Why We Would Not Understand a Talking Lion

Why We Would Not Understand a Talking Lion

One of the mostperplexing passages in Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations occurs in Part Two where it is asserted: "Ifa lion could talk, we could not understand him."[ This remark has been interpreted as anything from a mere comment concerning our conception of a lion to an empirical claim regarding the communicative capacities of lions and nonhumans in general to a highly speculative a...

Why would we care about privacy?

Why we need to read and understand literature: literariness and Hans Rosling’s Factfulness (2018)

My article addresses the qualities of “good” literature and how an understanding of the nature of literary devices, so-called “literariness”, can enhance the reading experience. Focusing on Hans Rosling’s Factfulness (2018), I discuss some of the most important features of good writing. Six literary devices have been selected for special attention: point of view, tone, amplification, anecdotes,...

Rank Is Not Enough: Why We Need a Sociocultural Perspective to Understand Social Class

In the target article, Kraus, Tan, and Tannenbaum identify a key feature of the psychological experience of social class—perception of one’s rank vis-à-vis others. This rank-based perspective, which reveals the systematic influence of rank on psychological functioning, makes an important contribution to current and future theories of social class. Drawing out the significance of rank brings soc...

Neuroscience: What We Cannot Model, We Do Not Understand

To understand computations in neuronal circuits, a model of a small patch of cortex has been developed that can describe the firing regime in the visual system remarkably well.