Worldwide, church membership is decreasing. A decline in the number of young adults that attend church services is also evident. The purpose of the research was to determine whether the application of a well-established body of knowledge of marketing theories and principles could be used by churches to encourage young adults to return to the church. The application of services marketing to the church as a non-profit organisation is discussed by focussing on non-physical and physical atmospheric cues in the church's (...) servicescape that could enhance church attendance. A quantitative approach was used by testing the opinions of 200 church service attendees of different denominations. The findings indicated that certain elements in the servicescape of a church may be useful in attracting young adults. It was found that music is a strong determinant of whether young adults attend church services, followed by layout and design of the church and then by the signs and symbols used in the church. Females reported significantly higher levels of positive perceptions concerning the layout and design. Although the research showed that some marketing elements, such as a positive servicescape, could improve church attendance, other personal elements such as forming personal relationships with fellow Christians and God need to be further explored. (shrink)

Arien Mack and Irvin Rock make the radical claim that there is no conscious perception of the visual world without attention to it.

ABSTRACT This article reconstructs Agamben’s contribution to the secularization debate. To this aim it clarifies Agamben’s determination of the category of secularization as a signature. It first presents the relevant passages on secularization from across Agamben’s corpus, placing them in the context of the classic secularization debate between Blumenberg, Schmitt and Löwith. Second, it elaborates on Agamben’s theory of the signature. Third, it proposes how we can understand secularization as a signature. Fourth, it examines the different strategic functions of secularization (...) and profanation in Agamben’s critical philosophy. The article argues that Agamben’s account of secularization comprises two distinct levels. Agamben develops a general theory of secularization as a signature, which implies that it is an operator that orients hermeneutic understanding by referring secular elements to the discursive field of religion and theology, and that always performs a strategic function. To what strategic function Agamben puts secularization to use himself, corresponds to the second, particular level of Agamben’s understanding of secularization. Secularization is in Agamben’s critical project subservient to the operation of profanation. The article is in light of the secularization debate most concerned with the general level of Agamben’s account of secularization. (shrink)

It is often claimed that Hegel's philosophy cannot accept that something would remain beyond the grasp of conceptual language, and that his thought therefore systematically represses the possibility that something cannot be said. By analysing Hegel's account of the ineffable in the ‘Sense-Certainty’ chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit, this article argues that Hegel does not repress, but firmly confronts the problem of what cannot be said. With the help of Giorgio Agamben's linguistic interpretation, it is shown that Hegel's conception (...) of the ineffable must be understood from the perspective of his dialectical understanding of language. What appears to be ineffable is only the constitutive result of the dialectical negation that conceptual discourse enacts. Consequently, the ineffable in Hegel's thought cannot be said to remain external to and independent from conceptual language. (shrink)

This article responds to Nicholas Adams by exploring the affinities between his account and Hegel, with a particular focus on the dialectic of articulation. They seem to agree on the undermining effect of articulation and reflection on implicit commitments. However, Adams diverges from Hegel by questioning the consequence and supposed inevitability of this dialectical process. Whereas Hegel argues for the desirability of conscious articulation in the progress towards modernity, Adams contends that it is actually a destructive and oppressive process, challenging (...) Hegel’s Enlightenment optimism and Eurocentrism. Still, I suggest that Hegel’s concern for rational dialogue as an indispensable condition for modern life and community should be taken seriously. Scriptural reasoning, as discussed by Adams, provides a model how we can have a form of rational dialogue that escapes from the dilemma posed by the Hegelian dialectic, and that it may be possible to combine strong ethical commitments with an openness to pluralistic dialogue. (shrink)

This Special Issue questions a basic assumption in thinking about morality: the idea that the explicit articulation of moral commitments that usually remain implicit is the basis par excellence for dialogue and rapprochement between people of opposing views. Nicholas Adams shows in the main article of this Special Issue that there is a paradox behind this assumption concerning ethics itself: articulating moral commitments may end up undermining them. It inherently stands in tension with forms of life as people actually inhabit (...) them. Adams associates this basic paradox of ethics with the problem of forced articulation in particular discursive regimes, such as interreligious dialogue. The practice of Scriptural Reasoning is introduced as an alternative mode of dialogue that is less vulnerable to the distortions of articulation. The five response articles (by Petruschka Schaafsma, Ariën Voogt, Rob Compaijen, Dominique Gosewisch, and Sophia Höff) address aspects of Adams’ challenge to articulation in relation to morality, rather than the setting of interreligious engagement. They point out the value of articulation in spite of its inherent imperfection, or constructively elaborate on how to deal with the paradox of ethics as analyzed by Adams. Finally, Adams responds by addressing the concerns of these replies. (shrink)

