Aesthetic Terms,Metaphor, and Categories: a Reply to De Clercq

In his paper, “Aesthetic Terms, Metaphor and the Nature of Aesthetic Properties”, Rafael De Clercq claims to (i) offer a category-based explanation of the metaphorical uninterpretability of aesthetic terms, and (ii) establish that the concept of an aesthetic property is fully analyzable in non-aesthetic terms. Both would be interesting and noteworthy achievements if accomplished. However, I argue in this discussion piece that he fails to achieve either goal.     

Improving intergroup relations between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland via E-contact

Northern Ireland is characterised by extensive segregation between its predominantly Catholic and Protestant communities. With the aim of overcoming this segregation, the current study experimentally evaluated the effectiveness of electronic or E-contact as a novel indirect contact and prejudice-reduction strategy. Here, Catholic and Protestant participants were not required to meet physically but were involved in a collaborative and goal-orientated online interaction with a member of the other community. As predicted, E-contact improved both Catholics’ and Protestants’ outgroup attitudes via improved contact expectancies and reduced intergroup anxiety. These findings provide support for the contemporary role of online interactions in actively overcoming the physical and psychological barriers that often prevent prejudice reduction in segregated communities.     

Avoidance as a predictor of the biological course of HIV infection over a 7-year period in gay men.

The present study prospectively investigated the relation between avoidance coping and active cognitive and behavioral coping and the progression of HIV infection over 7 years in 181 gay men. Findings revealed that for a number of medical and behavioral factors, (a) avoidance coping predicted a lower rate of decline in CD4 cells, (b) the proportional hazard (PH) attributable to avoidance of developing a syncytium-inducing HIV variant was 0.72 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.53 - 0.99, p < .05), and (c) the PH attributable to avoidance of dropping below 200 CD4 cells/microl was 0.66 (95% CI: 0.50 - 0.89, p < .01). Avoidance coping was not related to the development of AIDS-defining clinical symptoms. Active cognitive and behavioral coping was not related to the outcome measures.