Knowledge Grounded on Pure Reasoning

In this paper, I deal with epistemological issues that stem from the hypothesis that reasoning is not only a means of transmitting knowledge from premise‐beliefs to conclusion‐beliefs but also a primary source of knowledge in its own right. The idea is that one can gain new knowledge on the basis of suppositional reasoning. After making some preliminary distinctions, I argue that there are no good reasons to think that purported examples of knowledge grounded on pure reasoning are just examples of premise‐based inferences in disguise. Next, I establish what kinds of true propositions can to a first approximation be known on the basis of pure reasoning. Finally, I argue that beliefs that are competently formed on the basis of suppositional reasoning satisfy both externalist and internalist criteria of justification.     

The psychology of modern memorials: the affective intertwining of personal and collective memories / La psicología de los monumentos modernos: la implicación afectiva de los recuerdos personales y colectivos

Abstract

This paper explores collective memory and grief as they are experienced and expressed at modern memorial sites. What makes them collective is the way they are interpreted and felt as a ‘we’, in first-person plural. From a cultural psychological perspective, we conceptualize memorials as cultural and historical artefacts that mediate these processes and in so doing give meaning to the past based on present and future challenges. Along these lines, we analyse visitors’ situated and evolving experiences of two memorial sites: Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin and the Ground Zero National September 11 Memorial in New York. Results focus on individuals’ particular modes of experiencing and appropriating modern memorial sites, which in contrast to classic ones are purposely built to generate a wide range of different meaning-making processes and ways of interacting with them.     

Ethical Issues with Simulating the Bridge Problem in VR

Science and Engineering Ethics - We aim to generate a dilemma for virtual reality-based research that we motivate through an extended case study of Thomson’s (Yale Law J...     

Tests for inhibition after extinction of a conditioned stimulus in the flavour aversion procedure

In four experiments, rats received flavour aversion conditioning followed by extinction. The flavour was then subjected to retardation and summation tests. Experiment 1 showed that reacquisition of an extinguished flavour aversion was retarded with respect to the performance shown by rats for whom the flavour was novel. No retardation was found, however, with respect to a control group that had been given non-reinforced pre-exposure to the flavour. Experiment 2 demonstrated that extinction showed the same sensitivity to the effects of a retention interval as did latent inhibition, consistent with the view that the retardation effect was a consequence of the occurrence of latent inhibition during extinction. An extinguished stimulus was also found to alleviate the response governed by aseparately trained excitor in a summation test (Experiments 3 and 4), but the size of this effect did not exceed that produced by a control stimulus when the procedure used ensured an equivalent aversion to the test excitor in the two cases. These results challenge the proposal that extinction can turn a stimulus into a net inhibitor.     

Cultural psychology: a two-way path between mind and culture / Psicología cultural: un camino de ida y vuelta entre la mente y la cultura

Abstract

This brief introduction serves as an opening to the monographic issue on cultural psychology. We will begin this introduction by providing an overview of the main features of this branch of psychology. Heavily influenced by Vygotsky’s concept of mediation, cultural psychology centres on how we use different cultural tools or mediational artefacts to make sense of the world and guide our actions within it. On the basis of this approach, the nine articles of which this monograph is comprised are briefly introduced: articles which are eminently empirical in nature and which relate to areas such as creativity, collective memory, identity and developmental shifts, as well as migration and mobility in a globalized world.     

Integration of Faith and Learning at a Faith-Based Historically Black University: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Although the importance of integration of faith and learning (IFL) is well documented in the literature, little is known of how it is implemented at a Historically Black University. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how IFL is deliberately implemented at a faith-based Historically Black University. Twenty-nine faculty members participated in the study. Thematic analysis was used to identify the following themes: connectivity, modeling, intentionality and spontaneity. These themes not only describe how IFL occurs at this institution, but also the levels at which IFL is deliberately implemented.