In this paper we introduce two issues relevantly related to the cognitive phenomenology debate, which, to our minds, have not been yet properly addressed: the relation between access and phenomenal consciousness in cognition and the relation between conscious thought and inner speech. In the first case, we ask for an explanation of how we have access to thought contents, and in the second case, an explanation of why is inner speech so pervasive in our conscious thinking. We discuss the prospects (...) of explanation for both sides of the debate and argue that cognitive phenomenology defenders are in an overall advantageous position. We also propose an account of inner speech that differs from other influential explanations in some interesting respects. (shrink)

The non-adaptationist approach to evolutionary epistemology was born at the end of the 1970s as an alternative to traditional adaptationist EE. Despite the fact that non-adaptationist EE offers compelling interpretative models and its explanatory power is widely recognised, an organic overview of the broad non-adaptationist field is still lacking. In this paper, I propose to fill this gap. To this effect, after providing a systematisation of the perspectives that are commonly associated with non-adaptationist EE, I will discuss two recurring orders (...) of arguments that non-adaptationist scholars, often independently of one another, put forward against their adaptationist rivals. By offering a way to conceive non-adaptationist evolutionary epistemological approaches as part of a structured whole, the resulting systematic account is meant to provide a reading grid, a compass for orienting oneself in the uneven territories of non-adaptationist EE. Moreover, the consequent identification of two recurring argumentative bodies is intended to add to the explanatory power of non-adaptationist EE, which in finding new strength in numbers eventually acquires a greater critical efficacy against its adaptationist counterpart. (shrink)

The study of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder addresses variables related to three core symptoms: inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. However, it has been suggested that in recent years emotional difficulties and subsequent social challenges have not received sufficient attention. This study had two objectives: 1) to compare the performance of participants (age range: 8-14 years) on facial emotion recognition tasks using the Affect Recognition subtest of the Children Neuropsychological Battery II; and 2) to assess the perceptions of family members in relation (...) to variables associated with emotional problems, difficulty in regulating emotions, and anger management using the Spanish Assessment System for Children and Adolescents. Assessments were conducted before and after applying an emotion regulation intervention designed for this study. Following the intervention, there was a significant decrease in scores associated with emotional regulation, and an improvement in the identification of affect on facial recognition tasks. The results suggest that despite Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder children and adolescents having social and emotional deficits secondary to the core symptom triad, emotional regulation in this group can be improved by the application of socio-emotional intervention programs. (shrink)

A traditional argument based on Leibniz’s Law concludes that, for example, a statue and the piece of marble of which it is made are two different objects. This is because they have different properties: the statue can survive the loss of some of its parts but the piece of marble cannot. Lynne Rudder Baker adds that the piece of marble constitutes the statue. In this paper I focus on what I think is the most powerful objection to Baker’s account of (...) the constitution relation, which has to do with her notion of circumstances. I present the objection following Derk Pereboom’s formulation and, afterwards, I analyse Baker’s answers to the criticism. I conclude that they make her overall project less attractive. Finally, I propose a new answer to the criticism. This will suppose a new formulation of the constitution relation, albeit done in the spirit of Baker’s account. (shrink)

Over the last three decades, non-adaptationism has developed as an alternative model to more traditional, adaptationist approaches within Evolutionary Epistemology. Despite its great explanatory strength, non-adaptationist EE finds a potential Achilles heel in its adherence to conceptual relativism, namely the idea that empirical content can be relative to many different and radically incommensurable conceptual schemes. In his seminal essay “On the Very Idea of a Conceptual Scheme”, Donald Davidson did in fact prove the unintelligibility of an analogous form of conceptual (...) relativism. Although Davidson’s original intent was to debunk a conceptual relativist position which he discerned in the works of authors such as Kuhn, Quine, and Whorf, given the apparent similarity between the conceptual relativism supported by non-adaptationist EE and the one criticised by Davidson, one might well wonder if Davidson’s objections would have the same debunking effect if applied to non-adaptationist EE. In this paper I propose to answer this question by directing Davidson’s critiques of conceptual relativism to non-adaptationist EE and by testing to what extent the latter is de facto undermined by Davidson’s attacks. I demonstrate that Davidson’s arguments do not detract from the reliability of non-adaptationist perspectives and, to some extent, they appear to substantiate the non-adaptationist evolutionary epistemological cause anew. (shrink)

