Things and Their Place in Theories Our talk of external things, our very notion of things, is just a conceptual apparatus that helps us to foresee and ...

Recent narratives and debates surrounding long-term AI concerns—the prospect of artificial general intelligence in particular—are fraught with hidden assumptions, priorities, and values. This paper employs a humanistic, narrative-centered approach to analyze the works of two vocal, and opposing, thinkers in the field—Luciano Floridi and Nick Bostrom—to ask how the representational, descriptive differences in their works reveal the high stakes of narrative choices for how we form ideas about humanity, urgency, risk, harm, and possibility in relation to AI. This paper closely (...) reads Floridi and Bostrom using different representational models and historical narratives from works in the environmental humanities, literary theory, bioethics, and the history of technology to uncover the imaginative terrain of recent long-term AI discourse and reveal the complexity and limitations of the messaging underlying the works of different authors. (shrink)

Within a general approach that implies the closely related survey of neurosciences and philosophical thought, the essays collected in the volume develop two main lines of research. The first one, thanks to the contributions of scientists and psychologists , psychoanalysists and bioengineers , allows to fix the attention on the neurobiological, psychological, psychoanalytical and physical remembering. The second one, more specifically philosophical, is declined in three different approaches. the first - with essays by Stefania Achella, Giuseppe D'Anna and Rosario Diana (...) - points to the anlysis of the role played by the rememberance and the prefiguration in the processes of identity construction. The second - with contributions from Fiorella Battaglia, Anna Donise, Sabine Marienberg and Sara Fortuna - focuses on the role of remembering in anthropology and linguistics, as well as the identification of certain diseases of memory. The third, finally - with contributions from Gabriella Baptist, Chiara de Luzenberger and Marco Boninu - tends to define the regulatory function of memory. (shrink)

This study provides new longitudinal evidence on two major types of gesture–speech combination that play different roles in children’s early language. We analysed the spontaneous production of 10 Italian children observed monthly from 10–12 to 23–25 months of age. We evaluated the extent to which the developmental trends observed in children’s early gesture–word and word–word productions can predict subsequent verbal abilities. The results indicate that “complementary” and “supplementary” gesture–speech combinations predict subsequent language development in a different manner: While the onset (...) of “supplementary” combinations predicts the onset of two-word combinations, the use of “complementary” combinations at 12 and 18 months predicts the vocabulary and the ability to produce more words utterances at 2 years of age. Moreover, the results suggest that both “complementary” and “supplementary” crossmodal combinations are good predictive indexes of early verbal skills during the second year of age. (shrink)

This study provides new longitudinal evidence on two major types of gesture–speech combination that play different roles in children’s early language. We analysed the spontaneous production of 10 Italian children observed monthly from 10–12 to 23–25 months of age. We evaluated the extent to which the developmental trends observed in children’s early gesture–word and word–word productions can predict subsequent verbal abilities. The results indicate that “complementary” and “supplementary” gesture–speech combinations predict subsequent language development in a different manner: While the onset (...) of “supplementary” combinations predicts the onset of two-word combinations, the use of “complementary” combinations at 12 and 18 months predicts the vocabulary and the ability to produce more words utterances at 2 years of age. Moreover, the results suggest that both “complementary” and “supplementary” crossmodal combinations are good predictive indexes of early verbal skills during the second year of age. (shrink)

Selective mutism (SM) is a developmental disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak in certain contexts and/or in the presence of unfamiliar interlocutors. This work proposes a critical discussion of the most recent studies on SM, with respect to clinical and diagnostic features, as well as the etiology and treatment of this disorder. At present, all research work supports the hypothesis that SM is a complex anxiety disorder with multifactorial etiology (interaction among biological and environmental causes). The latest edition (...) of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) places SM mutism among “Anxiety Disorders”, and no longer among “Other Childhood, Infant and Adolescent Disorders” (as in DSM-IV). Other important aspects relate to cognitive biases and emotional states at the base of SM, which partly explain the disorder’s persistence and represent an important objective of intervention work. No data in the literature point to a total remission of SM, but good results are achieved with cognitive behavior intervention and multimodal therapy (MMT) involving a variety of child interaction contexts. (shrink)

Este artículo interroga el lugar de la felicidad en un pensamiento sobre la historia. La constatación respecto de su ausencia en un pensamiento filosófico político nos lleva a revisitar críticamente dos modalidades del relato que han acogido su llamado: el pensamiento utópico y la teoría crítica. El..

