The valence–space metaphor research area investigates the metaphorical mapping of valenced concepts onto space. Research findings from this area indicate that positive, neutral, and negative concepts are associated with upward, midward, and downward locations, respectively, in the vertical plane. The same research area has also indicated that such concepts seem to have no preferential location on the horizontal plane. The approach–avoidance effect consists in decreasing the distance between positive stimuli and the body and increasing the distance between negative stimuli and (...) the body. Thus, the valence–space metaphor accounts for the mapping of valenced concepts onto the vertical and horizontal planes, and the approach–avoidance effect accounts for the mapping of valenced concepts onto the “depth” plane. By using a cube conceived for the study of allocation of valenced concepts onto 3D space, we show in three studies that positive concepts are placed in upward locations and near the participants’ body, negative concepts are placed in downward locations and far from the participants’ body, and neutral concepts are placed in between these concepts in both planes. (shrink)

Alexander Herzen was the most outstanding figure in the early period of the Russian revolutionary movement. Lenin claimed him as a forerunner of the Bolsheviks, and Soviet scholars have sought to establish his latent sympathy with Marxism. In the west on the other hand, he has been seen as a precursor of Solzhenitsyn, the personification of protest against all forms of oppression. Dr Acton provides a compelling intellectual biography. The focus is on the years between 1847 and 1863. Herzen's ideas (...) are set in the context of those political developments and dramatic private experiences that affected his outlook. His profound faith in human nature and in the inevitable triumph of socialism was undermined not only by the failure of the revolutions of 1848, but even more deeply by personal catastrophe - the discovery of the infidelity of his beautiful wife Natalie. This dual blow, Dr Acton shows, had a decisive impact upon Herzen's approach to Russian problems. It lay at the root of the ambivalent attitude he adopted towards peasant revolution in the critical period of Emancipation. (shrink)

The discovery, made in Oxford, that crude penicillin could cure systemic and life‐threatening bacterial infections was followed by attempts to purify penicillin, to determine its structure and then to produce it by total chemical synthesis. The β‐lactam structure of the molecule, first proposed in October 1943, was a source of controversy until 1945. However, no useful chemical synthesis was achieved and fermentation became the commercial source of the antibiotic.In 1953, one of the products of a Cephalosporium sp. from Sardinia was (...) shown to be a new and hydrophilic penicillin (penicillin N). This was contaminated with a substance having the same side‐chain but a characteristic absorption spectrum. The latter, cephalosporin C, showed antibacterial activity but was not inactivated by a penicillinase. The determination of its β‐lactam structure and isolation of its nucleus enabled pharmaceutical companies to produce many semisynthetic cephalosporins.A new tripeptide was later found to be an intermediate in the biosynthesis of both penicillin N and cephalosporin C, and this was followed by the complete elucidation of the biosynthetic pathways leading to these compounds and to benzylpenicillin. (shrink)

Spence develops and applies a normative model based on rationalist and virtue ethics as well as stoic philosophy to assess the impact of technology on wellbeing. Through developing this model, Spence offers a novel and important examination of the benefit of technology to our society as a whole.

Patrons of Enlightenment emphasizes the dependency of thinkers upon patrons and compares the patron-client relationships in the French, English, and Scottish republics of letters.

Mutuality, the defining relationship of personal life, provides a meaningful context for unifying and clarifying three facets of personal existence: self-identity, rationality, and freedom.

A diferencia de lo que sucede en la actualidad, durante la antigüedad griega, la economía no se estructuraba como una rama de la ciencia designada a estudiar el comercio, la riqueza, ni la distribución de los recursos de la sociedad; por el contrario, era un asunto doméstico, donde para el hombre griego el hogar era el centro de su responsabilidad como buen ciudadano: gobernándose y luego gobernando su propiedad. Este artículo, desarrollará así un análisis sobre el origen primario de las (...) prácticas de la economía en los mitos de Hestia, Hermes, Deméter y Cibeles. Así, partiendo de su raíz etimológica, se realizará una interpretación sobre estos cuatro dioses, otorgando elementos básicos para demostrar que el concepto de la economía es incluso anterior al discurso socrático de la época clásica, y cómo, partiendo de la interpretación del mito, es posible encontrar unas marcas que definen una serie de prácticas que posteriormente sirvieron para designar un valor a dicho concepto. (shrink)

This study was undertaken to determine the reading comprehension difficulty level of the U.S. Constitution for a sample (N=117) of typical college students. A 50-item cloze measure was prepared over a section of the Constitution and administered. Approximately 25% of the subjects demonstrated substantial difficulty in completing the cloze passage. Most subjects scored at a level suggesting competence in comprehending the Constitution provided there was instructional support while only a few demonstrated great ease in comprehending the document. Findings suggest that (...) the U.S. Constitution is a difficult document for readers to comprehend. Consequently, the need for presenting the Constitution in learning environments designed to facilitate understanding of this document is evident. The contention that greater emphasis on the Constitution might be needed is evidenced by the fact that the subjects, representing the more competent learners among the general population, demonstrated difficulty with it. (shrink)

This paper examines the tensions in classical liberal theory ? particularly that of Locke and Kant ? between reason and conscience, and in contemporary liberal theory between the demands of reasonableness and the dictates of conscience. We intend to show that the relationship between reasonableness and conscience is both unstable and necessary; on occasions there seems to exist a moral obligation to provide public reasons for our conduct and at other times the silent call of conscience precludes public justification of (...) conscientious objection or dissent. (shrink)

Book reviewed: Brian McGuinness, Approaches to Wittgenstein: Collected Papers, Routledge, 2002, xv + 299 pp, £55.00.

In this essay, I will respond to the several charges laid at my feet by Robert Talisse and Scott Aikin engaged in their response entitled “Pragmatism and ‘Existential’ Pluralism: A Response to Hackett” about my article that also appeared in Contemporary Pragmatism entitled “Why James Can Be an Existential Pluralist”. At the heart of my response lies a concern with what I call the principle of hermeneutic charity and the final view James offers us of his entire philosophy. One can (...) recognize the need for historical accuracy and the need to investigate first-order claims that come from historically accurate interpretations. (shrink)