Le travail mené par Jonathan Israel dans sa trilogie sur les Lumières aurait fourni des éléments pour une critique de la théologie comme fondement de la politique moderne et, de ce fait, il nous aurait offert une critique indirecte à l’œuvre de Carl Schmitt. Schmitt et Israel souscrivent à l’analyse des idées majeures que Spinoza hérite de la modernité. En revanche, ils ne s’entendent pas sur l’appréciation de cette contribution ni sur le sens qu’il faut donner à cet héritage. Tandis (...) que Spinoza s’avère être l’ennemi par excellence pour Schmitt – juif, libéral et paradigmatique −, il représente pour Israel le pilier du républicanisme démocratique; alors que pour le premier le pêché originel implique l’acceptation d’une anthropologie modérément pessimiste qui fondait la nécessité de l’État, le second assure que le perfectionnement humain et l’idée de progrès sont possibles ; tandis que Schmitt justifie l’existence de la guerre et du concept de katechon en tant que piliers politiques, pour Israel la tolérance universelle d’origine baylienne se pose comme alternative ; si Schmitt considère que le dialogue et le débat constituent de simples distractions bourgeoises qui empêchent de distinguer la véritable nature de la souveraineté – la décision dans un état d’urgence –, Israel estime quant à lui que la dialogue rationnel et philosophique qui suppose la revendication de la liberté de philosopher est la seule forme acceptable pour concevoir des normes morales et politiques ; si le juriste allemand attribue à la théologie catholique l’origine de tout concept politique – au sens historique et systématique –, pour l’historien anglais c’est plutôt dans la philosophie rationnelle matérialiste énoncée par les acteurs des Lumières radicales qu’il faudrait chercher les fondements de la doctrine politique occidentale républicaine et démocratique. (shrink)

Clarke and Beck discuss in their sections on congruency and confounds literature that has challenged the claim that the approximate number system represents numerical content. We argue that the propositions put forward by these studies aren't that far from the indirect model of number perception suggested by C&B.

En este artículo defiendo la tesis de que la estética de la naturaleza puede ofrecer a la ética de la naturaleza uno de los mejores argumentos ecologistas. Creo que el valor estético de la naturaleza, tradicionalmente olvidado por la filosofía, puede revitalizar las discusiones que tienen lugar en la ética de la naturaleza, y permite enfocar de un modo nuevo la cuestión de si la naturaleza posee un valor intrínseco o un valor instrumental.

Anxiety patients over-generalize fear, possibly because of an incapacity to discriminate threat and safety signals. Discrimination trainings are promising approaches for reducing such fear over-generalization. Here we investigated the efficacy of a fear-relevant vs. a fear-irrelevant discrimination training on fear generalization and whether the effects are increased with feedback during training. Eighty participants underwent two fear acquisition blocks, during which one face, but not another face, was associated with a female scream. During two generalization blocks, both CSs plus four morphs (...) were presented. Between these generalization blocks, half of the participants underwent a fear-relevant discrimination training with or without feedback and the other half a fear-irrelevant discrimination training with or without feedback. US expectancy, arousal, valence ratings, and skin conductance responses indicated successful fear acquisition. Importantly, fear-relevant vs. fear-irrelevant discrimination trainings and feedback vs. no feedback reduced generalization as reflected in US expectancy ratings independently from one another. No effects of training condition were found for arousal and valence ratings or SCR. In summary, this is a first indication that fear-relevant discrimination training and feedback can improve the discrimination between threat and safety signals in healthy individuals, at least for learning-related evaluations, but not evaluations of valence or arousal. (shrink)

Much has been written since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. The way in which we refer to this and other diseases has been commented and criticized in the media and in public online forums. Several linguists have referred to the different metaphors with which we refer to the disease appealing to our social responsibility towards the words we use to refer to sensitive subjects and have compiled alternative forms to “the war metaphor”. There is a linguistic, political, and even (...) health concern about the possible consequences of referring to Covid-19 as a war. However, the conceptual metaphor DISEASE IS WAR is ubiquitous, the key is: it is conceptual, it is a metaphor of the mind and not of language. Moreover, its variations and changes are a reflection of human creativity, but there is nothing wrong with the metaphor per se. In any case, it is a means to criticize certain discourses and there, as in everything, the context of the communicative act is ineludible. In this article we will see some examples of how we refer to SARS-CoV-2 in different media and explain the ubiquity of the metaphor. We shall also note that there is nothing wrong with the metaphor itself, which is, in fact, based on a biologically hooked form, present in human cognition, to refer to something that threatens us and that we must avoid or combat. (shrink)

In his treatise Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik, Gottlob Frege tries to find a definition of number. First he rejects the idea that number could be a property of external objects. Then he comes with a suggestion that a numerical statement expresses a property of a concept, namely it indicates how many objects fall under the concept. Subsequently Frege rejects, or at least essentially modifies, also this definition, because in his view that a number cannot be a property – it should (...) be an object. In this article, I try to show that Frege’s first definition of number seems to be, despite his own opinion, much more promising than he supposed. I also argue that Frege’s argumentation against the empirical character of number is by no means convincing. (shrink)

A definite interpretation of dialectics is put forward in order to promote the following ideat scientific rationality consists in the fact that the principles which determine its internal structure and growth are analogical to the principles which determine the structure and growth of reality under scientific investigation.

