Prichard on Causing a Change

2021 ◽  
pp. 394-404
Author(s):  
Jonathan Dancy
Keyword(s):  
Agent Causation ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Bodily Movements

This paper starts by considering an interesting argument of H. A. Prichard’s against the view that to act is to cause a change; the argument is that causing is not an activity. The argument is important because of the recent emergence of an ‘agent-causation’ view according to which actions are the causing of changes by agents. The author suggests a way of responding to Prichard’s argument, and then, profiting from one of his own conclusions, turns to consider the relation between neurophysiological changes and the causation of bodily movement by the agent. The paper makes a suggestion about the proper way to understand the relation between the neurophysiological changes, the bodily movements and the action.

Prichard on Causing a Change

2017 ◽  
Vol 80 ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Jonathan Dancy
Keyword(s):  
Agent Causation ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Bodily Movements

AbstractThis paper starts by considering an interesting argument of H.A. Prichard’s against the view that to act is to cause a change; the argument is that causing is not an activity. The argument is important because of the recent emergence of an ‘agent-causation’ view according to which actions are the causing of changes by agents. I suggest a way of responding to Prichard’s argument, and then, profiting from one of his own conclusions, turn to consider the relation between neurophysiological changes and the causation of bodily movement by the agent. I make a suggestion about the proper way to understand the relation between the neurophysiological changes, the bodily movements and the action.

Causal Theories of Action

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Costa
Keyword(s):  
Intentional State ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
Intentional States ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Composite Event ◽  
Theories Of Action ◽  
The Right ◽  
Causal Theories ◽  
Bodily Movements

Causal theories of action are attempts to develop an account of actions in terms of events (typically bodily movements and their effects) which have the right kind of causal ancestry. The causal ancestry must be traced back to some kind of intentional state (or combination of intentional states) in the agent, such intentional state (or states) must have the right kind of content, and it must cause the bodily movement (or other effect) in the ‘right’ way. Causal accounts differ on the nature of the intentional state, the nature of the content it must have, and the specification of the ‘right’ kind of causal connection to bodily movements or other effects. Causal accounts also differ on the identification of the action itself. Some acounts say that the action is the bodily movement, provided that it was caused in the right way and had the right kind of effects. Others identify the action with the triggering intentional state (called a volition or trying), provided that it has the right kind of effects. Yet others identify the action with the composite event of the intentional state's causing the appropriate effects. Finally there are those which fail to identify the action with any of these events or combinations of them.

Bodily Activity and Perceptual Activity

1965 ◽  
Vol 20 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1109-1112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith G. McKitrick
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Necker Cube ◽  
Inverse Relation ◽  
Reversible Figure ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Bodily Activity ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Linear Correlations ◽  
Bodily Movements

This report describes the results of 2 studies designed to test the hypothesis that there is an inverse relation between bodily and perceptual activity. In Study I 100 college students' bodily movements were recorded by kymograph while they were tested for the autokinetic illusion, reversible figure-ground, Necker cube reversals, and visual figural aftereffects. No significant correlations were found between bodily movement and perceptual scores. Study II involved only autokinetic illusion scores and induced bodily activity of 200 Ss. Significant linear correlations were found in the expected direction, i.e., bodily movement correlated positively with autokinetic latency in both males and females; bodily movement was negatively correlated with extent of autokinetic movement in females. Female Ss in both studies showed significantly greater autokinetic latency than males.

scholarly journals On the pregnance of bodily movement and geometrical objects: A post-constructivist account of the origin of mathematical knowledge

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolff-Michael Roth
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Knowledge ◽  
Classroom Instruction ◽  
Mathematics Classroom ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
3 Dimensional ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The World ◽  
Phenomenological Account ◽  
Bodily Movements

