« Dans cet article, nous tenterons d’interpréter la notion controversée de musique populaire brésilienne en tant que concept porteur d’un contenu à la fois utopique et idéologique, en nous appuyant sur le concept d’idéologie dans la pensée de Marx et d’Adorno, ainsi que sur une intuition du philosophe brésilien Vladimir Safatle. Notre hypothèse est la suivante : la musique populaire brésilienne, portée par un mouvement dialectique, a changé de paradigme tout au long du xx e siècle, avec la samba, la (...) bossa-nova et la musique populaire brésilienne ( mpb ) comme paradigmes successifs. Il s’agit alors d’identifier les changements du contenu utopique et idéologique de la musique brésilienne en fonction des mouvements de l’histoire du pays. Enfin, nous conclurons par une hypothèse sur notre époque actuelle, sur la crise de la musique populaire brésilienne et de son concept.». (shrink)

One of the most profound insights of the dynamic systems perspective is that new structures resulting from the developmental process do not need to be planned in advance, nor is it necessary to have these structures represented in genetic or neurological templates prior to their emergence. Rather, new structures can emerge as components of the individual and the environment self-organize; that is, as they mutually constrain each other's actions, new patterns and structures may arise. This theoretical possibility brings into developmental (...) theory the important concept of indeterminism--the possibility that developmental outcomes may not be predictable in any simple linear causal way from their antecedents. This is the first book to take a critical and serious look at the role of indeterminism in psychological and behavioral development. * What is the source of this indeterminism? * What is its role in developmental change? * Is it merely the result of incomplete observational data or error in measurement? It reviews the concepts of indeterminism and determinism in their historical, philosophical, and theoretical perspectives--particularly in relation to dynamic systems thinking--and applies these general ideas to systems of nonverbal communication. Stressing the indeterminacy inherent to symbols and meaning making in social systems, several chapters address the issue of indeterminism from metaphorical, modeling, and narrative perspectives. Others discuss those indeterministic processes within the individual related to emotional, social, and cognitive development. (shrink)

The New Economic Windows Series, derived from Massimo Salzano's ideas and work, incorporates material from textbooks, monographs and conference proceedings that deals with both the theoretical and applied aspects of various sub-disciplines ...

The Greek text used was that of the English edition of Hugh G. Evelyn-White (HESIOD, 1914). The translations of the Theogony of Ana Lúcia Silveira Cerqueira and Maria Therezinha Áreas Lyra (HESÍODO, 1986) have been consulted for comparison, José Antonio Alves Torrano (HESÍODO, 1995), Hugh G. Evelyn-White (HESIOD, 1914) and José Marcos Mariani de Macedo (MACEDO, 2010). In addition, this translation was based on the translations of the Homeric Hymns, Edvanda Bonavina da Rosa et alia (2010), and Trajano (...) Vieira’s Odyssey (HOMERO, 2011). (shrink)

O Professor Rubens Pinto Lyra oferece nesse livro um conjunto de reflexões que abarcam temas complexos da ciência política, indo desde questões tratadas em nível teórico mais abstrato, como as ideologias e o conceito de bloco histórico... também analisa as transformações políticas em nossa época, como a emergência de uma extrema-direita proto-fascista, em nível interno (bolsonarismo) e mundial. E, ainda a relação entre religião e política"--Front flap.

The establishment of the Common European Asylum System by 2012 remains a key policy objective for the European Union. According to the Council of the European Union, the development of a Common Asylum Policy should be based on a full and inclusive application of the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and other relevant international treaties. In the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum attention is brought to the persistence of wide disparities amongst Member States in the (...) granting of protection and the form of protection granted. This is seen as one of the main problems to be addressed in building the CEAS. It is fairly obvious that existing divergences in policy have a substantial impact upon the aims of the CEAS. It can be assumed that the difference in governmental practices involving recognizing asylum seekers on refugee grounds or subsidiary protection grounds may be a substantial factor in the decision-making process on where to apply for international protection. The European Commission stressed the importance, during the second phase of the CEAS, of paying particular attention to subsidiary and other forms of protection. (shrink)

