Basic Emotion theory has had a tremendous influence on the affective sciences, including music psychology, where most researchers have assumed that music expressivity is constrained to a limited set of basic emotions. Several scholars suggested that these constrains to musical expressivity are explained by the existence of a shared acoustic code to the expression of emotions in music and speech prosody. In this article we advocate for a shift from this focus on basic emotions to a constructionist account. This approach (...) proposes that the phenomenon of perception of emotions in music arises from the interaction of music’s ability to express core affects and the influence of top-down and contextual information in the listener’s mind. We start by reviewing the problems with the concept of Basic Emotions, and the inconsistent evidence that supports it. We also demonstrate how decades of developmental and cross-cultural research on music and emotional speech have failed to produce convincing findings to conclude that music expressivity is built upon a set of biologically pre-determined basic emotions. We then examine the cue-emotion consistencies between music and speech, and show how they support a parsimonious explanation, where musical expressivity is grounded on two dimensions of core affect (arousal and valence). Next, we explain how the fact that listeners reliably identify basic emotions in music does not arise from the existence of categorical boundaries in the stimuli, but from processes that facilitate categorical perception, such as using stereotyped stimuli and close-ended response formats, psychological processes of construction of mental prototypes, and contextual information. Finally, we outline our proposal of a constructionist account of perception of emotions in music, and spell out the ways in which this approach is able to make solve past conflicting findings. We conclude by providing explicit pointers about the methodological choices that will be vital to move beyond the popular Basic Emotion paradigm and start untangling the emergence of emotional experiences with music in the actual contexts in which they occur. -/- . (shrink)

This volume brings together studies in the domain of weak referentiality, the phenomenon that a definite or indefinite noun phrase lacks its usual referential force. Several papers investigate syntactic or semantic properties of indefinite noun phrases, such as modality, number neutrality, narrow scope, incorporation, predication, and case marking, and that in a range of languages (Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, German, Papiamentu, Russian). Other papers deal with weakly referential definite noun phrases in various languages (Basque, Dutch, English, French) involving scrambling, modification, (...) possession, and accessibility. The papers demonstrate a range of empirical methods and theoretical models. This volume will not only be of interest to researchers and students in syntax and semantics, but also in psycholinguistics and language typology. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Body Awareness to Recognize Feelings: The Exploration of a Musical Emotional Experience” by Alejandra Vásquez-Rosati. Upshot: A complete account of musical emotions implies examining how factors in the music, the situation, and the person interact, producing objective and subjective changes on affective, bodily and cognitive levels simultaneously. Therefore, a first-person phenomenological method can only provide a limited understanding of these experiences.

"Tough, smart, superbly engaging, The Material Ghost is a terrific book." -- Edward W. Said In The Material Ghost , Gilberto Perez draws on his lifelong love of the movies as well as his work as a film scholar to write a lively, wide-ranging, penetrating study of films and filmmakers and the nature of the art form. For Perez, film is complex and richly contradictory, lifelike and dreamlike at once, a peculiar mix of reality and imagination. "The images on (...) the screen," he writes, "carry in them something of the world itself, something material, and yet something transposed, transformed into another world: the material ghost." "Dazzling... The sheer intelligence at work in these lucid pages is exhilarating." -- Alfred Guzzetti, Boston Book Review "A pleasure. Gilberto Perez is one of the smartest film critics writing anywhere." -- Jonathan Rosenbaum "Strikes an ideal balance between insightful analysis and graceful writing... A model of thoughtful criticism." -- David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor "Brilliantly polemical in his critique of cynical reason ('the official philosophy of late capitalism'), no less passionate in defending the truth-value of cinema, Perez seems to be the clearest heir to the great humanist critic André Bazin." -- Sight & amp Sound "The chapters on Keaton and Renoir are stunning, full of perceptive remarks the chapter on Godard is a persuasive rehabilitation none of the chapters is without memorable insights." -- Michael Wood, London Review of Books "Gilberto Perez's ambitious, abundant, and cultivated book--the fruit of decades of thinking and teaching -- accompanies readers on a journey of discovery into the wonder of film." -- Stanley Cavell "Few books of film criticism in the past twenty-five years have been so enjoyable or instructive... [Perez] has excellent things to say about authorship, about documentaries, about popular genres, about cinematic point of view and narrative technique, about actors, and above all about camera style... He makes us want to look once more at the remarkable pictures he discusses." -- James Naremore, Cineaste. (shrink)

