Rapid Automatized Naming is considered a universal marker of developmental dyslexia and could also be helpful to identify a reading deficit in minority-language children, in which it may be hard to disentangle whether the reading difficulties are due to a learning disorder or a lower proficiency in the language of instruction. We tested reading and rapid naming skills in monolingual Good Readers, monolingual Poor Readers, and MLC, by using our new version of RAN, the RAN-Shapes, in 127 primary school students. (...) In line with previous research, MLC showed, on average, lower reading performances as compared to mGR. However, the two groups performed similarly to the RAN-Shapes task. On the contrary, the mPR group underperformed both in the reading and the RAN tasks. Our findings suggest that reading difficulties and RAN performance can be dissociated in MLC; consequently, the performance at the RAN-Shapes may contribute to the identification of children at risk of a reading disorder without introducing any linguistic bias, when testing MLC. (shrink)

Esta investigación pretendía examinar una posible relación entre la autopercepción de la predisposición del alumnado de secundaria a hablar inglés en situaciones fuera del aula y su participación en un proyecto de telecolaboración desarrollado en inglés como lengua franca. En la investigación participaron 22 estudiantes españoles, 26 polacos y 14 rumanos. Los datos se recogieron mediante un cuestionario en línea, administrado al alumnado en la fase anterior y posterior a la telecolaboración. Los hallazgos indican que la telecolaboración audiovisual y (...) sincrónica tiene un impacto positivo en la predisposición a hablar inglés fuera del aula con otros usuarios del mismo idioma. (shrink)

Motor proficiency reflects the ability to perform precise and coordinated movements in different contexts. Previous research suggests that different profiles of motor proficiency may be associated with different cognitive functioning characteristics thus suggesting an interaction between cognitive and motor processes. The current study investigated this interaction in the general population of healthy adults with different profiles of motor proficiency by focusing on error-related cognitive control and behavioral adaptation mechanisms. In addition, the impact of these processes was assessed in terms of (...) trait anxiety and worries. Forty healthy adults were divided into high and low motor proficiency groups based on an assessment of their motor skills. Using electroencephalography during a flanker task, error-related negativity was measured as the neural indicator of cognitive control. Post-error slowing was measured to represent behavioral adaptation. Participants also completed an anxiety assessment questionnaire. Participants in the high motor proficiency group achieved better task accuracy and showed relatively enhanced cognitive control through increased ERN. Contrastingly, individuals in the lower motor proficiency group achieved poorer accuracy whilst showing some evidence of compensation through increased PES. Trait anxiety reflecting general worries was found to be correlated with motor functioning, but the study could not provide evidence that this was related to cognitive or behavioral control mechanisms. The interaction between cognitive and motor processes observed in this study is unique for healthy and sub-clinical populations and provides a baseline for the interpretation of similar investigations in individuals with motor disorders. (shrink)

Two arguments are offered here for postulating individual essences of concrete individuals on top of their sortal essences. One is the explanatory gap argument, the other draws on the analogy with the individual essences of events presupposed in single causal explanations. These arguments support qualitative individual essences with explanatory goals as opposed to hybrid impure relational essences accounting for origin and numerical identity. It is highlighted why origin properties as parts of impure relational essences do not yield genuine de re (...) constructions. The distinction between the two types of individual essences is traced back to the ambiguity of the very notion of individuation. (shrink)

This essay discusses the possibility, relevance, and pertinence of a reactivation of philosophy as a way of life today on the basis of Pierre Hadot’s account and recent scholarly approaches to the topic. In the wake of John Sellars, it regards philosophy as a way of life as a metaphilosophical option that can still be applied today. The essay starts by addressing John Cooper’s criticism of philosophy as a way of life in the contemporary philosophical landscape and shows that, against (...) the background of the model defined by Hadot, Cooper’s objections do not apply. It then illustrates the clear expression of the model in contemporary philosophy through the particular case of Nietzsche. It concludes by outlining some of the considerations that, in the wake of Hadot, Sellars, Michael Chase, and others, might persuade researchers, teachers, and academics to embrace philosophy as a way of life in their work and lives. (shrink)

