Influential theories on moral judgments propose that they rely either on emotions or on innate moral principles. In contrast, the mental model theory postulates that moral judgments rely on reasoning, either intuition or deliberation. The theory allows for the possibility that intuitions lead to utilitarian judgments. This paper reports two experiments involving fifth-grade children, adolescents, and adults; the results revealed that children reason intuitively to resolve moral dilemmas in which action and inaction lead to different outcomes. In particular, the results (...) showed female children to be more utilitarian than female adults in resolving classical moral dilemmas: they preferred an action that achieved a good outcome for a greater number of people. Within the mental model theory’s framework there is no reason to expect that females and males differ in their ability to reason, but at the moment the results for females cannot be generalized to males who were not properly represented in the adults groups of the two experiments. The result revealing that (female) children are more utilitarian than (female) adults, which is hard to explain via many current theories, was predicted by the mental model theory. (shrink)

In this paper, I present a framework where possible relations between learning and mental models are explored. In particular, I’ll be concerned with non-symbolic gestures accompanying discourse and their role in inducing the construction of models and therefore deep comprehension and learning in the listener. Also, I’ll be concerned with cognitive and socio-cognitive conflicts and their roles in inducing construction of alternative models of a problem and therefore in learning to reason. Human ability to learn is of great importance for (...) individuals interested in change. Indeed, to learn both declarative and procedural knowledge means to change, and in order to be able to intervene on change in a desired way it is necessary to have a theory of the mental representations and processes involved in learning and a theory of the communication and contexts that favour learning. (shrink)

In Engineering Philosophy, the author explores how the concerns of philosophers are relevant to engineering thought and practice in negotiating tradeoffs in diagnosing failure, in constructing adequate models and simulations, and in teaching.

Following the assumptions of the mental model theory and its account of moral judgements, we argue for a main role of reasoning in moral judgements, especially in dealing with moral conflicts. In four experiments, we invited adult participants to evaluate scenarios describing moral or immoral actions. Our results confirm the predictions deriving from our assumptions: Given a moral or immoral scenario, the manipulation of the propositions which refer to norms and values results in a scenario eliciting a moral conflict ; (...) when invited to create conflict versions from no-conflict versions of moral or immoral scenarios, individuals manipulate the propositions in the scenario which describe norms and values rather than emotional factors ; the evaluation of conflict scenarios takes longer than the evaluation of no-conflict scenarios, and this is because conflict scenarios involve more deliberative reasoning. We discuss our results in relation to competing.. (shrink)

This paper is about syllogistic reasoning, i.e., reasoning from such pairs of premises as, All the chefs are musicians; some of the musicians are painters. We present a computer model that implements the latest account of syllogisms, which is based on the theory of mental models. We also report four experiments that were designed to test this account. Experiments 1 and 2 examined the strategies revealed by the participants' use of paper and pencil as aids to reasoning. Experiment 3 used (...) a new technique to externalize thinking. The participants had to refute, if possible, putative conclusions by constructing external models that were examples of the premises but counterexamples of the conclusions. Experiment 4 used the same techniques to examine the participants' strategies as they drew their own conclusions from syllogistic premises. The results of the experiments showed that individuals not trained in logic can construct counterexamples, that they use similar operations to those implemented in the computer model, but that they rely on a much greater variety of interpretations of premises and of search strategies than the computer model does. We re‐evaluates current theories of syllogistic reasoning in the light of these results. (shrink)

Reseña de Abbattista, M. Lucía. (2019). Justicialismo y cultura en la Guerra Fría. El retorno de Oscar Ivanissevich al Ministerio de Cultura y Educación (Argentina 1974-1975).

Hastings Center Report, Volume 52, Issue 5, Page 46-47, September–October 2022.

