Background. Research identifies isolation (being alone) as a risk factor for cognitive decline— yet it is possible that subjective dimensions of isolation are more critical. Potential risk factors are loneliness (the distress stemming from feeling alone) and cynical hostility (an attitude of distrust and cynicism). The present study examined the relationship between these factors and cognitive functioning and decline. Methods. Data came from the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative longitudinal study of US adults over 50. Loneliness was measured using the Hughes Loneliness Scale; cynical hostility was measured using items from the Cook-Medley Hostility Inventory. Cognitive functioning was indexed by the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Regressions were conducted to examine loneliness and cynical hostility as predictors of cognitive function at baseline as well as cognitive decline over four and six-year periods. Models were adjusted for demographic characteristics, health behaviors, and isolation. Results. Loneliness, [f2=.003, t(52)=-3.75; p<.001] and cynical hostility, [f2=.002, t(52)=-2.98, p=.004] predicted cognitive function at baseline. Loneliness and cynical hostility each predicted cognitive decline over four [f2=.001, t(52)=-2.29; p=.026 f2=.003, t(52)=-3.98; p<.001 respectively] but not six years [t(52)= -.78; p=.439; t(52)= -1.29; p=.203 respectively]. Discussion. Loneliness and cynical hostility are correlates of lower cognitive function and risk factors for cognitive decline over four years. The absence of significant effects of loneliness and cynical hostility over six years could be attributed to low statistical power in these analyses. The effect sizes in this study are small, yet meaningful in the context of the personal and social costs associated with cognitive decline.

"Might makes right," so the saying goes. What does this mean? What does it mean to say that humans live by this saying? How can this saying that is considered by almost all as an expression of injustice play a justificatory role practically universally and ubiquitously? How can it be repulsive and yet, nonetheless, attractive as an explanation of the ways of the world? Why its long history? I offer a non-cynical explanation, one based on a re-interpretation of the saying and of both recognized and unrecognized related phenomena. This re-interpretation relies on the notion of a tacit justification for violence. This non-cynical, re-interpretive explanation exposes the ambiguity of the saying and the consequential unwitting, self-deceptive, fallacious equivocations that the ambiguity makes possible under common conditions. While this explanation, furthermore, focuses on thinking factors--specifically on fallacious thinking, on humans' unwittingly and self-deceptively committing the fallacy of equivocation--it does not deny the possible role of non-thinking factors; it only tries to show that the thinking factors are significantly explanatory. What is the ambiguity? "Might makes right" expresses two principles. The first principle is the common meaning, namely, that the dominance of the mightier over the weaker is right. This principle is generally considered to be not a definition of justice but an expression of injustice. The second principle, which is almost universally shared in a tacit and unreflective way, is a principle of life, namely, that it is right for any living being to actualize its potential. This second principle is originary and thus primary, while the first principle is derivative and thus secondary. The use of all powers, natural or social, can be ultimately derived legitimately or illegitimately from this primary principle. A common manifestation of "might makes right" is the unwitting abuse of power, an abuse that is not recognized as such by the so-called abuser, but that is rather suffered by this latter, who misapplies the second principle in situations that fall under the first principle, thereby unwittingly living by the saying, tacitly justifying abusive ways by it. This unwittingness calls for critical control and forgiveness.

Este trabalho analisa o papel social de uma Missão católica localizada em Mangunde, no interior de Moçambique, a partir do discurso de alunos e missionários. O interesse central é investigar o contexto comunicacional vigente na Missão e que condicionamentos ele impõe aos envolvidos. Por meio da análise do discurso de 20 religiosos e estudantes vinculados à Missão, o trabalho buscará compreender desde as motivações que levam a comunidade local a aderir às regras impostas até as consequências relatadas em suas trajetórias a partir da experiência, além de detectar eventuais contradições entre o discurso e a prática observadas no dia a dia da Missão. A hipótese central é que, apesar de realizar um trabalho humanitário importante, a Missão atua em reforço a relações coloniais, ao propor a substituição dos valores locais por valores e crenças vinculados à cultura ocidental católica. E que esse reforço se dá com a participação ativa dos colonizados, que se submetem às condições impostas em troca da satisfação de necessidades imediatas e crença em melhores perspectivas de futuro, configurando o que denominamos neste estudo como racionalidade cínica. / This work examines the social role of a Catholic Mission located in Mangunde, Mozambique, from the speech of students and missionaries. The main concern is to investigate the current communication context in Mission and and what kind of constraints it imposes to the people involved. By the discourse analysis of 20 students and religious people seeks to the Mission, the work will seek to understand the motivations that lead the local community to adhere to the rules imposed until the effects reported in trajectories based on personal experience, besides detect possible inconsistencies between discourse and practice observed over the mission's everyday life. The main hypothesis is although accomplishing a major humanitarian work, the Mission reinforces the colonial bonds, proposing the replacement of local values by standards and beliefs related to catholic western culture. And this reinforcement becomes possible by colonized people's active participation, once they accept the imposed conditions in exchange for immediate needs satisfaction and they believe in a better future perspective. It configures what we call in this study "cynical rationality".