Starting from 2009, national courts of the EU Member States for the first time gained a “real” right to request the EU Court of Justice for preliminary rulings in asylum matters. First judgments of this Court demonstrate equivocal tendencies: some are blaming the Court for incompetence in asylum matters, others believe that the adoption of authoritative decisions at the European level will assist in developing consistent practice of applying asylum law in the European Union, something that failed at international level (...) due to absence of a single authoritative body to provide guidance on interpretation and application of the 1951 Refugee Convention. Considering that the judgments of the EU Court are part of the EU law, the Member States should develop their national asylum law with due regard being taken to those judgments. By the beginning of 2012, the Court has issued eight judgments on the interpretation of various problematic issues of EU asylum law. This Article analyses the jurisprudence of the EU Court in asylum cases, related to the granting of refugee status and subsidiary protection. It also provides a critical evaluation of those judgments. The main objective of the Article is to familiarise the relevant Lithuanian institutions and lawyers with the first judgments of the EU Court in asylum cases and encourage discussions concerning the application of rules established by the Court in the Lithuanian context. Due to limited size, this Article presents the analysis of two EU Court judgments adopted on interpretation of the 2004 Qualification Directive: Elgafaji v. The Netherlands (2009) dealing with granting of subsidiary protection, and Abdulla and others v. Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2010), dealing with cessation of refugee status. The value of those judgments first of all lies in the guidance they provided to the Member States on such concepts as: protection in a situation of an armed conflict, agents of protection, effectiveness of protection; as well as determination of a relationship between refugee status and subsidiary protection, relationship of the Qualification Directive with the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR), also cessation of protection. Elgafaji decision, while quite liberal with regard to persons seeking international protection, is not so liberally applied in the Member States’ practice and does not in itself guarantee positive outcome of the application of a concrete individual fleeing from an armed conflict, or a liberal approach to granting subsidiary protection in the Member States. Based on Elgafaji judgment it is clear that: Art. 15(b) of the Qualification Directive correspond to Art. 3 ECHR, while Art. 15(c) provides additional protection and in that it expands the Member States’ obligations beyond the ECHR to provide protection to persons fleeing in situations of armed conflict. While not every person arriving from an armed conflict situation would automatically fall under the granting of subsidiary protection, in certain exceptional situations indiscriminate violence may amount to individual threat without invoking personal circumstances. The EU Court departed from the individualisation requirement applied by the European Court of Human Rights in Art. 3 cases and did not also rely on international humanitarian law, by introducing a “sliding scale” formula for establishing an individual threat in armed conflict situation instead. This formula addressed the alleged internal discrepancy between “individual threat” and “indiscriminate violence”. The Abdulla decision brought in the human rights and law enforcement perspectives to the interpretation of cessation clauses, however it represents a rather superficial approach in the context of the analysed concepts (e.g. towards effectiveness of protection provided by the multinational armed forces) and is likely to be incompatible with the latest legislative trends in the EU asylum instruments (e.g. determination of refugee status and subsidiary protection by means of a single procedure) and the recent jurisprudence under the ECHR (e.g. failure to ensure a minimum standard of living may violate the ECHR). (shrink)

In 2012 there are 76 countries of the world still criminalising same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults. In seven of those countries homosexual acts are punishable with death penalty (i. e., Mauritania, Sudan, the northern states of Nigeria, the southern parts of Somalia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen). Homophobic (transphobic) attitudes are also frequent in many societies. However, the LGBT asylum seekers are frequently left outside the refugee definition due to many refugee qualification and procedural problems in LGBT cases. Criminalisation, (...) state protection against non-state persecution, concealment of sexual or gender identity, internal protection were discussed in the previous article ‘The Refugee Qualification Problems in LGBT Asylum Cases’ by Laurynas Biekša2. In this article the authors aim to describe the main procedural problems in LGBT asylum cases (i. e., credibility assessment, late disclosure, country of origin information and reception) and propose their solutions. Guiding European and international standards are laid down in the Reception Directive3, Qualification Directive4, Procedures Directive5 and UNHCR Guidance Note6. Today these standards should serve as a starting point for identifying the problems LGBT asylum seekers may have during their asylum procedures and for finding possible solutions. (shrink)

