Answering the Ethical Question

Many philosophers have attempted to answer the ‘ethical question’: can the ethical value of an artwork ever contribute to its aesthetic value, and if so, how? In this paper, I consider a methodological question that arises out of this discussion: should attempts to address the ethical question use analytic tools found in contemporary philosophical literature, art criticism, or some combination of the two? I concur with arguments proposed elsewhere, which suggest that art criticism has an important role to play in addressing the ethical question. However, I argue that any fruitful attempt to answer the question must defend some particular way of understanding the ethical value of artworks, which suggests that we should address what I label the ‘art question’: what is the role and importance of art? This question, I suggest, is one with which philosophers can usefully engage. This division of labour offers a way forward in addressing this important issue.     

Epistemic closure and commutative, nonassociative residuated structures

K-axiom-based epistemic closure for explicit knowledge is rejected for even the most trivial cases of deductive inferential reasoning on account of the fact that the closure axiom does not extend beyond a raw consequence relation. The recognition that deductive inference concerns interaction as much as it concerns consequence allows for perspectives from logics of multi-agent information flow to be refocused onto mono-agent deductive reasoning. Instead of modeling the information flow between different agents in a communicative or announcement setting, we model the information flow between different states of a single agent as that agent reasons deductively. The resource management of the database of agent states for the deductive reasoning fragment in question is covered by the residuated structure that encodes the nonassociative Lambek Calculus with permutation, bottom, and identity: NLP ₀₁ .     

Projective Identification on Different Levels

Freud's investigation of that which lies beyond the pleasure principle is, among other things, an attempt to understand how thoughts on matter, biology, psychology and mythology become linked, despite the fact that each of these systems are independent and self-sufficient, each one working according to its own logic. Free energy, that we may liken to a kind of noise, is bound and organized in a process where subjective meaning is created. During this process, a meaningful connection between inner and outer reality is established. However, subjectivity also creates problems, since the individual needs to find his or her own self-realization, his or her own path towards the grave. Self-realization contains an aggressive potential, which—reminiscent of the workings of the immune system—may be aimed at everything that is not-self; at the unfamiliar or that which causes discomfort; at that which blocks the path towards the individual's mastery of the world.     

Seeing why they cannot see: Understanding the syndrome and causes of posterior cortical atrophy

Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) is a syndrome defined by focal neurodegeneration of the parietal, occipital, and occipito‐temporal cortices and associated with progressive dysfunction of visual processing, praxis, numeracy and reading. The condition is most commonly caused by (and viewed as an atypical presentation of) Alzheimer's disease, although can also be caused by other degenerative diseases. The current paper examines the relationship of PCA to other degenerative syndromes, and considers what comparisons of these syndromes and disease phenotypes can tell us about underlying disease mechanisms. The focus then turns to neuropsychological investigations of the cognitive basis of symptoms which, although unusual in the broader context of a dementia clinic, are particularly characteristic of the PCA syndrome, before exploring implications for clinical management and patient and carer support.     

Pilot Testing and Preliminary Psychometric Validation of the Polish Translation of the EORTC INFO25 Questionnaire

The quality of information that oncological patients receive from health care professionals is an underestimated issue in Poland and Eastern European countries. There is lack of sufficient data on this subject. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) supplies a new tool for measuring the quality of information provided to cancer patients. The purpose of the study is the translation into Polish, pilot testing and preliminary validation of the EORTC information module (INFO25). Following the EORTC translation procedures, forward and back translations of the questionnaire were performed (English?→?Polish, Polish?→?English). The intermediate version of the INFO25 was pilot-tested together with the general questionnaire of quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30). Reliability, validity and known-group comparison tests were performed. A total of 21 patients with different cancer diagnoses were recruited into the study (7 women and 14 men; mean age of 60,2 years, age range 25–73 years). Apart from filling out the INFO25, patients were interviewed about the difficulties with answering every questionnaire item. Patients' comments were analyzed and minor language changes were made to the initial translation. The internal consistency of the INFO25 showed a reliability of 0,78. The final version of the Polish translation of the INFO25 module was obtained and approved by the EORTC Quality of Life Department. It can now be used in clinical setting and for scientific purposes.     

Testing the Efficacy of Family Health-Model of REBT on Family Values and Quality of Family Life Among Parents of Children with Visual Impairment

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - The high rate of negative thinking in family circles due to the presence of children with visual impairment has grossly affects the...     

How does aging affect recognition-based inference? A hierarchical Bayesian modeling approach

The recognition heuristic (RH) is a simple strategy for probabilistic inference according to which recognized objects are judged to score higher on a criterion than unrecognized objects. In this article, a hierarchical Bayesian extension of the multinomial r-model is applied to measure use of the RH on the individual participant level and to re-evaluate differences between younger and older adults' strategy reliance across environments. Further, it is explored how individual r-model parameters relate to alternative measures of the use of recognition and other knowledge, such as adherence rates and indices from signal-detection theory (SDT). Both younger and older adults used the RH substantially more often in an environment with high than low recognition validity, reflecting adaptivity in strategy use across environments. In extension of previous analyses (based on adherence rates), hierarchical modeling revealed that in an environment with low recognition validity, (a) older adults had a stronger tendency than younger adults to rely on the RH and (b) variability in RH use between individuals was larger than in an environment with high recognition validity; variability did not differ between age groups. Further, the r-model parameters correlated moderately with an SDT measure expressing how well people can discriminate cases where the RH leads to a correct vs. incorrect inference; this suggests that the r-model and the SDT measures may offer complementary insights into the use of recognition in decision making. In conclusion, younger and older adults are largely adaptive in their application of the RH, but cognitive aging may be associated with an increased tendency to rely on this strategy.