The effect of specificity of autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval on the affective impact of an emotional event was examined. In Study 1 (N = 90) the impact of a negative and positive experience was compared between student participants who habitually retrieve autobiographical memories (AMs) in a specific way and participants who generally retrieve less specific memories. In Study 2 (N = 48) the effect of an experimentally induced (specific vs. overgeneral) retrieval style on the impact of a negative experience was (...) studied in student participants who habitually retrieve less specific memories. Study 1 replicated the finding of Raes, Hermans, de Decker, Eelen, & Williams (Citation2003) that a negative event leads to less subjective distress in low‐specific participants as compared with high‐specific participants. However, both groups did not differ in their affective reaction to a positive event. Important, reduced memory specificity was associated with “repressive coping”, providing further evidence for the idea that reduced memory specificity is used as an avoidant or repressive‐defensive mechanism to regulate negative affect (CitationWilliams, 1996). In Study 2, participants who were induced to retrieve memories in an overgeneral way experienced more distress following a negative event as compared with participants who were induced to retrieve memories in a specific way. Results are discussed in the context of recent findings concerning AM specificity and emotion regulation (CitationPhilippot, Schaefer, & Herbette, 2003). Directions for further research are suggested. (shrink)

The nature of unconscious information processing is a heavily debated issue in cognitive science, and neuroscience. Traditionally, it has been thought that unconscious cognitive processing is restricted to knowledge that is strongly prepared by conscious processes. In three experiments, we show that the task that is performed consciously can also be applied unconsciously to items outside the current task set. We found that a same–different judgment of two target stimuli was also performed on two subliminally presented prime stimuli. This was (...) true for target and prime stimuli from entirely different categories, as well as for prime and target stimuli at different levels of abstraction. These results reveal that unconscious processing can generalize more widely than previously accepted. (shrink)

Among other virtues, Mental Files Theory provides a straightforward explanation of de jure coreference, i.e. identity of referent guaranteed by meaning alone: de jure coreference holds between terms when these are associated with the same mental file from which they inherit their reference. In this paper, I discuss an objection that Angel Pinillos raises against Mental Files Theory and other similar theories: the theory predicts that de jure coreference should be transitive, just like identity. Yet there are cases, involving ‘slash-terms’, (...) in which transitivity fails, or so it seems. In his book Mental Files, Recanati replies that the mental files theorist can accommodate Pinillos’ exceptions by offering a refined model of merging files, the ‘partial merging’ model. While agreeing with Recanati on the need for such a model, I contend that, pace Recanati and Pinillos, de jure coreference is transitive even in the presence of slash-terms. I will first show that paradoxical consequences ensue if slash-terms are said to de jure corefer with several basic terms at once. Then, building on two different accounts Recanati gives of referential confusion, I will show that on both views, de jure coreference cannot hold because of the behaviour of confused slash-terms. I will conclude that, in Mental Files Theory, a slash-term can, at most, de jure corefer with only one basic term per context. (shrink)

Because philosophical reflections on touch usually start from our ability to perceive properties of objects, they tend to overlook features of touch that are crucial to correct understanding of tactual perception. This paper brings out these features and uses them to develop a general reconception of the sense of touch. I start by taking a fresh look at our ability to feel, in order to reveal its vital role. This sheds a different light on the skin's perceptual potential. While it (...) is commonly observed that tactile experiences have two intentional objects, an external object and one's own body, I will advance a more accurate alternative: in tactile experiences, one becomes aware of what one's body undergoes. This alternative not only fits better with tactility's vital role; it is also key to explaining how active touching provides for a unique contribution to our perceptual relation to material objects. By thus connecting tactility's vital role to the way we rely on touch while manipulating objects, this essay offers a cross-sectional survey of our tactile powers that reveals the interplay between sensing and touching. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe article presents the story of the Polish translation of Bernard Suits’s The Grasshopper. It was prepared by Filip Kobiela, a philosopher and researcher of Suits’s legacy, and published in 2016. Some remarks concerning the difficulties of the translation and its peculiarities particularly related to the Polish ludic terminology have been added as well as an explanation of the translator’s attitude towards the translation as a type of game in Suits’s sense of the term. The article concludes with information (...) concerning the reception of the translation of Suits’s magnumopus in Poland and its possible impact on future research. (shrink)

