Varieties of Reflection in Kant's Logic

For Kant, ‘reflection’ (Überlegung, Reflexion) is a technical term with a range of senses. I focus here on the senses of reflection that come to light in Kant's account of logic, and then bring the results to bear on the distinction between ‘logical’ and ‘transcendental’ reflection that surfaces in the Amphiboly chapter of the Critique of Pure Reason. Although recent commentary has followed similar cues, I suggest that it labours under a blind spot, as it neglects Kant's distinction between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ general logic. The foundational text of existing interpretations is a passage in Logik Jäsche that appears to attribute to Kant the view that reflection is a mental operation involved in the generation of concepts from non-conceptual materials. I argue against the received view by attending to Kant's division between ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ general logic, identifying senses of reflection proper to each, and showing that none accords well with the received view. Finally, to take account of Kant's notion of transcendental reflection I show that we need to be attentive to the concerns of applied logic and how they inform the domain-relative transcendental logic that Kant presents in the first Critique.     

Kant on the Inapplicability of the Categories to Things in Themselves

This paper addresses the question of what we can legitimately say about things in themselves in Kant's critical doctrine. Many Kant scholars believe that Kant allows that things in themselves can be characterized through the unschematized or ‘pure’ concepts of our understanding such as ‘substance’ or ‘causality’. However, I show that on Kant's view things in themselves do not conform to the unschematized categories (given their standard discursive meaning): the pure categories, like space and time, are merely subjective forms of finite, discursive cognition. I then examine what this interpretation might entail for central aspects of Kant's system such as his doctrine of noumenal freedom.     

现象的本质

物、现象是主体运用自己的先验感知模式整理纯粹本体的结果。它具有现实确定性、质量性、合理性、时间性、空间性、生灭性、特殊性、有用、有利等属性。拥有这些属性的现象是人类知识的对象。现象是相对的,因此它的这些属性也都是相对的。同时,存在不仅仅有生生不息的纯粹本体,而且它的必然伴随物即现象也是存在的真谛。现象与纯粹本体一起共同构成存在的事实本体。纯粹本体、现象的分与合即一三三一圆融构成了存在的综合本体。纯粹本体论、事实本体论和综合本体论构成了中国古代形而上学史上三个不同的发展阶段。     

事件提示和时间提示对新异干扰的影响—— 来自听视跨通道和听通道的证据

采用Oddball范式考察听视跨感觉通道和听感觉通道中“无关刺激”或“无关属性”的信号提示对新异干扰的影响。实验1和实验2分别比较了听视跨通道和听通道中时间事件提示、时间提示和事件提示三种条件。结果表明：(1)时间提示条件下新异干扰效应消失, 而事件提示条件下新异干扰效应仍存在。无关刺激意外变化引起的靶任务行为受损, 不仅与偏差刺激的小概率和新颖性有关, 而且与干扰刺激与靶子间提示信号关联有关, 这种提示关联中事件发生的提示功能比时间间隔的提示功能更为重要。(2)听通道下新异干扰与视听跨通道结果一致, 无关属性也会起到提示信号作用, 同样事件提示功能比时间提示功能更重要。     

A Treatise vs. An enquiry: Omissions and Distortions by the New Humeans

There is a definite stress on the primacy of An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding over A Treatise of Human Nature by the so-called New Humeans, who in turn, advocate the sceptical/causal realist interpretation of Hume's empiricism. This paper shows how there has been a deliberate attempt by them to omit and distort certain negative aspects of Hume's life in the belief that in order to accept their interpretations we must first acknowledge that, (1) the Enquiry is the superior text and, (2) reject any criticisms suggesting that Hume only wrote it to help promote the Treatise and fulfil his ambitions for literary fame.     

