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The discounting of costly rewards is robustly correlated with maladaptive tendencies like substance use, relapse, and poor health habits. Because of this, many laboratory-based interventions have been developed to reduce discounting. Most of these interventions aim to reduce discounting of delayed rewards (delay discounting) but many desirable outcomes in daily life also require effort. The present experiment sought to evaluate the efficacy of episodic future thinking (EFT) to reduce effort discounting. EFT has proven effective in reducing delay discounting, but has not been evaluated as a means of reducing effort discounting. We also evaluated the influence of different types of examples provided to participants during the EFT and control tasks. In a 2*2 between-groups design, participants were randomly assigned to an EFT or control group, combined with one of two example-type conditions. Participants completed the EFT or control tasks, followed by delay- and effort-discounting tasks. As in prior studies, EFT significantly reduced delay discounting, but the effect on effort discounting fell short of significance. Example type did not affect these outcomes. Keywords Episodic future thinking * Effort discounting * Delay discounting * Impulsive choice, As the cost of a reward increases, its subjective value decreases, according to a hyperbolic discounting curve (Odum, 2011; Sugiwaka & Okouchi, 2004). Steeply discounting superior outcomes either because they [...]

While growing up, among various mythological stories I heard from my mother, one grabbed my attention the most. It is the story of a demon called Bhasmasura. In order to [...]

Abstract The world is facing a multitude of interconnected issues, leading to avoidable starvation, poverty and death for hundreds of millions. Is Arendt's concept of the 'banality of evil', which […]

I'm wearing this tee-shirt (which is classy but nonetheless still a tee-shirt) today for two reasons. The first is to remind you that this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of [...]

It is a familiar philosophical idea, one that undoubtedly contains much truth, that experience makes an essential contribution to contents of thoughts--that without a proper relationship to experience, thought is [...]

This paper examines the use of audience-directed or inherently communicative expressions (discourse markers and interjections) in free indirect thought representations in fiction. It argues that the insights of Banfield's (1982) no-narrator approach to free indirect style can be accommodated in a relevance theoretic framework. The result is an account in which the author's act of revealing a character's thoughts communicates a guarantee of optimal relevance--a guarantee which justifies the effort which the reader invests in deriving meta-representations of those thoughts from the evidence which the author provides. However, the reward for this effort is a meta-representation of a character's thoughts which is unmediated by the thoughts of the author who is responsible for producing the text. Using examples from fiction, I show that within this framework, the use of procedurally encoded discourse markers and interjections contribute to this sense of immediacy by imposing constraints on interpretation which leave the reader with the responsibility for deriving his own interpretations of a character's thoughts and thought processes. doi: 10.1017/S0022226709990375

Apocalyptic thinking is growing more prevalent and presents a number of challenges for Christians today. This essay explores the question of whether Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher and offers some ideas on the implications for Christians. After briefly tracing the legacy of apocalyptic thought through Christian history, the author raises questions concerning the dangers and potential gifts of this type of thinking. Particular attention is given to the implications for ecumenical dialogue and the future of Christianity., Apocalyptic thinking is part of the rich heritage of the Christian tradition. Recently, there has been a growing resurgence of interest in apocalyptic imagery and thought. Popular culture has embraced [...]

This article applies itself to establish three theses. In knowledge produced by some Westerners on Africa it gives a tracery of procedures of subalternance of Africa (and Africans), its (their) invention according to epistemic codes, politico-economic interests and the anthropological specimens of a peculiar place defined as the awakened Look to all the correspondence. Born in the context of the western modernity, African thought has contributed to the return of the African in the thinking humanity and in history, fertilized the emancipation movements of colonized countries and accompanied the political organization of the continent. By taking care of the geopolitics of knowledge and the theory of the universal destination of property, it shoes how Africa gets involved on the way of freedom. Keywords: African thought, Postcolonial studies, African philosophy, globalization, epistemology, social sciences, liberty, << (...) l'Europe, en imposant son langage, [a] impose aussi ses passions, ses idees, ses solutions. Les mots finissent par donner forme aux choses. Ces pays neufs sont, en depit [...]

