The COVID-19 outbreak has seen people in many countries asked to radically modify their way of life in compliance with sweeping safety measures. During the current crisis, technology is turning out to be key, in that it allows practitioners to deliver psychological services to people who would otherwise be unreachable. However, professionals cannot solely rely on their traditional modes of practice, in that different methods are required to bring to light the needs of those affected by the emergency. People are (...) being overwhelmed by a cascade of unusual and unexpected events that are putting a strain on their everyday routines and usual meaning-making systems; ongoing challenges to their employment and financial status will likely divert personal resources away from psychological well-being. We therefore argue that psychologists should also consider the needs of the general population. Among those who may require help – aside from the main targets of psychological intervention, such as healthcare personnel and COVID-19 patients and their relatives – specific attention should be paid to those who are not at the center of the crisis. We suggest that this large segment of potential users may benefit from a non-medical approach focused on the promotion of meaning-making processes. Indeed, the disruptive nature of the current situation hinders sense-making and threatens to undermine psychological balance and well-being, at an individual as well as at a societal level. The present article proposes a methodological perspective based on the reconstruction of meaning-making processes (sense of coherence, predictability, metaphors, narratives). Specifically, psychological interventions should promote personal and collective resources with a view to: “normalizing” current distressful experiences (i.e., acknowledging that such reactions are normal in light of the present situation); widening the observational field, taking relational contexts into account, and promoting an understanding of distressful experiences as coping strategies; fostering meaning-making/reconstruction processes through the use of appropriate metaphors and narratives; promoting a sense of coherence. We present two clinical vignettes to illustrate how these principles might be applied in practice. In conclusion, the exceptional psychological challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic require practitioners to adopt a broad and flexible perspective on clinical intervention. (shrink)

O texto busca apresentar a discussão em torno de Ciência e Dialética em Aristóteles, de Porchat.

In diesem Beitrag möchte ich mich darauf beschränken, einige Aspekte von Fichtes Verhältnis zu Kant zu berücksichtigen, die mir sowohl für das Verständnis Fichtes als auch für das Verständnis Kants sehr lehrreich zu sein scheinen. Denn die Einsicht in die unterschiedlichen Auffassungen des alten und des jungen Denkers läßt um so mehr da, wo der zweite meint, den ersten bloß zu wiederholen, treu zu interpretieren oder allenfalls treu weiterzudenken, den Geist der beiden philosophischen Ansätze am deutlichsten zutage treten. Den manchmal (...) unbestimmten Ausdruck »Geist« darf man in diesem Fall wohl verwenden, da die Textstellen, die dem Vergleich feste Bezugspunkte angeben, nicht isoliert dastehen, sondern jeweils in zwei verschiedene und scharf konturierte philosophische Ansätze hinein konvergieren. (shrink)

In their attempt to connect the workings of the human mind with their neural realizers, cognitive neuroscientists often bracket out individual differences to build a single, abstract model that purportedly represents (almost) every human being’s brain. In this paper I first examine the rationale behind this model, which I call ‘Platonic Brain Model’. Then I argue that it is to be surpassed in favor of multiple models allowing for patterned inter-individual differences. I introduce the debate on legitimate (and illegitimate) ways (...) of mapping neural structures and cognitive functions, endorsing a view according to which function-structure mapping is context-sensitive. Building on the discussion of the ongoing debate on the function(s) of the so-called Fusiform “Face” Area, I show the necessity of indexing function-structure mappings to some populations of subjects, clustered on the basis of factors such as their expertise in a given domain. (shrink)

In his article, ‘Social constructionism and climate science denial’, Hansson claims to present empirical evidence that the cultural theory developed by Dame Mary Douglas, Aaron Wildavsky and ourselves leads to science denial. In this reply, we show that there is no validity to these claims. First, we show that Hansson’s empirical evidence that cultural theory has led to climate science denial falls apart under closer inspection. Contrary to Hansson’s claims, cultural theory has made significant contributions to understanding and addressing climate (...) change. Second, we discuss various features of Douglas’ cultural theory that differentiate it from other constructivist approaches and make it compatible with the scientific method. Thus, we also demonstrate that cultural theory cannot be accused of epistemic relativism. (shrink)

