Neural correlates of conscious and unconscious perception of self-faces

Priority of the “Self” is thought to be evolutionarily advantageous. However, evidence for this priority has been sparse. Capitalizing on a recently developed experimental tool (masked priming), able to reveal unconscious processes, I present new empirical data supporting, and further characterizing, the notion of self-specificity

4. Epidemics, Regulations, and Aristotle's Physics of Motion

The current polarization in public debate surrounding governmental regulatory responses to the Covid-19 pandemic is often portrayed as conflict between individual freedom and state control. A recurrent trope has been the likening of regulation in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to the condition described in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, where citizens forego their individual freedom in exchange for protection by a mighty sovereign. In this sense, regulations introduced in response to the current pandemic have been viewed as threatening to expand state power and limit individual freedom. Whilst recognizing that epidemic-related regulations raise issues of state control and individual freedom, and hence resonate with Hobbes’s political theory, here I suggest that the polarization in this public debate also subtends epistemic uncertainty, and struggle over the locus of authority for knowledge and the relation of knowledge to action. In this respect, Hobbes is relevant to the current pandemic-debate also (and perhaps most significantly) for his reflection on human knowledge and action. Elements of Hobbes’s understanding of knowledge, as well as of the relation between knowledge and action, imply casting the human intellect in physical terms, and in particular in terms compatible with the Aristotelian physics of natural motion. I then bring this historical point to bear upon the current debate surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, to suggest that the Hobbesian physics-inflected account of knowledge may offer a relevant—perhaps speculative, yet conceptually grounded and historically informed—perspective from which to reflect upon and responsibly assess, (dis)approve of, comply with, or challenge epidemic-related regulations. Keywords: Epidemic, Epidemic-related regulations, Hobbes, Bacon, Aristotle, Physic

3. The Non-Orientability of the Mechanical in Thomas Carlyle’s Early Essays

Thomas Carlyle’s early writings epitomise the critical stance towards the utilitarian culture of the age, which Carlyle condemns for glorifying the ‘outward’, i.e. the physical world of machinery, governed by automaticity and mechanical principles, at the expense of the ‘inward’, i.e. the spiritual realm of the human individual, whose hallmarks are instead free volition and agency, and to which automaticity and mechanical principles are foreign. By the 19th century, however, the distinction between human and machine was becoming increasingly problematic. Drawing from Thomas Carlyle’s essays “Signs of the Times” (1829) and “Characteristics” (1831), and from earlier physiological texts with which they engage—chiefly David Hartley’s Observations on Man (1749)—, I explore the tension between the understanding of the human in terms of free will and agency, and the physiological evidence that human thought and behaviour are partly automatic. I argue that the understanding of human nature as partly automatic destabilises Carlyle’s categories of ‘outward’ and ‘inward’ by disrupting their underlying assumption of a clear boundary between man and machine based on their functioning (the latter) or not (the former) according to mechanical principles, entailing instead a fluid connotation whereby the ‘mechanical’ is defined as much by identification with the ‘human’ as in opposition to it. I conclude by offering a geometric illustration of the destabilised inward-outward boundary through the metaphor of non-orientable surfaces (e.g. Möbius strip and Klein bottle), in which it is impossible to distinguish an inside and an outside.

Fair Value Measurement: What’s New? Teaching Note

As the international economic landscape has become increasingly integrated, the argument for the development of uniform global accounting standards now exists. In an effort to achieve this objective, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, as part of the ongoing Convergence Project with the International Accounting Standards Board, released groundbreaking accounting standards, FAS157 & FAS159, in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Modeled after an international accounting standard, these standards pertain to the use of fair value accounting (FVA), and are the first of their kind as they provide a definition of FVA and an option to expand its use to certain financial instruments. While FVA has been argued to enhance financial reporting, there has also been significant controversy as to its application and ambiguity. The focus of this teaching note is to discuss FVA’s application to assets and liabilities, and to present the various effects that the election of the FV Option may have on an entity’s financial statements

Fair Value Accounting: Affect On The Auditing Profession

During this period of global markets, multinational corporations are demanding financial accounting standards with enhanced uniformity. In an effort to achieve this objective, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have been working together on the Convergence Project, aiming to develop accounting standards that closely correlate with international financial reporting standards.  In September 2006 and February 2007, the FASB issued two key fair value accounting (FVA) standards which focused on providing guidelines for fair value measurement (through a classification hierarchy), expanding disclosure requirements, and also allowing business entities to increase FVA’s application.  However, the recent financial crisis has placed increased scrutiny on estimates derived under FVA.  Consequently, a spotlight has been placed on the auditing profession, as the effectiveness of an auditor’s ability to test estimates derived under FVA has been questioned due to numerous firms approaching collapse in the midst of the credit crisis.  Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present the challenges auditors face when auditing FV estimates, and to discuss the profession’s capability of adapting to FVA in the future.&nbsp

Fair Value Accounting: Affect on the Auditing Profession

During this period of global markets, multinational corporations are demanding financial accounting standards with enhanced uniformity. In an effort to achieve this objective, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have been working together on the Convergence Project, aiming to develop accounting standards that closely correlate with international financial reporting standards. In September 2006 and February 2007, the FASB issued two key fair value accounting (FVA) standards which focused on providing guidelines for fair value measurement (through a classification hierarchy), expanding disclosure requirements, and also allowing business entities to increase FVA\u27s application. However, the recent financial crisis has placed increased scrutiny on estimates derived under FVA. Consequently, a spotlight has been placed on the auditing profession, as the effectiveness of an auditor\u27s ability to test estimates derived under FVA has been questioned due to numerous firms approaching collapse in the midst of the credit crisis. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to present the challenges auditors face when auditing FV estimates, and to discuss the profession\u27s capability of adapting to FVA in the future

Interpreting Financial Results

The article discusses three accounting changes issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FSAB). The Statement of Financial Accounting Standards (SFAS) No. 158 Employers\u27 Accounting for Defined Benefit Pension and Other Retirement Plans and the SFAS No. 160 Noncontrolling Interests in Consolidated Financial Statements are mentioned. Financial Interpretation 48 Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes, an Interpretation of FSAB Statement No. 109 is mentioned. The takeaway? Financial analysts, investors, and creditors need to carefully interpret ratios and measures, including debt to equity, liabilities to equity, and return on equity. Financial ratios used in loan covenants should be clearly designed and defined, and, in some cases, equity may be more meaningfully defined as adjusted for certain changes in other comprehensive income

Restatement VS Revision: A Case Study

There had been many recent cases of restatements of financial statements by US Corporations. Recently an article in the Wall Street Journal mentioned restatements by Bank of America, Nike and Alphabet among the 663 companies that filed financial revisions or restatements last year. Interestingly the frequency of these errors has more than doubled since 2002, when the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance law was enacted, partly to increase managerial accountability. We will also examine what are the differences between restatements and revisions. We will examine what are the most common mistakes. Over half of last year\u27s corrections involved debt and equity, cash flows or taxes. Many of these issues are also major differences between US GAAP and IFRS, making comparison with international firms even more difficult. We will try to explain why a firm chooses a restatement or revision to announce the correction of errors