French Philosophy of Science,Structuralist Epistemology,and the Problem of the Subject

This article examines the multiple relations between the rationalist tradition of French philosophy of science exemplified by the work of Gaston Bachelard, and the rethinking of the relation between science and ideology undertaken by Louis Althusser and a young Alain Badiou in the 1960s. Both Bachelard and Althusser are interrogated for the philosophy of language that underpins their respective visions of scientificity; in turn, the problem of the subject is posed, in part through an investigation of Althusser's inheritance and transformation of Lacanian psychoanalysis.     

Epistemological barriers to radical behaviorism

The historian and philosopher of science Gaston Bachelard proposed the concept of epistemological barriers to describe the intellectual challenges encountered by scientists in their work. In order to embrace novel ways of approaching a problem in science, scientists must overcome barriers or obstacles posed by their prior views. For example, Einsteinian physics presents scientists with claims that space is curved and that time and space are on the same continuum. We utilize Bachelard's concept of epistemological barriers to describe the differences between the intellectual journeys students pursuing advanced studies face when attempting to accept cognitive psychology or radical behaviorism. We contend that the folk psychological beliefs that students typically hold when entering these studies pose less challenge to cognitive psychology than to radical behaviorism. We also suggest that these barriers may also partly be involved in the problematic exegesis that has plagued radical behaviorism. In close, we offer some suggestions for dealing with these epistemological barriers.     

Body,environment and adventure: experience and spatiality

The purpose of this article is to investigate human spatiality and perception in general, with the experience of adventure sports as its background. These activities highlight especially our strong relationship with the world when we consider the specific way in which the environment participates in the development of human potential. We first analyse the notions of risk and instability as important elements in adventure sports. Then we explore the notion of experience and spatiality, considering the way in which we establish our relationship with the world. The theoretical background is found in the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and Bachelard’s phenomenology of imagination to investigate perspectives of space among adventurers. We hold that more than a different range of corporeal techniques, adventure sports can teach us a way of interrogating and looking at the world. They require a peculiar sensibility that allows our body to experience the environment in favour of a corporeal wisdom. Alternative sports indicate the possibility that we have to build up different ways of inhabiting the world and comprehending it.     

Virginity for Sale: A Foucauldian Moment in the History of Sexuality

Natalie Dylan attempted to auction her virginity through the website of a legal Nevada brothel. Public discourses surrounding Dylan’s auction have characterized it as everything from a smart business transaction to the sale of her self-respect. Using a theoretical frame from Foucault, methods of textual construction, and rhetorical methods of analysis guided by cluster criticism, our paper explores how online discourses surrounding the auction enact problematics concerning the concepts of virginity and the interrelationships among women, sex, money, and power in American society. While Dylan’s discourse attempts to create space for sexual women and commodified sexuality as empowering for women, responses to her enterprise indicate there is little room for a woman’s unapologetic offer of her commodified virginity.     

The mythic function of narcissism

The paper makes some critical comments on the use Freud makes of myth and examines some of the inconsistencies and contradictions in his conceptualization of narcissism. Using some of the ideas of Bachelard and Hillman on the role of the imaginary, the authors theorize a function of myth that is independent of and not subordinated to the reality function. They suggest that narcissism must be seen not only in terms of individual history but that it has a mythic function; narcissism facilitates the creation of a relationship between the ego and the Self through the mediation of the imaginal world and through the prospective value of images.     

Transformational experiences in young people: the meaning of a safe haven

What do adolescents find meaningful in their exposure to spiritual education organised by religious or spiritual institutions? A qualitative study of adolescents participating in summer school events organised by the Religious Society of Friends and Sahaj Marg meditation system was carried out and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Two central themes emerged of ‘safe haven’ and ‘transforming processes’. The meaning of ‘safe haven’ was further examined and related to Gaston Bachelard’s evocation of the primordial sense of home.     

A Plea for a Historical Epistemology of Research

The paper approaches the topic of what a general philosophy of science could mean today from the perspective of a historical epistemology. Consequently, in a first step, the paper looks at the notion of generality in the sciences, and how it evolved over time, on the example of the life sciences. In the second part of the paper, the urgency of a general philosophy of science is located in the history of philosophy of science. Two attempts at the beginning of the twentieth century are particularly highlighted: that of Karl Popper and that of Martin Heidegger. Both of them concentrate, albeit in widely different form, on the phenomenon of research as an open-ended process. This trend is even more pronounced in Gaston Bachelard??s version of a historical epistemology, whose work is taken as a point of reference for a general historical epistemology of research. The paper concludes with a plea to look, with Georges Canguilhem, at the history of the sciences as a laboratory for epistemology.     