Ancient philosophy is often distinguished from modern philosophy regarding its affinity to spirituality. In antiquity, philosophy meant a way of life rather than a body of knowledge. Yet according to Michel Foucault, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit constitutes an important exception to modern philosophy’s break with spirituality, as it integrates structures of spirituality into modern forms and ideals of philosophy. This article builds on Foucault’s analysis by revealing the structures of spirituality that are present within the Phenomenology of Spirit. It argues (...) that in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit the exercise of reason is itself understood as a spiritual exercise. The case of Hegel shows that modern philosophy is not as a whole opposed to the conception of philosophy as a way of life but contains strands that are in line with the ancient tradition. (shrink)

In a series of three experiments, we explored the nature of implicit representations in change blindness . Using 3 × 3 letter arrays, we asked subjects to locate changes in paired arrays separated by 80 ms ISIs, in which one, two or three letters of a row in the second array changed. In one testing version, a tone followed the second array, signaling a row for partial report . In the other version, no PR was required. After Ss reported whether (...) a change had been detected and the PR had been completed , they were asked to identify a degraded letter trigram that was either novel, or from a previously shown row . Our findings indicate that when CB occurs, both the pre-change and post-change stimulus information primes despite its unavailability to consciousness. Surprisingly, findings also indicate that when change detection occurs only the post-change information primes. (shrink)

Attention is necessary for the conscious perception of any object. Objects not attended to are not seen. What is it that captures attention when we are engaged in some attention-absorbing task? Earlier research has shown that there are only a very few stimuli which have this power and therefore are reliably detected under these conditions . The two most reliable are the observer’s own name and a happy face icon which seem to capture attention by virtue of their meaning. Three (...) experiments are described which explore whether these stimuli are detected under conditions, heretofore unexamined, which either cause inattentional blindness or are associated with a perceptual failure associated with the limits of attention. The evidence obtained indicates that these stimuli have a unique capacity to capture and extend the limits of attention under conditions in which this has been deemed highly unlikely. (shrink)

The question of whether the visual world is a grand illusion is addressed and answered negatively. The question only arises because of the recent work on Inattentional Blindness , Change Blindness and the Attentional Blink which establishes that attention is necessary for perception. It is argued that IB occurs only when attention is narrowly focussed and not when attention is more broadly distributed, which is the more typical attentional state. Under conditions of distributed attention we are likely to have a (...) fuller, if less detailed, impression of the visual scene, which may be why we are so surprised by demonstrations of IB, AB and CB. It is also argued that the question about the possible illusory quality of our perceptual world cannot be avoided by denying that inattention causes blindness and asserting instead that it causes amnesia. This argument is grounded on the similarity between these phenomena and visual neglect and by evidence that priming by the unseen stimuli occurs in each case indicating that the stimuli to which we are functionally blind are processed and represented in implicit memory. The adaptive utility of this information is discussed. (shrink)

