Following a proposal by Kooi and Tamminga, we introduce a conservative translation manual for every four-valued truth-functional propositional logic into a modal logic. However, the application of this translation does not preserve the intuitive reading of the truth-values for every four-valued logic. In order to solve this problem, we modify the translation manual and prove its conservativity by exploiting the method of generalized truth-values.

In this article we analyze the methodological commitments of a radical embodied cognition (REC) approach to social interaction and social cognition, specifically with respect to the explanatory framework it adopts. According to many representatives of REC, such as enactivists and the proponents of dynamical and ecological psychology, sociality is to be explained by (1) focusing on the social unit rather than the individuals that comprise it and (2) establishing the regularities that hold on this level rather than modeling the sub-personal (...) mechanisms that could be said to underlie social phenomena. We point out that, despite explicit commitment, such a view implies an implicit rejection of the mechanistic explanation framework widely adopted in traditional cognitive science (TCS), which, in our view, hinders comparability between REC and these approaches. We further argue that such a position is unnecessary and that enactive mechanistic explanation of sociality is both possible and desirable. We examine three distinct objections from REC against mechanistic explanation, which we dub the decomposability, causality and extended cognition worries. In each case we show that these complaints can be alleviated by either appreciation of the full scope of the mechanistic account or adjustments on both mechanistic and REC sides of the debate. (shrink)

Als »Zwischenreich«, »Drittes« oder »Mitte« bezeichnet, kommt der Imagination seit ihren Anfängen in der Antike die Rolle eines Mediums zu. Gleichzeitig bleibt ihr medialer Aspekt durchgehend ambivalent und prekär. Es ist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, der die Imagination nicht mehr als subjektives Vermögen versteht, sondern als Kraft der »Entäußerung« und sie somit medial denkt. In einer bislang wenig beachteten Passage aus Hegels dritter Enzyklopädie von 1830 legt Ekaterina Vassilevski nicht nur die implizite Medialität der Imagination frei, sondern auch den (...) in Hegels Denken verborgenen Begriff des Medialen. (shrink)

Is there a unique way to de-idealize models? If not, how might the possible ways of reducing the distortion between models and reality differ from each other? Based on an empirical case study conducted in financial markets, this paper discusses how a popular valuation model (the Discounted Cash Flow model) idealizes reality and how the market participants de-idealize it in concrete market situations. In contrast to Cartwright's view that economic models are generally over-constrained, this paper suggests that valuation models are (...) under-constrained. This serves as the reason why the relaxation of simplifying assumptions and concretization do not work as methods of de-idealization. The paper finds that financial market participants de-idealize models using commentary that takes the form of judgment. As a conclusion, a hypothesis is formulated that proposes that the more underdetermined the model is the bigger role narrative and other pragmatic elements play in the process of model application. (shrink)

