The emerging area of philosophy of birth is invaluable, first, to diagnose fallacious assumptions about the relation between the womb and reason, and, ultimately, to challenge potentially damaging narratives with major impact on birth care. With its analysis of eighteenth-century epistemic and medical discussions about the role of the uterus in women's reasoning, this article supports two arguments: first, that women's “flawed thinking” was a premise drawn by many modern intellectual men, one that was presented as based upon empirical evidence; (...) and second, that the pervasive construction of the uterus as an element that renders women wild, uncontrollable, and irrational continues to influence contemporary obstetrics, even as today's medicine and science consider themselves to be free of any such prejudices.This article shows the role that Giacomo Casanova played in debunking these prejudices and presents his short manuscript on the issue as an important contribution to the literature of the Enlightenment, with its argument against women's supposed “natural” inferiority and for the idea that differences in education were to blame for women's subordinate position in society.Detailed analysis of the “thinking uterus” debate illuminates the different ways in which various arguments from/by the “anti-uterine” lobby were used to justify the subordination of women: sometimes emphasizing the connection between the uterus and thought and sometimes negating it, but always concluding that women's inferiority is to be found in some known or yet-to-be-discovered anatomical, and mainly sexual, deficiency or problem. (shrink)

Topics in Cognitive Science, Volume 14, Issue 1, Page 143-162, January 2022.

Adult humans show exceptional relational ability relative to other species. In this research, we trace the development of this ability in young children. We used a task widely used in comparative research—the relational match-to-sample task, which requires participants to notice and match the identity relation: for example, AA should match BB instead of CD. Despite the simplicity of this relation, children under 4 years of age failed to pass this test (Experiment 1), and their performance did not improve even with (...) initial feedback (Experiment 2). In Experiments 3 and 4, we found that two kinds of symbolic-linguistic experience can facilitate relational reasoning in young children. Our findings suggest that children learn to become adept analogical thinkers, and that language fosters this learning in at least two distinct ways. (shrink)

This article presents the results of an experiment which investigated elementary school children's explanations of the day/night cycle. First, third, and fifth grade children were asked to explain certain phenomena, such as the disappearance of the sun during the night, the disappearance of stars during the day, the apparent movement of the moon, and the alteration of day and night. The results showed that the majority of the children in our sample used in a consistent fashion a small number of (...) relatively well‐defined mental models of the earth, the sun, and the moon to explain the day/night cycle. These mental models of the day/night cycle were empirically accurate, logically consistent and revealed some sensitivity on the part of the children to issues of simplicity of explanation. The younger children formed Initial mental models which provided explanations of the day/night cycle based on everyday experience (e.g., the sun goes down behind mountains, clouds cover up the sun). The older children constructed synthetic mental models (e.g., the sun and the moon revolve around the stationary earth every 24 hours; the earth rotates in an up/down direction and the sun and moon are fixed on opposite sides) which represented attempts to synthesize the culturally accepted view with aspects of their Initial models. A few of the older children appeared to have constructed a mental model of the day/night cycle similar to the scientific one. A theoretical framework is outlined which explains the formation of initial, synthetic, and scientific models of the day/night cycle in terms of the reinterpretation of a hierarchy of constraints, some of which are present early in the child's life, and others which emerge later out of the structure of the acquired knowledge. (shrink)

The current quality assurance culture demands the explicit articulation, by means of publication, of what have been hitherto tacit norms and conventions underlying disciplinary genres. The justification is that publication aids student performance and guarantees transparency and accountability. This requirement makes a number of questionable assumptions predicated upon what we will argue is an erroneous epistemology. It is not always possible to articulate in a publishable form a detailed description of disciplinary practices such as assessment. As a result publication cannot (...) achieve its stated goals. There are always elements of our knowledge that cannot be linguistically articulated. (shrink)

The current quality assurance culture demands the explicit articulation, by means of publication, of what have been hitherto tacit norms and conventions underlying disciplinary genres. The justification is that publication aids student performance and guarantees transparency and accountability. This requirement makes a number of questionable assumptions predicated upon what we will argue is an erroneous epistemology. It is not always possible to articulate in a publishable form a detailed description of disciplinary practices such as assessment. As a result publication cannot (...) achieve its stated goals. There are always elements of our knowledge that cannot be linguistically articulated. (shrink)