Michel Henry sostiene que la subjetividad se muestra fenomenológicamente según la estructura de la autoafección, y que esta no admite ningún tipo de distancia temporal, siendo la temporalidad una marca exclusiva de la trascendencia. Sin embargo, a partir de los años noventa, Henry lleva adelante una lectura fenomenológica de ciertos aspectos de la doctrina cristiana, gracias a la cual logró dar con otro tipo de temporalidad. Esta nueva temporalidad, de carácter inmanente, es la problemática que se abordará en este artículo, (...) en el cual se buscará establecer cómo ella es efectivamente experienciable. En la primera sección, se precisará la dinámica del nacimiento trascendental y de la temporalidad que tal nacimiento entraña. La doctrina del nacimiento trascendental, que Henry elabora inspirándose en Meister Eckhart y que alude al engendramiento del viviente en la Vida absoluta sirve de guía para pensar una relación inmanente entre la eternidad, el instante y el tiempo. En la segunda sección, veremos cómo, ya desde la perspectiva del viviente, la temporalidad inmanente se articula como presente viviente. La tercera y última sección estará reservada al estudio de la afectividad y la habitualidad corporal como manifestaciones concretas de la temporalidad inmanente. Así, podremos concluir que aquello que se explica a partir de las notas particulares de la Vida absoluta no solo da cuenta de una temporalidad inmanente como una dimensión fundante de la experiencia subjetiva, sino también de una dimensión concreta y fenomenológicamente atestable para el viviente. Estos resultados permitirán, además, sentar las bases para investigaciones futuras que vinculen la temporalidad inmanente con la trascendente. (shrink)

In this pathbreaking study, Micaela di Leonardo reveals the face of power within the mask of cultural difference. From the 1893 World's Fair to Body Shop advertisements, di Leonardo focuses on the intimate and shifting relations between popular portrayals of exotic Others and the practice of anthropology. In so doing, she casts new light on gender, race, and the public sphere in America's past and present. "An impressive work of scholarship that is mordantly witty, passionately argued, and takes no (...) prisoners."--Lesley Gill, News Politics "[Micaela] di Leonardo eloquently argues for the importance of empirical, interdisciplinary social science in addressing the tragedy that is urban America at the end of the century."--Jonathan Spencer, Times Literary Supplement "In her quirky new contribution to the American culture brawl, feminist anthropologist Micaela di Leonardo explains how anthropologists, 'technicians of the sacred,' have distorted American popular debate and social life."--Rachel Mattson, Voice Literary Supplement "At the end of di Leonardo's analyses one is struck by her rare combination of rigor and passion. Simply, [she] is a marvelous iconoclast."--Matthew T. McGuire, Boston Book Review. (shrink)

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the views of healthcare professionals in Portugal about healthcare rationing, and compare them with the views of college students. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 60 healthcare professionals and 180 college students. Respondents faced a hypothetical rationing dilemma where they had to order four patients and justify their choices. Multinomial logistic regressions were used to test for differences in orderings, and content analysis to categorize the (...) written justifications. The findings suggest that both groups appeared to support three main rationing principles: health maximization, priority to the severely ill and priority to the young. However, professionals seemed to give less weight to the latter principle. In conclusion, professionals have similar views to students about healthcare rationing, though may be slightly less inclined to give priority to the young. (shrink)

The main aim of this paper is to investigate the micro and macro predictors of Portuguese willingness to pay (WTP) more taxes to bolster funds channelled to the National Health Service (NHS). An online questionnaire was used to collect data from 584 Portuguese citizens. The statistical analysis was performed through the application of logistic regressions. The research shows that willingness to support increasing taxes depended on socioeconomic, behavioural, and psychological factors. The WTP more taxes to finance the NHS were associated (...) with younger ages, life satisfaction and dispositional optimism, satisfaction with the NHS performance, current perceived risk exposure, and risk orientation. Identifying and understanding the main influencing factors associated with WTP more taxes for NHS is essential to assist policy-makers in developing healthcare reforms. Decision-makers may take this opportunity to improve the NHS since those who ultimately benefit from the measures can provide an additional source of health financing. (shrink)

