In this work, originally published in 1986, Victor Seidler explores the different notions of respect, equality and dependency in Kant’s moral writings. He illuminates central tensions and contradictions not only within Kant’s moral philosophy, but within the thinking and feeling about human dignity and social inequality which we take very much for granted within a liberal moral culture. In challenging our assumption of the autonomy of morality, Seidler also questions our understanding of what it means for someone to (...) live as a person in his or her own right. The autonomy of individuals cannot be assumed but has to be reasserted against relationships of subordination. This involves a break with a rationalist morality, so that respect for others involves respect for emotions, feelings, desires and needs, and establishes a fuller autonomy as a basis for freedom and justice. (shrink)

Michael Seidler - Rival Enlightenments: Civil and Metaphysical Philosophy in Early Modern Germany - Journal of the History of Philosophy 40:3 Journal of the History of Philosophy 40.3 405-406 Book Review Rival Enlightenments: Civil and Metaphysical Philosophy in Early Modern Germany Ian Hunter. Rival Enlightenments: Civil and Metaphysical Philosophy in Early Modern Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xix + 398. Cloth, $69.95. Mendelssohn once referred to Kant, supposedly with affection, as "the all-destroyer" . Hunter's erudite book (...) takes a similar, albeit colder view of Kant's impact on the history of moral and political thought. Kant and Kantians, he holds, not only distort that account by advancing themselves as the "critical" solution to its dialectical inadequacies,.. (shrink)

Die meisten Erörterungen der Freiheitsproblematik bei Leibniz beschränken sich auf die Frage, ob das logische Prinzip vom unzureichenden Grunde eine praktisch-kausale Determination menschlicher Handlungen einschließt. Meine Abhandlung gibt darauf eine bejahende Antwort und zeigt, daß Leibniz sich sehr darum bemüht hat, logische Handlungsgründe als unmittelbare Verhaltensursachen, d.h. als kausale Erklärung menschlicher Freiheit zu begreifen, der wichtigste Beitrag der Abhandlung besteht jedoch darin, im Detail gezeigt zu haben, daß Leibniz neben der obigen eine andere und neue Freiheitskonzeption vom Standpunkt der Unvollkommenheit (...) des moralisch handelnden Subjektes entwickelt hat. -Diese Freiheit realisiert sich gemäß einer informellen, aber komplexen Methode moralischer Entwicklung und Selbstbestimmung, wodurch der moralisch Handelnde eine zunehmende Herrschaft über die Triebe und Leidenschaften gewinnt, diese Methode moralischer Selbstverwirklichung besitzt Ähnlichkeiten mit der „moralischen Therapieײ der späteren Stoa und mit der Kantischen Methode der sich selbst bestimmenden „praktischen Vernunftײ. (shrink)

Emotion modulates our time perception. So far, the relationship between emotion and time perception has been examined with visible emotional stimuli. The present study investigated whether invisible emotional stimuli affected time perception. Using continuous flash suppression, which is a kind of dynamic interocular masking, supra-threshold emotional pictures were masked or unmasked depending on whether the retinal position of continuous flashes on one eye was consistent with that of the pictures on the other eye. Observers were asked to reproduce the perceived (...) duration of a frame stimulus that was concurrently presented with a masked or unmasked emotional picture. As a result, negative emotional stimuli elongated the perceived duration of the frame stimulus in comparison with positive and neutral emotional stimuli, regardless of the visibility of emotional pictures. These results suggest that negative emotion unconsciously accelerates an internal clock, altering time perception. (shrink)

The differential activation hypothesis (DAH; Teasdale, 1988) proposes that individuals who are vulnerable to depression can be distinguished from non-vulnerable individuals by the degree to which negative thoughts and maladaptive cognitive processes are activated during sad mood. While retrieval of negative autobiographical memories is noted as one such process, the model does not articulate a role for deficits in recalling positive memories. Two studies were conducted to compare the autobiographical memory characteristics of never-depressed and formerly depressed individuals following a sad (...) mood induction. In Study 1, features of negative memories of never-depressed and formerly depressed individuals did not differ, either in neutral or sad mood. For positive memories, groups did not differ in neutral mood, but following a sad mood induction, formerly depressed individuals rated their positive memories as less vivid than their never-depressed counterparts. Study 2 examined positive autobiographical memory features more comprehensively and replicated the finding that in a sad mood formerly depressed individuals recalled less vivid positive memories than never-depressed controls. These findings suggest that the phenomenological features of positive memories could represent an important factor in depressive vulnerability, and, more broadly, that depression may be associated with a deficit in the processing of positive material. (shrink)

