The informational turn in Philosophy: any novelty in the study of Mind?

The concept of information is analyzed starting from Adams' hypothesis in The Informational Turn in Philosophy, according to which there has been a far-reaching turn in Philosophy following the publication of Turing's article "Computing Machinery and Intelligence". Adams maintains that new guidelines are being indicated in philosophical research, having the concept of "information" as the basis for treatment of classical problems, such as the relationships between mind-body, perception-action, and the nature of knowledge, amongst others. Partially agreeing with Adams, we believe, however, that his hypothesis faces difficulties, the most fundamental of which concerns the different meanings given to the concept of information. We argue that even though the concept of information underlying the mechanicist proposal of Turing, according to which "to think is to compute", is indeed being employed in Philosophy, this is not because of its mechanistic nature, but mainly due to the representationist presupposition dominant in this area. From this point of view, the informational turn in philosophy would not provide any great novelty, given that since the earliest days philosophical approaches to the nature of mind have always been mainly representationist. The novelty would not lie specifically in the Turing thesis, but in reflections on the nature of information, especially ecological information, and its relation to action.

Considerações sobre corporeidade e percepção no último Merleau-Ponty

Our aim in this paper is to study the problem of the perception of one's own body in Merleau-Ponty's productions during the period he taught at the Collège de France. Discussions about the notion of body scheme serve as the research axis. We focus on two courses directly connected with the conceptual advances that bring Merleau-Ponty to elaborate the notion of flesh: The sensitive world and the world of expression and Nature. We particularly look into the first, as research about the diachronism in corporeity phenomena turns into theoretical support in relation to later progress. We consider that the diacritic condition of the body's position in the world is related with the theme of the circuit established between the body, the other and things. This is also related to principle of reversibility, to the body as a sensitive sentient.

A dimensão pulsional do sensível: elaborações acerca da percepção em Renaud Barbaras

In this paper, we analyze the theoretical work of Renaud Barbaras, departing from his proposal to highlight and develop the potential of Husserl's theory of perception, based on the doctrine of perceptive donation according to profiles. We mainly focused on his work entitled Desire and distance: introduction to a phenomenology of perception. We underline the description, operated by the author, about the vital movement as desire and the characterization of the subject of the perception as living. In this condition, the formulation about the priority of a dimension emerges, qualified by Barbaras as pulsion towards the objectifying dimension of classical epistemology in the subject-object relation. We indicate that, according to the author, these rearrangements entail the need to consider the body, perception and movement based on the category of life.

Imagem corporal e somatotipo: investigações em população de mulheres universitárias

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

A virada informacional na Filosofia: alguma novidade para o estudo da mente?

The concept of information is analyzed starting from Adams’ hypothesis in The Informational Turn in Philosophy, according to which there has been a far-reaching turn in Philosophy following the publication of Turing’s article “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”. Adams maintains that new guidelines are being indicated in philosophical research, having the concept of “information” as the basis for treatment of classical problems, such as the relationships between mind-body, perception-action, and the nature of knowledge, amongst others. Partially agreeing with Adams, we believe, however, that his hypothesis faces difficulties, the most fundamental of which concerns the different meanings given to the concept of information. We argue that even though the concept of information underlying the mechanicist proposal of Turing, according to which “to think is to compute”, is indeed being employed in Philosophy, this is not because of its mechanistic nature, but mainly due to the representationist presupposition dominant in this area. From this point of view, the informational turn in philosophy would not provide any great novelty, given that since the earliest days philosophical approaches to the nature of mind have always been mainly representationist. The novelty would not lie specifically in the Turing thesis, but in reflections on the nature of information, especially ecological information, and its relation to action.

Percepção da imagem corporal: comparação entre universitários do curso de educação física

The professional market for physical education and fitness demands for perfect and aesthetically beautiful bodies from its professionals, and the additional pressure of media, both add to the risk for body image dissatisfaction among these professional, increasing the risk for developing body image distortions and, ultimately, eating disorders. Body image dissatisfaction affects more women in their attempts for thin ideal. However, lately, because of social pressure for body aesthetical habits in both genders, men are faced with higher risk for distortions in body perception, leading to unhealthy eating habits and pathogenic exercise. With this in mind, the purpose of this study was to compare freshmen and senior physical education (PE) students from the State University of São Paulo (UNESP), as well as to make gender comparisons. Two groups comprise each, 46 freshmen PE students (23 females and 23 males), average age 18.7 ± 1.7 years; and 26 senior PE students (13 females and 13 males), average age 23 ± 1.9 years. Both groups filled out the questionnaires: Eating Attitudes Test/ EAT-26, Body Shape Questionnaire/ BSQ, Body Shape Questionnaire/ BSQ, and motivation state questionnaire/ LEA-RI. Results showed that the majority of participants wanted to change some aspect of their looks; women were more dissatisfied with their bodies than men; eating behavior scores were within the normal range for both groups. Finally, freshmen PE students are at a higher risk for body image distortion than senior PE students. We concluded that women, as well as younger individuals in general, are at higher risk for body image distortions. It is likely that experience in the further years of a physical education course has positive impact on body self image.

