What to say to a skeptical metaphysician: A defense manual for cognitive and behavioral scientists

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 603-627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Don Ross ◽  
David Spurrett
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Philosophy Of Mind ◽  
The Other ◽  
Behavioral Sciences ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Relationship

A wave of recent work in metaphysics seeks to undermine the anti-reductionist, functionalist consensus of the past few decades in cognitive science and philosophy of mind. That consensus apparently legitimated a focus on what systems do, without necessarily and always requiring attention to the details of how systems are constituted. The new metaphysical challenge contends that many states and processes referred to by functionalist cognitive scientists are epiphenomenal. It further contends that the problem lies in functionalism itself, and that, to save the causal significance of mind, it is necessary to re-embrace reductionism.We argue that the prescribed return to reductionism would be disastrous for the cognitive and behavioral sciences, requiring the dismantling of most existing achievements and placing intolerable restrictions on further work. However, this argument fails to answer the metaphysical challenge on its own terms. We meet that challenge by going on to argue that the new metaphysical skepticism about functionalist cognitive science depends on reifying two distinct notions of causality (one primarily scientific, the other metaphysical), then equivocating between them. When the different notions of causality are properly distinguished, it is clear that functionalism is in no serious philosophical trouble, and that we need not choose between reducing minds or finding them causally impotent. The metaphysical challenge to functionalism relies, in particular, on a naïve and inaccurate conception of the practice of physics, and the relationship between physics and metaphysics.

scholarly journals Relationship between Cycling Infrastructure and Transportation Cycling in a Small Urban Area

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-112
Author(s):  
Richard Larouche ◽  
Nimesh Patel ◽  
Jennifer L. Copeland
Keyword(s):  
Generalized Linear Models ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
The Other ◽  
Small City ◽  
The Road ◽  
The Past ◽  
Low Prevalence ◽  
The Relationship

The role of infrastructure in encouraging transportation cycling in smaller cities with a low prevalence of cycling remains unclear. To investigate the relationship between the presence of infrastructure and transportation cycling in a small city (Lethbridge, AB, Canada), we interviewed 246 adults along a recently-constructed bicycle boulevard and two comparison streets with no recent changes in cycling infrastructure. One comparison street had a separate multi-use path and the other had no cycling infrastructure. Questions addressed time spent cycling in the past week and 2 years prior and potential socio-demographic and psychosocial correlates of cycling, including safety concerns. Finally, we asked participants what could be done to make cycling safer and more attractive. We examined predictors of cycling using gender-stratified generalized linear models. Women interviewed along the street with a separate path reported cycling more than women on the other streets. A more favorable attitude towards cycling and greater habit strength were associated with more cycling in both men and women. Qualitative data revealed generally positive views about the bicycle boulevard, a need for education about sharing the road and for better cycling infrastructure in general. Our results suggest that, even in smaller cities, cycling infrastructure may encourage cycling, especially among women.

DESIGN DISCOURSE AND THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF DESIGN

2014 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-53
Author(s):  
Jeroen de Ridder
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Other ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
The Past ◽  
The One ◽  
Bare Bones ◽  
Single Focus

Much of Alvin Plantinga’s Where the Conflict Really Lies(2011) will contain few surprises for those who have been following his work over the past decades. This —I hasten to add — is nothing against the book. The fact alone that his ideas on various topics, which have appeared scattered throughout the literature, are now actualized, applied to the debate about the (alleged) conflict between science and religion, and organized into an overarching argument with a single focus makes this book worthwhile. Moreover, I see this book making significant progress on two opposite ends of the spectrum of views about science and religion. On the one end, we find the so-called new atheists and other conflict-mongers. Compared to the overheated rhetoric that oozes from their writings, this book is a breath of fresh air. Plantinga cuts right to the chase and soberly exposes the bare bones of the new atheists’ arguments. It immediately becomes clear how embarrassingly bare these bones really are. On the other end of the spectrum are theologians and scientists who envisage harmony and concord between science and religion.

