Widespread reliance on representationalist understandings commit social scientists to either partially or totally decouple belief from reality, limiting the domain of phenomena that can be treated by belief as an analytic concept. Developing the contrastive notion of practical belief, we introduce the hysteresis effect as a situational phenomenon involving the systematic production of agent-environment mismatches and argue for its placement as a central problem for the theory of action. Revealing the dynamic, embodied conservation of belief in the temporality of (...) practice, hysteresis appears when environmental contexts change in a way that leaves actors without an ontologically complicit relationship to institutions as scaffolds of action. Under these circumstances, a past-inflected reflexiveness replaces a forward-inflecting practical belief in the actor's temporal relation to the world. Drawing from a variety of historical case studies, we locate hysteresis in routine disjunctures between the temporality of practice and the temporality of environments. Our analysis reveals four distinct types of reflexiveness produced the hysteresis effect, each with a unique dispositional impact on actors and extensions to group-level phenomena. We conclude the article by emphasizing the non-eliminativist relationship between belief as disposition and belief as representation. (shrink)

This paper explores the implications of some experimental data for views that identify colors with objective physical properties such as reflectance profiles. Those who reject objectivist views often argue from the existence of intersubjective differences in color categorization ; but objectivists have managed to stand their ground by identifying colors with sets or ranges of reflectances individuated by the ways in which they stimulate the visual system. In the interest of moving the debate forward, I provide a new kind of (...) evidence against objectivism. Results of a psycholinguistic experiment reveal hysteresis and enhanced contrast in ordinary speakers’ applications of vague terms. These dynamical patterns are purely psychological and give rise to intra-subjective variation in subjects’ applications of vague predicates; in particular, in the case of color predicates, nothing in the stimulus configuration or the illuminant undergoes any change, the only variable being the order in which stimuli are judged. I hypothesize that these order effects are necessary if vague words are to be applicable to values on dimensions, like color, that admit of continuous change. To the extent that this hypothesis is correct, it suggests that if colors are the properties named by ordinary color predicates, and ordinary color predicates are vague, and the application of vague predicates exhibits the order effects found in the experiment, colours cannot be physical or otherwise objective in nature. (shrink)

Economies making a transition from centrally planned socialism to market capitalism can experience chaotic hysteresis. This can arise from elements of the previous system persisting even as institutions are transformed with the system possibly experiencing chaos during this conflict. A model of investment cycles accompanied by technological stagnation shows this phenomenon which can be viewed from a cusp catastrophe perspective. Empirical tests of Soviet investment and construction data provide incomplete support for the cusp structure with chaos. Nonlinear structures are (...) found with bifurcation effects for all cases and possibly chaotic dynamics for five-year lagged construction data. (shrink)

For some decades now, a transformation has been underway that is no less dramatic than the Industrial Revolution, and that just like the latter requires time to be conceptualized. When one seeks to capture the essence of an unprecedented phenomenon, one always uses several, partial, esoteric names: virtuality, Collective Intelligence, Internet, web, big data, artificial intelligence, game… In short, we are all unwittingly drafting a new Visnusahasranāma: a collective poem made up of books, essays, articles, debates, and posts that sings (...) about the thousand names of our Visnu, whose essence however remains unknown. Trying to find a name for this hidden god, I will start from an examination of the current revolution, trying to grasp its specificity, and consequently also its essential differences from the Industrial Revolution; secondly, I will focus on the metaphysical revelation made possible by this revolution (which, like any revolution, does not really transform the world, but rather manifests essential structures that were already present in it, in a hidden or only hinted form); finally, I will devote myself to speculation as to the decisions we must take with respect to the future and the political goals to be pursued with respect to this new world we are living in. (shrink)

Perhaps the most relevant aspect of the ongoing philosophical transformation is the splitting of binomial speculation-idealism. Indeed, one can be both realist and speculative. The paper aims to show it through a definition of negative, positive, and speculative Realism and emphasises the speculative concept of hysteresis, i.e. the survival of effects to their own causes. Indeed, it is the fundamental principle at the basis of what exists (ontology), what we do (technology), what we know (epistemology), and finally of teleology (...) (that is, of the interruption which, by putting an end to a process, simultaneously assigns a purpose to it). (shrink)