Evidence opposing the notion that a small enhancement in working-memory capacity resolved the development of the modern human mind is described. The modern human mind is deemed radically distinct from previous human minds and appeared only in figurative art. The likelihood that most therianthropes resulted from an unsuccessful attempt to merely draw animals is also explained.

On October 30,1965, in Amriswil, on the occasion of a celebration for the Swiss psychiatrist Ludwig Binswanger, Heidegger gave a talk titled 'Das Ernde des Denkens in der Gestalt der Philosophie' ('The End of Thinking in the Form of Philosophy'). In a somewhat expanded version, this address was first published in Japan (translated into Japanese by Koichi Tsujimura) in December 1968 by Chikumashobo Press, Tokyo, with a new title 'Zur Frage nach der Bestimmung der Sache des Denkens' ('On the Question Concerning the Determination of the Matter for Thinking'). For the 1968 Japanese edition, Heidegger added a brief foreword that was not published in Germany until 1989 in Japan und Heidegger, ed. Hartmut Buchner (Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke Verlag), 230-1. The German text of the expanded version of the talk, excluding the foreword, was edited by Hermann Heidegger and first published in Europe in 1984 as Zur Frage nach der Bestimmung der Sache des Denkens by Erker-Verlag, St. Gallen, Switzerland. In 2000, this same text appeared in the Gesamtausgabe, Bd. 16, edited by Hermann Heidegger (Vittorio Klostermann Verlag), 620-33. Our translation follows the original Erker-Verlag edition ([C] Erker-Verlag, Franz Larese und Jurg Janett, Gallusstrasse 32, CH-9000 St. Gallen/Schweiz). We are most grateful to Erker-Verlag for granting us the translation rights. The present text, hitherto untranslated into English, is an important statement of Heidegger's thinking in the 1960s and is closely related to his 1964 lecture 'Das Ende der Philosophie und die Aufgabe des Denkens'' ('The End of Philosophy and the Task of Thinking'), which appears in English translation in Martin Heidegger: Basic Writings, ed. David Farrell Krell (San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1993).

Although not often recognized as a major concern in his fecund writings, as Derrida himself indicates, Antonin Artaud accompanies his thought throughout his career. This essay explores that relationship by marking the various places where it appears, and by focusing on Derrida's early discussions of Artaud. In them, Derrida traces the obsessive character of metaphysics as figured by Artaud's word, a word that occurs as a speaking-writing-drawing. While Derrida's discussions expose us to the physicality of Artaud's word and with them to a saying exterior to the metaphysical tradition. Derrida's own obsession with the transcendentalvoice keeps him at a distance from engaging in the physicality and play of language one finds in Artaud's words.

This article consists of appreciative reflections upon Hoffman and Strawn's article, Normative Thoughts, Normative Feelings, Normative Actions: A Protestant, Relational Psychoanalytic Reply to E. Christian Brugger and the Faculty of [...]

IT HAS BECOME COMMON in discussions of post-Kantian idealism to put forth the thesis that Hegel completes Kant, that Hegel completes the Kantian critical project by transforming transcendental idealism into [...]

The precise functions of feeling in cognitive development are correlated to the functions of imaging and thinking. Generally, affect is often observed to be in combination with imaging in a manner that each of these functions stimulates one another. Meanwhile, the functions of feeling and thinking tend to be opposed to each other.

In 'On the Life of thinking in Aristotle's De Anima,' the author offers an interpretation of the tripartite structure of the unified soul in Aristotle's text. The principle activity that unities the nutritive, sensuously perceptive and noetically perceptive parts of the soul into a single, continuous entity is shown by our author to be genesis (or the sexual begetting of offspring). After establishing this observation, the paper provides the textual grounds to understand how both sensuous and noetic perception can be understood as a kind of embodied genesis. A further consequence of this argument will be an interpretation of 'thinking,' of noetic perception, as a kind of open and passive reception of the primary forms of other beings. As such, Aristotle's conception of thinking, qua nous, is a refreshing, if strange, contrast to the more common modern vision of 'thinking' as the activity of an agent mentally seizing hold of beings in the service of the mastery of nature.