Histone octamers (hos) and DNA topoisomerase I contribute, along with other proteins, to the higher order structure of chromatin. Here we report on the similar topological requirements of these two protein model systems for their interaction with DNA. Both histone octamers and topoisomerase I positively and consistently respond to DNA supercoiling and curvature, and to the spatial accessibility of the preferential interaction sites. These findings (1) point to the relevance of the topology‐related DNA conformation in protein interactions and define the (...) particular role of the helically phased rotational information; and (2) help to solve the apparent paradoxical behaviour of ubiquitous and abundant proteins that interact with defined DNA sites in spite of the lack of clear sequence consensuses. Considering firstly, that the interactions with DNA of both DNA topoisomerase I and histone octamers are topology‐sensitive and that upon their interaction the DNA conformation is modified; and secondly, that similar behaviours have also been reported for DNA topoisomerase II and histone H1, a topology‐based functional correlation among all these determinants of the higher order structure of chromatin is here suggested. (shrink)

Algunos intérpretes sostienen que la fenomenología de la inmanencia de Michel Henry amenaza el carácter singular del sujeto y la evidencia fenomenológica del mundo. En este artículo se argumentará que esas críticas deben ser matizadas. Para ello se abordará el análisis henriano de los sentimientos y se demostrará que el objetivo de Henry no es reducir la fenomenalidad a un núcleo premundano, sino describir las condiciones trascendentales por las cuales somos seres afectivos en un mundo necesariamente tonalizado.

En el marco de la fenomenología generativa presentada por Edmund Husserl, se considera que el carácter histórico de una comunidad tradicionalizada proviene del movimiento de institución, sedimentación, reinstitución y transformación de un sentido. El objetivo de este trabajo es estudiar el papel que cumple la reinstitución [Nachstiftung] dentro del “a priori estructural de la historia” y elucidar en qué radica su necesidad dentro de la constitución de una tradición. Para comprender las características particulares de la reinstitución se propone trazar un (...) paralelo entre ésta y la rememoración, en tanto momento de la temporalidad egológica. Como conclusión se mostrará que la reactivación que conduce a una mera comprensión no asegura la continuidad de una tradición. Sólo la adopción pasiva y la efectuación teleológica garantizan la durabilidad de una comunidad tradicionalizada.In the context of the generative phenomenology introduced by Edmund Husserl, it is considered that the historic nature of a traditionalized community can be traced in the movement of establishment, sedimentation, reestablishment and transformation of an original meaning. The main goal of this paper is to study the role the reestablishment [Nachstiftung] plays within the “structural a priori of history” and to elucidate where that necessity lies in concerning the constitution of a community. In order to clarify the fundamental characteristics of the reestablishment, I attempt to draw a parallel between reestablishment and recollection as a moment of the egologic temporality. As a conclusion, it will be shown that a reactivation that amounts to a mere comprehension does not ensure the continuity of a tradition. Only the passive adoption and the theleological accomplishment given for the reestablishment guarantee the durability of a traditionalized community. (shrink)

This study explores the use of deictic gestures, vocalizations and words compared to content-loaded, or representational gestures and words in children’s early one- and two-element utterances. We analyze the spontaneous production of four children, observed longitudinally from 10–12 to 24–25 months of age, focusing on the components of children’s utterances, the information encoded, and the temporal relationship between gestures and vocalizations or words that were produced in combination. Results indicate that while the gestural and vocal modalities are meaningfully and temporally (...) integrated form the earliest stages, deictic and representational elements are unevenly distributed in the gestural vs. the vocal modality, and in one vs. two-element utterances. The findings suggest that while gestural deixis plays a primary role in allowing children to define and articulate their vocal productions, representational skills appear to be markedly more constrained in the gestural as compared to the vocal modality. (shrink)

