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Distributed Truth-Telling: A Model for Moral Revolution and Epistemic Justice in Australia
The Distributed Truth-Telling Model Authors Nicolas J Bullot, Stephen W Enciso Abstract This article provides a philosophical response to the need for truth-telling about colonial history, focusing on the Australian context. The response consists in inviting philosophers and the public to engage in social-justice practices specified by a model called Distributed Truth-Telling (DTT), which integrates the historiography of injustices affecting Indigenous peoples with insights f

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Apr 61 min read


Forum Response
Authors Kellie Pollard, Craig Taylor, Nicolas J. Bullot, Stephen W. Enciso, Oscar Davis, and Claire Smith First Paragraph Thank you to the authors of the comments on our Forum Article Voice: A Third Space in Archaeology to Advance Indigenous Emancipation , for their praise and constructive comments. We note the overwhelmingly positive receipt of our Forum Article, and wewelcome the range of constructive critiques. In our response below, we selectively address those comments t

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Nov 5, 20251 min read


Voice: A Third Space in Archaeology to Advance Indigenous Emancipation
Authors Kellie Pollard, Craig Taylor, Nicolas J. Bullot, Stephen W. Enciso, Oscar Davis, Claire Smith Abstract We discuss the standpoint theory of Indigenism and introduce its principles as relevant to the philosophy of research with, by, and for, Indigenous people. This philosophy is a pillar of Indigenist archaeology since it is a core basis of theorising methods of Indigenous epistemology. We introduce the concept of a ‘third space’ and discuss its purpose as the critique

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Nov 5, 20251 min read


The Right of the River to Be Known: Epistemic Reparations, Environmental Justice, and Indigenous Truth-Telling about Custodial Group Agents
Authors Stephen W. Enciso and Nicolas J. Bullot Abstract The ‘right to be known’ has traditionally been interpreted from a human-centric and individualistic perspective unsuitable for resolving the environmental crises of our epoch. Given the political need to raise collective awareness about the inter-connectedness of the human and more-than-human worlds, we establish a dialogue between Indigenous and Western philosophies about the rights of more-than-human entities to be kn

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Sep 26, 20251 min read


The Intuitive Historian: An Inquiry Into the Philosophical Psychology of Intuitive Historical Thinking
Authors Nicolas J. Bullot, Rolf Reber Abstract People use their commonsense thinking about the past to inform their decisions. Intuitive historical thinking is therefore pervasive in the social and cognitive lives of humans. This type of cognition, however, has not been systematically researched. Recent philosophical psychology is dominated by works that investigate cognitive tools used by intuitive historical thinking – such as episodic memory, mental time travel, causalreas

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Jun 21, 20251 min read


Encounters with Racialized Ignorance: Case Studies for Narrative Truth-Telling in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Authors Francis D. Darko, Collethy K. Jaru, Iriana F. d. J. Ximenes, Nicolas J. Bullot, Stephen W. Enciso Abstract The study draws on research by Indigenous and social archaeologists, Indigenist scholars, and philosophers to expose forms of ignorance caused by racialization. Indigenous doctoral students from Ghana, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste decided to partner with two non-Indigenous philosophers to share narratives—“storyworks” (Archibald 2008)—aimed at exposing racia

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Apr 22, 20251 min read


The Psychological Basis of Music Appreciation: Structure, Self, Source
Authors William Forde Thompson, Nicolas J. Bullot, and Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis Abstract Research has investigated psychological processes in an attempt to explain how and why people appreciate music. Three programsof research have shed light on these processes. The first focuses on the appreciation of musical structure. The second investigates self-oriented responses to music, including music-evoked autobiographical memories, the reinforcement of a sense of self, and ben

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Jan 1, 20231 min read


The Decommission of 'I See Red': A Case Study in the Relations between Art and Law
Authors Lee Harrop, Nicolas J. Bullot First and Second Paragraphs The audience of a work of art typically offers a plurality of interpretations of the work. Some of them enrich our connections with the work and its historical context. Other interpretations are problematic because they elicit responses that thwart fundamental artistic freedoms and human rights. The latter include responses promoting the destruction of cultural heritage and the persecution of artists acting as

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Jan 10, 20201 min read


Empathy, Honour, and the Apprenticeship of Violence: Rudiments of a Psychohistorical Critique of the Individualistic Science of Evil
Author Nicolas J. Bullot Abstract Research seeking to explain the perpetration of violence and atrocities by humans against other humans offers both social and individualistic explanations, which differ namely in the roles attributed to empathy. Prominent social models suggest that some manifestations of inter-human violence are caused by parochial attitudes (attitudes characterized by interests centred on one's own community) and obedience reinforced by within-group empathy.

