Empirical and experiential investigations allow the distinction between observational and non-observational forms of subjective bodily experiences. From a first-person perspective, the biological body can be (1) an "opaque body" taken as an intentional object of observational consciousness, (2) a "performative body" pre-reflectively experienced as a subject/agent, (3) a "transparent body" pre-reflectively experienced as the bodily mode of givenness of objects in the external world, or (4) an "invisible body" absent from experience. It is proposed that pre-reflective bodily experiences rely on (...) sensori-motor integrative mechanisms that process information on the external world in a self relative way. These processes are identification-free in that the self is not identified as an object of observation. Moreover, it is defended that observational self-consciousness must be grounded on such identification-free processes and pre-reflective forms of bodily experience. (shrink)

In the first part of this paper I characterize a minimal form of self-consciousness, namely pre-reflective self-consciousness. It is a constant structural feature of conscious experience, and corresponds to the consciousness of the self-as-subject that is not taken as an intentional object. In the second part, I argue that contemporary cognitive neuroscience has by and large missed this fundamental form of self-consciousness in its investigation of various forms of self-experience. In the third part, I exemplify how the notion of pre-reflective (...) self-awareness can be of relevance for empirical research. In particular, I propose to interpret processes of sensorimotor integration in light of the phenomenological approach that allows the definition of pre-reflective self-consciousness. (shrink)

Different points of Metzinger's position makes it a peculiar form of representationalism: (1) his distinction between intentional and phenomenal content, in relation to the internalism/externalism divide; (2) the notion of transparency defined at a phenomenal and not epistemic level, together with (3) the felt inwardness of experience. The distinction between reflexive and pre-reflexive phenomenal internality will allow me to reconsider Metzinger's theory of the self and to propose an alternative conception that I will describe both at an epistemic and a (...) phenomenal level. (shrink)

This paper presents a novel methodological approach of how to design, conduct and analyse robot-assisted play. This approach is inspired by nondirective play therapy. The experimenter participates in the experiments, but the child remains the main leader for play. Besides, beyond inspiration from non-directive play therapy, this approach enables the experimenter to regulate the interaction under specific conditions in order to guide the child or ask her questions about reasoning or affect related to the robot. This approach has been tested (...) in a long-term study with six children with autism in a school setting. An autonomous robot with zoomorphic, dog-like appearance was used in the studies. The children’s progress was analyzed according to three dimensions, namely, Play, Reasoning and Affect. Results from the case-study evaluations have shown the capability of the method to meet each child’s needs and abilities. Children who mainly played solitarily progressively experienced basic imitation games with the experimenter. Children who proactively played socially progressively experienced higher levels of play and constructed more reasoning related to the robot. They also expressed some interest in the robot, including, on occasion, affect. Keywords: Human–Robot Interaction, Robot-Mediated Therapy, Robot-Assisted Play, Non-Directive Play Therapy, Assistive Technology, Autism, Children. (shrink)

Philosophical considerations as well as several recent studies from neurophysiology, neuropsychology, and psychophysics converged in showing that the peripersonal space is structured in a body-centred manner and represented through integrated sensory inputs. Multisensory representations may deserve the function of coding peripersonal space for avoiding or interacting with objects. Neuropsychological evidence is reviewed for dynamic interactions between space representations and action execution, as revealed by the behavioural effects that the use of a tool, as a physical extension of the reachable space, (...) produces on visual–tactile extinction. In particular, tool-use transiently modifies action space representation in a functionally effective way. The possibility is discussed that the investigation of multisensory space representations for action provides an empirical way to consider in its specificity pre-reflexive self-consciousness by considering the intertwining of self-relatedness and object-directness of spatial experience shaped by multisensory and sensorimotor integrations. (shrink)

