate class of physical theories - suitable mathematical translations of (...) the doctrines of Bohr and Einstein are equivalent. Thus - upon our specific formalization - quantum mechanics accommodates Einstein's Trennungsprinzip if and only if it is interpreted a la Bohr through classical physics. Unfortunately, the protagonists themselves failed to discuss their differences in this constructive way, since their debate was dominated by Einstein's ingenious but ultimately flawed attempts to establish the "incompleteness" of quantum mechanics. This aspect of their debate may still be understood and appreciated, however, as reflecting a much deeper and insurmountable disagreement between Bohr and Einstein about the knowability of Nature. Using the theological controversy on the knowability of God as a analogy, we can say that Einstein was a Spinozist, whereas Bohr could be said to be on the side of Maimonides. Thus Einstein's off-the-cuff characterization of Bohr as a 'Talmudic philosopher' was spot-on. (shrink)

Einstein's philosophy of physics (as clarified by Fine, Howard, and Held) was predicated on his Trennungsprinzip, a combination of separability and locality, without which he believed objectification, and thereby "physical thought" and "physical laws", to be impossible. Bohr's philosophy (as elucidated by Hooker, Scheibe, Folse, Howard, Held, and others), on the other hand, was grounded in a seemingly different doctrine about the possibility of objective knowledge, namely the necessity of classical concepts. In fact, it follows from Raggio's Theorem in (...) algebraic quantum theory that - within an appropriate class of physical theories - suitable mathematical translations of the doctrines of Bohr and Einstein are equivalent. Thus - upon our specific formalization - quantum mechanics accommodates Einstein's Trennungsprinzip if and only if it is interpreted a la Bohr through classical physics. Unfortunately, the protagonists themselves failed to discuss their differences in this constructive way, since their debate was dominated by Einstein's ingenious but ultimately flawed attempts to establish the "incompleteness" of quantum mechanics. This aspect of their debate may still be understood and appreciated, however, as reflecting a much deeper and insurmountable disagreement between Bohr and Einstein about the knowability of Nature. Using the theological controversy on the knowability of God as a analogy, we can say that Einstein was a Spinozist, whereas Bohr could be said to be on the side of Maimonides. Thus Einstein's off-the-cuff characterization of Bohr as a 'Talmudic philosopher' was spot-on. (shrink)

In un saggio intitolato La fede e il dubbio. L’inesistenza e la violenza della fede, Emanuele Severino giudica incoerente la dottrina cattolica – come pure la prospettiva di Tommaso d’Aquino cui essa risale – stando alla quale la fede risulta certa nonostante le verità che in essa si credono manchino di evidenza. La fede sarebbe non solo inesistente (una fede certa, come quella proclamata dai Vangeli e sostenuta da Tommaso, semplicemente non può esistere) ma anche violenta (l’incoerenza che la contraddistingue (...) vìola la natura della conoscenza razionale). La tesi di Severino è stata già discussa e criticata da alcuni studiosi ad avviso dei quali la prospettiva che la genera manca di un’adeguata considerazione della natura della fede cristiana, giudicata da Severino unicamente in base al criterio dell’evidenza razionale. In questo saggio si intende approfondire questa posizione critica nei confronti della tesi severiniana. Si puntualizzerà che al centro della dottrina tommasiana della fede si situa l’amore per Dio inteso come fine e senso della fede. Secondo Tommaso infatti non l’evidenza razionale ma la carità – donata da Dio stesso – porta i cristiani ad affidarsi a lui e a credere con fermezza quanto egli ha rivelato. Si preciserà quindi che, nel pensiero dell’Angelico, la realtà di un legame così decisivo non sminuisce la rigorosità dell’esercizio razionale. Al contrario, quanto maggiore è la fiducia riposta in Dio creatore tanto più grande risulta l’apprezzamento delle facoltà razionali da lui create. Per questo, Tommaso spinge la ragione a un’indagine senza limiti, sicuro del fatto che essa, sebbene non possa evidenziare la verità della fede, può tuttavia dimostrarne la coerenza interna e combatterne le obiezioni. Prima di procedere con l’esposizione della critica di Severino alla fede cristiana, una precisazione di carattere metodologico risulta doverosa. Alcuni studiosi hanno rilevato che tale critica dipende essenzialmente dalla prospettiva ontologica severiniana, incentrata, come è noto, sull’assunto parmenideo che l’essere è ed è impossibile che non sia. Tutta la tradizione occidentale, dall’evoluzione tecnologica alle convinzioni morali e alla fede cristiana, sarebbe stata fatalmente minata dal proprio radicamento in quella “follia” che per Severino è rappresentata per l’appunto dall’accettazione della realtà del divenire. Secondo la sintesi offerta ad esempio da Giuseppe Pirola, «pensando l’essere come niente, come ciò che può essere e non essere, anziché come ciò che è ed è impossibile che non sia, tutta la modernità cade nel nichilismo; non solo la tecnologia ma anche la morale e la stessa fede cristiana». Allo stesso modo, Leonardo Messinese sostiene che «l’affermazione rigorosa e concretamente determinata della verità dell’essere si è configurata in Severino comeun’affermazione che estende il suo raggio dal campo dell’ontologia a ogni altro ambito tradizionale della filosofia e, ancora più ampiamente, a ogni ambito della cultura e prassi dell’uomo». Ne consegue che «siamo in presenza di una critica della fede cristiana la quale contiene degli elementi di originalità rispetto alle tradizionali forme di critica della religione operate nel pensiero moderno e contemporaneo». Le considerazioni severiniane che qui si prenderanno in esame –considerazioni strettamente relative alla presunta inconsistenza razionale dell’atto di fede – sono tuttavia pienamente riconducibili al primato dell’evidenza così come esso si configura presso ogni forma di evidenzialismo moderno. Come verrà mostrato nel corso di queste pagine, al cuore della critica che Severino rivolge all’atto della fede cristiana vi è l’attenzione per una caratteristica propria dell’epistemologia della fede che anche altri pensatori, pur partendo da prospettive molto diverse da quella severiniana, ritengono sia il limite dell’esperienza dei cristiani: l’assenza di evidenza tipica delle verità rivelate e il fatto che conseguentemente è la volontà a spingere l’intelletto a dare loro l’assenso (da questo seguirebbe il dubbio e quindi la contraddizione con la pretesa di certezza che la fede cristiana porta con sé). In questa sede si procederà dunque a discutere la posizione di Severino a questo riguardo senza considerarne le assunzioni ontologiche e storico-filosofiche. (shrink)

