Torah,language and philosophy: A Jewish critique

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Phenomenology of language beyond the deconstructive philosophy of language

In Speech and Phenomena and other works, Derrida criticizes Husserl’s phenomenology and attempts to pave the way to his deconstructive philosophy. The starting point of his criticism of Husserl’s phenomenology is his assessment of the latter’s phenomenology of language developed in the Logical Investigations. Derrida claims that Husserl’s phenomenology of language in the Logical Investigations and the subsequent works is guided by the premise of the metaphysics of presence. The aim of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, it aims to show that Derrida’s criticism of Husserl’s phenomenology of language is off the mark and, on the other hand, it aims to reveal that the phenomenology of language goes far beyond the scope of the Derridian deconstructive philosophy of language.     

Integrating the philosophy and psychology of aesthetic experience: development of the aesthetic experience scale

This study assessed the dynamic relationship between person and object in aesthetic experience. Patterns of the structure of aesthetic experience were derived from a conceptual model based on philosophical and psychological ideas. These patterns were further informed by interviewing individuals with extensive involvement in aesthetic activities and 25 secondary students. Accordingly, patterns were tested by developing a large pool of items attempting to identify measurable structural components of aesthetic experience. Refined first in a pilot study, the 36-item questionnaire was administered to 652 Greek students, aged from 13 to 15 years. Correlation matrices and exploratory factor analyses on principal components were used to examine internal structural relationships. The obliquely rotated five-factor solution of the refined instrument accounted for the 44.1% of the total variance and was combatible with the conceptual model of aesthetic experience, indicating the plausibility of both. The internal consistency of the items was adequate and external correlational analysis offered preliminary support for subsequent development of a self-report measure that serves to operationalize the major constructs of aesthetic experience in the general adolescent population. The results also raise theoretical issues for those interested in empirical aesthetics, suggesting that in experiential functioning, expressive perception and affect may play a more constructive role in cognitive processes than is generally acknowledged.     

Acting in perspective: the role of body and language as social tools

We investigated how the reach-to-grasp movement is influenced by the presence of another person (friend or non-friend), who was either invisible (behind) or located in different positions with respect to an object and to the agent, and by the perspective conveyed by linguistic pronouns (“I”, “You”). The interaction between social relationship and relative position influenced the latency of both maximal fingers aperture and velocity peak, showing shorter latencies in the presence of a non-friend than in the presence of a friend. However, whereas the relative position of a non-friend did not affect the kinematics of the movement, the position of a friend mattered: latencies were significantly shorter with friends only in positions allowing them to easily reach for the object. Finally, the investigation of the overall reaching movement time showed an interaction between the speaker and the pronoun: participants reached the object more quickly when the other spoke, particularly if she used the “I” pronoun. This suggests that speaking, and particularly using the “I” pronoun, evokes a potential action. Implications of the results for embodied cognition are discussed.     

Subcortical functions in language: A working model

The current paper explains a model of subcortical language functions that focuses on dynamic interactions between the cortex, the thalamus, and the basal ganglia in the production of spoken language. The model was derived from (a) studies of subcortical lesions and language, (b) studies of subcortical stimulation and language, (c) knowledge regarding neural pathways between various cortical and subcortical structures, and (d) indications that preverbal monitoring of language occurs. In the current model, the thalamus plays roles in cortical arousal and activation and in preverbal semantic monitoring. The basal ganglia function to regulate the degree of excitation conveyed from the thalamus to the cortex and to time the release of formulated language for motor programming. Consistency with classical syndromes of aphasia and potential applications to other areas in the neurosciences are discussed. The current theory, unlike previous formulations, is specific enough that testable hypotheses can be derived.     

The relationship between age, verbal working memory, and language comprehension

A structural modeling approach was used to examine the relationships between age, verbal working memory (vWM), and 3 types of language measures: online syntactic processing, sentence comprehension, and text comprehension. The best-fit model for the online-processing measure revealed a direct effect of age on online sentence processing, but no effect mediated through vWM. The best-fit models for sentence and text comprehension included an effect of age mediated through vWM and no direct effect of age. These results indicate that the relationship among age, vWM, and comprehension differs depending on the measure of language processing and support the view that individual differences in vWM do not affect individuals' online syntactic processing.