In this paper we aim to show an intrinsic contradiction of contemporary Metaphysical Realism by focusing on the relation between the subject and the object. Metaphysical Realism considers facts and objects as being empirical, and therefore they are considered in relation to the subject, while at the same time facts are assumed to belong to an autonomous and independent reality. However, if a real object is considered to be independent from the subject, once it enters in a relation with the (...) latter, a real object must undergo an intrinsic transformation. However, since an object cannot avoid this transformation then recovering the real or “absolute” object from the perceived object is not possible. In this way, the inherent contradiction of the “absolute” as being determined, i.e., defined by virtue of a limit, is revealed. (shrink)

IntroductionConcussion is a growing public health concern. No uniformly established therapy exists; neurofeedback studies report treatment value. We use infralow frequency neuromodulation to remediate disabling neurological symptoms caused by traumatic brain injury and noted improved outcomes with a novel concussion protocol. Postconcussion symptoms and persistent postconcussion symptoms are designated timelines for protracted neurological complaints following TBI. We performed a retrospective study to explore effectiveness of ILF in PCS/PPCS and investigated the value of using this concussion protocol.MethodPatients with PCS/PPCS seen for (...) their first neurology office visit or received their first neurofeedback session between 1 August 2018 and 31 January 2021 were entered. Outcomes were compared following treatment as usual vs. TAU with ILF neurotherapy. The study cohort was limited to PPCS patients; the TAU+ILF group was restricted further to PPCS patients receiving at least 10 neurotherapy sessions. Within the TAU+ILF group, comparisons were made between those who trained at least 10 sessions using concussion protocol and those who trained for at least 10 sessions of ILF regardless of protocol.ResultsAmong our resultant PPCS cohort leading persistent neurological complaints were headache, memory impairment, and brain fog. PPCS patients in TAU+ILF+CP demonstrated greater net and percent improvement of symptoms compared to PPCS subjects in TAU. PPCS patients in TAU+ILF-CP trended toward significant symptom improvements compared to TAU, and TAU+ILF+CP trended toward greater efficacy than TAU+ILF-CP.ConclusionPPCS patients who received TAU+ILF+CP demonstrated significantly greater improvement as a group when compared to TAU. When used as an integrative modality to treatment as usual in managing patients with PPCS, ILF neuromodulation with use of concussion protocol provided significant symptom improvements. (shrink)

Um das Ansehen von medizinischen Forschern ist es in der westlichen Welt nicht überall gut bestellt. In den 1990er-Jahren gelangte das Thema »Medizinischer Forschungsbetrug« erstmals in den USA in das öffentliche Bewusstsein. Eine Debatte um begünstigende Strukturen und denkbare Kontrollinstrumente zur Eindämmung von Missbrauch entbrannte – in Deutschland blieb ein solcher Diskurs bis zur Jahrhundertwende zunächst aus. Der Band nimmt wissenschaftlich arbeitende Ärzte, die ethischen Anforderungen, denen sie sich ausgesetzt sehen, und das System, in dem sie arbeiten, in den Fokus. (...) Stella Elaine Urbans Analyse von Betrugsfällen deckt wissenschaftsimmanente und individuelle Fallstricke auf, die unredliche Forschung begünstigen. Es zeigt sich, dass die wissenschaftliche Integrität unterstützt und geschützt werden muss, um das Vertrauen in die Medizin wiederherzustellen. (shrink)

This article presents a new argument concerning the relation between Kant’s theory of race and aspects of the critical philosophy. It argues that Kant’s treatment of the problem of the systematic unity of nature and knowledge in the Critique of Pure Reason and the Critique of the Power of Judgment can be traced back a methodological problem in the natural history of the period – that of the possibility of a natural system of nature. Kant’s transformation of the methodological problem (...) from natural history into a set of philosophical problems proceeds by way of the working out of his own problem in natural history – the problem of the natural history of the human races – and specifically the problem of the unity in diversity of the human species, in response to which he develops a theory of race. This theory of race is, further, the first developed model of the use of teleological judgment in Kant’s work. The article thus argues that Kant’s philosophical position on the sy... (shrink)

