Our ability to deal with abstract concepts is one of the most intriguing faculties of human cognition. Still, we know little about how such concepts are formed, processed, and represented in mind. Current views are presented in their most recent and advanced form in this special issue, and directly compared and discussed in a lively debate, reported at the end of each chapter. The main results are reported in the editors’ introduction.

A review of the achievements of Fr. Busa over the course of his 60 years of work in the area of computational linguistics: internal hypertexts, the systematization of allographs, lemmatization, homographs and typologies; the lexical system; the laws of economy for graphemes, for semantic typology, for heterogeneity among terms, and of the two lexical hemispheres. Finally, the project of disciplined languages is mentioned, a response to the linguistic challenge resulting from informational globalization.

This article presents an exploratory analysis of the metaphoric structure of five artistic paintings within “Think aloud” protocols, in which a group of 14 English speakers with a low self-rated level of expertise in art and history of art expertise were asked to verbalize all their thoughts, ideas and impressions of the artworks. The main findings of this study can be summarized as follows: (1) multiple interpretations for the same artwork are possible, (2) the interpretations of the metaphorical structures described (...) by the participants often diverge from those advanced by the researchers. These findings challenge the methods by which metaphor identification and analysis in pictorials is currently approached. As a matter of fact, most of the research in pictorial metaphors tends to reduce stimuli such as artistic paintings to unique metaphoric interpretations generally produced by a single researcher by means of introspection. By addressing this methodological problem in metaphor research, this article contributes to the development of a theoretical and operational participant-based framework that takes into account the role of metaphoric conceptualization within the domain of art and art cognition. (shrink)

Words are not just labels for conceptual categories. Words construct conceptual categories, frame situations and influence behavior. Where do they get their meaning? This book describes how words acquire their meaning. The author argues that mechanisms based on associations, pattern detection, and feature matching processes explain how words acquire their meaning from experience and from language alike. Such mechanisms are summarized by the distributional hypothesis, a computational theory of meaning originally applied to word occurrences only, and hereby extended to extra-linguistic (...) contexts. By arguing in favor of the cognitive foundations of the distributional hypothesis, which suggests that words that appear in similar contexts have similar meaning, this book offers a theoretical account for word meaning construction and extension in first and second language that bridges empirical findings from cognitive and computer sciences. Plain language and illustrations accompany the text, making this book accessible to a multidisciplinary academic audience. (shrink)

Adorno and Horkheimer adoted the notion of the fetishism of commodities for the analysis of art and culture. Material, physical goods are not identical to symbolic ones. In spite of being predominant cultural industry can not be taken as the prototype of all analyses of culture. One can not reduce all cultural productives of the period of market economy to market products. The plurality of artistic and cultural practices present in countries like Brazil, does make questionable the indiscriminate use of (...) the Frankfurtian framework.Adorno e Horkheimer adotaram a noção de fetichismo da mercadoria para a análise da arte e da cultura. Bens materiais e físicos não são idênticos aos simbólicos. Apesar de dominante, a indústria cultural não pode ser tomada como protótipo de toda análise da cultura. Não se pode reduzir toda a produção cultural da época da economia de mercado a produtos de mercado. A pluralidade de práticas artísticas e culturais, à qual se assiste em países como o Brasil, torna problemático o uso indiscriminado do referencial frankfurtiano. (shrink)

This article is introduced with a summarized discussion on the "theater's metaphor" as considered by Plato. It goes on considering several turning points in the literature history and investigating the different uses of the metaphoric process in Guimarães Rosa "Grande sertão: veredas" and "Pirlimpsiquice". Firt of all, in "Grande sertão" life is considered as a simbolic equivalent to actors performance in the stage: theater and life are seen, therefore, as concerning fields which identities can be stated upon christian religious doctrine (...) and Plotino's philosophy. On the other hand, in "Pirlimpsiquice", Guimarães Rosa points that the limits between life and theater fields can be sharply identified, leading to the conclusion that the different degrees of use of the metaphoric process is due to historical and cultural practices. Based on the theoric controversy between Hegel's and Plato's points of view on art's philosophy, the author concludes that the notions of "performance in the stage" and "performance in life" are sintetized under the continuous dialectic movement of history and culture.Este artigo inicia-se com uma exposição sucinta da metáfora do teatro, tal como aparece em Platão. Em seguida, após levantamento dos momentos capitais da literatura, investiga-se a metáfora em Guimarães Rosa, no Grande sertão: veredas e no conto Pirlimpsiquice. No Grande sertão, a atuação no palco é tomada como equivalente ao desempenho na vida. Teatro e vida são, portanto, domínios que se identificam. Para isto, concorrem a religião cristã e o pensamento de Plotino. Em Pirlimpsiquice, o Autor investiga por menorizadamente os limites e aproximações entre teatro e vida, sendo que o grau mínimo da metáfora é conferido pelas práticas histórica e cultural. Por fim, retomando a polêmica de Hegel com o platonismo, conclui-se que a representação e a vida estão amalgamadas, numa constante dialetização entre história e cultura. (shrink)

