Memory is a general attribute of living species, whose diversification reflects both evolutionary and developmental processes. Episodic-autobiographical memory is regarded as the highest human ontogenetic achievement and as probably being uniquely human. EAM, autonoetic consciousness and the self are intimately linked, grounding, supporting and enriching each other’s development and cohesiveness. Their development is influenced by the socio-cultural–linguistic environment in which an individual grows up or lives. On the other hand, through language, textualization and social exchange, all three elements leak into (...) the world and participate to the dynamic shaping and re-shaping of the cultural scaffolding of the self, mental time traveling and EAM formation. Deficits in self-related processing, autonetic consciousness, emotional processing and mental time traveling can all lead to or co-occur with EAM disturbances, as we illustrate by findings from EAM impairments associated with neurological or psychiatric disorders. (shrink)

Can we sensibly attribute some of the happenings in our world to the agency of some of the things around us? We do this all the time, but there are conceptual challenges purporting to show that attributable agency, and specifically one of its most important subspecies, human free agency, is incoherent. We address these challenges in a novel way: rather than merely rebutting specific arguments, we discuss a concrete model that we claim positively illustrates attributable agency in an indeterministic setting. (...) The model, recently introduced by one of the authors in the context of artificial intelligence, shows that an agent with a sufficiently complex memory organization can employ indeterministic happenings in a meaningful way. We claim that these considerations successfully counter arguments against the coherence of libertarian free will. (shrink)

Originally published in 1973 the editors of this book collected together those studies which had been considered at the time to yield the best evidence in support of Freudian theory, and found on close examination that they failed to provide any such proof. Each paper is printed in full and is followed by a critical discussion which raises questions of statistical treatment, sufficiency of controls and alternative interpretations. The particular usefulness of this format is that it allows readers to form (...) their own opinions while providing helpful suggestions and guidelines on how to approach experimental studies with a critical mind. (shrink)

The activities of Fulani nomads in Ghana have gained considerable media attention and engendered continuing public debate. In this paper, we analyze the prejudiced portrayals of the nomads in the Ghanaian news media, and how these contribute to an exclusionist and a discriminatory discourse that puts the nomads at the margins of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and draws on a dataset of 160 articles, including news stories, editorials and op-ed pieces. The analysis reveals that (...) the nomads are discursively constructed as undesirables through an othering process that centers on three discourses: a discourse of dangerousness/criminalization, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of stigmatization. This anti-nomad/fulani rhetoric is evident in the choice of sensational headlines, alarmist news content, organization of arguments, and use of quotations. The paper concludes with a call for more balanced and critical news reporting on the nomads, especially since issues surrounding them border on national cohesion and security. (shrink)

In March 1980, the oil-platform Alexander L. Kielland capsized in the North Sea resulting in the death of 123 workers. The Norwegian inquiry into the disaster was closed to the public and the survi...

Barzykowski and Moulin link déjà vu and involuntary autobiographical memories to the process of retrieval. They make no reference to Tulving's SPI-model. In this, it is proposed that information is acquired serially (S), stored in parallel (P), and retrieved independently (I). This model offers an alternative, elegant, view of involuntary autobiographical memory retrieval, as well as of déjà vus.

It is argued that Llewellyn's hypothesis about the lack of rapid eye movement (REM)-sleep dreaming leading to loss of personal identity and deficits in episodic memory, affectivity, and prospection is insufficiently grounded because it does not integrate data from neurodevelopmental studies and makes reference to an outdated definition of episodic memory.

Der Begriff ‚Gedächtnis‘ wird im Deutschen in verschiedenen Bedeutungen gebraucht: Im Sinne eines kollektiven Gedächtnisses, das in erster Linie ein kulturelles Gedächtnis ist; im Sinne von Gedenken (memoria) und im Sinne von Erinnerung, also dem Aufnehmen, Abrufen und Ordnen von Informationen, Begebenheiten und Ereignissen aus der Vergangenheit. Letzteres hat primär eine Funktion für einzelne lebende Organismen und betrifft deren Fähigkeit, aus vergangenen Ereignissen Orientierung für ihr gegenwärtiges und künftiges Verhalten zu gewinnen – eine Fähigkeit, die auch vielen Lernprozessen zugrunde liegt (...) und beim Menschen für die Herausbildung eines Selbst zentral ist. Die beiden ersten Bedeutungen betreffen hingegen die kulturelle Identität von Gemeinschaften. (shrink)

The idea of distinct brain systems for the processing of episodic and other forms of memory is welcome. The two brain systems actually proposed however, appear to be stripped of further existing connections and could be integrated with one another. If integrating them, it seems more logical to propose one enlarged system of limbic structures whose individual components make partly different contributions to the forms of memory under discussion.

Jeff Mitscherling and Paul Fairfield, two Canadian philosophers, struggle, as have artists and scholars across disciplines before them, to solve the riddle of what artistic creation is all about. T...

This short book by Lorraine Daston is a classic essay: she identifies an intellectual conundrum—why do humans across cultures and history look to nature for models for cultural norms and orders?—an...

Direct democracy is not a populist goal.—Nadia Urbinati, Me the People, 2019The Swiss republic is the world’s preeminent practitioner of direct democracy.—John G. Matsusaka, Let the People Rule, 20...

Direct democracy is not a populist goal.—Nadia Urbinati, Me the People, 2019The Swiss republic is the world’s preeminent practitioner of direct democracy.—John G. Matsusaka, Let the People Rule, 20...

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 4, Page 554-557, July 2012.

The European Legacy, Volume 17, Issue 3, Page 426-428, June 2012.

The European Legacy, Volume 16, Issue 4, Page 535-537, 01Jul2011.

The Grand Tour was “the classical continental trip to France and Italy, undertaken by young aristocratic men in early modern Europe, ostensibly for educational purposes.” According to Cambridge Uni...

The past few years have produced numerous accounts on work, both scholarly and personal, studies of labor and individual narratives of employment, jobs, gigs, the ever more dispersed realm of peopl...

This slim volume of eclectic observations on the world of taste opens with an “Aperitif,” serves the five basic tastes in separate dishes, beginning with “Sweet,” followed by “Sour,” “Salty,” “Bitt...