Este artículo estudia críticamente el concepto de Ius Constitutionale Commune Latinoamericanum como fenómeno de judicialización de la política a nivel regional. Partiendo de la afirmación de que el derecho constitucional es político, se analizan algunos rasgos del ICCAL como la ideología que lo inspira, la teoría en que se apoya el concepto y el arreglo institucional que lo sostiene, para problematizar su carácter "común". Bajo el entendido que cualquier proyecto constitucional está indisolublemente ligado a un diseño institucional que lo lleva (...) a cabo, se critica la apuesta por un modelo juricentrista, anclado en la interpretación que la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos hace de los derechos reconocidos como universales, para proponer un sistema basado en procedimientos deliberativos e igualitarios que fortalezcan la democratización de la región. This article critically examines the concept of Ius Constitutionale Commune Latinoamericanum as a phenomenon of judicialization of politics at the regional level. To problematize its "common" character and based on the assertion that constitutional law is political, some features of the ICCAL are analyzed: the ideology that inspires it, the theory in which the concept is supported and the institutional arrangement that sustains it. Under the understanding that every constitutional project is inextricably linked to an institutional design that carries it out, the commitment to a jury-centered model, anchored in the interpretation that the Inter-American Court of Human Rights makes of the rights recognized as universal is criticized. Proposing, in contrast, a system based on deliberative and egalitarian procedures that strengthen the democratization of the region. (shrink)

Neurofeedback (NF) aims to alter neural activity by enhancing self-regulation skills. Over the past decade NF has received considerable attention as a potential intervention option for many somatic and mental conditions and ADHD in particular. However, placebo-controlled trials have demonstrated insufficient superiority of NF compared to treatment as usual and sham conditions. It has been argued that the reason for limited NF effects may be attributable to participants' challenges to self-regulate the targeted neural activity. Still, there is support of NF (...) efficacy when only considering so-called “standard protocols,” such as Slow Cortical Potential NF training (SCP-NF). This PROSPERO registered systematic review following PRISMA criteria searched literature databases for studies applying SCP-NF protocols. Our review focus concerned the operationalization of self-regulatory success, and protocol-details that could influence the evaluation of self-regulation. Such details included; electrode placement, number of trials, length per trial, proportions of training modalities, handling of artifacts and skill-transfer into daily-life. We identified a total of 63 eligible reports published in the year 2000 or later. SCP-NF protocol-details varied considerably on most variables, except for electrode placement. However, due to the increased availability of commercial systems, there was a trend to more uniform protocol-details. Although, token-systems are popular in SCP-NF for ADHD, only half reported a performance-based component. Also, transfer exercises have become a staple part of SCP-NF. Furthermore, multiple operationalizations of regulatory success were identified, limiting comparability between studies, and perhaps usefulness of so-called transfer-exercises, which purpose is to facilitate the transfer of the self-regulatory skills into every-day life. While studies utilizing SCP as Brain-Computer-Interface mainly focused on the acquisition of successful self-regulation, clinically oriented studies often neglected this. Congruently, rates of successful regulators in clinical studies were mostly low (<50%). The relation between SCP self-regulation and behavior, and how symptoms in different disorders are affected, is complex and not fully understood. Future studies need to report self-regulation based on standardized measures, in order to facilitate both comparability and understanding of the effects on symptoms. When applied as treatment, future SCP-NF studies also need to put greater emphasis on the acquisition of self-regulation (before evaluating symptom outcomes).Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021260087, Identifier: CRD42021260087. (shrink)

L’article analyse le concept de mort dans l’œuvre d’Ernst Bloch, qui constitue un défi majeur pour le principe espérance. Lorsque Bloch aborde cette question dans ses textes, il lie la dimension du deuil au thème du travail de la vie. Si ce dernier est en fait la quête d’un sens ultime et définitif, il ne peut advenir qu’en allant à l’encontre de la finitude elle-même. Or, ce n’est qu’en se consacrant pleinement à la tâche qu’est la vie que l’existence humaine (...) peut trouver son sens. L’article analyse ces positions blochiennes en les comparant aux thèses sur la mort proposées par Vladimir Jankélévitch. (shrink)

1 It is not unusual to come across works written by philosophers that are half way between the essay and the novel. Some even talk of a kind of dilution of philosophy into literature, from a clearly metaphysical perspective, therefore a philosophical one. After the seminal case of Friedrich Nietzsche, the relationship between philosophy and literature in the 20th century has intensified. Evidence for this state of affairs are the many excellent philosophers who are also novelists – some of th...

