Eternalists believe that there is no ontological difference between the past, present and future. Thus, a challenge arises: in virtue of what does time have a direction? Some eternalists, Oaklander and Tegtmeier ) argue that the direction of time is primitive. A natural response to positing primitive directionality is the suspicion that said posit is too mysterious to do any explanatory work. The aim of this paper is to relieve primitive directionality of some of its mystery by offering a novel (...) way to understand the phenomenon in terms of the recently popularised notion of grounding. (shrink)

Avec et après la pandémie, notre conscience de l’espace et du temps a subi un changement radical : les individus ont expérimenté l’oisiveté forcée, les gestes barrières et la distanciation physique qui redouble l’éloignement induit par les nouvelles technologies ayant substitué la communication à l’échange. Or, les progrès techniques n’ont de progrès que le nom et ne cherchent que l’efficacité assurée par la vitesse qui fait violence aux cycles de la nature. Pourtant, seule cette dernière est capable de nous réconcilier (...) avec nous-mêmes en nous extrayant de la domination de la machine et en nous enseignant la patience de laquelle peut surgir la beauté : beauté du geste artistique qui défie le temps, accès à la transcendance à travers la contemplation du vivant. C’est dans ce rapport d’interdépendance avec la nature que nous pouvons échapper à la déshumanisation de la société moderne et renouer avec la beauté du monde. (shrink)

Recent advances in second-person neuroscience have allowed the underlying neural mechanisms involved in teaching-learning interactions to be better understood. Teaching is not merely a one-way transfer of information from teacher to student; it is a complex interaction that requires metacognitive and mentalizing skills to understand others’ intentions and integrate information regarding oneself and others. Physiotherapy involving therapists instructing patients on how to improve their motor skills is a clinical field in which teaching-learning interactions play a central role. Accumulating evidence suggests (...) that non-invasive brain stimulation modulates cognitive functions; however, NIBS approaches to teaching-learning interactions are yet to be utilized in rehabilitation. In this review, I evaluate the present research into NIBS and its role in enhancing metacognitive and mentalizing abilities; I then review hyperscanning studies of teaching-learning interactions and explore the potential clinical applications of NIBS in rehabilitation. Dual-brain stimulation using NIBS has been developed based on findings of brain-to-brain synchrony in hyperscanning studies, and it is delivered simultaneously to two individuals to increase inter-brain synchronized oscillations at the stimulated frequency. Artificial induction of brain-to-brain synchrony has the potential to promote instruction-based learning. The brain-to-brain interface, which induces inter-brain synchronization by adjusting the patient’s brain activity, using NIBS, to the therapist’s brain activity, could have a positive effect on both therapist-patient interactions and rehabilitation outcomes. NIBS based on second-person neuroscience has the potential to serve as a useful addition to the current neuroscientific methods used in complementary interventions for rehabilitation. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the financial turmoil of the US subprime loan crisis of mid-Noughties and to compare it with the Japanese asset bubble of late 1980s. While examining the two crises, it compares the monetary policies of both countries, focusing on the excess liquidity and expansion of bank loans that were seen. This paper develops several bubble indicators, including the ratio of real estate loans to total loans, the loan-to-GDP ratio, and housing affordability. In order (...) to develop these indicators, it is necessary to compare banking behavior in both Japan and the United States, as banks in both countries were making loans beyond the point of profit maximization. Property prices and monetary policy in both countries influenced banking behavior significantly. The bubble indicators developed in this paper can be used as early warning indicators for future bubbles. (shrink)

Global directional eliminativists deny that there is any global direction to time. This paper provides a way to understand everyday temporal assertions—assertions made outside the physics or metaphysics rooms, the truth of which appears to require that time has a global direction—on the assumption that global directional eliminativism is true.

In the trolley problem, a well-known moral dilemma, the intuitive process is believed to increase deontological judgments, while deliberative reasoning is thought to promote utilitarian decisions. Therefore, based on the dual-process model, there seems to be an attempt to save several lives at the expense of a few others in a deliberative manner. This study examines the validity of this argument. To this end, we manipulate decision-making time in the standard trolley dilemma to compare differences among 119 Japanese female undergraduates (...) under three conditions: intuitive judgment, deliberative judgment, and judgment after a group discussion. The current results demonstrate that utilitarian judgments decreased from 52.9% in the intuition condition to 43.7% in the deliberation condition and 37.0% after the discussion. Additional analysis suggests that the decrease in utilitarian judgments may be related to psychological unwillingness to assume responsibility for the lives of others rather than to an increase in deontological judgments. Finally, these results are discussed from an adaptationist perspective. (shrink)

The current model appears comprehensive but is probably not applicable to a writing system like Japanese, which has unspaced text, because the model is mainly based on English. The span size difference (smaller for Japanese than for English) may be a result of high-level working memory-based attentional processing and not of low-level processing. Further, neural correlates of the model are discussed in terms of central executive function.