Building on an existing framework concerning ethical intention, this research explores how Thai business people perceive the importance of ethics in various scenarios. This study investigates the relative influences of personal characteristics and the organizational environment underlying the Thai business people’s ethical perception. Corporate ethical values and idealism are shown to positively influence a Thai manager’s perceptions about the importance of ethics. While their ability to perceive the existence of an ethical problem is negatively influenced by relativism, it is positively (...) impacted by their existing perceptions about the importance of ethics. Results also suggest positive relationships between perceived importance of ethics and perceived ethical problems with ethical intention. These results extend research in understanding the relationship between the antecedents and consequences of perceived importance of ethics within an economically growing non-Western culture. (shrink)

In this paper I show that a novel ontic reading of explanation, intending to capture the de re essential features of individuals, can support the qualitative view of individual essences. It is argued further that the putative harmful consequences of the Leibniz Principle and its converse for the qualitative view can be avoided, provided that individual essences are not construed in the style of the naïve bundle theory with set-theoretical identity- conditions. Adopting either the more sophisticated two-tier BT or, alternatively, (...) the neo-Aristotelian position of taking essences as natures in the Aristotelian sense, can help to evade these main charges against the qualitative view. The functional parallels with the alternative haecceitistic view of individuation and individual essence will also be considered. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to reveal how the responses of the others compose and expand the narratives of an early years teacher and also how these responses appear in narratives in the context of non-face-to-face and asynchronous support, due to the covid-19 pandemic. The narrative methodology of research in education, in dialogue with the contributions of the Bakhtinian philosophy, was used to interpret the responses materialized in the narratives and the way the teacher reorganizes her work based (...) on them. It was shown that whereas the narratives were related to face-to-face work, the babies’ responses came up from the unfinishedness utterances that the teacher produced from her experience with them; as regarding the narratives about non-face-to-face work, the responses came from the utterances produced by the families, based on what they experienced in their relationship with the babies. In both situations, the teacher tried to reorganize her work in relation to the responses of her others. (shrink)

Numerical identity is standardly considered to be a relation between things. This means that two things are identical if they are only one thing. It is not only Wittgenstein who finds this claim rather odd. Another possibility is to understand identity as a relation between names which denote the same thing; or as a relation between the senses of those names which are modes of presentation of the same thing. Or identity statements can be considered as expressions of the fact (...) that there is exactly one thing that has certain characteristics. These conceptions are, in fact, closely interlinked. There are some rather straightforward proposals on how to give these approaches a formal pattern in relative harmony with classical logic. What is important to emphasize and keep in mind is the specific character of identity and essential dissimilarities between identity and relations of objects in logic. (shrink)

Cantor's diagonal proof is sig­nificant both because the central method of proof used in it has been subsequently applied in a number of other proofs, and because it is considered to confirm the existence of infinite sets whose size fun­ damentally and by an order of magnitude exceeds the size of the "classical" infinite set represented by all natural numbers, while their size can theoretically exceed every conceivable limit. Although Can­tor's proof is generally accepted by the scientific community, some experts (...) are somewhat reserved about it. The aim of this paper is to present Cantor's proof in an accessible way, while pointing out its (hidden) assumptions and possible problematic points, and pointing out that some of its underlying assumptions are not indisputable mathematical truths, but rather postulated propositions that may or may not be accepted. (shrink)

Everyday Aesthetics, radicalizing Dewey’s notion of the continuity between art and experience, aims to find aesthetic qualities in ordinary experience. The problem is that it reduces the aesthetic significance that Dewey attributed to artistic production. Analyzing Dewey’s work and its interpreters, I will demonstrate that the continuity of ordinary experience and art is what lends art its vital and distinctive character. The work of art contributes to developing other ways of seeing and acting in the world, reinforcing life in common, (...) the basis of democracy. (shrink)

Political correctness as a norm of behaviour in liberal political culture is criticized as a sophisticated type of modern censorship, or stronger, as an ideological tool in the hands of part of Western political and cultural elites. Nonetheless, it appears to play important and necessary functions in a democratic system. Even if we agree that political correctness is cynical and hypocritical by nature, it does not lose its value. Its ambiguous potential can be creatively used, particularly in the areas of (...) public discourse, deliberation and public debate, but also in other important spheres of liberal political culture and, more broadly, the democratic political system. (shrink)

