From Modernism to Metro Maps: Mondrian, Beck, and Salomon

Many people have noted a suggestive parallel between the abstract paintings of Piet Mondrian and the design of metro maps such as Henry Beck’s map of the London Underground. Is this just a superficial similarity or is there some more substantive point of connection? This article speculates that the ‘dynamic equilibrium’, which gave Mondrian’s mature pictures their inimitable psychological force, could also be at work in the most iconic metro maps, such as those of Henry Beck and George Salomon. If so, then the automatic generation of metro maps to an acceptable quality may entail the daunting task of operationalising this dynamic balance and encoding it in computer software.

Evacuation Simulation in the Narrow Stair with Revised Social Force Model

In this paper, a revised social force model in the stairs are discussed. Considering the influence of the gravity to the pedestrians in the stairs, we improve the model by adding the gravity factor, which makes the simulation more reality. In additional, we simplify the direction model of the psychological force between pedestrians considering the narrow space of the stair, and this will refine the computational efficiency dramatically. Furthermore, we also discussed the construction of the building models for the practical simulations. The experimental results in this paper shows the valid of the model.

Punishment and spite, the dark side of cooperation

Causing harm to others would hardly seem to be relevant to cooperation, other than as a barrier to it. However, because selfish individuals will exploit cooperators, functional punishment is an effective mechanism for enforcing cooperation by deterring free-riding. Although functional punishment can shape the social behaviour of others by targeting non-cooperative behaviour, it can also intimidate others into doing almost anything. Second-party functional punishment is a self-serving behaviour at the disposal of dominant individuals who can coerce others into behaving cooperatively, but it need not do so. Third-party and altruistic functional punishment are less likely to be selfishly motivated and would seem more likely to maintain norms of cooperation in large groups. These forms of functional punishment may be an essential part of non-kin cooperation on a scale exhibited only by humans. While punitive sentiments might be the psychological force behind punitive behaviours, spiteful motives might also play an important role. Furthermore, functionally spiteful acts might not be maladaptive; reckoning gains relative to others rather than in absolute terms can lead to hyper-competitiveness, which might also be an important part of human cooperation, rather than just an ugly by-product.

Plato on Love

Eros and Philia are the two Greek words, which can be translated as love in English. This article focuses on the idea that Plato weaves around the emotion of love. On the one hand, there is the verb philein and its cognates (philia is the noun, philos the adjective)—a word we use all the time when we talk about philanthropy, philosophy, philharmonic, and the like. On the other hand, “to love” is also the proper translation of the verb eran. Eros is the name of this psychological force, erastês designates a lover, and erômenos is the one who is loved. Erôs is characterized here as a desire. That does not mean that whenever someone wants something, he loves it. The relationship goes in the other direction: whenever someone loves, he wants. This thesis says nothing about what kind of desire one has, when one loves. It may be a desire that Plato would locate in the appetitive part of the soul, but it need not be. The word Plato most often uses for desire in the passage examined in this article, as so often, is epithumia. But an epithumia can be any sort of desire—it is not necessarily an “appetitive” desire for food, drink or sex.

Delusion and Dream in Apuleius' Metamorphoses

Considering the absence of any ancient systematic approach to the reading of the novel, this paper turns to ancient dream hermeneutics as a valuable field of reference that can provide the theoretical framework for studying the ancient novel within its own cultural context. In introducing dream interpretation as one of the ancient novel's creative sources, this essay focuses on Apuleius'Metamorphoses. It explores the dream logic in Apuleius' novel by turning to such authorities as Heraclitus, Plato, Cicero, Artemidorus, and Macrobius, whose characterization of the phenomenon of dreaming sheds light on specific narratological trtaits of theMetamorphoses. It argues that the lower dream category, the insomnium (or the enhupnion), provides a notion of textuality that can clarify the traditional status of the Metamorphoses as a marginal work of art. In contrast to divinely sent symbolic dreams, it is primarily the insomnium——conceived as a by-product of the lower functions of the soul——that lends psychological force to Apuleius' fiction.

Running Speed of Goal-Seeking Rats: A Field Theoretical Analysis

Lewin introduced into psychology the concept of psychological force but was unable to specify an equation of motion, relating force to behavior. Physical analogs prove helpful in developing Lewin's ideas. The effort exerted by a hungry rat seeking food at the end of a linear runway can be defined as proportional to the gradient of a maximally smooth scalar field, whose source is the food in the goal box. This assumption leads to a direct analog between potential energy and utility in psychology. If a Newtonian equation of motion is used with this definition of force, the results compare favorably with Hull's data on rats' running behavior.