Considering Rosmini’s political works in comparison with his metaphysical and anthropological essays, and starting from Rosmini's project of a code of law that, in the author’s opinion, can guarantee fundamental human rights, this article discusses the concept of justice between citizens and outsiders. Its first part is an analysis of Rosmini’s juridical fundaments, which takes into account also some objections historically moved against it. Its second part examines some specific cases of conflicts between outsiders and the members of civil society, (...) as considered by the Roveretan philosopher. (shrink)

The texts (and talk) of engineers take different forms. In this essay, I present and critique several texts written for different purposes and audiences but all intended to convey to the reader the technical details of whatever they are about—whether a textbook passage describing the fundamental behavior of an electrical component, a journal article about a mathematical technique intended for use in design optimization, a memo to co-workers within a firm about a heat transfer analysis of a remotely sited building, (...) or a general introduction to the field of? ergonomics? My aim is to explore how the ways in which engineers describe and document their problems and projects frame what they accept, display and profess as useful knowledge. In this I am particularly interested in how engineers envision the ‘users’ of, or participants in, their productions. Like science, engineering texts are written as if they were timeless and untainted by socio-cultural features. However, a technical treatise is not devoid of metaphor or creative rendering of events; there is always a narrative within which worldly data and instrumental logic is embedded—but it is a story in which the passive voice prevails, history is irrelevant, and the human actor or agent is painted in quantitative parameters fitting the occasion. Whether this rhetoric can be sustained in the face of challenges to traditional ways of doing engineering is an open question. (shrink)

El transhumanismo o el movimiento a favor del mejoramiento humano a través de la tecnología vive, actualmente, un momento álgido. Los avances en Inteligencia Artificial e ingeniería genética permiten que soñemos con seres capaces de vencer a la muerte y poseer capacidades hasta ahora desconocidas. Sin embargo, en este artículo veremos que no todo el mundo está de acuerdo con estas ideas y hay quienes consideran las promesas del transhumanismo más como pesadillas que como sueños. Estos son los conservadores. Los (...) conservadores consideran que las mejoras prometidas por el transhumanismo conllevarán el fin de la especie humana. Frente al transhumanismo, los conservadores defienden la conservación y protección de la esencia y la naturaleza humana. También se rebelan contra la manipulación ilimitada del ser humano y la limitación de estas prácticas a aquellas contenidas en la esencia humana. Todo ello les otorga cierta reminiscencia aristotélica en la que muchos de ellos se amparan y la cual vale la pena estudiar. (shrink)

Desde meados do século 20, quando as ciências cognitivas desabrocharam e continuaram até hoje o seu caminho de avanços ininterruptos, os temas relativos à noção da consciência, a par das buscas de definição para os conceitos da mente, pensamento, inteligência etc. têm ocupado posição central nessas ciências e mesmo para além delas. Recentemente, a preocupação com esses conceitos cresceu com bastante ênfase a partir da explosão até agora bem-sucedida da inteligência artificial. O que é inteligência? Como a cognição humana se (...) distingue da cognição maquínica? Essas e outras interrogações similares se constituem em questões candentes. Diante disso, este artigo propõe desenvolver o conceito peirciano da mente com a convicção de que sua explanação cuidadosa pode trazer uma grande contribuição para as ciências cognitivas em geral e para os estudos sobre inteligência artificial em particular. (shrink)

Reseña de Badano, María del Rosario (comp). (2019). Educación superior y derechos humanos: reflexiones, apuestas y desafíos. Paraná: Editorial UADER, 416 pp.

The recent finding that the human version of a neurodevelopmental enhancer of the Wnt receptor Frizzled 8 (FZD8) gene alters neural progenitor cell cycle timing and brain size is a step forward to understanding human brain evolution. The human brain is distinctive in terms of its cognitive abilities as well as its susceptibility to neurological disease. Identifying which of the millions of genomic changes that occurred during human evolution led to these and other uniquely human traits is extremely challenging. Recent (...) studies have demonstrated that many of the fastest evolving regions of the human genome function as gene regulatory enhancers during embryonic development and that the human‐specific mutations in them might alter expression patterns. However, elucidating molecular and cellular effects of sequence or expression pattern changes is a major obstacle to discovering the genetic bases of the evolution of our species. There is much work to do before human‐specific genetic and genomic changes are linked to complex human traits. (shrink)

Introduction -- Physical cinema. The end of the other -- The immaterial difference : Werner Herzog revisited -- The reality of the medium. Conceptual realism in Land in trance and I am Cuba -- The work of art in progress : an analysis of delicate crime -- The ethics of desire. The realm of the senses, the ethical imperative and the politics of pleasure -- Hara and Kobayashi's "private documentaries" -- The self-performing auteur : ethics in João César Monteiro.

