BackgroundThe positive component of Mental Health Literacy refers to a person’s awareness of how to achieve and maintain good mental health. Although explored recently, the term still lacks a clear definition among healthcare practitioners.AimTo identify the attributes and characteristics of PMeHL, as well as its theoretical and practical applications.MethodsLiterature search and review, covering the last 21 years, followed by concept analysis according to the steps described by Walker and Avant approach.ResultsPositive component of Mental Health Literacy is considered one component of (...) MHL, integrating positive mental health. The concept’s attributes include: competence in problem-solving and self-actualization; personal satisfaction; autonomy; relatedness and interpersonal relationship skills; self-control; and prosocial attitude. Four case scenarios were used to clarify the antecedents and consequences of PMeHL.ConclusionPositive component of Mental Health Literacy is considered a component of MHL, which deserves attention throughout the lifespan, in different contexts and intervention levels. Considering PMeHL as a multi-faceted and dynamic construct will help understand the mechanisms that improve mental health and promote healthy behaviors. Priority should be given to robust primary research focused on nursing interventions that enhance and sustain PMeHL in people and families. (shrink)

The paper critically examines C.A.J. Coady's analysis of testimony, concentrating on his interpretation of the views of David Hume. The author tries to show that not only is Coady's interpretation of Hume inadequate, but that Hume's conception of testimony is in fact superior to that of Coady. Coady sees Hume as the originator of the individualistic, first-person, view of testimony, according to which the reports of other people must be confirmed on the basis of an individualistically interpreted perception. Coady argues (...) against the first-person view that it undermines the very possibility of communication. Drawing on the ideas of Davidson and Wittgenstein, he argues that a good many beliefs must be true for the communication to be possible. The author provides evidence that Hume was a third-person theorist himself, even if he did not think that the truth of the majority of beliefs must be presupposed. Moreover, Wittgenstein and perhaps Davidson are also Humean in their belief that it suffices for beliefs to be generally correct rather than true. (shrink)

The paper investigates the propriety of applying the form versus matter distinction to arguments and to logic in general. Its main point is that many of the currently pervasive views on form and matter with respect to logic rest on several substantive and even contentious assumptions which are nevertheless uncritically accepted. Indeed, many of the issues raised by the application of this distinction to arguments seem to be related to a questionable combination of different presuppositions and expectations; this holds in (...) particular of the vexed issue of demarcating the class of logical constants. I begin with a characterization of currently widespread views on form and matter in logic, which I refer to as 'logical hylomorphism as we know it'—LHAWKI, for short—and argue that the hylomorphism underlying LHAWKI is mereological. Next, I sketch an overview of the historical developments leading from Aristotelian, non-mereological metaphysical hylomorphism to mereological logical hylomorphism (LHAWKI). I conclude with a reassessment of the prospects for the combination of hylomorphism and logic, arguing in particular that LHAWKI is not the only and certainly not the most suitable version of logical hylomorphism. In particular, this implies that the project of demarcating the class of logical constants as a means to define the scope and nature of logic rests on highly problematic assumptions. (shrink)

We present a theoretical view of the cellular foundations for network-level processes involved in producing our conscious experience. Inputs to apical synapses in layer 1 of a large subset of neocortical cells are summed at an integration zone near the top of their apical trunk. These inputs come from diverse sources and provide a context within which the transmission of information abstracted from sensory input to their basal and perisomatic synapses can be amplified when relevant. We argue that apical amplification (...) enables conscious perceptual experience and makes it more flexible, and thus more adaptive, by being sensitive to context. Apical amplification provides a possible mechanism for recurrent processing theory that avoids strong loops. It makes the broadcasting hypothesized by global neuronal workspace theories feasible while preserving the distinct contributions of the individual cells receiving the broadcast. It also provides mechanisms that contribute to the holistic aspects of integrated information theory. As apical amplification is highly dependent on cholinergic, aminergic, and other neuromodulators, it relates the specific contents of conscious experience to global mental states and to fluctuations in arousal when awake. We conclude that apical dendrites provide a cellular mechanism for the context-sensitive selective amplification that is a cardinal prerequisite of conscious perception. (shrink)

[Darwinian Metaethics] A critical analysis of the recent theories of metaethics that take the Darwinian picture of our origin seriously. The contents: 1. Evolution of altruism; 2. Biology in ethics; 3. Moore and a critique of naturalism; 4. Darwinian non-cognitivism; 5. Darwinian cognitivist realism and constructivism; 6. Darwinian cognitivist anti-realism; 7. Darwinian fictionalism.