(Political) Thinking Today (1) To begin with, I would like to ask some questions. Can you understand how someone could think that a war will bring peace? Do you understand [...]

This study investigates the relationship between thinking styles and identity development among Chinese students. Students from Shanghai responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory--Revised, based on Sternberg's theory of mental selfgovernment, and to the Erwin Identity Scale--III, grounded in Chickering's theory of psychosocial development. Not only were thinking styles strongly associated with identity development, but also the former had predictive power for the latter. Along with findings in the existing literature, results of this study call for a collaborative effort between teaching faculty and student development educators in fostering holistic student development.

Negative or destructive thought experiments known as Counter Thought Experiments that undermine are explored. It is observed that counter thought experiments deny the phenomena of the initial thought experiments.

This paper discusses the historic evolutionary process of thinking patterns since modern science, which can be divided into three stages: modernism, systems thinking and postmodernism. The paper proposes that the main form of thinking pattern of modernism is mechanism which accompanies modern science. Systems thinking set its aim on holism, but its approach is still inseparable from division and reduction. Both the thinking patterns of modernism and systems thinking are of the category of constitutive theory. However, the rise of complexity sciences has brought great changes to thinking patterns and moved toward postmodernism that has the characteristic of generative theory. In this paper, the function of both convergent and divergent patterns of thinking in the evolution of holistic thinking is interspersed. Keywords thinking pattern; modernism; systems thinking; postmodernism; constitutive theory; generative theory, INTRODUCTION The study of complexity is a hot topic in the domain of science and philosophy. One of the most important problems in the philosophy of science is the problem [...]

THE ART OF life, as is often noted, is the art of making choices. This implies that to live well we must choose well. And how should we choose in [...]

The importance of thinking and understanding 'from with-in' of processes rather than thinking 'from outside' is analyzed. Our actions are guided mainly by these inner feelings.

Shoemaker maintains that when a functionalist theory of mind is combined with his belief about individuating properties and the well-known cerebrum transplant thought experiment, the resulting position will be a version of the psychological approach to personal identity that can avoid The Problem of Too Many Thinkers. I maintain that the costs of his solution--that the human animal is incapable of thought--are too high. Shoemaker also has not provided an argument against there existing a merely conscious being that is not essentially self-conscious but is spatially coincident with a person who is essentially self-conscious. Both the person and the merely sentient being will be transplanted when the cerebrum is. And another thought experiment will make it impossible for Shoemaker to identify the person and the merely conscious being.

Byline: Jill Robbins (001) Keywords: children's thinking; constructivism; early childhood contexts; interviewing; natural phenomena; relationships; sociocultural theory Abstract: How do we see young children's thinking in science? Is it, as much previous research has led us to believe, that their ideas can be neatly boxed like 'brown paper packages tied up with strings' -- as the song from The Sound of Music goes? Or are their ideas like 'wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings' (Sound of Music): fluid, complex, rich...? Drawing on the author's research into young children's ideas about natural phenomena such as the rain and clouds, and on Rogoff's three foci of analysis (personal, interpersonal and contextual), this paper illustrates how a consideration of sociocultural theory can be useful in framing research with young children, and allow us to see beyond the boxes. Emphasis is placed on recognising that children's thinking in science is embedded within particular sociocultural contexts, is guided by others and integrated with their use of certain mental and physical cultural tools. Thus, the article aims to present an alternative method for the generation of data on young children's thinking. Specific analysis of this data will, it is intended, be presented in a subsequent article. Author Affiliation: (001) Faculty of Education, Monash University, Peninsula Campus, PO Box 527, Frankston, Victoria, 3199, Australia Article History: Registration Date: 03/01/2005

The differentiation of instruction using a theory of thinking styles as a basis for differentiation is considered. Some general characteristics of styles and the issues of measurement are considered, the theory of mental self-government and data supporting the theory are presented.

