In this paper we have two main aims. First, we present an account of mood-congruent delusions in depression (hereafter, depressive delusions). We propose that depressive delusions constitute acknowledgements of self-related beliefs acquired as a result of a negatively biased learning process. Second, we argue that depressive delusions have the potential for psychological and epistemic benefits despite their obvious epistemic and psychological costs. We suggest that depressive delusions play an important role in preserving a person’s overall coherence and narrative identity at (...) a critical time, and thus can be regarded as epistemically innocent. (shrink)

We present a preliminary study on disambiguation of symbolic expressions in mathematical documents. We propose to use the natural language within which the expressions are embedded to resolve their semantics. The approach is based on establishing a similarity between the expression’s discourse context and a set of terms from Term Clusters based on OpenMath Content Dictionaries. The Term Clusters are semi-automatically constructed terminological resources which classify related mathematical concepts into groups. Each group is labelled with a term which represents the (...) common denominator between the concepts. (shrink)

Love is a universal experience that most people desire. A serious, long-term, and stigmatized illness makes entering and maintaining close relationships difficult, however. Ten persons, who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and lived with their illness for between years and decades of their lifetimes, shared their stories. They reported how the illness has influenced their emotional experiences regarding love and their intimate relationship experiences. We present here a qualitative Interpretative Phenomenological analysis (IPA) of their narratives. This analysis has been done (...) with an explicit intention to give voice to the patient’s perspective. The results highlight how illness adjustment and hospitalizations have an alienating effect on relationships through stigmatization and self-stigmatization; how illness creates psychological obstacles to love, such as diminished trust toward oneself and others; and how long-term patients experience practical difficulties in creating and sustaining relationships, such as poverty. Moreover, we show how patients experience changes in sexuality and the risks involved in it, and discuss possible coping strategies from their perspectives. (shrink)

Philosophers have always recognized the value of reason, but the process of reasoning itself has only recently begun to emerge as a philosophical topic in its own right. Is reasoning a distinctive kind of mental process? If so, what is its nature? How does reasoning differ from merely freely associating thoughts? What is the relationship between reasoning about what to believe and reasoning about how to act? Is reasoning itself something you do, or something that happens to you? And what (...) is the value of reasoning? Are there rules for good or correct reasoning and, if so, what are they like? Does good reasoning always lead to justified belief or rational action? Is there more than one way to reason correctly from your evidence? This volume comprises twelve new essays by leading researchers in the philosophy of reasoning that together address these questions and many more, and explore the connections between them. (shrink)

This special issue on posthumanist perspectives on affect seeks to create a platform for thinking about the intersection of, on the one hand, the posthumanist project of radically reconfiguring the meaning of the “human” in light of the critiques of a unified and bounded subjectivity and, on the other, the insights coming from recent scholarship on affect and feeling about the subject, sociality, and connectivity. Posthumanism stands for diverse theoretical positions which together call into question the anthropocentric assertion of the (...) human as a distinctive, unique and dominant form of life – in turn, the concept of affect has been linked with ideas of increasing and decreasing energetic intensities, which underlie, but for some also precede, processes of individuation and subjectivation.The contributors to this issue consider critically the vistas opened by affect studies and by posthumanism. Coming from diverse disciplinary traditions, including literature, philosophy, critical sociology, visual arts, and heritage studies, the articles contribute to the four thematic idioms of this issue in an attempt to structure a dialogical space on posthumanist perspectives on affect and on affect-based politics. Questions of environmental governance, the critique of speciesism, the formation of cross-species solidarity, the politics of the “inhuman”, biopolitics and necropolitics form the intellectual mosaic of this issue. Finally, we pose the question of “academic affects”, in circulation in the researcher's encounter with her others – humans, insects, ghostly presences or inanimate objects – and we ask how these affects, including anger and mourning, but also joyful affirmation, are brought to bear on the process of writing. (shrink)

This article analyses how normative decision theory is understood by economists. The paradigmatic example of normative decision theory, discussed in the article, is the expected utility theory. It...

ObjectiveThe coronavirus pandemic affects all areas of life. Performing arts and music studies have also experienced considerable changes, with university closures and a fluctuating return to normal and more limited operations. Prior studies detail the impact of the pandemic on college students, but we do not yet know what specific consequences it has for music students. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on music students’ health, practicing behavior, and everyday life.MethodsIn July 2020, (...) we conducted an online survey of 80 students enrolled in performance and music education programs at a German music university and compared these data with data from a survey of 75 students at the same music university carried out in summer 2019.ResultsThe survey revealed that the coronavirus pandemic led to a decrease in practicing hours and an increase of stressful thoughts and feelings. Students were mostly satisfied with Corona-measures taken by the university. Of analyzed determinants, only general fear of health problems was identified as a significant predictor of mental health status. Mental health status did not significantly differ between students surveyed in 2019 and 2020.ConclusionKnowledge about the specific challenges the pandemic poses for music students can help conservatories to better respond to the needs of their students. Specifically, this study will inform future measures supporting music students in coping with difficult situations like a pandemic. (shrink)

