Experiential evidence shows that pain is associated with common meanings. These include a meaning of threat or danger, which is experienced as immediately distressing or unpleasant; cognitive meanings, which are focused on the long-term consequences of having chronic pain; and existential meanings such as hopelessness, which are more about the person with chronic pain than the pain itself. This interdisciplinary book - the second in the three-volume Meanings of Pain series edited by Dr Simon van Rysewyk - aims to better (...) understand pain by describing experiences of pain and the meanings these experiences hold for the people living through them. The lived experiences of pain described here involve various types of chronic pain, including spinal pain, labour pain, rheumatic pain, diabetic peripheral neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, endometriosis-associated pain, and cancer-related pain. Two chapters provide narrative descriptions of pain, recounted and interpreted by people with pain. Language is important to understanding the meaning of pain since it is the primary tool human beings use to manipulate meaning. As discussed in the book, linguistic meaning may hold clues to understanding some pain-related experiences, including the stigmatisation of people with pain, the dynamics of patient-clinician communication, and other issues, such as relationships between pain, public policy and the law, and attempts to develop a taxonomy of pain that is meaningful for patients. Clinical implications are described in each chapter. This book is intended for people with pain, their family members or caregivers, clinicians, researchers, advocates, and policy makers. (shrink)

Some researchers have attributed deviations from selfish behavior to fairness. Violations of fairness theories, however, are observed in experimental dictator games with transfer rates greater than 1 (a transfer of x from the dictator yields an income of tx for the beneficiary, where x < tx): the dictator’s final income is less than the beneficiary’s. We theoretically propose that dictator giving also involves altruism, further supporting our claim with empirical evidence from four separate samples of dictator game experiments. Our nonlinear (...) specification allows the relative measurement of the independent motives in dictator behavior. (shrink)

Sensation elicited by a skin stimulus was subjectively reported to feel stronger when followed by a stimulus to somatosensory cerebral cortex , even when C was delayed by up to 400 ms or more. This expands the potentiality for retroactive effects beyond that previously known as backward masking. It also demonstrates that the content of a sensory experience can be altered by another cerebral input introduced after the sensory signal arrives at the cortex. The long effective S-C intervals support the (...) thesis that a duration of cortical activity of up to 0.5 s is required before awareness of a sensory stimulus is developed. (shrink)

In the world of philosophy of science, the dominant theory of confirmation is Bayesian. In the wider philosophical world, the idea of inference to the best explanation exerts a considerable influence. Here we place the two worlds in collision, using Bayesian confirmation theory to argue that explanatoriness is evidentially irrelevant.

A densely-packed and comprehensive textbook of scholastic metaphysics. Metaphysics is understood as including "not only a general investigation of beings but also the study of knowledge and of the divine nature and attributes in the light of natural reason." Owens brings to this task the Gilsonian understanding of a Christian philosophy, his own considerable knowledge of Aristotle, Aquinas and scholastic philosophy generally, and a conviction that metaphysics is a knowledge of the universe and the things within it, founded on necessary (...) principles. Though intended as a college text, Owens' work might be better taken as a standard reference manual, much like the classic Latin text of Gredt.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This penultimate volume of Copleston's monumental history covers the nineteenth century German philosophers and some of their non-German dependents, such as Kierkegaard, and their contemporary heirs, such as Heidegger. Copleston's usual clarity and sympathy win out even when treating such recalcitrant thinkers as Hegel, Fichte, Nietzsche and Schleiermacher. His interpretations are always reasonable and credible, and often illuminating. Unfortunately, they are not as dialectical as the originals, and a good deal is lost in the translation from system to exposition.--W. G. (...) E. (shrink)

Oesterle's translation of Aquinas's commentary on Aristotle's Peri Hermeneias should fill a great need by presenting an excellent and painstakingly accurate English version of that classic. She has gone to the additional trouble of providing an independent translation of Aristotle's Greek text, taking care that it renders the original accurately as well as complements Aquinas's commentary. Of especial interest are the sections on modal propositions, their negation and the inferences valid from them.--W. G. E.