The nature of unconscious information processing is a heavily debated issue in cognitive science , and neuroscience . Traditionally, it has been thought that unconscious cognitive processing is restricted to knowledge that is strongly prepared by conscious processes . In three experiments, we show that the task that is performed consciously can also be applied unconsciously to items outside the current task set. We found that a same–different judgment of two target stimuli was also performed on two subliminally presented prime (...) stimuli. This was true for target and prime stimuli from entirely different categories, as well as for prime and target stimuli at different levels of abstraction. These results reveal that unconscious processing can generalize more widely than previously accepted. (shrink)

In 2002, Luciano Floridi published a paper called What is the Philosophy of Information?, where he argues for a new paradigm in philosophical research. To what extent should his proposal be accepted? Is the Philosophy of Information actually a new paradigm, in the Kuhninan sense, in Philosophy? Or is it only a new branch of Epistemology? In our discussion we will argue in defense of Floridi’s proposal. We believe that Philosophy of Information has the types of features had by other (...) areas already acknowledge as authentic in Philosophy. By way of an analogical argument we will argue that since Philosophy of Information has its own topics, method and problems it would be counter-intuitive not to accept it as a new philosophical area. To strengthen our position we present and discuss main topics of Philosophy of Information. (shrink)

In welchem Verhaltnis steht die Seelenlehre zur Kosmologie in Platons Phaidon?

L’objectif de cette introduction est double : elle présente les articles rassembles dans ce volume et offre une synthèse des développements récents de l’épistemologie des modalités.The role of this introduction is twofold: it presents the papers collected in this volume and offers a synthesis of recent developments of the epistemology of modality.

Almost 250 years after the publication of the taxonomy-founding work Systema Naturae, by Carl Linnaeus, the inventory and catalogue of the planet's biodiversity is still far from complete: only ca 1.5 to 1.8 million of an estimated 10+ million species are so far described. Notwithstanding the remarkable merits of the Linnean system, the task is too vast ever to be completed using current conventional approaches. Such a staggering reality, and the customary difficulty that the scientific community and society in general (...) experience to access taxonomic knowledge, has prompted the search for novel tools or approaches for species identification. Such a tool has been recently proposed in the form of a standardised short DNA sequence from an agreedupon region of the genome, which is expected to ultimately provide a means of fast and robust identification of any species on the planet: the DNA barcode. Received with as much enthusiasm by some as skepticism by others, this novel tool was set in motion on a worldwide scale by means of an international consortium of organisations (the Consortium for the Barcoding of Life), thus becoming a large-scale horizontal genomics project. While anchored within the knowledge and principles of taxonomy, DNA barcoding possesses unique characteristics which anticipate a diverse scope of new applications and benefits for society. Notably, it places the completion of the biodiversity catalogue within the reach of a single generation, with the promise to assist greatly in the discovery of new species. Alongside long-term, ultimate goals, such as democratisation of access to taxonomic knowledge and assistance in writing the encyclopaedia of life, there are several more prosaic applications that may also impact society, not only in certain scientific fields, but also in a range of social and economic activities. Here, we will use DNA barcoding of fish as an example to illustrate foreseen applications, and as a basis to stimulate reflection on potential societal impacts of this horizontal genomics project. (shrink)

In this paper I will deal with the solution to the problem of cognitive significance offered by the so-called new theorists of reference, as well as with the critique of that solution given by Howard Wettstein. I will claim that the answer to this critique provided by John Perry is not sufficiently convincing. First, I will clarify some relevant concepts in order to present the problem of cognitive significance in a clear manner. Then I will expose the solution to the (...) problem offered by Perry and David Kaplan. After that, I will present Wettstein?s critique of that solution. Subsequently, I will also analyze Perry?s attempt to defend against this critique. Finally, I will discuss the extent to which Perry?s attempt is successful. It will be shown that it is significantly not so. nema. (shrink)

W artykule analizowane są uwagi Henryka Elzenberga dotyczące znaczenia i funkcji muzyki dla człowieka. Muzyka ma zdolność antycypowania, wywołania, przekazywania i przekierowywania treści emocjonalnych, ale jaka jest jej rola w poznaniu i myśleniu? Problem jest omawiany w kontekście relacji muzyki z mistyką, z życiem, z niemoralnością, w odwołaniu do Beethovena i Wagnera oraz myśli Wittgensteina o muzyce.

