Department of Philosophy

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Open Access
Abnormal subcortical activity in congenital mirror movement disorder with RAD51 mutation
(Turkish Society of Radiology, 2018) Demirayak, Pınar; Onat, Onur Emre; Gevrekci, A. Ö.; Gülsüner, S.; Uysal, H.; Bilgen, R.; Doerschner, Katja; Özçelik, Tayfun; Boyacı, Hüseyin
PURPOSE Congenital mirror movement disorder (CMMD) is characterized by unintended, nonsuppressible, homologous mirroring activity contralateral to the movement on the intended side of the body. In healthy controls, unilateral movements are accompanied with predominantly contralateral cortical activity, whereas in CMMD, in line with the abnormal behavior, bilateral cortical activity is observed for unilateral motor tasks. However, task-related activities in subcortical structures, which are known to play critical roles in motor actions, have not been investigated in CMMD previously. METHODS We investigated the functional activation patterns of the motor components in CMMD patients. By using linkage analysis and exome sequencing, common mutations were revealed in seven affected individuals from the same family. Next, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we investigated cortical and subcortical activity during manual motor actions in two right-handed affected brothers and sex, age, education, and socioeconomically matched healthy individuals. RESULTS Genetic analyses revealed heterozygous RAD51 c.401C>T mutation which cosegregated with the phenotype in two affected members of the family. Consistent with previous literature, our fMRI results on these two affected individuals showed that mirror movements were closely related to abnormal cortical activity in M1 and SMA during unimanual movements. Furthermore, we have found previously unknown abnormal task-related activity in subcortical structures. Specifically, we have found increased and bilateral activity during unimanual movements in thalamus, striatum, and globus pallidus in CMMD patients. CONCLUSION These findings reveal further neural correlates of CMMD, and may guide our understanding of the critical roles of subcortical structures for unimanual movements in healthy individuals.
Open Access
Akaike and the No Miracle Argument for scientific realism
(Cambridge University Press, 2023-08-03) Fatollahi, Alireza; McCullagh, M.
The “No Miracle Argument” for scientific realism contends that the only plausible explanation for the predictive success of scientific theories is their truthlikeness, but doesn’t specify what ‘truthlikeness’ means. I argue that if we understand ‘truthlikeness’ in terms of Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, the resulting realist thesis (RKL) is a plausible explanation for science’s success. Still, RKL probably falls short of the realist’s ideal. I argue, however, that the strongest version of realism that the argument can plausibly establish is RKL. The realist needs another argument for establishing a stronger realist thesis.
Open Access
Ambivalence for cognitivists: a lesson from chrysippus?
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2017) Wringe, B.
Ambivalence—where we experience two conflicting emotional responses to the same object, person or state of affairs—is sometimes thought to pose a problem for cognitive theories of emotion. Drawing on the ideas of the Stoic Chrysippus, I argue that a cognitivist can account for ambivalence without retreating from the view that emotions involve fully-fledged evaluative judgments. It is central to the account I offer that emotions involve two kinds of judgment: one about the object of emotion, and one about the subject's response.
Open Access
"And they had a big, big, very long fight:" The development of evaluative language in preschoolers' oral fictional stories told in a peer-group context
(Cambridge University Press, 2021-04) Nicolopoulou, Ageliki; Ilgaz, Hande; Shiro, Marta; Hsin, Lisa B.
This study examined the development of evaluative language in preschoolers' oral fictional narratives using a storytelling/story-acting practice where children told stories to and for their friends. Evaluative language orients the audience to the teller's cognitive and emotional engagement with a story's events and characters, and we hypothesized that this STSA context might yield new information about the early development of this language, prior to elementary school. We analyzed 60 stories: the first and last story told by 10 children in each of three preschool classrooms (3-, 4-, and 5-year-old classes) that used STSA throughout the school year. Stories were coded for evaluative expressions and evidential expressions. Five-year-olds used significantly more evaluative language than did 3-year-olds, and children at all ages used significantly more evaluative language at the end than at the beginning of the year. The number of stories told throughout the year explained unique variance in children's evaluative language growth.
Open Access
Are there expressive constraints on incarceration?
(Routledge, 2017) Wringe, Bill; Surprenant, C. W.