Even though the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) does not explicitly address the rights of asylum seekers and refugees, the case law of the European Human Rights Court (ECtHR) confirms that their rights can be successfully defended under this mechanism. In parallel, in its evolving jurisprudence on asylum the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) refers to the Strasbourg case law, where there is a certain interrelationship between these two jurisdictions, in particular (...) given the recent ECtHR pronouncement on “EU Dublin transfers”. The article aims at evaluating protection available for asylum seekers and refugees under the ECHR, while comparing it with protection of asylum relevant fundamental rights under the EU legal order and the most recent jurisprudence of the CJEU in asylum cases. The authors also analyze which of the two systems is more favourable and what are their limitations. Thus, the article offers to students and practitioners a detailed analysis of ECtHR and CJEU jurisprudence in asylum cases through a comparative perspective, as well as the key problematic aspects arising in both jurisdictions and their junction. The jurisprudence of the ECtHR reveals that despite the most developed protection from expulsion under Article 3 of the ECHR, it does not sufficiently secure status for the concerned persons. Effective remedy requirements under the ECHR allow for filling the gaps of national asylum procedures, while recognition of vulnerability and special status of asylum seekers by the ECtHR assist in addressing still commonly prevailing detention problems of asylum seekers in Europe. In the context of family protection, the recognition of positive obligations by states to reunite the refugee families is still rudimentary, thus, clearly Article 3 protection in expulsion cases takes over Article 8. At the same time, the jurisprudence of the CJEU in asylum cases is still inconsistent, as the court sometimes takes decisions without including human rights into its’ analysis (Kadzoev, Arslan, K.), while in other cases refers to the Charter (MA and others), verifies if its’ own decision is in line with the ECtHR jurisprudence (Elgafaji) or shapes secondary legislation in line with Strasbourg arguments and findings (N.S.). Quite likely, the ECtHR practice will have an important influence on the developments of subsidiary protection in the EU, at least in the context of Articles 2 and 3 of the ECHR, and serve as an important reference for interpretation of various concepts under the EU Qualification and Procedures Directives. The comparative analysis of pros and cons of the two mechanisms demonstrates that the main advantage of the ECtHR is individual justice possibility, which is not yet accessible under CJEU preliminary judgement procedure and its input in developing asylum law concepts, such as non-state agents of persecution, internal protection or even subsidiary protection regime under EU asylum law. Thanks to the ECtHR, the realistic possibility to question the application of certain EU norms has emerged (Dublin Regulation). While the ECtHR does not have such a specific competence over asylum issues as the CJEU and is clearly a slow and seriously overburdened mechanism, the pilot judgement procedure seems to be increasingly capable of providing guidelines to the states concerning systematic problems in their asylum procedures. Thus, both jurisdictions in their own ways contribute to strengthening asylum seekers’ protection while forming a common oasis for these individuals in Europe. (shrink)

The 6th of February 2005 marks the deadline of transposition of the EU Council Directive No. 2003/9/EC (Reception Conditions‘ Directive) into national legislation. This article is the second in a series of articles on transposition of the European Union Asylum Directives in Lithuania and remaining concerns. It analyses the transposition of the Reception Conditions Directive in the country, the impact of the directive‘s provisions on the development of the Lithuanian asylum law and draws attention to the remaining concerns in relation (...) to implementation of this directive in Lithuania. The authors illustrate the remaining concerns with practical and live examples/stories from Lithuania. (shrink)

A gestão da Covid no Brasil está entre as piores do mundo, com número de óbitos inaceitavelmente alto. É inclusive estranho que esses resultados não tenham sido capazes de disparar entre os brasileiros nenhuma mobilização social mais decisiva. Não obstante o reconhecimento da importância do debate mais estritamente político, o objetivo deste artigo é ensaiar uma reflexão fenomenológica sobre a respiração, tendo Heidegger como referência principal. A Covid é afinal uma doença respiratória, que nos convida – ou deveria convidar – (...) a pensar sobre a respiração sob perspectivas históricas, ontológicas e existenciais. São dois os temas a discutir: nossa empobrecida relação com o respirar, e a dificuldade de, mesmo diante de mais de 600 mil mortes direta ou indiretamente causadas no Brasil por asfixia – e mais de 5 milhões no mundo –, encontrarmos caminho para discutir o assunto com mais profundidade. (shrink)