Artykuł podejmuje namysł nad kategorią lektury z perspektywy estetycznej. Śledzi rozmaite spo­soby użycia tego pojęcia i różne sensy kryjące się za figurą czytania, nie zawsze pokrywające się z tradycyjnymi definicjami odnotowywanymi współcześnie w słownikach. W punkcie wyjścia leży rozpoznanie, że kategoria lektury ma dziś szerokie zastosowanie, tzn. jej przedmiotem są nie tylko utwory piśmiennicze czy literackie. Artykuł stara się odpowiedzieć na pytanie, co sprawia, że pojęcie lektury bywa tak chętnie aplikowane do przestrzeni estetycznej i dlaczego czytaniu poddawane są także zjawiska (...) – co szczególnie frapujące – o wyraźnym wizualnym nacechowaniu, do których zasadniczo przystaje przede wszystkim postawa widza, a nie czytelnika. O atrakcyjno­ści lektury jako narzędzia służącego do kontaktu ze zjawiskami o charakterze pozaczytelniczym decyduje splot jej właściwości. Lekturę można bowiem traktować z jednej strony jako dyspozycję mentalną i poznawczą, służącą wyjaśnianiu znaczeń, a z drugiej strony jako praktykę, która ma swoje psychosomatyczne, sensualne, percepcyjne uwarunkowania. To dzięki temu tak dobrze sprawdza się w przestrzeni estetycznej, pozostając m.in. w symbiotycznej relacji z oglądaniem. (shrink)

A partir das noções de liberdade, situação e responsabilidade e suas relações, apresentadanos textos sartrianos aqui escolhidos – a saber: O existencialismo é um humanismo e O ser eo nada –, objetiva-se destacar a crítica à doutrina do livre-arbítrio, própria do pensarcristão, que acarreta a recusa do pensar determinista em Sartre a respeito das ações econdutas humanas, sobretudo no destaque que o filósofo confere aos termos situação econtingência, vinculadas à sua compreensão de liberdade. Trata-se de sinalizar, na ênfasedo valorar singular (...) enquanto compreendido como próprio do humano, a suaconsequência: a recusa do caráter transcendente das ideias de bem e mal, virtude ou vício,que não deixam de apontar para uma concepção ética na visão sartriana da existênciahumana e do modo de agir e posicionar-se no mundo. Em síntese, a motivação maior sevolta para a reelaboração da moral para além do pensar cristão, que acentua a implicaçãodo sujeito no seu fazer-se, a sua responsabilidade em relação aos acontecimentos eprojetos que eliminam a passividade e a indiferença na ação e no posicionamento do parasino mundo, que a ele se apresenta e nele ele se revela. (shrink)

El artículo explora el antiidentitarismo del marxismo abierto, una corriente contemporánea que propone un sujeto crítico negativo que rechaza las definiciones. Cuestiono si este antiidentitarismo se limita a la abolición de la identidad de clase o si incluye otras identidades ligadas a otras opresiones. Expongo que los teóricos del marxismo abierto tienen una postura insuficiente y ambigua al respecto, que además no es coherente con sus propias pretensiones. Propongo que el antiidentitarismo del marxismo abierto solo es coherente si busca abolir (...) todas las identidades. Esto lo realizo a partir de establecer paralelos con el feminismo y la teoría queer. (shrink)

The purpose of this work is to explain how, with the proposition "cogito ergo sum", Descartes contradicts the A axiom from the Theory of knowledge of Leonardo Polo, by accepting the pasivenness of the knowledge and denying it as an operation of knowing an object, in wich the cognizant and the cognizance are one in act.

Name der Zeitschrift: Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric Jahrgang: 45 Heft: 1 Seiten: 187-197.