This paper applies Dehornoy et al.’s Z theorem and its variant, called the compositional Z theorem, to prove confluence of Parigot’s \-calculi extended by the simplification rules. First, it is proved that Baba et al.’s modified complete developments for the call-by-name and the call-by-value variants of the \-calculus with the renaming rule, which is one of the simplification rules, satisfy the Z property. It gives new confluence proofs for them by the Z theorem. Secondly, it is shown that the compositional (...) Z theorem can be applied to prove confluence of the call-by-name and the call-by-value \-calculi with both simplification rules, the renaming and the \-rules, whereas it is hard to apply the ordinary parallel reduction technique or the original Z theorem by one-pass definition of mappings for these variants. (shrink)

The emerging critique of alternative food networks (AFNs) points to several factors that could impede the participation of low-income, minority communities in the movement, namely, spatial and temporal constraints, and the lack of economic, cultural, and human capital. Based on a semi-experimental study that offers 6 weeks of free produce to 31 low-income African American households located in a New Orleans food desert, this article empirically examines the significance of the impeding factors identified by previous scholarship, through participant surveys before, (...) during, and after the program. Our results suggest economic constraints are more influential in determining where the participants shop for food than spatial and temporal constraints, and the study participants exhibit high levels of human and cultural capital regarding the purchase and consumption of locally grown produce. We also find them undeterred by the market’s predominantly White, middle-class cultural social space, which leads us to question the extent to which cultural exclusivity discourages their participation in AFNs. For all five factors we find that the constraints posed to accessing the local food market were not universal but varied among the participants. Finally, the study reveals some localized social constraints, fragmented social ties in particular, as a possible structural hurdle to engaging these residents in the alternative market in their neighborhood. Conclusions point to the need for a multi-dimensional and dynamic conceptualization of “food access.”. (shrink)

Why has right-wing activism in Japan, despite its persistence throughout the postwar era, only gained significant traction recently? Focusing on the Zaitokukai, an anti-Korean movement in Japan, this article demonstrates how the new Far Right were able to popularize formerly stigmatized right-wing ideas. The Zaitokukai represents a political group distinct from the traditional right and reflective of new Far Right movements spreading worldwide. In Japan, concerns about the growing influence of South Korea and China in the 1980s as well as (...) the decline of left-wing norms opened up a discursive opportunity for the new Far Right. By framing Korean postcolonial minorities as undeserving recipients of social welfare benefits, the Zaitokukai mobilized perceptions of threat that has continued to powerfully influence public perceptions of Koreans even following the group’s organizational decline. While past research has focused on the new Far Right’s political influence, this article stresses their roles as ideological entrepreneurs. (shrink)

This article explores the way sound, music, rhythm and movement reflect experiences of suffering, trauma and aliveness by reflecting on colonializing and decolonializing modes of understanding the role played by sounds and music in living through suffering, displacement, cultural devastation and illness. Music and sound practices offer people ways of connecting life narratives and coping mechanisms to deal with loss and suffering. A peculiar aliveness of the body is mediated by sound and rhythm. The experiences with personal and cultural suffering (...) of Richard Wilhelm, Simone Weil, Ludwig Wittgenstein and people in the author’s life are read against the background of the ethical and communicative dimensions of sound and music, in an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic as much a philosophical study. (shrink)

Piantadosi, Tily, and Gibson analyzed a large‐scale web‐scraping corpus (the Google 1T dataset) and reported that word length is independently predicted from average information content (surprisal) calculated by a 2‐ to 4‐gram model (hereafter, longer‐span surprisal) across 11 Indo‐European languages, namely, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Swedish. However, a recent article by Meylan and Griffiths suggested the importance of preprocessing for studies with large‐scale corpora and reanalyzed the same databases. After their preprocessing, the results (...) in Piantadosi et al. were not replicated in Czech, Romanian, and Swedish. Additionally, a German‐specific study by Koplenig, Kupietz, and Wolfer showed that the strict analysis did not replicate the result in Piantadosi et al. for that language with the preprocessing suggested by Meylan and Griffiths in a large‐scale but less noisy database. These three studies provide evidence from 11 Indo‐European languages and one Afro‐Asiatic language, Hebrew, as relevant in this debate. However, we do not have evidence from other linguistic groups. This study provides evidence about Japanese based on a strict preprocessing of Google's web‐scraping database. The results show that Japanese word length can be predicted independently by 2‐ to 4‐gram surprisal. (shrink)

November 4th-5th, 2012 at Kyoto University. Organizers: Hisashi Nakao & Pierre-Alain Braillard.