The orthogenetic development of some characteristic features during the evolution of the Hominidae has been pointed out. Especially brain- and skull development have been dwelt on . A parallel has been drawn with the orthogenetic development of some characteristic features during the evolution of the Equidae. It appears that during human evolution early-ontogenetic features come more and more to the front whereas during the evolution of Horses these characters are more and more pushed back in ontogeny. By this, human evolution, (...) at least as concerns the orthogenetically developing features which happen to be very characteristic of the organisation of Man, shows a generalising developmental tendency whereas that of Horses shows on the whole a specialising tendency.Some modes in which early-ontogenetic characters can be present in the adult stages are dealt with such asBolk's theory of retardation andSchindewolf's theory of proterogenesis which are considered not to differ very much in essentials. Also the principle of development along a roundabout way is mentioned in this connection and some examples are given.A better understanding of orthogenetic evolution and of the differences existing between that of the Hominidae and that of the Equidae is found in the principle of heterochronic development, the change of developmental intensity and the rate of growth of features in the ontogenies of allied forms. This is illustrated by the two diagrams of Fig. 2. Here we also established connection with the science of genetics which can explain experimentally the heterochronous shifting of features in compared ontogenies by difference in rate of action and quantitative action value of genes or sets of genes.Il est démontré que le développement phylogénétique de certains caractères morphologiques chez les Hominides est orthogénétique. Principalement le développement du cerveau et du crâne est discuté dans cette connection. Comparativement le développement orthogénétique de certains caractères pendant la phylogénie des Equides est traité. Il résulte que pendant l'évolution humaine des caractères fetaux se misent progressivement en premier plan dans les ontogénèses pendant que ceux dans la phylogénie des Equides se misent de plus en plus en arrière-plan ontogénétiquement. Dans cette manière l'évolution humaine montre, aux moins relative aux caractères orthogénétiques, qui sont exactement très caractéristiques pour l'organisation de l'Homme, une tendence généralisante de développement, celle des Equides au contraire une tendence spécialisante.Quelques possibilités avec lesquelles des caractères fetaux peuvent paraître dans la phase adulte sont discutées comme la théorie de retardation deBolk et la théorie de développement proterogénétique deSchindewolf. Celles-ci sont regardées comme principalement pas différentes. Aussi le principe de développement selon un détour est nommé dans cette connection et quelques exemples en sont donnés.Le principe du développement hétérochronique, le changement de l'intensité et de la vitesse du développement chez des caractères des formes alliés, nous donne un meilleur notion de l'évolution orthogénétique et de la différence, cité ci-dessus, entre la phylogénie humaine et celle des Equides. Ceci est démontré détaillé avec des exemples à l'aide des deux diagrammes de Fig. 2. Dans, cette façon une connection est mise avec la science génétique, qui peut expliquer expérimentalement le développement hétérochronique des caractères morphologiques dans des ontogénèses comparables par des différences dans la vitesse d'action et dans la réalisation quantitative des gènes.Es wird gezeigt wie die phylogenetische Entwicklung einiger charakteristischen Merkmale bei den Hominiden orthogenetisch verläuft. Vor allem werden Gehirn- und Schädelentwicklung in dieser Weise betrachtet. Vergleichenderweise wird die orthogenetische Entwicklung von einigen charakteristischen Merkmalen während der Phylogenie der Equidae besprochen. Es ergibt sich, dass während der menschlichen Evolution früh-ontogenetische Merkmale immer mehr in den Vordergrund treten während solche in der Phylogenie der Equiden immer mehr zurück treten in der Ontogenie. In dieser Weise zeigt sich die menschliche Evolution, wenigstens was den sich orthogenetisch entwickelnden Merkmalen anbelangt, welche gerade sehr charakteristisch für die Organisation des Menschen sind, eine verallgemeinerende Entwicklungstendenz, die der Equidae dagegen eine spezialisierende.Einige Möglichkeiten durch welche früh-ontogenetische Merkmale im erwachsenen Zustand auftreten können werden besprochen, so die Retardationstheorie vonBolk und die Proterogenesistheorie vonSchindewolf. Diese werden als nicht grundverschieden betrachtet. Auch das Prinzip der umwegigen Entwicklung vonNauck wird in diesem Zusammenhang genannt und einige Beispiele gegeben.Das Prinzip der heterochronischen Entwicklung, die Abänderung der Entwicklungsintensität und der Wachstumsgeschwindigkeit bei Merkmalen von verwandten Formen bietet uns einen besseren Begriff von der orthogenetischen Evolution und von dem oben angeführten Unterschied zwischen der menschlichen Phylogenie und der der Equidae. Dies wird näher ausgeführt und mit Beispielen belegt mit Hilfe der beiden Diagramme von Fig. 2. In dieser Weise wird auch eine Verbindung hergestellt mit der genetischen Wissenschaft, die in experimenteller Weise im Stande ist die heterochrone Verschiebung von Merkmalseigenschaften in vergleichbaren Ontogenesen durch Unterschiede in der Geschwindigkeit der Wirkung und in dem quantitativen Verwirklichungswert der Gene zu erklären. (shrink)