Kaplan’s solution to the indexical version of Frege’s Puzzle in terms of the character of linguistic expressions has been greatly influential and much discussed. Many philosophers regard it as being correct, or at least as being on the right track. However, little has been said about how character is supposed to apply to proper names, and how it could account for the name version of the Puzzle. In this paper I want to fill this gap. I sketch some solutions to (...) the name version of Frege’s Puzzle in terms of character, and argue that all of them are flawed in some way: they are either semantically implausible or fail to account for all relevant phenomena. (shrink)

Contextualists and assessment relativists neglect the expressive dimension of assertoric discourse that seems to give rise to faultless disagreement. Discourse that generates the intuition makes public an attitudinal conflict, and the affective -expressive dimension of the contributing utterances accounts for it. The FD-phenomenon is an effect of a public dispute generated by a sequence of expressing opposite attitudes towards a salient object or state of affairs, where the protagonists are making an attempt to persuade the other side into joining the (...) other’s camp. (shrink)

In this paper I take a closer look at Sextus Empiricus’ arguments in his Outlines of Pyrrhonism I.25-30 and try to make sense of his account of Skepticism as a goal-directed philosophy. I argue that Sextus fails to mount a convincing case for the view that tranquility, rather than suspension of judgment, is the ultimate goal of his inquiries.

Hayek’s social theory of evolution suggests that market liberal morality is adaptive for social groups. He justified the evolutionary superiority of market liberalism by asserting that groups operating under a market liberal morality would have a higher capacity to expand and reproduce than groups with alternative tribal moralities. Thus, market liberal groups would be favoured through cultural and genetic group selection. But in fact, market liberal morality reveals maladaptive tendencies and remains insufficiently powerful to create adaptive social groups. Hayek’s dismissal (...) of moral tribalism in favour of market liberal morality is found to underestimate the importance of tribal goals in the evolutionary system. (shrink)

The relationship of humans to other primates – both in terms of abilities and evolution - has been an age-old topic of dispute in science. In this paper the claim is made that the different views of authors are based not so much on differences in empirical evidence, but on the ontological stances of the authors and the underlying ground narratives that they use. For comparing and reconciling the views presented by the representatives of, inter alia, cognitive ethology, comparative psychology, (...) and zoosemiotics, an overarching approach of multi-constructivism is introduced. The paper proposes an analytic model that distinguishes four logical possibilities in representing anthropological difference: Gradualism, Transformativism, Unitarism, and Pluralism. Using this typology, the views of C. Darwin, F. de Waal, M. Tomasello, and T. A. Sebeok regarding the similarities and differences between human and animal capacities for cognition, culture and communication are analyzed. The results indicate systematic differences in the selected narratives by these authors that can be related to the types of underlying ontologies. (shrink)

Using a prototype approach, we assessed people’s lay conceptions of intuition and analysis. Open-ended descriptions of intuition and analysis were generated by participants (Study 1) and resulting exemplars were sorted into features subsequently rated in centrality by independent participants (Study 2). Feature centrality was validated by showing that participants were quicker and more accurate in classifying central (as compared to peripheral) features (Study 3). Centrality ratings suggested a single-factor structure describing analysis but revealed that participants held lay conceptions of intuition (...) as involving two different types of processes: (1) as an automatic, affective, and non-logical processing, and (2) as a holistic processing that can assist in problem-solving. Additional analyses showed that the centrality ratings of intuition’s facets were predicted by participants’ self-reported intuitive style, suggesting intuition is differently perceived by intuitive and non-intuitive people. We discuss the implications of these results for the study of intuition and analysis. (shrink)