Parallel zur Philosophie der symbolischen Formen publizierte Cassirer in den 20er Jahren mehrere Aufsätze zur Kunst, die klarer noch als in den philosophischen Darstellungen die Rolle der Literatur als Vermittlerin zwischen der Naturerkenntnis und dem Sittlichen thematisieren. Die Autorin untersucht, wie Cassirers Blick auf die Kultur dabei vor allem von Goethes naturwissenschaflichen Schriften geprägt ist. Sie zeigt, wie Cassirer in den Jahren des Exils den Dialog mit Aby Warburg fortsetzte, mit dessen Kulturwissenschaftlicher Bibliothek er bis zu deren Übersiedlung nach London (...) eng zusammengearbeitet hat. Dort entwickelte er in erneuter Lektüre Goethes, Schillers, Corneilles und Thomas Manns eine Kulturwissenschaft, in der Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften einander nicht gegenüberstehen, sondern sich ergänzen"--Back cover. (shrink)

Depth" represents one of the oldest and most important metaphors in cultural history, not least because of its close connection to concepts of truth and knowledge, origin and soul, substance and reason. Yet beyond these positive connotations, the term also invokes numerous negative associations, serving as a projection screen for the dark, irrational, and threatening. These divergent roles give the term an ambivalent meaning.

Qua hermeneutic-linguistic-pragmatic turn wurde die Freisetzung kommunikativen Handelns kommunikationslogisch, entwicklungstheoretisch und diskursethisch entwickelt und die Form der Verstandigung intersubjektivitatstheoretisch als Moglichkeit sozialer Identitat bestimmt. Mit Peirce kann man das Verstandigungstheorem als Intersubjektivitatsrelation lesen, Intersubjektivitat selbst strukturlogisch "deduzieren". So prazisiert wird die von Habermas vollzogene Umstellung von Subjektivitat auf formale Intersubjektivitat uber Kant, Hegel, Husserl und Mead rekonstruierbar. Dabei kann das begrundungstheoretische Defizit des nur postulierten Formganzen gesellschaftlicher Rationalitat behoben, der formalpragmatisch ausgedunnte Lebensweltbegriff substantiiert und die nicht konsequent ausgefuhrte Methodologie mit (...) der Trias von Metatheorie, empirischer Soziologie und Gesellschaftstheorie scharfer gestellt werden. Die relationenlogische Analyse drangt zur Neulekture des Intersubjektivitatsgedankens. (shrink)

A bodily self is characterized by pre-reflective bodily self-consciousness that is.

Linguistic category learning has been shown to be highly sensitive to linear order, and depending on the task, differentially sensitive to the information provided by preceding category markers (premarkers, e.g., gendered articles) or succeeding category markers (postmarkers, e.g., gendered suffixes). Given that numerous systems for marking grammatical categories exist in natural languages, it follows that a better understanding of these findings can shed light on the factors underlying this diversity. In two discriminative learning simulations and an artificial language learning experiment, (...) we identify two factors that modulate linear order effects in linguistic category learning: category structure and the level of abstraction in a category hierarchy. Regarding category structure, we find that postmarking brings an advantage for learning category diagnostic stimulus dimensions, an effect not present when categories are non‐confusable. Regarding levels of abstraction, we find that premarking of super‐ordinate categories (e.g., noun class) facilitates learning of subordinate categories (e.g., nouns). We present detailed simulations using a plausible candidate mechanism for the observed effects, along with a comprehensive analysis of linear order effects within an expectation‐based account of learning. Our findings indicate that linguistic category learning is differentially guided by pre‐ and postmarking, and that the influence of each is modulated by the specific characteristics of a given category system. (shrink)

Dorothee Gelhard ergänzt die Untersuchungen zu Walter Benjamin und dem Phänomen des Darstellbaren in Sprache und Bild. Sie zeigt, dass sich Benjamin mit dem Thema der Erfahrung und der Wahrnehmung im Kontext der Malerei tiefgehend auseinandergesetzt hat. Die Beschäftigung mit Kandinsky, dem Blauen Reiter und Chagall hat bei Benjamin zu einem Nachdenken über Farben und Formen geführt. In den Texten über Phantasie und Wahrnehmung verbindet er seine Beobachtungen der modernen Malerei mit den aus den frühen phänomenologischen Studien gewonnenen Erkenntnissen, (...) sodass sich schliesslich der Begriff des "Denkbildes" und des "dialektischen Bildes" immer klarer herausbildet. Diese frühen Überlegungen Benjamins haben sein Passagen-Werk vorbereitet, in dem er das Nachleben der Vergangenheit in der modernen Grossstadt aufspürt und nach dem Verbleib des Bildbewusstseins des Einzelnen in einer immer technischer werdenden Moderne fragt. (shrink)