Through a discussion of 'translucence' in Plato's Phaidros and in Juan Jose Saer's 'On Line,' in this essay I attempt to engage the simultaneous experience of the concrete sense of language and of the appearing of beings in their materiality through language. The discussion ultimately suggests that, when taken in its full force, the philosophical logos figures the elemental translucence of beings in their intelligibility; a formulation meant to resist the separation of language and concreteness. Such an interpretation of the philosophical logos also leads to the understanding of thought as an elemental, interpretative, transformative, and 'marginal' experience.

Robert Cummins has argued that Jerry Fodor's well-known systematicity argument begs the question. I show that the systematicity argument for thought structure does not beg the question, nor run in either explanatory nor inferential circles, nor illegitimately project sentence structure onto thoughts. Because the evidence does not presuppose that thought has structure, connectionist explanations of the same interconnections between thoughts are at least possibilities. But they are likely to be ad hoc.

Byline: Iris M. Yob (1) Author Affiliation: (1) Collins Living Learning Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47405, USA Article History: Registration Date: 11/10/2004

Byline: Roger Saljo (1) Keywords: cognitive science; learning; metaphor and research; thinking Abstract: The focus of the article is toreflect on the tendency of research traditionsin the areas of human learning, development,and communication, to use metaphors andanalogies that construe human mental activitiesand resources in terms of physical objects.This is evident, for instance, in moderncognitive science where computer metaphors(information processing and informationstorage) have been foundational for thediscipline. However, this tendency to reifyhuman activities can be found in many othertraditions, and it goes back to ancient Greekthinking. It is argued that the consequences ofthis tradition of reification are significantfor the human sciences. One important elementof these types of metaphors is that theydescribe people and their capacities in static,rather than developmental, terms. Author Affiliation: (1) IPD, Goteborg University, SE-405 30, Goteborg, Sweden Article History: Registration Date: 18/10/2004

John Dewey felt responsibility, directness, whole-heartedness, and open-mindedness were crucial to engage in reflective thinking. Dewey regarded reflective thinking as a tool transforming raw experience into meaning-filled theory.

On the basis of the Greeks' initial contributions towards an Interpretation of Being; a dogma has been developed which not only declares the question about the meaning of Being to [...]

This article evaluates German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's conceptualization of thought, which designates the real form of truth and frees knowledge from its ambiguity. The authors assert that for Hegel the concept is a process or movement which completes representations and allows us to comprehend ideas; the conceptualizing thought allows for an internalization of external moments.

This article focuses on a reassessment of the relationship between thought and action according to Arendt.The connection of Augustine to Arendt's works were examined.

The authors argues that ideas of abstract synthesis are artificially constructed, and may not be the best way to examine the needs of the future. A method of shuttling between different positions, even contradictory ones, within individual thinking is proposed as an alternative to synthesis.

Copies of Lois Lowry's novel, 'The Giver,' were given to various reading groups to examine the possibilities for pleasure, sense of community and collective meaning-making among readers when they are engrossed in a single literary work for a prolonged period of time. Among other things, the findings indicate that shared reading of literature breaks down the division between 'schooled' and 'unschooled' practices and identities.

Both Russell and Frege were inclined to think that there is nothing essentially linguistic about thought: any actual reliance of ours upon language is a mere psychological contingency. If so then it should be possible to formulate logic in such a way that logical relationships are not represented or expressed as principles pertaining to linguistic forms. Russell and Frege take pains to achieve this, but fail. I explain this by looking at some features of Grundgesetz and Principia. Their failure, I suggest, is due to the nature of the case., Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege believed thought existed independent of language, and that reliance on language was nothing more than psychological contingency. If that is true, logic could be formulated so that logical relationships do not depend on expression as principles requiring linguistic forms. Russell and Frege erred in their reasoning, due primarily to the nature of the case.

Durac (1997, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 371-372) recently attempted a cognitive analysis of unwanted intrusive thoughts and the growth of facial hair. Though provocative, there are a number of conceptual, methodological and clinical issues that are inadequately addressed by this paper. based on a thorough reading of a relevant body of literature from 1963 to 1994, five issues are addressed in a hirsute manner: (1) the origin of the phenomenon, (2) behavioral analysis of unwanted intrusive thoughts and the growth of facial hair (UIFHG), (3) the role of behavioral exercises in the disappearance of unwanted facial hair, (4) the serotonin connection underlying this disorder, and (5) ethical concerns in the treatment of UIFHG. Finally, important theoretical and clinical implications of the cognitive model are not discussed here: they will be reported elsewhere in a more extensive analysis.

