Constructing concepts and word meanings: the role of context and memory traces

The main aim of this thesis is to develop a new account of concepts and word meaning which provides a fully adequate basis for inferential accounts of linguistic communication, while both respecting philosophical insights into the nature of concepts and cohering with empirical findings in psychology on memory processes. In accord with the ‘action’ tradition in linguistic theorising, I maintain that utterance/speaker meaning is more basic than sentence meaning and that the approach to word meaning that naturally follows from this is ‘contextualism’. Contextualism challenges two assumptions of the traditional ‘minimalist’ approach to semantics: (i) that semantics (rather than pragmatics) is the appropriate locus of propositional content (hence truth-conditions); and, (ii) that words contribute stable, context-independent meanings to the sentences in which they appear. I set out two stages in the development of an adequate contextualist account of utterance content. The first provides an essential reformulation of the early insights of Paul Grice by demonstrating the unavoidability of pragmatic contributions to truth-conditional content. The second argues that the ubiquity of context-dependence justifies a radically different view of word meaning from that employed in all current pragmatic theorising, including relevance theory: rather than words expressing concepts or encoding stable meanings of any sort, both concepts and word meanings are constructed ad hoc in the process of on-line communication/interpretation, that is, in their situations of use. Finally, I show how my account of word meaning is supported by recent research in psychology: context-dependence is also rampant in category and concept formation, and multiple-trace memory models show how information distributed in memory across a multitude of previous occasions of language use can come together to build an occasion-specific word meaning, thereby bypassing the need for fixed word meanings

Cold War Crossings: Border Poetics in Postwar German and Polish Literature

Focusing on transborder travel narratives by two German authors and one Polish author, “Cold War Crossings” investigates how their writing responds to the postwar demarcation of separate Eastern and Western spheres of influences. Central to each of their oeuvres is the topos of the border broadly conceived, from the material, ideological, and psychic boundaries of the Iron Curtain to the Saussurean bar of the linguistic sign. By presenting border-crossing as an act of both political and aesthetic transgression, these writers advance uniquely literary alternatives to the rigid geopolitical divisions of their age. This dissertation analyzes the way in which each author’s poetics of the border informs, among other things, their manipulation of narrative structure, their unique employment of figurative language, and their shared proclivity for intertextuality, all of which address and reorient different kinds of textual boundaries. In this way, it is a contribution to the ever-expanding field of border studies and other scholarly investigations of the discursive production of mental maps. At the same time, however, the dissertation argues by way of its three case studies for a closer examination of the formal elements of literary texts that often go overlooked in such analyses. Conceived as an interdisciplinary and comparative study, “Cold War Crossings” seeks to overstep barriers between national literatures as well as disciplines by combining cultural studies, literary criticism, and historical analysis. Furthermore, the dissertation’s joint study of German and Polish literatures also contributes to recent debates on Europe as it counteracts traditional Eurocentric approaches that disregard Eastern Europe

Schema and value: Characterizing the role of the rostral and ventral medial prefrontal cortex in episodic future thinking

As humans we are not stuck in an everlasting present. Instead, we can project ourselves into both our personal past and future. Remembering the past and simulating the future are strongly interrelated processes. They are both supported by largely the same brain regions including the rostral and ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) but also the hippocampus, the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), as well as other regions in the parietal and temporal cortices. Interestingly, this core network for episodic simulation and episodic memory partially overlaps with a brain network for evaluation and value-based decision making. This is particularly the case for the mPFC. This part of the brain has been associated both with a large number of different cognitive functions ranging from the representation of memory schemas and self-referential processing to the representation of value and affect. As a consequence, a unifying account of mPFC functioning has remained elusive. The present thesis investigates the unique contribution of the mPFC to episodic simulation by highlighting its role in the representation of memory schemas and value. In a first functional MRI and pre-registered behavioral replication study, we demonstrate that the mPFC encodes representations of known people as well as of known locations from participants’ everyday life. We demonstrate that merely imagined encounters with liked vs. disliked people at these locations can change our attitude toward the locations. The magnitude of this simulation-induced attitude change was predicted by activation in the mPFC during the simulations. Specifically, locations simulated with liked people exhibited significantly larger increases in liking than those simulated with disliked people. In a second behavioral study, we examined the mechanisms of simulation-based learning more closely. To this end, participants also simulated encounters with neutral people at neutral locations. Using repeated behavioral assessments of participants’ memory representations, we reveal that simulations cause an integration of memory representations for jointly simulated people and locations. Moreover, compared to the neutral baseline condition we demonstrate a transfer of positive valence from liked and of negative valence from disliked people to their paired locations. We also provide evidence that simulations induce an affective experience that aligns with the valence of the person and that this experience can account for the observed attitude change toward the location. In a final fMRI study, we examine the structure of memory representations encoded in the mPFC. Specifically, we provide evidence for the hypothesis that the mPFC encodes schematic representations of our social and physical environment. We demonstrate that representations of individual exemplars of these environments (i.e., individual people and locations) are closely intertwined with a representation of their value. In sum, our findings show that we can learn from imagined experience much as we learn from actual past experience and that the mPFC plays a key role in simulation-based learning. The mPFC encodes information about our environment in value-weighted schematic representations. These representations can account for the overlap of mnemonic and evaluative functions in the mPFC and might play a key role in simulation-based learning. Our results are in line with a view that our memories of the past serve us in ways that are oriented toward the future. Our ability to simulate potential scenarios allows us to anticipate the future consequences of our choices and thereby fosters farsighted decision making. Thus, our findings help to better characterize the functional role of the mPFC in episodic future simulation and valuation