Neuroscientific findings have often been argued to undermine notions of free will and to require far-reaching changes of our political and legal systems. Making a difference between the metaphysical notion of free will and the political notion of autonomy,Dubljevi´c (2013) argues this switchover to be mistaken. While we appreciate attention to the social limits of neuroscientific findings, we also have a twofold concern with his proposal. The first covers the nontransparent way in which he either rejects or embraces certain scientific (...) findings, which renders the background andmotivation of his argument unclear. The second revolves around his idea of a “rational life-plan,” which, while it covers a person’s capacity to conform to social and external factors, misses out what it means to act for a reason or be the source of one’s actions. Revisiting the example of former addict Tommy McHugh and invoking the example of a resigned addict, we present the idea of an “autonomous life-plan,” which is metaphysically sound and practically relevant. (shrink)

We discuss the justification of Bickle's “ruthless” reductionism. Bickle intends to show that we know enough about neurons to draw conclusions about the “whole” brain and about the mind. However, his reductionism does not take into account the complexity of the nervous system and the fact that new properties emerge at each significant level of integration from the coupled functioning of elementary components. From a methodological point of view, we argue that neuronal and cognitive models have to exert a mutual (...) constraint(MC) on each other. This approach would refuse to award any priority of cognitive approaches over neuroscience, and reciprocally, to refuse any priority of neuroscience over cognitive approaches. MC thus argues against radicalreductionism at the methodological level. (shrink)

Youth antisocial behaviour is frequently considered to be displayed by children and adolescents who suffer from behavioural disorders. Consequently, attempts to reduce ASB have increasingly comprised mental health interventions. Moreover, early signalling of children at risk and early prevention of behavioural problems are regarded as crucial remedies. Critical investigations of these developments, however, are in particular concerned with the consequent medicalization of society and the behaviour exhibited by infants, children and adolescents. Consequently, the new Dutch youth law even refers to (...) demedicalization as a central aim. From an ethical point of view, this article critically discusses the meaning and relevance of the medicalization reproach in the context of ASB. The aim is to show that the term medicalization can reasonably be attached to three different developments: the biomedical turn, an increase in youth mental health care and early signalling and prevention. The ethical implications of these developments, however, are diverse, referring to both risks and benefits. By itself, neither the term medicalization nor demedicalization carries a self-evident normative meaning. Therefore, a careful ethical analysis is needed to reveal which social developments are actually recommendable or disadvantageous. (shrink)

In french and english speaking countries, the articulation between epistemological beliefs, conceptions of teaching and learning and pedagogical practices of secondary school teachers in the natural sciences and humanities has been little studied (Araújo-Oliveira, 2012 ; Bartos et Lederman, 2014 ; Wanlin et al., 2019). Yet, while teachers display predominantly constructivist beliefs about teaching and learning, their teaching practices remain rather passive (OECD, 2019). Like in Therriault et al. (2018-2023), this article explores the characteristics of epistemological beliefs, conceptions of teaching (...) and learning, and teaching practices among a population of 112 secondary school teachers (beginners, intermediate and experienced) in the humanities and natural sciences in French-speaking Belgium. In a second step, we explore the articulations between these three theoretical constructs either from statistical analyses or from a more interpretative perspective. Quantitative analysis of the data (PCA, factorial ANOVA, correlations and Chi-square) show that teachers’ epistemological beliefs are rather refined, that there is an effect of professional seniority on these beliefs and that there is a link between refined epistemological beliefs and traditional conceptions of teaching and learning. Finally, teachers’ self-reported practices appear to be insensitive to the discipline being taught. (shrink)

