Spotty Scope and Our Relation to Fictions*

Whatever the attractions of Tolkein's world, irrealists about fictions do not believe literally that Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit. Instead, irrealists believe that, according to The Lord of the Rings {Bilbo is a hobbit}. But when irrealists want to say something like “I am taller than Bilbo”, there is nowhere good for them to insert the operator “according to The Lord of the Rings”. This is an instance of the operator problem. In this paper, I outline and criticise Sainsbury's (2006) spotty scope approach to the operator problem. Sainsbury treats the problem as syntactic, but the problem is ultimately metaphysical.     

去人性化知觉:内涵、测量及相关研究

去人性化知觉是人们对人性的否定性认知,它与暴力行为有着密切的联系。本文在介绍去人性化知觉的内涵和测量的基础上,梳理了导致去人性化知觉的情境因素和个体因素,并阐述了去人性化知觉对攻击性和亲社会性的影响。未来研究可以从四个方面开展,包括丰富研究变量、加强干预研究、拓展研究方法、进行本土化和跨文化研究。     

Technology,Perversion, and Dehumanization: Response to Discussions of My Paper

In this paper, I expand my claim that technological advances are significantly altering self-definition and relationship. I address the mixed reactions to the concept of perversion and argue that, despite its problematics, the term should be retained. I respond to Kieffer’s and Coen’s request for additional clinical material and highlight Hartman’s many misreadings of my paper.     

Analogy Between Quantum and Cell Relations

Relations occur on all levels of systems. Following a major assumption of generalized quantum theory, namely that the principles of quantum mechanics will occur on higher system levels as well, it was investigated in an a posteriori analysis of pre-existing data whether relational patterns found for two-photon experiments are similarly performed by two cell-populations. In particular, the typical pattern in outcomes of two-photon entanglement experiments was extrapolated to discover similar patterns of relationships in the cellular biological system of the Ciliate Paramecium caudatum. In the former case we find one photon assuming a particular state when being measured and the other assuming a correlated state with regard to the first particle. From a perspective of degrees of freedom (df) the author interprets this outcome as follows: Each particle has only one df for assuming a particular state (e.g. its spin). When measured this is leading to a pattern: They use their two degrees of freedom for establishing a relation among them (particle-to-particle) and for a relation with the environment (particle-to-measurement). If this pattern is unique then we should find it also in cell-to-cell relationships. It was suggested to consider causations in cell-to-cell relations as the analogue to the relationship between the quantum particles (see above) and the dependence of repeating the experiments as the analogue to the measurement event in the quantum experiment. It was hypothesized that in a relational system of two cell populations only one should be sensitive to the repetition of the experiment. The other population, however, should establish a relation with the first one. Since the author had successfully performed experiments with pairs of cell populations that were separated with glass barriers from each other but having effects on each other (Fels in PLoS One 4:e5086, 2009), the system was perfectly well suited for testing the hypothesis. The assessed cell variable was cell division. An a posteriori analysis of three similar experiments confirmed that when populations were in a relation with each other, only one of them stood in relation with the repetition of the experiment.     

Cruelty to Compassion: the Poetry of Teaching Transformation

Two complementary bodies of literature either claim explicitly or imply that human cruelty is rooted in asymmetrical relationships. The first describes and analyzes various forms of domination and acquiescence, including colonialism, racism, imperialism, sexism, and interpersonal power dynamics, among others. The second attempts to describe what would constitute the antidote, namely symmetrical relationships of mutuality and equality. Both of these literatures counsel abandoning asymmetrical relationships in favor of the symmetrical. To the contrary, this paper argues that it is only in the context of asymmetrical relationships that humans can learn the basics of equality and mutual regard that undergird democracy. More particularly, the moral use of asymmetrical relations would be to help the young acquire, inter alias, the kinds of self-awareness and self-understanding that would enable them to function as responsible parties in symmetrical relations.     

Between Opportunity and Constraint: Understanding the Onward Migration of Highly Educated Iranian Refugees from Sweden

In the 1980s and early 1990s, more than 50,000 Iranian refugees moved to Sweden. The Swedish state attended to their immediate needs, providing housing, language training, and other types of support. Moreover, these migrants had almost immediate access to all the benefits of the Swedish welfare state including affordable healthcare, unemployment insurance, and free education up to and including the tertiary level. Despite the opportunities available to them in Sweden, many Iranian refugees have faced challenges, especially when trying to secure meaningful work. One of the strategies they have used to overcome barriers to entering the labor market is to leave Sweden for onward destinations which are seen as having relatively more to offer. This study explores the onward migration of Iranians from Sweden by way of a two-step mixed methods approach: in the first step, population register data is used to determine how onward migrants differ from those Iranians who stay in Sweden. In the second step, information from life history interviews conducted with onward migrants in London and Toronto is used to understand what motivates individuals to leave Sweden. Overall, the study finds that highly educated Iranians who have struggled to find employment in Sweden are the most likely to move on. Their precise motivations for doing so, however, are nuanced and complex and relate to more than just economic factors.     

Convergence and Its Limits: Relations Between Analytic and Continental Philosophy

Abstract

In this article, it is argued that a convergence between the (post-)analytic and continental traditions in philosophy is unlikely. Both traditions have fundamentally different approaches to questions concerning consciousness and subjectivity. They also differ in their conception of the role of philosophy, if we are to become autonomous and reflective humans beings.To illustrate this, a comparison is made between the work of the continental philosopher Dieter Henrich and the ‘post-analytic’ philosopher Thomas Nagel, who is often seen as a typical ‘converger‘.     

人格与青少年犯罪的关系研究

简要介绍了有关青少年犯罪的人格理论,然后按照研究中所采用的不同的人格测量工具：明尼苏达多相人格测验、艾森克人格问卷、卡特尔16项人格因素测验和加利福尼亚人格问卷,以及大五人格问卷分类综述了近10年来人格与青少年犯罪的关系研究。近五年的研究主要采用大五人格结构,将变量中心法和个体中心法相结合,以及将人格和环境因素相结合来研究人格对青少年犯罪的影响作用。进一步的研究需要在人格测量和研究设计上予以改进,深入揭示人格对青少年犯罪的影响机制     

Discerning the Relations Between Conversation and Cognition

Although hailing from cognate analytical schools, the contributors to Hedwig te Molder and Jonathan Potter’s edited volume Conversation and Cognition hold a remarkable diversity of views on the nature of “mental states” and their import for the purposes of analyzing naturally occurring interaction. I offer a critical analysis of some of the contributors’ discussions of cognition in social interaction in an effort to clarify some obstinate issues with respect to the meanings of words in our cognitive vocabulary (e.g. “thought” and “realization”) and their identification in analyses of conversation.     

Citizenship and Counterproductive Behavior: Clarifying Relations Between the Two Domains

Competing viewpoints exist as to whether organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and counterproductive work behaviors (CWB) are best viewed as behaviors located on a single continuum or as distinct constructs. Reliable and established measures of OCB, CWB, and the Big Five were administered to a large and diverse employee sample. Confirmatory factor analysis supports differentiating between facets of OCB and CWB. In addition, OCB and CWB were moderately negatively correlated and had a number of different personality correlates. This lends support to OCB and CWB representing two distinct constructs instead of a single continuum.     

Bound by Infinities: Technology,Immediacy and Our Environmental Crisis*

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - This paper explores the relationship between human desire, technology, and imagination, emphasizing (1) the phenomenology of this relationship, and (2) its...