Using poetic metaphors in the Serbian language, we identified systematic variations in the impact of fluid and crystalized intelligence on comprehension of metaphors that varied in rated aptness and familiarity. Overall, comprehension scores were higher for metaphors that were high rather than low in aptness, and high rather than low in familiarity. A measure of crystalized intelligence was a robust predictor of comprehension across the full range of metaphors, but especially for those that were either relatively unfamiliar or more apt. (...) In contrast, individual differences associated with fluid intelligence were clearly found only for metaphors that were low in aptness. Superior verbal knowledge appears to be particularly important when trying to find meaning in novel metaphorical expressions, and also when exploring the rich interpretive potential of apt metaphors. The broad role of crystalized intelligence in metaphor comprehension is consistent with the view that metaphors are largely understood using semantic integration processes continuous with those that operate in understanding literal language. (shrink)

Toward a definition of mental disorder -- From normality to mental health -- Physical diseases and mental disorders : should they be differentiated? -- Conceptual cacophony in psychiatry.

On-Line Discussion and Public Deliberation This paper surveys how the principles of the development of collective intelligence in on-line discussion and the consequences of the open source movement can influence the shape and recommended format of public deliberation processes. It raises the question of the conditions and factors which explain the difference in the quality of discussion results when technological issues are discussed and when values are discussed. It also raises the question of the importance of formats and types of (...) facilitation which allow for deliberation to be structured towards achieving better productivity and the more effective participation of discussion participants. (shrink)

This article is devoted to the interplay between forcing with fusion and combinatorial covering properties. We illustrate this interplay by proving that in the Laver model for the consistency of the Borel’s conjecture, the product of any two metrizable spaces with the Hurewicz property has the Menger property.

We report a study examining the role of linguistic context in modulating the influences of individual differences in fluid and crystalized intelligence on comprehension of literary metaphors. Three conditions were compared: no context, metaphor-congruent context, and literal-congruent context. Relative to the baseline no-context condition, the metaphor-congruent context facilitated comprehension of the metaphorical meaning whereas the literal-congruent context impaired it. Measures of fluid and crystalized intelligence both made separable contributions to predicting metaphor comprehension. The metaphor-congruent context selectively increased the contribution of (...) crystalized verbal intelligence. These findings support the hypothesis that a supportive linguistic context encourages use of semantic integration in interpreting metaphors. (shrink)

Tento článok si kladie za cieľ preskúmať možnú nadväznosť medzi Aristotelovými úvahami o polis a Marxovou filozofiou v prípade pojmu zóon politikon. Na to, aby sme tento problém mohli objasniť, tak bude nutné si položiť dve otázky: 1) Je skutočne možné doložiť, že Marx tento termín reflektoval či sa ním inšpiroval? 2) Sú v tomto prípade tvrdenia moderných bádateľov opodstatnené, pokiaľ ide o vplyv Aristotela na Marxa? Na prvú otázku odpoviem kladne, avšak v odpovedi na tú druhú vyjadrím značné pochybnosti, (...) ktoré budú založené na analýze primárnych textov. Dospejem tak k zisteniu, že niektorí bádatelia sa snažia za každú cenu nájsť aristotelské motívy u Marxa aj tam, kde to nie je jednoznačne preukázateľné. (shrink)

By setting the relationship between human and divine reality in a whole new way, Christian anthropology has provided an authoritative framework for understanding and valuing the dynamics of human life as moving “from the old to the new man”, according to the famous phrase of the apostle Paul. Other great European humanistic traditions with their ideas of man and visions of his progress can be placed in the critical perspective of this Pauline anthropological formula. One of those traditions that relatively (...) recently entered the stage of European intellectual culture is the so-called “Transhumanism”. In this article, a contrast is made between Paul’s understanding of the dynamics of human life and the _human enhan­cement_ with the help of technology in transhumanism. (shrink)

There are many disputes about induction in the logic and philosophy of science. One of the problem is that we often use the term „induction“ in different meanings. This is precisely the point of Aristotle, the first thinker who analyzed induction systematically. The aim of the paper is to show that we are confronted with at least four different meanings of induction in Aristotleś writings, to analyze them and to show the role of induction in acquiring scientific knowing and the (...) consequences for the structure and characteristics of Aristotleś system of scientific knowledge. (shrink)