Open Access
Aristotle on the naturalness of death from old age
(Akdeniz Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi, 2018) Kıymaz, Tufan
In this work, I explore and critically evaluate Aristotle’s views on the naturalness of dying from old age. His views are not straightforward, because Aristotle regards old age as a kind of decay and he talks about decay sometimes as natural and sometimes as unnatural. Nature, according to Aristotle, has two aspects, matter and form. I argue that, in Aristotle’s system, decay is always materially natural but formally unnatural. Likewise, natural death is death caused by old age and although getting old is never formally natural, it is, in a particular sense, materially natural. In Aristotle’s view, getting old does not have the same mechanism as inorganic decay such as wine’s turning into vinegar, but it is a result of the materially natural decay of lungs, which leads to the exhaustion of the vital heat in the heart.
Open Access
Assertion, denial, content, and (logical) form
(Springer Netherlands, 2016) Woods, J.
I discuss Greg Restall’s attempt to generate an account of logical consequence from the incoherence of certain packages of assertions and denials. I take up his justification of the cut rule and argue that, in order to avoid counterexamples to cut, he needs, at least, to introduce a notion of logical form. I then suggest a few problems that will arise for his account if a notion of logical form is assumed. I close by sketching what I take to be the most natural minimal way of distinguishing content and form and suggest further problems arising for this route. © 2015, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
Open Access
Assessing the association between Corporate Financial Influence and implementation of policies to tackle commercial determinants of non-communicable diseases: A cross-sectional analysis of 172 countries
(Elsevier Ltd, 2021-02-22) Allen, Luke N.; Wigley, Simon Drummond; Holmer, Hampus
Objective: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of global death and disability. Tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy foods are major contributing risk factors. WHO Member States have unanimously endorsed a set of 12 policies designed to constrain the sale of these commodities, however, there are myriad case studies of commercial entities seeking to undermine effective legislation in order to protect their profits. We set out to quantify the association between corporate financial influence and implementation of commercial policies. Methods: We generated policy implementation scores for all 194 WHO Member States using data from the 2015, 2017, and 2020 WHO NCD Progress Monitor Reports. We used publicly available data to create a novel Corporate Financial Influence Index (CFII) that quantifies the opportunity for corporations to use their financial resources to directly influence policymaking in each country. We reported policy implementation trends over time and used random effects multivariate regression to test the association between policy implementation and CFII for each country, while controlling for broad set of economic, cultural, historical, geographic, and demographic factors. Findings: Implementation of the 12 WHO-backed commercial policies has risen over time, but remains low at approximately 40%. Progress is reversing for alcohol policies. CFII explains around a fifth of the variance in global implementation. For every 10% rise in CFII, implementation falls by approximately 2% (95%CI 0.90 to 3.5, p < 0.001). Conclusion: Our quantitative global analysis suggests that financial corporate influence is negatively associated with implementation of policies that seek to restrict the marketing, sale, and consumption of unhealthy (but profitable) commodities. In the context of anemic international progress tackling NCDs, greater attention should be paid to managing regulatory opportunities for overt and covert corporate financial influence as a core plank of the global NCD response. © 2022 The Authors
Open Access
An associationist bias explains different processing demands for toddlers in different traditional false-belief task
(Karger, 2020) Fenici, Marco; Garofoli, D.
Open Access
Attempts
(Springer Netherlands, 2021-06-14) Payton, Jonathan D.
It’s generally assumed that, if an agent x acts by ϕ-ing, then there occurs an event which is x’s ϕ-ing. But what about when an agent tries to do something? Are there such things as attempts? The standard answer is ‘Yes’. But in a series of articles, and now a book, David-Hillel Ruben has argued that the answer is ‘No’: what happens when x tries to ϕ isn’t that an attempt occurs; rather, what happens is simply that a certain subjunctive conditional fact obtains; x tries to ϕ just in case, had all the necessary conditions for success obtained, x would have intentionally ϕ-ed. I defend the existence of attempts. Following Ruben, I frame the issue in terms of the logical form of trying sentences (i.e. sentences which report that an agent tried to do such-and-such). Against Ruben’s view that such sentences express subjunctive conditionals, I argue that they express existential quantifications over attempts qua events. Thus, trying sentences are true only if attempts qua events exist.