This article describes new aspects of hysteresis dynamics which have been uncovered through computer experiments. There are several motivations to be interested in fast-slow dynamics. For instance, many physiological or biological systems display different time scales. The bursting oscillations which can be observed in neurons, β-cells of the pancreas and population dynamics are essentially studied via bifurcation theory and analysis of fast-slow systems (Keener and Sneyd, 1998; Rinzel, 1987). Hysteresis is a possible mechanism to generate bursting oscillations. A (...) first part of this article presents the computer techniques (the dotted-phase portrait, the bifurcation of the fast dynamics and the wave form) we have used to represent several patterns specific to hysteresis dynamics. This framework yields a natural generalization to the notion of bursting oscillations where, for instance, the active phase is chaotic and alternates with a quiescent phase. In a second part of the article, we emphasize the evolution to chaos which is often associated with bursting oscillations on the specific example of the Hindmarsh–Rose system. This evolution to chaos has already been studied with classical tools of dynamical systems but we give here numerical evidence on hysteresis dynamics and on some aspects of the wave form. The analytical proofs will be given elsewhere. (shrink)

I enter a debate about state-socialism elite’s reproduction and higher education to propose an implementation of Bourdieu’s hysteresis effect. I argue that the intelligentsia and the interwar university shaped biographical paths of academics stronger than the political factors, which are usually brought to the forefront by contemporary researchers. I analyse academic biographies shaped by the socialist university and reconstruct a model academic biography in the post-WWII period, in particular, in Poland. I compare it with biographies of professors from working-class (...) and peasant backgrounds, and arrive at the conclusion that the differences are minor. Those who formed a seemingly perfect new intelligentsia were socialized by the traditional academic habitus. A few who entered the new academic world from working class or peasant backgrounds had to embrace the interwar university ethos in order to justify their own merits in belonging. I propose a model of opposite hysteresis vectors to explain tensions between academia and political field. (shrink)

Shape memory alloy- based actuators are widely applied in the compliant actuating systems. However, the measured data of the SMA-based compliant actuating system reveal the input-output hysteresis behavior, and the actuating precision of the compliant actuating system could be degraded by such hysteresis nonlinearities. To characterize such nonlinearities in the SMA-based compliant actuator precisely, a Jiles-Atherton model is adopted in this paper, and a modified particle swarm optimization algorithm is proposed to identify the parameters in the Jiles-Atherton model, (...) which is a combination of several differential nonlinear equations. Compared with the basic PSO identification algorithm, the designed MPSO algorithm can reduce the local optimum problem so that the Jiles-Atherton model with the identified parameters can show good agreements with the measured experimental data. The good capture ability of the proposed identification algorithm is also examined through the comparisons with Jiles-Atherton model using the basic PSO identification algorithm. (shrink)

Hysteresis means literally “that which comes later,” being derived from the Greek verb ύστερέω. Thus, hysteresis effects, generally defined, are those that persist after the initial causes giving rise to the effects are removed. During the course of the 1980s, it became increasingly fashionable to invoke hysteresis effects to explain economic phenomena. Two of the main areas of application were to unemployment and international trade. In the case of unemployment, distinctive features of labor markets, such as social (...) norms that rule out wage-cutting in the face of rising unemployment, imply that “increases in unemployment have a direct impact on the ‘natural’ rate of unemployment”. The implication for macroeconomic systems is that “temporary shocks can have a permanent effect on the level of employment”. In the case of international trade, hysteresis effects arise from the industrial economics of sunk costs: “the argument is that firms must incur sunk costs to enter new markets, and cannot recoup these costs if they exit.… thus foreign firms that entered the U.S. market when the dollar was high do not abandon their sunk cost investments when the dollar falls.” The implication for trade flows is “an effect which persists after the cause that brought it about has been removed”. (shrink)