Partant du constat d'une école en souffrance qui affecte les élèves, les enseignants et les parents, Dorothée Muraro analyse à travers des situations concrètes les effets pervers d'un système scolaire capable de provoquer le décrochage comme les difficultés d'apprentissage. L'orthopédagogie, la philosophie et la psychanalyse permettent de quitter les préjugés liés aux ratages, aux erreurs et aux incompétences de chacun pour repenser le courage de l'héroïsme, le sens de la responsabilité et le goût de l'inventivité indispensables pour apprendre et progresser. (...) Car enseigner et apprendre relèvent d'un droit de grandir, de dire. Ils posent un acte civilisateur que l'on peut appeler un acte pédagogique. (shrink)

This article examines the multi-dimensions of bodily self-consciousness. It explains the distinction between the self-as-subject and the self-as-object and argues that each act of consciousness is adequately characterized by two modes of givenness. These are the intentional mode of givenness by which the subject is conscious of intentional objects and the subjective mode by which the subject is conscious of intentional objects as experienced by him. It clarifies the relationship of these modes of givenness to the transitivity and non-transitivity of (...) self-consciousness. (shrink)

Ästhetisches Erleben ist ein komplexes Zusammenspiel aus ineinandergreifenden Prozessen. Wahrnehmungsprozesse entschlüsseln die Struktur und regen an, sich über inhaltliche Aspekte Gedanken zu machen. Die Lerngeschichte eines Betrachters bestimmt dabei seine Seh- und Denkgewohnheiten. Motivation bestimmt, ob und wie lange der Rezipient sich auf das ästhetische Erleben einlassen will, und wie intensiv die daraus resultierenden Emotionen sind. Jede ästhetische Reaktion ist eine individuelle Mischung aus all diesen Prozessen, die sich gegenseitig hervorrufen und bedingen. Diese Arbeit entwickelt ein theoretisches Modell zur Erklärung (...) dieser komplexen, dynamischen Abläufe. Durch theoriegeleitete Einzelfallanalysen gelingt es, die verschiedenen beteiligten psychischen Prozesse und Strukturen in ihrem Zusammenwirken zu formalisieren. Aus diesem Modell lassen sich individuelle ästhetische Reaktionen erklären und prognostizieren. (shrink)

This article explores the implications of cross-border migration for social work's normative commitment to social justice. Specifically, it interrogates Nancy Fraser's conceptualisation of social justice in guiding social work practice with refugees. The paper is grounded in an ethnographic study conducted from 2008 to 2009 in a South African church which had provided shelter to a group of refugees following their displacement by an outbreak of xenophobic violence. The study's findings reveal that various kinds of misframing created multiple forms of (...) voicelessness amongst its foreign participants. These filtered out to justify, perpetuate and deepen other types of injustice, particularly misrecognition and maldistribution. There was some evidence of resistance, solidarity, recognition and small acts of redistribution. However, such positive practices proved difficult to sustain. The paper confirms the central importance of the notion of misframing for conceptualising and responding to social injustice in the absence of citizenship?as required of practitioners in the field of social work with refugees and indeed other groups rendered vulnerable within current economic, social, political and cultural constellations. In this regard, Fraser's contribution looks set to enrich social work's commitment to social justice both in normative and practical terms. (shrink)

Childhood self-control is currently receiving great scientific and public attention because it could predict much of adult’s life success and well-being. Specialized interventions based on findings in social psychology and neuroscience potentially enhance children’s capacity to exercise self-control. This perspective triggers hopes that self-control enhancement allows us to say good-bye for good to potentially unsafe psychopharmacological agents and electronic brain stimulants. This chapter provides an in-depth ethical analysis of pediatric self-control enhancement and points toward a series of serious conceptual and (...) ethical concerns. First, it gives an overview of current psychological as well as neuroscientific research on self-control, and it presents longitudinal studies that emphasize the importance of childhood self-control for adult life success. Second, it critically discusses the concept of self-control presupposed in these approaches and points to crucial limitations. Going beyond an understanding of self-control as a sophisticated means of goal-achievement, I will argue for a comprehensive understanding that takes the inherent normativity of self-controlled behavior seriously. In that context, self-control enhancement appears as not necessarily desirable and occasionally even detrimental. Finally, this chapter questions the notion of childhood implicit in current research and how values typically put on this phase of life could get affected by self-control enhancement. I finish with an exploration of the conditions under which pediatric self-control enhancement is either impermissible, permissible, or maybe obligatory. (shrink)