Countertransference as Koinonia

This thesis inquires after the lived-through experience of community in the congregation by the pastoral leader. It is predicated upon the multiple self whose plurality is understood through psychoanalytical and postcolonial theories as well as by developmental processes illumined by interpersonal neurobiology. The phenomenological inquiry into one pastor’s experience of community in the congregation yielded in vivo themes – movement, joy, and open; connect, conflict, and centering; table, hospitality, love, and diversity -- that were understood broadly from the wondering perspective of desire. Closer theoretical analysis of these in vivo themes from theological, psychological, and interpersonal neurobiological conceptual categories was ordered by privileging bottom up experiences – sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts -- of the relational body and its wisdom. This phenomenological description of community engages two differing but related theological understandings of community or koinonia. The first such understanding is from a Neo-orthodox Protestant perspective that emphasizes an asymmetrical ordering of divine and human relatedness through the Holy Spirit. In this framework that draws upon and innovates from Karl Barth, koinonia is reconciliation, where human and divine coinhere in interlocking relationships. The spirited paradox of human-divine presence, action, and agency joins with relational insights of the emotional body in community or the second understanding of koinonia. Of particular importance in this particular conversation is how new understandings emerge around embodied and conceptual realities of trust and truth; witness and participation; time and power; and freedom. The engagement of these realities in the second understanding of koinonia is from a liberation theological perspective that privileges the suffering body and its emotional wisdom from a stance of relational integration. The interplay of Neo-orthodox Protestant and liberation theologies provides for the proposal that koinonia is the emotional coinherence of relational bodies. Thus, the unconscious relational dimensions of experienced emotion, that is, countertransference, are constitutive of koinonia. The in vivo themes flesh out the significance and implications of countertransference as koinonia

A collaborative approach for disaster risk reduction: mapping social learning with Mistawasis Nêhiyawak

Social learning and its relation to disaster risk reduction (DRR) have been increasingly highlighted in the literature. Yet, limited empirical research has hampered practical DRR applications. This thesis demonstrated social learning loops and their outcomes by reflecting on the case of 2011 flooding in Mistawasis Nêhiyawak. Using a mixed-methods research design, I explored the role of participatory processes, including communication of scientific knowledge to lay-experts, in social learning. First, I created flood extent maps for the community using spatial data and modeling techniques. In the second phase, I presented the maps in a workshop held at the community center to understand their value in regard to what people learn from them. This included deliberating not only about physical parameters of the flood but also exploring the social (and human) parameters. Hence, I used fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) as a novel method to represent the human perception of flood risk and to measure social learning. In the workshop, FCM was complemented by focus group discussions and participatory mapping. From the results, it was found that i) social learning can be measured using social sciences tools, ii) sharing experiences and stories from past events augmented learning, and iii) awareness on the role of emergency planning in DRR was found to be a significant outcome of social learning. In the growing urgency of climate uncertainties, social learning theory will be critical in helping design practical and ethical research approaches to DRR that emphasize knowledge sharing, two-way communication, and reflexivity. These will ultimately have enhanced emphasis on behavioral responses to disasters that are complementary to the investments in structural responses

Understanding the entrepreneur as socially constructed.