In the present study, we have demonstrated hysteresis phenomena in the excitability of single, enzymatically dissociated guinea pig ventricular myocytes. Membrane potentials were recorded with patch pipettes in the whole-cell current clamp configuration. Repetitive stimulation with depolarizing current pulses of constant cycle length and duration but varying strength led to predictable excitation (1:l) and non-excitation (1:0) patterns depending on current strength. In addition, transition between patterns depended on the direction of current intensity change and stable hysteresis loops were (...) obtained in stimulus:response pattern vs. current intensity plots in 14 cells. Increase of pulse duration and decrease of stimulation rate contributed to a reduction in hysteresis loop areas. Changes in amplitude and shape of the subthreshold responses during the transitions from one stable pattern to the other, suggested that activity led to an increase in membrane resistance, particularly in the voltage domain between resting potential, and threshold. Therefore, we modelled the dynamic behaviour of the single cells as a function of diastolic membrane resistance, using previously published analytical solutions. Numerical iteration of the analytical model equations closely reproduced the experimental hysteresis loops in both qualitative and quantitative ways. In particular, the effect of stimulation frequency on the model was similar to the experimental findings. The overall study suggests that the excitability pattern of guinea pig ventricular myocytes accounts for hysteresis and bistabilities when current intensity is allowed to fluctuate around threshold levels. (shrink)

Sociological theory on the phenomenon of suicide continues to rely heavily upon the Durkheimian perspective. While such accounts are valuable additions to the field, engagement with alternative theoretical traditions may likewise be stimulating and provide distinct concepts to delve into the issue. This article contributes to expanding sociological understanding of suicide by drawing upon Pierre Bourdieu’s theory, a relatively untapped resource in the study of suicide. I suggest that the concept of hysteresis – a mismatch between embodied and objectified (...) structures – enables an understanding of under what circumstances agents may become vulnerable to suicide. I then theorise how socioeconomic, political, and cultural dynamics may deepen the hysteresis effect and increase the chances that individuals in specific social positions experience it. Finally, I argue that individuals’ responses to such distress depend on their space of possibles: the culturally laden idea of suicide and alternatives to it. (shrink)

We present a technique called Random Image Structure Evolution (RISE) for use in experimental investigations of high‐level visual perception. Potential applications of RISE include the quantitative measurement of perceptual hysteresis and priming, the study of the neural substrates of object perception, and the assessment and detection of subtle forms of agnosia. In simple terms, RISE involves the measurement of perceptual and/or neural responses as visual stimuli are systematically transformed—in particular, as recognizable objects evolve from, then dissolve into, randomness. Points (...) along the sequences corresponding to the onset and offset of subjects' percepts serve as markers for quantitatively and objectively characterizing several perceptual phenomena. Notably, these image sequences are created in a manner that strictly controls a number of important low‐level image properties, such as luminance and frequency spectra, thus reducing confounds in the analysis of high‐level visual processes. Here we describe the RISE paradigm, report the results of a few basic RISE experiments, and discuss a number of experimental and clinical applications of this approach. (shrink)

This paper proposes an experimental investigation of the use of vague predicates in dynamic sorites. We present the results of two studies in which subjects had to categorize colored squares at the borderline between two color categories (Green vs. Blue, Yellow vs. Orange). Our main aim was to probe for hysteresis in the ordered transitions between the respective colors, namely for the longer persistence of the initial category. Our main finding is a reverse phenomenon of enhanced contrast (i.e. negative (...) hysteresis), present in two different tasks, a comparative task involving two color names, and a yes/no task involving a single color name, but not found in a corresponding color matching task. We propose an optimality-theoretic explanation of this effect in terms of the strict-tolerant framework of Cobreros et al. (J Philos Log 1–39, 2012), in which borderline cases are characterized in a dual manner in terms of overlap between tolerant extensions, and underlap between strict extensions. (shrink)

The utility of recognising emotion expressions for coordinating social interactions is well documented, but less is known about how continuously changing emotion displays are perceived. The nonlinear dynamic systems view of emotions suggests that mixed emotion expressions in the middle of displays of changing expressions may be decoded differently depending on the expression origin. Hysteresis is when an impression (e.g., disgust) persists well after changes in facial expressions that favour an alternative impression (e.g., anger). In expression changes based on (...) photographs (Study 1) and avatar images (Studies 2a–c, 3), we found hystereses particularly in changes between emotions that are perceptually similar (e.g., anger–disgust). We also consistently found uncertainty (neither emotion contributing to the mixed expression was perceived), which was more prevalent in expression sequences than in static images. Uncertainty occurred particularly in changes between emotions that are perceptually dissimilar, such as changes between happiness and negative emotions. This suggests that the perceptual similarity of emotion expressions may determine the extent to which hysteresis and uncertainty occur. Both hysteresis and uncertainty effects support our premise that emotion decoding is state dependent, a characteristic of dynamic systems. We propose avenues to test possible underlying mechanisms. (shrink)