Merleau-Ponty, Varela, Nagarjuna. Une triangulation possibleDans cet article, on voudrait mettre en évidence une triangulation possible entre Maurice Merleau-Ponty, le biologiste chilien Francisco Varela et le philosophebouddhiste de l’Antiquité Nagarjuna. L’objectif de cette perspective réside dans l’urgence d’une étude de la dynamique du réel, et même de la sensibilité en général.Dans The Embodied Mind, le « projet neuro-phénoménologique » et « l’urgence énactive » de Varela se joignent à la pratique bouddhiste Mahayana de Nagarjuna, à laquelle le biologiste consacre une (...) grande partie de son oeuvre. Ce rapprochement révèle l’intérêt de Varela pour l’ontologie bouddhiste, non substantielle et permanente, ce qui, non seulement le conduit jusqu’aux ultimes conséquences de la chair merleaupontienne, mais accroît aussi sa compréhension de la signification de cette chair.Dans les années précédant le développement de son ontologie, Merleau-Ponty se consacre à l’anthologie intitulée Les philosophes célèbres et décide d’y inclure un chapitre sur la philosophie orientale. Il y montre la nécessité d’un retour à l’Orient en tant qu’il a souvent été le précurseur et le « résonateur de notre rapport avec l’être ». Le présent travail se demande à quoi Merleau-Ponty fait allusion quand il nous invite « à mesurer les possibilités que nous nous sommes fermés en devenant ‘‘occidentaux’’ et, peut-être, à les rouvrir », afin d’établir la possibilité d’une convergence entre la chair, la constitution bouddhiste de la réalité et le projet énactif varélien.Merleau-Ponty, Varela, Nagarjuna. A Possible TriangulationIn this article, we would like to bring to light a possible triangulation between Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the Chilean biologist, Francisco Varela, and the ancientBuddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna. The purpose of doing this lies in the urgency of a study of the dynamic of the real and even of the sensible in general.In The Embodied Mind, Varela’s “neuro-phenomenological project” and the “enactive urgency” are joined to the Nagarjuna’s Mahayana Buddhist practice, to which the biologist devotes a large part of this work. This intersection reveals Varela’s interest in Buddhist ontology, an ontology that is non-substantialist and permanent. It leads not only to the ultimate consequences of Merleau-Ponty’s idea of the flesh, but also it adds its way of understanding to the significance of this flesh.In the years preceding the development of his ontology, Merleau-Ponty devoted himself to the anthology called Les philosophes célèbres. He decides to include in it a chapter on oriental philosophy. He shows there the necessity of a return to the Orient insofar as the East has often been the precursor and the “resonator of our relation to being.” The present work asks to what is Merleau-Ponty alluding when he invites us “to take stock of the possibilities in which we are enclosed by becoming ‘Western’ and perhaps we should reopen these possibilities” in order to establish the possibility of a convergence between the flesh, the Buddhist constitution of reality, and Varela’s enactive project. (shrink)

Merleau-Ponty, Varela, Nagarjuna. Une triangulation possibleDans cet article, on voudrait mettre en évidence une triangulation possible entre Maurice Merleau-Ponty, le biologiste chilien Francisco Varela et le philosophebouddhiste de l’Antiquité Nagarjuna. L’objectif de cette perspective réside dans l’urgence d’une étude de la dynamique du réel, et même de la sensibilité en général.Dans The Embodied Mind, le « projet neuro-phénoménologique » et « l’urgence énactive » de Varela se joignent à la pratique bouddhiste Mahayana de Nagarjuna, à laquelle le biologiste consacre une (...) grande partie de son oeuvre. Ce rapprochement révèle l’intérêt de Varela pour l’ontologie bouddhiste, non substantielle et permanente, ce qui, non seulement le conduit jusqu’aux ultimes conséquences de la chair merleaupontienne, mais accroît aussi sa compréhension de la signification de cette chair.Dans les années précédant le développement de son ontologie, Merleau-Ponty se consacre à l’anthologie intitulée Les philosophes célèbres et décide d’y inclure un chapitre sur la philosophie orientale. Il y montre la nécessité d’un retour à l’Orient en tant qu’il a souvent été le précurseur et le « résonateur de notre rapport avec l’être ». Le présent travail se demande à quoi Merleau-Ponty fait allusion quand il nous invite « à mesurer les possibilités que nous nous sommes fermés en devenant ‘‘occidentaux’’ et, peut-être, à les rouvrir », afin d’établir la possibilité d’une convergence entre la chair, la constitution bouddhiste de la réalité et le projet énactif varélien.Merleau-Ponty, Varela, Nagarjuna. A Possible TriangulationIn this article, we would like to bring to light a possible triangulation between Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the Chilean biologist, Francisco Varela, and the ancientBuddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna. The purpose of doing this lies in the urgency of a study of the dynamic of the real and even of the sensible in general.In The Embodied Mind, Varela’s “neuro-phenomenological project” and the “enactive urgency” are joined to the Nagarjuna’s Mahayana Buddhist practice, to which the biologist devotes a large part of this work. This intersection reveals Varela’s interest in Buddhist ontology, an ontology that is non-substantialist and permanent. It leads not only to the ultimate consequences of Merleau-Ponty’s idea of the flesh, but also it adds its way of understanding to the significance of this flesh.In the years preceding the development of his ontology, Merleau-Ponty devoted himself to the anthology called Les philosophes célèbres. He decides to include in it a chapter on oriental philosophy. He shows there the necessity of a return to the Orient insofar as the East has often been the precursor and the “resonator of our relation to being.” The present work asks to what is Merleau-Ponty alluding when he invites us “to take stock of the possibilities in which we are enclosed by becoming ‘Western’ and perhaps we should reopen these possibilities” in order to establish the possibility of a convergence between the flesh, the Buddhist constitution of reality, and Varela’s enactive project. (shrink)