The concept of multiple-conclusion consequence relation from [8] and [7] is considered. The closure operation C assigning to any binary relation r the least multiple-conclusion consequence relation containing r, is dened on the grounds of a natural Galois connection. It is shown that the very closure C is an isomorphism from the power set algebra of a simple binary relation to the Boolean algebra of all multiple-conclusion consequence relations.

The paper deals with seven propositional paraconsistent logics. Four of them are based on intuitionistic positive logic: the minimal Johansson’s logic, some two its weakenings and its extension by the law of excluded middle. The remaining three ones are their counterparts having the classical positive base. For all logics the Kripke-style semantics is provided.

"Der vorliegende Band geht auf logikbezogene Spurensuche und vereinigt durchdachte, hochintelligente und zahlreiche neue Einsichten versprechende Texte. Wer sich ernsthaft mit Musik beschäftigt, sollte sich diesen Band nicht entgehen lassen." (bs, Musica sacra 4/2015) Texte zur Praxis, Theorie und Ästhetik der Musik beanspruchen den Begriff ›musikalische Logik‹, wobei die Vorstellungen über Geltung, Inhalt und Umfang dieses Begriffes weit divergieren. Im vorliegenden Buch wird eine problemgeschichtliche Klärung unternommen. Musikalische Logik erweist sich als Inbegriff der Bedingungen, unter welchen Musik als in sich (...) selbst begründeter Prozess erscheinen kann. Sie besteht in einem musikalischen Denken, dessen Zusammenhang generiert wird durch Differenzierung von Klangrelationen und Zeitmaßen, durch Bildung von Verknüpfungsweisen und Verlaufsformen, durch den variativen Gebrauch der resultierenden Modelle sowie durch Aufhebung und Neubildung der Konstituenten; als produktives Denken lässt sich das musikalische Denken die Wege nicht festlegen, die sich für seine Ausdrucks- und Kommunikationsweise bewährt haben. Musikalische Logik kann sich in voraushörbarer Konsequenz zeigen, aber auch und besonders in der Art, wie sich ein nicht zu antizipierender Prozess als in sich begründet erweist. Die Vielfalt der Möglichkeiten spricht nicht gegen die Erwartung von Logik in der Musik, sondern erfüllt die Eigenart des Logischen im Bereich des Schaffens gegenüber dem Logischen im Bereich des Erkennens. Die historische Darstellung führt von der Spätantike bis in die Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Texts on the practice, theory and aesthetics of music make use of the term ‘musical logic’, although conceptions of the application, content and scope of the term differ greatly. This book attempts to solve this historical problem. Musical logic proves to be the embodiment of the conditions under which music can appear as a process founded in itself. It consists of musical thinking with ist context generated by the differentiation of relationships between sounds and of tempi, by the creation of forms of connection and progression, by the variational use of the resulting models and the suspension and re-creation of the constituent parts; as a form of productive thinking, music cannot define proven means for ist own expression and communication. Musical logic can manifest itself in consequences that can be aurally predicted, but also, and especially, in the ways in which a process that cannot be anticipated proves to be founded in itself. The range of possibilities does not contradict the expectation of logic in music but conforms to the peculiarity of logic in the sphere of creation as opposed to logic in the sphere of cognition. The historical presentation ranges from late antiquity to the mid 20th century. (shrink)

The author analyses “The Merchant of Venice” by William Shakespeare, to highlight the transformation of the Christian body and the Jewish soul during the early stages of capitalism. He reveals that the Venice described by Shakespeare is a world without measure, in which money is the only value. People are objects of financial speculation and all of humanity is treated as a commodity, an exchange value. When Bassanio praises the advantages of Portia, he first mentions her ducats, and only after (...) that does he allude to her beauty and virtues of mind. The capitalism that is being formed in the eyes of the viewers mocks significant cultural, ethnic and religious differences. It buries them in heaps of money and then blurs them, forcing a new concept of man, whose existence differs little from plants and animals growing freely. In such a world, a game is the only strategy that allows for survival. In Venice, everyone pretends, wears a mask and lives in hypocrisy. This behaviour is typical of the “carnival” atmosphere. Masks separate people from themselves, covering up their tracks and blurring identities. By wearing them, they can hide behind “someone else”. (shrink)

In the essay part, various examples of provincial thinking in Polish culture are recalled. In the thesis part, the phenomenon of provincialism is considered more thoroughly. It is argued that provincialism can be thought of as involving a distortion of a normal division of labor within a scientific school into cre ators, correctors and applicators. The effect of provincialism occurs when this division is transferred onto whole cognitive communities: some play the role of the masters while others are expected to (...) play the role of correctors at best. (shrink)

Eadweard Muybridge's 1887 photographic atlas Animal Locomotion is a curious mixture of art and science, a polysemic text that has been subject to a number of readings. This paper focuses on Muybridge's technology. It seeks to understand his commitment to making photographs with a battery of cameras rather than a single camera. It suggests reasons for his choice of apparatus and shows how his final work, The Human Figure in Motion (1901), justifies the choices he made.