变形汉字的结构方式和笔画数效应

曾捷英等提出并采用了汉字通透性概念解释汉字识别中的字形属性效应,例如笔画数效应、笔画类型效应和结构方式效应。在有关研究中采用的主要实验方法是在速示、重复速示、非速示、时间或空间微观发生等条件下要求被试命名汉字。该研究将采用新的实验方法,即在呈现变形汉字1200ms后要求被试报告识别内容。结构方式和笔画数两种字形属性为研究对象。实验结果表明存在着常规的结构方式效应和笔画数效应,尤为重要的是观察到了逆转的结构方式效应。客观计算出的汉字通透性可以合理地解释这些效应。该研究和先前研究部分证明了关于汉字字形知觉的一个重要假设：汉字通透性是形成各种字形属性效应的基本或主导原因。字形属性对汉字识别的影响可以归结为通透性的影响,这称之为通透性中介假设。     

Close women,distant men: Line bisection reveals sex‐dimorphic patterns of visuomotor performance in near and far space

The mid‐points of a series of lines which were positioned both within hand‐reach (near space) and beyond hand‐reach (far space) were estimated by 24 women and 24 men. When using a laser pointer to perform estimations, women were more accurate in the near condition than the far, whereas men were more accurate in the far condition than the near. When using a stick pointer for the far condition, women were more accurate than when using the laser, whereas men were more accurate using the laser pointer than the stick for the far condition. There was no difference between near and far accuracy scores for either sex using the stick. These results suggest that use of a tool which provides proprioceptive feedback causes the brain to remap far‐space stimuli as if situated in near space. Possible origins and neural bases for these differences are considered. Finally, the study found evidence for pseudoneglect, but no evidence for pseudoneglect shift.     

The Representation of Knowledge in Minds and Machines

Human knowledge can be represented as a propositional network in which the meaning of a node is defined by its position in the network. That is, the relationship between a node and its neighbours determines how this node is used in language understanding and production, i.e., its meaning. The propositions that make up such a network are predicate-argument structures with time and location slots. Schemas, frames, and production rules can be expressed in the same formalism. Implications for this contextual view of meaning are discussed. Since the construction of such a propositional network depends on hand coding and is therefore impractical, an alternative automatic statistical procedure is explored that yields a high-dimensional semantic space. Vectors in this space correspond to nodes in the propositional network, in that the meaning of a vector in the Latent Semantic Analysis space is given by its neighbouring vectors in that space.     

Finding Their Place: Women and the Environment for Worship

Abstract

The history of the intersection between women and their worship-spaces is both simple and complex. This article begins to identify ways in which women have responded to restrictions on them in liturgical space and how they have interpreted that space. This task poses serious methodological challenges, identified here, and raises questions about ways in which women have found a place in and around church buildings during a history characterized by their restriction and exclusion. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, women's action through patronage, fundraising and benefaction, in disobedience and disorder, is explored, together with ways in which women have exercised the natural authority of their religious gifts and experience, when their temporal authority wis limited and indeed have reinterpreted the meaning of the term ‘liturgical space’.     

'It's as if PBC didn't exist': the illness experience of women affected by primary biliary cirrhosis

This study investigates the illness experience of women who are affected by primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), a rare chronic liver disease which mostly affects women. Despite the fact that PBC is medically recognised, it shares many characteristics with other chronic and controversial conditions which may lead to delegitimation of the patient's experience of illness, impacting on the construction of the patient's self-identity. Twenty three women took part in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis and the analysis identified three themes that are interrelated and characterised by a dynamic of normalisation. The first theme, the delegitimation of women's experience, implies denial of patients' sick-role, trivialisation of fatigue and lack of consideration of patients' needs. The second theme, PBC as a challenge to women's social identity refers to how patients face delegitimation and manage the illness's consequences for relationships and social roles. The third theme, the need for biographical continuity, focuses on how patients construct their ill identities as a consequence of both the delegitimation and the challenges posed by PBC. Results are discussed in a gender perspective, highlighting how delegitimation and identity construction processes are influenced by women's social roles and conditions.     

Failure of interpolation in relevant logics

Craig's interpolation theorem fails for the prepositional logicsE of entailment,R of relevant implication andT of ticket entailment, as well as in a large class of related logics. This result is proved by a geometrical construction, using the fact that a non-Arguesian projective plane cannot be imbedded in a three-dimensional projective space. The same construction shows failure of the amalgamation property in many varieties of distributive lattice-ordered monoids.     

