Art can be experienced in numerous ways, ranging from sensory pleasure to elaborated ways of finding meaning (Leder et al. 2004). However, rather ignored by Bullot & Reber (B&R), in empirical aesthetics several lines of research have studied how knowledge of artistic style, descriptive and elaborate information, expertise, and context all affect aesthetic experiences from art. Limiting aesthetics to rather rare experiences unnecessarily narrows the scope of a science of art.

A Paramecium cell has a stereotypically patterned surface, with regularly arranged cilia, dense‐core secretory vesicles and subplasmalemmal calcium stores. Less strikingly, there is also a patterning of molecules; for instance, some ion channels are restricted to certain regions of the cell surface. This design may explain very effective and selective responses, such as that to Ca2+ upon stimulation. It enables the cell to respond to a Ca2+ signal precisely secretion (exocytosis) or by changing its ciliary activity. These responses depend on (...) the location and/or type of signal, even though these two target structures co‐exist side‐by‐side, and normally only limited overlap occurs between the different functions. Furthermore, the patterning of exocytotic sites and the possibility of synchronous exocytosis induction in the sub‐second time range have considerably facilitated analyses, and thus led to new concepts of exocytotic membrane fusion. It has been possible to dissect complicated events like overlapping Ca2+ fluxes produced from external sources and from internal stores. Since molecular genetic approaches have become available for Paramecium, many different gene products have been identified only some of which are known from “higher” eukaryotes. Although a variety of basic cellular functions are briefly addressed to demonstrate the uniqueness of this unicellular organism, this article focuses on exocytosis regulation. BioEssays 24:649–658, 2002. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

Explanation and prediction play an important role in medical decision making, particularly for diagnostic and treatment decisions. For the most part, explanations as well as predictions are derived from causal knowledge and have to be made under uncertainty. In cognitive psychology, these phenomena have been approached from two directions. On the one hand, there is research on knowledge representation and inferential reasoning (Holland et al. 1986; Anderson 1990). On the other hand, there is research on heuristics and biases in judgments (...) under uncertainty (Kahneman et al. 1982; Rehm & Gadenne 1990). However, no exact models have yet been developed to describe the process that leads from a given knowledge base to judgments of probabilities, i.e., from causal knowledge about the world to subjective expressions of the uncertainty associated with explanations or predictions. (shrink)

Wittgenstein wrote: “No supposition seems to me more natural than that there is no process in the brain correlated with associating or with thinking; so that it would be impossible to read off thought-processes from brain processes.” In general, he rejects what he calls “psycho-physical parallelism.” In Sect. 1, I explain Wittgenstein’s position on this topic and how his followers defend it. In Sect. 2, I argue against Wittgenstein, contending that there is “thought” in a wider sense and that it (...) can be “manifested” without expression. Thought does not need to be ordinarily expressed or even expressible, and it can be read off from the brain, provided one has sufficient technology, data, and understanding of the subject’s interaction with the environment. In Sect. 3, I offer results from brain-science in support of my claims. (shrink)

Translations of Karl Jaspers' work into the English language have so far not been uniform in their choice of technical terminology. This scholarly renditionof Jaspers' ´Introduction´ to his seminal work "The Great Philosophers" stays to theoriginal German text as true possible by upholding its idiomatic cultural expressions, complex sentence structure, and nuanced particularities provided that clarity of communication can be maintained. The substantive contents and the significance of this text, whose principal topic is greatness, are outlined here. Communication with the (...) great philosophers can bring insight into their thought and can enable humans to transcend toward possible authentic Existenz. (shrink)

That reality, and in particular the (dynamic) objects of signs, are independent of our thoughts or other representations is a crucial thesis of Peirce’s realism. On the other hand, his semiotics implies the claim that all reality and all real objects are real for us only because of the signs we use. Do these two claims contradict, even exclude, each other? I will argue that both Peirce’s metaphysics and his semiotics provide a natural via media: a structural account of the (...) openness of processes, featuring transitive relations, connects process ontology implicit in his evolutionary metaphysics and the relational, quasi-inferential features embodied in interpretational sequences of signs. It is shown that Peirce’s notion of a sign, its normative role and his account of the directional force of objects implies a sort of logical causality that supports the unity of objects. In this way sign sequences are able to relate flexibly sign use with contextually specified independent objects. That is to say, relational properties of object-oriented chains of interpretations provide sign users with a flexible, fallibilistic instrument able to capture by contingent identity relations (teridentity) of the identity of objects in changing situations. (shrink)

Introducing the perplexed reader to a philosophy requires both a comprehensive understanding of the philosophy in question and a rigorous simplifying strategy. But clarity and accessibility come at a price: one has to cut down on complicated and perhaps unresolved lines of thought and arguments, stratifying the development of theoretical positions into a coherent and accessible narrative. This review will address both the success of this book as an introduction and, rather unjustly, those more complex topics that have been left (...) out and might be of interest to readers of this journal.First of all, let me say that Cornelis de Waal’s Peirce: A Guide for the Pexplexed is a very good introduction to Peirce’s.. (shrink)

Frederik Stjernfelt’s book Natural Propositions is much more than just a study arguing for the actuality of Peirce’s notion of dicisign. Not unlike his 2007 treatise Diagrammatology, FS does many things at the same time, not all of them closely related to the project of a functional, naturalistic interpretation of Peirce’s concept of dicisigns and the relation of human cognition and animal, even microbiological processes to one another. The result is an inter- and transdisciplinary study that discusses and criticizes theories (...) and uses examples coming from psychology, biology, anthropology, neuroscience, biosemiotics etc. But the book starts with a chapter on Peirce’s anti-psychologism comparing it to.. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that a strong concept of sharing – a close interactive relation that pre-consciously allows humans to grasp themselves and each other as human – is crucial for the human form of life. This concept of sharing is used to reconstruct some of Peirce’s insights. Sharing is no part of Peirce’s account of person, morality and interpersonal relations. But his rhetorical analysis of assertion as close, indexical interaction shows that sharing is necessary in semiotics and pragmatism. (...) The concept of sharing is used to reconstruct his metaphysics of evolutionary agape love and sympathetic relations as a selection principle of commonly pursued purposes. Finally, sharing is shown to have economic meaning: the form of life in which humans may satisfy their needs may consist in sharing directly the necessities of life with each other. If humans live together and develop projects and purposes with one another because they share with one another what is here and now, democracy is needed: as the only form of government that allows for free and equal participation of the people. (shrink)