Social robots are gradually entering children’s lives in a period when children learn about social relationships and exercise prosocial behaviors with parents, peers, and teachers. Designed for long-term emotional engagement and to take the roles of friends, teachers, and babysitters, such robots have the potential to influence how children develop empathy. This article presents a review of the literature in the fields of human–robot interaction, psychology, neuropsychology, and roboethics, discussing the potential impact of communication with social robots on children’s social (...) and emotional development. The critical analysis of evidence behind these discussions shows that, although robots theoretically have high chances of influencing the development of empathy in children, depending on their design, intensity, and context of use, there is no certainty about the kind of effect they might have. Most of the analyzed studies, which showed the ability of robots to improve empathy levels in children, were not longitudinal, while the studies observing and arguing for the negative effect of robots on children’s empathy were either purely theoretical or dependent on the specific design of the robot and the situation. Therefore, there is a need for studies investigating the effects on children’s social and emotional development of long-term regular and consistent communication with robots of various designs and in different situations. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Philosophy and Rhetoric 37.1 (2004) 1-20 [Access article in PDF] Endoxa, Epistemological Optimism, and Aristotle's Rhetorical Project Ekaterina V. Haskins Communication Department Boston College Aristotle's crucial role in institutionalizing the art of rhetoric in the fourth century BCE is beyond dispute, but the significance of Aristotle's rhetorical project remains a point of lively controversy among philosophers and rhetoricians alike. There are many ways of reading and evaluating Aristotle's (...) Rhetoric that depend on the philosophical, theoretical, and pedagogical purposes of the scholar.1 Most philosophical and rhetorical exegeses of the Rhetoric, however, while focusing on the text's connections to Aristotle's corpus and to the rhetorical tradition before and after Aristotle, seem to lack a critical perspective on Aristotle's relationship with his cultural context. Yet, like other parts of Aristotle's encyclopedic intellectual endeavor, much of Rhetoric 's cultural content was provided by endoxa, "reputable or received opinions."Since G. E. L. Owen's essay "Tithenai ta phainomena" (1961) many scholars have accepted the claim that endoxa, rather than empirical observations, are the source of Aristotle's own philosophical principles. The "linguistic" turn within Aristotelian studies has drawn attention to the role of "facts" of language and ordinary experience within Aristotle's philosophical method. As a result, a view of Aristotle as a hard-core empiricist has given way to a picture of a humanist who is attuned to the nuances of his cultural milieu. Still, this new portrait fails to take into account that Aristotle's manner of selecting and categorizing his linguistic resources allows him to transform what we would consider cultural beliefs into natural, and hence, atemporal premises. This pattern can be explained by Aristotle's "epistemological optimism," in itself a blend of several cultural assumptions about perception in general and vision in particular, the function of language, and the cyclical nature of human history. Part of this essay's objective, then, will be an explanation of these components of Aristotle's epistemological optimism. By appreciating Aristotle's difference [End Page 1] on these issues from our modern assumptions, we will be in a better position to understand why Aristotle relies on endoxa on all three levels of philosophical discourse (theoretical science, moral philosophy, and productive arts of poetics and rhetoric). Aristotle remains consistent in his treatment of endoxa throughout; rhetoric, however, presents a major challenge to Aristotle's epistemological optimism and his conception of language. I shall argue that Aristotle recognized this challenge and that he answered it by isolating proofs and rhetorical genres from their linguistic medium (lexis ), and postulating linguistic transparency (sapheneia ) as a stylistic norm. I. Aristotle's openness to appearances (phainomena ) and opinions (endoxa ) was accorded prominence especially thanks to the work of G. E. L. Owen and Martha Nussbaum. Owen was first to defend a linguistic translation of Aristotle's phainomena as "ordinary beliefs" and "appearances" against the then-prevalent rendition "observed facts." In so doing he asserted the crucial impact of the philosopher's cultural context on the formation of speculative discourse. Owen (1961) nonetheless demanded that phainomena be understood as empirical observations in Aristotle' treatises on biology and meteorology (84-86), so as to preserve the methodological and epistemological distinctions between inquiries into the natural world, on the one hand, and the world inhabited by human agents, on the other. Nussbaum (1986) went much further than Owen in asserting the role of phainomena and endoxa in Aristotle's inquiry. Unlike Owen, Nussbaum sees no fundamental difference between "experiences" of a philosopher and linguistic expressions of cultural beliefs and interpretations—his discursive data—from which Aristotle constructs his philosophical accounts. Nussbaum's chief (and highly influential) claim is that Aristotle's method is marked by a deep concern for the experiential world of his fellow men and their language. Aristotle's philosophical insights into the human condition, on this reading, echo and amplify classical Greek tragedy, despite the austere diction of Aristotle's extant treatises.Owing to this openness to the world of ordinary beliefs, Aristotle seems to depart from the Eleatic and Platonic distrust of human... (shrink)

In the current debate there are two epistemological approaches to the definition of ignorance: the Standard View and the New View. The former defines ignorance simply as not knowing, while the latter defines it as the absence of true belief. One of the main differences between these two positions lies in rejecting (Standard View) or in accepting (New View) the factivity of ignorance, i.e., if an agent is ignorant of φ, then φ is true. In the present article, we first (...) provide a criticism of the Standard View in favour of the New View. Secondly, we propose a formal setting to represent the notion of factive ignorance. (shrink)