This article makes first a critical review of the different definitions in the scientific literature of the 'underclass' concept. It is argued that the American and British concept of underclass is not necessarily transportable to Europe. The next part adresses the question of a possible emerging urban underclass in Belgium.It is concluded that although Belgium has to fight against social problems associated with underclass formation in the US and Britain, it has until now no clearcut underclass. The main reasons for (...) this are that economic marginality is not permanent and stable, and that economic marginality, deviant values and criminal behaviour are not systematically coinciding. (shrink)

Since Austin and Searle, performatives are taken to be crucial for the construction of social reality. More recently, performatives have been proposed to be essential for the construction of personal identities, too. I intend to analyze the postmodern assumption according to which this identity construction is in the power of individuals, an assumption which presupposes a view of performatives as endowed with unconstrained power – that is, with a power that is not subject to objective constraints. I will consider some (...) reasons to reject this view. The first is rooted in Judith Butler’s idea that – since normative approaches to political correctness undesirably reduce freedom of speech in the name of equality – we should seriously consider how offensive performatives may fail, due to objective constraints on their felicity. A second reason to reject the postmodern view of performatives lies in the consideration of narcissism as an individual and political issue. Narcissism in the political sphere can be described as a transformation of the “passion for equality” in an individualistic appetite, deaf to everything else, and especially to social constraints and responsibilities. A different – less narcissistic and more social – model of the self is provided. (shrink)

Michel Maffesoli es un crítico de la modernidad; su crítica se hace a nombre de un posmodernismo que, a diferencia de otras variantes, es claramente optimista, vitalista y afirmativo. Los conceptos de razón, historia y progreso son puestos en cuestión y son reemplazados por la razón sensible, el destino y la comunidad.

Este artigo analisa a interpretação que Hegel, em seus Cursos de esférica, faz da poesia de Goethe. Pretende-se aqui demarcar um modo de abordagem da relação entre o filósofo e o poeta diante de outros estudos sobre o tema, os quais partem em geral de uma comparação direta entre ambos, a partir de diferenças ou semelhanças “teóricas". Entende-se que este tipo de operação obscurece a verdadeira dimensão de suas obras, marcadas por uma série de mediações e iluminações recíprocas, que não (...) se deixam enquadrar num esquema único e fechado de interpretação. (shrink)

O autor investiga as várias referencias de Heidegger à concepção poética de Hölderlin para mostrar como ela é decisiva para determinar o conjunto da compreensão de filosofia e de linguagem heideggerianas.

O artigo explora algumas metáforas marinhas que surgem no pensamento alemão de Leibniz a Goethe, com o intuito de indicar como se desenvolvem certos temas de estética, tais como a noção de alma, de linguagem, de criação artística e de relação dialética entre forma e conteúdo. Passando por autores como Leibniz, Winckelmann, Herder, Goethe e Kant, pretende-se mostrar como, por meio desse desenvolvimento, se constitui uma visão de homem mais ampliada, que não se define mais somente pelo entendimento, mas envolve (...) elementos inconscientes e afetivos. (shrink)