I present a novel argument against the epistemic conception of perception according to which perception either is a form of knowledge or puts the subject in a position to gain knowledge about what is perceived. ECP closes the gap between a perceptual experience that veridically presents a given state of affairs and an experience capable of yielding the knowledge that the state of affairs obtains. Against ECP, I describe a particular case of perceptual experience in which the following triad of (...) claims is true: The experience presents a given state of affairs ; The experience is veridical; The experience cannot yield the knowledge that the state of affairs obtains. This case involves an empirically well-studied phenomenon, namely perceptual hysteresis, which involves the maintenance of a perceptual experience with a relatively stable content over progressively degrading sensory stimulations. (shrink)

This article challenges what is now the orthodoxy concerning the heritage of Bourdieu (1930–2002): namely, the judgement that his distinctive sociological innovation has been his theory of social reproduction, and that he has failed to provide a necessary theory of social change. Yet Bourdieu consistently claimed to offer a theory of social transformation as well as accounting for continuities of power. Indeed, he provides two substantive keys for an understanding of historical transformation—first, a theory of prophets (religious or secular) as (...) the authors of heresies or “symbolic revolutions” that dispel current doxa; second, a theory of the “corporatism of the universal”: the role of intellectuals or other educated professionals in pursuit of social justice and other universalistic goals. Moreover, Bourdieu fuses his theories of “symbolic revolutions” with a materialist analysis of their social preconditions, including a fresh account of social crises. Crises—war, famine, recession, and especially the intensified precarity of the educated—have, for him, a profound impact, both within differentiated fields and across fields. Conflicts that become effectivelysynchronizedacross fields acquire great resonance within the wider field of power, particularly due to hysteresis or “maladjusted habitus.” Indeed, the appearance of crises, together with new prophetic heresies, leads the subordinate classes to question the taken-for-granted order of things and to orchestrate their resistance. Alongside his corpus of published writings, this article draws widely on Bourdieu’s posthumously published lectures. These cast a distinctive new light on how his well-known conceptual instruments can aid us in the study of historical change. They also expand on how social science itself might be used to facilitate progressive social movements. (shrink)

Dynamical systems theory (DST) is a branch of mathematics that assesses abstract or physical systems that change over time. It has a quantitative part (mathematical equations) and a related qualitative part (plotting equations in a state space). Nonlinear dynamical systems theory applies the same tools in research involving phenomena such as chaos and hysteresis. These approaches have provided different ways of investigating and understanding cognitive systems in cognitive science and neuroscience. The ‘dynamical hypothesis’ claims that cognition is and can (...) be understood as dynamical systems. Common consequences for such an approach include rejecting understanding cognition as information processing in nature, including eschewing explanatory roles for computation or representation. Contemporary applications of DST include mouse‐tracking studies in cognitive science and nonrepresentational perspectives on motor control in neuroscience. Such work has philosophical implications concerning the boundaries of cognition, explanation, and representations. DST offers powerful methodology and theories that raise many topics of philosophical significance. (shrink)

This paper argues that specific phobia is an ideal kind of psychiatric disorder because it bears the marks of a mature medical diagnosis and is amenable to causal explanation. A new and ambitious program of ‘causal revolution’ has recently emerged in psychiatry that hopes to refurnish our taxonomies by discovering the underlying biological and psychological causes that create and maintain mental illness. I show that the sort of causal story envisioned by the program is a mechanistic property cluster (MPC) structure, (...) which involves a causal mechanism that explains the co-occurrence of a disorder’s signs and symptoms (Kendler, Zachar & Craver, 2011). I then build a model of fear in humans and sketch a novel account of specific phobia as a configuration of the fear system in thrall to deregulated network dynamics such as hysteresis, tipping points, and feedback loops. Specific phobia has an MPC structure. I close by reflecting on whether we can reasonably expect other mental disorders to fit an MPC mold, and thus lend themselves to future causal validation. This paper shows that specific phobia holds a unique place in our picture of mental disorder that has so far been missed. It is an ideal kind of psychopathology. (shrink)