Cieľom, ktorý premýšľa táto štúdia, je zápas o zmysel (deštrukcie) dejín metafyziky odohrávajúci sa na pozadí reflexie filozofického odkazu Parmenida. Leitmotív problému sa spája so zmyslom (deštrukcie) dejín metafyziky ako západnej ontológie (Heideggerova pozícia); identifikáciou platonskej (metafyzickej) tradície ako falošného vedenia nazerajúceho v pravde existujúce jestvujúcno, ktoré sa vo svetle tézy o neexistencii absolútnej pravdy a jej explikáciou stáva konkrétnym výkonom časového a konečného ľudského bytia (pozícia Nietzscheho). Nietzsche a Heidegger poukazujú na to, že prvým momentom, ktorý si musíme uvedomiť (...) je, naša (metafyzická) schopnosť teoreticky fundovať zmysel sveta. Na tejto ambícii je následne vybudovaná celá naša duchovná tradícia. Nietzscheho kritika Parmenidovho spôsobu myslenia znamená skôr kritiku domyslenia jeho základných predpokladov v platonskom variante metafyziky. Takto koncipovaná kritika je prijateľná rovnako pre Heideggera. Spor nastane až vo finálnom zmysle dejín metafyziky – zatiaľ čo Nietzsche ich vidí ako zavŕšenie morálneho videnia sveta a teda ako problém kritiky metafyzikou maskovaného nihilistického rozmeru morálky, Heidegger vidí zavŕšenie dejín metafyziky ako bytostné zabudnutie (doslova zakrývanie) otázky bytia, teda ako problém ontologický. Čo ale Heidegger odmieta doviesť do dôsledkov, sú nihilistické konzekvencie svojej ontológie, odhalené a tematizované práve prostredníctvom Nietzscheho kritiky morálky, v ktorej je práve zabudnutosť bytia demaskovaná vo svojom (konečnom) nihilistickom rozmere. (shrink)

This paper deals with an aspect of John Philoponus’ psychology, a 6th century Byzantine writer, which marks the early phase of his philosophical career. It is the ochēma/pneûma theory, which in Philoponus’ case represents an unusual fusion of Aristotelian, Platonic, and Stoic philosophy with Galenic physiology and anatomy. In this paper, we examine how this Christian Neoplatonist attempts to assimilate elements of two ancient traditions – philosophical and medical – into a peculiar psychological concept.

This article looks at the mutual relations and links between globalisation and the integration of countries within the European Union. As the economic sphere is undergoing unrestrained globalisation, the position and sovereignty of nation-states is being weakened and politics is becoming harnessed to the economy. The relationship between the economy and politics is thus changing and there is a need to regulate the economy at a supranational level. The European Union has the potential to make positive use of the trend (...) towards globalisation and limit its negative impacts on the economic, social, ecological and cultural levels. This requires, however, deeper integration and further harmonisation of the countries of the European Union in the economic and political spheres. In order for the countries to come closer together, as the current situation requires, a European people (or demos) and a European public space must be created. (shrink)

This article attempts to summarize some of the experiences and methodological insights gained from research on non-traditional religious groups that the author has conducted over the last twenty years, primarily in Czech society. The starting point for these studies is respect for the principle that it is not possible to approach the study of religious pluralism and diversity from a single predetermined conceptual framework-religious diversity requires diverse approaches. However, within the diversity approach there exist some common principles such as respect (...) for the religious beliefs of respondents and the elimination of personal stereotypes and ethnocentrism. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine the extent to which the theoretical procedures for interpreting works of visual art, which Gotthold Ephraim Lessing describes in his famous book Laocoon: An Essay Upon the Limits of Painting and Poetry, are comparable to various methods of interpretation from the tradition of hermeneutics. To achieve this, I analyse how Robert S. Leventhal and Frederick Burwick approached Lessing’s interpretation techniques and try to expand their views and apply them to Lessing’s thoughts in Laocoon. I will (...) focus on the idea that Lessing’s procedures for interpreting works of visual art depend, to a certain extend, on his methods for analysing literature. Even though these authors did not link Lessing’s thoughts to the hermeneutical theory of Friedrich Schleiermacher, I will also explore whether there are certain similarities in their views on the main constituents of the process of interpretation. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine the views of contemporary aesthetician of music Stephen Davies about musical transcriptions as special forms of classical music and try to apply his theoretical views to remixing as a musical practice that is primarily related to contemporary electronic music. Using the theoretical approaches of Davies’ aesthetics of music, I point out the similarities between the creative attitudes of a musician in transcribing and remixing, similarities that can be found in the way these musical forms relate (...) to the original composition on which transcriptions or remixes are based. Comparisons between transcription and remix are further investigated by considering the various roles that these musical practices fulfil in various cultural contexts. (shrink)

We give topological characterizations of filters${\cal F}$onωsuch that the Mathias forcing${M_{\cal F}}$adds no dominating reals or preserves ground model unbounded families. This allows us to answer some questions of Brendle, Guzmán, Hrušák, Martínez, Minami, and Tsaban.