Resumo: Faço aqui um balanço das minhas pesquisas sobre ensino de filosofia. O envolvimento recua às minhas primeiras experiências docentes, quando se fez claro que o conhecimento da tradição filosófica não bastava. Mas apenas em 2009, quando assumi disciplinas de formação de professores na PUC-Rio, é que a pesquisa se formalizou. Eram outros os tempos: a filosofia e a sociologia tornavam-se obrigatórias no ensino médio e a comunidade filosófica brasileira intensificava sua atenção ao campo. Integrei em 2015 a equipe que (...) elaborou as primeiras versões da BNCC. Muita coisa se transformou desde então. A referida obrigatoriedade foi revogada e ingressamos num período de incerteza política, ademais caracterizado por insignes modificações nos dispositivos de formação de opinião. Investi na retórica – clássica e digital – como elemento de formação docente. Cabia à filosofia evitar que nossos jovens se transformassem simultaneamente em “meros usuários de novas tecnologias” e “cidadãos de segunda classe”. Esse investimento rendeu o livro O Esquecimento de uma Arte: retórica, pedagogia e filosofia no século 21. Agora me volto para a construção de uma “filosofia da opinião”. Assim o exige o presente cenário de negacionismos e polarização política. Em uma frase, este texto resume uma história de busca de lugar curricular efetivamente formativo para a filosofia, sobretudo sintonizado com as presentes demandas. Palavras-chave: Ensino de Filosofia; Opinião; Conhecimento; Retórica Digital Teaching Philosophy and Opinion Formation in the Technical Era Abstract: I present here a balance of my research on philosophy teaching. The involvement goes back to my first teaching experiences when it became clear that knowledge of the philosophical tradition was not enough. But only in 2009, when I took over teacher training courses at PUC-Rio, the research has been formalized. Times were different: Philosophy and Sociology became mandatory in high school, and the Brazilian philosophical community intensified its attention to the field. In 2015 I joined the team that prepared the first versions of the BNCC. A lot has changed since then: Philosophy lost its fixed place in the curriculum, we entered a period of political uncertainty, and significant changes in opinion-forming processes came to light. I invested in rhetoric – classical and digital – as an element of teacher training. It was up to Philosophy to prevent our young people from becoming simultaneously “mere users of new technologies” and “second-class citizens.” This investment yielded the book The Oblivious of an Art: Rhetoric, Pedagogy, and Philosophy in the 21st Century. Now I focus on constructing a “philosophy of opinion,” as required by the present denialism and political polarization scenario. In short, this text summarizes the history of a search for an effectively formative curricular place for Philosophy, above all in tune with the present demands. Keywords: Teaching Philosophy; Opinion; Knowledge; Digital Rhetoric Enseñanza de la Filosofía y Formación de Opinión en la Era Técnica Resumen: Presento aquí un balance de mi investigación sobre la enseñanza de la filosofía. La implicación se remonta a mis primeras experiencias docentes, cuando quedó claro que el conocimiento de la tradición filosófica no era suficiente. Pero fue recién en 2009, cuando asumí los cursos de formación docente en la PUC-Rio, que se formalizó la investigación. Los tiempos eran otros: la Filosofía y la Sociología se volvieron obligatorias en la escuela secundaria y la comunidad filosófica brasileña intensificó su atención al campo. En 2015 me incorporé al equipo que elaboró ​​las primeras versiones de la BNCC. Mucho ha cambiado desde entonces. La obligación antes mencionada fue revocada y entramos en un período de incertidumbre política, que también se caracterizó por cambios significativos en los dispositivos de formación de opinión. Invertí en la retórica, clásica y digital, como elemento de formación docente. Correspondía a la Filosofía evitar que nuestros jóvenes se convirtieran simultáneamente en “meros usuarios de las nuevas tecnologías” y “ciudadanos de segunda”. Esta inversión dio como resultado el libro O Esquecimento de uma Arte: Retórica, Pedagogía y Filosofía en el Siglo 21. Paso ahora a la construcción de una “filosofía de la opinión”. Esto es lo que demanda el actual escenario de negacionismo y polarización política. En suma, este texto resume una historia de la búsqueda de un lugar curricular efectivamente formativo para la Filosofía, sobre todo en sintonía con las demandas actuales. Palabras clave: Enseñanza de la Filosofía; Opinión; Conocimiento; Retórica Digital Data de registro: 23/01/2023 Data de aceite: 23/08/2023. (shrink)

No presente artigo, analisamos as abordagens de António Damásio e Gerald Edelman sobre a consciência e fazemos um paralelo com as teses apresentadas pelo filósofo John Searle. Recorremos também às críticas dos filósofos Bennett e Hacker como pedras de toque da viabilidade de algumas teses. Desse modo, apresentamos uma revisão sistemática da obra de Damásio, Edelman e Searle, a fim de promover um diálogo produtivo entre as ideias defendidas por estes autores, os quais, segundo nossa interpretação, assumem uma teoria do (...) campo unificado da consciência. (shrink)

