Though there are many challenges to Ekman’s thesis that there are basic emotions with universal corresponding facial expressions, our main criticism revolves around the extent to which grounding situations alter how people read faces. To that end, we recruit testifying experimental studies that show identical faces expressing varying emotions when contextualized differently. Rather than dismissing these as illusions, we start with the position—generally favored by embodied thinkers—that situations are primary: they are where specifiable and hence knowable properties first show up. (...) We further argue that situationally inflected emotional expressions are informationally meaningful. We reject the idea that reading expressions is primarily about ascertaining internal mental states, arguing instead that people are registering overall situations when looking at faces. However, if mind is understood as a situated phenomenon that extends into active ecological frames, then one can still argue that mindreading is going on. Although we do not claim isolated things like cliffs or cars have agency, we speculate networked systems with cliffs, people, cars, bears, etc., collectively function with intentionality, more so if advancing a robust situated mind thesis, contra figures like Dennett who argue that people over-impute mind to things. Our position has practical implications insofar as it casts doubts on recent attempts to develop AI systems that extract emotional intent out of facial expressions since many of these systems are grounded on Ekman’s basic view. (shrink)

This paper offers a conceptual framework which (re)integrates goal-directed control, motivational processes, and executive functions, and suggests a developmentalpathway from situated action to higher level cognition. We first illustrate a basic computational (control-theoretic) model of goal-directed action that makes use of internalmodeling. We then show that by adding the problem of selection among multiple actionalternatives motivation enters the scene, and that the basic mechanisms of executivefunctions such as inhibition, the monitoring of progresses, and working memory, arerequired for this system to (...) work. Further, we elaborate on the idea that the off-line re-enactment of anticipatory mechanisms used for action control gives rise to (embodied)mental simulations, and propose that thinking consists essentially in controlling mental simulations rather than directly controlling behavior and perceptions. We concludeby sketching an evolutionary perspective of this process, proposing that anticipationleveraged cognition, and by highlighting specific predictions of our model. (shrink)

Ce texte est le chapitre II de l'ouvrage de G. Gasparini, Tempi e ritmi nella società del Duemila, FrancoAngeli, Milano, 2009. Nous remercions Giovanni Gasparini et les éditions FrancoAngeli de nous avoir autorisé à le reproduire ici. La cultura temporale La velocità è uno dei tratti-chiave e degli aspetti più caratteristici e pervasivi delle società industrializzate. In qualunque modo si vogliano definire tali società, la velocità di svolgimento raggiunta nelle operazioni, negli spostamenti e (...) - Sociologie – Nouvel article.

This highly influential anti-Machiavellian text is an important primary source for the understanding of early modern political thought.

Thomas Reid (1710–1796) presented a two-dimensional geometry of the visual field in his Inquiry into the human mind (1764), whose axioms are different from those of Euclidean plane geometry. Reid’s ‘geometry of visibles’ is the same as the geometry of the surface of the sphere, described without reference to points and lines outside the surface itself. Interpreters of Reid seem to be divided in evaluating the significance of his geometry of visibles in the history of the discovery of non-Euclidean geometries. (...) The question will be reexamined with particular attention given to his unpublished manuscripts. These include comments on Saccheri’s work and Reid’s repeated attempts to derive Euclid’s parallel postulate from the axioms of incidence. (shrink)

The authors propose some methodological considerations on thanatochronological estimations. They first consider the problem of the definition of death, and then they deal with the issue of the estimations of death time, that is, with the Post-Mortem Interval (PMI). As regards the first question, they note that it does not concern only the definition of death, but also the choice of a particular kind of definition of 'definition'. With reference to the second question, the authors suggest a causal model showing (...) that the presence of many causal chains must be taken into consideration. Finally they discuss what 'most convenient and reliable causal chain' means for a thanatochronologist. (shrink)

Praxeologism from the napolitan institutionalist phenomenological school is discussed, in the work “Forze, leggi e poteri” by Gino Capozzi, in relation to the Italianius-philosophical tradition. The reflections of the napolitan school center on the individual and his activity, an activity that is..

Resumen Aparecen aquí Miranda y Bolívar con algunas ideas fundamentales, que nos permiten visualizar las consecuencias políticas de sus postulados. Nos proponemos analizar algunos conceptos básicos del período de la independencia, a saber: liberalismo, republicanismo y dictadura, pero enmarcados y relacionados con otros que le fueron afines: centralismo y federalismo. Los defensores de estos últimos elaboraron sus ideas con el propósito de definir formas de gobierno acordes con las nuevas naciones, sin embargo, esas elaboraciones trajeron consecuencias políticas decisivas para afirmar (...) formas autoritarias o democráticas, según los criterios y modelos asumidos. Palabras clave: Miranda; Bolívar; liberalismo; republicanismo; dictadura; centralismo; federalismo. Miranda and Bolívar: Republicanism, Liberalism and DictatorshipMiranda and Bolívar are shown here with some fundamental ideas, which allow us to visualize the political consequences of their postulates. We aim to analyze some basic concepts of the independence period, namely: liberalism, republicanism and dictatorship, framed in and related with others that were akin to them: centralism and federalism. The defenders of the latter concepts elaborated their ideas with the aim to define forms of government suitable to the new nations. However, these elaborations brought about political consequences decisive to strengthen either authoritarian or democratic forms, according to the criteria and models assumed. Keywords: Miranda; Bolívar; liberalism;republicanism; dictatorship;centralism; federalism. (shrink)