Where Can I Find Consolation? A Theoretical Analysis of the Meaning of Consolation as Experienced by Job in the Book of Job in the Hebrew Bible

The aim of the study was to explore the meaning of consolation as experienced by Job in the Book of Job and as presented in literature and how consolation relates to suffering and care. The study’s theoretical design applied Ricoeur’s view on phenomenology and hermeneutics. The resulting themes were as follows: consolation that is present, that originates in confrontation, that keeps suffering at a distance, that does not alleviate suffering, that originates in experience from giving comfort, and that facilitates a change of perspective. The authentic and caring consolation accepts the sufferer’s incomprehensible “otherness” but however provides no answers about how to console.     

An Overview of Possibilistic Handling of Default Reasoning, with Experimental Studies

This paper first provides a brief survey of a possibilistic handling of default rules. A set of default rules of the form, “generally, from α deduce β”, is viewed as the family of possibility distributions satisfying constraints expressing that the situation where α and β is true has a greater plausibility than the one where a and - β is true. When considering only the subset of linear possibility distributions, the well-known System P of postulates proposed by Kraus, Lehmann and Magidor, has been obtained. We also present two rational extensions: one based on the minimum specificity principle and the other is based on the lexicographic ordering. The second part of the paper presents an empirical study of three desirable properties for a consequence relation that capture default reasoning: Rationality, Property Inheritance and Ambiguity Preservation. An experiment is conducted to investigate 13 patterns of inference for the test of these properties. Our experimental apparatus confirms previous results on the relevance of System P, and enforces the psychological relevance of the studied properties.     

文明的"早生晚熟"和"晚生早熟"--中、英两国文明特征的比较与反思

本文从经济形态、政治制度、社会结构、思想观念、人格特征五个方面对中英两国文明进行观照,认为中英文明分别具有“早生晚熟”和“晚生早熟”的不同特征,而这又是与双方文明进程迥然、专制程度差异、社会结构有别以及对待传统态度不同分不开的。正是这些差别造成了中华文明从先行到落后,而英国文明虽后来反居上。因此,只有丢掉包袱。轻装上阵。中华民族才能浴火重生。     

A planner agent that tries its best in presence of nondeterminism

In many nondeterministic planning domains, an agent whose goal is to achieve φ may not succeed in finding a policy that can guarantee that all paths from the initial state lead to a final state where φ holds (strong solution). Nevertheless, if the agent is trying its best to achieve φ, it cannot give up. Instead, it may be inclined to accept weaker guarantees, such as having a path leading to φ from any intermediate state reached by the policy (strong-cyclic solution), or even less, such as having at least one path leading to φ from the initial state (weak solution). But the agent should choose among such different options based on their availability in each situation. Although the specification of this type of goal has been addressed before, in this paper we show how a planner based on the branching time temporal logic α-ctl can be used to plan for intuitive and useful goals of the form “try your best to achieve φ”.     

Compulsory Schooling as Preventative Defense

The question whether compulsory schooling is justifiable or not has been treated at considerable length by critics, defenders, and positions in-between. What these treatments—about paternalism and autonomy and institutionalization and more—have not directly analyzed is a question that precedes the issue of overall justification: the preliminary question of time. Does it matter when compulsion takes place? Furthermore, does the timing of compulsion matter to the question of overall justification? I will argue that it does matter, but for reasons not directly related to the question of overall justification.     

Exposure to novelty enhances retrieval of very remote memory in rats

Rats were trained in a one-trial step-down inhibitory avoidance task at the age of 3 months and tested for retention 1 day later, or 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 19 months later, i.e., when the animals were 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, or 22 months of age. Retrieval performance declined with time and was undetectable in the last two age groups. Exposure to an unrelated novel environment (a square box lined with black plastic) 1 h before retention testing enhanced retrieval at all ages, regardless of the decline in the level of test session performance. The effect cannot be explained by an anxiogenic effect of the novelty box, or by an influence of novelty on locomotion or exploration, or by a nonspecific influence of exposure to novelty on step-down latency in the inhibitory avoidance apparatus.     

Neuroplastic Changes Following Social Cognition Training in Schizophrenia: A Systematic Review

Social cognitive impairment is a key feature of schizophrenia and social cognition training (SCT) is a promising tool to address these deficits. Neurobiological dysfunction in schizophrenia has been widely researched, but neuronal changes induced by SCT have been scarcely explored. This review aims to assess the neuroplastic effects of SCT in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for clinical trials testing the effects of SCT in functional and structural brain measurements of adult patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders. A total of 11 studies were included: five used fMRI, two used EEG and ERP, one used ERP only, two used MEG and one study used MRI. Data extracting and processing regarding sociodemographic and clinical variables, intervention characteristics, neuroimaging procedures, neuroplastic findings, effect sizes and study quality criteria was completed by two raters. Results indicate a wide range of structural and functional changes in numerous regions and circuits of the social brain, including early perceptual areas, the limbic system and prefrontal regions. Despite the small number of trials currently available, evidence suggests that SCT is associated with neuroplastic changes in the social brain and concomitant improvements in social cognitive performance. There is a lack of extensive knowledge about the neural mechanisms that underlie social cognitive enhancement after treatment, but the reported findings may shed light on the neural substrates of social cognitive impairment in schizophrenia and how improved treatment procedures can be developed and applied.     

Aggressive Hook Ups: Modeling Aggressive Casual Sex on BDSM for Moral Permissibility

Aggressive techniques within casual sex encounters, such as taking sexual liberties without permission or ignoring rejection, can, perhaps unintentionally, complicate consent. Passive recipients may acquiesce out of fear, which aggressors may not realize. Some philosophers argue that social norms are sufficiently well known to make this misunderstanding unlikely. However, the chance of aggression leading to non-consensual sex, even if not great, is high enough that aggressors should work diligently to avoid this potentially grave result. I consider how this problem plays out in the common mating ritual of hooking up. I argue that aggressive hook ups can only be permissible if they are modeled on BDSM encounters: the participants must obtain prior consent and prepare safe words for voiding that consent during the hook up. While this solution removes the spontaneity of aggressive sex, I argue that spontaneously aggressive hook ups with strangers cannot be permissible.     

The Influence of Bloomfield's Linguistics on Skinner

Bloomfield''s “Linguistics as a Science” (1930/1970), Language (1933/1961), and “Language or Ideas?” (1936a/1970), and Skinner''s Verbal Behavior (1957) and Science and Human Behavior (1953) were analyzed in regard to their respective perspectives on science and scientific method, the verbal episode, meaning, and subject matter. Similarities between the two authors were found. In particular both asserted that (a) the study of language must be carried out through the methods of science; (b) the main function of language is to produce practical effects on the world through the mediation of a listener; and (c) a physicalist conception of meaning. Their differences concern the subject matter of their disciplines and their use of different models for the analysis of behavior. Bloomfield''s linguistics and Skinner''s functional analysis of verbal behavior are complementary approaches to language.