Most models of response time (RT) in elementary cognitive tasks implicitly assume that the speed-accuracy trade-off is continuous: When payoffs or instructions gradually increase the level of speed stress, people are assumed to gradually sacrifice response accuracy in exchange for gradual increases in response speed. This trade-off presumably operates over the entire range from accurate but slow responding to fast but chance-level responding (i.e., guessing). In this article, we challenge the assumption of continuity and propose a phase transition model for (...) RTs and accuracy. Analogous to the fast guess model (Ollman, 1966), our model postulates two modes of processing: a guess mode and a stimulus-controlled mode. From catastrophe theory, we derive two important predictions that allow us to test our model against the fast guess model and against the popular class of sequential sampling models. The first prediction—hysteresis in the transitions between guessing and stimulus-controlled behavior—was confirmed in an experiment that gradually changed the reward for speed versus accuracy. The second prediction—bimodal RT distributions—was confirmed in an experiment that required participants to respond in a way that is intermediate between guessing and accurate responding. (shrink)

In this paper, the Helmholtz equation with quadratic damping themes is used for modeling the dynamics of a simple prey-predator system also called a simple Lotka–Volterra system. From the Helmholtz equation with quadratic damping themes obtained after modeling, the equilibrium points have been found, and their stability has been analyzed. Subsequently, the harmonic oscillations have been studied by the harmonic balance method, and the phenomena of resonance and hysteresis are observed. The primary and secondary resonances have been researched by (...) the multiple-scale method, and the conditions of stability of the amplitudes of oscillations are determined. Chaos is detected analytically by the Melnikov method and numerically using the basin of attraction, the bifurcation diagram, the Lyapunov exponent, the phase portrait, and the Poincaré section. The effects of all the parameters of the system are analyzed in detail, and special emphasis is placed on the new parameters. Through this analysis, the complex phenomena such as hysteresis, bistability, amplitude jump, resonances, and chaos have been obtained. The control of the parameters and the necessary conditions to control the aforementioned phenomena have been found. (shrink)

Over the past three decades, Van Gelder's dynamical hypothesis has been instrumental in reconceptualizing the ways in which perception-action-cognition unfolds over time and in context. Here, I examine how the dynamical approach has enriched the theoretical understanding of social dynamics within cognitive science, with a particular focus on interpersonal coordination. I frame this review around seven principles in dynamical systems: three that are well-represented in interpersonal coordination research to date (emergent behavior, context-sensitive behavior, and attractors) and four that could be (...) useful opportunities for future growth (hysteresis, sensitivity to initial conditions, equifinality, and reciprocal compensation). In addition to identifying specific promising lines of theoretical inquiry, I focus on the significant potential afforded by computationally intensive science—especially in naturally occurring data or trace data. Building on the foundation laid over the past three decades, I argue that looking to increasingly situated and naturalistic settings (and data) is not only necessary to realize the full commitment to the dynamical hypothesis but is also critical to building parsimonious and principled theories of social phenomena. (shrink)

Beyond their linguistic and rhetorical uses, the mental epistemic verbs to knowand to believe reveal a basic conceptual system for human intentionality and the theory of representational mind. Numerous studies, particularly in the field of child development, have been devoted to the conditions under which knowledge and belief are acquired. Upstream of this empirical approach, this paper proposes a topological model of the conceptual structure underlying the linguistic use of to know and to believe. A cusp model of catastrophe theory (...) is chosen to model the formation of epistemic states. Its main characteristic is considering to believe as an intermediate state which lacks stability and presents the delayed effect of hysteresis. The attribution of mental states to the other (viewpoint of the third person) is obtained by the crossing of first and third person knowledge and belief, which gives rise to new categories (to know if and to falsely believe) and closes the system. Another merging of the beliefs of persons A and B, using the butterfly catastrophe, provides a model of interpersonal belief appreciated by an independent observer along a potential evolving from agreement to disagreement. (shrink)

