Eidetic intuition as physiognomics: rethinking Adorno’s phenomenological heritage

Continental Philosophy Review - Adorno’s intensive criticism of phenomenology is well known, his entire early period during the 1920s and 1930s being marked by various polemical engagements...     

Recent Books in Barth Studies

Books reviewed:
Barth on the Descent into Hell: God, Atonement and the Christian Life , David Lauber, Ashgate 2004 (0-7546-3341-1), pp. vii + 186, Hb £40
Ecclesial Mediation in Karl Barth , John Yocum, Ashgate 2004 (0-7546-3322-5), pp. vii + 200, Hb £45
For the Sake of the World: Karl Barth and the Future of Ecclesial Theology , George Hunsinger (ed.), Eerdmans 2004 (0-8028-2699-7), pp. vi + 214, Pb £24.99
The Ascension in Karl Barth , Andrew Burgess, Ashgate 2004 (0-7546-3874-X), pp. viii + 209, Hb £47.50     

Reassessing Referential Indeterminacy

Quine and Davidson employ proxy functions to demonstrate that the use of language (behaviouristically conceived) is compatible with indefinitely many radically different reference relations. They also believe that the use of language (behaviouristically conceived) is all that determines reference. From this they infer that reference is indeterminate, i.e. that there are no facts of the matter as to what singular terms designate and what predicates apply to. Yet referential indeterminacy yields rather dire consequences. One thus does wonder whether one can hold on to a Quine--Davidson stance in semantics-cum-metaphysics and still avoid embracing referential indeterminacy. I argue that one can. Anyone adhering to the behaviouristic account pivotal to the Quine--Davidson stance is bound to acknowledge certain facts about verbal behaviour -- that some utterances are tied to situations, that some utterances are tied to segments in situations, that some predicates have non-contextualised conditions of application, and that use involves causal dependencies. The restrictions from these facts ensure that only reference relations generated by means of rather exceptional proxy functions are compatible with verbal behaviour. I conclude that this allows one to rebuff the Quine--Davidson argument for the indeterminacy of reference, as it were, from within. I moreover tentatively conclude that the line of thought laid out provides good reason for just about anyone to hold that there are facts about reference after all.     

Is defensiveness associated with cognitive bias away from emotional information?

The role of defensiveness and repressive coping style for the performance on a combined emotional Stroop and tachistoscopic identification task with masked and unmasked words was studied in a community sample. Defensiveness was associated with a decrease in Stroop interference for masked threat words, but not for unmasked threat words. The most robust results, however, were found with regard to overall test performance (independent of emotional valence). On the emotional Stroop task, high-defensive men (but not women) were faster to colour-name words in general, irrespective of emotional valence. On the tachistoscopic identification task, high-defensive women identified fewer words in general than low-defensive participants. The results are discussed in terms of defensiveness being associated with (a) avoidance of emotional information at an automatic, pre-attentive level, and (b) a general avoidance of potentially emotional information that takes different form in men and women depending on possible differences in what is seen as socially desirable for the two genders.     

Dimensions in appreciation of car interior design

We report two studies in which the interplay between stimulus properties and perceiver characteristics in the appreciation car interiors was investigated. In Experiment 1 three design components, complexity, curvature and innovativeness, which are all thought to affect design appreciation were combined in a fully factorial design. All dimensions were confirmed to affect ratings, and curvature and innovativeness particularly affected the attractiveness ratings. Curved and non‐innovative designs were generally preferred. Moreover, participants who were particularly interested in art were more sensitive to curvature and innovativeness. In Experiment 2 two dimensions of Experiment 1 were replicated using similar stimuli. Moreover, the specific effects of a design knowledge treatment were investigated. Results replicated the preference for curved and non‐innovative (rather classic) designs. The treatment had only small effects, which support a general rather than dimension‐specific effects of cognitive pre‐information. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Zur Prävalenz von Depersonalisation und Derealisation in der stationären Psychotherapie

Depersonalization (DP) and derealization (DR) remain poorly recognized in clinical routine. Active exploration through structured interviews is strongly recommended, because patients rarely describe spontaneously their experiences with DP/DR. 143 psychosomatic, first-admission inpatients were interviewed about the 1-month prevalence of DP/DR using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV dissociative disorders. Additionally, the German questionnaires of the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale, the Dissociative Experiences Scale, the SCL-90-R and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems were used. In the sample we found a prevalence of 23.1% (N=33) for depersonalization-derealization syndrom (ICD-10 F48.1) and 7% (N=10) for secondary pathological DP/DR. A total percentage of 62.9% reported DP/DR to some degree or other. There was a noticeably high co-occurrence of anxiety disorders in patients with pathological DP/DR. Patients with pathological DP/DR were generally more impaired, suffered many more interpersonal problems and were particularly characterized by introversion. Considering the high prevalence of this phenomenon, more attention should be paid to DP/DR in routine diagnostic procedures, treatment and research.