Em 1911, Henri Bergson proferiu na Universidade de Oxford conferências em que associa sua visão das ciências ao pensamento grego. Com base nessa comparação, trata-se de reconstituir sua análise das ciências e da metafísica desde os cursos que ele ofereceu na juventude sobre a filosofia grega. Consideramos que eles explicitam tanto seu vínculo com a tradição filosófica quanto a radicalidade do seu pensamento, sobretudo nas conclusões metafísicas de A evolução criadora. Nesse percurso, pretendemos distinguir a física e a matemática da (...) psicologia e da biologia; reconstituir as diferenças que ele identifica entre escolas gregas; cotejar postulados do pensamento antigo com os do pensamento moderno; e demonstrar com quais aspectos dessas referências a filosofia bergsoniana possui maiores afinidades. Não se trata de reduzir seu pensamento à filosofia dos antigos, mas demonstrar como essa interlocução é especialmente profícua em sua análise das ciências e da metafísica. (shrink)

This article seeks to present the foundations in Foucault’s thought that led him to elaborate the concept of archeology and, in addition, try to recognize its limits. To achieve this, we present his main theoretical dialogues at the beginning of his investigations and the reasons that made necessary to reframe that concept later. Among the conclusions of this study, we suggest that the allegorical conception of language, that was sustained over the period, is formally similar to the structure of metaphysical (...) thought and, as such, is abandoned by Foucault as an attempt to create an original philosophical reflection. (shrink)

resumo: Este trabalho investiga os laços entre a técnica, a metafísica e o totalitarismo, com base nos pensamentos de Heidegger e Arendt. Além disso, propõe que tais análises sugerem que a filosofia e a história pertencem a um enredo trágico fundamental. Para tanto, de início pesquisamos em que medida o ambivalente sentido de esgotamento e salvação, presente em diversas abordagens da técnica, implica a produção de prognósticos e uma reflexão teleológica. Investigamos se estes são elementos que, no século XX, serviram (...) de artifício para a legitimação da barbárie em movimentos totalitários e se permanecem necessariamente intrínsecos a toda visão da técnica. A abordagem de Heidegger, em alternativa, volta-se às origens da metafísica, onde residem as decisões que teriam culminado na técnica moderna, e onde presumimos estar enraizada esta estrutura trágica. a bstract: This study investigates the links between art, metaphysics and totalitarianism, based on the thoughts of Heidegger and Arendt. It also proposes that such analyses suggest that philosophy and history belong to a fundamental tragic plot. To do so, we start researching how the ambivalent sense of exhaustion and salvation, present in many approaches of technique, involves the production of prognoses and teleological reflection. We investigate if these are elements which, in the twentieth century, served as a device for legitimizing barbarity in totalitarian movements and if it remains necessarily intrinsic to every view of technique. Heidegger's approach, instead, turns to the origins of metaphysics, where the decisions that would have culminated in modern technique lie, and where we presume this tragic structure is rooted. (shrink)

The paper examines the impact of Darwin's ideas on the English literature, from the late Victorians Samuel Butler, G. B. Shaw and H. G. Wells to our contemporaries A. S. Byatt and Ian McEwan.