Recent studies reveal that violence significantly contributes to explaining individual’s facial preferences. Women who feel at higher risk of violence prefer less-masculine male faces. Given the importance of violence, we explore its influence on people’s preferences for a different physical trait. Masculinity correlates positively with male strength and weight or body mass index. In fact, masculinity and BMI tend to load on the same component of trait perception. Therefore we predicted that individuals’ perceptions of danger from violence will relate to (...) preferences for facial cues to low-BMI. In two studies in Colombia, men and women from Bogota, Medellin, and surrounding communities were shown pairs of faces transformed to epitomize the shape correlates of men with high or low-BMI. The images were of European, Salvadoran, or Colombian men. Participants were asked to choose the face they considered most attractive. Subsequently, participants answered a survey about their health, media access, education level, and experiences/perceptions of violence in study 1 and about specific types of violence in study 2. Results from both studies showed that women who experienced/perceived higher levels of violence preferred faces of low-BMI Salvadoran men. Preferences for low-BMI facial cues were significantly explained by violence, even after controlling for all other variables. These results may reflect women’s strategy to avoid male partners capable of inflicting harm. (shrink)

The blogosphere’s heterogeneity has significantly increased in recent years. Thus, the blog-as-diary approach has shown its limitations. Viewing blogs as a genre is also misleading, as it confuses medium and genre. Considering that the studies of blog genres still need further theoretical and empirical investigations, we propose a method to assess blog posts, understood as utterances, the minimal unit of a blog. We then conduct an analysis of two large datasets from 100 Brazilian blogs. Three reviewers read and judged 5218 (...) posts from 50 A-list blogs and 1527 posts from 50 non-A-list blogs, captured in a 30-day period. Posts’ compositional form, theme and style were cross-analyzed in and between datasets. Our findings lead to the conclusion that blogs in the A-list group tend to post more and stick to themes that attract audiences. Non-A-list blogs post less and focus on themes of interest to bloggers themselves, not necessarily hype topics. (shrink)

Among the hardest cases in the ethics of killing are those in which one innocent person poses a lethal threat to another. I argue in favour of the intuition that lethal self-defence is permissible in these cases, despite the difficulties that some philosophers (e.g., Otsuka and McMahan) have raised about it. Philosophers writing in this area—including those sympathetic to the intuition (e.g. Thomson and Kamm)—have downplayed or ignored an essential and authoritative role for intuition per se (as against discursive general (...) principles): one based in moral sensibility and imagination rather than discursive argument or conceptual analysis. I am concerned to call attention to and rehabilitate this role for intuition. (shrink)

Uma das principais preocupações de Ludwig Wittgenstein, presente já desde as suas primeiras observações, é a autonomia do pensamento próprio. Nosso objetivo neste texto é indicar alguns aspectos metodológicos do diagnóstico e da crítica que o filósofo vienense opera em relação à tradição filosófica ocidental com vistas a possibilitar a obtenção de resultados seguros e pacíficos no universo polêmico da filosofia. Para tanto, indicaremos a importância de recuperar o papel que a tradição filosófica desempenha para o pensamento próprio, assim como (...) a importância de conscientizar-se de que a principal dificuldade da filosofia é estar diante dos conceitos sem pré-conceitos. Além disso, ressaltaremos a necessidade de superação das dificuldades humanas como a da vontade mostrando na filosofia de Wittgenstein a presença da atividade destruidora dos vícios, adornos e ídolos herdados bem como a sua importância para a averiguação das condições lingüísticas do próprio pensar. (shrink)

