Kant and Hegel on purposive action

This essay discusses Kant and Hegel’s philosophies of action and the place of action within the general structure of their practical philosophy. We begin by briefly noting a few things that both unite and distinguish the two philosophers. In the sections that follow, we consider these and their corollaries in more detail. In so doing, we map their differences against those suggested by more standard readings that treat their accounts of action as less central to their practical philosophy. Section 2 discusses some central Kantian concepts (Freedom, Willkür, Wille, and Moral Law). In Section 3, we take a closer look at the distinction between internal and external action, as found in Kant’s philosophy of morality and legality. In Section 4, we turn to Hegel and his distinctions between abstract right (legality), morality, and ethical life, as well as the location of his account of action within his overall theory of morality. We discuss the distinction between Handlung and Tat, and non-imputable consequences. The overall aims of our essay are to shed light on some puzzles in Kant and Hegel’s conceptions and to examine where their exact disputes lie without taking a stand on which philosophy is ultimately the most satisfactory.     

Affect at the different phases of cognitive behavioral therapy: An evaluation of psychotherapy provided by candidates

The purpose of this study was to investigate the affect, as measured by “Positive and Negative Affect Schedule” (PANAS), its influence on psychopathology, and to examine the effect of changing affect during cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The study was carried out at the psychotherapy training center, Karlstad University. The hypothesis was whether clients with mental disorders have a self‐destructive affective personality (low PA and high NA) and healthy individuals have a self‐actualizing personality (high PA and low NA). Thirty‐two healthy participants and 44 clients participated in the study. The clients were asked to fill in the PANAS once throughout CBT, either during evaluation, treatment or finishing phase, accordingly there were three different groups at different therapy phases. The healthy subjects were also asked to fill in the self‐report scale once. The comparison of the three phases of therapy and the four affective personality types showed a significant difference between the phases of therapy and the four affective personality types: totally 16 (of 22) and eight (of nine) clients measured at the evaluation and treatment phases, respectively, had a self‐destructive personality. However, at the end of therapy five (of 13) clients had a self‐actualizing personality characteristics, while only three of them were self‐destructive. Furthermore, the results indicate that affective personality does not seem to be a basic and stable personality trait, which could be altered by therapy. The affections measured by PANAS may be influenced by psychopathology and CBT, when conducted by candidate therapists it can be effective in terms of affect changes.     

Religious education and spiritual development as a cultural component of the lifelong learning policy in Romania. The example of orthodox Christianity

In a context of growing globalisation and European integration, Christian religious education seems to be more and more neglected within the social debate. Given the differences between European countries, the question may arise: What is the relevant situation in Romania? The article analyses the religious education and spiritual development as a cultural component of lifelong learning policy in Romania, based on more than 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with Romanian professionals, research workers, teachers and experts in education. In order to describe the role played by religious education in Romania three main aspects may be quoted: (1) Spiritual development completes the economic and social development of people; (2) The national culture and values contribute to the promotion of life models in accordance with Christian orthodox religion; and (3) The integral development of the person is part of the lifelong learning policy in Romania and includes orthodox spirituality. These aspects are analysed on the basis of the answers given by national experts in lifelong learning and religious education.     

The Swedish National Adult Reading Test (NART-SWE): a test of premorbid IQ

The purpose of this study was to construct a Swedish version of the National Adult Reading Test (NART-SWE), a test for assessment of premorbid IQ, and to investigate its validity and reliability on healthy controls and patients with mild Alzheimer's disease. As Swedish pronunciation rules are fixed, NART-SWE was constructed using loan words. NART-SWE has satisfactory psychometric properties: Inter-rater and retest reliability as well as internal consistency are very high. The NART-SWE demonstrates face validity. In addition, high correlation with IQ was obtained. A significant model emerged when using NART-SWE to predict IQ. Furthermore, no significant differences were observed when comparing performance for healthy controls' with that of patients with Alzheimer's disease on NART-SWE. It does appear that reading of irregular words is intact in mild Alzheimer's disease.     

Interpreting Heidegger Across Philosophical Traditions

Heidegger's philosophy has received radically different readings. These different approaches grow from philosophical differences rooted, at least to some extent, in national philosophical traditions. Although it is not possible any longer to draw strict boundaries between different philosophical traditions by reference to nationality or to language, there certainly are tendencies and points of emphasis that differ depending on the context in which Heidegger is read.
There are many different ways of reading Heidegger. I confine myself to two: the orthodox approach and the applicative pragmatist approach. As an example for these approaches I have taken Heidegger's controversial essay, "The Origin of the Work of Art."     