Este trabalho analisa o papel social de uma Missão católica localizada em Mangunde, no interior de Moçambique, a partir do discurso de alunos e missionários. O interesse central é investigar o contexto comunicacional vigente na Missão e que condicionamentos ele impõe aos envolvidos. Por meio da análise do discurso de 20 religiosos e estudantes vinculados à Missão, o trabalho buscará compreender desde as motivações que levam a comunidade local a aderir às regras impostas até as consequências relatadas em suas trajetórias a partir da experiência, além de detectar eventuais contradições entre o discurso e a prática observadas no dia a dia da Missão. A hipótese central é que, apesar de realizar um trabalho humanitário importante, a Missão atua em reforço a relações coloniais, ao propor a substituição dos valores locais por valores e crenças vinculados à cultura ocidental católica. E que esse reforço se dá com a participação ativa dos colonizados, que se submetem às condições impostas em troca da satisfação de necessidades imediatas e crença em melhores perspectivas de futuro, configurando o que denominamos neste estudo como racionalidade cínica. / This work examines the social role of a Catholic Mission located in Mangunde, Mozambique, from the speech of students and missionaries. The main concern is to investigate the current communication context in Mission and and what kind of constraints it imposes to the people involved. By the discourse analysis of 20 students and religious people seeks to the Mission, the work will seek to understand the motivations that lead the local community to adhere to the rules imposed until the effects reported in trajectories based on personal experience, besides detect possible inconsistencies between discourse and practice observed over the mission's everyday life. The main hypothesis is although accomplishing a major humanitarian work, the Mission reinforces the colonial bonds, proposing the replacement of local values by standards and beliefs related to catholic western culture. And this reinforcement becomes possible by colonized people's active participation, once they accept the imposed conditions in exchange for immediate needs satisfaction and they believe in a better future perspective. It configures what we call in this study "cynical rationality".

Este trabalho analisa o papel social de uma Missão católica localizada em Mangunde, no interior de Moçambique, a partir do discurso de alunos e missionários. O interesse central é investigar o contexto comunicacional vigente na Missão e que condicionamentos ele impõe aos envolvidos. Por meio da análise do discurso de 20 religiosos e estudantes vinculados à Missão, o trabalho buscará compreender desde as motivações que levam a comunidade local a aderir às regras impostas até as consequências relatadas em suas trajetórias a partir da experiência, além de detectar eventuais contradições entre o discurso e a prática observadas no dia a dia da Missão. A hipótese central é que, apesar de realizar um trabalho humanitário importante, a Missão atua em reforço a relações coloniais, ao propor a substituição dos valores locais por valores e crenças vinculados à cultura ocidental católica. E que esse reforço se dá com a participação ativa dos colonizados, que se submetem às condições impostas em troca da satisfação de necessidades imediatas e crença em melhores perspectivas de futuro, configurando o que denominamos neste estudo como racionalidade cínica. / This work examines the social role of a Catholic Mission located in Mangunde, Mozambique, from the speech of students and missionaries. The main concern is to investigate the current communication context in Mission and and what kind of constraints it imposes to the people involved. By the discourse analysis of 20 students and religious people seeks to the Mission, the work will seek to understand the motivations that lead the local community to adhere to the rules imposed until the effects reported in trajectories based on personal experience, besides detect possible inconsistencies between discourse and practice observed over the mission's everyday life. The main hypothesis is although accomplishing a major humanitarian work, the Mission reinforces the colonial bonds, proposing the replacement of local values by standards and beliefs related to catholic western culture. And this reinforcement becomes possible by colonized people's active participation, once they accept the imposed conditions in exchange for immediate needs satisfaction and they believe in a better future perspective. It configures what we call in this study "cynical rationality".

[pt] O cinismo – entendido tanto em seu sentido antigo como uma escola filosófica helenística, quanto em seu sentido moderno como uma falsa consciência esclarecida – é o tema da presente tese. A partir da pergunta Como escrever uma história do cinismo?, pretendemos avaliar as condições de possibilidade e, ao mesmo tempo, propor uma tal história. Para dar conta dessa empreitada, lançamos mão da noção de dialética cínica. Em nosso capítulo inicial, apresentamos quatro momentos-chave da história do cinismo – personificados por Diógenes de Sínope, Luciano de Samósata, Jean-Jacques Rousseau/Denis Diderot e Friedrich Nietzsche. Em seguida, examinamos a historiografia recente sobre o tema, com foco nos trabalhos de Heinrich Niehues-Pröbsting, Peter Sloterdijk e Michel Foucault. Por fim, no último capítulo, refletimos sobre o que é e como se dá a dinâmica da dialética cínica. O nosso objetivo, depois de percorrido todo o texto, é deixar claro como o discurso cínico opera de forma dialética na medida em que ele sempre escorrega de sua própria definição. / [en] Cynicism – understood both in its ancient sense as a Hellenistic philosophical school, and in its modern sense as an enlightened false consciousness – is the subject of the present thesis. Starting with the question How to write a history of cynicism?, we intend to assess the conditions of possibility and, at the same time, propose such a history. To deal with this endeavour, we resorted to the notion of cynical dialectic. In our opening chapter, we present four key moments in the history of Cynicism – personified by Diogenes of Sinope, Lucian of Samosata, Jean-Jacques Rousseau/Denis Diderot and Friedrich Nietzsche. After that, we examine the recent historiography on the subject, focusing on the works of Heinrich Niehues-Probsting, Peter Sloterdijk and Michel Foucault. Finally, in the last chapter, we reflect on what the cynical dialectic is and how its dynamics works. Our objective, after going through the entire text, is to make clear how the cynical discourse operates in a dialectical way, inasmuch as it always slips away from its own definition.