Post-pandemic: Triple Agenda for a New RealityPós-pandemia: tripla agenda para uma nova realidadeNew fields for applying bioethics have emerged out of the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic, but many bioethical challenges remain; so, it is necessary to reflect on the reality that human beings will have to live after that. This reflection builds on a triple agenda: challenges, warnings, and guidance. The challenge agenda deals with upcoming scientific and biotechnological developments, adjustments to work and study, sustainable development reorientation, and changes in businesses and (...) entertainment companies. These challenges could be summarized as development paradigm shifts. The warning agenda includes the management of wild species, mistrust in political leaders, unsupportive and criminal human behavior, information overabundance, the emulation of pharmaceutical industries, and the determining factors of the culture of death. These warnings could be condensed in the importance of promoting the culture of life. The guidance agenda comprises a series of principles such as the human person’s dignity, the common good, the preferential option for the poor, the universal allocation of goods, solidarity, subsidiarity, and the care for our common home. This guidance points to a fundamental and existential environmental transformation. All these changes will be possible because of human resilience, professionalism, and social solidarity, shaping an actual comprehensive human development project.Para citar este editorial / To reference this editorial / Para citar este editorialGamboa Bernal GA. Pospandemia: triple agenda para una nueva realidad. Pers Bioet. 2020;24:127-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2020.24.2.1Publicado: 27/11/2020. (shrink)

_Historic and Scientific Assertion of the Humanae Vitae, Fifty Years Later_ _Reivindicação histórica e científica da humanae vitae, cinquenta anos depois_ Muchas veces se ha dicho que mayo de 1968 fue un hito en la cultura contemporánea. Esa revolución, que no fue nada silenciosa, no se extinguió espontáneamente sino que sus efectos se siguen cosechando, aún en el siglo XXI.

Em sua última obra, As Duas Fontes da Moral e da Religião, Henri Bergson investiga as origens, o desenvolvimento e a manutenção da sociedade humana por meio da distinção entre a sociedade fechada, baseada nos instintos primitivos de conservação da vida, e a sociedade aberta, fundada sobre a aspiração que impulsiona o homem à construção de uma vida em sociedade mais harmoniosa. Segundo o autor, os ideais democráticos são frutos da abertura de que as sociedades necessitam para seu progresso, o (...) qual, aos poucos, abrandaria a pressão das exigências impostas pela natureza para a conservação da vida em sociedade e possibilitaria aos homens conviverem mais livremente e mais afetuosamente com vistas a uma sociedade mais justa e sem tantos conflitos e mortes. Contudo, como escapar às determinações que a natureza impôs para que a vida em sociedade se mantivesse e conseguir que os homens se abram a outro tipo de vivência em conjunto? É esta a questão que o presente artigo procura investigar. Palavras-chave: Bergson, moral, política, mística. (shrink)

Cinema is commonly hailed as "the universal language," but how does it communicate so effortlessly across cultural and linguistic borders? Drawing on a lifetime's worth of viewing an reviewing, influential critic Gilberto Perez invokes a dizzying array of masters past and present includin Chaplin, Ford, Kiarostami, Eisenstein, Malick, Mizoguchi, Haneke, Hitchcock, and Godard--to explore the transaction between filmmaker and audience. The Eloquent Screen shows how cinema, as the consummate contemporary art form, establishes a thoroughly modern rhetoric in which different (...) points of view are brought into clear focus.". (shrink)

This paper investigates whether 'even if A, B' is pragmatically polysemic, so that a nonconcessive conditional may have 'even if', and whether concessive conditionals, pragmatically defined, can fail to have 'even if' or a non-temporal 'still'. Different paraphrases are used to help elucidate pragmatic meanings. A theory of the pragmatic meanings of concessive and implicative conditionals is presented. The semantic meaning of 'even if' and the question of whether concessive conditionals imply the truth of their consequents are also discussed.