A formação técnico-profissional é parte integrante do ODS da educação (ODS 4) e o seu papel transversal para uma transformação global é amplamente reconhecido. O presente estudo avalia a efetividade do modelo de formação técnico profissional baseado em competências (MFPBC) e sua influência setorial. O estudo emprega dados de questionário de satisfação aplicado a quinhentos (500) intervenientes (gestores das Instituições do Ensino Profissional (IEPs), formadores, formandos, pais/encarregados de educação e alguns empregadores) no sistema de educação profissional (EP) em Moçambique, referentes (...) a 2019-2020. As avaliações usam a estatística descritiva e o teste de qualidade de ajuste qui-quadrado para analisar as diferenças do valor esperado do valor observado das variáveis em estudo. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam para necessidade de revisão do MFPBPC introduzido em Moçambique no ano de 2019, pois revela incongruências na sua implementação. As incongruências estão relacionadas à falta de comunicação entre as partes interessadas, nomeadamente: formandos, IEPs, empregadores e órgão regulador, fenômeno que foi evidenciado por mais de 60% dos respondentes que avaliaram negativamente o modelo em quase todas as questões. Existe divergência entre o contexto real e o objetivo do governo proposto na Lei nº 23/2014, qual seja, formar em qualidade e quantidade profissionais para responder os desafios do mercado de trabalho. Em relação à introdução da MFPBC, verificou-se uma relação positiva entre o número de graduados e o número de empregados/empreendedores. Em relação ao nível de empregabilidade dos alunos formados no MFPBC, 77,4% responderam negativamente, em contraste com a Lei nº 23/2014 que preconiza ser objetivo do MFPBC melhorar as perspectivas de empregabilidade e de emprego dos formandos e graduados da educação profissional. Os intervenientes avaliaram o nível de domínio do MFPBC negativamente, o que pode estar associado à dificuldade de comunicação entre o órgão regulador, as IEPs, os empregadores e os alunos. Para que se encontre a excelência do modelo, é necessário que todos os intervenientes participem na planificação, execução e controle da formação com vista a se alcançar as expectativas e competências específicas para que cada graduado possa desempenhar o seu trabalho com sucesso. Deste modo, recomenda-se a implantação de currículos por competências baseados em situações concretas para garantir o desenvolvimento económico e social. (shrink)

Selected Logic Papers, long out of print and now reissued with eight additional essays, includes much of the author's important work on mathematical logic and ...

Explores the nature and types of mystical experience and discusses the value of mysticism for humanity.

Laughter and yawning can both occur spontaneously and are highly contagious forms of social behavior. When occurring contagiously, laughter and yawning are usually confounded with a social situation and it is difficult to determine to which degree the social situation or stimulus itself contribute to its contagion. While contagious yawning can be reliably elicited in lab when no other individuals are present, such studies are more sparse for laughter. Moreover, laughter and yawning are multimodal stimuli with both an auditory and (...) a visual component: laughter is primarily characterized as a stereotyped vocalization whereas yawning is a predominantly visual signal and it is not known to which degree the visual and auditory modalities affect the contagion of laughter and yawning. We investigated how these two sensory modalities contribute to the contagion of laughter and yawning under controlled laboratory conditions in the absence of a social situation that might confound their contagion. Subjects were presented with naturally produced laughter and yawning in three sensory modalities, and we recorded their reaction to these stimuli. Contagious responses differed for laughter and yawning: overall, laughter elicited more contagious responses than yawning, albeit mostly smiling rather than overt laughter. While the audio-visual condition elicited most contagious responses overall, laughter was more contagious in the auditory modality, and yawning was more contagious in the visual modality. Furthermore, laughter became decreasingly contagious over time, while yawning remained steadily contagious. We discuss these results based on the ontogenetic and phylogenetic trajectories of laughter and yawning. (shrink)

En esta investigación fenomenológica nos proponemos caracterizar las dimensiones del espacio habitado (el mundo familiar, el mundo extraño y el espacio intersticial entre ambos, desarrollado por la teoría psicoanalítica) a partir de la categoría schmitziana de atmósfera como fenómeno afectivo. Esta tarea revelará la ontología de los espacios no-extensionales que constituyen un aspecto esencial de la experiencia del habitar. En particular, nos concentraremos en la descripción positiva de las atmósferas del espacio intersticial, buscando resaltar su naturaleza productiva.