Humans have been using fire for hundreds of millennia, creating an ancestral expansion toward the nocturnal niche. The new adaptive challenges faced at night were recurrent enough to amplify existing psychological variation in our species. Night-time is dangerous and mysterious, so it selects for individuals with higher tendencies for paranoia, risk-taking, and sociability. During night-time, individuals are generally tired and show decreased self-control and increased impulsive behaviors. The lower visibility during night-time favors the partial concealment of identity and opens more (...) opportunities for disinhibition of self-interested behaviors. Indeed, individuals with an evening-oriented chronotype are more paranoid, risk-taking, extraverted, impulsive, promiscuous, and have higher antisocial personality traits. However, under some circumstances, such as respiratory pandemics, the psychobehavioral traits favored by the nocturnal niche might be counter-productive, increasing contagion rates of a disease that can evade the behavioral immune system because its disease cues are often nonexistent or mild. The eveningness epidemiological liability hypothesis presented here suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the evening-oriented psychobehavioral profile can have collectively harmful consequences: there is a clash of core tendencies between the nocturnal chronotype and the recent viral transmission-mitigating safety guidelines and rules. The pandemic safety protocols disrupt much normal social activity, particularly at night when making new social contacts is desired. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is contagious even in presymptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, which enables it to mostly evade our evolved contagious disease avoidance mechanisms. A growing body of research has indirectly shown that individual traits interfering with social distancing and anti-contagion measures are related to those of the nocturnal chronotype. Indeed, some of the social contexts that have been identified as superspreading events occur at night, such as in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Furthermore, nocturnal environmental conditions favor the survival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus much longer than daytime conditions. We compare the eveningness epidemiological liability hypothesis with other factors related to non-compliance with pandemic safety protocols, namely sex, age, and life history. Although there is not yet a direct link between the nocturnal chronotype and non-compliance with pandemic safety protocols, security measures and future empirical research should take this crucial evolutionary mismatch and adaptive metaproblem into account, and focus on how to avoid nocturnal individuals becoming superspreaders, offering secure alternatives for nocturnal social activities. (shrink)

How to demarcate the political units within which democracy will be practiced? Although recent years have witnessed a steadily increasing academic interest in this question concerning the boundary problem in democratic theory, social contract theory’s potential for solving it has largely been ignored. In fact, contract views are premised on the assumption of a given people and so presuppose what requires legitimization: the existence of a demarcated group of individuals materializing, as it were, from nowhere and whose members agree among (...) themselves to establish a political order. In order to fill this gap in social contract theory, a distinction is made between three kinds of contract views: Lockean political voluntarism, contractarianism, and contractualism. Each of these views can be (re)interpreted in such a way that it offers a democratic solution to the boundary problem. Ultimately, however, a Rawlsian interpretation of the contractualist solution is defended. (shrink)

El imaginario poético que emerge de la cultura porteña del Pacífico Sur es un producto de la imaginación que responde a un ejercicio escritural histórico. Hacemos un repaso de estas manifestaciones a partir de tres momentos o sensibilidades que construyen una imagen del puerto de Valparaíso. Desde el relato de viaje, el gesto modernista y la narrativa del naturalismo, todos previos a un producto estético-literario mayor, enseñan en su mirada un modo de habitar el puerto que permiten proponer la existencia (...) de una cultura en conflicto con Occidente. Los pasajes de estas manifestaciones no pueden leerse aislados de esa poética del habitar porteño, sino como parte integral de un discurso de frontera que se pronuncia contra el olvido y a favor de la sobrevivencia histórica de estos puertos. (shrink)

Neste trabalho a noção de fenômeno saturado, proposta por Jean-Luc Marion, é apresentada criticamente e revista. Apoiando-se nas objeções levantadas por L.B. Puntel, que têm um impacto considerável sobre o projeto de Marion de pensar Deus exclusivamente de um ponto de vista fenomenológico, o autor revê o fenômeno saturado através de um retorno à sua fonte primeira: a terceira Crítica de Kant. Desta forma, a natureza simbólica desse fenômeno fica enfatizada, assim como sua constituição estrutural pela imaginação analógica. Em seguida, (...) enfocando o tipo específico de fenômeno saturado que é o fenômeno da revelação, mostra-se como esta versão revista da noção de Marion é adequada para se pensar a experiência do sagrado. Por fim, corrobora-se esse ponto de vista por meio de uma breve alusão à concepção de experiência religiosa em Rudolf Otto. (shrink)