LetEbe a computably enumerable equivalence relation on the setωof natural numbers. We say that the quotient set$\omega /E$realizesa linearly ordered set${\cal L}$if there exists a c.e. relation ⊴ respectingEsuch that the induced structure is isomorphic to${\cal L}$. Thus, one can consider the class of all linearly ordered sets that are realized by$\omega /E$; formally,${\cal K}\left = \left\{ {{\cal L}\,|\,{\rm{the}}\,{\rm{order}}\, - \,{\rm{type}}\,{\cal L}\,{\rm{is}}\,{\rm{realized}}\,{\rm{by}}\,E} \right\}$. In this paper we study the relationship between computability-theoretic properties ofEand algebraic properties of linearly ordered sets realized (...) byE. One can also define the following pre-order$ \le _{lo} $on the class of all c.e. equivalence relations:$E_1 \le _{lo} E_2 $if every linear order realized byE1is also realized byE2. Following the tradition of computability theory, thelo-degrees are the classes of equivalence relations induced by the pre-order$ \le _{lo} $. We study the partially ordered set oflo-degrees. For instance, we construct various chains and anti-chains and show the existence of a maximal element among thelo-degrees. (shrink)

We study the structure of Σ11 equivalence relations on hyperarithmetical subsets of ω under reducibilities given by hyperarithmetical or computable functions, called h-reducibility and FF-reducibility, respectively. We show that the structure is rich even when one fixes the number of properly equation imagei.e., Σ11 but not equation image equivalence classes. We also show the existence of incomparable Σ11 equivalence relations that are complete as subsets of ω × ω with respect to the corresponding reducibility on sets. We study complete Σ11 (...) equivalence relations and show that existence of infinitely many properly Σ11 equivalence classes that are complete as Σ11 sets is necessary but not sufficient for a relation to be complete in the context of Σ11 equivalence relations. (shrink)

The article discusses teaching the analysis of documentary films from the standpoint of a discursive approach. The importance of teaching the analysis of documentary films is due to the specifics of audiovisual production. A documentary film is a polyosemiotic construct combined with verbal, pictorial and sound signs, which are important for the translator to take into account in the translation process. The discursive approach allows to teach future translators to analyze not only the work as a whole, but also to (...) analyze the historical and socio-cultural context in which it was created. (shrink)

The subject of the research is utopian discourse, which unites all the variety of concepts related in one way or another to utopia, utopian dimension of reality and understanding of the Future (utopian element, utopian impulse, utopian optics, utopianism, utopian consciousness, utopian thinking, dystopia, etc.). Special attention is paid to the study of the explanatory and predictive potential of utopian discourse, identifying its boundaries and analysis of the relationship with ideological discourse. The conceptualization of utopian discourse is based on an (...) instrumental approach to utopia, which is complemented by the communicative approach and the interpretive concept of culture by K. Geertz, which justifies the possibility of considering utopian discourse as a semantic and symbolic matrix. The novelty of the research is to identify and substantiate the exaggerated dichotomy of thinking and otherness as the structure-forming elements of utopian discourse. This contributed to the assessment of utopian discourse as a peculiar but viable form of reflection of political reality and the construction, consolidation and comprehension of values. The proposed algorithm of thinking with dichotomies made it possible to trace the process of constructing utopian discourse on the basis of a pyramid of dichotomies, consisting of system-forming, key and peripheral dichotomies. The article clarifies that the otherness of utopian discourse is manifested in the historicity, radicality and inextricable connection of utopian discourse with the Present. The indicated specificity of utopian discourse has led to the clarification of the reasons for the negative and/or skeptical attitude towards utopia and utopian discourse, as well as to the definition of its strengths and weaknesses. The authors conclude that despite the identified shortcomings, which often lead utopias to periodic displacement from the framework of actual political life, utopian discourse can have a significant impact on the change and development of society. (shrink)

Розкривається сутність процесу імпортозаміщення виробами власного промислового виробництва. Показана важливість для імпортозаміщення зростання обсягів вітчизняного виробництва конкурентоспроможної продукції. Викладено позитивні сторони і недоліки стратегії імпортозаміщення. Імпортозаміщення представляється авторами у вигляді ефективного інструменту підвищення економічної безпеки держави.