Faith and Goodness

1989 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 167-191
Author(s):  
Eleonore Stump
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Religious Belief ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alvin Plantinga ◽  
Belief In God ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Richard Swinburne ◽  
The Relationship

Recent work on the subject of faith has tended to focus on the epistemology of religious belief, considering such issues as whether beliefs held in faith are rational and how they may be justified. Richard Swinburne, for example, has developed an intricate explanation of the relationship between the propositions of faith and the evidence for them. Alvin Plantinga, on the other hand, has maintained that belief in God may be properly basic, that is, that a belief that God exists can be part of the foundation of a rational noetic structure. This sort of work has been useful in drawing attention to significant issues in the epistemology of religion, but these approaches to faith seem to me also to deepen some long-standing perplexities about traditional Christian views of faith.

scholarly journals AKOMODASI PESANTREN PADA KESENIAN RAKYAT DI CANGKRINGAN, SLEMAN, YOGYAKARTA

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-296
Author(s):  
Kholid Mawardi
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Boarding School ◽  
Folk Art ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
Art Community ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship

This study investigated the construction of thoughts by KH. Ahmad Masrur and al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School to accomodate folk art; to reveal the relationship among KH. Ahmad Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School, and folk art communities in Wukirsari village; and to find out the approaches of accommodation implemented in the folk art Village. The findings of this study led to some conclusions. First, on the one hand, Mr. Masrur (an Islamic expert) wanted to send the goodness and the beauty of Islam not only to be achieved by Moslems but also by other religious community. On the other hand, the folk art community wanted to maintain their existence in the diverse society. Therefore, those two intentions are linked to each other in order to accomplish those goals. Second, the relationship among Mr. Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School, and Wukirsari village folk art community; in terms of historical context, it was the repetition of the relationship pattern in the past time that occured during the Islamisation process in Java. It was carried out by placing the locality as the basis of Islam. Mr. Masrur, al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School put themselves as the exponents of folk art; Mr. Masrur had the role as the patron and the community folk art had the role as the clients, and the overall relationship was accomplished based on mutually beneficial relationship. Third, the forms of accommodation  roposed by Mr. Masrur towards folk art in Wukirsari village were through compromise and tolerance. The form of the compromise was visible through the willingness of both parties to feel and understand the circumstances of one to each other party. As for the form of tolerance, it was implemented by Mr. Masrur and al-Qodir Islamic Boarding School deliberately to avoid various disputes and conflicts.

scholarly journals Poetic Storytelling in Contemporary Photography. Relation to Nature and the Poesis of Everyday Life in Works of Selected Artist in Iceland and Other Nordic Countries

Arts ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Sigrún Alba Sigurðardóttir
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective ◽  
The One ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Narrative Medium

The past 20 years have seen a shift in Icelandic photography from postmodern aesthetics towards a more phenomenological perspective that explores the relationship between subjective and affective truth on the one hand, and the outside world on the other hand. Rather than telling a story about the world as it is or as the photographer wants it to appear, the focus is on communicating with the world, and with the viewer. The photograph is seen as a creative medium that can be used to reflect how we experience and make sense of the world, or how we are and dwell in the world. In this paper, I introduce the theme of poetic storytelling in the context of contemporary photography in Iceland and other Nordic Countries. Poetic storytelling is a term I have been developing to describe a certain lyrical way to use a photograph as a narrative medium in reaction to the climate crisis and to a general lack of relation to oneself and to the world in times of increased acceleration in the society. In my article I analyze works by a few leading Icelandic photographers (Katrín Elvarsdóttir, Heiða Helgadóttir and Hallgerður Hallgrímsdóttir) and put them in context with works by artists from Denmark (Joakim Eskildsen, Christina Capetillo and Astrid Kruse Jensen), Sweden (Helene Schmitz) and Finland (Hertta Kiiski) artists within the frame of poetic storytelling. Poetic storytelling is about a way to use a photograph as a narrative medium in an attempt to grasp a reality which is neither fully objective nor subjective, but rather a bit of both.

UNLIKELY BEDFELLOWS: THE EVOLUTION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND DEVELOPMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Brighton
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Development Strategies ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Vested Interests ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractPoverty and environmental degradation are two of the gravest issues facing the planet today. The most obvious means of addressing each issue, however, appears ostensibly to undermine the other. While environmental and development strategies are largely associated with the concept of sustainable development that emerged in the 1990s, the debate between these two interests dates back to the 1940s. This article seeks to fill an apparent gap in environmental scholarship by presenting a history of the environmental protection/development relationship. It will argue that, rather than being the product of an organic development process, the concept of sustainable development and the principles underlying it were consciously shaped by a number of international actors with vested interests in their trajectory. Understanding why and how this was permitted is important not only for its capacity to throw light on the past, but also for its ability to assist in understanding and predicting the future.