A complete translation of Aristotle's classic that is both faithful and readable, along with an introduction that provides the modern reader with a means of understanding this seminal work and its impact on our culture. In this volume, Joe Sachs (translator of Aristotle's _Physics, Metaphysics,_ and the _Nicomachean Ethics _)also supplements his excellent translation with well-chosen notes and glossary of important terms. Focus Philosophical Library translations are close to and are non-interpretative of the original text, with the notes and a (...) glossary intending to provide the reader with some sense of the terms and the concepts as they were understood by Aristotle’s immediate audience. (shrink)

In the Transcendental Aesthetic (TA), Kant is typically held to make negative assertations about “things in themselves,” namely that they are not spatial or temporal. These negative assertions stand behind the “neglected alternative” problem for Kant’s transcendental idealism. According to this problem, Kant may be entitled to assert that spatio-temporality is a subjective element of our cognition, but he cannot rule out that it may also be a feature of the objective world. In this paper, I show in a new (...) way how Kant’s view (focusing on his conclusions about space) is not subject to this objection, by showing that he does not make the denial about mind-independent reality that he is typically held to make. The argument develops consequences of a new reading of Kant’s expression “an sich selbst” (‘in itself’; ‘in themselves’). I argue that “an sich selbst” or “per se” has a special, judgment-level role, so that this expression does not form new noun-terms adjectivally. It follows that the conceptual unit of Kant’s “Conclusions” in the TA is simply “things” (Dinge), since “things in themselves” is not a nominal expression; Kant adopts the Wolffian ontological use of “thing” as the basic kind-term for any existent. The arguments that things per se are not in space are arguments that space cannot be a necessary property or relations of things as a kind. I show that this does not involve the positive claim about mind-independent reality that inspires the neglected alternative objection. (shrink)

Some cognitive processes appear to have “phenomenal” properties that are directly revealed to the subject and not determined by physical properties. I suggest that the source of this appearance is the method by which our brain processes sensory information. The appearance is an illusion. Nonetheless, we are not mistaken when we judge that people sometimes fee lpain.

Noch während des Zweiten Weltkriegs in den Vereinigten Staaten entstanden, 1947 als Buch erschienen, mit der Neuausgabe von 1969 endgültig zum einflussreichsten Werk der ”Frankfurter Schule“ geworden: eine Sonderausgabe zum hundertsten Geburtstag Theodor W. Adornos am 11. September 2003.

Se realizó un diagnóstico de la autonomía biótica en pacientes oncológicos, evidenciando que la mayoría no conocen, y no comprenden la carta de CI afectando la autonomía bioética. Ante esta problemática este proyecto crea dos cuadernillos uno para niños y uno para adultos. Estos cuadernillos parten y responden al reconocimiento de la condición del paciente, sus afectaciones cognitivas y emocionales, su nivel de escolaridad y su nivel de comprensión lectora. Los cuadernillos centrados en estrategias de comprensión lectora, incluyen actividades dialógicas (...) y de reconocimiento emocional para apoyar los procesos de comprensión del CI. (shrink)

In this essay I suggest that we view design principles in systems biology as minimal models, for a design principle usually exhibits universal behaviors that are common to a whole range of heterogeneous (living and nonliving) systems with different underlying mechanisms. A well-known design principle in systems biology, integral feedback control, is discussed, showing that it satisfies all the conditions for a model to be a minimal model. This approach has significant philosophical implications: it not only accounts for how design (...) principles explain, but also helps clarify one dispute over design principles, e.g., whether design principles provide mechanistic explanations or a distinct kind of explanations called design explanations. (shrink)