The notion of ‘givenness of consciousness’ needs further elucidation. On the one hand, I agree with Lyyra (this volume) that one sense for ‘givenness of consciousness’ is not enough to account for consciousness and self-consciousness. On the other hand, I will argue that Lyyra’s paper is problematic precisely because he fails to consider one basic sense for ‘givenness of consciousness’. Lyyra and I thus agree that there must be (at least) two senses for ‘givenness of consciousness’; we disagree, however about (...) which modes of givenness are involved. (shrink)

Multinational corporations are operating in complex business environments. They are confronted with contradictory institutional demands that often represent mutually incompatible expectations of various audiences. Managing these demands poses new organizational challenges for the corporation. Conducting an empirical case study at the sportswear manufacturer Puma, we explore how multinational corporations respond to institutional complexity and what legitimacy strategies they employ to maintain their license to operate. We draw on the literature on institutional theory, contingency theory, and organizational paradoxes. The results of (...) our qualitative longitudinal study show that managing corporate legitimacy is a dynamic process in which corporations adapt organizational capacities, structures, and procedures. (shrink)

Sportsoziologie, Sozialpsychologie, Methodologie, Leistungsmotivation, Interaktion, Wettkampfsport, Unterricht, Soziales-lernen, Lernziel, Koedukation, DDR, Spitzensport, Sozialismus.

BackgroundFear of abandonment and aloneness play a key role in the clinical understanding interpersonal and attachment-specific problems in patients with borderline personality disorder and has been investigated in previous functional Magnet Resonance Imaging studies. The aim of the present study was to examine how different aspects of attachment representations are processed in BPD, by using for the first time an fMRI attachment paradigm including personalized core sentences from the participants’ own attachment stories. We hypothesized that BPD patients would show increased (...) functional involvement of limbic brain regions associated with fear and pain when presented personalized attachment relevant stimuli representing loneliness compared to healthy controls.MethodsWe examined the attachment classifications of 26 female BPD patients and 26 female HC using the Adult Attachment Projective Picture System. We used an fMRI-adapted attachment paradigm to investigate the neural correlates of attachment. All participants were presented three personalized sentences extracted from their AAP attachment narrative, combined with standardized AAP pictures representing being alone or in interactive attachment situations.ResultsAs expected, the classification of unresolved attachment was significantly greater in BPD compared to HC. BPD patients showed increased fMRI-activation in brain areas associated with fear, pain, and hyperarousal than HC when presented with personalized attachment-relevant alone stimuli. In particular, pictures with monadic attachment situations induced greater anterior medial cingulate cortex, anterior insula, amygdala, thalamus and superior temporal gyrus activation in the patient group.ConclusionThe results point to increased fMRI-activation in areas processing emotional distress and painful experiences in BPD patients. In particular, the emotional cascade reflecting attachment distress was evoked by combining monadic pictures, representing abandonment and aloneness, with the patients’ personalized narrative material. Our results confirmed and replicated previous results that illustrate once again the high relevance of aloneness and feelings of abandonment for BPD in the context of attachment trauma. Moreover, our results support the hypothesis of hypermentalization in response to attachment distress as a core feature of social-cognitive impairment in BPD associated with common treatment implications across different therapeutic orientations. (shrink)