Open Access
Austin, Kersten, and the model of sovereignty
(Cambridge University Press, 2011) Vinx, L.
Open Access
Autocratisation and universal health coverage: synthetic control study
(BMJ Publishing Group, 2020) Wigley, Simon; Dieleman, J. L.; Templin, T.; Mumford, J. E.; Bollyky, T. J.
Objective: To assess the relation between autocratisation—substantial decreases in democratic traits (free and fair elections, freedom of civil and political association, and freedom of expression)—and countries’ population health outcomes and progress toward universal health coverage (UHC). Design: Synthetic control analysis. Setting and country selection: Global sample of countries for all years from 1989 to 2019, split into two categories: 17 treatment countries that started autocratising during 2000 to 2010, and 119 control countries that never autocratised from 1989 to 2019. The treatment countries comprised low and middle income nations and represent all world regions except North America and western Europe. A weighted combination of control countries was used to construct synthetic controls for each treatment country. This statistical method is especially well suited to population level studies when random assignment is infeasible and sufficiently similar comparators are not available. The method was originally developed in economics and political science to assess the impact of policies and events, and it is now increasingly used in epidemiology. Main outcome measures: HIV-free life expectancy at age 5 years, UHC effective coverage index (0-100 point scale), and out-of-pocket spending on health per capita. All outcome variables are for the period 1989 to 2019. Results: Autocratising countries underperformed for all three outcome variables in the 10 years after the onset of autocratisation, despite some improvements in life expectancy, UHC effective coverage index, and out-of-pocket spending on health. On average, HIV-free life expectancy at age 5 years increased by 2.2% (from 64.7 to 66.1 years) during the 10 years after the onset of autocratisation. This study estimated that it would have increased by 3.5% (95% confidence interval 3.3% to 3.6%, P<0.001) (from 64.7 to 66.9 years) in the absence of autocratisation. On average, the UHC effective coverage index increased by 11.9% (from 42.5 to 47.6 points) during the 10 years after the onset of autocratisation. This study estimated that it would have increased by 20.2% (95% confidence interval 19.6% to 21.2%, P<0.001) (from 42.5 to 51.1 points) in the absence of autocratisation. Finally, on average, out-of-pocket spending on health per capita increased by 10.0% (from $4.00 (£3.1; €3.4) to $4.4, log transformed) during the 10 years after the onset of autocratisation. This study estimated that it would have increased by only 4.4% (95% confidence interval 3.9% to 4.6%, P<0.001) (from $4.0 to $4.2, log transformed) in the absence of autocratisation. Conclusions: Autocratising countries had worse than estimated life expectancy, effective health service coverage, and levels of out-of-pocket spending on health. These results suggest that the noticeable increase in the number of countries that are experiencing democratic erosion in recent years is hindering population health gains and progress toward UHC. Global health institutions will need to adjust their policy recommendations and activities to obtain the best possible results in those countries with a diminishing democratic incentive to provide quality healthcare to populations.
Open Access
Automaticity, consciousness and moral responsibility
(2007) Wigley, S.
Cognitive scientists have long noted that automated behavior is the rule, while conscious acts of self-regulation are the exception to the rule. On the face of it, automated actions appear to be immune to moral appraisal because they are not subject to conscious control. Conventional wisdom suggests that sleepwalking exculpates, while the mere fact that a person is performing a well-versed task unthinkingly does not. However, our apparent lack of conscious control while we are undergoing automaticity challenges the idea that there is a relevant moral difference between these two forms of unconscious behavior. In both cases the agent lacks access to information that might help them guide their actions so as to avoid harms. In response, it is argued that the crucial distinction between the automatic agent and the agent undergoing an automatism, such as somnambulism or petit mal epilepsy, lies in the fact that the former can preprogram the activation and interruption of automatic behavior. Given that, it is argued that there is elbowroom for attributing responsibility to automated agents based on the quality of their will.
Open Access
Autonomy, divinity, and the common good: Selflessness as a source of freedom in thomas hill green and mary augusta ward
(Routledge, 2018) Fessenbecker, Patrick; Berges, Sandrine; Siani, A. L.