In Adam Smith in Beijing, Giovanni Arrighi attempts to outline the possible consequences of the growth of China through a rereading of the work of Adam Smith and a critique of Marx. This article analyses and sheds light on the limits of this reading, upon which Arrighi bases his prediction of a possible peaceful growth in collaboration amongst the various nations within the world-market. It also seeks to identify what makes Marx’s work so timely for the understanding of the contemporary (...) phase of capitalist globalisation, with its escalation of the exploitation of ever more globalised labour-power, and of international competition. 1. (shrink)

Women account for 70% of healthcare workers, so their role has been – and still is – fundamental in addressing and managing the current pandemic event caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Far from being an opportunity to highlight the importance of women in the field, the healthcare crisis, together with lockdown policies and care responsibilities, have contributed to increase the gender gap. To study the depiction of women healthcare professionals, this paper analyses 401 cartoons on the COVID-19 pandemic that depict (...) healthcare workers. Most represent doctors as men and nurses as women, in roles subordinate to men. The representation of women is also impacted by stereotypes that do not contribute to better reflect the roles and professional skills of women in the healthcare field today. (shrink)

La dépression hante notre contemporanéité. « Mal du siècle », elle envahit notamment les lieux de consultation et services hospitaliers accueillant les bébés et leurs parents. Les recherches montrent les impacts de la dépression maternelle sur le développement de l’enfant et la nécessité d’accompagner le processus de parentalité dans ce cas de figure. Après quelques repères théoriques autour de la dépression maternelle et/ou conjointe, l’article propose une thérapeutique qui s’est révélée efficace. Il s’agit d’Accordanse : un dispositif de soin et (...) de recherche accueillant des mères et leurs bébés en souffrance psychique centré sur la danse. Quelques séquences cliniques permettront de mieux mesurer dans quelle mesure la danse soutient la construction d’une chorégraphie des interactions harmonieusement accordée lorsque celle-ci est « empêchée » par la lourdeur de la dépression. (shrink)

The “we” is not only a way of calling people together. The “we” tends also to perform acts of exclusion. According to political studies, the antagonism resulting from this process is ineradicable and leads by necessity to fragmentation both _within_ and _between_ groups — the ultimate example of the friend/enemy divide conceptualized by Carl Schmitt. Nowadays, however, the increasing great migratory processes produced by globalization intensifying the formation of multicultural societies demand a re-examination of such a political view and call (...) for new pathways for the future. Once this is recognized, the problem we encounter is the following: can we think of nothing else along the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them,’ but an antithesis, nothing else but an antagonism? Under what conditions, “from within what axiomatic” (Derrida, The politics of friendship. Verso, 2005), can political thinkers be assured that the us/them relation is by necessity one of hostility and exteriority? How does contemporary philosophy offer new viewpoints coming from old insights? With a view to address these questions, this paper set up a dialogue between Bernhard Waldenfels and Jacques Derrida around the limit-experience of the stranger and probe their reflections on its _in-between_ position — in-between the enemy and the guest — as a challenge to the antagonistic view of the “us/them” divide as well as to the logic of binary opposition that informs it. (shrink)

We continue the investigation, initiated in Salibra et al. (Found Sci, 2020), of Boolean-like algebras of dimension n (nBA\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n\textrm{BA}$$\end{document}s), algebras having n constants e1,⋯,en\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathsf e_1,\dots,\mathsf e_n$$\end{document}, and an (n+1)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$(n+1)$$\end{document}-ary operation q (a “generalised if-then-else”) that induces a decomposition of the algebra into n factors through the so-called n-central elements. Varieties of nBA\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} (...) \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n\textrm{BA}$$\end{document}s share many remarkable properties with the variety of Boolean algebras and with primal varieties. Putting to good use the concept of a central element, we extend the Boolean power construction to that of a semiring power and we prove two representation theorems: (i) Any pure nBA\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n\textrm{BA}$$\end{document} is isomorphic to the algebra of n-central elements of a Boolean vector space; (ii) Any member of a variety of nBAs with one generator is isomorphic to a Boolean power of this generator. This yields a new proof of Foster’s theorem on primal varieties. (shrink)

