Population counts and longitude and latitude coordinates were estimated for the 50 largest cities in the United States by computational linguistic techniques and by human participants. The mathematical technique Latent Semantic Analysis applied to newspaper texts produced similarity ratings between the 50 cities that allowed for a multidimensional scaling (MDS) of these cities. MDS coordinates correlated with the actual longitude and latitude of these cities, showing that cities that are located together share similar semantic contexts. This finding was replicated using (...) a first‐order co‐occurrence algorithm. The computational estimates of geographical location as well as population were akin to human estimates. These findings show that language encodes geographical information that language users in turn may use in their understanding of language and the world. (shrink)

Zeki and co-workers recently proposed that perception can best be described as locally distributed, asynchronous processes that each create a kind of microconsciousness, which condense into an experienced percept. The present article is aimed at extending this theory to metacognitive feelings. We present evidence that perceptual fluency—the subjective feeling of ease during perceptual processing—is based on speed of processing at different stages of the perceptual process. Specifically, detection of briefly presented stimuli was influenced by figure-ground contrast, but not by symmetry (...) or the font of the stimuli. Conversely, discrimination of these stimuli was influenced by whether they were symmetric and by the font they were presented in , but not by figure-ground contrast. Both tasks however were related with the subjective experience of fluency . We conclude that subjective fluency is the conscious phenomenal correlate of different processing stages in visual perception. (shrink)

Pathological morphogenesis on leaves of Fraxinus ornus (ash) and Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) under the influence of mites (Aceria fraxinivora and Eriophyes cladophthirus respectively) leads to a range of structures whose morphology and development cannot be reduced to the classical categories of plant morphology, but present a heterogeneous continuum which links fundamental structural categories. These findings support the pyramid model of plant construction.

Using fictionalized case studies this series follows four patients through the medical process, from onset through Diagnosis, Treatment and PrognosisVolume 1: Symptom. Examines the idea of 'symptom' as a route to understanding the structure of clinical practice -- Volume 2: Diagnosis. Explores the meaning of 'diagnosis' as a complex, culturally mediated interaction between individuals, scientific discoveries, social negotiation and historical change. -- Volume 3: Treatment. Considers the concept of treatment as an active process which produces an outcome, be it effective, (...) inappropriate or inadequate. Enlightening reading. -- Volume 4: Prognosis. Contemplates the challenge of the prognosis, attempting to make sense of life and death. Considers, through personal and professional perspectives, the role of the medical profession in guiding patient experience.--. (shrink)

Die fünf Bände enthalten die überarbeiteten Fassungen aller Haupt- und Sektionsvorträge des IX. Internationalen Kant-Kongresses, der im März 2000 an der Berliner Humboldt-Universität stattfand. Die Beiträge gliedern sich in die folgenden Sektionen: Der vorkritische Kant, Kants Theoretische Philosophie, Kants Praktische Philosophie, Kants Ästhetik, Kants Religionsphilosophie, Kants Geschichtsphilosophie, Kants Rechts-, Staats- und Politische Philosophie, Kants Anthropologie, Kants Naturphilosophie und das Opus postumum, Kants Logik, Kant und die Aufklärung, Kant, Deutscher Idealismus und Neukantianismus, Kant und die Folgen. Zu den Autoren zählen u.a. (...) Manfred Baum, Mario Caimi, Konrad Cramer, Jean Ferrari, Eckhardt Förster, Michael Friedman, Simone Goyard-Fabre, Paul Guyer, Gary Hatfield, Agnes Heller, Dieter Henrich, Otfried Höffe, Wolfgang Kersting, Béatrice Longuenesse, Onora O'Neill, Robert Pippin, Gerold Prauss und Michael Wolff. (shrink)

Ricoeur developed a very elaborated philosophy of religion. At the same time, he always moved along interdisciplinary borders of philosophy, theology, exegesis, historical and language sciences. His religious concerns are in this sense related to pre-philosophical experiences that within certain fields lend themselves to hermeneutical articulation. His analysis of the Scriptures in terms of narrativity deals with biblical texts. However, he doesn’t speak as a theologian,but as a philosopher, since the question of a philosophical and theological hermeneutics is from his (...) own point of view closely related to the fundamentaltension between autonomy and heteronomy. This paper regards his work as a new form of French philosophy of religion, and as a result of this includes a criticalconsideration of the pre-textual sphere understood as an absolute “priority”. This absolute “priority” should be presupposed by any hermeneutics of the written revelation, even when it is not able to provide a final response to its radical-phenomenological implications. (shrink)

If two stimuli need different times to be processed, this difference should in principle be reflected both by response times (RT) and by judgments of their temporal order (TOJ). However, several dissociations have been reported between RT and TOJ, e.g., RT is more affected than TOJ when stimulus intensity decreases. One account for these dissociations is to assume differences in the allocation of attention induced by the two tasks. To test this hypothesis, different distributions of attention were induced in the (...) present study between two stimulus positions (above and below fixation). Only bright stimuli appeared in one position and either bright or dim stimuli in the other. In the two RT experiments, participants had to respond to every stimulus appearing in one of the two positions. Reaction times to bright stimuli were faster when they appeared in the position where dim stimuli were likely to occur. This finding suggests that the allocation of attention was adapted to the asymmetrical arrangement of stimuli, not suggested by explicit instruction. In the two TOJ experiments, the temporal order of stimuli appearing in the two positions had to be judged. Although bright stimuli appearing at the bright-and-dim location were judged to be earlier, this effect was small and insignificant. Further, the intensity dissociation between RT and TOJ was insensitive to random vs blockwise presentations of intensities, therefore was not modified by attentional preferences. Thus, asymmetrical arrangement of stimuli has an impact on the allocation of attention, but only in the RT task. Therefore dissociations between TOJ and response times cannot be accounted for by an attentional bias in the TOJ task but probably by different use of temporal information in the two tasks. (shrink)