Wide content and individualist approaches to the individuation of thoughts appear to be incompatible; I think they are not. I propose a criterion for the classification of thoughts which captures [...]

It has become very popular among philosophers to attempt to discredit, or at least set severe limits to, the thesis that there exist conceptual schemes radically different from ours. This fashion is misconceived. Philosophers have attempted to justify it in two main ways: by means of arguments which are a priorist relative to the relevant linguistic and textual evidence (and either independent of or based upon positive theories of meaning, understanding, and interpretation); and by means of arguments which are a posteriorist relative to that evidence. The former approach is misconceived, not only in that its particular arguments fail, but also in principle. The latter approach, while in general the fight sort of approach to adopt to the question, arrives at its conclusion only through faulty execution, through misinterpretation of the evidence. Though quite unjustified, philosophers' hostility to the thesis of radically different conceptual schemes is easily explained, namely, in terms of a number of psychologically powerful motives which it subserves. These motives cannot step in to provide the missing justification, however. Instead, they reveal such hostility in an even shadier light.

The current study examined the role of thought suppression in spider phobia. Spider phobic (n = 41) and non-phobic (n = 40) subjects were asked to monitor their thoughts for three 5 min periods. During the first period, all subjects were instructed to 'think about anything'. During the second period, half of the subjects received suppression instructions (i.e., subjects were explicitly asked 'not to think of spiders'), whereas the other half once again received instructions to 'think about anything'. During the third period, all subjects were instructed to 'think about anything'. Spider-related thoughts were monitored on-line. Also, subjects retrospectively estimated the amount of time they had spent thinking about spiders. Overall, spider phobics reported higher levels of spider-related thoughts than non-phobic subjects. Furthermore, phobic subjects tried harder to suppress spider-related thoughts than non-phobic subjects. Finally, although some evidence was found for the counterproductive effects of thought suppression, its contribution to the frequency of spider-related thoughts was minimal.

Three related concepts based on Martin Buber's works were discussed, namely, utopia, education and community. His visions on the interconnectivity of different ideas remain to have relevant applications in transcending the doubts that undermine postmodern social theory., It is a great enigma that in this 'postmodern' era so much attention has been focused on Martin Buber and his work. Why has Buber's thought become ever more central [...]

The increase in corporate ethics initiatives indicates the primacy of moral thinking as an essential managerial attribute. Moral thinking influences corporate fortunes by enhancing the organization's capacity to sustain itself through a web of mutuality. R.M. Hare conceives of different levels and modes of moral thought, such as principled and consequentialist thinking, which helps to coordinate managerial actions in the context of social morality. Intuitive and critical levels of moral thinking are imperative in corporate environments characterized by conflicting claims of business and society.

Ascription of belief utilizing embedded terms of direct reference enables characterization of belief content without precise specification. This upholds the essence of propositionalist theory and also fits individualism and direct reference accounts of belief. Such a quantified relational analysis can be modified by Bertrand Russell's version of individualism, to make a Russellian non-parallelism.

Incompatibilism is the view that privileged knowledge of our own mental states cannot be reconciled with externalism regarding the content of mental states. Davidson has recently developed two arguments that are supposed to disprove incompatibilism and establish the consistency of privileged access and externalism. One argument criticizes incompatibilism for assuming that externalism conflicts with the mind-body identity theory. Since mental states supervene on neurological events, Davidson argues, they are partly 'in the head' and are knowable just by reflection. Another argument rejects incompatibilism by repudiating the object perception model of introspection. Once externalism is freed from the internalist idea that thoughts take objects which are inner epistemological intermediaries, Davidson maintains, it poses no threat to privileged self-knowledge. It is argued that neither of these arguments is successful, since both disprove assumptions irrelevant to incompatibilism. Moreover, it is indicated how Davidson would have to go about defending his positive account of privileged self-knowledge against the principal incompatibilist arguments.