We extend to the exponential connectives of linear logic the study initiated in Bucciarelli and Ehrhard 247). We define an indexed version of propositional linear logic and provide a sequent calculus for this system. To a formula A of indexed linear logic, we associate an underlying formula of linear logic, and a family A of elements of , the interpretation of in the category of sets and relations. Then A is provable in indexed linear logic iff the family A (...) is contained in the interpretation of some proof of . We extend to this setting the product phase semantics of indexed multiplicative additive linear logic introduced in Bucciarelli and Ehrhard , defining the symmetric product phase spaces. We prove a soundness result for this truth-value semantics and show how a denotational model of linear logic can be associated to any symmetric product phase space. Considering a particular symmetric product phase space, we obtain a new coherence space model of linear logic, which is non-uniform in the sense that the interpretation of a proof of !A−B contains informations about the behavior of this proof when applied to “chimeric” arguments of type A . In this coherence semantics, an element of a web can be strictly coherent with itself, or two distinct elements can be “neutral”. (shrink)

This paper describes a practice innovation: the addition of formal weekly discussions of patients with prolonged PICU stay to reduce healthcare providers’ moral distress and decrease length of stay for patients with life-threatening illnesses. We evaluated the innovation using a pre/post intervention design measuring provider moral distress and comparing patient outcomes using retrospective historical controls. Physicians and nurses on staff in our pediatric intensive care unit in a quaternary care children's hospital participated in the evaluation. There were 60 patients in (...) the interventional group and 66 patients in the historical control group. We evaluated the impact of weekly meetings to establish goals of care for patients with longer than 10 days length of stay in the ICU for a year. Moral distress was measured intermittently and reported moral distress thermometer scores fluctuated. "Clinical situations" represented the most frequent contributing factor to moral distress. Post intervention, overall moral distress scores, measured on the moral distress scale revised, were lower for respondents in all categories, and on three specific items. Patient outcomes before and after PEACE intervention showed a statistically significant decrease in PRISM indexed LOS, a statistically significant increase in both code status changes DNR, and in-hospital death, with no change in patient 30 or 365 day mortality. The addition of a clinical ethicist and senior intensivist to weekly inter-professional team meetings facilitated difficult conversations regarding realistic goals of care. The study demonstrated that the PEACE intervention had a positive impact on some factors that contribute to moral distress and can shorten PICU length of stay for some patients. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 45, Issue 2, pp 288 - 302 In this paper I intend to show that Merleau-Ponty’s conception of movement as primordial expression, whereby movement is a shaping force that can be discerned in the forms it creates, allows us to go beyond the superficial definition of movement as “change of place” and discover its most essential characteristic: that is the expression of a motion—intrinsic to feeling—which can take on the form of either a generative thrust or an (...) act that traces out and sheds light on the reserve of shapes that everything we have felt has silently traced within us. My argument will unfold in three main stages. First, I intend to show that from Merleau-Ponty’s reflections on pictorial movement there emerges a richer and more refined definition of movement that brings together the two meanings of Aristotelian dunamis : potentia passiva, or being acted upon, and potentia activa, or tending towards act. Second, I will show that this particular understanding of movement allows us to uncover the lived dimension of movement that is intrinsic to sense experience and enacts the metamorphosis of our impressions into the expression that reveals to us the carnal obverse [envers charnel] of our experiences of the visible world. Finally, I will show that this particular understanding of movement proves to be a strategy for thinking of both the emergence of sense within the flesh of the world and the advent of history that unravels at its heart. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage vise à montrer que la question de la réflexion et de son éveil au sein de la vision occupe une place centrale dans la pensée de Maurice Merleau-Ponty et apparaît comme la source secrète d'une énigme et d'une interrogation fondamentales, à partir desquelles son oeuvre entière peut être relue et révéler une nouvelle cohérence. Mais qu'il s'agisse de la perception, de l'expression ou de la chair, c'est à chaque fois la question de la conscience et de son éveil (...) réflexif qui est repensée à nouveau frais et relancée comme un nouveau défi. De ce fait, cet ouvrage vise également à faire apparaître la nouvelle signification - ou configuration - que prend le commencement de la réflexion chez Merleau-Ponty, dans le dévoilement progressif d'une seule figure typique, composée par touches successives, à partir des différentes figurations qu'elle revêt dans son oeuvre. Elle trouve à s'incarner dans la figure, hautement évocatrice du peintre qui "pense le pinceau à la main", au moment "où sa vision se fait geste". [Source: 4e de couv.]. (shrink)