In presenting his theory of the three levels of the divine, namely the One, the Intellect and the Soul, as a legitimate interpretation of Plato’s thought, Plotinus (Enn. 5.1.8) quotes from the Second Letter attributed to Plato, connecting its enigmatic statement about the king at the top of a threefold order of all things (Ep. 2.312e) with the first, second and third deductions in Plato’s Parmenides (Parm. 137c‑157b). These are taken to refer to the One, the Intellect and the Soul (...) respectively, in terms of the One simpliciter, the One‑Many and the One‑and‑Many. This paper first shows why the passage from the Second Letter, rather than any other passage from Plato’s writings, is Plotinus’ chief witness for the legitimacy of his theory of three levels of the divine as an interpretation of Plato. It then re‑examines the reception of the Second Letter (considered apocryphal by most contemporary scholars) prior to Plotinus. While Diogenes Laertius (5.56‑62) testifies to the presence of the collection of Plato’s Letters as early as the third century BC, and very likely of the Second Letter within the edition of Plato’s works by Thrasyllus around the beginning of the CE, the first unmistakable references to the passage in question do not appear before the mid‑second century AD. Its use by either Moderatus of Gades, as argued by E. R. Dodds, or a predecessor of Moderatus, possibly Thrasyllus or Posidonius, as argued by H. Tarrant, is thoroughly hypothetical and not corroborated by irrefutable evidence. The first authors known to us with certainty who quote the Second Letter are Justin Martyr (Apol. 1.60) and Apuleius (Apol. 64). The former does so because of the triadic formula, which he puts into relation with the Christian Trinity, while the latter appeals to it because it names the god of the Platonists ‘the king’. The use of the Second Letter by Valentinus and Numenius around the same time, in the context of a threefold theology, though admittedly likely, is not attested beyond any doubt. Origen testifies that Celsus quoted the Second Letter in his polemics against the Christians, Clement of Alexandria refers to the various passages of the Second Letter on several occasions and there is a single reference to it in Athenagoras. Among the Greek pagan authors before Plotinus, only Alexander of Aphrodisias quotes the passage about the king of all things in commenting upon Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s theory of causes. Since there is no conclusive evidence of the interpretation of Plato’s Parmenides in terms of a hierarchy of metaphysical principles before Plotinus (Simplicius’ testimony about Moderatus may reflect Porphyry’s or Simplicius’ own views), the first interpretation of Plato’s Parmenides to draw on the Second Letter known to us remains that of Plotinus. (shrink)

A Proposta de uma Cartografia dos Descostumes envolve o mapear de deslocamentos de pensamento atinentes ao itinerário ético da educação em processo de violência e conflito direto com o cis-tema, uma vez que aborda as potências _queer_ atravessadas por forças e devires, processos e movimentos, encontrados nas fendas da realidade. A palavra “diálogo” importa na união do prefixo grego “dia” que significa “através”, num sentido de ponte, travessia. O sufixo grego “logos” é etimologicamente significado como palavra ou relação. O transdialogismo (...) reclama para si uma potência que fricciona o repertório de representações de verdades impostas e as experiências sensíveis que produzem efeitos em nosso corpo ultrapasassando os domínios e configurações do cis-tema e propõe uma nova geopolítica de gênero e sexualidade, sem identidades e padrões. A partir de tal pista, dois movimentos se mostram essenciais: 1) mapear as dissocializações e o controle dos corpos nas construções discursivas e normativas da maquinaria escolar; 2) Desedificar discursos educacionais que transitam no universo da representação (significado, significante e significação) na qual se baseia atualmente a pedagogia. Desdobra-se o acontecimento educação em processos, agenciamentos e dispositivos educacionais sem partirmos de objetivos pré-estabelecidos, mas considerando as pistas e movimentos das fendas sociais e encontrando potencias em realidades e cotidianos invisibilizados, mas, ainda assim, violentados e silenciados, partindo de um desejo do pesquisador de compreender esse _trans-corpus_ através de um olhar diverso, diferente, que redimensione o habitual. Por fim, o artigo cartográfico produziu um mapa cortado por linhas de intensidade que partiram do conceito de biopoder em direção ao de necropolítica como condicionantes da maquinaria escolar em seu entrelace junto ao cis-tema Capitalístico, mas que é afrontada pelo inabitual e pelo estranho que delineia as potências queer. (shrink)

ABSTRACT By turning his focus to individuals – the profile of billionaires as the people they are – Peter Hägel offers in his book Billionaires in World Politics an interesting move towards agency, showing that their power, even if situated in a complex economic structure, also consists in bending, changing, or setting the rules of how the game is played. After having followed the move of the pendulum from structure to agency with Hägel, in this paper I suggest that moving (...) back to structural analyses could again provide new insights. I argue that in order to have a more complete picture of the billionaires-and-politics puzzle, it is required to not only look at agency as a kind of reflexive phenomenon, but also to provide a more historically informed genealogy of the conditions under which billionaires’ passions have been shaped. (shrink)