The lodestone is an extremely rare form of the mineral magnetite that occurs naturally as a permanent magnet. It therefore attracts metallic iron as well as fragments of ordinary ‘inert’ magnetite. This ‘magic’ property was known to many ancient cultures, and a powerful lodestone has always commanded a high price. By the eleventh century AD the Chinese had discovered that a freely suspended elongated lodestone would tend to set with its long axis approximately north–south, and utilized this property in the (...) magnetic compass. They also appear to have discovered that this invaluable characteristic could be handed‐on to a steel needle if the latter were contacted with, or stroked by, a lodestone.The magnetism of the lodestone was scientifically investigated by William Gilbert in the sixteenth century, when he defined its ‘poles' and the well‐known rule that ‘like poles repel, unlike attract’. He also studied ‘inclination’ and ‘variation’, and means to aid the preservation of magnetic power. How to concentrate it by ‘arming’ the lodestone with caps or pole‐pieces of soft iron was discovered in the same century. These methods have been repeated, confirmed, and improved. The lodestone occupies a vital place in the history of magnetism, but little beyond Gilbert's work can be reached by historical studies because vastly improved steel or alloy permanent magnets, and electromagnets, replaced it before quantitative measurements were developed. These techniques have therefore been applied retrospectively to both museum specimens and contemporary natural lodestones. A good source of the latter was found to be the igneous complex known as Magnet Cove, Arkansas, and this material has been used as the ‘type example’. All specimens were discrete, well‐rounded, rusty brown pebbles found near the surface. Their unweathered interiors were black titanomagnetite. No significant trace element or crystallographic differences could be found between the lodestones and the magnetically inert material that always accompanied them. The magnetic moment per unit volume of the ‘as‐found’ Magnet Cove lodestones varied between 6.5 and 11.6 emu cm−3, which compares poorly with the hundreds of units characteritzing modern permanent magnets. Hysteresis loops gave a saturation intensity of 27–51 emu cm−3, suggesting that intensity has diminished since formation. This agrees with general experience of magnets, especially in the absence of a ‘keeper’. The initial volume susceptibility of Magnet Cove magnetite was about 0.18 for low fields, and always remained <1. This means that a normal terrestrial magnetic field with a maximum vector <1 Oe is unable to induce even the low magnetic moments we see today, while a field approaching 1000 Oe is required for saturation. These parameters, and the rare occurrence of lodestones as near‐surface fragments, support suggestions that they are the product of a lightning strike upon an exposure of a suitable magnetite. Transient currents averaging 30 000 A have been measured. This would give rise to a zone of potential magnetic saturation at least 12 cm in diameter, to which some of the ejected fragments would be exposed. An attempt to determine the period elapsed since formation of the Magnet Cove lodestone was made by annealing magnetically saturated specimens at temperatures up to 500°C, and measuring J v at weekly intervals for 100 days. The decay curves visually resembled exponential functions, but mathematical tests proved that they were not strictly so. Interpretation was therefore difficult, but a pragmatic procedure involving excessive extrapolation suggested an ‘age’ of about 3500 years. (shrink)

La catégorie du suranné, appliquée à l’objet esthétique, notamment au produit de l’activité artistique, désigne une mesure, un kairos, qui se situe entre l’ancien qui ne s’érige pas encore en classique et le contemporain qui n’est pas encore jugé démodé. Il qualifie tout objet esthétique en passe d’acquérir une valeur d’ancienneté sans pour autant s’affirmer comme universellement acceptable et sans s’imposer impérativement. Il ne détermine ni ce qui a vieilli ni ce que l’on qualifierait de vieillot; il dénote, plus particulièrement, (...) un état intermédiaire, plus ou moins officiellement reconnu, qu’il relie au présent. Dans cet ordre d’idées, le suranné implique pour la conscience esthétique un jeu dialectique entre ce qui est directement vécu et ce qui est poursuivi, avec, en plus, un rien de dédain, mais aussi avec un certain regret à son égard. Il équivaut à un présent rétentionnel dont on voudrait, mais ne pourrait, se détacher; d’où la nostalgie que la conscience esthétique éprouve pour lui. D’ordre éminemment transitoire, l’objet suranné est un objet esthétiquement intermédiaire qui s’identifie à une hystérésis formelle autant que fonctionnelle. Dès lors, le suranné assure une continuité esthétique, oriente la conscience vers le passé, actualise l’inactuel et cautionne le rapprochement de ce qui est sujet à distanciation. (shrink)