The distinction between abstract and concrete concepts is fundamental to cognitive linguistics and cognitive science. This distinction is commonly operationalized through concreteness ratings based on the aggregated judgments of many people. What is often overlooked in experimental studies using this operationalization is that ratings are attributed to words, not to concepts directly. In this paper we explore the relationship between the linguistic properties of English words and conceptual abstractness/concreteness. Based on hypotheses stated in the existing linguistic literature we select a (...) set of variables and verify whether they are statistically associated with concreteness ratings. We show that English nouns are rated as more concrete compared to other parts of speech, but mass nouns are rated as less concrete than count nouns. Furthermore, a more complex morphological structure is associated with abstractness, and as for etymology, French- and Latin-derived words are more abstract than words of other origin. This shows that linguistic properties of words are indeed associated with the degree of concreteness that we attribute to the underlying concepts, and we discuss the implications that these findings have for linguistic theory and for empirical investigations in the cognitive sciences. (shrink)

Metaphors can provide a conceptual framework for understanding complex topics and as such, they have frequently been used in COVID-19 discourse. As previous research indicates that conceptual metaphors can influence how people reason about complex topics, the metaphors used to communicate about the pandemic can influence how it is understood and how people respond. This paper investigates the influence of metaphorical framing on emotions and reasoning. An experimental study compares BATTLE and JOURNEY metaphor frames in a hypothetical text (adapted from (...) previous studies) about the pandemic. Our aim is to examine the influence of these frames on readers’ affective state, inferences about the attitudes of others and suggestions to stop the virus from spreading. The results suggest that compared to JOURNEY metaphors, BATTLE metaphors can negatively influence affective state and may influence people to suggest more restrictive solutions to reduce the spread of the virus. Yet, metaphors were not found to influence reasoning about the attitudes of others. We interpret these results in relation to previous studies, suggesting that metaphors may influence emotions and reasoning in some ways only. The results have implications for public communication surrounding the pandemic. Limitations and avenues for future research are discussed. (shrink)

What is the relation between the three following elements: words, pictures, and conceptual representations? And how do these three elements work, in defining and explaining metaphors? These are the questions that we tackle in our interdisciplinary contribution, which moves across cognitive linguistics, cognitive sciences, philosophy and semiotics. Within the cognitive linguistic tradition, scholars have assumed that there are equivalent and comparable structures characterizing the way in which metaphor works in language and in pictures. In this paper we analyze contextual visual (...) metaphors, which are considered to be the most complex ones, and we compare them to those that in language are called indirect metaphors. Our proposal is that a syllogistic mechanism of comprehension permeates both metaphors expressed in the verbal modality as well as metaphors expressed in the pictorial modality. While in the verbal modality the metaphoric syllogism is solved by inference, we argue that in the pictorial modality the role of inference is performed through mental imagery. (shrink)

A concepção teatral de Brecht não é radicalmente oposta à de Aristóteles. A estética brechtiana, em muitos aspectos, é herdeira das idéias de Aristóteles. O teatro épico proposto por Brecht tem em seu horizonte de combate o teatro de matriz naturalista e o drama psicológico. Mimese e catarse não significam identificação do público com a cena e com o herói.

A matéria-prima do espetáculo de circo é o corpo do artista, ora sublime, ora grotesco. O corpo sublime, no chão ou nas alturas, desafia, em forma de espetáculo, as leis naturais. No momento seguinte, o espetáculo é “interrompido” e o público é acometido pela descontração e pelo grotesco dos palhaços. O espetáculo circense, assim, se desloca, com facilidade e maestria, entre o riso e a morte.