In the present-day information burst and information revolution epoch the mankind must realize the adaptation to the new conditions of its existence in the limited time. The most important problem is the problem of the human being successful adaptation to the modern information medium. The information medium is the factor demanding absolutely new adaptation of human being. Modern information medium specific character leads to correction of existing nature and social human being adaptation mechanisms and creation of new mechanisms. Information technologies (...) as a modern civilization core change not only quality and substance of present time human being life, but they threaten to transformate his way of existence in the modern world. (shrink)

The main characteristic of the modern environment is the negative change by its people – destruction and pollution. Man is part of the biosphere and the technogenic transformations of the biosphere inevitably affect him. Under the influence of technogenic civilization, all spheres of human activity undergo changes, and science above all. Ecology is especially keenly aware of the challenges of technogenic civilization. It focuses on anthropogenic factors, works with the human environment. At the same time, its problem field is expanding (...) due to interdisciplinary research and the allocation of knowledge of new environmental disciplines into an independent industry. The interdisciplinarity of modern ecology is most clearly visible on the example of such a direction as informational ecology. The presence of the digital environment in human life has grown so much that it requires the separation of the digital information environment into a separate subsystem. Information ecology studies the laws of the influence of information on the formation and functioning of man. In turn, interdisciplinarity, assuming the use of knowledge from various branches of science, brings us to the problems of the collective agent of cognition and distributed knowledge. In ecology, the problems of the collective agent of cognition are implemented through crowd-sourcing technology. Ecology is a science that requires massive collection of observation data (samples of water, air, soil pollution in various, sometimes hard-to-reach corners of the planet, observation of fluctuations in the number of species of animals and plants). The popularity of crowdsourcing projects in the field of ecology is explained by the fact that the challenges and threats of anthropogenic civilization have generated such a trend of our time as environmental orientation or environmentalism. Ecological crowdsourcing projects, inspired by the philosophy of environmentalism, can serve as an answer to the challenges of technogenic civilization. (shrink)

This is a review of the book by E.G. Dragalina-Chyornaya “Informal notes on logical form". The review discusses the structure and the main ideas of the book. The review focuses on the author's arguments in favor of the dynamic regulatory model of logic and provides a critical analysis of them.

Defining the degree of categoricity of a computable structure ${\mathcal{M}}$ to be the least degree d for which ${\mathcal{M}}$ is d-computably categorical, we investigate which Turing degrees can be realized as degrees of categoricity. We show that for all n, degrees d.c.e. in and above 0 (n) can be so realized, as can the degree 0 (ω).

Friedrich Nietzsche has emerged as one of the most important and influential modern philosophers. For several decades, the book series Monographien und Texte zur Nietzsche-Forschung (MTNF) has set the agenda in a rapidly growing and changing field of Nietzsche scholarship. The scope of the series is interdisciplinary and international in orientation reflects the entire spectrum of research on Nietzsche, from philosophy to literary studies and political theory. The series publishes monographs and edited volumes that undergo a strict peer-review process. The (...) book series is led by an international team of editors, whose work represents the full range of current Nietzsche scholarship. (shrink)

We study the complexity of the isomorphism relation on classes of computable structures. We use the notion of FF-reducibility introduced in [9] to show completeness of the isomorphism relation on many familiar classes in the context of all ${\mathrm{\Sigma }}_{1}^{1}$ equivalence relations on hyperarithmetical subsets of ω.

For a computable structure $\mathcal {M}$, the categoricity spectrum is the set of all Turing degrees capable of computing isomorphisms among arbitrary computable copies of $\mathcal {M}$. If the spectrum has a least degree, this degree is called the degree of categoricity of $\mathcal {M}$. In this paper we investigate spectra of categoricity for computable rigid structures. In particular, we give examples of rigid structures without degrees of categoricity.