Causation is at once familiar and mysterious. Neither common sense nor extensive philosophical debate has led us to anything like agreement on the correct analysis of the concept of causation, or an account of the metaphysical nature of the causal relation. Causation: A User's Guide cuts a clear path through this confusing but vital landscape. L. A. Paul and Ned Hall guide the reader through the most important philosophical treatments of causation, negotiating the terrain by taking a set of examples (...) as landmarks. They clarify the central themes of the debate about causation, and cover questions about causation involving omissions or absences, preemption and other species of redundant causation, and the possibility that causation is not transitive. Along the way, Paul and Hall examine several contemporary proposals for analyzing the nature of causation and assess their merits and overall methodological cogency.The book is designed to be of value both to trained specialists and those coming to the problem of causation for the first time. It provides the reader with a broad and sophisticated view of the metaphysics of the causal relation. (shrink)

This paper examines the perceived ethical values of Malaysian managers. It is based on the opinions of 15 hypothetical ethical/unethical business situations from the 81 managers who agreed to participate in the survey. The findings of this study showed that these Malaysian managers have high ethical values. However 53% of the respondents believed that the ethical standards of today are lower than that of 15 years ago. Apparently, this is related to the existence of many unethical business practices prevalent in (...) the modern business world. The behavior of one's immediate superior is the most important factor in influencing managers to commit unethical practices. The results also indicate only a slight variation among the managers in terms of perceived ethical values by virtue of job position, job specialization, type of business activity or the size of the business organization. (shrink)

In the past thirty years, two fundamental issues have emerged in the philosophy of science. One concerns the appropriate attitude we should take towards scientific theories--whether we should regard them as true or merely empirically adequate, for example. The other concerns the nature of scientific theories and models and how these might best be represented. In this ambitious book, da Costa and French bring these two issues together by arguing that theories and models should be regarded as partially rather than (...) wholly true. They adopt a framework that sheds new light on issues to do with belief, theory acceptance, and the realism-antirealism debate. The new machinery of "partial structures" that they develop offers a new perspective from which to view the nature of scientific models and their heuristic development. Their conclusions will be of wide interest to philosophers and historians of science. (shrink)

The problem of antimicrobial resistance is so dire that people are predicting that the era of antibiotics may be coming to an end, ushering in a ‘post-antibiotic’ era. A comprehensive policy response is therefore urgently needed. A part of this response will require framing the problem in such a way that adequately reflects its nature as well as encompassing an approach that has the best prospect of success. This paper considers framing the problem as a slowly emerging disaster, including its (...) potential benefits and difficulties, from a conceptual and policy perspective. (shrink)