Research in the U.S. developed and validated the State Self-Compassion Scale, which measures self-compassionate reactions toward a specific negative event. The current study is aimed at developing the Japanese version of the State Self-Compassion Scale and extending previous findings in the U.S. by showing measurement invariance across sexes and demonstrating the construct validity of this scale. Across two studies, the bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling representation of the SSCS-J showed excellent fit in which a single global factor and most of (...) the specific factors were well defined. Study 1 further provided evidence for the measurement invariance across sexes. The SSCS-J was related with higher trait self-compassion and lower fear of and negative beliefs about self-compassion. In Study 2, participants who were instructed to be self-compassionate reported higher scores in the SSCS-J relative to those in the control condition. These results attest to the replicability of the factor structure of the SSCS in Japan and provide further evidence for the construct validity of this scale. (shrink)

Finding truthmakers for negative truths has been a problem in philosophy for a long time. I will present and discuss the solution to this problem offered by Bertrand Russell, Raphael Demos, D. M. Armstrong, and myself. I will argue that some negative truths do not require truthmakers and that truthmakers for the other negative truths are the entities that these negative truths imply exist. I will also argue that truthmakers for general truths of the form, only X, Y, Z, and (...) etc. are F's, are the sum of each X, Y, Z, and etc.'s being F, and hence that sometimes truthmakers do not necessitate truths. (shrink)

This paper explores how to theoretically transcend the division that exists between nonautonomous and autonomous evil. Evil in the context of this paper is a social action that harms others against their will. Traditional social theory has explained the evil in modernity as a pathology or as the result of the organizational and bureaucratic structures of society that was beyond the agency of individuals. The concepts of nonautonomous and autonomous evil developed by John Kekes are used to clarify the types (...) of evil as a social action. It follows that structural processes that entail agency can also be applied to unify the different approaches given to evil and fill the misleading gap that exists between nonautonomous and autonomous evil. Regardless of the event or the perpetrator, evil is agency-driven and is always composed of both nonautonomous and autonomous evil. What differs is the degree of nonautonomous or autonomous evil in the social action. It shows that evil is an important part of agency regardless of the agent’s awareness of the evil that actions entail within modernity, and it is therefore the task of social theory to shed light on its social processes. (shrink)

The standing screens on the title is the oldest work extant of KANO Motonobu's work as folding screens of thick colored flowers and birds with golden background. This thesis designates that the scenery and the motif of the work are in correspondence with both descriptions of the scenery of Pure Land in several Buddhist scriptures and the design of actual gardens. Firstly, a peacock on the right hand screen is focused to indicate the bird connotes the elements of auspicious birds (...) in Buddhism, such as Mahamayuri and Kalavinka.Secondly, the elements of the scenery in the work, such as the four seasons at the same time ∼ the depiction of perpetuity ∼ and the existence of a pond, are identified with the description of Pure Land in Kwan-mu-liang-shou-ching and Ta-wuliang-shou-ching. These elements of the garden in the work are placed similarly to the Pure Land style gardens, which are illustrated in "Center and Surrounds of Kyoto" 's. In consideration of the above factors, the conclusion that, in the work, KANO Motonobu succeeded to portray the ideal garden by combining the scenery of Pure Land and that of actual gardens, is drawn. (shrink)

Cognitive Science, Volume 46, Issue 8, August 2022.

This essay examines Kant's relationship to the Stoics with respect to the affective dimension of the moral life. Besides offering a general description and comparison of the two philosophies in this particular regard, it utilizes numerous specific Kantian references to and parallels with Stoicism to argue that his own position was, throughout its development, shaped by a growing contact with and appreciation of the Stoic view. The paper proceeds from some negative remarks of Kant about suppressing or even eliminating the (...) emotions and inclinations found mainly in the Grundlegung and the second Critique, and then goes on to show how Kant was able to draw upon a number of Stoic distinctions and concepts, such as that between the affects and the passions, in order to mitigate these negative and exclusivistic attitudes and to reincorporate the affective components of the personality into his conception of a fully human moral life. Moreover, because of the numerous subtopics explored in making the main case for the Kant-Stoa link, the essay also accomplishes its subsidiary purpose of showing the importance of the sometimes overlooked emotional factor or dimension of Kant's ethics as such. (shrink)

