Discriminatory Capacities,Russell's Principle,and the Importance of Losing Sight of Objects

What capacities for discrimination must a subject possess in order to entertain singular thoughts? Evans has suggested that a subject must be able to discriminate his referent from all other entities in order to be able to do so; what he calls Russell's Principle. Evans' view has few followers, and he has been repeatedly accused of presenting no argument in its favour. In this paper I present what I take to be Evans' argument. I suggest that he has been misinterpreted as introducing Russell's Principle for the purpose of fixing reference. Rather, he introduces it in order to ensure that our conceptual capacities have the functional complexity to allow for objective thought. I suggest that the logical types of our thought are constituted by their inferential potential and argue that, even though singular thought may be possible without the satisfaction of Russell's Principle, singular thought that forms part of an objective world view is not.     

Losing claims of rights

Conclusion I have contended that acting on some principle and complaining when others act in accordance with the same principle in similar circumstances is morally improper. By wrongdoing one forfeits the right to claim the right (s)he disregards in interacting with others. This is not equivalent to a view that one's acting in a certain way justifies others acting in that way, i.e. that by wrongdoing one forfeits rights (s)he disregards in interacting with others. It may still be morally improper to treat malfeasors in the same way they treat us but, I have argued, they cannot themselves claim a right not to be treated in that way.This analysis of the right to claim rights can help explain the change in moral status of wrongdoers in two important ways. First, if there are some non-forfeitable human rights, the loss of moral standing of one who disregards those rights in others can be explained. Second, and perhaps potentially more important, if having a right implies the right holder's being justified in claiming it, we have a basis for saying all human rights are forfeitable.This second position would require a tightening of the link between the right to X and the ancillary right to claim the right to X. I have not undertaken that burden here. Instead, I argued that the loss of the right to claim is, itself, a significant loss.     

Losing the Lost Island

Gaunilo’s Lost Island Objection to Anselm’s Ontological Argument aims to show that if Anselm’s argument can establish the existence of a greatest conceivable being then a very similar argument can establish the existence of a greatest conceivable island. The challenge for the defender of Anselm is to identify the relevant disanalogy between Anselm’s argument and Gaunilo’s, in order to explain why Anselm’s can succeed while Gaunilo’s fails. In this essay I take up this challenge. Reflection on the differences between the nature of islands and the nature of being yields the relevant disanalogy.     

The Getting and Losing Wisdom

SUMMARY

The role of aging and culture in the attainment of wisdom is examined m this chapter. The concept of wisdom m industrialised societies is briefly explored. It is argued that both biology and culture can be positive or negative factors m the capacity of a person to be “wise.” It is concluded that, for many, the negative impact of biological factors of aging are overwhelming, but, for a few, aging enriches their insight.     

Losing the Certainty of Self

In his theory of trauma, Ferenczi points to the disbelief of adults of a child's account of an event as an actual traumatizing factor. Ferenczi also states that of all the consequences of the trauma, which include identification with the aggressor, psychic coma, departure from the possibility of dreams, and a fall to the hell of nightmares, the most important and fundamental is the lack of certainty of self. The disbelief of the adults destroys the certainty of what is perceived and experienced; it has the power of annihilating the child's belief in his own perceptions, his trust in his own senses. The loss of certainty of self appears to be a common characteristic in patients with distinct psychic dynamics. We will analyze the loss of certainty of self in cases of patients of the NEPECC (Núcleo de Estudos em Psicanálise e Clínica da Contemporaneidade) [Center of Studies in Psychoanalysis and Contemporarity Clinic] at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.     

Liberating Effects of Losing Executive Control

ABSTRACT— Across numerous domains, research has consistently linked decreased capacity for executive control to negative outcomes. Under some conditions, however, this deficit may translate into gains: When individuals' regulatory strategies are maladaptive, depletion of the resource fueling such strategies may facilitate positive outcomes, both intra- and interpersonally. We tested this prediction in the context of contentious intergroup interaction, a domain characterized by regulatory practices of questionable utility. White participants discussed approaches to campus diversity with a White or Black partner immediately after performing a depleting or control computer task. In intergroup encounters, depleted participants enjoyed the interaction more, exhibited less inhibited behavior, and seemed less prejudiced to Black observers than did control participants—converging evidence of beneficial effects. Although executive capacity typically sustains optimal functioning, these results indicate that, in some cases, it also can obstruct positive outcomes, not to mention the potential for open dialogue regarding divisive social issues.     

浅议中医的范式丢失

借鉴库恩的“范式”理论,在分析中医“范式丢失”的起源和发展过程的基础上,提出中医“范式丢失”是引起近现代中医停滞不前的根本原因。“范式丢失”后的中医在管理层面上失去了话语权,并直接导致中医教育、研究的去中医化,从根本上限制了中医自身的发展。寻求中医的“范式”回归是现代中医发展的唯一道路。     

Losing Hope: Injustice and Moral Bitterness

In this article, I defend a conception of bitterness as a moral emotion and offer an evaluative framework for assessing when instances of bitterness are morally justified. I argue that bitterness is a form of unresolved anger involving a loss of hope that an injustice or other moral wrong will be sufficiently acknowledged and addressed. Orienting the discussion around instances of bitterness in response to social and political injustices, I argue that bitterness is sometimes morally justified even if it is ultimately undesirable to bear. I then suggest that focusing only on the harms and risks of bitterness can distract from its positive role as a moral reminder about a past or persistent injustice, indicating that there is still moral and often political work left to do. Finally, I address the concern that bearing bitterness may lead to despair and inaction. I respond by arguing that moral agents can and do persist in their moral and political struggles with bitterness, and without hope that their efforts will be successful.     

“野人“怪象

我们这个时代出现的怪物和怪论,比以往任何时代毫不逊色,神秘主义一派繁荣.不是吗?在喜马拉雅山雪地,在神农架森林,在北美大陆,有一种形体或大或小,毛色或红或灰的行为敏捷、直立行走的人形动物--“野人“.对于那些通俗读物和小报的读者说,是多么好的饭后谈资.……     

Winning Charisma and Losing the Presidential Election1

This study focuses on voters' perceptions of presidential candidates' charismatic leadership. Competing hypotheses draw from performance-cue and decision-making literatures. Results from the panel data indicate that voters' perceptions of the winning candidate remain stable, while their perceptions of the losing candidate's charisma are enhanced after the election.     

Lexical Mediation Between Sight and Sound in Speechreading

In two experiments, we investigated whether simultaneous speech reading can influence the detection of speech in envelope-matched noise. Subjects attempted to detect the presence of a disyllabic utterance in noise while watching a speaker articulate a matching or a non-matching utterance. Speech detection was not facilitated by an audio-visual match, which suggests that listeners relied on low-level auditory cues whose perception was immune to cross-modal top-down influences. However, when the stimuli were words (Experiment 1), there was a (predicted) relative shift in bias, suggesting that the masking noise itself was perceived as more speechlike when its envelope corresponded to the visual information. This bias shift was absent, however, with non-word materials (Experiment 2). These results, which resemble earlier findings obtained with orthographic visual input, indicate that the mapping from sight to sound is lexically mediated even when, as in the case of the articulatory-phonetic correspondence, the cross-modal relationship is non-arbitrary.