Analytic philosophy has recently been challenged from a perspective advocated by Richard Rorty: this favours edifying philosophy against systematic philosophy comprising also analytic philosophy. In Rorty's presentation analytic philosophy is one more variant of the Cartesian—Kantian epistemology which, being committed to a permanent framework of inquiry rooted in our human subjectivity, implies the uniqueness of one conceptual scheme.Against this tenet I argue in two ways. First, I show that analytic philosophy of mind and language with the Fregean background and possible (...) world semantics implies the pluralism of conceptual schemes on logical-conventionalist grounds. Secondly, I show that although analytic philosophy shares the claim for legitimation of a conceptual scheme with Kantian epistemology, it is critical of the latter in that the uniqueness-claim is refuted. (shrink)

Prior's hitherto unpublished "Fable of the Four Preachers" illuminates the connection of the metaphysical issues of trans-world identity with moral trans-world continuity. The paper shows Prior's position with regard to genuine de re temporal possibility of individuals on the basis of chapter VIII of his Papers on Time and Tense. His position is that radical coming-into-being is not a genuine de re temporal possibility of individuals since there is no identifiable individual, before birth, who could be the subject of such (...) possibility. The paper strengthens Prior's claim by showing how an uncomfortable consequence of this intuitively appealing position can be avoided. As a result, the proper claim would be that the possibility of origin is general or de dicto: it is possible that someone be born to such and parents, but it is not possible of someone that he should be born to these or other parents. (shrink)

This mixture of prose and poetry is the result of reflections on a study trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico. The prose provides the context and theological reflection on the experience, whereas the poetry is an attempt to communicate the plight and yet nobility of those whom I encountered. Part of our encounter with the indigenous people was to visit families and to hear their profoundly moving stories. The poetry published here is an attempt to do justice to and to share their (...) stories. (shrink)

The notion of the extension of a concept has been used in logic for a long time. It is usually considered to be closely connected to the intuitive notion of a set and thus seems as though it should be embedded into set theory. However, there are significant differences between this “logical” concept of set and the notion of set (class) as defined via standard axiomatic systems of set theory; it may, therefore, be quite misleading to consider the two concepts (...) as being continuous with each other. When we look at the writings of Gottlob Frege and consider the development of his attitude to extensions, we can see what the differences consist in and which of the two notions is more apt to be used in foundations of logic. Frege himself eventually rejected sets entirely. (shrink)

Gottlob Frege rozlišuje mezi smyslem a významem výrazů, přičemž smyslem rozumí to, co je výrazem vyjadřováno, významem pak to, co je jím označováno. Toto rozlišení se týká jak singulárních, tak obecných výrazů, ovšem Fregovy rozbory týkající se významu obecných výrazů jsou všeobecně méně známy. Chci zdůraznit skutečnost, že Frege považuje za význam obecných výrazů pojem, který chápe jako tzv. nenasycenou funkci, nikoli jako množinu nebo zobrazení. To mu umožňuje zachovat některé podstatné intuice týkající se obecnin – můžeme např. mít obecný (...) pojem (znát nějakou vlastnost či relaci), aniž bychom věděli, jaké předměty pod něj spadají. Zároveň se snažím ukázat, že není jasné, nakolik Frege skutečně zastával tezi, která mu bývá obvykle přičítána, totiž že identita pojmů je dána jejich koextenzivitou. Gottlob Frege distinguished between sense and reference of expressions. 'Sense' according to him is that what the expression means, 'reference' is that what is designated by it. This distinction concerns both singular and general terms but Frege’s analyses focused on general terms are much less known. It is crucial, I argue, to appreciate the importance of the fact that the reference of a general term is, according to Frege, a concept – identified with an unsaturated function in the Fregean sense, i.e. not a set, and not a mapping. In this way Frege can keep some important intuitions about universals – for instance that we can have a general concept (know a property or a relation) even if we don’t know which objects fall under it. I also try to show that it is not clear whether Frege really defended the thesis usually attributed to him that the identity of concepts is guaranteed solely by their coextensivity. (shrink)