An often-mentioned marker of the influence of British Idealism at the end of the 19th century is the best-selling novel of 1888, Mrs Humphry (Mary Augusta) Ward’s Robert Elsmere, which draws heavily on Idealist themes and is usually understood as a popularization of T. H. Green’s view. Yet Ward deserves credit as a thinker in her own right, particularly for her creativity in explicating one of the most difficult components of Green’s view: the idea that we can only realize ourselves through certain kinds of relationships with each other. In Robert Elsmere, Ward tells the story of a disaffected clergyman who finds a new outlet for his religious energy in the thought of “Mr. Grey,” a philosopher who helps Robert to see each individual religion as a step in the progression in the realization of the Divine Spirit. But the novel pairs this trajectory with the story of two women: Robert’s wife Catherine and Catherine’s sister Rose, both of whom struggle with the role of religion in their lives and with Robert’s newfound mission. Through her portrayal of their psychological struggles, Ward questions whether the consensus about the good Green’s theory requires for autonomy is in fact actually attainable.
Open Access
Baker’s theory of material constitution and thinking things into existence
(University of Warsaw, Institute of Philosophy, 2018) Kiymaz, Tufan
The paper provides a critical evaluation of Lynne Rudder Baker’s nonmereological theory of material constitution in light of the “thinking into existence” objection, formulated by Theodore Sider and Dean W. Zimmerman. Although Baker responds to it, she focuses on its specific versions presented by Sider and Zimmerman and does not address the source of the problem. Baker maintains that beliefs, social practices, and conventions can bring a new intention-dependent object into existence. However, as I argue, the thinking into existence objection shows that constituted objects, if there are any, are ontologically independent of beliefs, social practices, and conventions. In fact, Baker’s theory doesn’t give us any reason for believing that intentiondependent objects are any more real than fictional objects.
Open Access
Basic education and capability development in Turkey
(Waxmann Publishing, 2008) Akkoyunlu-Wigley, A.; Wigley, Simon; Nohl, A. M.; Akkoyunlu-Wigley, A.; Wigley, Simon
Open Access
Basic income and the problem of cumulative misfortune
(Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2006) Wigley, S.
This paper defends a regularly paid basic income as being better equipped to tackle unfair inequalities of outcome. It is argued that the timing of "option-luck" failures â€“ in particular, whether they occur early in a lifetime of calculated gambles, and whether they are clustered together â€“ may lead to a form of "brute bad luck," referred to as "cumulative misfortune." A basic income that is paid on a regular basis provides a way to prevent the emergence of cumulative misfortune, because the basic income at least partially replenishes the individual's ability to take the next calculated gamble. The upshot of this is a nonpaternalistic justification for an unconditional basic income that is paid regularly and is nonmortgageable. This has an important bearing on the debate between those who advocate a one-off endowment at the start of adult life and those who advocate a basic income paid regularly throughout one's life. The paper contends that a regular basic income represents a superior social policy because it prevents the emergence of cumulative misfortune, rather than belatedly attempting to compensate for its effects during our senior years.
Open Access
Beyond neonatal imitation: aerodigestive stereotypies, speech development, and social interaction in the extended perinatal period
(Cambridge University Press, 2017) Keven, N.
In our target article, we argued that the positive results of neonatal imitation are likely to be by-products of normal aerodigestive development. Our hypothesis elicited various responses on the role of social interaction in infancy, the methodological issues about imitation experiments and the relation between the aerodigestive theory and the development of speech. Here we respond to the commentaries.
Open Access
Body, skill, and look: Is bodybuilding a sport?
(Springer Netherlands, 2018) Aranyosi, István
I argue that bodybuilding should not qualify as a sport, given that at the competition stage it lacks an essential feature of sports, namely, skillful activity. Based on the classic distinction between Leib (the lived body) and Körper (the objective body) in phenomenology, I argue that bodybuilding competition’s sole purpose is to present the Körper, whereas sports are about manifestations of Leib. I consider several objections to this analysis, after which I conclude that bodybuilding is an endeavor closer to both beauty competitions and classical sculpture rather than to any other known sports.
Open Access
Cameades
(Ashgate Publishing, 2005) Bowe, Geoff S.; O'Grady, P. F.