The objective of this thesis, which combines two levels of analysis, is to explore the entrepreneur as a social construct and the socially constructed nature of entrepreneurship. It builds upon a limited number of extant studies considering the socially constructed nature of entrepreneurship by focusing upon achieving a Verstehen' of these 'constructions' as articulated in stories; thereby enhancing conceptual understanding. It achieves this by concentrating upon the key issues of constructionism, namely narrative and identity; and by triangulating these by using a qualitative approach and a variety of methodologies. These include social constructionism, semiotic analysis, biographical analysis, in-depth interviews, content analysis and action research. This approach is justified because, despite an increasing body of research into aspects entrepreneurial, our basic understanding of the many social facets which influence our perception of the entrepreneur remains unclear. Clarity of definition often eludes us, although we can describe and explain it in context. Consequentially, such constructions are subjective, descriptive, often nebulous and heavily reliant upon stereotype. By examining interrelated social constructs such as gender, class and ethnicity, which are embedded in and influenced by other constructs such as childhood, family, society, culture and so on this thesis extends our knowledge of entrepreneurial process. It allows us to understand subjective issues such as ethics, value, morality, legitimacy, traits, character and personality which become visible when articulated via narrative forms and storytelling mechanisms of myth, metaphor and fable. The findings suggest that our perception of entrepreneurs may owe more to narrative convention than to the lived experience of entrepreneurs. The review of academic literature, novels (fiction), biographies, autobiographies, newspaper articles, and a semiotic analysis of images and photographs associated with the entrepreneur found that although entrepreneurs are eulogised, not all practice moral entrepreneurship - thus signalling the many forms and functions of entrepreneurship, including the immoral, amoral and criminal. In identifying a universal storybook formula the thesis shows how entrepreneurial practice is influenced by heroic stereotyping and how entrepreneurship can be understood as a communicational construct; a living, evolving narrative; and enacted story. This formula spans different media with a consistency of themes and elements which demonstrates its socially constructed nature. The multi-methodology allows one to develop deeper understanding. The contribution of this thesis is the exploration of the philosophical, ideological and epistemological issues underpinning the ontology of entrepreneurship. This thesis by adapting a process of deconstructionism, analysis and reconstruction contributes by adopting a holistic approach uniting the constructionist and Verstehen' approaches as a heuristic tool through which to achieve a greater understanding of entrepreneurship as a socio-behavioural process. Moreover it considers entrepreneurial narrative as socially mediated behavioural scripts constructed from a wide range of inter-disciplinary knowledge best understood when assembled and read as a process. In taking cognisance of the individual entrepreneur as a person and in then examining psychological, sociological, demographic and linguistic factors affecting the application of entrepreneurship, the thesis maps entrepreneurial process as socially constructed. Mapping how social constructionism shapes perception necessitates looking at the practices and processes which constitute it as a socially negotiated interaction. This thesis extends knowledge of how social constructions are formed and perpetuated in society and displays originality by focusing on how social construction impact on the entrepreneurial process. The entrepreneur is often encountered in a literary format as a heroic male personage. Masculine ideology, rhetoric, mythology, and doxa reinforce this message marginalising female entrepreneurs with whom the construction may not resonate. Entrepreneurs are presented as 'likeable rogues' a perception reinforced by a semiotic pictorial format of 'bad boys' embedded in images of masculinity, class and criminality. This thesis bridges many theoretical approaches to entrepreneurship by using narrative and communication techniques to reveal how academic conceptualisations adhere to but differ from more popular concepts. The research develops a practical narrative based theory of entrepreneurship. This study presents the socially constructed nature of entrepreneurial knowledge and process in a way not done before. However, its most substantial contribution is that it takes the notion of entrepreneurial narrative, discourse, and constructions to a new level in taking cognisance of the plethora of plots, sub-plots and storylines which constitute the socially constructed narrative that is entrepreneurship

Literature and “Interregnum”: Globalization, War and the Crisis of Sovereignty in Latin America

Accepted manuscript, post print versionLiterature and “Interregnum” looks at late 20th- and early 21st-century literary responses to neoliberal-administered globalization and its impact on the conceptual vocabularies of political and aesthetic modernity in Latin America’s Southern Cone and Mexico. The book endeavors to establish dialogues between literature and a range of theoretical perspectives, including Continental philosophy (Aristotle, Leibnitz, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Derrida, Nancy, Agamben, Schürmann, Thayer), political thought (Hobbes, Marx, Benjamin, Schmitt, Gramsci, Jameson, Laclau, Rancière, Virno, Galli), psychoanalysis (Freud, Lacan), and sociology of globalization (Harvey, Sassen). Through juxtaposition of the methods and sensibilities proper to these traditions of inquiry I explore two related hypotheses

The transformational potential of 'aha' moments in life coaching and beyond

"Aha" moments of insight are considered fundamental to personal transformational but the phenomenology of insight and intuition are poorly understood phenomena (Levitt et ai, 2004). Life coaching has little to say on the subject since the body of literature relating to coaching is still in its foetal stages (Griffiths, 2005). This research addresses both of these problems by exploring whether "Aha" moments are fundamental to the transformational change sought by the "Co-Active" model of life coaching (Whitworth et ai, 1998, 2007). A grounded theory methodology was employed to investigate the phenomenology of insight. Participants were selected for their use of the Co-Active coaching model and their willingness to render phenomenological accounts of "Aha" moments. Co-Active coaches and their clients recorded their experiences of insight during coaching sessions. Methods involved diary-keeping, questionnaires and interviews. Diaries captured the lived experience of the "Aha" moment while questionnaires and interviews revealed its lingering effects on beliefs and behaviours. Each phase of data collection informed the next. By comparing the findings of this research with other fields of inquiry into insight, an integral methodological element was added to the grounded approach. Findings reveal the "Aha" moment to induce 'alethia' the Greek term meaning to step out of lethargy and into truth. The moment can be experienced not only cognitively but somatically and emotionally, striking many chords across a spectrum of consciousness from body, to mind, to soul to spirit The more chords the "Aha" moment strikes, the greater the resonance and potential for cognitive and behavioural change. Findings suggest that insight comes from intuition and can arise in cognition as a purely mental event or can be experienced in transpersonal ways, where such intuition is described as 'spiritual'. The study suggests that the ontology of a truly holistic coaching model would offer the possibility of transformational change at the levels of ego, mind, body, soul and spirit