[Are We Necessarily Embodied?] The author concentrates on the relation between person and body in phenomenology and analytical philosophy. Both of these traditions are, in their own way, critical towards the Cartesian dualism. While phenomenology tries to overcome this dualism through the description of the experience of our corporeality from the first person point of view, analytic philosophy examines the metaphysical problem of the relation between person and body from the third person perspective and usually proposes a materialist answer in (...) the sense of an identity of person and body. The central part of the paper is a detailed analysis of Kripke's challenge to contemporary materialism. The author argues that it is possible to accept Kripke's modal and temporal arguments in favour of the dualism of person and body without being forced to accept the idea of dualism itself. It is the metaphysics of constitution that represents an alternative: the person is constituted by her body, but she is not identical with it. Surprisingly, it is the idea of the living body that is rediscovered in thsi solution -- the idea which, in a sense, is a part of the phenomenological heritage, even though it is devoid of phenomenological anti-scientism and idealism. (shrink)

[How is Irrationality Possible? Davidson and the Split Mind] The paper deals witht Davidson's response to the challenge posed to his theory of mind by the phenomena of irrationality. This challenge is especially acute for Davidson, since he famously argued that it is a necessary condition on intentional agency that the agent be largely rational. The author begins by defending Davidson against some recent critics of perfect rationality. The middle part of the paper is an explication of Davidson's own theory (...) of irrationality, usually ignored by his critics. Somewhat similar to Freud, Davidson posits a split within the mind -- though not between conscious and subconscious parts, but rather between the mental states that are related to others as reasons and those that are mere causes. The final part of the paper critiques this proposal. (shrink)

[Against Method: Karel Kosik on Architecture and Urbanism] A critical analysis of the views of a prominent Czech philosopher who transitioned from humanist Marxism to Heideggerian conservatism. This philosophical development is also reflected in his occasional reflections on the built environment.

Od poloviny dvacátého století se nejrůznější společenskovědní disciplíny obzvláště důkladně zabývají otázkou subjektu, jeho povahy a vymezitelnosti. Koncept subjektu se ukazuje jako obtížně uchopitelný a celkově problematický. Na pozadí krátkých rozborů textů zvolených ze škály oborů od historie filozofie přes psychoanalýzu a sociologii až po teorii jazyka a filozofii vědy se v našem pojednání snažíme konstruovat mozaiku několika víceméně aktuálních pohledů na subjekt, na jejímž základě pak poukazujeme na vnitřní rozporuplnost samotného procesu, jímž je subjekt konstituován.Since the middle of the (...) twentieth century, the notion of the subject and the possibilities of delineating its nature have been the focus of particular attention within a number of humanities disciplines. The concept of the subject has proved difficult to tackle, and wholly problematic in general. Briefly analysing selected texts by authors involved in various fields of study, ranging from history of philosophy by psychoanalysis and sociology to theory of language and philosophy of science, we endeavour to construct a mosaic of several more or less contemporary views of the subject, on the basis of which we then point to the instability of the process itself by means of which the subject is constituted. (shrink)