Academic mobility is usually perceived and discussed as a positive phenomenon — as a prerequisite for building a competitive and successful economy and quality science. Academic mobility has now become essential to building a successful academic career in many research domains. On the policy level the negative impact of academic mobility on researchers’ lives and especially women’s is usually overlooked and marginalized. In my paper I focus on academic mobility in the context of academics’ relationships and family lives. I ask (...) two research questions: What is the impact of mobility on researchers’ relationships? How does mobility affect the lives of the partners of mobile researchers? The analysis is based on i) 16 in-depth interviews with academics from various fields of research about their experiences of long-term fellowships abroad in the early stages of their academic path and on ii) 16 in-depth joint interviews with Czech dualcareer academic couples. The analysis shows that academic mobility has a great and significant impact on the family and partnership lives of migrating researchers. For many, especially the partners of migrating researchers, mobility means they have to make many concessions in their private and family lives. I conclude that the impact of academic mobility on people’s partnership lives is highly gendered because couples’ work and family lives are closely intertwined. (shrink)

The effects of the vacuum electromagnetic fluctuations and the radiation reaction fields on the time development of a simple microscopic system are identified using a new mathematical method. This is done by studying a charged mechanical oscillator (frequency Ω 0)within the realm of stochastic electrodynamics, where the vacuum plays the role of an energy reservoir. According to our approach, which may be regarded as a simple mathematical exercise, we show how the oscillator Liouville equation is transformed into a Schrödinger-like stochastic (...) equation with a free parameter h′ with dimensions of action. The role of the physical Planck's constant h is introduced only through the zero-point vacuum electromagnetic fields. The perturbative and the exact solutions of the stochastic Schrödinger-like equation are presented for h′>0. The exact solutions for which h′<h are called sub-Heisenberg states. These nonperturbative solutions appear in the form of Gaussian, non-Heisenberg states for which the initial classical uncertainty relation takes the form 〈(δx 2)〉〈(δp) 2 〉=(h′/2) 2,which includes the limit of zero indeterminacy (h → 0). We show how the radiation reaction and the vacuum fields govern the evolution of these non-Heisenberg states in phase space, guaranteeing their decay to the stationary state with average energy hΩ 0 /2 and 〈(δx) 2 〉〈(δp) 2 〉=h 2 /4 at zero temperature. Environmental and thermal effects-are briefly discussed and the connection with similar works within the realm of quantum electrodynamics is also presented. We suggest some other applications of the classical non-Heisenberg states introduced in this paper and we also indicate experiments which might give concrete evidence of these states. (shrink)

CONCERTO PARA CONSTITUIÇÃO E ORQUESTRA: MÚSICOS, ACUMULAÇÃO DE CARGOS E A NOÇÃO DE TÉCNICA NA FILOSOFIA.

The paper examines the attainment and adequacy of informed consent in an ethnographic–discursive study on gynecological visits involving doctors, patients, and nurses. Starting from a theoretical discussion on informed consent and the principles upon which it relies, the paper highlights the changes and the adjustments that these principle undergo in practice, from the planning of the research till later stages of the researcher’s fieldwork and data recording. Analyses first focus on the informed consent as a written artifact and show how (...) the description of the study indexes the prospective participants’ identity, as well as, it works in favor of the researcher’s (or, other institutional representatives such as the managers of the Hospital) accountability. Then, the authors focus on instances of audio and video recorded doctor–patient–nurse interactions in which information is reformulated by the doctors, in such a way as to anticipate and/or respond to the nurses’ and patients’ concerns with regards the project (such as, the risk of exposure to the public). The analysis of these episodes carry ethical implications, in that they alert that patients, nurses, and doctors may be not equally knowledgeable about the project and that they can be conceded unequal opportunities to have their interpretations and identity performances acknowledged and inscribed on the tape. (shrink)

The paper advances two hypotheses concerning Thomas Reid’s reading of George Berkeley’s immaterialist system. First, it is argued that, on Reid’s view, Berkeley is skeptic about the existence of the objects of the material world, not in virtue of a doubt about the senses but for his adoption of the principle that ideas are the immediate objects of the operations of mind. On Reid’s view, that principle is a skeptical principle by its own nature. Secondly, it is argued that Berkeley (...) really accepts in his system the notion of ‘idea’ such as Reid understands it, namely, as an entity distinct from mind and its operations. (shrink)