The study of Borel equivalence relations under Borel reducibility has developed into an important area of descriptive set theory. The dichotomies of Silver [20] and Harrington, Kechris and Louveau [6] show that with respect to Borel reducibility, any Borel equivalence relation strictly above equality on ω is above equality on , the power set of ω, and any Borel equivalence relation strictly above equality on the reals is above equality modulo finite on . In this article we examine the effective (...) content of these and related results by studying effectively Borel equivalence relations under effectively Borel reducibility. The resulting structure is complex, even for equivalence relations with finitely many equivalence classes. However use of Kleene’s O as a parameter is sufficient to restore the picture from the noneffective setting. A key lemma is that of the existence of two effectively Borel sets of reals, neither of which contains the range of the other under any effectively Borel function; the proof of this result applies Barwise compactness to a deep theorem of Harrington establishing for any recursive ordinal α the existence of singletons whose α-jumps are Turing incomparable. (shrink)

Introduction. Digital transformation transforms all spheres of society. Digital technologies are gradually changing the interaction between producers and consumers, creating new forms of communication. The priorities of individual consumption have become of greater importance for public relations. Consumption is being individualized as the consumption of meanings, and not just the functions of things and services. Prosumers are being emerged, joint and responsible consumer practices — sharing, recycling, etc. are being spread. In the context of digitalization, the need for a person (...) to create a “demand for himself” in order to be recognized / to be let into social relations (work, family, friendship, hobbies, etc.) is actualized. A brand as a sociocultural phenomenon and its functions are undergoing significant changes under the influence of digitalization. The purpose of the study is to identify and characterize the social functions of the brand in a situation of total digitalization. Methods. The author uses general scientific methods — analysis, comparison, generalization, classification. Classification of the brand function is carried out on the basis of structural and functional analysis and a systematic approach. Scientific novelty of the study. The article presents the specifics of functioning of the brand as a sociocultural phenomenon of the consumer society in the context of digitalization. The author identifies and characterizes social functions of the brand in the digital space. Results. Consumption in the digital space is characterized by the growing importance of not only the manufacturer’s activity, but also the cultural-creative practices of consumers that set trends in the digital and material market, determine and create Web 2.0 Internet content. Brands, due to their symbolic nature, have actualized their functions in the digital environment. Conclusion. Brand research from the standpoint of social, humanitarian and philosophical sciences can reveal its humanistic potential for developing man and society in the digital age. The social functions of the brand in the digital space contribute to the self-development of a person and the evolution of social relations due to the focus on individuality and creativity. (shrink)

In the current debate there are two epistemological approaches to the definition of ignorance. The Standard View defines ignorance simply as not knowing, while the New View defines it as the absence of true belief. We argue that both views provide necessary, but not sufficient conditions for ignorance, and thus do not constitute satisfactory definitions for such a notion.

I assert that Bulgarian journalists recruited during communism to also serve the government as intelligence agents had the opportunity to make moral choices despite the country's dictatorship. Post-communist discussions in Bulgarian media focused on the extent of guilt of journalists who acted as spies. The three possibilities of forgetting the past, punishing those who spied, or forgiving them, are considered. The article concludes that the spy/journalists cannot be forgiven because they violated moral principles that had been vital in Eastern Europe (...) even during the communist regimes; a democratic society should rely on journalists with no history of deceiving audiences. (shrink)

Criticizing the works of "Western" specialists in semantics, Soviet academician M. M. Pokrovskij (1868-1942) comes to the conclusion that social factors are essential for semantic evolution, while psychological factors constitute an intermediate link between the "external" life of a society and the semantics of the corresponding language. This conception resembles the general explanations of semantic evolution proposed by N. Ja. Marr (1864-1934). Nevertheless, despite a number of common points in the semantic theories of these two researchers, Pokrovskij's attitude towards Marr (...) was negative: in particular, he disagreed with the thesis of the chronological primacy of Marr's discoveries in the domain of semantics. The article investigates why Pokrovskij had for a long time constituted an intermediate link between Russian and "Western" "traditions" in the field of semantics. (shrink)