Je propose ici une enquête sur les années 1950, décennie significative dans l'histoire des transformations sociales et culturelles concernant la vie des femmes et le développement de leur identité. Cet intérêt pour cet aspect spécifique – la vie et l'identité des femmes – s'inscrit pour moi dans un intérêt plus vaste pour certains caractères et changements sociaux de cette période dense et peu étudiée. En tant que telle, cette proposition de recherche n'est qu'un titre, la suggestion d'un tra...

In The Metaphysics of Love, however, Stella Sandford argues that an over-emphasis on ethics in the reception of Levinas's thought has concealed the basis and ...

“A mouth that speaks, many ears, and half the hands that write. These are the ac a demic ap - pa ra tus, these are the ac tive ma chines of Bildung in the Uni ver sity”, as writen by Nietz sche.. What should we do? Nietz sche gave us some an swers, in his ha bit ual form: ques tions, met a phor..

For Peace, see especially: Hortensia Cuellar, " What is peace? : It's value and necessity." .

This essay analyzes some of the connections between hermeneutics, epistemology, and feminism. Feminist theory offers a useful field for reflection on the links between the enlightened and the hermeneutic traditions. The appeal to the Enlightenment introduces the notions of truth and freedom 1 Este artículo ha podido realizarse gracias a la generosa ayuda de la Fundación Caja de Madrid en forma de beca postdoctoral, bajo la dirección de Celia Amorós. Es también fruto de la colaboración en el proyecto de investigación (...) Hermenéutica y Epistemología PB 98-0828. Asimismo, agradezco sinceramente a los participantes en el seminario Conocimiento e Interpretación (coord. Á. J. Perona, P. López y V. Sanfélix, Dpto. Filosofía IV, UCM, curso 2000-2001) sus comentarios a una primera versión de este escrito. 213 Stella Villarmea Algunas bases hermenéuticas y epistémicas... which gives meaning to the concept of emancipation; the appeal to hermeneutics raises our awareness of the existence of different interpretations resulting from different perspectives. This essay focuses on emancipatory consciousness, treated as an example of the construction of personal identity. (shrink)

The argument of this paper hinges on Derrida's relation to Judaism as a religious heritage and/or as an essential experience. If he can be said to ‘appropriate his Jewish roots’ at all, as Colby Dickinson (2011) has recently proposed, this is not because Derrida concurs that all belief in an ultimate reality (‘as such’) must now be understood in merely conditional terms (‘as if’). Rather, it is because Derrida deconstructs the difference between the Jew and the non-Jew, along with the (...) differences between the ‘as if’ and the ‘as such’ and the performative and the constative, in his very demonstration of the impossibility of ‘being-jewish’. Dickinson thus misunderstands the way in which Derrida appropriates Kant's regulative ‘as if’, and thus misrepresents what is at stake in Derrida's ‘faith’ in ‘Jewishness’. What is at stake is what Derrida calls deconstructive responsibility, and it takes the form of a radical fidelity to the principle of reason (to an ‘unconditional theoreticism’). This responsibility, paradoxically, demands and impels the interrogation of critical thinking itself, with its principles, its essences and its identities. Accordingly, Derrida interrupts both the ‘as such’ and the ‘as if’ with the ‘if’ of a dangerous ‘perhaps’. (shrink)