Rooted in theory of planned behavior (TPB) supplemented with self-determination theory (SDT), this study explores determinants of willingness to receive and provide resources in Europe's non-remunerated and remunerated collaborative consumption (CC). The exploration was conducted within a single research model by assessing the role of (a) TPB constructs reflecting attitude towards participation in CC, perceived social pressure to engage, and perceived level of difficulty that engagement requires and (b) SDT constructs of environmental, social, and economic motives for participation. The data (...) were collected through an online questionnaire, and the structural relationships were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Willingness to consume in non-remunerated and remunerated CC was positively directly influenced by social pressure to engage in CC and participation being perceived as pleasant, negatively by the level of difficulty that engagement requires, as well as positively indirectly influenced by environmental concern and sociability. Additionally, environmental concern had positive direct effect on willingness to consume only in the remunerated context. Willingness to provide in non-remunerated CC was positively directly influenced by perceiving participation as pleasant and indirectly by environmental concern and sociability. Resource provision in remunerated CC was not explained by any of the determinants. (shrink)

The introductioń to Ethics in Progress Special Issue, Vol. 7, No. 2 isgiven, with brief exposes on the articles present in the section.

The Polish football fans community has been recently in the scope of several academic studies, concerning – mostly – numerous deviations presented by its members. What has been left underestimated is the formal and practical capacity the football fans community to influence both the public opinion, as well as local and national governments. Albeit controversial, the “fanatic” football fans characteristics are inherently inscribed in the personal identities of the group’s members; they exceed simple “friend-foe” distinctions, rather consisting of a complex (...) set of social and political views, rooted in communitarian and neo-conservative philosophies. In my lecture, I wish to discuss how the football fans community reacts to both theoretical projects of the post-modern society and its practical implementations. By stressing out the declared criticism of the changes taking place in modern society, I wish to evoke the neglected dimension of the football fans society – that of a conservative educator and political actor. (shrink)

On Friendship – Cicero vs. John of Salisbury. On the topic of friendship, a clear filiation can be traced between Cicero and John of Salisbury. However, it is not a mere quotation, but an organic evolution of thought. For both philosophers, friendship appears as supporting social and political relations, thus making the existence of the commonwealth possible. Their views on the different characteristics of friendship are at the same time both shared and different, thus tracing a development of the concept.

The paper raises the question of the relationship between the description of the soul as logos and the description of its cognitive activities as logismos in Plotinus’ Enneads V, 1 [10] et IV, 3 [27]. It first offers an interpretation of the definition of the soul as a logos of the intellect in V, 1 [10]. Then it scrutinises the use of the terms logismos and logizesthai in the same treatise and compares it to a similar use of these terms (...) in IV, 3 [27]. In both treatises, these terms refer to two distinct cognitive activities of the soul, one of which is the activity of a soul remaining in the intelligible realm and contemplating the cognitive contents of the divine intellect, while the other one denotes the defective cognitive activity of an embodied soul. In its concluding section the paper deals with Plotinus’ explanation, in IV, 3 [27], 30, of how the accomplished cognitive activity atthe level of the soul as logos of the intellect becomes a defective logismos at the level of an embodied soul. The author stresses the role of the embodied soul’s faculty of representation. (shrink)

Karel Janá?ek (1906-1996) hat neben seinen beiden Sextus-Monographien und seinen Indices zu Sextus und zu Diogenes Laertius fünfzig Artikel zu Sextus und den mit Sextus zusammenhängenden Themen veröffentlicht. Es handelt sich um methodologisch streng geführte lexikalische und stilistische Untersuchungen, die ein neues Licht auf Sextus' Werk geworfen haben. Im Zusammenhang mit Sextus hat Janá?ek eingehend die Werke des Diogenes Laertius, des Hippolyt von Rom und des Philon von Alexandrien untersucht. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studien bilden die Grundlage der heutigen Sextus-Forschung.

Na gruncie filozofii moralności dominują trzy sposoby opisywania relacji wdzięczności — jako obowiązku spłaty długu, jako odpowiedniej emocji, jako cnoty. Teoria długu, pomimo swej spójności i jasności, wymaga uzupełnienia o elementy psychologiczne, by moc uznać ją za adekwatny opis relacji darczyńcy i obdarowanego. Ujęcie wdzięczności w kategoriach cnoty natomiast zbyt daleko przesuwa granicę tego, co moralnie istotne. Na warunki powstania moralnego obowiązku okazania wdzięczności składają się zarówno motywy obu stron, jak i okoliczności wyświadczenia dobra. Egoistyczna motywacja, przymus czy też przypadkowość (...) obdarowania uniemożliwiają mówienie o powinności obdarowanego. Ponadto zalecana jest ostrożność w posługiwaniu się pojęciami „roszczenia” czy „prawa do wdzięczności”. (shrink)