Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Stephen Ross, Editor. Modernism, Theory, And Responsible Reading: A Critical Conversation. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022., Anne Cunningham

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Stephen Ross, editor. Modernism, Theory, and Responsible Reading: A Critical Conversation. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. 239 pp

Scarlett Baron. The Birth Of Intertextuality: The Riddle Of Creativity. Routledge, 2020., Mariaenrica Giannuzzi

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Scarlett Baron. The Birth of Intertextuality: The Riddle of Creativity. Routledge, 2020. 381 pp.

Russell Sbriglia And Slavoj Žižek, Editors. Subject Lessons: Hegel, Lacan, And The Future Of Materialism. Northwestern Up, 2020., Vanessa Loh

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Russell Sbriglia and Slavoj Žižek, editors. Subject Lessons: Hegel, Lacan, and the Future of Materialism. Northwestern UP, 2020. 270 pp.

Objects, Events, And Property-Instances, Riccardo Baratella

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

The theory of events as property-instances has been considered one of the most widely accepted metaphysical theories of events. On the other hand, several philosophers claim that if both events and objects perdure, then objects must be identified with events. In this work, I investigate whether these two views can be held together. I shall argue that if they can, it depends on the particular theory of instantiation one is to adopt. In particular, I shall conclude that the theory of events as property-instances and the view that identifies objects with events can be held together only if instances of …

Possible Nouns For Visual Experiences: A Theory Of The Vision-Language Interface, Francesco-Alessio Ursini, Paolo Acquaviva

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

The relation between vision and language is analyzed through a formal statement of what defines objecthood in the two domains. An interpretation of independently-motivated approaches to vision and to the grammar of nominals allows us to define the connection between them as an “infomorphism” consisting of two functions. Visual and linguistic objects are only indirectly related: the functions range over types and tokens, whose map defines objecthood in each domain. We show how the inferences proved in this system are empirically correct, and we draw some conclusions about the import of our proposal on the role of language in cognition.

Nora Hämäläinen. Literature And Moral Theory. Bloomsbury, 2016., Anthony M. Dotterman

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Nora Hämäläinen. Literature and Moral Theory. Bloomsbury, 2016.

Asher Ghaffar, Editor. History, Imperialism, Critique: New Essays In World Literature. Routledge, 2019., Laura L. Dennis

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of

Asher Ghaffar, editor. History, Imperialism, Critique: New Essays in World Literature. Routledge, 2019. viii + 238 pp.

Adhd And The Deficit Of Knowing: What?, Katie N. Schenk

Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

This research-based essay explores the author’s experience with ADHD, as the essay’s formatting and usage of space evolves into a visual representation of the ADHD mind and questions the human capacity to identify, label, and differentiate inaccessible experiences. The common, often misinformed understanding of ADHD is disputed through in depth analyses of various brain functions. In particular, the atypical development of the executive functions housed in the ADHD person’s frontal lobe are explored through both contemporary research and personal experience, which are variously compared and contrasted to the supposed neurotypical experience. Consideration of ADHD’s lifelong stigma emphasizes the emotional components …

Ilai Rowner. The Event: Literature And Theory. U Of Nebraska P, 2015., Dane Stalcup

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Ilai Rowner. The Event: Literature and Theory. U of Nebraska P, 2015. xv + 311 pp.

Post-Pastoral And The Nonmodern: Jean Giono’S Engagement With Nature, Gina Stamm

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Dismissal of the pastoral as naïve and hostile to progress echoes the critiques which Bruno Latour, in We Have Never Been Modern, makes of what he calls the “antimodern” sensibility. Rather than advocating for an abandonment of the past, however, Latour puts forth a position he calls “nonmodern,” one that allows for recognition of the value of the past and of the natural without idolizing it, that does not demand the forward motion of the modern impulse. While eschewing the “modern” label, he seeks a way to resolve contemporary dichotomies of man vs. nature, human vs. technological, etc., which …

Irony As Expression (Of A Sense Of The Absurd), Mitchell Green

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

Situational irony is, first, explained as a severe violation of one or more established, non-moral norms; such violation constitutes that situation’s absurdity. The classical “inversion” theory of communicative irony associated with Cicero and Quintilian, as well as its refinement in terms of the notion of conversational implicature (Grice 1989), are then shown to be inadequate.The echoic (Sperber (1984), Wilson (2006), Wilson & Sperber (2012)) and pretence (Currie 2010) theories are also shown to fail to account for the broad range of communicative irony, although they each contain valuable insights. Further, both theories hold that ironic speakers express attitudes but do …

Emily Jeremiah. Nomadic Ethics In Contemporary Women’S Writing In German: Strange Subjects. Rochester, Ny: Camden House, 2012. 232 Pp., Brooke D. Kreitinger

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Emily Jeremiah. Nomadic Ethics in Contemporary Women’s Writing in German: Strange Subjects. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2012. 232 pp.