Pure agraphia in Romaji after left inferior frontal gyrus infarction: A case of selective deficit in syllable-to-grapheme conversion in Japanese

The Japanese writing system employs two distinct categories of characters: Kana and Kanji. The difference between Kana and Kanji writing corresponds roughly to that between phonological and lexical systems in Western languages. When typing, most Japanese use alphabetical characters based purely on phonological rules. In particular, the Romaji system is used, in which a syllable consists of a single vowel, a consonant–vowel compound (e.g., ka, ki), or a sequence of consonant–y(semivowel)–vowel (e.g., kya, kyu). We describe a right-handed Japanese patient who developed pure agraphia that affected Romaji writing but preserved Kana and Kanji writing and who had a lesion in the left pars opercularis of the inferior frontal gyrus that extended to the anterior precentral gyrus. The patient demonstrated literal paragraphia in spelling Romaji across modalities. Our findings suggested that the patient’s agraphia in Romaji after a confined left frontal infarction was manifested by a selective impairment in syllable-to-grapheme conversion.     

Semantic priming in French children with varying comprehension skills

Semantic priming was analysed in two groups of French children contrasted on comprehension skills with a visual lexical-decision task using a long SOA (800 ms). Two relation types between related primes and targets were examined: pure semantic relation (categorical vs. functional), and lexical association strength (strong vs. weak). Targets were preceded by related, unrelated, and neutral primes. Skilled comprehenders showed semantic priming only for category-related words, whatever their association strength, and without any evidence of an associative boost. Less-skilled comprehenders also showed semantic priming for category-related words, irrespective of their association strength, but with an indication of an associative boost. They also displayed semantic priming for function-related awords that are strongly associated, but not for those that are weakly associated. These results are discussed within the theoretical frame proposed by Plaut and Booth (2000 Plaut, D. C. and Booth, J. R. 2000. Individual and developmental differences in semantic priming: Empirical and computational support for a single-mechanism account of lexical processing. Psychological Review, 4: 786–823.  [Google Scholar]).     

Axiomatizing hybrid products: How can we reason many-dimensionally in hybrid logic?

The aim of this paper is to propose a two-dimensional hybrid logic in order to formalize inferences containing both spatial and temporal propositions. The semantic idea behind the proposal is to name both horizontal and vertical lines in a 2D-plane by two kinds of nominals. This is a generalization of the idea of naming a point in one-dimensional hybrid logic. I give an axiomatization of the proposed two-dimensional hybrid logic and show that it enjoys a general completeness result (called pure completeness) with respect to product Kripke frames. Moreover, in order to capture $T\times W$-frames studied by R.H. Thomason (1984), I introduce the notion of a dependent product frame, which enables us to represent the dependence of space over time. I also give a complete axiomatization of this dependent two-dimensional hybrid logic, and, as a corollary, reveal that a hybridization of $T\times W$-logic enjoys strong completeness.     

The identity of Guanyin: Religion,convention and subversion

This paper explores the visual representation of Guanyin (Avalokiteshvara) and argues that this, understood in relation to the traditions and devotion to him/her, allows her to be read as a figure of subversive religiosity. Indeed, it is argued that, rather than being a symbol of tradition and convention, a subversive reading of her is not only more potent, but also inherent within her portrayals. To begin, the transformation of him/her from a figure of mainstream Mahayana tradition, in the Pure Land School and texts such as the Lotus Sutra, to the ‘Chinese Goddess of Compassion’ is explored, paying particular attention to the legends of Miaoshan. This is then extended to consider both why he/she may be considered a conventional figure, but also how and why he/she offers the potential for subversive readings centred around ideas of gender, identity, patriarchy and morality.     

Demons are everywhere: The effects of belief in pure evil,demonization, and retribution on punishing criminal perpetrators

Do preconceived beliefs about evil influence perceptions and punishments of those who harm others? We examined the effects of belief in pure evil (BPE), demonization, and belief in retribution on punishment of a stereotypically (vs. non-stereotypically) evil criminal. Participants punished the stereotypically evil perpetrator more (i.e., greater recommended jail time, opposition to parole, and support for his execution) because of increases in demonization (i.e., greater perceptions of the criminal as wicked, evil, and threatening), but not increases in retributive feelings. However, regardless of the criminal’s exhibited stereotypically evil traits, greater BPE predicted harsher punishment of the perpetrator; both greater demonization and stronger retributive feelings mediated the relationship between BPE and severe punishments. Further, effect sizes indicated BPE (vs. the evilness manipulation) more strongly predicted demonization and punishment. Thus, some individuals naturally see perpetrators as demons, and retributively punish them, whether or not there is more explicit stereotypic evidence of their evil dispositions.