There is a traditional scepticism about whether the world "out there" really is as we perceive it. A new breed of hyper-sceptics now challenges whether we even have the perceptual experience we think we have. According to these writers, perceptual consciousness is a kind of false consciousness. This view grows out of the discovery of such phenomena as change blindness and inattentional blindness, which show that we can all be quite blind to changes taking place before our very eyes. Such (...) radical scepticism has acute and widespread implications for the study of perception and consciousness. The writings collected in this volume explore these implications. The contributors are scientists and philosophers at the forefront of this research, and include well-known authors such as psychologists Susan Blackmore and Arien Mack, and philosophers Andy Clark and Daniel Dennett. They have an gift for bringing these paradoxical issues to life and sharing their excitement with the non-specialist. (shrink)

I am grateful for the five thoughtful and generous responses by Petruschka Schaafsma, Ariën Voogt, Sophia Höff, Dominique Gosewisch, and Rob Compaijen. I propose to summarise their responses and to...

La thèse de l'article est que Constantin aurait invité les évêques à Nicée pour fêter son jubilé. L'arianisme ne pouvait en être la raison, car à la fin de 324 l'empereur le considérait une chose de peu d'importance, même si scandaleuse. En tant que Pontifex Maximus, il était aussi responsable pour établir le calendrier des fêtes de la nouvelle religion et était tenu de conserver les formules sacrées. Les chrétiens n'avaient pas réussi jusqu'alors à se mettre d'accord sur la date (...) de la Pâque; Constantin voulait donc la faire établir. Il semble en fait que lui seul désirait un symbole de foi signé par tous; jusqu'alors chaque église locale avait le sien propre. Pour établir la date de la Pâque, garantir la paix dans l'Eglise et produire un credo, Constantin envoya son conseiller ecclésiastique, Ossio di Cordova, en mission en Orient. Celui-ci échoua et le credo formulé à Antioche était si radicalement anti-arien qu'il devait paraître assez monarchien, vu qu'à Nicée il n'en fut pas question. A Nicée, donc, les évêques, avant de célébrer le jubilé, durent solutionner toutes ces questions. Le credo établi s'y est présenté comme un compromis assez artificiel entre les tendances antiochiennes et alexandrines. Comme tel malgré la signature de l'empereur, il ne fut accepté par aucune eglise locale. Celles-çi continuèrent pendant des décennies à formuler de nouveaux symboles, jusqu'à ce que Athanase d'Alexandrie commenca à oeuvrer po. (shrink)

L'âpreté des débats qui eurent lieu, notamment en Cappadoce entre 360 et 378, en pleine crise arienne, autour de la nature et de la personne du Saint-Esprit, ainsi que la diversité des opinions à l'intérieur même des camps opposés sur cette question, rendent délicate l'identification exacte des adversaires combattus par Basile de Césarée en 375 dans son traité Sur le Saint-Esprit, l'un des premiers du genre, d'autant plus que lui-même trouva des contradicteurs dans les rangs de ses propres amis. Dédié (...) à son disciple Amphiloque d'Iconium, le traité vise essentiellement, au-delà d'Aèce, son compatriote Eunome, toujours vivant et virulent, que Basile avait déjà combattu vers 360-363, le théoricien arien radical de la « dissemblance » et de la « subordination » de l'Esprit au Fils et au Père, manifestement visé ici par le vocabulaire de la « connumération » et de la « coordination ». La critique contemporaine avait pensé que le principal adversaire de Basile serait son ancien maître en ascétisme Eustathe évêque de Sébaste, qui tenait sur l'Esprit une doctrine ambiguë, ne voulant le ranger « ni avec Dieu ni avec les créatures ». Sans l'exclure du nombre des adversaires, le vocabulaire et l'argumentation du traité, sans rapport avec ceux de la Lettre 125 de Basile à Eustathe, obligent à abandonner cette interprétation pour rendre la priorité à Eunome. The acrimonious debates that took place concerning the nature and person of the Holy Spirit, especialy during the Arian crisis in Cappadocia from 360 to 378, as well as the diversity of opinions within the opposing camps, makes it difficult to identify the adversaries of Basil of Caesarea in his treatise On the Holy Spirit , unique for his time. The problem is even greater because Basil found himself at odds with his own friends. Dedicated to his disciple Amphilocus of Iconium, the treatise was aimed, essentially, beyond Aëtios, at his virulent compatriot Eunomius. Basil had already engaged him around 360-363. A radical Arian theoretician of the “dissemblance” and of “subordination” of the Spirit to the Son and Father, Eunomius was clearly targeted by the vocabulary of the “connumeration” and “coordination”. Contemporary criticism thought that the principal adversary of Basil could have been his old master in asceticism, Eustathius , who held an ambiguous doctrine about the Spirit, not wishing to place it “either with God or with creatures”. Without excluding him from the number of adversaries, the vocabulary and argumentation of the treatise, which are unconnected to those of Basil's Letter 125 to Eustathius, oblige us to abandon this interpretation and give priority to Eunomius. (shrink)