O'Regan & Noë's (O&N's) theoretical framework for studying visual perception and awareness is intriguing. This framework, based on sensorimotor contingency, can be examined in recent visual brain theories using neuroimaging methodologies. Here, I consider how a working memory (WM) system explains the sensorimotor account of visual consciousness. I believe WM inside the brain provides at least partial support for O&N's theory.

Drawing on recent work in the contemporary philosophy of economics, this book presents new ideas on liberalism, including the concept of 'growth-oriented liberalism'. Since the end of the Cold War, questions and definitions of liberalism have moved from the sphere of political systems (the socialism versus liberalism debates) to the sphere of ethics (what it means to live in a liberal society). The chapters in this work trace the trajectory of the concept of liberalism in the philosophy of economics by (...) exploring the ideological implications of the methodological debate between socialism and liberalism, the idea of liberty as real freedom, the ethical implications of Max Weber's methodology on autonomy and liberty, and new typological theories of ideologies in the context of contemporary economic ethics. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on liberalism in the philosophy of economics and economic methodology, and is highly recommended for readers who seek updated ideas on liberal society in its ethical and philosophical contexts. Tsutomu Hashimoto is a Professor at Hokkaido University and the President of the Synodos Institute of International Studies in Japan. (shrink)

Working memory has been one of the most intensively studied systems in cognitive psychology. The Cognitive Neuroscience of Working Memory brings together world class researchers from around the world to summarise our current knowledge of this field, and directions for future research.

Inspired by earthquakes in the world, I attempt to clarify the relationship between human beings and Nature. Many architects, such as Tange and Isozaki from 1963 until 2005, built modern cities under the idea of urbanism. However, in Eco-ethica, we propose a new concept “urbanica.” It suggests a new relationship—not “city-center and suburbs” but free relations among communities. New relationships must be clarified in ethics. I try to make clear the relationship between inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity. I analyze this through a (...) Noh play, “Yamanba,” which is a symbol of one natural phenomenon, “wind”: a personified figure of “wind” should link inter-subjectivity and inter-objectivity. Nature itself makes reality, the real world, by the potential movement of wind. (shrink)

古事類苑、モラロジー、麗澤大学...研究遍歴と交友関係を改めて検討し、道徳の科学的研究に至る過程を描き出す。.

In the case of Japan, we accepted the Chinese philosophy of morality when we received the Chinese character Yi: it means responsibility to Heaven (vertical) and, at the same time, responsibility to community (horizontal). An act having this structure might be our responsibility as human beings: yi means “justice”, keeping balance between Heaven and Earth. The Japanese people had such a balance until the Edo era. In 1868, when the Meiji Restoration occurred, the Japanese government tried to accept Western ideas. (...) Cyoumin Nakae introduced the Western philosophy of law and the constitutional system. He translated Rousseau’s The Social Contract into Japanese and gave a series of lectures on the social contract. The fundament of his thought is concentrated in the “rights of Liberty”. He emphasized transcendental liberty beyond personal, phenomenal liberty and found the same structure in Mencius. His idea of ft suggests the way of justice. Unfortunately, this idea was crushed with the death of his talented disciple in prison. After the book of Bushido, ft was only translated as “duty” for the community (horizontal), and we lost the vertical perspective: transcendental liberty. (shrink)

Brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is the most‐abundant neurotrophin in the brain. In mammals, it is synthesized as a precursor called proBDNF, which is proteolytically cleaved to generate mature BDNF. The BDNF gene is located on chromosome 11p13, and a functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of this gene has been shown to produce a valine (Val)‐to‐methionine (Met) substitution in the proBDNF protein at codon 66 (Val66Met). Several papers suggest that this SNP is related to decreased hippocampal volume and hippocampus‐mediated memory performance (...) in humans. Recently, Chen et al.1 generated a variant BDNF mouse (BDNFMet/Met) that reproduces the phenotypic hallmarks in humans with a variant Met allele. In the behavioral analysis, BDNFMet/Met mice show increased anxiety‐related behaviors. This mini‐review examines the impact of Met substitution of proBDNF on anxiety‐related behaviors. BioEssays 29: 116–119, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The purpose of the current study was to examine the influence of individuals’ help-seeking preference and their collective perception of the organizational climate in school on teachers’ mental health. Previous studies demonstrated that HSP was negatively associated with risk of burnout, suggesting that teachers who hesitate to seek help from their colleagues are more likely to have mental health problems. Thus, the current study hypothesized that a collegial organizational climate would be negatively associated with burnout. To test this hypothesis, we (...) developed a scale to measure schoolteachers’ collective perception of their organizational climate, and the newly developed scale was used to assess its relationship with HSP and teachers’ burnout risk. The results demonstrated that younger teachers, a low level of help-seeking, and a less collaborative climate increased the risk of burnout. The results also showed a significant interaction effect, indicating that HSP was less closely associated with teachers’ burnout risk if their organization was perceived as having a collegial climate. These findings clearly show how the social environment of a school’s organizational climate can affect schoolteachers’ mental health in Japan. (shrink)