Plato has a negative vision of art and of the tragedy. The "irrationality" of the artistic practice is in the base of that denial. His vision is contrary to the perspectivism humanist of Eurípede and of the sophists. In the renaissance philosophy the subject observer presuppose the multiple and the infinite. The perspectivism is in the base of that orientation and Shakespeare is the best artistic expression of that presupposition defended in the philosophy by Giordano Bruno.Platão tem uma visão negativa (...) da arte e da tragédia. A "irracionalidade" da prática artística está na base dessa negação. Sua visão é contrária ao perspectivismo humanista de Eurípedes e dos sofistas. Na filosofia renascentista, o sujeito observador pressupõe o múltiplo e o infinito. O perspectivismo está na base dessa orientação e Shakespeare é a melhor expressão artística desse pressuposto defendido na filosofia por Giordano Bruno. (shrink)

The Bertold Brecht's conception of the theater is not radically opposed to that of Aristotle. Brechtian aesthetics is, in many aspects, heiress of Aristotle's ideas. The epic theater proposed by Brecht opposes naturalistic theater and psychological drama. Mimesis and catharsis don't mean the identification of the public with the scene and the hero.A concepção teatral de Brecht não é radicalmente oposta à de Aristóteles. A estética brechtiana, em muitos aspectos, é herdeira das idéias de Aristóteles. O teatro épico proposto por (...) Brecht tem em seu horizonte de combate o teatro de matriz naturalista e o drama psicológico. Mimese e catarse não significam identificação do público com a cena e com o herói. (shrink)

Platão tem uma visão negativa da arte e da tragédia. A “irracionalidade” da prática artística está na base dessa negação. Sua visão é contrária ao perspectivismo humanista de Eurípedes e dos sofistas. Na filosofia renascentista, o sujeito observador (temporal e racional) pressupõe o múltiplo e o infinito. O perspectivismo está na base dessa orientação e Shakespeare é a melhor expressão artística desse pressuposto defendido na filosofia por Giordano Bruno.

Concreteness ratings are frequently used in a variety of disciplines to operationalize differences between concrete and abstract words and concepts. However, most ratings studies present items in isolation, thereby overlooking the potential polysemy of words. Consequently, ratings for polysemous words may be conflated, causing a threat to the validity of concreteness‐ratings studies. This is particularly relevant to metaphorical words, which typically describe something abstract in terms of something more concrete. To investigate whether perceived concreteness ratings differ for metaphorical versus non‐metaphorical (...) word meanings, we obtained concreteness ratings for 96 English nouns from 230 participants. Results show that nouns are perceived as less concrete when a metaphorical (versus non‐metaphorical) meaning is triggered. We thus recommend taking metaphoricity into account in future concreteness‐ratings studies to further improve the quality and reliability of such studies, as well as the consistency of the empirical studies that rely on these ratings. (shrink)

Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially fatal infectious disease that, in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ), inequitably affects Asian, Pacific, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African (MELAA), and Māori people. Medical research involving genome sequencing of TB samples enables more nuanced understanding of disease strains and their transmission. This could inform highly specific health interventions. However, the collection and management of TB isolate samples for research are currently informed by monocultural biomedical models often lacking key ethical considerations. Drawing on a qualitative kaupapa (...) Māori–consistent study, this paper reports on preliminary discussions with groups of Māori, Pacific, and Afghan people in NZ, whose communities have been harmed by TB and TB stigma. Participants’ discussions highlight key concerns and meanings that ought to inform the development of guidelines and a more robust consultative process for the governance of how TB isolate samples are collected and used both retrospectively and in future research. We argue for ethical processes to be culturally nuanced and community-generated, flexible and meaningful, and situated in relation to the physical and symbolic effects of TB. We discuss the significance of Indigenous data sovereignty, rights, and kāwanatanga (governorship) in shaping a multicultural data sovereignty model. (shrink)

