Binz et al. argue that meta-learned models offer a new paradigm to study human cognition. Meta-learned models are proposed as alternatives to Bayesian models based on their capability to learn identical posterior predictive distributions. In our commentary, we highlight several arguments that reach beyond a predictive distribution-based comparison, offering new perspectives to evaluate the advantages of these modeling paradigms.

The aim of this paper is twofold. I criticize Michael Devitt's linguistic---as opposed to Chomsky's psychological---conception of linguistics on the one hand, and I modify his related view on linguistic intuitions on the other. I argue that Devitt's argument for the linguistic conception is in conflict with one of the main theses of that very conception, according to which linguistics should be about physical sentence tokens of a given language rather than about the psychologically real competence of native speakers. The (...) basis of this conflict is that Devitt's view on language, as I will show, inherits too much from the criticized Chomskian view. This is also the basis of Devitt's strange claim that it is the linguist, and not the ordinary speaker, whose linguistic intuition should have an evidential role in linguistics. I will argue for the opposite by sketching a view on language that is more appropriate to the linguistic conception. That is, in criticizing Devitt, I am not defending the Chomskian approach. My aim is to radicalize Devitt's claims. (shrink)

Une série de conférences a été lancée en Hongrie en 2004 avec le titre In memoriam Jacques Derrida. Le présent volume offre une sélection des interventions tenues en français par des spécialistes internationaux de l'oeuvre de Derrida dans le cadre des séances scientifiques organisées chaque année. Les cinquante chapitres du volume se concentrent sur trois grandes thématiques du philosophe : sur la métaphysique et l'épistémologie, sur l'éthique et la politique, et sur les arts et la littérature. Ces études ont comme (...) objectif de montrer quelles postures le philosophe a prises concernant les différents domaines de réflexion et comment les Derridiens de nos jours les interprètent. A part l'interprétation de la contribution derridienne à toutes ces disciplines, ils fournissent de nouvelles perspectives et montrent ainsi comment son oeuvre continue à vivre après sa mort. (shrink)

Cohen Kadosh & Walsh (CK&W) discuss the limitations of the behavioral, imaging, and single-cell studies related to number representation in human parietal cortex. The limitations of the imaging studies are grossly underestimated, particularly those using adaptation paradigms, and the problem of establishing a link between single-cell studies and imaging is not even addressed. Monkey functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), however, provides a solution to these problems.

Single-cell studies of monkey posterior parietal cortex (PPC) have revealed the extensive neuronal representations of three-dimensional subject motion and three-dimensional layout of the environment. I propose that navigational planning integrates this PPC information, including gravity signals, with horizontal-plane based information provided by the hippocampal formation, modified in primates by expansion of the ventral stream.

En raison de ses élargissements successifs, l’Union européenne compte désormais près d’un demi-milliard de citoyens, 27 États membres, 3 alphabets et 23 langues officielles dont certaines ont une diffusion mondiale. Mais ce n’est que la partie émergée de l’iceberg : quelques 60 autres langues font également partie de son patrimoine commun, parlées qu’elles sont dans certaines régions ou par des groupes spécifiques. Par ailleurs, les migrants ont apporté un large éventail de langues : on estime qu’au moins 175 nationalités sont (...) présentes sur le territoire de l’Union. Cette diversité est le fondement même de l’identité européenne, qui, à l’heure de la mondialisation, en fait sa force : le multilinguisme est un facteur majeur de compétitivité pour l’économie européenne, et la traduction sous toutes ses formes – notamment littéraire – constitue le support essentiel d’une Europe de la diversité.With its successive enlargements, the European Union now has almost half a billion citizens, 27 Member States, 3 alphabets and 23 official languages, some of which are spoken all over the world. But this is only the visible part of the iceberg: some 60 other languages, spoken in certain regions or by particular groups, are also part of its common heritage. To these are added a wide range of other languages introduced by migrants: it is estimated that at least 175 nationalities are represented within the EU. This diversity is the very foundation of European identity and, in our age of globalisation, also what makes its strength: multilingualism is an important factor of competitiveness for the European economy, and translation of every kind, literary included, is a mainstay of European diversity. (shrink)

A comparative fMRI study by Peeters et al. (2009) provided evidence that a specific sector of left inferior parietal lobule is devoted to tool use in humans, but not in monkeys. We propose that this area represents the neural substrate of the human capacity to understand tool use by using causal reasoning.

Respecting and protecting the confidentiality of data and the privacy of individuals regarding the information that they have given as participants in a research project is a cornerstone of complying with accepted research standards. However, in longitudinal studies, establishing and maintaining privacy is often challenging because of the necessity of repeated contact with participants. A novel internet-based solution is introduced here, which maintains privacy while at the same time ensures linkage of data to individual participants in a repeated measures design. (...) With the use of the anonymous repeated measurements via email (ARME) procedure, two separate one-way communication systems are established through ad hoc email accounts and a secure study website. Strengths and limitations of the approach are discussed. (shrink)

Interactomics aims to characterize all interactions formed between molecules that comprise our body. Although it emerged from quantitative biophysics, it has devolved into a predominantly qualitative field of science over the past decades. Due to technical limitations at its onset, almost all tools in interactomics are qualitative, which persists in defining the discipline. Here, we argue that interactomics needs to return to a quantitative direction because the technical achievements of the last decade have overcome the original limitations that forced its (...) current path. In contrast to qualitative interactomics which is constrained to charting lists of observed interactions, quantitative interactomics can also uncover answers to key questions such as the strength of interactions or how many of certain complexes can form in cells, thus providing researchers with more immediate proxies for understanding and predicting biological processes. (shrink)

This essay examines Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, and his cultivation of a new form of authoritarian and hyper-nationalist neoliberalism, which I call ordonationalist. With particular emphasis placed on tracing resurgence of the national state, ordonationalism points to the neoliberal intensifications, but also the ruptures to neoliberalism through post-neoliberal advances, exemplified by the Hungarian state. Ordonationalism combines: (1) a newly empowered nationalist state invested in flexibilizing domestic labour and controlling access to domestic capitalist accumulation; (2) a national state captured by political (...) actors as a means towards controlling access to domestic capital accumulation; (3) a novel regime of social reproduction, linking financialization, flexibilization of labour, steep decline in supporting social reproduction, and supporting consumption as a source of social reproduction. This project is hegemonic. However, the contradictions between radical neoliberalization and radical nationalism generate ever-more instances where an authoritarian state steps in to solve crises generated by its contradictions. (shrink)

This paper offers a politolinguistic analysis of four ‘state of the nation’ speeches delivered by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán between 1999 and 2002. The analysis focuses on the ways in which Orbán’s self-representation, his discourse strategies and the tone of the speeches changed in response to changes in the ideological background over the four years in question. The findings demonstrate that Orbán’s voice was most active in the pre-election speech of 2002, that he had become (...) increasingly interpellative (in the Althusserian sense) over this period and that he increasingly tried to conversationalize the dominant ideology. (shrink)