Reasoning and logic

Gilbert Harman, in Logic and Reasoning (Synthese 60 (1984), 107–127) describes an unsuccessful attempt ... to develop a theory which would give logic a special role in reasoning. Here reasoning is psychological, a procedure for revising one's beliefs. In the present paper, I construe reasoning sociologically, as a process of linguistic interaction; and show how both reasoning in the psychologistic sense and logic are related to that process.     

On finite approximability of ψ-intermediate logics

The aim of this note is to show (Theorem 1.6) that in each of the cases: = {, }, or {, , }, or {, , } there are uncountably many -intermediate logics which are not finitely approximable. This result together with the results known in literature allow us to conclude (Theorem 2.2) that for each : either all -intermediate logics are finitely approximate or there are uncountably many of them which lack the property.     

Hemingway's Aging Heroes and the Concept of Phronesis

This article explores the concept of phronesis (practical wisdom) in four aging protagonists in Ernest Hemingway's works ranging from the short story A Clean Well-Lighted Place to the novella The Old Man and the Sea. Phronesis represents an understanding of the ways of the world, an acute sensitivity to a critical logic of human existence that can be attained only through extensive experience and suffering. The four aging protagonists are examples of Hemingway's definition of aging productively and profitably by purchasing an inner peace that consists of an intuitive system of continuous adjustment to the exigencies of daily living.     

Identity,Love, and the Imaginary Father

The father of personal prehistory serves as the earliest and most enduring representation of God. This sexually undifferentiated father is identified by Freud as both parents and the flow of feeling between them. Kristeva elaborates to say that the first father creates the foundation for the infant's sexual differentiation, that is, a primary narcissistic screen. When parental flow of feeling provides inadequate compensation for the loss of oneness with Mother, the infant intrapsychically constructs its own foundation, an Other that has both parents' ideal qualities, a God who is a psychologically necessary He. Consequently, females have different experiences than males as they form and relate to their self- and God-representations.     

Spirituality in Older Adults: A Cross-Cultural and Interfaith Perspective

The definition of spirituality poses a variety of problems for the development of theory and research, as well as practical problems for persons interested in promoting the spiritual well-being of older adults. Although any definition of spirituality is problematic, a definition is proposed that comes out of the writer's clinical experience and is relevant to his understanding of the aging process in different cultural and religious contexts. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the relevance of the definition to the experience of older persons from different cultural and religious backgrounds. Reflections on the case studies suggest ways that an appropriately trained advocate might have helped the persons in these illustrations make changes in their situations that might have improved the quality of their lives. Material from the case studies is also used to clarify differences among terms such as spirituality, religion, religiosity, and piety. The paper proposes to be a contribution to a theoretical foundation for studying and working with spirituality in older adults.     

Distinctions between subgroups of asthmatic children: Parental reactions to experimental separation

Parental reactions to experimental separation were analyzed for two groups of asthmatic children, those for whom behavioral factors were judged highly relevant to asthma and those for whom such factors appeared unimportant. The former group of 13 (predicted positives) had shown a highly significant improvement in asthma during separation from their families; the latter group of 12 (predicted negatives) had not. Coding of standardized interviews conducted around the time of separation disclosed that parents (mothers, especially) of predicted positives scored significantly higher than parents of predicted negatives on such scales as fussing over the child at the time of leave taking, missing child, experiencing pain and discomfort during the separation, being anxious over child's welfare, etc. Psychological test data did not discriminate between the parents' or childrens' groups as clearly as the more focused separation interviews but the test results were consistent with interview differences. The separation elicited very strong emotional reactions from several mothers.This study was supported by United States Public Health Service Grant No. HD01060 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Kirk Brady, John Means, loan Muser, and Claire Purcell contributed to data collection and/or data analysis.     

Yes,Virginia, Lemons are Yellow

This paper discusses a number of themes and arguments in The Quest for Reality: Stroud's distinction between philosophical and ordinary questions about reality; the similarity he finds between the view that coloris unreal and the view that it is subjective; his argument against thesecondary quality theory; his argument against the error theory; and the disappointing conclusion of the book.     

Multidimensional Assessment of Chronic Low Back Pain: Predicting Treatment Outcomes

This study explored responses of chronic low back pain patients to treatment for different types of patients (dysfunctional, interpersonally distressed, and minimizer/adaptive coper), as classified using the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI). In addition, changes in MPI scores during treatment were examined separately for each patient type. Finally, this study explored the relationships between changes in MPI scores and physical improvement. Between-group differences in improvement were significant, with dysfunctional patients showing the most improvement on several scales. MPI scales that best predicted physical improvement differed according to patient type. Implications for treatment of low back pain patients are suggested, based upon differential reactions to treatment and different predictors of physical improvement for each patient group.     