Abstract Traditional (e.g., constructivist) accounts of knowledge ground its origin in the intentional construction on the part of the learner. Such accounts are blind to the fact that learners, by the fact that they do not know the knowledge to be learned, cannot orient toward it as an object to be constructed. In this study, I provide a phenomenological account of the naissance (birth) of knowledge, two words that both have their etymological origin in the same, homonymic Proto-Indo-European syllable ĝen-, ĝenә-, ĝnē-, ĝnō-. Accordingly, the things of the world and the bodily movements they shape, following Merleau-Ponty (1964), are pregnant with new knowledge that cannot foresee itself, and that no existing knowledge can anticipate. I draw on a study of learning in a second-grade mathematics classroom, where children (6-7 years) learned geometry by classifying and modeling 3-dimensional objects. The data clearly show that the children did not foresee, and therefore did not intentionally construct, the knowledge that emerged from the movements of their hands, arms, and bodies that comply with the forms of things. Implications are drawn for classroom instruction

Bodily and Therapeutic Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-63
Author(s):  
Anna Louise Langager ◽  
Tone Roald
Keyword(s):  
Narrative Therapy ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Phenomenological Psychology ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Being Moved ◽  
Bodily Movements

Abstract In this article we present a phenomenological single-case study of a client’s experience of her therapist’s bodily movement in the context of narrative therapy. A client was interviewed regarding her experience of selected bodily movements of the therapist based on a video recording of one of her therapeutic sessions. The movements were analyzed through Maxine Sheets-Johnstone’s cardinal structures of movement while the interview was analyzed through a modification of Giorgi’s method for phenomenological psychology. We focused on the relationship between the therapist’s bodily movement and therapeutic movement in the client and arrived at general structures of the client’s experience of being moved by movement. The experience comprises three core constituents: ‘shifts in sense of self’, ‘sense of togetherness’ and ‘feelings of mobility’, and reveals that the therapist’s bodily movements can lead to therapeutic changes compatible with the aim of narrative therapy.

scholarly journals From My Arm Rising to Me Raising It: a Taxonomy of Behaviors and Actions

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-160
Author(s):  
Joana Rigato
Keyword(s):  
Free Will ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
Proper Actions ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Bodily Movements ◽  
Rational Decisions

Abstract Human behavior can range from automatic and even unconscious bodily movements to very elaborate and rational decisions. In this paper I develop a taxonomy based on the empirical analysis of the phenomenology associated with selected instances of different forms of behavior. The transition from sub-actional behavior to proper actions is shown to take place when the agent intervenes actively in the causal process leading from her mental states to the bodily movement by exercising her power to form intentions to act. It is argued that this type of analysis could be helpful to agent-causal accounts of action and free will.

scholarly journals Moving hands in classroom assemblages: puppet play in a post-world

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-402
Author(s):  
Karen Dianne Daniels
Keyword(s):  
Early Literacy ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Hand Movements ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Bodily Movements

Purpose This paper aims to propose a reading of children’s small toy/puppet play that takes account of bodily movements within classroom assemblages. The researcher/author created representations of episodes of activity that focused on children’s ongoing bodily movements as they followed their interests in one Early Years classroom in England. Design/methodology/approach By drawing a contrast between a traditional logocentric interpretation of puppet play and an embodied theorisation, this paper provides a way of understanding young children’s literacy practices where these are seen as generated through bodily movement and affective atmospheres within classroom assemblages. Findings Analysis suggests that affective atmospheres were produced by the speed, slowness, dynamics and stillnesses of children’s hand movements as they manipulated the small toys/puppets. Three interrelated contributions are made that generate further understandings of embodied meaning making. First, this paper theorises relations between hand movements, materials and affective atmospheres within classroom assemblages. Second, the technique of analysing still shots of hand movements offers a way of understanding the semiotic and affective salience of hand movement and stillness. Finally, the paper offers a methodology for re-examining taken-for-granted pedagogical practices such as puppet play. Originality/value Together these contributions re-explore literacy as an embodied and affective endeavour, thereby countering logocentric framings of early literacy.