This paper demonstrates that when the concept of ethicalpolitical responsibility is taken in its modern sense as a decision or outcome based on the protocols of reason, responsibility is neither simply possible nor simply impossible. Paradoxically, it appeals to a demand that it cannot fulfil; responsibility is thus (im)possible. Moreover, insofar as a deconstructive demonstration of this aporia is itself a response to reason’s own demand, deconstruction cannot be characterized as simply responsible or irresponsible. Rather, deconstruction inscribes itself as the (...) interior limit of the order of ethics, of responsibility, as such. Deconstruction is thus characterized best as an (ir)responsible interrogation of the very principle of reason to which political philosophers such as Habermas appeal when they invoke responsibility. To this extent deconstruction enacts the strange responsibility of interrogating critically precisely what is deemed ‘just’. Key Words: critique • deconstruction • Derrida • Enlightenment • ethics • Habermas • justice • modernity • reason • responsibility. (shrink)

This article offers a close reading of Derrida's response to the events of 11 September 2001, in the interview he conducted immediately afterwards with Giovanna Borradori in the text Philosophy in a Time of Terror (2003). I argue that this text is significantly different from previous philosophical responses to horrific political events (such as those by Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno and Hannah Arendt) insofar as it invites us to contest radically the assumption that philosophy's role is to envision and to (...) realize the `good'. Instead, Derrida's response provokes us to acknowledge that philosophy's role was only ever to criticize itself, that this is the absolute limit of what philosophy can or should do, and that this work is both genuinely risky and crucially important, because in undertaking a critique of itself philosophy intervenes for democracy, without rules or guarantees, in the very determinations that are the material of political life. Key Words: 9/11 • Theodor Adorno • critique • deconstruction • democracy • Jacques Derrida • futurity • philosophy • terror • to-come. (shrink)

In dieser Arbeit geht es zunächst um eine Auslegung der aristotelischen Affekttheorie, so wie sie hauptsächlich im 2. Buch der Rhetorik ausgeführt wird unter Berücksichtigung der einschlägigen Passagen aus der Nikomachischen Ethik und aus De Anima. Es zeigt sich, dass Affekte für Aristoteles nicht etwa unserem Verstand gegenüberstehen, sondern, dass sie selbst Anteil an der Vernunft haben, indem sie auf einem Erkenntnisakt beruhen. Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist aber auch zu zeigen, dass der Stoiker Poseidonios, trotz seiner Absicht sich der platonisch-aristotelischen (...) Seelen- und Affekttheorie anzuschließen, mit seiner Theorie das Konzept eines Gegensatzes von Vernunft und Affekt verteidigt hat und somit in Wirklichkeit nicht als Anhänger der platonisch-aristotelischen Philosophie betrachtet werden kann. Für Poseidonios besteht, anders als bei Aristoteles, eine radikale Trennung zwischen Sinnlichkeit und Vernunft, zwischen Emotionslos-Rationalem und Geistfrei-Irrationalem. (shrink)

La ricerca qui proposta si rivolge al programma di radicale naturalizzazione della mente e, in particolare, alla posizione del monismo materialistico che esso produce. L’articolo si propone di individuare gli assunti fondamentali sui quali tale programma poggia. Un primo assunto identificato e discusso criticamente all’interno del lavoro concerne una concezione corrispondentista della verità. Un secondo assunto fa riferimento ad una concezione secondo la quale lo studio della mente si riduce all’individuazione di relazioni causali e leggi che regolano processi meccanici, mentre (...) si possono considerare scientifiche solo quelle forme di indagine fondate sul principio di chiusura del mondo fisico. L’analisi si conclude sottolineando come il presupposto più significativo si riveli essere la negazione della soggettività e della coscienza, la quale viene ridotta/ricondotta a operazioni inconsce e inintelligenti. In problema rincontrato a questo rispetto è identificato nel fatto di non fare valere la fondamentale distinzione teoretica tra condizione empirica e condizione di intelligibilità. (shrink)

The acquisition of syntactic categories is a crucial step in the process of acquiring syntax. At this stage, before a full grammar is available, only surface cues are available to the learner. Previous computational models have demonstrated that local contexts are informative for syntactic categorization. However, local contexts are affected by sentence-level structure. In this paper, we add sentence type as an observed feature to a model of syntactic category acquisition, based on experimental evidence showing that pre-syntactic children are able (...) to distinguish sentence type using prosody and other cues. The model, a Bayesian Hidden Markov Model, allows for adding sentence type in a few different ways; we find that sentence type can aid syntactic category acquisition if it is used to characterize the differences in word order between sentence types. In these models, knowledge of sentence type permits similar gains to those found by extending the local context. (shrink)