The affirmation that “there is no philosophy other than Western philosophy” is not in Heideggerian terms praise for the West. One of the ways Heidegger deals with the current hegemony of technology is the search for its historical-ontological origin, tracing the contemporary phenomenon back to its Greek roots. As there are no meta-narratives linking, for example, the China of Laozi to the technological power that China is today, one imagines that global developmentalism really has its epicenter in the West. Be (...) that as it may, East and West need to think about the paths that mysteriously define their common technological destiny. It is against this backdrop that some of Heidegger's references to the Dao will be revisited here. (shrink)

Reiteradamente, ao longo de sua obra, Heidegger referiu-se ao opúsculo Sobre a essência da verdade, cuja primeira elaboração data de 1930. Chega a dizer, em entrevista ao L’Express , ser esse trabalho a "dobradiça" entre Heidegger I e Heidegger II, inseparáveis um do outro. A questão da história é nele abordada na sua relação com a verdade do ser, mais exatamente, com a idéia de que a continuidade dos eventos que concerne a essa verdade está ontologicamente ligada a uma recusa (...) original do ser a uma inteligibilidade plena ou definitiva. Dessa recusa original decorre a liberdade e, simultaneamente, a possibilidade do erro, a errância; decorre, igualmente, a possibilidade de completo desnorteamento. Tomando essas teses como ponto de partida, é possível afastar da concepção heideggeriana de história quaisquer traços de processualismo ou teleologia, e, sobretudo, reconciliá-la com uma idéia simultaneamente geral e "concreta" de alteridade. É o que aqui se pretende.Over and over along his works Heidegger has mentioned the opuscule On the Essence of Truth, whose first elaboration dates from 1930. In an interview to L'Express he even comes to say about this work that it is a "hinge" between Heidegger I and Heidegger II, inseparable from each other. The text deals with the question of history in its reference to the truth of being, more precisely, to the idea that the continuity of events related to this truth is ontologically tied to an original refusal of being to a full or conclusive intelligibility. What is brought out of this original refusal is freedom but, at the same time, the possibility of error, errancy; it also follows the possibility of complete disorientation. Taking these thesis as a starting point, it is possible to move away from the heideggerian conception of history any traces of processualism or teleology and, above all, to reconcile it with an idea both broad and "concrete" of alterity. That's what we intended to do here. (shrink)

Trata-se da difícil questão do sentido em que, a partir de Heidegger, pode ser pensada uma superação da metafísica. O pano de fundo é a atualidade e a onipresença do seu acabamento técnico. A preocupação central é o problema do possível modo de ser - ou de sobreviver - de um pensamento que, imerso nessa onipresença, seja, ainda assim, capaz de interrogá-la. Questões como a do salto e da reviravolta revelam a espécie de contorcionismo envolvido nessa noção de superação, levando (...) a refletir, entre outras coisas, sobre a relação desse pensamento com a sua história. O desfecho é a identificação de um campo de preocupações no qual um pensamento posto diante da própria possibilidade de aniquilação coloca a si mesmo o problema hermenêutico de uma lúcida práxis pensante.We deal with a difficult question: the sense in which, after Heidegger, one can think of an overcoming of metaphysics. The background is the currency and omnipresence of its technical ending. Mainly focused is the problem of the possible way of being - or surviving - of a thought that, immersed in this omnipresence, is still able to inquire it. Questions such as that of the leap and the reversal show the kind of contortionism attached to this notion of overcoming. Among other issues, they call for a reflection on the relation of this thought with its history. The outcome is the identification of a field of matters which makes appear, for a thought facing the possibility of its own annihilation, the hermeneutic problem of a lucid thinking praxis. (shrink)

This book examines Philo’s understanding of the acquisition of virtues and the avoidance of vices using the Greek concept of piety as a central virtue in his ethical discourse. Naveros exceptionally shows how Philo construes his understanding of living ethically within both the Hellenistic Jewish and Greek traditions.