A very detailed piece of scholarship devoted to showing the fundamental importance and meaning of Aristotle's notion of phronesis in the Nicomachean Ethics and the Politics, which express Aristotle's complete philosophy of human life. The infelicity of style and omnipresence of scholarly paraphernalia obscure the philosophic importance of the analysis unnecessarily. This is especially true in the case where imprecision of language leads Michelakis to treat phronesis as a faculty along with nous praktikos rather than a disposition modifying it. As (...) a result an important section of the second chapter is mystifying, if not completely wrong, issuing in the identification of the subordinate disposition nous with the nous praktikos itself. Michelakis is correct in thinking that an analysis of phronesis is urgently needed to clear up the confusion of interpretations of Aristotle's ethical and political doctrine. This book presents much of the requisite material for that analysis, but not the requisite analysis.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This is essentially a textbook for an introductory course written in basic English of the primer type with a drastic simplification of exposition. The simplification often makes the exposition inaccurate and the readings confusing or misleading. The authors cover literally scores of positions and authors, some few major ones and many very minor ones, in almost every conceivable area of philosophy.--W. G. E.

A successful textbook-anthology in the philosophy of religion. Hick tries to do justice to the demands of both historical range and variety of approach. His selection of texts, from Plato to Flew, is sound and offers only a few surprises. The selections themselves are of adequate length and the introductory remarks and bibliographies provided in the appendix are useful guides to further reading. The contents are listed both historically and topically, adding to the flexibility of the book. Of the current (...) spate of anthologies in this field, this one seems one of the more teachable.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Bits and snatches of the poetry, drama, philosophy, history and oratory of Greek literature are gathered with minimal biographical and introductory notes. Only one translation is acknowledged, that of Aristophanes' The Birds. The selection, though varied, shows no underlying plan.—W. G. E.

This anthology is heavy on poetry and letters, light in the other categories. There are some anomolies: Seneca's philosophy is represented by a piece of little historical interest, Cicero is alloted only five letters, Ovid is correspondingly slighted in poetry. Here also, as in the volume above, the editor's contribution is slight. No translations are acknowledged.—W. G. E.

This is a collection of essays in ethics and the philosophy of religion contributed by former students and colleagues of Professor W. Harry Jellema to honor his 70th birthday and his retirement from Calvin College. The essays are quite diverse but uniformly worthwhile. They are nicely balanced between such traditional approaches as in Veatch's "For a Renewal of an Old Departure in Ethics" and Parker's "Traditional Reason and Modern Reason," contemporary analytic approaches as in Plantinga's "Necessary Being" and Brouwer's "A (...) Restricted Motive Theory of Ethics," and historical studies such as Stob's "The Ethics of Jonathan Edwards" and De Boer's "First Steps in Mysticism." The quality and seriousness of the collection as a whole appropriately honors a man who has been one of the most devoted and effective teachers in the American philosophic community for the past fifty years.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Burkill sees Kant's critical philosophy as the source of a vicious dualism in modern philosophy, a dualism between the phenomenally contented and the phenomenally discontented. After two chapters spent making this point, sketching both Kant's basic position and his criticisms of it, the author briefly considers a multitude of post-Kantian philosophers of all varieties. He ends with a constructive solution of the dualism, offering a doctrine of God as the élan vital, a positive principle inherent in the nature of things, (...) open to a descriptive philosophy based on an empiricism which sees the world of experience as made up, not of discrete events, but of entities in dynamic interconnection.--W. G. E. (shrink)