Depression and Anxiety in Persons with Parkinson's Disease With and Without “On–Off” Phenomena

On–off phenomena in Parkinson's disease (PD) are unpredictable motor fluctuations associated with long-term levodopa use. Mood fluctuations have been found to coincide with the motor fluctuations in that depression and anxiety increase while the person with PD is in the off state. What has been relatively unexplored is whether those persons with PD who have on–off phenomena differ psychologically in fundamental ways from those who do not have on–off phenomena. In the present study, depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed in 36 persons with PD (n = 14 with on–off phenomena, n = 22 without on–off phenomena). All those with on–off phenomena were assessed in their on state. Those persons with PD with on–off phenomena had significantly higher levels of anxiety than those without on–off phenomena. However, both groups, regardless of on–off status, were mildly depressed. Neurobiological interpretations of the results implicate the locus coeruleus in the pathogenesis of both on–off phenomena and anxiety, whereas psychological interpretations of the results involve the issues of learned helplessness and control over health symptoms in PD.     

The relativity of perceptual knowledge

Since the most promising path to a solution to the problem of skepticism regarding perceptual knowledge seems to rest on a sharp distinction between perceiving and inferring, I begin by clarifying and defending that distinction. Next, I discuss the chief obstacle to success by this path, the difficulty in making the required distinction between merely logical possibilities that one is mistaken and the real (Austin) or relevant (Dretske) possibilities which would exclude knowledge. I argue that this distinction cannot be drawn in the ways Austin and Dretske suggest without begging the questions at issue. Finally, I sketch and defend a more radical way of identifying relevant possibilities that is inspired by Austin's controversial suggestion of a parallel between saying I know and saying I promise: a claim of knowledge of some particular matter is relative to a context in which questions about the matter have been raised.     

Variations in use of the term “or”

Two studies showed that adults' responses to questions involving the term or varied markedly depending upon the type of question presented. When presented with various objects (A's and B's) and asked to circle all things which are A or B subjects tended to circle A's as well as B's, whereas when asked to circle all the A's or B's subjects showed a relatively stronger tendency to circle one or the other. Moreover the nature of the sets of objects (As and Bs) influenced behavior as well. There was also evidence that the effects due to question wording or set type transferred.     

Lotteries And Contexts

There are many ordinary propositions we think we know. Almost every ordinary proposition entails some lottery proposition which we think we do not know but to which we assign a high probability of being true (for instance:I will never be a multi-millionaire entails I will not win this lottery). How is this possible – given that some closure principle is true? This problem, also known as the Lottery puzzle, has recently provoked a lot of discussion. In this paper I discuss one of the most promising answers to the problem: Stewart Cohens contextualist solution, which is based on ideas about the salience of chances of error. After presenting some objections to it I sketch an alternative solution which is still contextualist in spirit.     

On some structural aspects of physical problems

Bachelard's concept of the problématique is used in order to classify physical problems and their interrelations. This classification is effectuated along two dimensions. Along the horizontal dimension, physical problems are divided into the kinds that the different modes of physics' development define. These modes are themselves determined by the interplay among the conceptual system, the object and the experimentation transactions specific to physics. Along the vertical dimension, physical problems are classified according to the different stages of maturation they have to undergo before the process of their solution is effectively undertaken. To determine these maturation stages, the Althusserian conception of ideology is used. The interrelations between physical problems are examined through the introduction and elaboration of the notion interdependence network.It is a pleasure to thank Marcello Pera and Kostas Gavroglou for their very helpful comments and criticisms.     

Effects of sequential 1-minute time trials with and without inter-trial feedback and self-correction on general and special education students' fluency with math facts

We measured the effects of two procedures for implementing 1-min time trials on the rate and accuracy with which elementary students wrote answers to single-digit math facts in two concurrent experiments in a first grade classroom and a special education classroom. On-task behavior of three students in each class was also measured. Baseline was a 10-min work period in which students were told to answer as many problems as you can. The two time trial conditions, each of which was also conducted within a 10-min period, consisted of: (1) a series of seven 1-min time trials with a 20-s rest period following each timing; and (2) two 1-min timings, each followed by a teacher-directed feedback and self-correction activity. Students in both classrooms answered correctly more problems per minute during both time trial conditions than they did during the 10-min work period, with the highest levels of fluency occurring during the two time trials with self-correction. The emphasis on going fast did not impair students' accuracy of performance. In both classrooms the percentage of attempted problems answered correctly was high during the initial baseline and increased slightly over the course of the study. On-task behavior was higher during both time trial conditions than during the 10-min work period. When asked at the study's conclusion which of the three methods for practicing math facts (1) helped you learn the most and (2) would you like to do again, the majority of the students in both classrooms chose the time trials followed by feedback and self-correction.     