Abstrakt/Abstract: Ve dvacátém století se nejrůznější společenské vědy musely obecně vyrovnávat s relativizací těch nejzákladnějších konceptů, jako je komunikace, text, význam, bytí nebo realita. Současně se pak začalo nevyhnutelně otřásat i heuristické, intuitivní pojetí autora jako „toho, kdo píše“. Naše pojednání představuje stručný exkurz do moderního teoretického myšlení, které se z tohoto hlediska otázkou autora zabývalo. Zmiňujeme se o Nové kritice, která odmítala pátrání po autorově záměru a usilovala o interpretaci literárního díla jako soběstačné entity. Dále pojednáváme o Rolandu Barthesovi, (...) který prosazoval pojetí díla jakožto součásti textového pole, přičemž otázka autora je pro něho zcela irelevantní. Posléze věnujeme pozornost způsobu, jímž se k autorovi staví Michel Foucault. Ten rozebírá jeho diskurzivní fixaci a táže se, jakou funkci plní koncept, s nímž člověk ve skutečnosti pracuje, když o autorovi hovoří. Závěrem se zaměřujeme na určité prvky kultu osobnosti, které lze na konci dvacátého století i v současnosti v pojetí autora vysledovat. Referenčním rámcem celého pojednání je vztah konceptu autora k představě esenciálního významu literárního textu. The twentieth century saw a whole range of disciplines within the field of social sciences struggle to come to terms with a relativisation of some of the fundamental concepts of traditional thinking, such as communication, text, meaning, existence, and reality. Inevitably, the heuristic, intuitive notion of the author as "the one who writes" also started to fray around the edges. Our article presents a short overview of some modern theoretical thinking that has tackled the que+stion of the author in this new context. We mention the New Critics, who refused to seek the author's intention and endeavoured to interpret literary works as autonomous entities. We then discuss Roland Barthes and his conception of literary work as part of an indefinite textual field; in this conception Barthes considers the question of an author as entirely irrelevant. Then we focus our attention on how the problem of the author is addressed by Michel Foucault. He treats the author as a concept, explores its discursive implications, and examines the modalities of its functioning. In the final part of the article we focus on certain marks of cult of personality that can be observed in authors at the end of the twentieth century as well as today. As a referential framework for our analysis, we employ the relation between the concept of the author and the essentialist notion of a determinate meaning of a literary text. (shrink)

A questionnaire is an integral component of methods determining the temperaments of dogs. From the range of questionnaires used for evaluation of a dog’s temperament, we selected C-BARQ. This particular type of questionnaire allowed us to determine the degree of agreement of evaluations of the same dog by individual members of one household. The evaluation included dogs in 29 households with a total of 71 members. The degree of agreement between ratings of individual members of the same household was determined (...) by Intraclass correlations coefficient . The correlations observed ranged between 0.53 and 0.9, depending on the category. This result is further supported by the results of other studies that showed similar perceptions of the same dog between family members. (shrink)

The study focuses on the implementation of curriculum reform in grammar schools in the Czech Republic. The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes of grammar school teachers towards the reform and its implementation. The perceived benefits of and problems with the curriculum reform were measured using closed-ended items (on a Likert scale). The research sample of this questionnaire survey consisted of 1,098 teachers from 58 schools. The results indicate that the reform has been more readily accepted in (...) pilot schools than in non-pilot schools. In general, it can be concluded that although there was support for the main ideas behind the reform, the majority of teachers have not accepted the reform as a whole. The multiple regression analysis revealed that gender, position, length of teaching experience, and knowledge of specific characteristics of curriculum reform did not significantly contribute to teachers’ acceptance of the curriculum reform. (shrink)

By considering Davidson’s analysis of prepositions as defining individual events predicates, I argue against his semantics for action sentences and stress some logico-linguistic puzzles concerning both the interpretive pretension and the referential indifference of this proposal. Inspired by Evans as well as by Grice, I advance another interpretive semantics for those cases which does not take as assumption the individual character of events and argue for a constructivist approach to events in action discourse.

En la página 52 de su autobiografía Mi vida en la música Daniel Barenboin afirma no compartir la filosofía de Glenn Gould para quien la grabación es la única manera de producir música en el futuro. Baremboin define a su filosofía de la música un ¿naturalismo¿ para el que la música es sinónimo de vida, y lo que la singulariza es el tiempo, y el tiempo es lo que se pierde y jamás vuelve. El tiempo es lo que se pretende (...) expulsar de una sala de grabación. La música es tiempo y, por lo tanto no repetición, el metrónomo sólo repite la medida. A las notas las sigue el silencio sin el cual no existirían, y la duración del sonido es por eso intermitente, finita, mortal. Este efecto de vacío es también marcado en el mundo del lenguaje. Foucault decía que desde el punto de vista ¿arqueológico¿ los discursos son escasos, que lo que primero debe llamarnos la atención es la rareza de su existencia. Por eso mismo el sentido es también escaso, no constituye una abundancia que los hermeneutas deben interpretar. Así como hay más palabras que sentido, hay menos palabras que cosas, y en este orden de las carencias no olvidemos la primera lección de la economía política que define al ¿bien¿ por su rareza. El sonido es, entonces, una isla en un mar de silencio. Pero no fue sin duda este pequeño parágrafo en el libro de Barenboin lo que me marcó un interrogante llamado Gould. Hubo, además, una mención en la misma página referida a la muerte de Gould que le había impedido comparar las distintas versiones de sus Variaciones de Goldberg. Es posible que una cierta curiosidad por los espíritus trágicos haya detenido mi atención. (shrink)