Carried over from fascicle 2 into this fascicle is a remarkable piece of dialectic. Weiss takes the Aristotelian scheme of virtue as a mean between extremes, uses it to manipulate the basic elements of Kant's first Critique, extends the whole set of notions dialectically with moves and notions of his own to make up a comprehensive discussion, which sheds light on many basic philosophic issues. It is a virtuoso performance which produces new insights not only into Kant, Aristotle and Weiss, (...) but on the power of dialectical, systematic philosophy. There are other valuable parts: attempts to give a materialistic account of mind, a discussion of the nature of the past, and several extended analyses of norms and normative judgments. The series grows more impressive with each new fascicle. One begins to suspect that the medium of the Journal is peculiarly cogenial to Weiss' thought.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This number of the continuing series is extremely rich and quite densely written. Much of the writing is reminiscent of Modes of Being in its formality. The major concern is togetherness as a human product, especially political organization. Fully one half of the fascicle is devoted to an extensive and very intricate analysis of the state. Two other sections demand attention: one short and pointed comment on possible kinds of approach to the art object, and a lengthy statement of an (...) "urphilosophy" for Modes of Being, giving the basic positions and moves which can be applied analogously to each of the four modes.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This number of the continuing series is extremely rich and quite densely written. Much of the writing is reminiscent of Modes of Being in its formality. The major concern is togetherness as a human product, especially political organization. Fully one half of the fascicle is devoted to an extensive and very intricate analysis of the state. Two other sections demand attention: one short and pointed comment on possible kinds of approach to the art object, and a lengthy statement of an (...) "urphilosophy" for Modes of Being, giving the basic positions and moves which can be applied analogously to each of the four modes.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Woven in and among the insights and discussions of this fascicle there is a highly complex but extremely dense theory of knowledge. To get at this theory one must piece together the discussions on pages 441-444, 452-455, 471-474, 479-485, 486-497, and 501-503. These must be read as an Aristotelian treatise, a progressive sifting of insights and precisions, so that the "official" doctrine is never clearly stated but must be constructed from the elements and qualifications and clues provided. Nor are the (...) discussions mono-directional, but point to the many interconnections between a pluralistic metaphysics and its coordinate theory of knowledge. Ideas must be related in many ways to many kinds and levels of entities as well as to the ultimate modes of being. These many relations must be cross-referenced and synthesized in a systematic unity, related in a special way to the mode of Actuality without becoming derivatives or projections of that mode. At best this fascicle supplies some of the tools for the job and some hints what the finished theory must accomplish.—W. G. E. (shrink)

This fascicle is devoted entirely to aesthetics. Some sections are tentative and anticipatory to Weiss's The World of Art, others supplementary to earlier papers. But there are long sections which cover new ground: the discussion of play and art, the examination of the concept of beauty as a transcendental and the important analysis of the relation between perception and aesthetic experience. Weiss develops a highly complex, parallel analysis of the work of art and its observer according to various levels or (...) aspects of their respective reality and activity. The extremely rich context thus developed provides fertile insights into many of the traditional problems of aesthetics and offers clues for more general philosophical discussions. Aesthetics has too often been a partisan, polemical affair. Weiss's open and comprehensive approach is an apt-reminder that the complexity and variety of art cannot be caught in one-dimensional, monochromatic accounts.—W. G. E. (shrink)

The first of twelve fascicles to be published quarterly and as a single volume at the end of the series. This fascicle presents Weiss's philosophic journal from June 24th to September 21st, 1955. The main problem worried with in these pages is that of the togetherness of the basic modes of being, a central issue for a systematic pluralist such as Weiss. We see him approaching the problem from different angles, pushing ideas as far as they will go, testing them (...) against other parts of his system, revising, rejecting and refining. At times Weiss sketches out the logical permutations and combinations of his leading themes and then seeks out applications in more concrete subject matter. At other times a seemingly unrelated analysis of something as concrete as the relations between men and women is used to illumine highly abstract problems. The fascicle as a whole is a study in the logic of opposition and togetherness, though many other points are touched along the way, such as the problem of simple location. Weiss's analysis is more mathematical and logical than linguistic. It is remarkably thorough and radical, free and original. But precisely because of this, it is also difficult to follow, at times even frustratingly opaque. But the fascicles do provide two things: a valuable dialectical key to Modes of Being, and a clear insight into the working methods and style of thought of one of the most creative of contemporary philosophers.--W. G. E. (shrink)

