“Ashes to Ashes…”: Could the Recent Evolution of the Cremation Practice in Italy be Interpreted as an Indication of Secularisation?

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a massive communication campaign sustaining the practice of cremation was carried out in Italy, leading to the approval of a law in 1888 according to which cremation was allowed. This made Italy the first European country to introduce cremation in its legal system, but at the same time, one of the last to experience a mass diffusion of this practice, which has always been fiercely fought by the Catholic Church up until recent years. Exploiting the fact that the dispersion of ashes is still prohibited by catholic norms, this work explores the possibility of using the recent trend in cremation practice as an indicator of secularisation.     

Two visual systems in Molyneux subjects

Molyneux’s question famously asks about whether a newly sighted subject might immediately recognize, by sight alone, shapes that were already familiar to her from a tactile point of view. This paper addresses three crucial points concerning this puzzle. First, (a) the presence of two different questions: the classic one concerning visual recognition and another one concerning vision-for-action (the second question has been almost completely neglected in the literature and even those who mention this second formulation do not fully investigate it). Second, (b) the explicit distinction, reported in the literature, between ocular and cortical blindness. Third, (c) the importance of making reference to our best neuroscientific account on vision, ‘the two visual systems model’, in order to better address Molyneux’s problem(s). Then, by offering a new, deeper analysis of the relation between (a), (b) and (c), this paper suggests that the subjects of Molyneux’s two different questions show the same visual impairment as brain-damaged subjects with different lesions of the visual cortex. In particular, the subject of the first (classic) question shows the same impairment in visual recognition as a visual agnosic subject, while the subject of the second question shows the same visual impairment in visuomotor processing as an optic ataxic subject. These impairments still hold even if ocular processing is restored. Therefore, I suggest the following. For the first classic question, the required experimental setting cannot be properly reached. By contrast, concerning the second question, based on the interpretation we select, either the answer is negative, or, as with the first question, the experimental setting cannot be properly reached. This proposal constitutes, with the other approaches offered in the literature, a further attempt to tackle the enormous complexity of Molyneux’s puzzle.     

Validating the Diathesis–Stress Model Based Case Conceptualization Procedure in Cognitive Behavioral Therapies: The LIBET (Life Themes and Semi-Adaptive Plans—Implications of Biased Beliefs,Elicitation and Treatment) Procedure

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approaches use case formulation procedures based on the diathesis–stress conceptualization...     

„Die Botschaft hör ich wohl…“

From an evolutionary standpoint language developes from music and sounds. On grounds of that theory the role of intonation, timbre, volume and rhythm in speaking is considered as well as the messages that are transmitted beyond the lexical-semantic level primarily on the phonetic level. The vocal apparatus as a generator of tones, vibrations and rhythm is connected to the body as a whole and functions as a ?resonance body‘. Thereby, it gives the sound, when speaking or listening, a specific quality and meaning. That principle of giving and developing meaning in a sensory way exists already in the communication between mother and child before birth. Besides the secondary linguistical representations it remains lifelong of central importance in the generation and passing on of implicit knowledge. A psychoanalytic treatment is described as an example on how the phonetic level in speech influences the process and advances of therapy.     

Kant,the Third Antinomy and Transcendental Arguments

In this paper, I consider whether a reading of Kant's solution to the Third Antinomy can offer material for devising a new model of transcendental argument. The problem that this form of argument is meant to address is an antinomy between two apparently contradictory claims, q and ¬q, where we seem equally justified in holding both. The model has the following form: p; q is a necessary condition of p; the only justification we have for q is that it is a necessary condition of p; p is justified only in domain X (where X is a domain of objects of cognition); therefore, q is justified only in domain X. Because the argument shows that our justification for q is valid only in X, it also establishes that there is conceptual space to hold ¬q outside of X.     

Surfing the implicit wave

Implicit learning was investigated in two experiments involving a complex motor task. Participants were required to balance on a stabilometer and to move the platform on which they were standing to match a constantly changing target position. Experiment 1 examined whether a segment (middle third) that was repeated on each trial would be learned without participants becoming aware of the repetitions (i.e., implicitly). The purpose of Experiment 2 was to determine the relative effectiveness of explicit versus implicit learning. Here, two identical segments were presented on each trial (first and last thirds), with participants only being informed that one segment (either first or last) was repeated. The acquisition results from both experiments indicated large improvements in performance across 4 days of practice, with performance on the repeated segments being generally superior to that on the non-repeated segment. On the retention tests on Day 5, errors on the repeated segment(s) were smaller than those on the random segment(s). Furthermore, in Experiment 2, the errors on the repeated-known segment, although smaller than those on the random segment, were larger than those on the repeated-unknown segment. Interview results indicated that participants were not consciously aware that a segment was repeated unless they were informed. These results suggest that implicit learning can occur for relatively complex motor tasks and that withholding information concerning the regularities is more beneficial than providing this information.     

Visual Feeling of Presence

Everyday visual experience constantly confronts us with things we can interact with in the real world. We literally feel the outside presence of physical objects in our environment via visual perceptual experience. The visual feeling of presence is a crucial feature of vision that is largely unexplored in the philosophy of perception, and poorly debated in vision neuroscience. The aim of this article is to investigate the feeling of presence. I suggest that visual feeling of presence depends on the visual representation of a very particular spatial relation with the object we interact with: the visual representation of absolute egocentric depth, which is due to stereoscopic vision.     

Origin and destiny of subjectivity: from professional roles to treatment processes,through an interpretation of the remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro

This reflection addresses a very important topic for care professions, with a special look at psychotherapy. To clarify the role of subjectivity and the birth and maturation of a professional role, I will present an analysis of a literary text through which it will be easier to find out how the identity of a professional role is formed and starts to mature and get codified. In particular, what are the risks associated with its rigid codification to its technical normative? I intend to draw a comparison with some subjectivity building forms that have founded the Western human’s model in its professional articulations over the centuries.