To Live in the Spirit provides a detailed examination of πνεῦμα in Paul’s teaching about virtues in his seven undisputed letters. Naveros Córdova shows how Paul’s understanding of πνεῦμα as a foundational concept in his ethical teaching is construed within both the Hellenistic Jewish and Greek traditions.

Pour cet essai nous partons de la définition que le philosophe brésilien Paulo Arantes donne au temps présent : un « âge d’émergence » pour penser le primat des émeutes, avec toutes ses ambiguïtés, dans les luttes sociales présentes. Pour cela nous nous appuyons principalement sur Arantes et Joshua Clover. Pour finir, nous tentons d’esquisser un concept ouvert d’improvisation à partir d’une intuition du collectif End Notes et une autre de Clover dans lorsqu’ils pensent les émeutes pour les retourner à (...) l’envers dans la tentative d’imaginer une possibilité de débloquer les limites des émeutes. (shrink)

This essay attempts to articulate three authors who have tried to think about the present time in its form of permanent crisis. Paulo Arantes with his theory of the age of emergency, Joshua Clover with his theory of the age of riots, and Wolfgang Streeck and the age of entropy. Arantes will serve as our theoretical foundation, while Clover will help us think about the informal masses that form in the riots while Streeck will help us think about the excessive (...) individualism of the present situation. It is in the latter that we recover the idea of the need to think about improvisation to conclude with what could be the general features of this. (shrink)

O presente texto tem como propósito, primeiramente, prescrutar a gênese e a particularidade do racismo no modo de produção capitalista, para revelar a conexão íntima existente entre a ideologia do racismo e a ascendência do capital monopolista. Num segundo momento, pretende-se observar como o racismo se constitui como mecanismo fundamental para operar a divisão interna da classe trabalhadora, em que o capital constitui uma espécie de “aristocracia operária” para intensificar suas desumanizações contra os seres humanos racializados. Por fim, justifica-se o (...) protagonismo das táticas combativas do racismo no contexto da predominância do capital mais fetichizado plasmado na história. A pesquisa tem como fundamento a teoria marxiana e as contribuições contrapostas ao racismo desenvolvidas por autores como Eric Williams, René Depestre, Augusto Buonicore, Demétrio Magnoli e Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. (shrink)

Comme toute manifestation ou objet soumis à la critique de la dialectique négative, l’improvisation dans le jazz oscille, selon le point de vue d’Adorno, entre deux extrêmes. D’un côté, elle est tournée vers un mimétisme du mode de travail du monde capitaliste, de l’autre, elle porte une puissance utopique. Le philosophe a identifié la contradiction entre travail et utopie dans le matériau musical, mais il n’est pas allé jusqu’au bout de ses analyses. Dans cet article, nous tenterons de poursuivre l’examen (...) de sa démarche. (shrink)

In 1969 Harry Frankfurt published his hugely influential paper 'Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility' in which he claimed to present a counterexample to the so-called 'Principle of Alternate Possibilities' ('a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise'). The success of Frankfurt-style cases as counterexamples to the Principle has been much debated since. I present an objection to these cases that, in questioning their conceptual cogency, undercuts many of those debates. Such cases (...) all require a counterfactual mechanism that could cause an agent to perform an action that he cannot avoid performing. I argue that, given our concept of what it is for someone to act, this requirement is inconsistent. Frankfurt-style alleged counterexamples are cases where an agent is morally responsible for an action he performs even though, the claim goes, he could not have avoided performing that action. However, it has recently been argued, e.g. by John Fischer, that a counterexample to the Principle could be a 'Fischer-style case', i.e. a case where the agent can either perform the action or do nothing else. I argue that, although Fischer-style cases do not share the conceptual flaw common to all Frankfurt-style cases, they also fail as counterexamples to the Principle. The paper finishes with a brief discussion of the significance of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities. (shrink)

Within the discipline of psychology, the conventional history outlines the development of two fundamental approaches to the scientific study of emotion—“basic emotion” and “appraisal” traditions. In this article, we outline the development of a third approach to emotion that exists in the psychological literature—the “psychological constructionist” tradition. In the process, we discuss a number of works that have virtually disappeared from the citation trail in psychological discussions of emotion. We also correct some misconceptions about early sources, such as work by (...) Darwin and James. Taken together, these three contributions make for a fuller and more accurate account of ideas about emotion during the century stretching from 1855 to just before 1960. (shrink)