O presente ensaio se empenha em problematizar elementos contidos nos conceitos de illness e disease proposto pelo Dr. Arthur Kleinman ; especificamente no capítulo II do seu livro “The illness narratives: surfering, healing and the human condition. Nesta obra Kleinman vai dissecar o fenômeno da enfermidade e suas aflições tendo reflexos nas reações psicológicas e sociais. Ou seja, a disease tendo desdobramento na illness. A questão fundamental a que esse ensaio propõe é pensar uma inversão e refletir se illness altera (...) disease? Minha proposta é adentrar neste caminho pela via das reações emocionais e homeostasia. (shrink)

Resumo O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar os temas do “novo método” filosófico e da “Filosofia da Psicologia”, nos escritos tardios de Ludwig Wittgenstein, como relacionados prática e necessariamente. Para o proposto, a estratégia expositiva segue a seguinte ordem: analisam-se os pressupostos filosóficos relativamente irrefletidos que determinam a visão que o jovem Wittgenstein tinha do “método correto da Filosofia” e da “Filosofia da Psicologia”; interpreta-se a volta filosófica de 1929 como comprometida em apresentar o rosto ainda informe do “novo método” (...) e retomar criticamente os alvos do TLP, sob essa nova perspectiva metodológica; e considera-se a Filosofia da psicologia de Wittgenstein inserida numa perspectiva diferente da perspectiva da ciência psicológica do fim do século XIX e início do século XX, fundamentada em investigações empíricas. Essas observações constituem propriamente uma prática do “novo método” de apresentação perspícua e se caracteriza como um aspecto-chave e necessário, um filtro, para a compreensão das observações do filósofo em torno da psicologia e de seu objetivo em dissolver os problemas metafísicos ali presentes.The main purpose of this article is to present the themes of the philosophical “new method” and the “philosophy of psychology” in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s late writings as practically and necessarily related. For the proposed, our expository strategy follows the following order: we analyzed the relatively unreasonable philosophical presuppositions that determine the young Ludwig’s view of the “correct method of philosophy” and of “philosophy of psychology”; we interpreted the philosophical turn of 1929 as committed to presenting the still-informed face of the “new method” and to critically revisiting the TLP targets under this new methodological perspective; and we considered Wittgenstein’s philosophy of psychology inserted in a different perspective from the perspective of the psychological science of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century based on empirical investigations. These observations are properly a practice of the “new method” of perspicuous presentation and they are characterized as a key and necessary aspect, a filter, for the understanding of the philosopher’s observations about psychology, and his goal in dissolving the metaphysical problems present there. (shrink)

This paper investigates the implicative conditional, a connective intended to describe the logical behavior of an empirically defined class of natural language conditionals, also named implicative conditionals, which excludes concessive and some other conditionals. The implicative conditional strengthens the strict conditional with the possibility of the antecedent and of the contradictory of the consequent. $${p\Rightarrow q}$$ p ⇒ q is thus defined as $${\lnot } \Diamond {(p \wedge \lnot q) \wedge } \Diamond {p \wedge } \Diamond {\lnot q}$$ ¬ ◊ (...) ( p ∧ ¬ q ) ∧ ◊ p ∧ ◊ ¬ q. We explore the logical properties of this conditional in a reflexive normal Kripke semantics, provide an axiomatic system and prove it to be sound and complete for our semantics. The implicative conditional validates transitivity and contraposition, which we take to be integral parts of reasoning and communication. But it only validates restricted versions of strengthening the antecedent, right weakening, simplification, and rational monotonicity. Apparent counterexamples to some of these properties are explained as due to contextual factors. Finally, the implicative conditional avoids the paradoxes of material and strict implication, and validates some connexive principles such as Aristotle’s theses and weak Boethius’ thesis, as well as some highly entrenched principles of conditionals, such as conjunction of consequents, disjunction of antecedents, modus ponens, cautious monotonicity and cut. (shrink)