Introduction. The inadequacy of the support measures provided to children with orphan diseases is exacerbated by the trend towards an increase in the number of children with such a diagnosis. Orphan diseases also include diseases caused by primary immunodeficiency or congenital errors of immunity, which are life-threatening. However, these people are part of society and require attention from it, and social and economic measures from the state. Most of them, with proper treatment, socialization and appropriate government support, can lead a (...) normal life and live a full life. Scientific novelty of the research. On the basis of the study results, the authors contribute to clarifying the principles used in the implementation of the security function of the social state. The targeting of social support measures must be supplemented with the principles of social justice and freedom to choose ways to meet the needs of specific categories of citizens, understood as follows. The welfare state supports those citizens who need it most of all, namely, the poor. Specific categories of citizens can satisfy their needs, while having the opportunity to choose. This opportunity arises thanks to the receipt of targeted assistance in the form of monthly or annual subsidies. Families with children with orphan diseases should also be included in these categories. If they have the right to receive annual government subsidies, they will be able to spend these funds depending on the current needs due to the state of health of their children with orphan diseases (for the purchase of socially important food products; medicines, medical nutrition, and various services). The aim of the work is to study the problems of providing support measures to children with orphan diseases in the context of the current model of the welfare state. The article analyzes the satisfaction of patients with congenital immunity errors with various types of state support, identifies problems that reduce their satisfaction. Methods. The authors use methods such as comparative analysis, study of regulatory legal acts, sociological analysis. Results. On the basis of the study results the effectiveness of measures of state support for children with orphan diseases, studying the best experience of foreign countries, proposals were made to clarify the principles used to implement the security function by the social state, to expand the composition of the subjects involved in providing support measures analyzed in the article. Conclusions. The results obtained make it possible to assert that the targeted approach, which is basic in the model of the welfare state, does not cover most of the problems of children with innate immunity errors and, accordingly, the families that represent their interests. (shrink)

The aim of the present paper is to introduce a system, where the epistemic state of an agent is represented truth-functionally. In order to obtain this system, we propose a four-valued logic, that we call the logic of rational agent, where the fact of knowing something is formalized at the level of valuations, without the explicit use of epistemic knowledge operator. On the basis of this semantics, a sound and complete system with two distinct truth-functional negations is provided. These negations (...) allow us to express the statements about knowing or not knowing something at the syntactic level. Moreover, such a system is applied to the analysis of knowability paradox. In particular, we show that the paradox is not derivable in terms of the logic of rational agent. (shrink)

In this topical section, we highlight the next step of research on modeling aiming to contribute to the emerging literature that radically refrains from approaching modeling as a scientific endeavor. Modeling surpasses “doing science” because it is frequently incorporated into decision-making processes in politics and management, i.e., areas which are not solely epistemically oriented. We do not refer to the production of models in academia for abstract or imaginary applications in practical fields, but instead highlight the real entwinement of science (...) and policy and the real erosion of their boundaries. Models in decision making – due to their strong entwinement with policy and management – are utilized differently than models in science; they are employed for different purposes and with different constraints. We claim that “being a part of decision-making” implies that models are elements of a very particular situation, in which knowledge about the present and the future is limited but dependence of decisions on the future is distinct. Emphasis on the future indicates that decisions are made about actions that have severe and lasting consequences. In these specific situations, models enable not only the acquisition of knowledge (the primary goal of science) but also enable deciding upon actions that change the course of events. As a result, there are specific ways to construct effective models and justify their results. Although some studies have explored this topic, our understanding of how models contribute to decision making outside of science remains fragmentary. This topical section aims to fill this gap in research and formulate an agenda for additional and more systematic investigations in the field. (shrink)

In this article, we examine two philosophical theories of recognition: those of Paul Ricoeur and Alexandre Kojève. We trace this line of development in the theory of recognition as a return from Ricoeur to Kojève. Our hypothesis is that over the past twenty years, the theory of recognition has undergone a change in content and has transformed into a theory of misrecognition. In turn, the theory of misrecognition is grounded in the struggle between subjects and brings us back to the (...) discourse of the struggle between the Slave and the Master. This transformation from struggle to reciprocity and vice versa, we argue, suggests that a theory of identity formation as a process of resistance to assujettissement is in demand at this moment in history. In the 2010s, as the theory of misrecognition took shape primarily in the English‑speaking world, the constitution of the subject began to be understood once again as the outcome of struggles within feminist, Marxist, and other emancipatory theories. We examine both Ricoeur’s arguments against Kojève, Althusser, and the theory of misrecognition in general, as well as the «return» of Kojève’s arguments in the contemporary theory of misrecognition. (shrink)

The article analyzes the background and dynamics of Lev S. Vygotsky’s notions of smysl. Drawing on the data of archival records...

