Awareness of universals

Book synopsis: The work of Mark Sainsbury has made a significant and challenging contribution to several central areas of philosophy, especially philosophy of language and logic. He has made significant contributions to puzzles concerning the nature of thought and language and pioneered research in the philosophical theory known as fictionalism. In this outstanding volume, twenty contributors engage with Sainsbury's work but also go beyond it, exploring fundamental problems in the philosophy of language, mind and logic. Topics covered include propositional thought, intentionality, the mind-body problem, singular thoughts, the individuation of concepts, nominalisation, logical form, non-existent objects and vagueness. Thought: Its Origin and Reach will be of interest to professional philosophers and students working in philosophy of mind, language, epistemology, and metaphysics

The roles of sensory hyperreactivity and hyporeactivity in understanding infant fearfulness and emerging autistic traits

Background: Existing evidence indicates that atypical sensory reactivity is a core characteristic of autism, and has been linked to both anxiety (and its putative infant precursor of fearfulness) and repetitive behaviours. However, most work has used cross-sectional designs and not considered the differential roles of hyperreactivity and hyporeactivity to sensory inputs, and is thus limited in specificity. Methods:161 infants with and without an elevated likelihood of developing autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were followed from 10-36 months of age. Parents rated an infant precursor of later anxiety (fearfulness) using the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire at 10 and 14 months, and the Early Childhood Behavioural Questionnaire at 24 months, and sensory hyperreactivity and hyporeactivity at 10, 14 and 24 months using the Infant Toddler Sensory Profile. Domains of autistic traits (restrictive and repetitive behaviours; RRB, and social communication interaction, SCI) were assessed using the parent-rated Social Responsiveness Scale at 36 months. Cross-lagged models tested 1) paths between fearfulness and hyperreactivity at 10-24-months, and from fearfulness and hyperreactivity to later autism traits, 2) the specificity of hyperreactivity effects by including hyporeactivity as a correlated predictor. Results: Hyperreactivity at 14 months was positively associated with fearfulness at 24 months, and hyperreactivity at 24 months was positively associated with SCI and RRB at 36 months. When hyporeactivity was included in the model, paths between hyperreactivity and fearfulness remained, but paths between hyperreactivity and autistic traits became non-significant. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that alterations in early sensory reactivity may increase the likelihood of showing fearfulness in infancy, and relate to later social interactions and repetitive behaviours, particularly in individuals with a family history of autism or ADHD

Rusting Away (or: packing the entire Crossref database into a SQLite file)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working to pack the entire Crossref database into a distributable SQLite file. While this sounds somewhat insane – the resulting file is 900GB – it’s quite a cool project for, say, embedded systems work in situations where no internet connection is available. It also provides speedy local indexed lookups, working faster than the internet-dependent API ever could

Postcolonial hauntings in riverine London: conviviality and melancholia

In his 2000 book, Between Camps, and its 2005 follow-up, Postcolonial Melancholia, Paul Gilroy described postcolonial melancholia – a failure to mourn the loss of imperial prestige – and conviviality – the messy and banal navigation of fractally complex but increasingly less meaningful lines of difference in the city – as two opposing but related characteristics of the British urban experience at the dawn of the century. Nowhere is the more evident than in the neighbourhoods of riverine East London, whose identity and urban morphology have been shaped by the river running through them: upriver to the heart of the imperial metropolis and downriver to Britain’s extensive colonies and postcolonies. In these long-standing arrival quarters, two structures of feeling exist in tension with each other: a mode of lament expressing a form of morbid attachment to the perceived greatness of the imperial age, whose ghostly afterlife is etched in the monumental architecture of London’s boroughs and inscribed in the names of its streets and buildings – and on the other hand a fragile emergent form of convivial co-existence, which finds resonance in alternative narratives of the imperial past. This article addresses these issues through data from long-standing research engagement with Bermondsey and Deptford on the Thames’ southern shore and Barking on its northern shore

Introduction to special issue on coexistence with Reptiles

Coexistence with reptiles? Surely a preposterous idea! For the common perception of reptiles is that they are primitive life forms, cold-blooded, anti-social, emotionless, vicious and not infrequently dangerous. Well, in this special issue we show that coexistence between particular human communities and particular reptiles exists. We suggest there is something to be learned about what is possible, to widen the bandwidth of what is conceivable concerning communities of humans and of reptiles sharing the same landscapes. The introduction focuses on two major topics. First, the nature of reptiles and the sorry (but improving) state of the study of reptiles and perceptions of their capabilities. Second, on what we mean by coexistence with wildlife, and how studying coexistence might improve our civility to other kinds of creatures in the future

Theses on the Metaphors of Digital-Textual History

Contemporary computing is saturated with physical metaphor and analogy. It is a virtual space of web sites, of windows, of menus, of icons, and of pointers. There is a clear reason for such a prevalence of metaphor in this world. The metaphorical trope of relation provides a way for new users to imagine how a digital interface might work with respect to its physical correlate. This has been thought as true in the digital reading world as elsewhere. Theses on the Metaphors of Digital-Textual History, however, exposes the weakness of our digital-textual, material metaphors. This book tackles and rewrites the most common assumption in UI design: that user interface designs for digital reading and writing are mentally constrained by and designed to mimic physical correlates. Conducting a new media archaeology of several digital forms – from pagination, whitespace, virtual typography, keyboards, directionality, and dimensionality, to technical protection measures – this book revises our understanding of material path dependencies, which are often erroneous or misplaced

Validity, Reliability, and Cross-Cultural Comparability of a Problematic Overstudying Scale across European, North American, and Asian countries

Problematic overstudying has been conceptualized as a potential addictive disorder and an early form of work addiction. Previous studies have shown that it is a different phenomenon from healthy learning engagement and is associated with considerable functional impairments. A valid, reliable, and convenient screening measure is warranted to provide cross-culturally comparable and generalizable findings, particularly from large epidemiological studies. The seven-item Bergen Study Addiction Scale (BStAS), based on an addiction framework, was administered alongside learning engagement and anxiety measures in a total sample of 5,884 university students from three continents and five countries: India, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and the United States. The modified five-item version of the scale showed measurement invariance across countries and between genders and allowed for meaningful cross-cultural and gender comparisons. Scores on the BStAS were positively associated with learning engagement, anxiety, and female gender across countries. Clinically significant anxiety levels occurred about 1.7 times more often among students who scored above the cutoff for study addiction. It is concluded that the five-item BStAS is a valid, reliable scale that can be used in different cultures and provides comparable and generalizable results. Future studies with the BStAS may provide greater insight into the nature of problematic overstudying. Paweł A. , Edyta , Aleksandra , Stanisław K. , Mark D. , Anna , Shanmukh , Zuzanna , Halley M. Pontes, Jacob , Steve , Natalia A. & Stål

The gods of Dura-Europos

From the worship of local Syrian protector gods to Christianity, many different religions flourished in the cosmopolitan crossroads city of Dura-Europos. Jen Baird brings us face to face with the diverse divine through the art of this ancient site