An extended examination of Libet's works led to a comprehensive reinterpretation of his results. According to this reinterpretation, the Minimum Train Duration of electrical brain stimulation should be considered as the time needed to create a brain stimulus efficient for producing conscious sensation and not as a basis for inferring the latency for conscious sensation of peripheral origin. Latency for conscious sensation with brain stimulation may occurafterthe Minimum Train Duration. Backward masking with cortical stimuli suggests a 125-300 ms minimum value (...) for the latency for conscious sensation of threshold skin stimuli. Backward enhancement is not suitable for inferring this latency. For determining temporal relations between stimuli that correspond to subjects' reports, theendof cerebral Minimum Train Duration should be used as reference, rather than its onset. Results of coupling peripheral and cortical stimuli are explained by a latency after the cortical Minimum Train Duration, having roughly the same duration as the latency for supraliminal skin stimuli. Results of coupling peripheral stimuli and stimuli to medial lemniscus (LM) are explained by a shorter LM latency and/or a longer peripheral latency. This interpretation suggests a 230 ms minimum value for the latency for conscious sensation of somatosensory near-threshold stimuli. The backward referral hypothesis, as formulated by Libet, should not be retained. Long readiness potentials preceding spontaneous conscious or nonconscious movements suggest that both kinds of movement are nonconsciously initiated. The validity of Libet's measures of W and M moments (Libet et al., 1983a) is questionable due to problems involving latencies, training, and introspective distinction of W and M. Veto of intended actions may be initially nonconscious but dependent on conscious awareness. (shrink)

It is argued that contraposition is valid for a class of natural language conditionals, if some modifications are allowed to preserve the meaning of the original conditional. In many cases, implicit temporal indices must be considered, making a change in verb tense necessary. A suitable contrapositive for implicative counterfactual conditionals can also usually be found. In some cases, the addition of certain words is necessary to preserve meaning that is present in the original sentence and would be lost or changed (...) in the contrapositive without them. A distinction is made between adding new meaning and adding new words to preserve existing meaning. For concessive conditionals and relevance conditionals, however, no valid contrapositive can be found. They do not belong to the class of contraposable conditionals, which can be independently defined. Difficult cases are also discussed in which the contradictory of the consequent semantically entails the truth of the antecedent. In such cases the content of the antecedent is implicit in the meaning of the consequent. Contraposition becomes possible if what is implicit in the original consequent is made explicit in the contrapositive antecedent. (shrink)

Este artigo tem o objetivo de desvelar o núcleo da forma das relações socioeconômicas no sistema capitalista de exploração para acumulação de propriedade privada. Referido núcleo deriva nos sujeitos de direito, no Estado e nas demais instituições que derivam do modo de produção posto pela classe socioeconômica dominante que detém a propriedade privada dos meios de produção. Por meio do método materialismo histórico-dialética em Karl Marx e sob a ótica da interpretação filosófica e científica de Evguiéni Bronislavovitch Pachukanis e especialistas (...) contemporâneos. A derivação do modo de produção interpela a forma das relações socioeconômicas. A forma direito forjada com a ideologia capitalista trata formalmente todos os sujeitos como se fossem iguais, equivalendo-os como sujeitos de direito, com a autorização ideológica da forma Estado, em que ambas as formas conformam-se ao poder político da burguesia. O núcleo das relações socioeconômicas tem como átomo a mercadoria, as mercadorias não possuem valor de uso, mas sim valor de troca. Ninguém tem o direito de usar um bem necessário para sua vida, mas somente se puder contratar essa mercadoria. Logo, não somos sujeitos de direito, somos sujeitos pelo direito, ou seja, somos uma mercadoria no sistema capitalista a ser explorada pela classe proprietária dos meios de produção. (shrink)

Universal Declaration of Human Rights anniversary: More shame than glory? Aniversário da Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos: mais pena que glória? Para citar esta editorial / to reference this editorial / para citar esta editorial Gamboa-Bernal GA. Aniversario de la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos: ¿más pena que gloria?. Pers Bioet. 2019; 23: 6-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2019.23.1.1.

Después de casi medio siglo fue derogada la sentencia del caso Roe vs. Wade por la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos, lo que puede suponer el fin del aborto en ese país. Se mencionan algunos antecedentes, hitos históricos, arreglos y el contexto de la situación que desembocó en la sentencia mediante la cual se estableció el derecho constitucional al aborto (Roe vs. Wade), se mantuvo la decisión tomada (Planned Parenthood vs. Casey) y finalmente cómo se revocaron las sentencias anteriores (...) (Dobbs vs. Organización de Salud Femenina Jackson). Se concluye, desde una perspectiva biojurídica, que se corrigió un fallo no solo controvertido en su aplicación, sino sobre todo en su génesis, donde queda claro que el aborto no es un derecho constitucional y que los organismos judiciales no son competentes para regular sobre esa materia y sobre otras análogas. Desde el punto de vista bioético, es un fallo revocatorio histórico, que rectificó una de las mayores injusticias contemporáneas, que puso por encima la autonomía individual sobre el hecho biológico incontrovertible de una nueva vida humana y el cuidado que demanda su dignidad ontológica: Roe vs. Wade costó la vida a millones de embriones, en los Estados Unidos y en el resto del mundo. (shrink)