The study of defeasible reasoning unites epistemologists with those working in AI, in part, because both are interested in epistemic rationality. While it is traditionally thought to govern the formation and (with)holding of beliefs, epistemic rationality may also apply to the interrogative attitudes associated with our core epistemic practice of inquiry, such as wondering, investigating, and curiosity. Since generally intelligent systems should be capable of rational inquiry, AI researchers have a natural interest in the norms that govern interrogative attitudes. Following (...) its recent coinage, we use the term ``zetetic'' to refer to the properties and norms associated with the capacity to inquire. In this paper, we argue that zetetic norms can be modeled via defeasible inferences to and from questions---a.k.a erotetic inferences---in a manner similar to the way norms of epistemic rationality are represented by defeasible inference rules. We offer a sequent calculus that accommodates the unique features of ``erotetic defeat" and that exhibits the computational properties needed to inform the design of zetetic agents. The calculus presented here is an improved version of the one presented in Millson (2019), extended to cover a new class of defeasible erotetic inferences. (shrink)

Sexual violence against women is an issue of urgency that arises in all cultures locally, nationally, globally and transnationally. This problem has broad dimensions in both the public and private domains, both cases that are reported or not reported to law enforcement. Factually, the trend of this problem has been identified as increasing every year in Maluku, Indonesia. Therefore, the church requires serious attention to prevention and systematic treatment to overcome it. This sensitivity and awareness are a manifestation of the (...) church’s sense of calling and responsibility for the restoration of human dignity. The pastoral sermon service model is the church’s strategic approach to handling this problem. This research aimed to develop a model of pastoral sermons for victims of sexual violence against women in Maluku. This research focused on identifying and exploring the tragic experiences and impacts of sexual violence against women. Furthermore, a cross-cultural pastoral model was created for victims of violence.Contribution: This article provided a new perspective from the post-modern homiletics to approach social issues. This new homiletical approach to dealing with the problem of women’s sexual violence is one of the main focuses of ‘Women’s Theological Studies’ in HTS. (shrink)

The concept of instantiation is realized differently across a variety of metaphysical theories. A certain realization of the concept in a given theory depends on what roles are specified and associated with the concept and its corresponding term as well as what entities are suited to fill those roles. In this paper, the classic realization of the concept of instantiation in a one-category ontology of abstract particulars or tropes is articulated in a novel way and defended against unaddressed objections.

Written not by a journalist or politician but rather by a theology professor with a Ph.D. in New Testament studies, Voting by the Bible: The Economic and Foreign Policy Issues begins with the assumption that God intended the Bible to give guidance to every area of life£including how governments should function. Derived from author Wayne Grudemþs magisterial Politics£According to the Bible, this book highlights those economic and foreign-policy issues that have dominated political debate recently. Throughout, author Wayne Grudem supports political (...) positions that would be called more 'conservative' than 'liberal.' However, 'it is important to understand that I see these positions as flowing out of the Bible's teachings rather than positions I hold prior to, or independently of, those biblical teachings,' he writes. 'My primary purpose in the book is not to be liberally or conservative, or Democrat or Republican, but to explain a biblical worldview and a biblical perspective on issues of politics, law, and government.' Concise yet carefully argued, this book is a must-read for any Christian concerned about current debates over the economy, the size and role of government, and the best way forward out of the current recession. Not every reader will agree with the book's conclusions. But by grounding his analysis deeply on Scripture, Grudem has equipped Christians to better understand and respond to some of today's key political debates wisely and in a manner consistent with their primary citizenship as members and ambassadors of the kingdom of God" -- Publisher description. (shrink)

A promise to do some action seems to create a binding obligation to do that action. And yet, paradoxically, an obligation seems not to be a fact that we can create or bring into existence; we can create an obligation only by creating or bringing into existence something else. The only way to avoid the paradox is to show that the act of promising creates something other than an obligation, which nonetheless binds us to perform the action in question. After (...) considering and rejecting various options such as the promisee's expectation and the promisor's resolve, Prichard locates the bindingness of a promise in a prior general promise, which allows the noises we make when promising to generate an obligation to perform the promised action. (shrink)

Philosophy; philosophical theology; philosophical anthropology; history.

Critical edition of a classical commentary on Śābdanirṇaya of Prakāśātma Muni on Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

Classical work, with exhaustive Hindi commentary, on Mimamsa philosophy.

Comprehensive work on the fundamentals of Jaina philosophy.

Festschrift in honor of 60th birthday of Āgamānaṅdasvāmikaḷ, 1896-1961; collection of his speeches and writings on Vedanta and other aspects of Hindu philosophy.