Throughout his long intellectual life, Leibniz penned his reflections on Christian theology, yet this wealth of material has never been systematically gathered or studied. This book addresses an important and central aspect of these neglected materials—Leibniz’s writings on two mysteries central to Christian thought, the Trinity and the Incarnation. -/- From Antognazza’s study emerges a portrait of a thinker surprisingly receptive to traditional Christian theology and profoundly committed to defending the legitimacy of truths beyond the full grasp of human reason. (...) This view of Leibniz differs strikingly from traditional perceptions of the philosopher as a “hard” rationalist and quasi-deist. Antognazza also sets Leibniz’s writings in the context of the important theological controversies of his day. (shrink)

We conducted three studies to examine how the recipients of negative workplace gossip judge the gossip sender’s morality and how they respond behaviorally. Study 1 provided experimental evidence that gossip recipients perceive senders as low in morality, with female recipients rating the sender’s morality more negatively than male recipients. In a follow-up experiment (Study 2), we further found that perceived low morality translates into behavioral responses in the form of career-related sanctions by the recipient on the gossip sender. A critical (...) incident study (Study 3) enhanced the external validity and extended the moderated mediation model by showing that gossip recipients also penalize senders with social exclusion. We discuss the implications for practice and research on negative workplace gossip, gender differences in attributions of morality, and gossip recipients’ behavioral responses. (shrink)

Recent years have witnessed an increasing growth in mutual funds that invest according to social criteria. As a consequence, the financial performance of these portfolios has attracted the interest of academics and practitioners. This paper investigates the performance of a sample of socially responsible mutual funds from seven European countries investing globally and/or in the European market. Using unconditional and conditional models, we assess the performance of these funds in comparison to conventional and socially responsible benchmark portfolios. The results show (...) that European socially responsible funds present in general neutral performance in relation to both conventional and socially responsible benchmarks. However, performance estimates seem to be slightly higher when funds are evaluated in relation to socially responsible indices. Our results also show that socially responsible funds are more exposed to conventional than to socially responsible indices. Furthermore, conventional benchmarks are better able to explain fund returns than socially responsible benchmarks. These findings are robust to both unconditional and conditional models of performance. We also observe that conditional models lead to a slight improvement of performance estimates and to the explanatory power of the models, both when conventional and socially responsible benchmarks are considered. This is consistent with most previous empirical findings on conditional performance evaluation. Our results show that investors who wish to hold European funds can add social screens to their investment choices without compromising financial performance. (shrink)

No two individuals with the autism diagnosis are ever the same—yet many practitioners and parents can recognize signs of ASD very rapidly with the naked eye. What, then, is this phenotype of autism that shows itself across such distinct clinical presentations and heterogeneous developments? The “signs” seem notoriously slippery and resistant to the behavioral threshold categories that make up current assessment tools. Part of the problem is that cognitive and behavioral “abilities” typically are theorized as high-level disembodied and modular functions—that (...) are assessed discretely (impaired, normal, enhanced) to define a spectral syndrome. Even as biology reminds us that organic developing bodies are not made up of independent switches, we remain often seduced by the simplicity of mechanistic and cognitive models. Developmental disorders such as autism have accordingly been theorized as due to different modular dysfunctions—typically of cortical origin, i.e., failures of “theory of mind” (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985), of the “mirror neuron system” (Ramachandran and Oberman, 2006), of “weak central coherence” (Happe and Frith, 2006) or of the balance of “empathizing” and “systemizing” (Baron-Cohen, 2009), just to list a few. -/- The broad array of autonomic (Ming et al., 2005; Cheshire, 2012) and sensorimotor (Damasio and Maurer, 1978; Maurer and Damasio, 1982; Donnellan and Leary, 1995; Leary and Hill, 1996; Donnellan and Leary, 2012; Donnellan et al., 2012) differences experienced and reported by people with autism have by such theories typically been sidelined as “co-morbidities,” possibly sharing genetic causes, but rendered as incidental and decisively behaviorally irrelevant symptoms—surely disconnected from cognition. But what if the development of cortically based mental processes and autonomous control relies on the complexities and proper function of the peripheral nervous systems? Through such an “embodied” lens the heterogeneous symptoms of autism invites new interpretations. We propose here that many behavioral-level findings can be re-defined as downstream effects of how developing nervous systems attempt to cope and adapt to the challenges of having various noisy, unpredictable, and unreliable peripheral inputs. (shrink)