Da Vinci, 500 años después: del humanismo a la humanización Da Vinci, 500 anos depois: do humanismo à humanização Leonardo Da Vinci is a prototype of humanism. Five hundred years after his death, we reflect on what humanism may add to humanization in health sciences in general and medical education in particular. The history of thought classifies humanisms into Renaissance, socialist, existential, hermeneutic, anti-humanism and new humanism. By contrast, transhumanism is pointed out. Their main lines of thought and exponents are (...) listed. Finally, some reactions of contemporary philosophy to these humanisms are explained, and it is concluded that for proper humanization it is necessary to build on the basics contributed by classical humanism and some key points of bioethics. Para citar este editorial / To reference this editorial / Para citar este editorial Gamboa-Bernal GA. Da Vinci, 500 años después: del humanismo a la humanización. Pers Bioet. 2019;23:171-179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2019.23.2.1. (shrink)

_Importance and implications of an oath in times of a pandemic_ _Importância e implicações de um juramento em tempos de pandemia_ La pandemia del SARS-CoV-2, que causa el Covid-19, es un hecho que está desestabilizando no solo los sistemas de salud, sino la misma cultura actual. En torno a ella hay una serie de elementos que complican su contención, mitigación y tratamiento: interrogantes sobre su origen, profusión de información, medidas de aislamiento con efectos diametralmente opuestos, despertar de una pesadilla de (...) agresión al ecosistema, develamiento de falencias y fragilidades de gobiernos, sistemas económicos y de salud pública; crisis de liderazgo y un largo etcétera. Se examina el trabajo del talento humano en salud a partir de la constatación de situaciones paradójicas frente al mismo y se plantea la importancia del Juramento hipocrático, como razón que justifica el accionar del personal de salud en escenarios normales, pero sobre todo en situaciones límite. Se concluye que el Juramento hipocrático, más que la Declaración de Ginebra, es un punto de partida clave para el actuar médico, también en las crisis, y que la humanidad debería cambiar y salir fortalecida de la pandemia, porque aprendió las lecciones que el Covid-19 le ha dejado. _Para citar este editorial / to reference this editorial / para citar este editorial_ Gamboa-Bernal GA. Importancia e implicaciones de un juramento en tiempos de pandemia. 2020;24:5-13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2020.24.1.1 Publicado: 07/05/2020. (shrink)

Assisted Reproductive Technologies, as a solution to the issues of human infertility, have been developed since the mid-twentieth century. The development of these techniques, their progress and results have occurred simultaneously with two events related to ART: the establishment of new rights that have contributed to their endorsement, and the birth of bioethics that have allowed the recognition of their limits. The cultural change due to the coming of ART is characterized by three topics that are discussed in this article (...) and which are all included in the so-called gender ideology: the concept of woman and the control of her body, kinship and parentage, and the idea of autonomy. Some considerations on these topics are presented as well as some alternatives to ART, which include learning to redirect their work based on criteria pointed out by bioethical reflection. Such criteria reveal the profound meaning of preserving the dignity of every single person within a true human framework. (shrink)

1. Introduction The readiness potential was found to precede voluntary acts by about half a second or more (Kornhuber & Deecke, 1965). Kornhuber (1984) discussed the readiness potential in terms of volition, arguing that it is not the manifestation of an attentional processes. Libet discussed it in relation to consciousness and to free will (Libet et al. 1983a; 1983b; Libet, 1985, 1992, 1993). Libet asked the following questions. Are voluntary acts initiated by a conscious decision to act? Are the physiological (...) facts compatible with the belief that free will determines our voluntary acts? What is the role of consciousness in voluntary action? In this paper I will discuss these questions and the answers that Libet gave to them. (shrink)

