Recent data indicate that under a specific posthypnotic suggestion to circumvent reading, highly suggestible subjects successfully eliminated the Stroop interference effect. The present study examined whether an optical explanation could account for this finding. Using cyclopentolate hydrochloride eye drops to pharmacologically prevent visual accommodation in all subjects, behavioral Stroop data were collected from six highly hypnotizables and six less suggestibles using an optical setup that guaranteed either sharply focused or blurred vision. The highly suggestibles performed the Stroop task when naturally (...) vigilant, under posthypnotic suggestion not to read, and while visually blurred; the less suggestibles ran naturally vigilant, while looking away, and while visually blurred. Although visual accommodation was precluded for all subjects, posthypnotic suggestion effectively eliminated Stroop interference and was comparable to looking away in controls. These data strengthen the view that Stroop interference is neither robust nor inevitable and support the hypothesis that posthypnotic suggestion may exert a top-down influence on neural processing. (shrink)

This paper investigates what the source of time asymmetry is in thermodynamics, and comments on the question whether a time-symmetric formulation of the Second Law is possible.

According to Guyer, Kant’s entire aesthetic theory rests on the imputation of intersubjectivity to judgments of taste. Empiricist theories could not establish intersubjectivity; rationalist ones could do so only by construing aesthetic judgment as confused cognitive or moral judgment. But even in the pre-Critical aesthetics, which Guyer teases out of Reflexionen, letters, and student notes, anticipations of a duality in intersubjectivity’s aesthetic function can be found. The first version and the printed version of the Critique of Judgment’s Introduction, in differentiating (...) aesthetic judgment from determinant and teleological judgment, reveal that intersubjectivity must both cause aesthetic pleasure and ground aesthetic judgment. (shrink)

A systematic effort to state and answer the classical problems of moral philosophy, including that of the metaphysical foundations of morals. The outline of problems and the general position argued is reminiscent of Kant's Grundlegung; like Kant, Mr. Raphael locates the essence of morality in the recognition that human personality, including the ability to choose freely, is an "evil in itself." Even more than Kant, however, he is doubtful of demonstrating the force of this conception of morality by rational argument.--R. (...) H. (shrink)

A comprehensive and lucidly written account of Origen's life and thought, relating Origen's writings to his active role in the Christian community, as well as to the religious and philosophic thought of his time. The book's main thesis is that Origen's thought cannot be reduced either to biblical theology or to neo-platonic speculation, but must be understood as an effort to make Christian faith intelligible and systematic.--R. H.

An interesting book, offering a forceful criticism of some classical and modern traditions in philosophy, especially of speculative idealism, phenomenology, and existentialism. The argument is not so much an attack on the explicit theories of these traditions as it is a criticism of their underlying assumptions about the purpose and limits of philosophizing itself. For the author this purpose has been and must always be the clarification of "confusions," as against the discovery of ultimate truths about reality.--R. H.

An independent attempt to discover the standards of judging goodness and right, based on a description of the ways in which such judgments arise in economics and law. The approach and outcome are generally Kantian, and the author concludes with an effort to reconcile the claims of causality and freedom.--R. H.

The author tries to show that modern western science is coherent with past philosophical speculation, both western and eastern. Some of the book's 9 chapters have previously been published in American and Indian journals.--R. H.

A popular survey of human achievement in all fields, based upon a view combining metaphysical naturalism with ethical utilitarianism.--R. H.