The Provincial Chapter of the Province of St Vincent Ferrer have just elected Fr Antonio Caceres Carlos Pereira as their new Prior Provincial. He accepted the election after it was confirmed by the Master of the Order, fr Bruno Cadorè.
Fr Carlos is a native of San Salvador, Republic of El Salvador. He was born on May 28, 1969, made his religious profession on February 6, 1994 and was ordained to the priesthood on December 12, 1998.
He is a Professor of Philosophy and also holds a Master’s degree in Theology and Higher Education. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Theology from the College of San Esteban de Salamanca. He has been an animator for the Training and Intellectual Life in the Interprovincial Conference of Latin America (CIDALC). For nine years he has also been involved in the training of students friars of the Province and also as Moderator of Studies.
Your Brain on Art: The Emerging Science of Neuroaesthetics Probes What Art Does to Our Brains | Open Culture Your Brain on Art: The Emerging Science of Neuroaesthetics Probes What Art Does to Our Brains
If you’ve followed debates in popular philosophical circles, you’ve surely heard the critique of “scientism,” the “view that only scientific claims are meaningful.” The term doesn’t apply only in defenses of religious explanations, but also of the arts and humanities—long imperiled by sweeping budget cuts and now seemingly upended by neuroscience.
We have the neuroscience of music, of literature, of painting, of creativity and imagination themselves…. What need anymore for those pedants and obscurantists in their ivory tower academic cubicles? Sweep them all away for better MRI machines and statistical programs! Who, gasp the opponents of scientism, would hold such a philistine view? Maybe only a straw man or two.
For those in the emerging field of “neuroaesthetics,” the goal is not to vivisect the arts, but to observe what art—however defined—does to the brain. Neuroaesthetics, notes the Washington Post video above, theorizes that “some of the answers to art’s mysteries can be found in the realm of science.” As University of Houston Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal puts it in the video below, “the more we understand the way the brain responds to the arts, the better we can understand ourselves.” Such understanding does not obviate the mystery of art as, the Post writes in an accompanying article, "the domain of the heart."
The spectacle of performing artists, writers, and musicians wearing skullcaps covered with wires while in the midst of their creative acts may look ludicrous to us layfolk. The University of Houston takes this research quite seriously, however, appointing three visual artists-in-residence to work alongside many others on Professor Contraras-Vidal’s ongoing neuroaesthetic projects, which also include dancers and musicians. In addition to studying artists’ brains, the NSF-funded project has recorded “electrical signals in the brains of 450 individuals as they engaged with the work of artist Dario Robleto in a public art installation.”
The Post summarizes some of the possible answers offered by this kind of research: arts such as dance and theater stimulate our desire to experience intense emotions together in a group as a form of social cohesion. Seeing live performances—and surely even films, though that particular art form is slighted in many of these accounts—triggers a “neural rush…. With our brain’s capacity for emotion and empathy, even in the wordless art of dance we can begin to discover meaning—and a story.” This brings us to the importance our brains place on narrative, on movement, the “logic of art” and much more.
For better or worse, neuroaesthetics is—at least at an institutional level—in some competition with those branches of philosophy classically concerned with aesthetics, though often the two endeavors are complementary. But using science to interpret art, or interpret the brain on art, should in no way put the arts in jeopardy. Serious scientific curiosity about the oldest and most universal of distinctively human activities might instead provide justification—or better yet, funding and public support—for the generous production of more public art.
2011-04-18: Openembedded has Stand # 7.2b 112 @ LinuxTag 11th to 14 May 2011 the Berlin Exhibition Grounds
On January 1, 2018, a decade after its accession to the EU, Bulgaria will take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU for the first time. For six months Bulgaria will be the main driving force for the tasks on the agenda of the Union, it will perform the functions of an honest mediator, a political leader, a representative and a coordinator.
See a presentation of the policy priorities of the Bulgarian presidency in the employment and social field here.
The European Commission and the European Disability Forum are holding a Conference ‘The European Day of Persons with Disabilities 2017’, which will take place on 04-05 December 2017 at the Charlemagne building, Rue de la Loi 170, 1000 Brussels.
The European Forum on the rights of the child is an annual conference organised by the European Commission. It gathers key actors from EU Member States (as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the Western Balkans), international organisations, NGOs, Ombudspersons for children, practitioners, academics and EU institutions to promote good practice on the rights of the child.
International Foster Care Organisation 2017 World Conference, held in partnership with Eurochild, will take place in Malta from 1 to 4 November 2017.
The International Conference “Investing in Children – Benefit for All Children”, with the guests from 21 European countries, organized by the Network of Organizations for Children of Serbia (MODS), Eurochild, The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team of the Government of the Republic of Serbia (SIPRU) and UNICEF, has been held in Belgrade.
Specific Issues Reports for H.R.5102 by Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, 115th Congress