Elizabeth Grosz. Becoming Undone: Darwinian Reflections On Life, Politics, And Art. Durham: Duke Up, 2011. Viii + 264 Pp., Vera Coleman

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Elizabeth Grosz. Becoming Undone: Darwinian Reflections on Life, Politics, and Art. Durham: Duke UP, 2011. viii + 264 pp.

Louise Westling. The Logos Of The Living World: Merleau-Ponty, Animals, And Language. New York: Fordham Up, 2014. Xiv + 187 Pp., Vera Coleman

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Louise Westling. The Logos of the Living World: Merleau-Ponty, Animals, and Language. New York: Fordham UP, 2014. xiv + 187 pp.

Framing Visual Perception In Terms Of Sensorimotor Mapping, Silvano Zipoli Caiani

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

Two contrasting theories, or variants of them, are predominant in the current debate on visual cognition. The standard inferential theory sees perception as a process involving the role of memory, past experiences and semantic abilities, whereas the direct theory sees perception as a connection between the perceiver and the environment that does not recruit internal information processing. In particular, the direct theory has recently been invoked because it would be able to explain the sensorimotor coupling of perception and action in humans and animals without relying on controversial notions such as those of conceptualization and propositional information. This paper aims …

How Do Ideas Become General In Their Signification?, Alexandros Tillas

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

Abstraction is one of the central notions in philosophy and cognitive science. Though its origins are often traced to Locke, various senses of abstraction have been developed in fields as diverse as philosophy, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and computer science (e.g. Barsalou 2005). The notion of abstraction on which I am focusing here is as that of a process of similarities recognition across instances of a given kind involving progressive exclusion of instance details. As such, abstraction plays a major role in concept-formation and learning. Traditionally, abstraction models have been deemed circular (e.g. Berkeley 1710/1957), while in recent years …

Nonconceptual Content, Causal Theory, And Realism, Błażej Skrzypulec

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

In this paper the connections between the nonconceptual content of perceptual states and realism are considered. In particular, I investigate the argument for realism that uses the notion of nonconceptual content, specifically the version proposed by Raftopoulos in Cognition and Perception. To evaluate the argument two forms of realism are identified: (1) correlation realism (CR), according to which distinctions in perceptual content correlate with distinctions in the environment, and (2) ontological realism (OR), according to which perceptual content and perceived reality are both organized according to the same set of ontological categories. First, it is argued that the distinction …

Concept Acquisition And Experiential Change, William S. Robinson

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

Many have held the Acquisition of Concepts Thesis (ACT) that concept acquisition can change perceptual experience. This paper explains the close relation of ACT to ADT, the thesis that acquisition of dispositions to quickly and reliably recognize a kind of thing can change perceptual experience. It then states a highly developed argument given by Siegel (2010) which, if successful, would offer strong support for ADT and indirect support for ACT. Examination of this argument, however, reveals difficulties that undermine its promise. Distinctions made in this examination help to clarify an alternative view that denies ADT and ACT while accepting that …

An Empirical Analysis Of Perceptual Judgments, Nicholas Ray

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

This paper is a defense of Reformed Empiricism, especially against those critics who take Reformed Empiricism to be a viable account of empirical rationality only if it avails itself of certain rationalist assumptions that are inconsistent with empiricism. I argue against three broad types of criticism that are found in the current literature, and propose a way of characterising Gupta’s constraints for any model of experience as analytic of empiricism itself, avoiding the charge by some (e.g. McDowell, Berker, and Schafer) who think that the constraints are substantive.