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Dec 28, 20192 min read


Conditional Objectivism: A Strategy for Connecting the Social Sciences and Practical Decision-Making
Authors Rolf Reber and Nicolas J. Bullot Abstract This chapter introduces a research strategy – which we call conditional objectivism – that offers researchers a heuristic for taking into account a plurality of value systems while pursuing professional scientific research. This strategy aims to make empirical research in the social sciences available to value-based decision-making. Conditional objectivism draws from research in different branches of philosophy and the method

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Dec 12, 20192 min read


A Psychohistorical Philosophy for the Science of the Arts
Author Nicolas J. Bullot Abstract To introduce the reader to the philosophical debates about the science of the arts, I review existing research and discuss three philosophical theses. As a background claim, I begin with the co-dependence thesis , which states that dependence relations have tied arts and sciences together in the past and continue to interlink them in the current historical context. One area in which the co-dependence thesis is contested is the debate about th

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Mar 11, 20192 min read
Group Singing Enhances Positive Affect in People with Parkinson’s Disease
Authors Amee D. Baird, Romane Abell, William Forde Thompson, Nicolas J. Bullot, Maggie Haertsch, and Kerry A. Chalmers Abstract There is increasing evidence of the benefits of music, in particular singing, for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Current research has primarily focused on vocal or motor symptoms. Our aim was to examine the immediate emotional effects of group singing in people with PD, and whether the type of music sung (familiar vs. unfamiliar songs) moderat

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Jan 25, 20181 min read
Artistic Misunderstandings: The Emotional Significance of Historical Learning in the Arts
Authors Nicolas J. Bullot and Rolf Reber Abstract The Distancing-Embracing model does not have the conceptual resources to explain artistic misunderstandings and the emotional consequences of historical learning in the arts. Specifically, it suggests implausible predictions about emotional distancing caused by art schemata (e.g., misunderstandings of artistic intentions and contexts). These problems show the need for further inquiries into how historical contextualization mod

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Nov 29, 20171 min read
Art and Science: A Philosophical Sketch of Their Historical Complexity and Codependence
Authors Nicolas J. Bullot, William P. Seeley, and Stephen Davies Abstract To analyze the relations between art and science, philosophers and historians have developed different lines of inquiry. A first type of inquiry considers how artistic and scientific practices have interacted over human history. Another project aims to determine the contributions (if any) that scientific research can make to our understanding of art, including the contributions that cognitive science ca

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Nov 3, 20171 min read
The Functions of Environmental Art
Author Nicolas J. Bullot Abstract The psycho-historical theory of art posits that the functions of an artwork are effects of that artwork selected and reproduced because they fulfill humans’ mental and social needs. To develop this account, I hypothesize a cluster of core functions of environmental art, which encompasses effects such as tracking, broadcasting, emotions manipulation, cooperation, and critical reflection. Link https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_00828 File

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Oct 1, 20141 min read
Keeping Track: The Tracking and Identification ofHuman Agents (Editorial Preface)
Authors Anina N. Rich, Nicolas J. Bullot First Paragraph Imagine that you are walking down the street when you see an old acquaintance coming towards you. You are able to recognize her face, recall the last time you saw her, and retrieve memories about how you came to know each other. You even recall hearing gossip that she had been less than truthful with a colleague. All of this happens in the blink of an eye, and yet, on closer inspection, you might wonder how it is that y

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Sep 13, 20141 min read
Explaining Person Identification: An Inquiry Into the Tracking of Human Agents
Author Nicolas J. Bullot Abstract To introduce the issue of the tracking and identification of human agents, I examine the ability of an agent (“a tracker”) to track a human person (“a target”) and distinguish this target from other individuals: The ability to perform person identification . First, I discuss influential mechanistic models of the perceptual recognition of human faces and people ( the face-recognition program ). Such models propose detailed hypotheses about the

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Aug 14, 20142 min read
Agent Tracking: A Psycho-Historical Theory of the Identification of Living and Social Agents
Author Nicolas J. Bullot Abstract To explain agent-identification behaviours, universalist theories in the biological and cognitive sciences have posited mental mechanisms thought to be universal to all humans, such as agent detection and face recognition mechanisms. These universalist theories have paid little attention to how particular sociocultural or historical contexts interact with the psychobiological processes of agent-identi-fication. In contrast to universalist the

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Apr 29, 20141 min read
A Psycho-Historical Research Program for the Integrative Science of Art
Authors Nicolas J. Bullot Rolf Reber Abstract Critics of the target article objected to our account of art appreciators' sensitivity to art-historical contexts and functions, the relations among the modes of artistic appreciation, and the weaknesses of aesthetic science. To rebut these objections and justify our program, we argue that the current neglect of sensitivity to art-historical contexts persists as a result of a pervasive aesthetic–artistic confound; we further speci

Editor
Apr 19, 20131 min read
The Artful Mind Meets Art History: Toward a Psycho-Historical Framework for the Science of Art Appreciation
Authors Nicolas J. Bullot, Rolf Reber Abstract Research seeking a scientific foundation for the theory of art appreciation has raised controversies at the intersection of the social and cognitive sciences. Though equally relevant to a scientific inquiry into art appreciation, psychological and historical approaches to art developed independently and lack a common core of theoretical principles. Historicists argue that psychological and brain sciences ignore the fact that artw

Editor
Mar 18, 20131 min read
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