In the Poetics of Aristotle there is a definition of the human being that perhaps has not yet been well considered in educational theory and practice. This definition calls into question a dynamism that according to Plato was unavoidable for an appropriate understanding of the educational process that turns a human being into a beautiful, good and just citizen: mimesis. The paper's intent is to reconsider the definition of the human being, centred on mimesis, presented by Aristotle in the Poetics (...) to demonstrate if, and how, it might establish new paradigms for human coexistence. Aristotle's anthropological statement is included in a much wider discourse concerning philosophy of art; but if isolated from the context, it is an essential definition of human beings that can be synthesised as follows: human beings are the mimetic animal par excellence, and their process of understanding has a fundamental connection with such excellence. Ignorance and/or negligence of how relevant mimesis might be in the educational process may have decisively contributed to separate human beings from this core aspect of their humanity and therefore produced painful consequences in human coexistence. As long as education does not pay attention to the pedagogical implications of the definition taken from the Poetics, how can human flourishing be safeguarded? I argue that recognition of the centrality of mimesis in the educational process allows human edification to proceed devoid of ideological basis, be it secular or confessional; and overcomes the risk of relativism. Mimesis, formerly recognised by Plato as a link between what is expressed and what really is, is masterfully reinterpreted by Aristotle. Aristotle recognised its positive pedagogic value in the Poetics, and nowadays we can recognise how it offers existential dynamics that restore the vital human relationship between self and other. The sense of this proposal lies in giving mimesis the role it deserves in education, by raising the significance of how coexistence might benefit from a vast human dimension, capable of recognising our humanity beyond our rational capacity. (shrink)

Claims that necessary and sufficient conditions are not converse relations are discussed, as well as the related claim that If A, then B is not equivalent to A only if B . The analysis of alleged counterexamples has shown, among other things, how necessary and sufficient conditions should be understood, especially in the case of causal conditions, and the importance of distinguishing sufficient-cause conditionals from necessary-cause conditionals. It is concluded that necessary and sufficient conditions, adequately interpreted, are converse relations in (...) all cases. (shrink)

Libet's (2000) arguments in defense of his interpretation of his experimental results are insufficient. The claims of my critical review (Gomes, 2008) do not suffer with his new statements.

A commentary on articles by Klein, Pockett, and Trevena and Miller, in this issue, is given. Average shift in the point of subjective equality , calculated by Klein on Libet's data, and corresponding change in mean shift, calculated by Libet et al. , may be “corrected,” taking as a reference point the end of the minimum train duration. Values obtained, if significant, indicate a latency for conscious sensation of the skin stimulus of at least 230 ms. Pockett's main conclusions are (...) favored, but her explanation of peripheral–lemniscal couplings is found to be unconvincing. Trevena and Miller's article unsuccessfully tries to rescue a dualist interactionist view. Libet's method of timing intentions is thoroughly criticized. (shrink)

This book offers an account of Kant's theory of moral motivation that comprehends the most challenging and controversial aspects of Kant's theory of the will and human moral motivational psychology. It argues for a new approach to the question about the purity of the Kantian moral motive.

A theory of necessary and sufficient conditions is presented, as well as a theory of necessary and sufficient causes and effects, viewed as a particular case of the former. Ambiguities of the terms 'condition' and 'necessary condition' are explored, and a neutral meaning for 'condition' is favoured. The relation between necessary and sufficient conditions and implicative conditionals (including counterfactuals) is also discussed. Two problems of counterfactual theories of causal explanation are indicated, concerning (i) how to account for causes that are (...) not necessary and (ii) how to interpret the counterfactual from the negation of the effect to the negation of the cause. Application of the theory of necessary and sufficient conditions to Euler’s explanation of the Königsberg bridge problem is discussed. The theory of necessary and sufficient causes and effects is then applied to the flagpole shadow explanation and to two biological explanations, one involving a sufficient but not necessary cause and the other a necessary but not sufficient cause. Causes that are neither sufficient nor necessary are also recognized. Finally, a probabilistic approach to causes that are either not sufficient or not necessary is explored, including its application to examples of such cases. (shrink)