Concepts, Perception And The Dual Process Theories Of Mind, Marcello Frixione, Antonio Lieto

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

In this article we argue that the problem of the relationships between concepts and perception in cognitive science is blurred by the fact that the very notion of concept is rather confused. Since it is not always clear exactly what concepts are, it is not easy to say, for example, whether and in what measure concept possession involves entertaining and manipulating perceptual representations, whether concepts are entirely different from perceptual representations, and so on. As a paradigmatic example of this state of affairs, we will start by taking into consideration the distinction between conceptual and nonconceptual content. The analysis of …

Linguistic Intuitions And Cognitive Penetrability, Michael Devitt

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

Metalinguistic intuitions play a very large evidential role in both linguistics and philosophy. Linguists think that these intuitions are products of underlying linguistic competence. I call this view “the voice of competence” (“VoC”). Although many philosophers seem to think that metalinguistic intuitions are a priori many may implicitly hold the more scientifically respectable VoC. According to VoC, I argue, these intuitions can be cognitively penetrated by the central processor. But, I have argued elsewhere, VoC is false. Instead, we should hold “the modest explanation” (“ME”) according to which these intuitions are fairly unreflective empirical theory-laden central-processor responses to phenomena. On …

Is Low-Level Visual Experience Cognitively Penetrable?, Dávid Bitter

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

Philosophers and psychologists alike have argued recently that relatively abstract beliefs or cognitive categories like those regarding race can influence the perceptual experience of relatively low-level visual features like color or lightness. Some of the proposed best empirical evidence for this claim comes from a series of experiments in which White faces were consistently judged as lighter than equiluminant Black faces, even for racially ambiguous faces that were labeled ‘White’ as opposed to ‘Black’ (Levin and Banaji 2006). The latter result is considered especially indicative of cognitive penetration, based on the reasoning that the relevant distortions were a function of …

Dirk Van Hulle. Modern Manuscripts: The Extended Mind And Creative Undoing From Darwin To Beckett And Beyond. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. Xiii + 271 Pp., Anna E. Hiller

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Dirk van Hulle. Modern Manuscripts: The Extended Mind and Creative Undoing from Darwin to Beckett and Beyond. London: Bloomsbury, 2014. xiii + 271 pp.

Antilogic, Benoît Castelnérac, Mathieu Marion

Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication

This paper is an interim report of joint work begun in (Castelnérac & Marion 2009) on dialectic from Parmenides to Aristotle. In the first part we present rules for dialectical games, understood as a specific form of antilogikê developed by philosophers, and explain some of the key concepts of these dialectical games in terms of ideas from game semantics. In the games we describe, for a thesis A asserted by the answerer, a questioner must elicit the answerer’s assent to further assertions B₁, B₂,…, B_n, which form a scoreboard from which the questioner seeks …

Affective Consciousness In La Nausée, Benjamin Suhl

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

La Nausée, a key to Sartre's work, centers on an affective comprehension of the world, which becomes cognitive in the author's philosophy. Nausea is the affective equivalent of Descartes's systematic doubt and of Husserl's reduction. The recent publication of Sartre's earliest writings permits us to isolate his fundamental concerns, later to be developed in the novel: contingency and its evasion in bad faith. A certain Antoine Roquentin is shaken by the fear of becoming submerged in Bouville, physically and socially. He passes through an acute crisis, recorded blow by blow in his diary. It leads to a radical change …

Camus' "Guest": The Inadmissible Complicity, James W. Greenlee

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Early analyses of Camus' tale, "The Guest," generally reflect the political tensions that rent Algeria in the 1950's. Since these tensions have disappeared, we are able to read the tale as a personal drama recounting the moral dilemma of its, narrator-protagonist. Scrutiny of his censored account reveals his retreat from an action which would compromise his innocence. The story registers the author's awareness of the ambiguities of moral decision and testifies to the refinement of his thought since the composition of The Plague.

Novel Quarters For An Odd Couple: Apollo And Dionysis In Beckett's Watt And Pinget's The Inquisitory., Robert M. Henkels Jr.

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

By making the act of writing itself the subject of their works, the French "New Novelists" must face the questions of the source of the creative drive and the possibility of engaging the reader directly in it. The response to these conundrums advanced through example by two of the group's outstanding figures, Samuel Beckett and Robert Pinget, gives a piquant twist to the traditional polarization of artistic impulses into the Apollonian (Reason) and the Dionysian (Unreason). In Watt (1953) and The Inquisitory (1962) writing, the act mitigating life's suffering, springs from the union of these two apparently antithetical drives with …