In recent years, philosophers of science have begun to realize that the clear separation of the creation of models in academia and the application of models outside science is not possible. When these philosophers address hybrid contexts in which science is entwined with policy, business, and other realms of society, these often practically oriented realms no longer represent ‘the surroundings’ of science but rather are considered an essential part of it. I argue—and demonstrate empirically—that the judgement of a theory or (...) model conducted by scientists in such hybrid contexts may contain two parts: one is truth supportive and the other is utility oriented. In relation to the debate on science and values, the article seeks to reinforce the argument in modern philosophy of science that the boundaries between epistemic and non-epistemic values are blurred. The article stresses that non-epistemic values may be also understood as values that contribute to the instrumental success of a theory or model and—in this way—influence scientific practice in the hybrid contexts. (shrink)

The article is devoted to an anthropological study of psychotherapeutic discourse adaptation by religious specialists within the Catholic practice of spiritual exercises. Grounded in the therapeutic culture's notion that an individual's roots lie deeply within their family history and childhood experiences, this article examines how issues related to family relationships may surface during the development of psychotherapeutic techniques by religious groups. It also investigates the childhood images upon which these "syncretic" projects might be based. Considering the Catholic practice of spiritual (...) exercise allows us to explore the historical roots of the "personal relationship with God". This concept appears in various spiritual movements from the late Middle Ages and early Modern period, which emphasized emotional religiosity, meditation, and imaginative practices. In the present context, the interpretation of the relationship with God and other agents of divine nature in psychotherapeutic terms is based on a combination of traditional Jesuit spiritual direction practices with ideas from psychodynamic theories found in American spiritual direction manuals of the 1970s-1990s. From this angle, the image of God is interpreted as a projection of an authoritative adult image internalized in childhood, and problems in the "relationship with God" are seen as a consequence of unresolved issues with significant others. Using one of the most important therapeutic tropes of the "inner child" as the basis for meditation practice, spiritual directors invite participants to envision a scene where a child version of their personality receives unconditional love. However, unlike the therapeutic version of the practice of "inner child work,” in the Catholic paradigm, the individual should neither become the agent of their own healing nor reparent themselves. The logic of personal responsibility and "parenthood” as its metaphor is replaced by the logic of humility and surrendering oneself to the divine will, i.e., true childhood. The article highlights the need to closely examine imaginative techniques in religious cultures and psychotherapeutic contexts, and questions the commonality in their epistemological stance on the nature and function of imagination. (shrink)

The term dunamis, by which Aristotle defines rhetoric in the first chapter of The Art of Rhetoric, is a "power" term, as its various meanings in Aristotle's corpus—from vernacular ones like "political influence" to strictly philosophical ones like "potentiality"—attest.1 In the Rhetoric, however, dunamis is usually translated as "ability" or "faculty," a designation that, compared to other terms that describe persuasion in ancient Greek poetics and rhetoric (such as "bia" ["force"] or "eros" ["seduction"]), marks rhetoric as a neutral human capacity (...) rather than the use of language entangled in the vagaries of violence and desire.2 John Kirby calls Aristotle's definition "one of the boldest moves in the history of .. (shrink)

For a class K of structures, closed under isomorphism, the index set is the set I of all indices for computable members of K in a universal computable numbering of all computable structures for a fixed computable language. We study the complexity of the index set of class of structures with decidable theories. We first prove the result for the class of all structures in an arbitrary finite nontrivial language. After the complexity is found, we prove similar results for some (...) well-known classes of structures, such as directed graphs, undirected graphs, partial orders and lattices. (shrink)