The studies in this book set out to examine the labile resonances of phenomenology and art in Michel Henry, by examining the different figures of movement given to the concept of the aesthetic by the philosopher. They are preceded by one of Michel Henry’s own texts. Les études qui composent ce livre proposent d’interroger les résonances labiles de la phénoménologie et de l’art chez Michel Henry, en examinant les différentes figures du déplacement imprimé par le philosophe au concept d’esthétique. Le (...) tout est précédé d’un texte de Michel Henry. (shrink)

In der 1970 gegründeten Reihe erscheinen Arbeiten, die philosophiehistorische Studien mit einem systematischen Ansatz oder systematische Studien mit philosophiehistorischen Rekonstruktionen verbinden. Neben deutschsprachigen werden auch englischsprachige Monographien veröffentlicht. Gründungsherausgeber sind: Erhard Scheibe (Herausgeber bis 1991), Günther Patzig (bis 1999) und Wolfgang Wieland (bis 2003). Von 1990 bis 2007 wurde die Reihe von Jürgen Mittelstraß mitherausgegeben.

Come l'individuo, radicalmente e fenomenologicamente, nasce nella sua Prima Ipseità della vita assoluta, Henry trova nel prologo di S. Giovanni tre condizioni trascendentali di una tale intelligibilità primordiale: Il processo vitale del 'Padre', autogenerandosi 'in inizio', riconosce in se una 'Parola' di questa autorivelazione assoluta, la quale, nella sua materialità fenomenologica, è al contempo la 'Incarnazione' intradivina del 'Figlio'. Questo costituisce una 'Cristologia primordiale', che rende riconoscibili i discorsi di prima persona di Cristo come auto-manifestazioni di una tale 'mutua interiorità'. (...) Dato che ogni vivente nasce in questa ipseità carnale-relazionale del Figlio, anche lui partecipa immediatamente, nella sua affezione vitale, alla verità originaria della vita divina; da qui derivano conseguenze per un 'cogito cristiano' di oggi nell'ambito della fenomenologia, etica, esegesi e filosofia della religione. (shrink)

Die Kultur ist nicht nur das Hervorbringen von Werken, sondern ursprünglich-phänomenologisch die Selbststeigerung des Lebens. Im Bedürfen empfängt die absolute Subjektivität des Menschen dieses Leben und will es in allem wiedererkennen, was besonders auch für die Ökonomie maßgeblich ist. In Abhebung von hermeneutischen, historischen, soziologischen oder "postmodernen" Sichtweisen der Kultur wird so ein originaler Beitrag zur "Interkulturalität" und "Wirtschaftskultur" geleistet.

A referência central do presente artigo é a fenomenologia material da vida de Michel Henry (1922-2002), fenomenologia essa mediante a qual se evidencia o quanto Karl Marx (1818-1893) merece ser reconhecido como o pensador de uma subjectividade radical em processo de realização mediante uma praxis imanente dos indivíduos, anterior a toda a abstracção política, económica ou institucional Assim, para o autor do artigo, a aplicação desta fenomenologia à economia mostra até que ponto esta última, com as suas equivalências de mercado (...) e capital, não constitui nem uma realidade nem uma teoria autónomas. Por outro lado, o artigo salienta também a enorme importância que para as nossas vidas reais e concretas pode e deve ter uma verdadeira meta-genealogia do processo real da produção e do consumo, especialmente no contexto de uma mundialização cada vez mais objectivista, baseada na aliança entre a ciência e a técnica. Com efeito, o perigo da alienação não é permanente apenas no contexto de uma tal evolução, pois, segundo Michel Henry, o cienti-fismo moderno, ao evacuar a vida subjectiva dos indivíduos, constitui também meio propício para o desenvolvimento de um fascismo latente baseado na negação "metafísica" da individualidade, assim como na "morte" associada às abstracções vazias de uma economia que facilmente se dispensa do "factor humano" ao nível de uma racionalização metodológica sem limite. The central matter of this paper is the material phenomenology of life of Michel Henry (1922-2002), a phenomenology through which it becomes evident how much Karl Marx (1818-1893) deserves to be recognised as the thinker of a radical subjectivity in the process of realization through an immanent praxis of the individuals, prior to all political, economic or institutional abstraction. Therefore, to the paper's author, the application of this phenomenology to economics shows the measure in which the later, with its equivalences of market and capital, neither constitutes an autonomous reality nor an autonomous theory. On the other hand, the paper also underlines the enormous importance which, to our real and concrete lives, a true meta-genealogy of the real process of production and consumption can and should have, especially in the context of a more and more objectivistic globalization, based on the alliance between science and technology. Indeed, the danger of alienation is not only permanent in the context of such an evolution, then, according to Michel Henry, modern scientism, as much as it tends to empty the subjective life of the individuals, is also a propitious means to the development of a latent fascism based on the negation of the "metaphysics" of individuality and, also, on the "death" associated to the empty abstractions of an economics which easily discards the "human factor" at the level of a methodological rationalization without limit. (shrink)

By describing body as original power identical to transcendentallife of ego, in accordance with radical or material phenomenology, we can establish that the phenomenological truth of a bodily subjectivity is the immanence of pure self-affection. From the perspective of Michel Henry’s view, the Maine Biran and Kandinsky’s analyses show clearly that body potentiality unveils pathos linked with the entire universe and turn it into a living cosmos. This cosmic life, visible in art in general and abstract art in particular, makes (...) us aware that this subjective reality is similar to our own inner strength, as we can clearly demonstrate it by the movement of our hand. Thus, the body itself has access to the world without being reduced to a mere instrument or transcendental mean extraneous to our innermost life. (shrink)