In his writings Philosophical Remarks, the Austrian-British Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein draws an octahedron with the words of pure colours such as “white”, “red” and “blue” at the corners and argues: “The colour octahedron is grammar, since it says that you can speak of a reddish blue but not of a reddish green, etc”. He uses the word “grammar” in such a specific way that the grammar or grammatical rules describe the meanings of words/expressions, in other words, how we use them (...) in our language. Accordingly, the colour octahedron can also be taken to represent grammatical rules about how we apply words of colour, e.g., that we can call a certain colour “reddish-blue”, but not “reddish-green”. In a different context, the Japanese philosopher Shūzō Kuki explores in his work The Structure of Iki what the Japanese word “iki” means. This word is often translated as “chic” or “stylistic” in English, but Kuki holds that it is an aesthetic Japanese concept that cannot be translated one-to-one, instead encompassing three aspects: “coquetry”, “pride and honour” and “resignation”. To explain the meanings of the word “iki” and other related words all of which Kuki calls “tastes”, he introduces a rectangular prism as a geometrical representation similar to Wittgenstein’s colour octahedron. In this paper, I argue that the rectangular prism does not solely explain how the modes of Japanese tastes are related to each other, but also has a grammatical character. On this score, I suggest that one can regard this rectangular prism as a description of the grammatical rules of the Japanese language. By appeal to the arguments of both philosophers and in comparison with them, I will not only clarify what they claim by geometrical representations but also examine what role this kind of representation plays as an explanation of grammar in general. Keywords: grammar, colour octahedron, rectangular prism, Shūzō Kuki, Wittgenstein. (shrink)

We present a sequent calculus of a paraconsistent logic QMPT0, which has the paraconsistent-type excluded middle law (PEML) as an initial sequent. Our system shows that the presence of PEML is essentially important for QMPT0. It also has special rules when the set of constant symbols is finite. We also discuss the cut-elimination property of our system.

CHAPTER Issues in neural basis of consciousness An introduction Naoyuki Osaka Kyoto University, Japan Consciousness is a most important issue for human ...

No início do movimento psicanalítico, a Hungria foi um dos países pioneiros dentre os que acolheram e propagaram a psicanálise. Sándor Ferenczi, figura principal de desenvolvimento da psicanálise no país, abraçou a causa psicanalítica e se tornou um dos mais importantes teóricos de sua história. Responsável pela criação da Associação Psicanalítica Internacional, fundaria também a Sociedade Húngara de Psicanálise, instituição reconhecida pela originalidade de suas propostas. Além de Ferenczi, Melanie Klein, Michael e Alice Balint, Géza Roheim, dentre outros, foram seus (...) membros. Neste estudo de caráter histórico, o intuito é retomar todo o caminho trilhado pela instituição húngara, desde sua fundação até sua dissolução, em 1949. A identidade e o “espírito” investigativo daquela instituição se perpetuariam ao longo da história psicanalítica, influenciando, direta ou indiretamente, grandes escolas e teóricos da psicanálise, como D. W. Winnicott e alguns pensadores das escolas americanas e francesas. Palavras-chave: psicanálise; história da psicanálise; sociedade húngara de psicanálise; instituições psicanalíticas; Sándor Ferenczi.: Hungary was a place where psychoanalysis founded a great support and development at the beginning of psychoanalytical movement. Sándor Ferenczi, leading figure of psychoanalytical increase in the country, embraced the psychoanalytic cause and became one of its most important theorists and thinkers in history. Responsible for the foundation of the International Psychoanalytical Association, also created the Hungarian Psychoanalytical Society, an institution recognized for the originality of their proposals. Besides Ferenczi, Melanie Klein, Michael and Alice Balint, Géza Roheim, among others, were its members. In this historical study, the purpose is to resume the entire path taken by the Hungarian institution, from the foundation to its dissolution in 1949. The identity and the investigative “spirit” of that institution perpetuate throughout psychoanalytical history, influencing, directly or indirectly, great schools and theorists of psychoanalysis, eg, D. W. Winnicott and some thinkers of American and French schools. Keywords: psychoanalysis; psychoanalytical history; hungarian psychoanalytical society; psychoanalytical institutions; Sándor Ferenczi. (shrink)