Judging Covers

Cover versions form a loose but identifiable category of tracks and performances. We distinguish four kinds of covers and argue that they mark important differences in the modes of evaluation that are possible or appropriate for each: mimic covers, which aim merely to echo the canonical track; rendition covers, which change the sound of the canonical track; transformative covers, which diverge so much as to instantiate a distinct, albeit derivative song; and referential covers, which not only instantiate a distinct song, but for which the new song is in part about the original song. In order to allow for the very possibility of transformative and referential covers, we argue that a cover is characterized by relation to a canonical track rather than merely by being a new instance of a song that had been recorded previously.     

Increasing Empathy for Employment Service Counselors: A Practicum

Outservice practicum training of employment service counselors presents a particular challenge to counselor educators. An overview of a two-week practicum-laboratory training program is presented and discussed. The efficacy of the training is examined from the standpoint of helpful levels of empathy presented by the employment service counselors trained. The difference between pretraining and posttraining levels of empathy indicated statistically significant gains were realized.     

Are Digital Images Allographic?

Nelson Goodman's distinction between autographic and allographic arts is appealing, we suggest, because it promises to resolve several prima facie puzzles. We consider and rebut a recent argument that alleges that digital images explode the autographic/allographic distinction. Regardless, there is another familiar problem with the distinction, especially as Goodman formulates it: it seems to entirely ignore an important sense in which all artworks are historical. We note in reply that some artworks can be considered both as historical products and as formal structures. Talk about such works is ambiguous between the two conceptions. This allows us to recover Goodman's distinction: art forms that are ambiguous in this way are allographic. With that formulation settled, we argue that digital images are allographic. We conclude by considering the objection that digital photographs, unlike other digital images, would count as autographic by our criterion; we reply that this points to the vexed nature of photography rather than any problem with the distinction.     

Sensation of effort and duration of mentally executed actions

The aim of this study was to examine whether a sensation of effort would arise in subjects requested, by verbal instructions, to mentally perform motor tasks with an internal imagery strategy. Sixteen subjects had to imagine themselves, from a first person perspective, writing a sentence and drawing a Necker's cube either with their right dominant hand or with their left hand, as well as hopping around a square either on their right or left foot. The time needed to mentally execute these actions was measured. The sensation of effort following the mental performance and the difficulty of imaging the tasks were assessed by means of two analog rating scales. The results indicate that the sensation of effort increased across the trials. Furthermore, a negative correlation coefficient (mean r = -0.99) was found between the difficulty to imagining a given motor task and the subjective sensation of effort across the trials. Moreover, the sensation of effort was more pronounced when the tasks involved the non-dominant limb.     

The Unaccountable Subject: Judith Butler and the Social Conditions of Intersubjective Agency

Judith Butler's Kritik der ethischen Gewalt 1 represents a significant refinement of her position on the relationship between the construction of the subject and her social subjection. While Butler's earlier texts reflect a somewhat restricted notion of agency, her Adorno Lectures formulate a notion of agency that extends beyond mere resistance. This essay traces the development of Butler's account of agency and evaluates it in light of feminist projects of social transformation.     

Kind of Borrowed,Kind of Blue

In late 2014, the jazz combo Mostly Other People Do the Killing released Blue—an album that is a note‐for‐note remake of Miles Davis's 1959 landmark album Kind of Blue. This is a thought experiment made concrete, raising metaphysical puzzles familiar from discussion of indiscernible counterparts. It is an actual album, rather than merely a concept, and so poses the aesthetic puzzle of why one would ever actually listen to it.     

The stability of alexithymia during work in a high‐stress environment: A prospective study of Swedish peacekeepers serving in Kosovo

Larsson, M. R., Bäckström, M., Michel, P.‐O. & Lundh, L.‐G. (2010). The stability of alexithymia during work in a high‐stress environment: A prospective study of Swedish peacekeepers serving in Kosovo. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. We applied a prospective design to reinvestigate the issue whether the sub‐domains of alexithymia could be considered stable traits or distress‐related states. Assessments of alexithymia and subjective distress were conducted before deployment to Kosovo in a sample of male peacekeepers. A second assessment was conducted approximately six months later during the final phase of service. The results showed evidence of moderate to high relative stability in all alexithymic sub‐domains. It was also found that a relative change in subjective distress predicted a relative change in difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings but not in externally oriented thinking. We suggest therefore that the alexithymic sub‐domains could be considered relatively stable traits but that the level of difficulty identifying and describing feeling varies with the level of subjective distress.