‘Taking emotions seriously’: Feeling female and becoming-surfer through UK Surf Space

In this paper, I consider the importance of “taking emotions seriously” in relation to my research into women and surfing in the UK. I draw on feminist work in the areas of emotion, space and subjectivity, and relevant literature on surfing, in order to explore the significance of affectual and emotional experiences for women who surf. I contend that by exploring how women emotionally experience surfing spaces, we might better understand the dynamic intricacies of surfing as an embodied, gendered space. In particular, I explore feelings of fear, freedom, belonging and anger in the context of female subjectivities caught up in a spatial becoming-surfer. My findings suggest that although surfing remains dominated by men, the fluidity of the space offers many possibilities for women to experience their gendered embodiment differently. I also contend that an association of surfing with masculinity continues to shape gendered relations and spatial becomings in the surf.     

The hope of the future: The experience of pregnancy influences women’s implicit space–time mappings

It has long been observed that speakers employ spatial concepts “front” and “back” to talk about temporal concepts “past” and “future.” However, the direction of space-time mappings varies across cultures. According to Temporal Focus Hypothesis (TFH), people’s implicit associations between space and time are conditioned by their temporal focus. Here we tested whether pregnancy can affect Chinese women’s temporal focus and thereby influence their space-time mappings. One of the most striking characteristics of pregnant women noted by previous research is their future-oriented thought. Based on this, we predicted that pregnant women should be more future-focused. Consistent with this prediction, the results demonstrated that pregnant women tended to be more future-focused than non-pregnant women and demonstrated a greater tendency to conceptualize the future as in front of them, supporting the TFH. The current research offers a new perspective that culture-external factors such as pregnancy can also influence people’s spatialization of time.     

Vividness and Control of Mental Imagery and the Components of In-Depth Drawing

The aim of this study was to examine the associations of control and vividness of mental imagery on performance in several components of in-depth drawing in a sample of fine arts undergraduates. The sample consisted of 56 second-year undergraduates (44 women and 12 men, mean age = 21.18 years) from the Fine Arts Faculty of Vigo University, Pontevedra, Spain. Participants were required to undertake a plastic art assignment focusing on the pictorial representation of space. Participants scoring high on the image control test obtained higher scores on the spatial analysis and in the formal construction of a work than participants with poor image control. Further research involving spatial image performance tests and mental image rotation tests is proposed.     

Coping Mechanisms in Navigating Xenophobia-Afrophobia-Related Challenges Within the Transnational Space: Case of Somali Refugee Women in Gauteng,South Africa

This study explores the coping strategies that Somali women espouse in dealing with complexities in the transnational space, within the context of Gauteng, South Africa. The paper is drawn from a qualitative study where I conducted in-depth interviews of 40 female Somali participants. Under the Power Geometries (one of the components of Geographies of power theory), the study argues that Somali women are not helpless victims of Xenophobia-Afrophobia and other complexities in the transnational space. They are individuals that make use of economic partnerships, business niches, narrate stories, are resilient in their nature, navigate marriage unions whilst in the context of Xenophobia-Afrophobia among other complexities. The study applied the theories of Geographies of Power and Social Network. Xenophobia-Afrophobia is a recurrent phenomenon that challenges migrant’s lives in South Africa. Somalis are among the most affected communities. This is due to their involvement in businesses located in the poor zones of the South African townships where they compete with local businesses. The Somali women are affected by overt and covert Xenophobia-Afrophobia.     

Defining ‘Modern’ Malay womanhood and the coexistent messages of the veil

The gender constructions and performances of Malay women are often perceived by outside researchers as ‘shrouded under a veil’ of increasing Islamic conservatism. Urban Malay women, however, argue that women actively engage in the construction and performance of gender identities. Based on research conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during 2001 and 2003, this article argues that women advantageously alter, transform and utilise the constructs placed upon them by Islam, by ethnic identification and by conceptions of ‘modernity’. Often one image of ‘womanhood’ is presented and in public - an image that is socially accepted, honoured and respected - while less publicly alternative forms of ‘womanhood’ articulate individual goals and aims. Using an agent-oriented perspective, this article further includes an analysis of women's individual renegotiations of larger cultural constructs and the ways in which the tudong, or headscarf, has become a symbol by which individual women express their understanding of social position and personal freedoms in an industrialised Islamic context.