Disgust sensitivity and the HEXACO model of personality

In the current investigation, we test for relationships between three domains of disgust sensitivity (pathogen, sexual, and moral disgust) and the six dimensions of the HEXACO personality model in a large, demographically diverse Dutch sample. Our results extend upon previous investigations into the relationship between disgust sensitivity and personality in two important ways. First, in contrast with most previous investigations into disgust sensitivity, we measure sensitivities to sexual and moral disgust, two domains that elicit self-reports of disgust and facial expressions of disgust. Second, in contrast with the few investigations that have tested for relationships between sensitivities to sexual and moral disgust and Five Factor Model personality dimensions, we use the HEXACO personality model. We find that honesty–humility, a personality dimension assessed in the HEXACO model but not the Five Factor Model, accounts for unique variance in sensitivities to sexual and moral disgust, but not sensitivity to pathogen disgust. Other relationships between disgust sensitivity and personality are discussed, as are implications for understanding the fitness-relevant tradeoffs potentially underlying disgust sensitivity and personality.     

The measurement of Human Life History strategy

This retrospective essay appraises J. Philippe Rushton’s application of life history to understanding the covariation among human traits in light of subsequent developments in the measurement and latent structure of Human Life History, covitality, and personality. We conclude that Rushton should be recognized for having initiated a theoretically and empirically highly fertile paradigm in human individual differences research.     

Theory and Practice of Evolutionary Civilization

Societal collapse has been a perennial concern of humanity, at least since the early Greeks. Recent publication of Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed and Ervin Laszlo's The Chaos Window: The World at the Crossroads renew this concern. Despite the urgency in these and many similar calls to action, no consensus theory and practice of evolutionary civilization exists. This article calls for collaborative action by the evolutionary systems community and related disciplines to provide insight into what has been dubbed “the most important question in the world today” (Smith, 2005 Smith, F. L. Jr. 2005. Jared Diamond and the Terrible Too's. Energy &; Environment, 16(3/4): 423–439. [CSA][CROSSREF] [Google Scholar], p. 436).     

含有新算符的代数运算规则学习的有效样例设计

为了探索含有新算符的代数运算规则学习的有效样例设计方式,分别采用“转换标记法”和“解释法”设计“指-对数转换”运算和对数运算的样例,考察了初中三年级学生代数运算规则样例学习的迁移效果。结果显示：(1)采用“转换标记法”设计的样例可以明显提高“指-对数转换”规则样例学习的迁移效果;(2)采用“解释法”设计的运算样例,能够明显促进“对数运算规则”的样例学习迁移效果,并与被试的基础知识有关。     

A functional-cognitive framework for attitude research

In attitude research, behaviours are often used as proxies for attitudes and attitudinal processes. This practice is problematic because it conflates the behaviours that need to be explained (explanandum) with the mental constructs that are used to explain these behaviours (explanans). In the current chapter we propose a meta-theoretical framework that resolves this problem by distinguishing between two levels of analysis. According to the proposed framework, attitude research can be conceptualised as the scientific study of evaluation. Evaluation is defined not in terms of mental constructs but in terms of elements in the environment, more specifically, as the effect of stimuli on evaluative responses. From this perspective, attitude research provides answers to two questions: (1) Which elements in the environment moderate evaluation? (2) What mental processes and representations mediate evaluation? Research on the first question provides explanations of evaluative responses in terms of elements in the environment (functional level of analysis); research on the second question offers explanations of evaluation in terms of mental processes and representations (cognitive level of analysis). These two levels of analysis are mutually supportive, in that better explanations at one level lead to better explanations at the other level. However, their mutually supportive relation requires a clear distinction between the concepts of their explanans and explanandum, which are conflated if behaviours are treated as proxies for mental constructs. The value of this functional-cognitive framework is illustrated by applying it to four central questions of attitude research.     

Mirror neurons and their function in cognitively understood empathy

The current renewal of interest in empathy is closely connected to the recent neurobiological discovery of mirror neurons. Although the concept of empathy has been widely deployed, we shall focus upon one main psychological function it serves: enabling us to understand other peoples’ intentions. In this essay we will draw on neuroscientific, psychological, and philosophical literature in order to investigate the relationships between mirror neurons and empathy as to intention understanding. Firstly, it will be explored whether mirror neurons are the neural basis of our empathic capacities: a vast array of empirical results appears to confirm this hypothesis. Secondly, the higher level capacity of reenactive empathy will be examined and the question will be addressed whether philosophical analysis alone is able to provide a foundation for this more abstract level of empathy. The conclusion will be drawn that both empirical evidence and philosophical analysis can jointly contribute to the clarification of the concept of empathy.     

Rigid/non-rigid grounding and transitivity

While extant replies to Jonathan Schaffer’s putative counterexamples to the transitivity of grounding have made significant strides against the charge of transitivity failure, the replies pay insufficient attention to the common structure of the counterexamples, overlooking a deeper structural feature that contributes to their prima facie plausibility. Putative counterexamples to the transitivity of grounding, I argue, trade on the distinction between what I call ‘rigid’ and ‘non-rigid’ grounding, and confusion over how rigid and non-rigid grounding react when combined pumps the intuition that the counterexamples’ chained conclusions are false. The rigid/non-rigid grounding distinction also reveals plausible weakening inference rules that have been overlooked in treatments of the logic of grounding.     

Making semantics for essence

In this paper, I develop a truthmaker semantics for essence and use the semantics to investigate the explanatory role of essence.     

Consequentializing and Underdetermination

The paper explores a new interpretation of the consequentializing project. Three prominent interpretations are criticized for neglecting the explanatory dimension of moral theories. Instead, it is argued that consequentializing leads to a phenomenon that is structurally analogous to one in science—the underdetermination of theory by evidence. This provides important insights into the consequentializing debate, and advances our general understanding of the moral domain.