The technological transformation of the conduct of war, exemplified by the American employment of drones in Afghanistan and in Iraq, calls for a critical reflection about the fantasies that underpin, and are in turn animated by, the robotic revolution of the military. At play here is a fantasy of a “costless war" or a “sterile war", that is such act of military state violence against the other that is inconsequential for the self. In other words, the seductive appeal of the (...) “costless war’ fantasy rests on the desire to develop a self that is invulnerable in the face of violence. Importantly, it is a desire explicitly projected towards a particular American future (of an imagined warfare, or of a super-power status), but also one that is connected to a lacking critical reflection about the intersubjective aspects of violence in the debates about America’s post-9/11 military involvements. This article reflects critically about the fantasy of the “costless war" and about its underpinning politics of invulnerability from a perhaps unlikely angle of literature. In a close reading of a short story by Benjamin Percy called “Refresh, Refresh" (2008), it explores its narrative insights into how acts of violence, which are undertaken far from home, inevitably return to affect and damage, perhaps beyond repair, the subject at home. Importantly, the return of violence in Percy’s story occurs within the domain of the everyday and the mundane, not of the exceptional, and testifies to the despair experienced by young males “abandoned" by their military fathers. My interpretation draws also on theoretical explorations of the connection between violence, intersubjectivity and vulnerability, based on the ideas of Emmanuel Levinas on the subject's ethical captivity by the suffering of the other, and on Judith Butler's recent “uses" of the Levinasian ethical project in her writing about the post-9/11 America. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that Christopher Kutz misapplies his theory of joint action when he attributes shareowners responsibilities on the basis of their intentional participation in the corporations in which they invest. Instead I propose that his theory of joint action should be used to attribute shareowners responsibilities on the basis of their intentional participation in the stock market. If shareholders’ accountability is grounded in their intentional participation in the stock market, then shareholders cannot take responsibility for corporation’s individual (...) actions. Instead they are solely responsible for the benefits they gain from holding shares if these are a result of moral wrongdoing and for this they should be held accountable. (shrink)

We discuss the semantic significance of a puzzle concerning ‘ought’ and conditionals recently discussed by Kolodny and MacFarlane. We argue that the puzzle is problematic for the standard Kratzer-style analysis of modality. In Kratzer’s semantics, modals are evaluated relative to a pair of conversational backgrounds. We show that there is no sensible way of assigning values to these conversational backgrounds so as to derive all of the intuitions in Kolodny and MacFarlane’s case. We show that the appropriate verdicts can be (...) derived by extending Kratzer’s framework to feature a third conversational background and claiming that the relevant reading of ‘ought’ is sensitive to this parameter. (shrink)

Researchers and companies are paying increasing attention to corporate social responsibility programs and the reaction to them by consumers. Despite such corporate efforts and an expanding literature exploring consumers’ response to CSR, it remains unclear how consumers perceive CSR and which “Gestalt” consumers have in mind when considering CSR. Academics and managers lack a tool for measuring consumers’ perceptions of CSR. This research explores CPCSR and develops a measurement model. Based on qualitative data from interviews with managers and consumers, the (...) authors develop a conceptualization of CPCSR. Subsequently, model testing and validating occurs on three large quantitative data sets. The conceptualization and the measurement scale can assist companies to assess CPCSR relative to their performance. They also enable managers in identifying shortcomings in CSR engagement and/or communication. Finally, the paper discusses implications for marketing practice and future research. (shrink)

Das politische Denken Rousseaus ist von einer tief greifenden Ambivalenz durchzogen: Einerseits soll mit der Republik die verlorene Einheit des Menschen auf politischer Ebene zurückgewonnen werden - doch andererseits bleibt angesichts der unheilbaren Spaltung des vergesellschafteten Menschen jede Hoffnung auf Einheit vergeblich. Magdalena Scherl rekonstruiert diesen Zwiespalt, indem sie das Republikideal im Lichte der Geschlechter- und Begehrenstheorie analysiert und dabei neben Rousseaus politischen Schriften auch sein literarisches Werk einbezieht. So werden die Aporien und Abgründe des republikanischen Denkens ausgeleuchtet, das (...) sich im Spannungsfeld zwischen ersehnter Einheit und unheilbarer Spaltung bewegt. (shrink)

According to general relativity, we live in a four-dimensional curved universe. Since the human mind cannot visualize those four dimensions, a popular analogy compares the universe to a two-dimensional rubber sheet distorted by massive objects. This analogy is often used when teaching GR to upper secondary and undergraduate physics students. However, physicists and physics educators criticize the analogy for being inaccurate and for introducing conceptual conflicts. Addressing these criticisms, we analyze the rubber sheet analogy through systematic metaphor analysis of textbooks (...) and research literature, and present an empirical analysis of upper secondary school students’ use and understanding of the analogy. Taking a theoretical perspective of embodied cognition allows us to account for the relationship between the experiential and sensory aspects of the metaphor in relation to the abstract nature of spacetime. We employ methods of metaphor and thematic analysis to study written accounts of small groups of 97 students who worked with a collaborative online learning environment as part of their regular physics lessons in five classes in Norway. Students generated conceptual metaphors found in the literature as well as novel ones that led to different conceptions of gravity than those held by experts in the field. Even though most students showed awareness of some limitations of the analogy, we observed a conflict between students’ embodied understanding of gravity and the abstract description of GR. This conflict might add to the common perception of GR being counterintuitive. In making explicit strengths and weaknesses of the rubber sheet analogy and learners’ conceptual difficulties, our results offer guidance for teaching GR. More generally, these findings contribute to the epistemological implications of employing specific scientific metaphors in classrooms. (shrink)