In this paper, I deal with recognising an appropriate criterion for distinguishing two competing conceptions of the propositional content among the content realists—the Fregean and the Russellian—especially in connection to some classical proponents of the realist view (Frege, Moore, and Russell). My starting point is a survey characterisation of the two conceptions and the accompanying classification of Russell’s and Moore’s conceptions of the propositional content, which I find problematic on several accounts. I set up a context for my consideration and (...) elaborate on why I find it problematic. My central point is that, given how the classical proponents of propositions understood their respective conceptions, as well as how more recent proponents of propositions (for example, David Kaplan) understood them, one should draw the distinction between the Fregean and the Russellian conception on the grounds of what propositional components do rather than the nature of propositional components (unless, of course, one ultimately reduces the latter to the former). (shrink)

Donnellan’s recently published Essays on Reference, Language, and Mind collect his seminal papers from 1960s and 1970s. In most of them, he introduces and defends two major, related views in the theory of reference. The first one concerns the functioning of definite descriptions, and the second one the nature of singular reference. Donnellan argues that definite descriptions are ambiguous between their referential and their attributive use, and that descriptions used referentially function more or less as other referring expressions, proper names (...) and indexicals. All referential expressions, Donnellan further argues, do not function according to the principle of identifying descriptions, as most philosophers from Frege onward thought, but rather on the ground of being appropriately historically connected to a thing, which is their referent. Such a referent, Donnellan thinks, does not have to fit the descriptive content or identifying descriptions associated with these expressions. As such, the referential expressions are directly referring, contributing its referent, not the descriptive material, to the propositional content of sentences they occur within. In my paper I reflect on some important, but controversial points in Donnellan’s papers, having to do with his understanding of the functioning of definite descriptions and proper names, and I relate these points to some subsequent discussions about the matters. (shrink)

In 1919, when his Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung (Tractatus Logico-Phi-losophicus), was finished but still unpublished, Wittgenstein sent the manuscript to Frege, and, as a consequence of that, they exchanged several fairly polemic letters in 1919 – 1920. Only Frege’s letters were preserved. The letters are highly compressed in content, and offer an interesting insight in how, mostly critically, one of the authors of whom Wittgenstein held highest esteem, thought about the content, style, and organisation of the manuscript. At the same time, we (...) can get some impression from Frege’s letters how Wittgenstein reacted to his initial letter addressing the Tractatus, and how the subsequent exchange went. In this paper, I offer several observations concerning their exchange, and I compare it to the parallel exchange on the same matter between Wittgenstein and Russell. (shrink)

The theory of beauty plays an important role in Plotinus’s philosophy. It has metaphysical, psychological, ethical, as well as aesthetical dimension. It is also inseparable from the spiritual ascent and mysticism. For Plotinus, the role of beauty is to recall to us a knowledge of forms. Thus, soul ascends to the true beauty through the practice of virtues and its purification. His aesthetic theory searches for a way to the ultimate principle in terms of beauty, and by doing that it (...) seeks to identify a soul with it. This is why Plotinus’ theory of beauty is as important as his ontology, and why he significantly extends the meaning of the beautiful and refers to it in several books of his Enneads. (shrink)

Following the recent wave of globalization, the possession of different types of knowledge became even more important for economic development than the possession of physical resources. The ability of a society to adopt existing and create new knowledge thus gained fundamental importance for its wellbeing. In this paper, we identify important aspects of the relationship between education, creation of knowledge, economic growth, as well as both material and immate?rial wellbeing of a society. We describe potential problems that prevent societies from (...) maximizing the benefit from the effort its members invest in acquiring knowledge. The problems of failure of the national markets for education as well as the global migrations which lead to drain of knowledge towards economically highly developed countries are especially analyzed. In the long run, they lead to a decline in both national competitiveness and different aspects of the immate?rial wellbeing. As the basis for solving these problems we propose a combination of economic theory and the concept of solidarity between more and less devel?oped countries, individuals and societies of their origin, respecting the free will of individuals. nema. (shrink)

Analysis of Chinese landscape design offered a challenge to test the concepts of environmental aesthetics developed in the West. With comparative approach we improved our understanding of art and environment, and of different strategies in designing forms of Chinese gardens. In order to describe the "hidden" symbohsm of Chinese landscape design we applied various concepts and metaphors: completeness, large and small, mirror and mirroring, garden as entrance and separate reality, disclosure and concealment, and returning to the source.