L'Encomium copte sur saint Ménas fait partie de ces sources hagiographiques négligées et pourtant capitales lorsqu'il s'agit de reconstituer une étape de l'histoire religieuse de la région. Cet Encomium, attribué à Jean évêque d'Alexandrie, contient un récit des diverses étapes de la construction du grand sanctuaire de saint Ménas dans la région du lac Maréotis en Egypte. Ce récit éclaire la lutte entre les factions religieuses orthodoxe et arienne vers le milieu du IVe siècle. Il semble que c'est Lucius, l'évêque (...) arien d'Alexandrie, qui a consacré la basilique de Ménas. (shrink)

Article Patristique -- Patristique latine -- Article Littérature latine chrétienne -- De lectis non lecta componere (Marius Victorinus, Adversus Arium II 7) : raisonnement théologique et raisonnement juridique -- Comptes rendus des conférences données à l'École Pratique des Hautes Études de 1964 à 1980 -- L'entretien d'Origène avec Héraclide et le commentaire de Saint Ambroise sur l'Évangile de Saint Luc -- Une source de l'Apologia David d'Ambroise : les commentaires de Didyme et d'Origène sur le psaume 50 -- Citations de (...) Porphyre chez Augustin : a propos d'un ouvrage récent -- La présentation du Platonisme par Augustin -- L'image de la Trinité dans l'âme chez Victorinus et chez saint Augustin -- Quelques thèmes fondamentaux des Confessions de saint Augustin -- Un fragment du commentaire perdu de Boèce sur les Catégories d'Aristote dans le Codex bernensis 363 -- Typus, stoïcisme et monarchianisme au IVe siècle d'après Candide l'Arien et Marius Victorinus -- Cancellatus respectus : l'usage du chiasme en logique -- La notion d'infini chez saint Augustin -- De Tertullien à Boèce : développement de la notion de personne dans les controverses théologiques. (shrink)

The author analyses the design of her collaborative animation about inattention blindness, the phenomenon of not being able to see things that are actually there, and compares it to related scientific research.1 The term was coined by Arien Mack and Irvin Rock in 1992. Stealing Attention, co-created by the author and neuroscientist Michael E. Goldberg, Director of the Mahoney Center for Brain and Behavior at Columbia University, explored inattention blindness. Animated images of hands playing the con game Three-Card Monte (...) were superimposed over images of antiquities stolen from Iraq. The flashing cards, yellow circles and stated instructions distracted the viewer from seeing the images of stolen antiquities, which disappeared from depicted shelves one by one over the time span of approximately three minutes. The author considers five questions: What is perceived without attention What does attention select Under what circumstances can attention be shifted Is an observer trained in art less likely to be distracted Can attention be trained. (shrink)

Summary While historians have dealt with the origins of the concept of drug receptors in the work of Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) and John N. Langley (1852–1925) as well as with some of its applications in modern pharmaceutical research, the history of the receptor theory as such has been neglected. Discussing major developments and conceptual changes in receptor theory between about 1910 and 1960 (including relevant contributions by A. V. Hill, A. J. Clark, J. H. Gaddum, E. J. Ariëns and others), (...) this paper attempts to fill this gap in historiography. It provides a case study of the unfolding of research under a new paradigm, but it considers also contemporary criticism and scepticism. By the early 1960s, quantitative investigations of drug action and interpretations of the experimental findings in terms of the receptor concept had become constitutive of the emerging field of ‘molecular pharmacology’. Even then, however, receptors were still hypothetical entities. (shrink)