مطالب

“You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men!” (The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin) Contemporary discussions on freedom have recently drawn attention to the implications of the mind-body relation. Historically, the notion of freedom has centered on various naturalistic options, compatibilism, and weaker notions of libertarian freedom. This leaves strong agent-causal libertarianism as a minority position. Entering these discussions, we seek to establish the relation between a particular mind-body view and strong agent-causal libertarianism. We make two claims upon characterizing strong agent-causal libertarianism. First, we argue that strong agent-causal libertarianism requires some version of substance dualism (or immaterialist agency). Second, we argue that strong agent-causal libertarianism probably requires something like classical or Cartesian substance dualism. Drawing from the philosopher John Foster in The Immaterial Self, we show that the central defining feature of the sort of libertarian agency under investigation is ‘intrinsic autonomy’. While we recognize that Cartesianism is unpopular in contemporary discussions, we agree with Foster that it is probably what is entailed if we are going to ground something like a strong agent-causal libertarianism. The substance needed to explain this robust form of freedom begins to look like something not of this world and more like the substance described early on by Rene Descartes.

Epistemologists have widely accepted that truth, justification, and belief are necessary conditions for knowledge. This article challenges the necessity of the two components, “belief” and “justification”, in the definition of knowledge. It argues that belief is distinct from knowledge; belief is an act of will, whereas knowledge is acquired automatically. One may possess knowledge without being actively willing to believe it, and conversely, one may will to believe something without actually knowing it. Additionally, justification should be seen as a method of validating knowledge, not a fundamental part of its definition. Therefore, knowledge without justification remains knowledge, even though its truth cannot be proven. Building on this perspective, the proposed definition of knowledge shifts to “awareness or recognition of facts.” According to this definition, the Gettier problem and the lottery paradox find alternative solutions.

Background: In recent years, the examination of the impact of various types of different exercises as the key influential components on balance has gained considerable popularity. Numerous studies have investigated the effects of diverse exercise modalities on the enhancement of balance abilities. Aim: The aim of this research was to compare the effects of different types of learning (explicit and implicit) on the balance of elderly individuals. Materials and Methods: Forty-two elderly participants (both women and men), after initial health assessments and medical history reviews, voluntarily participated in the study. They were randomly assigned to three groups: explicit learning group (14 participants), implicit learning group (14 participants), and control group (14 participants). Before the implementation of the targeted learning exercises, the static balance of the participants was assessed using the Flamingo Test, and dynamic balance was measured using the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. After two sessions of learning exercises, the participants were reassessed. Statistical analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (ANCOVA and Shapiro-Wilk test) at a significance level of P<0.05. Results: The findings indicated that there was no significant difference between the groups in the pre-test, but after performing the learning exercises, the static balance of the implicit learning group showed a statistically significant improvement compared to the explicit learning group and the control group. However, there was no significant increase in dynamic balance performance in any of the groups. Conclusion: The results of this study support the claim that implicit learning exercises can have a positive and significant impact on the static balance performance of elderly individuals. It was also shown that implicit cognitive training had no effect on dynamic balance, which may indicate the important role of other variables such as motor control abilities.