The point of formalisation is to model various aspects of natural language. Perhaps the main use to which formalisation is put is to model and explain inferential relations between different sentences. Judged solely by this objective, a formalisation is successful in modelling the inferential network of natural language sentences to the extent that it mirrors this network. There is surprisingly little literature on the criteria of good formalisation, and even less on the question of what it is for a formalisation (...) to mirror the inferential network of a natural language or some fragment of it. This paper takes some exploratory steps towards a quantitative account of the main ingredient in the goodness of a formalisation. We introduce and critically examine a mathematical model of how well a formalisation mirrors natural-language inferential relations. (shrink)

David Lewis objected to theories that posit necessary connections between distinct entities and to theories that involve a magical grasping of their primitives. In On the Plurality of Worlds, Lewis objected to nondescript ersatzism on these grounds. The literature contains several reconstructions of Lewis’ critique of nondescript ersatzism but none of these interpretations adequately address his main argument because they fail to see that Lewis’ critique is based on broader methodological considerations. I argue that a closer look at his methodology (...) reveals the broader objection he presented against nondescript ersatzism. This objection, I further argue, remains a challenge for the ersatzer who posits structure-less entities as possible worlds. (shrink)

Description from a book review by J. G. Beebe-Center: "Mr. Allen's book develops in detail the view that pleasure and unpleasure are essentially manifestations of the progression and thwarting of impulses. Part one is a brief summary of the principal theories of feeling. Part two is devoted to "sensory" or "bodily" pleasure and unpleasure. These forms of feeling, it is argued, 'depend on an analogue of conation existing in the organism, a nisus to maintain, or to carry out to the (...) full extent, the functioning proper to the bodily system.' Part three -- the piece de resistance (about half the book) -- deals with the relation of pleasure and unpleasure to the main instincts. Parts four, five and six take up a number of classical problems: the relation of pleasure and unpleasure to sensation, their relation to desire, the relativity of feelings, the qualitative variety of feelings, and the psychology of values. The author shows throughout a rare combination of historicophilosophical sophistication and of first-hand familiarity with the modern experimental literature.". (shrink)

I propose a distinct type of robustness, which I suggest can support a confirmatory role in scientific reasoning, contrary to the usual philosophical claims. In model robustness, repeated production of the empirically successful model prediction or retrodiction against a background of independentlysupported and varying model constructions, within a group of models containing a shared causal factor, may suggest how confident we can be in the causal factor and predictions/retrodictions, especially once supported by a variety of evidence framework. I present climate (...) models of greenhouse gas global warming of the 20th Century as an example, and emphasize climate scientists’ discussions of robust models and causal aspects. The account is intended as applicable to a broad array of sciences that use complex modeling techniques. (shrink)

A Brief History of the Paradox is the first narrative history of paradoxes. Sorenson draws us deep inside the tangles of riddles, paradoxes and conundrums by answering the questions which are seemingly unanswerable. Can God create a stone too heavy for him to lift? Can time have a beginning? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Filled with illuminating anecdotes, A Brief History of the Paradox is vividly written and will appeal to anyone who finds trying to answer unanswerable (...) questions a paradoxically pleasant endeavour. (shrink)

Public speakers like politicians carefully craft their words to maximize the clarity, impact, and persuasiveness of their messages. However, these messages can be shaped by more than words. Gestures play an important role in how spoken arguments are perceived, conceptualized, and remembered by audiences. Studies of political speech have explored the ways spoken arguments are used to persuade audiences and cue applause. Studies of politicians’ gestures have explored the ways politicians illustrate different concepts with their hands, but have not focused (...) on gesture's potential as a tool of persuasion. Our paper combines these traditions to ask first, how politicians gesture when using spoken rhetorical devices aimed at persuading audiences, and second, whether these gestures influence the ways their arguments are perceived. Study 1 examined two rhetorical devices—contrasts and lists—used by three politicians during U.S. presidential debates and asked whether the gestures produced during contrasts and lists differ. Gestures produced during contrasts were more likely to involve changes in hand location, and gestures produced during lists were more likely to involve changes in trajectory. Study 2 used footage from the same debates in an experiment to ask whether gesture influenced the way people perceived the politicians’ arguments. When participants had access to gestural information, they perceived contrasted items as more different from one another and listed items as more similar to one another than they did when they only had access to speech. This was true even when participants had access to only gesture (in muted videos). We conclude that gesture is effective at communicating concepts of similarity and difference and that politicians (and likely other speakers) take advantage of gesture's persuasive potential. (shrink)

Recently we proposed a theory of consciousness, the attention schema theory, based on findings in cognitive psychology and systems neuroscience. In that theory, consciousness is an internal model o...