In fascicles 9 through 12 of this volume, Weiss continues his analyses of art and begins to develop themes for his discussion of history and religion. There are also significant and lengthy sections devoted to metaphilosophy with critiques of Kant, Hegel, and Wittgenstein. The discussion of the arts reaches a degree of insight and breadth of synthesis not matched in the earlier fascicles, nor in The World of Art and The Nine Basic Arts. For here Weiss achieves a systematic relation (...) between fundamental concepts of Modes of Being and those of his aesthetic theory that is both less strained and schematic and more fruitful than any found elsewhere. The discussions of history are less happy, too quickly generalized and formalized in cosmic terms. The sections on religion are, however, excellent. Predominantly Christian themes are discussed at length. Weiss's metaphysics seems naturally sympathetic in their analysis. The metaphilosophy provides a valuable insight into Weiss's working habits and reveals what is, paradoxically, both a major strength and weakness-his appreciation of the formal and schematic demands of systematic thought. This appreciation can lead to productive analysis and insight, but also beyond experience and understanding. It is to Weiss's credit that these working journals show the dangerous side of his philosophic technique far more often than his regular, published work does. Now that we have the entire first volume of these journals, a few words must be said about their value as published works. They are, first, a useful, two-way bridge joining Weiss's formal, metaphysical works and his more descriptive, phenomenological works, such as The World of Art, Nine Basic Arts, History: Written and Lived, The God We Seek, etc.). Such a bridge is not absolutely necessary for one reasonably familiar with the whole of Weiss's published work, but it is helpful, especially to one beginning a study of Weiss with the more speculative formal writings. As independent works, the journals frequently provide valuable insights, suggest previously unsuspected avenues of analysis and inquiry, and demonstrate a level of argument and mode of explanation all too often ignored by contemporary philosophers. They should be read as what they are, journals, much as one would read Pepys' Diary. The Index is a thorough, accurate, and necessary tool for reference.—W. G. E. (shrink)

It has been charged that Modes of Being is a metaphysics which still needs an epistemology to underpin its speculative claims or a "phenomenology" to connect the abstract system with ordinary experience. Among the discussions in this fascicle are several suggestive attempts to fill such gaps. Weiss poses the basic problem in a fairly ontological way, asking the general question of the relation of theoretical entities and entities of ordinary experience. He admits that Modes of Being was biased toward Actuality (...) as that mode appropriate to the human knower, and suggests that there is a kind of Experience of the modes which is neutral and interlocking. But this is to raise the epistemological counterpart of the problem of hypostatizing the "togetherness" of the modes as a fifth mode. Weiss admits that this is unavoidable as long as the modes are really separated out in analysis, but that such a fifth mode reduces immediately to a point of insignificance since the modes immediately re-establish their interconnection and account for one another. Though the theory is not worked out in detail, and the suggestions are tentative and sometimes inconsistent, they do provide clues as to how the required theory could be provided.—W. G. E. (shrink)

Aristotle remarks in his Ethics that the insights of the elderly, who speak from the experience of a long and good life, are often more profound than the trained speculations of the philosophers. Mr. John Molloy has distilled from his eighty-three years of successful living some basic ground-rules for an integrated life. He calls his essay "a study of design in objective existence" and claims that the basic laws of human relations are simple, available for all to know and practice. (...) This short, epigrammatic essay is pervaded by the joy, grace and serenity of which its author speaks and to which he testifies.--W. G. E. (shrink)

This book is both extraordinarily useful and wonderfully beautiful. It provides a sympathetic and articulate account of the basic philosophical and religious theory of Hindu polytheism, an analysis of some of its fundamental concepts, a systematic ordering and explanation of the major deities with their various names and symbols, and a clear picture of the structure and development of Hindu thought. The Sanskrit texts are printed separately, and there is a set of fine black-and-white plates. I can't imagine a more (...) delightful, or more useful, basic reference work on the subject. The earlier French edition, published in 1960, differs in minor points and does not contain the very valuable index.—W. G. E. (shrink)