On Some Counter-Examples to the Guise of the Good-Thesis: Intelligibility without Desirability

This paper argues that there are cases, which various guise of the good-theses concerning desires, intentions and actions would not allow. In these cases the agent acts for considerations that the agent does not regard as good reasons. The considerations render the actions intelligible but not desirable (where desirability and intelligibility can be objective or subjective). These cases are atypical, but nonetheless show that those guise of the good-theses which do not allow them, should be revised. In typical cases the intelligibility of desires, intentions and actions co-varies with their desirability: there are both unintelligible cases without suitable desirability characteristics and cases where desirability characteristics make the desire, intention and action intelligible. The claim here is that there are further more atypical and puzzling, but equally possible cases, where intelligibility and desirability come apart. The paper first introduces the Guise of the Good - debates about desires, intentions, and actions, and suggests distinguishing the category of “acting for a reason” from “acting for a consideration not taken to be a reason”. It then argues that while desirability entails intelligibility, and lack of intelligibility entails lack of desirability, these two cases leave conceptual room for a third category, which is that of intelligibility without desirability. This is so, whether we examine objective or subjective intelligibility and desirability. The claim is meant to apply mutatis mutandis to characteristics of desires, intentions and actions. The paper then provides possible cases of intelligibility without desirability, and defends the view against some objections.     

Auditory perception of speech and speech sounds in recent and recovered cases of aphasia

Auditory perception of speech and speech sounds was examined in three groups of patients with cerebral damage in the dominant hemisphere. Two groups consisted of brain-injured war veterans, one group of patients with high-frequency hearing loss and the other, a group of patients with a flat hearing loss. The third group consisted of patients with recent cerebral infarcts due to vascular occlusion of the middle cerebral and internal carotid artery. Word and phoneme discrimination as well as phoneme confusions in incorrect responses were analyzed from conventional speech audiometry tests with bisyllabic Finnish words fed close to the speech reception threshold of the patient. The results were compared with those of a control group with no cerebral disorders and normal hearing. The speech discrimination scores of veterans with high-frequency hearing loss and patients with recent cerebral infarcts were some 15–20% lower than those of controls or veterans with flat hearing loss. Speech sound feature discrimination, analyzed in terms of place of articulation and distinctive features, was distorted especially in cases of recent cerebral infarcts, whereas general information transmission of phonemes was more impaired in patients with high-frequency hearing loss.     

On how high performers keep cool brains in situations of cognitive overload

What happens in the brain when we reach or exceed our capacity limits? Are there individual differences for performance at capacity limits? We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the impact of increases in processing demand on selected cortical areas when participants performed a parametrically varied and challenging dual task. Low-performing participants respond with large and load-dependent activation increases in many cortical areas when exposed to excessive task requirements, accompanied by decreasing performance. It seems that these participants recruit additional attentional and strategy-related resources with increasing difficulty, which are either not relevant or even detrimental to performance. In contrast, the brains of the high-performing participants “keep cool” in terms of activation changes, despite continuous correct performance, reflecting different and more efficient processing. These findings shed light on the differential implications of performance on activation patterns and underline the importance of the interindividual-differences approach in neuroimaging research.     

Working memory and attention are still impaired after three years in patients with stress‐related exhaustion

Cognitive impairment is one of the most pronounced symptoms reported by patients with stress‐related mental health problems. Impairments related to executive function and to some extent speed and attention are therefore common in patients with stress‐related burnout/exhaustion. In this paper we present a follow‐up of cognitive performance in patients with stress‐related exhaustion several years after they initially sought medical care. Thirty patients and 27 healthy controls, mean age 49 years (SD 6.5) and 55 years (SD 6.7) respectively, were included, all of whom had undergone baseline measurements of neuropsychological functioning. The mean follow‐up time was three years. Half of the patients still reported mental health problems at follow‐up and over time no major changes in cognitive performance were noted. The patients still performed significantly poorer than controls with regard to cognitive functions, mainly related to speed, attention and memory function. Long‐lasting impairment of cognitive functions related to speed, attention and memory function noted in patients with stress‐related exhaustion should be acknowledged and taken into consideration during treatment and when discussing a return to work. Follow‐up periods longer than three years are needed to explore the persistence of the cognitive impairment.