Hussearle's Representationalism and the “hypothesis of the Background”

John Searle's hypothesis of the Background seems to conflict with his initial representationalism according to which each Intentional state contains a particular content that determines its conditions of satisfaction. In Section I of this essay I expose Searle's initial theory of Intentionality and relate it to Edmund Husserl's earlier phenomenology. In Section II I make it clear that Searle's introduction of the notion of Network, though indispensable, does not, by itself, force us to modify that initial theory. However, a comparison of this notion to the notion of horizon from Husserl's later phenomenology and an interpretation of Husserl's conception of the determinable X as providing a solution to the problem of perceptual misidentification lead me to conclude that in his discussion of 'twin examples' Searle had better modified his initial theory. Finally, I critically examine Searle's claim that anyone who tries seriously to follow out the threads in the Network will eventually reach a bedrock of non-Intentional capacities. In Section III I show in detail, partly in a rather Husserlian vein, that Searle's four official arguments for the Background thesis, though containing some very valuable contributions to a theory of linguistic skills, are not convincing at all if they are to be understood as going beyond the scope of (Hus)Searle's 'content-cum-Network' picture of Intentionality. The upshot of these considerations is that the Background thesis should be read as a thesis concerning the causal neurophysiological preconditions of human Intentionality rather than concerning the logical properties of Intentional states in general. Recently Searle himself has come to the same result, but he does not say for which reasons. The present essay makes it clear why Searle just had to arrive at this important result.     

Context and strategy in acquiring temporal connectives

There has been considerable debate over the role of comprehension strategies in the acquisition of temporal connectives. This study examined the role of caluse logic and interpretational strategies in the acquisition of temporal words; age-related changes were also considered. Thirty-two children between 3 and 5 years of age served as subjects. Sentences with a variety of temporal words were used to tap children's comprehension of before, after, when, while, just before that, and and after that. Clause logic was found to significantly improve the understanding of these sentences. However, the order of mention and main clause first strategies were used infrequently. Apparently, when children respond to sentences that describe information in a way that is consistent with that they normally hear, these strategies are seldom applied.I wish to express my thanks to Janice Bogen, who assisted in data collection, and to Erika Hoff-Ginsberg, who assisted in some of the data analysis.     

The elimination of de re formulas

It is shown that de re formulas are eliminable in the modal logic S5 extended with the axiom scheme x x.     

Endogenous Ketamine-Like Compounds and the NDE: If So, So What?

This commentary on Karl Jansen's ketamine model for the near-death experience expands upon and raises additional questions about several issues and hypotheses: self-experimentation as a source of data; ketamine's similarities to and differences from classical hallucinogens; the need for quantification of unusual subjective states; clinical research and toxicological implications of this model; drugs as gateways to religious states; and evolutionary versus religious significance of naturally occurring compounds released in the near-death state. I suggest future research that could help explicate several of these areas.Formerly Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine     

Allgemeinpsychologische Untersuchungen zum Vigilanzverhalten

Zusammenfassung Mit Hilfe eines 2×2×2-Designs wurde die Wirkung der Anzahl der Signalflächen, Anzahl der irrelevanten Reize und Art der Motivation auf die Vigilanzleistung untersucht. Dabei zeigte sich, daß die Wahrscheinlichkeiten von verpaßten Signalen und falschen Alarmen mit der Anzahl der Signalquellen zunehmen. Die Menge der Nicht-Signale gleicher Modalität wie die Signalreize beeinflußt weder die Signalentdeckungen noch die falschen Alarme.Weiterhin wurde versucht, eine Systematisierung von Motivationswirkungen in Vigilanzaufgaben im Rahmen des detection-Modells vorzunehmen. Bei großen Gewinnen für richtige Signalentdeckungen und geringen Verlusten für falsche Alarme (Risiko-Motivation) ergab sich eine wesentlich höhere Entdeckungswahrscheinlichkeit und eine geringfügig höhere Rate von falschen Alarmen als bei geringen Gewinnen für richtige Signalentdeckungen und hohen Kosten für falsche Alarme (Vorsichts-Motivation). Weiterhin zeigte sich unter Risiko-Motivation ein Abfall der Entdeckungswahrscheinlichkeit und bei Vorsichts-Motivation ein Anstieg, während sich die entsprechenden Raten der falschen Alarme im Verlauf der Aufgabe nicht signifikant veränderten.

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Experimental application of detection theory to vigilance behaviour

Summary In a 2×2×2-design the effects of number of dials, number of irrelevant stimuli and kind of motivation were combined. It was found out, that probabilities of missed signals and false alarms increased with spatial uncertainty. The number of irrelevant stimuli, which were of equal sensory modality as the relevant stimuli, had no influence either on detection probability or on false alarms rate.Further attempt was made to systematize effects of motivation on vigilance performance in the detection model. With great values for hits and small costs for false alarms (risky motivation) there was an essentially higher detection pobability and a slightly higher false alarms rate than with small values for hits and high costs for false detections (cautious motivation). The probabilities of detections decreased under risky motivation and increased under cautious motivation as the watch prolonged, whereas the corresponding probabilities of false alarms showed no significant changes.

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Teil I der Dissertation, die im Januar 1969 der Philosophischen Fakultät der Freien Universität Berlin vorgelegt wurde.