Perception-action and adaptation in postural control of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy

The aim of this study was to examine the coupling between visual information and body sway and the adaptation in this coupling of individuals with cerebral palsy (CP). Fifteen children with and 15 without CP. 6-15 years old, were required to stand upright inside of a moving room. All children first performed two trials with no movement of the room and eyes open or closed, then four trials in which the room oscillated at 0.2 or 0.5 Hz (peak velocity of 0.6 cm/s), one trial in which the room oscillated at 0.2 Hz (peak velocity of 3.5 cm/s), and finally two other trials in which the room oscillated again at 0.2 Hz (peak velocity of 0.6 cm/s). Participants with CP coupled body sway to visual information provided by the moving room, comparable to the coupling of participants without CP. However, participants with CP exhibited larger body sway in maintaining upright position and more variable sway when body sway was induced by visual manipulation. They showed adaptive sensory motor coupling, e.g. down-weighting visual influence when a larger stimulus was provided, but not with the same magnitude as typically developing participants. This indicates that participants with CP have less capability of adaptation. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Postural control as a function of self- and object-motion perception

The goals of this study were to examine the visual information influence on body sway as a function of self- and object-motion perception and visual information quality. Participants that were aware (object-motion) and unaware (self-motion) of the movement of a moving room were asked to stand upright at five different distances from its frontal wall. The visual information effect on body sway decreased when participants were aware about the sensory manipulation. Moreover, while the visual influence on body sway decreased as the distance increased in the self-motion perception, no effects were observed in the object-motion mode. The overall results indicate that postural control system functioning can be altered by prior knowledge, and adaptation due to changes in sensory quality seem to occur in the self- but not in the object-motion perception mode. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V.. All rights reserved.

Visual information and body sway coupling in infants during sitting acquisition

The purpose of this study was to examine if there is any developmental change in the coupling between visual information and trunk sway in infants as they acquire the sitting position. Twenty-four infants distributed in four groups (6-, 7-, 8-, and 9-month-old) were sat inside a moving room that oscillated back and forward at frequencies of 0.2 and 0.5 Hz. The results revealed that trunk sway matched to the moving room at both frequencies but did not differ among the four age groups. Coherence and gain revealed that the coupling was weaker at 0.2 than at 0.5 Hz. Relative phase showed that at 0.2 Hz, infants were swaying with no lag but at 0.5 Hz they were lagging the room. These results showed that the coupling between visual information and trunk sway in infants varies with the visual stimulus but does not change as infants acquire the sitting position. © 2001 Elsevier B.V.

Perception-action coupling in infants with down syndrome: Effects of experience and practice

This study examined the effects of experience and practice on the coupling between visual information and trunk sway in infants with Down syndrome (DS). Five experienced and five novice sitters were exposed to a moving room, which was oscillated at 0.2 and 0.5 Hz. Infants remained in a sitting position and data were collected on the first, fourth, and seventh days. On the first day, experienced sitters were more influenced by room oscillation than were novices. On the following days, however, the influence of room oscillation decreased for experienced but increased for novice sitters. These results suggest that the relationship between sensory information and motor action in infants with DS can be changed with experience and practice.

Comfort, stability and body posture in wheelchair cushions: a preliminary study with able bodied subjects

Long term wheelchair usage has been related to a number of problems, among which pressure ulcers are one of most concern. The design of wheelchair seat cushions has been of increasing interest among researchers, as it can influence seat interface pressure and user's comfort. The aim of this study was to investigate the subjects' perception comfort, stability and body posture of six different commercially available wheelchair cushions. The evaluation was through a questionnaire, where the subjects rate their perceptions on a ten point visual analog scale after staying seated in the cushion for two minutes. The results shows that the Roho^TM aircell cushion was preferred by the users, while the least preferred one was the water cushion. Individuals' subjective perceptions may compliment objective data on seat interface pressure, thus contributing to a more complete view of the users' experience during wheelchair cushion usage.