The purpose of this study was to investigate emotion recognition and processing in patients with mild cognitive impairment in order to update the state of current literature on this important but undervalued topic. We identified 15 papers published between 2012 and 2022 that meet the inclusion criteria. Paper search, selection, and extraction followed the PRISMA guidelines. We used a narrative synthesis approach in order to report a summary of the main findings taken from all papers. The results collected are still (...) ambiguous: some studies did not find any differences between MCI and healthy controls groups in emotion recognition and processing, and other results reported emotion-specific deficits in emotion recognition regarding MCI patients. It is essential to underline that these findings could not be generalized to the whole MCI population due to the heterogeneous use of measures and composition of the sample. This does not allow us to make a comprehensive comparison between the results. Our suggestion for future research is to align the results using the same type of tests and emotion recognition assessment. (shrink)

Animality is a central issue in phenomenology. If the core of the phenomenological approach is the investigation into the correlation between subject and object, what are we talking about when we talk about animal subjectivity? Is it possible to include the notion of animal being in the category of subject? What kind of intentionality does it possess? Our article will analyse the pathic dimension in order to track down some indications about animal subjectivity. Particular emphasis shall be placed on Weizsacker (...) and Merleau-Ponty’s perspectives. Both call into question the definition of subjectivity as an absolute and neutral gaze, exclusively attributed to human being. By contrast, by analysing sensitivity as the common background between animal and human beings, it will be possible to introduce the subject into biology, as explicitly stated by Weizsacker. Subjectivity lies at the intersection between passivity and activity, between perception and movement, between passion and revolution. (shrink)

According to a recent and prominent view, a ‘we-perspective’ arises out of a dyadic I-you relation involving a special form of reciprocity in which I relate to another as a you – as somebody who is also attending and addressing me. As important as this argument might be, one obvious limitation lies in that it typically applies to dyadic forms of ‘we’ which are bound to the here and now of face-to-face interactions between ‘ad hoc pairs of individuals’. Drawing inspiration (...) from Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason and Freud’s Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, I will argue that in order to trace a way out of this impasse, one needs to shift the theoretical focus from dyadic face-to-face (immediate) relations of reciprocity between I and You, self and other to ternary relations of ‘mediated reciprocity’ involving the figure and the functions of a third party (le tiers). (shrink)

We study the notion of logical relation in the coherence space semantics of multiplicative-additive linear logic . We show that, when the ground-type logical relation is “closed under restrictions”, the logical relation associated to any type can be seen as a map associating facts of a phase space to families of points of the web of the corresponding coherence space. We introduce a sequent calculus extension of whose formulae denote these families of points. This logic admits a truth-value semantics in (...) the previously mentioned phase space, and this truth-value semantics faithfully describes the logical relation model we started from. Then we generalize this notion of phase space, we prove a truth-value completeness result for and we derive from any phase model of a denotational model for . Using the truth-value completeness result, we obtain a weak denotational completeness result based on this new denotational semantics. (shrink)

The mental model theory claims that the ability to falsify is at the core of human rationality. We assume that cognitive conflicts (CCs) and socio-cognitive conflicts (SCCs) induce falsification, and thus improve syllogistic reasoning performance. Our first study assesses adults’ ability to reason in two different conditions in a single experimental session. In both conditions the participants are presented with conclusions alternative to their own. In the CC condition they are told that these conclusions are casual, in the SCC condition (...) they are told they have been produced by another individual. The second study is analogous to the first, with the exception that the participants deal with the two conditions in two different experimental sessions. The overall results reveal that falsification is enhanced by conflicts experienced at the cognitive level. The results also reveal that learning to reason occurs in adults, when tested in two distinct experimental periods. (shrink)