HEINRICH SCHIPPERGES vollendete am 17. Marz 1983 sein 65. Lebensjahr. Urn ihm eine Freude zu machen, ja urn ihm die gebiihrende Referenz zu erweisen, hatte sich am 19. Marz im Auditorium der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften ein Kreis von Gratulanten eingefun­ den. Die Sprecher brachten ihre Gabe, je einen Beitrag aus dem eigenen Arbeitsgebiet, zum Vortrag, und der lubilar selbst griff in die Speichen. Er zeigte, was er unter "An­ thropologie" versteht. Nicht aIle Beitdige zu diesem Buche konnten miindlich ausgebreitet (...) werden, aus auBeren Grunden. Nicht alles, was gesagt wurde, konnte gedruckt werden, aus ganz verschiedenen sachlichen Grunden. Es ist nur natiirlich, daB in unserem Buche die historischen Aspekte iiberwiegen. Andererseits geht es gewiI3 nicht nur urn "Geschichte" und "Problemgeschichte", sondern urn klarende und kritische Untersuchungen zum Stand der "Hildegard-Forschung", zum Krankheits-, zum ModeIlbe­ griff, urn Gestalttheorie und Krankheitsforschung, - urn nur einiges zu nennen. Die Darstellung unserer "Aspekte" bringt, wie ich denke, zwei Kostbarkeiten: den Bericht der ehrwiirdigen Frau Sr. ADELGUNDIS FUHRKOTIER OSB iiber die Frage, was ist gesichert im literarischen Nachlaj3 der hI. Hildegard von Bingen, und die bezaubernde Geschichte der Vorwor­ ter der Dedikationsliteratur des 12. bis 17. sc. durch einen der besten Kenner des Prooemium, den lubilar selbst. Unser Buch enthalt elf wissenschaftliche Beitrage und eine bibliographische Materialsammlung zur Medizinischen Anthropologie. Dieser Beitrag will dem, der sich orientie­ ren muB, was diese Anthropologie darstellt und wie sie ge­ worden ist, einen "Handapparat" geben. (shrink)

Recovering the Self seeks to place issues of morality and justice at the heart of social theory. Because of the breakdown of traditional forms of authority, respect for authorities can no longer be taken for granted. Increasingly people believe that respect has to be earned and people have to discover sources of authority within themselves. Victor Seidler seeks to establish a framework to rethink the relation between self and society, identities and power. Through exploring the works of Marx, Weber, (...) and Durkheim he shows the hidden complexities of a modernity too often identified with a unified vision of the rational self. Reinstating the body and emotional life into the discussion, Seidler sets new terms for respect and equality by showing ways the self is undermined in its sense of self-worth and adequacy through the working of relationships of power and subordination. (shrink)

An emerging concept is that quiescent mature skeletal cells provide an important cellular source for bone regeneration. It has long been considered that a small number of resident skeletal stem cells are solely responsible for the remarkable regenerative capacity of adult bones. However, recent in vivo lineage‐tracing studies suggest that all stages of skeletal lineage cells, including dormant pre‐adipocyte‐like stromal cells in the marrow, osteoblast precursor cells on the bone surface and other stem and progenitor cells, are concomitantly recruited to (...) the injury site and collectively participate in regeneration of the damaged skeletal structure. Lineage plasticity appears to play an important role in this process, by which mature skeletal cells can transform their identities into skeletal stem cell‐like cells in response to injury. These highly malleable, long‐living mature skeletal cells, readily available throughout postnatal life, might represent an ideal cellular resource that can be exploited for regenerative medicine. (shrink)

The human ability to flexibly discover alternatives without fixating on a known solution supports a variety of human creative activities. Previous research has shown that people who discover an alternative procedure relax their attentional bias to information regarding the known solutions just prior to the discovery. This study examined whether the difference in the distribution of attention between the finders and non-finders of the alternative procedure is observed from the phase of solving the problem using the trained procedure. We evaluated (...) the characteristics of the finders' distribution of attention in situations where problem solving using a trained procedure was successful. This aspect has been little examined in previous research. Our study obtained empirical evidence for the fact that, compared to non-finders, finders pay more attention to information unrelated to the trained procedure acquired through knowledge and experience, even time when using a trained procedure. We also confirmed that this difference does not exist from the beginning of the task, but emerges during repeated use of familiar procedures. These findings indicate that in order to find an alternative procedure, one should not only divert attention from a familiar procedure just before the discovery but also pay a certain amount of attention to information unrelated to the familiar procedure even when the familiar procedure is functioning well. (shrink)

Pupil contagion is the phenomenon in which an observer’s pupil-diameter changes in response to another person’s pupil. Even chimpanzees and infants in early development stages show pupil contagion. This study investigated whether dynamic changes in pupil diameter would induce changes in infants’ pupil diameter. We also investigated pupil contagion in the context of different faces. We measured the pupil-diameter of 50 five- to six-month-old infants in response to changes in the pupil diameter of upright and inverted faces. The results showed (...) that in the upright presentation condition, dilating the pupil diameter induced a change in the infants’ pupil diameter while constricting the pupil diameter did not induce a change, and pupil contagion occurred only in the upright face presentation, and not in the inverted face presentation. These results indicate the face-inversion effect in infants’ pupil contagion. (shrink)

We show that if a class K of finite relational structures is closed under quasi-substructures, then there is no saturated K-generic structure that is superstable but not ω -stable.