El presente artículo ofrece una interpretación original del trabajo de Austin sobre la aserción y los adverbios y deriva de ella una semántica expresivista para las oraciones de acción. En primer lugar, el análisis austiniano de la aserción con su idea de fuerzas asertivas específicas se conecta sistemáticamente con sus observaciones sobre la modificación adverbial para obtener esquemas de aserción para oraciones de acción. En segundo lugar, se interpretan esos esquemas en términos de la expresión de los compromisos inferenciales propios (...) de prácticas argumentativas exculpatorias, justificativas y ejemplarizantes en las que se explota la contrariedad lógica a la par de la contradicción. This paper offers a new interpretation of John Austin's views both on assertion and on adverbs, as result of which an expressivist thesis concerning the semantics for action sentences is advanced. First, Austin's analysis of assertion based on various, specific assertive forces and his remarks on adverbs are systematically connected in order to obtain assertive schemata for action sentences. Finally, those schemata are put to work as the expression of inferential commitments implicit in argumentative practices of different sorts in the deployment of which both logical contrariety and contradiction are exploited. (shrink)

This paper develops some of Austin’s ideas on excuses, stressing their “dimensional” character and relating it to Searle’s distinction between intention-in-action and previous intention, in order to show that the original speech-act shaped distinction between weakness of the will and moral weakness can be embedded in a quite different theoretical framework such as Davidson’s, while Austin’s dimensional classification of actions cannot. Finally, the article analyzes how Grice’s critique of Davidson’s views on akrasia is more faithful to Austin and more radical (...) in its conclusions concerning the justificatory aspect of reasons and the rational features of action. (shrink)

Dealing with phonological variations is important for speech processing. This article addresses whether phonological variations introduced by assimilatory processes are compensated for at the pre-lexical or lexical level, and whether the nature of variation and the phonological context influence this process. To this end, Swedish nasal regressive place assimilation was investigated using the mismatch negativity component. In nasal regressive assimilation, the coronal nasal assimilates to the place of articulation of a following segment, most clearly with a velar or labial place (...) of articulation, as in utan mej “without me” > [ʉːtam mɛjː]. In a passive auditory oddball paradigm, 15 Swedish speakers were presented with Swedish phrases with attested and unattested phonological variations and contexts for nasal assimilation. Attested variations – a coronal-to-labial change as in utan “without” > [ʉːtam] – were contrasted with unattested variations – a labial-to-coronal change as in utom “except” > ∗[ʉːtɔn] – in appropriate and inappropriate contexts created by mej “me” [mɛjː] and dej “you” [dɛjː]. Given that the MMN amplitude depends on the degree of variation between two stimuli, the MMN responses were expected to indicate to what extent the distance between variants was tolerated by the perceptual system. Since the MMN response reflects not only low-level acoustic processing but also higher-level linguistic processes, the results were predicted to indicate whether listeners process assimilation at the pre-lexical and lexical levels. The results indicated no significant interactions across variations, suggesting that variations in phonological forms do not incur any cost in lexical retrieval; hence such variation is compensated for at the lexical level. However, since the MMN response reached significance only for a labial-to-coronal change in a labial context and for a coronal-to-labial change in a coronal context, the compensation might have been influenced by the nature of variation and the phonological context. It is therefore concluded that while assimilation is compensated for at the lexical level, there is also some influence from pre-lexical processing. The present results reveal not only signal-based perception of phonological units, but also higher-level lexical processing, and are thus able to reconcile the bottom-up and top-down models of speech processing. (shrink)