scholarly journals Markerless Video Analysis of Spontaneous Bodily Movements in 4-Month-Old Infants Predicts Autism-like Behavior in 18-Month-Olds.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hirokazu Doi ◽  
Naoya Iijima ◽  
Akira Furui ◽  
Zu Soh ◽  
Kazuyuki Shinohara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Screening Tool ◽  
Longitudinal Design ◽  
Clinical Importance ◽  
Movement Patterns ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Early Screening ◽  
Linear Classifiers ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Bodily Movements

Early intervention is now considered the core treatment strategy for autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Thus, it is of significant clinical importance to establish a screening tool for the early detection of ASD in infants. To achieve this goal, in a longitudinal design, we analysed spontaneous bodily movements of 4-month-old infants and assessed their ASD-like behaviours at 18 months of age. Infants at high risk for ASD at 18 months of age exhibited less rhythmic and weaker bodily movement patterns at 4 months of age than low-risk infants. When the observed bodily movement patterns were submitted to a machine learning-based analysis, linear and non-linear classifiers successfully predicted ASD-like behaviour at 18 months of age based on the bodily movement patterns at 4 months of age, at the level acceptable for practical use. This suggests the utility of the proposed method for the early screening of infants at risk for ASD.

scholarly journals A blended quantitative-ethnographic method for describing vocal sonification in dance coaching

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 198-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Bro Trasmundi ◽  
Matthew Isaac Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Hypothesis Generation ◽  
Analytic Description ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Movement Skills ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Professional Dance ◽  
Bodily Movements

Abstract In this paper we present a micro-analytic description of the role vocalizing plays in a single case of professional dance instruction. We use a novel mix of qualitative and quantitative tools in order to investigate, and more thoroughly characterize, various forms of vocal co-organization. These forms involve a choreographer using vocalization to couple acoustic dynamics to the dynamics of their bodily movements, while demonstrating a dance routine, in order to enable watching dancers to coordinate the intrabodily dynamics of their own simultaneous performances. In addition to this descriptive project, the paper also suggests how such forms of coordination might emerge, by identifying those forms of voice-body coupling as potential instances of “instructional vocal sonification”. We offer a tentative theoretical model of how vocal sonification might operate when it is used in the teaching of movement skills, and in the choreographic teaching of dance in particular. While non-vocal sonification (both physical and computer-generated) is increasingly well-studied as a means of regulating coordinated inter-bodily movement, we know of no previous work that has systematically approached vocal sonification. We attempt to lay groundwork for future research by showing how our model of instructional vocal sonification might plausibly account for some of the effects of vocalization that we observe here. By doing so, the paper both provides a solid basis for hypothesis generation about a novel class of phenomena (i.e., vocal sonification), and contributes to bridging the methodological gap between isolated descriptions and statistical occurrences of a given type of event.

Ion Beam Induced Interfacial Reactions in Molybdenum Thin Films on Silicon

1981 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 162-163
Author(s):  
L. J. Chen ◽  
L. S. Hung ◽  
J. W. Mayer
Keyword(s):  
Ion Beam ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Interfacial Reactions ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Microelectronic Devices ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
Chemical Vapor Deposited ◽  
Atomic Mixing ◽  
Silicon Interface ◽  
Kinetics Of

When an energetic ion penetrates through an interface between a thin film (of species A) and a substrate (of species B), ion induced atomic mixing may result in an intermixed region (which contains A and B) near the interface. Most ion beam mixing experiments have been directed toward metal-silicon systems, silicide phases are generally obtained, and they are the same as those formed by thermal treatment.Recent emergence of silicide compound as contact material in silicon microelectronic devices is mainly due to the superiority of the silicide-silicon interface in terms of uniformity and thermal stability. It is of great interest to understand the kinetics of the interfacial reactions to provide insights into the nature of ion beam-solid interactions as well as to explore its practical applications in device technology.About 500 Å thick molybdenum was chemical vapor deposited in hydrogen ambient on (001) n-type silicon wafer with substrate temperature maintained at 650-700°C. Samples were supplied by D. M. Brown of General Electric Research & Development Laboratory, Schenectady, NY.

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