This thesis aims to discuss Thomas Reid’s (1710-1796) theory of the first principles of knowledge, more particularly, the first principles of philosophy of mind, morals and politics. In the first chapter, I discuss Reid’s foundationalist commitments in philosophy of mind, morals and politics. I argue that he is clearly a foundationalist about speculative and moral knowledge, but it is not clear if he keeps foundationalist commitments with regard to political knowledge – the first principles of politics are not self-evident beliefs: (...) they are not justified from the start and, therefore, they do not have what is needed for being basic beliefs in a foundationalist view of the structure of knowledge. In the second chapter, I discuss Reid’s understanding of the sources of speculative, moral and political knowledge, namely, common sense and knowledge of mankind. I argue that while philosophy of mind and morals are based upon the first principles of common sense – immediate and irresistible beliefs due to the original constitution of mind, politics is based upon first principles of the knowledge of mankind – beliefs that are due to a mixture of the sagacity and the experience of the political scientist who lives among other human beings in a political society. In the third chapter, I try to explain Reid’s comprehension on the first principles of philosophy of mind, morals and politics. I try to explain what a first principle of knowledge is, how to understand the distinction between the principles of contingent and necessary truths and what the means we have to identify the first principles of knowledge are. The fourth and last chapter is entirely dedicated to common sense. More particularly, I discuss how Reid defends the first principles of common sense from the skeptical attack. (shrink)

Based on interviews with legal practitioners working with or within anti-racist social justice movements in Sweden, we explore some dilemmas and paradoxes that appear when social movements pursue struggles for anti-racist social justice through the legal arena. How do the interviewees understand and critically relate to legal practices in contemporary anti-racist social justice struggles? What are the conditions of engagement of these organisations in the legal arena and how do they impact social justice struggles in Sweden? What are the stakes (...) in the legal practices of these movements? Rather than a strategically chosen tool for social justice, legal practice could be understood as a kind of self-defence, as resorting to law is often a response to an unjust legal system, oppressive treatment by the state or disadvantage and deprivation. The interviewees’ reflections on their legal practices are informed by a fundamental ambivalence between the ideological commitment in the critique of law and their position from which it is impossible to ignore the legal arena. Instead of taking a clear stance for or against the law as a tool for social justice struggles, we have attempted to understand what are the methods and the effects of legal practice that grow from this ambivalence. The accounts of our interviewees indicate that both practical strategies and ways of accounting for these aim at subverting and challenging the law while at the same time using it. Throughout the analysis we have conceptualised these strategies as decentring, re-politicising and redistribution. (shrink)

This Chapter aims to present a very preliminary exploration of the role and functioning of some ‘leading ideas’ that represent the most consistent attempts to balance freedom of scientific research with the need to protect participants and the community as a whole. To this end, we searched two databases, a scientific and a legal one, for some keywords (Freedom of research, Precautionary principle, Risk-based approach, Responsible research and innovation), to check the consistency of their presence and evolution over time. Without (...) aiming to in-depth investigate the precise connotations of each term and the context in which they are used from time to time, the core idea is to provide a very first quantitative exploration, which lays the foundations for further future investigation. (shrink)

I argue that many interpretations of Kant’s philosophy suffer from what I call “Textvergessenheit,” and that the remedy against it is what I call “kommentarische Interpretation.” By “Textvergessenheit” I mean that, despite all appearances, there are no really close, detailed, exegetical and reconstructive interpretations of Kant’s texts; and by “kommentarische Interpretation” I mean interpretations that are just this: close, detailed, exegetical and reconstructive. The main purpose of “doing history of philosophy” and thus the main purpose of interpreting philosophical texts is (...) to understand what they mean; it is not to find out whether what the text claims to be true really is true . The ultimate aim of reading a philosophical text is to understand, and this means: to reconstruct the theory and arguments put forward by its author. Once it is clear what an argument says, we can relate to it, critically or affirmatively, or whatever; but what exactly the argument really says, is never obvious. Of course, no one will argue that we should not read Kant’s text carefully. Yet, since it is a widely held belief that, contrary to what I claim, there are close readings of Kant’s text, I will provide examples that, as a matter of fact, this is not the case; Textvergessenheit is a fact of philosophical life. Key words HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. (shrink)

Two arguments are offered here for postulating individual essences of concrete individuals on top of their sortal essences. One is the explanatory gap argument, the other draws on the analogy with the individual essences of events presupposed in single causal explanations. These arguments support qualitative individual essences with explanatory goals as opposed to hybrid impure relational essences accounting for origin and numerical identity. It is highlighted why origin properties as parts of impure relational essences do not yield genuine de re (...) constructions. The distinction between the two types of individual essences is traced back to the ambiguity of the very notion of individuation. (shrink)