Intentionalism and pain

Pain may appear to undermine the radically intentionalist view that the phenomenal character of any experience is entirely constituted by its representational content. That appearance is illusory. After categorizing versions of pain intentionalism along two dimensions, I argue that an 'objectivist' and 'non-mentalist' version is the most promising, if it can withstand two objections concerning (a) what we say when in pain, and (b) the distinctiveness of pain. I rebut these objections, in a way available to both opponents of and adherents to the view that experiential content is entirely conceptual

Taming the supergravity description of non-BPS D-branes: the D/Dbar solution

We obtain the supergravity solution which describes a bound state of D-string/anti-D-string pairs attached to different fixed planes of an orbifold, in type IIB string theory compactified on T^4/Z_2. For parameters at which the conformal field theory point of view predicts stability, the solution displays a repulson-like singularity. However, we observe that a D-string/anti-D-string pair probe in this background becomes tensionless before reaching the singularity, suggesting a resolution by the enhancon mechanism. Moreover, the force feels by this probe is attractive, in contrast to the repulsive behaviour observed in the non-BPS D-brane description.Comment: 21 pages, Latex, uses JHEP.cls. Substantial revision; in particular, clarification of the two T-dual descriptions in section 2 and improved discussion of the enhancon mechanism in section 4. Published versio

A Study of Two Newly-Discovered Eclipsing Binary Systems

I have observed three newly-discovered variable stars using the 16-inch telescope and CCD at the Valparaiso University Observatory. Of these three variables, two have been verified as binary star systems, where one of the stars passes in front of the other. The third is found to be a pulsating variable, which varies due to a change in its size and temperature. One of the goals of this project has been to further refine the periods of these three variables. From my new data and some previous observations at the Valparaiso University Observatory, I have been able to determine that the brightness of the three systems has varied from 13-55 percent. I have improved upon the determination of the periods of these variables. For the two binary systems, the periods are 0.52 and 1.21 days. For the pulsating variable, the period is 0.32 days. I have formed light curves for each star showing the change of brightness over one cycle. For the two binaries, the light curves are being analyzed to determine the relative sizes and differences in temperature of the two stars in each system. All of this is a part of my senior research project in physics and astronomy

Evaluativist Accounts of Pain's Unpleasantness

Evaluativism is best thought of as a way of enriching a perceptual view of pain to account for pain’s unpleasantness or painfulness. Once it was common for philosophers to contrast pains with perceptual experiences (McGinn 1982; Rorty 1980). It was thought that perceptual experiences were intentional (or content-bearing, or about something), whereas pains were representationally blank. But today many of us reject this contrast. For us, your having a pain in your toe is a matter not of your sensing “pain-ly” or encountering a sense-datum, but of your having an interoceptive experience representing (accurately or inaccurately) that your toe is in a particular experience-independent condition, such as undergoing a certain “disturbance” or being damaged or in danger (Armstrong 1962; Tye 1995). But even if such representational content makes an experience a pain, a further ingredient seems required to make the pain unpleasant. According to evaluativism, the further ingredient is the experience’s possession of evaluative content: its representing the bodily condition as bad for the subject. In this chapter, I elaborate evaluativism, locate it among alternatives, and explain its attractions and challenges

Effective Action of Matter Fields in Four-Dimensional String Orientifolds

We study various aspects of the Kahler metric for matter fields in N=1,2 orientifold compactifications of type IIB string theory. The result has an infrared-divergent part which reproduces the field- theoretical anomalous dimensions, and a moduli-dependent part which comes from N=2 sectors of the orientifold. For the N=2 orientifolds, we also compute the disk amplitude for two matter fields on the boundary and a twisted closed string modulus in the bulk. Our results are in agreement with supersymmetry: the singlet under the SU(2)_R R-symmetry has vanishing coupling, while the coupling of the SU(2)_R triplet does not vanish.Comment: 24 pages, JHEP LaTex, no figures, v2: references added, typos correcte

A longitudinal study of grapheme-color synesthesia in childhood:6/7 years to 10/11 years

Grapheme-colour synaesthesia is a condition characterised by enduring and consistent associations between letter/digits and colours. This study is the continuation of longitudinal research begun by Simner, Harrold, Creed, Monro and Foulkes (2009) which aimed to explore the development of this condition in real time within a childhood population. In that earlier study we randomly sampled over 600 children and tested them aged 6/7 years and 7/8 years. We identified the child synaesthetes within that cohort and measured their development over 1 year, in comparison to a group of nonsynaesthetic children with both average and superior memories. We were able to show the beginnings of a developmental progression in which synaesthetic associations (e.g. A = red) mature over time from relatively chaotic pairings into a system of fixed consistent associations. In the current study we return to this same population three years later when participants are now 10/11 years. We used the same paired-association memory task to determine the synaesthetic status of our participants and to also establish synaesthetes’ inventories of grapheme-colour associations. We compared their inventories to those from age 6/7 year and 7/8 years to examine how synaesthesia matures over time. Together with earlier findings, our study shows that grapheme-colour synaesthesia emerges with a protracted lineal trajectory, with 34% of letters/digits fixed at age 6/7 years, 48% fixed at 7/8 years and 71% fixed at 10/11 years. We also show several cases where synaesthesia is not developing in the same time-frame as peers, either because it has died out at an older age, or because it was slower to develop than other cases. Our study paints the first picture of the emergence of synaesthesia in real-time over four years within a randomly sampled population of child synaesthetes