Treasures and wondrous objects in Gothic Toledo and Muslim Medieval culture

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-160
Author(s):  
Jaime Gómez de Caso Zuriaga
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
General Sense ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Modern Reader ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Muslim Culture ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract The aim of the present contribution is twofold. On the one hand we shall discuss the background of some Islamic legends about places and wondrous objects – holy relics of the past – that had once been in the possession of the Gothic monarchy by inheritance, but were subsequently lost or looted out of al-Andalus by the Muslim leaders. On the other hand our study is concerned with the relationship between the content of the legends in question and the “loss of Spain” in a more general sense, i.e. not only the loss of these objects by the Christian Goths subsequent to their loss of power in Spain, but also their disappearance from Muslim ownership. Besides, the legends possess a moral core, which is interesting in its own right: the way in which they are viewed in the Muslim sources, the locations and objects they describe, and their relationship to the Gothic monarchy may provide the modern reader with an insight into the striking vision of the past held by the invading Muslim culture.

The Time Perception in Contemporary

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S717-S717
Author(s):  
D.F. Burgese ◽  
D.P. Bassitt ◽  
D. Ceron-Litvoc ◽  
G.B. Liberali
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
New Technology ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Relationship Processes ◽  
Competing Interest ◽  
New Phenomena ◽  
The Relationship

With the advent of new technologies, the man begins to experience a significant change in the perception of the other, time and space. The acceleration of time promoted by new technology does not allow the exercise of affection for the consolidation of ties, relations take narcissists hues seeking immediate gratification and the other is understood as a continuation of the self, the pursuit of pleasure. It is the acceleration of time, again, which leads man to present the need for immediate, always looking for the new – not new – in an attempt to fill an inner space that is emptied. The retention of concepts and pre-stressing of temporality are liquefied, become fleeting. We learn to live in the world and the relationship with the other in a frivolous and superficial way. The psychic structure, facing new phenomena experienced, loses temporalize capacity and expand its spatiality, it becomes pathological. Post-modern inability to retain the past, to analyze the information received and reflect, is one of the responsible for the mental illness of today's society. From a temporality range of proper functioning, the relationship processes with you and your peers will have the necessary support to become viable and healthy.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

scholarly journals Cronenberg, Flyness, and the Other-self

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-173
Author(s):  
William Beard
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mind And Body ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

David Cronenberg's recent work has shown a continuation of the same themes and motifs found in his exploratory and formative works of the 70s and early 80s. The relationship of mind and body, of rationality and flesh, of control and loss of identity, continues to be the dominating dichotomy of his cinematic world. But the relatively simple thematic oppositions of repression and explosion, and their relatively unexamined emotional underpinnings of ironic detachment and regurgitative disgust, of an early film like Shivers (1975) have given way in the 1980s to a much more complex and sensitive exploration of the causes and implications of Cronenberg's understanding of things. The author proposes, in this essay, to undertake a close examination of Cronenberg's 1986 film The Fly as a partial illustration of this process of continuation and refinement.

When Memory Challenges History: Public Contestation of the Past in Post-Suharto Indonesia

2000 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 35-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Past ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Army Officers ◽  
Current Controversy ◽  
Official History ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractServing to legitimate the power of a political regime, official history is usually radically questioned as the regime collapses. Such is the case in Indonesia since the fall of Suharto in May 1998. Yet, unlike many other countries which have experienced transitions from authoritarian or totalitarian rule to democracy, post-Suharto Indonesia is witnessing an ambivalent critique of the official history, especially regarding the "September 30, 1965 affair" (the killing of six top Army officers by a regiment of Presidential guards which brought about Suharto's rise to power). On one hand, there is a public query over who masterminded the killings; on the other hand, there are reactionary responses towards the claims of victimization among ex-political prisoners associated with the September 30,1965 movement, as they articulate their experiences of the past tragedy. This paper attempts to explore the current controversy surrounding the official history of the September 30, 1965 affair through discussions of the paradox of memory, and the relationship between memory and history.

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