Mit From Value to Rightness liefert Vuko Andrić einen innovativen, scharfsinnigen und erfreulich klaren Beitrag zur Frage nach der Perspektivabhängigkeit moralischer Pflichten im Allgemeinen und dem angemessenen Verständnis des Konsequentialismus im Besonderen. Andrićs ideenreiches Buch geht der zentralen Frage, ob und in welchem Sinne konsequentialistische Theorien handlungsleitend sein sollten, dabei entlang dreier Argumentationsstränge nach. In diesem Kommentar konzentrieren wir uns auf den zweiten Argumentationsstrang, der die Vereinbarkeit von objektivem und subjektivem Konsequentialismus mit “ Sollen impliziert Können " behandelt. Wir möchten (...) einerseits auf Schwachstellen an Andrićs Kritik am objektiven Konsequentialismus und andererseits auf Probleme, die sich aus Andrićs Evidenzbegriff ergeben, hinweisen. (shrink)

This article examines how non-linear time and circularity are deployed in the historical novel Nehanda, written by Zimbabwean author Yvonne Vera. Using Adriana Cavarero’s work on inclination...

Over the last few years, the amount of space occupied by bees in the French public debate together with the well-known benefits of the products of their hive has attracted the interest of social scientists. Indeed, bees have become a symbol of the biodiversity crisis. Social scientists, like us, are sometimes invited to join multidisciplinary projects run by biologists specializing in bees. The aim of such involvement is to help the biologists to convince professional beekeepers to make their practices greener, (...) notably with respect to their handling of the Varroa mite. However, the beekeepers we studied in the south of France are not keen to give up their conventional practices. Based on chemical products, these are efficient, simple, and cheap as opposed to environmentally friendly, chemical-free techniques, which are seen to be riskier and more complicated to implement. This article describes and analyzes these obstacles and the relationship to scientific and nonscientific knowledge they reveal. (shrink)

We examine corporate governance diversity within a Coasian framework of stakeholder rights, where the central role of governance is to ensure that necessary firm-specific investments are made. This Coasian perspective on stakeholder theory offers a unifying framework towards a global theory of comparative corporate governance, bridging the gap between economic theories of the firm and stakeholder theory, also offering an economics-based alternative to agency theory that explicitly accounts for stakeholder rights. The Coasian perspective encompasses a diversity of corporate governance systems, (...) but does not imply a unique global corporate governance benchmark. We posit that governance is firm dependent and endogenous conditional on the constraints imposed by a national governance system; consequently, there should be no systematic relationship between governance and firm performance once the national constraints are controlled for. However, the same national corporate governance system constraints confer comparative advantages to firms whose efficient levels of firm-specific investments are favored. (shrink)

This paper is about one of the puzzles of bodily self-consciousness: can an experience be both and at the same time an experience of one′s physicality and of one′s subjectivity ? We will answer this question positively by determining a form of experience where the body′s physicality is experienced in a non-reifying manner. We will consider a form of experience of oneself as bodily which is different from both “prenoetic embodiment” and “pre-reflective bodily consciousness” and rather corresponds to a form (...) of reflective access to subjectivity at the bodily level. In particular, we argue that subjectivity is bodily expressed, thereby allowing the experience of the body′s subjectivity directly during perceptual experiences of the body. We use an interweaving of phenomenological explorations and ethnographical methods which allows validating this proposal by considering the experience of body experts (dancers). (shrink)

Is self-consciousness intentional? Consciousness of oneself-as-object is, in the sense that the subject is there taken as its own object of intentional consciousness. Contrastively, it has been argued that consciousness of oneself-as-subject is not intentional, precisely in that it does not involve taking oneself as an intentional object. Here, it is rather proposed that consciousness of oneself-as-subject is tied to intentionality in that it involves being conscious of oneself as an intentional subject, i.e. as a subject directed at intentional objects (...) transcending oneself-as-subject. This form of self-consciousness is neither reflective, in the sense that it does not involve to take oneself as an object of reflection, nor reflexive, in the sense that it does not involve to be related to oneself but to what-one-is-not, i.e. to the transcending intentional object. It is further argued that consciousness of oneself-as-subject involves two dynamics, as the subject would be indicated to himself by the objects towards which he directs himself. These considerations are here unfolded to consider in particular bodily self-consciousness. (shrink)