C. I. Lewis,Kant, and the reflective method of philosophy

ABSTRACT

If it seems unquestionable that C. I. Lewis is a Kantian in important respects, it is more difficult to determine what, if anything, is original about his Kantianism. For it might be argued that Lewis’ Kantianism simply reflects an approach to the a priori which was very common in the first half of the twentieth century, namely, the effort to make the a priori relative. In this paper, I will argue that Lewis’ Kantianism does present original features. The latter can be detected by focusing on Lewis’ account of the method of philosophy in the first chapter of Mind and the World Order. In that context, Lewis argues that the method of philosophy should be reflective and critical. It will be my contention that this understanding of philosophy involves a therapeutic perspective, which bears important resemblances to Kant’s account of transcendental reflection in the Amphiboly of the Critique of Pure Reason. I will illustrate how this therapeutic application of reflection works in Lewis’ metaphysics. In this context, reflection can correct errors of reasoning that occur when we are operating within a particular conceptual scheme and use the criteria of reality that are appropriate in another.     

AGNOSTIC MEDITATIONS ON BUDDHIST MEDITATION

I first attempt a taxonomy of meditation in traditional Indian Buddhism. Based on the main psychological or somatic function at which the meditative effort is directed, the following classes can be distinguished: (1) emotion‐centered meditation (coinciding with the traditional samatha approach); (2) consciousness‐centered meditation (with two subclasses: consciousness reduction/elimination and ideation obliteration); (3) reflection‐centered meditation (with two subtypes: morality‐directed reflection and reality‐directed observation, the latter corresponding to the vipassanā method); (4) visualization‐centered meditation; and (5) physiology‐centered meditation. In the second part of the essay I tackle the problem of the epistemic validity and happiness‐engendering value of Buddhist meditation. In my highly conjectural view, the claim that meditation represents an infallible tool for realizing the (Supreme) Truth as well as a universally valid method for attaining the highest forms of happiness is largely based on the crēdō effect, that is, a placebolike process. I do not deny that meditation may have some positive effects on mental and physical health or that its practice may bring changes to the mind. Meditation may be a valuable alternative approach in life and clinical treatment, but it is far from being a must or a panacea.     

The Existential Sources of Phenomenology: Heidegger on Formal Indication

Abstract: This article contributes to the contemporary debate regarding the young Heidegger's method of formal indication. Theodore Kisiel argues that this method constitutes a radical break with Husserl—a rejection of phenomenological reflection that paves the way to the non‐reflective approach of the Beiträge. Against this view, Steven Crowell argues that formal indication is continuous with Husserlian phenomenology—a refinement of phenomenological reflection that reveals its existential sources. I evaluate this debate and adduce further considerations in favor of Crowell's view. To do so, I analyze the young Heidegger's account of phenomenological communication and argue that it further reflects the continuity that Crowell identifies: as he does with reflection, Heidegger refines Husserl's account of phenomenological communication and sheds light on its existential sources.     

When Reflection Hinders Creative Problem-Solving: a Test of Alternative Reflection Strategies

A growing body of evidence suggests that reflecting on performance is an important source of individual learning. Given the importance of creativity in contemporary business settings, reflection has also been cast as a useful strategy to facilitate creative problem-solving. Challenging this idea, we conducted a series of lab experiments to examine the effects of reflection on creative problem-solving. Drawing from theory in cognitive psychology on knowledge structures, we argue that reflection may sometimes debilitate rather than improve creative problem-solving, due to the reinforcement of existing cognitive schemas and the resulting cognitive entrenchment. To test our theoretical arguments, we developed two alternative reflection strategies, imaginative reflection and vicarious elaboration. In Study 1 (N = 101), we observed a detrimental effect of task reflection on creative problem-solving, which was offset by having participants engage in imaginative reflection. In Study 2 (N = 191), vicarious elaboration, elaborating on another’s creative experiences instead of reflecting on one’s own creative experiences, was introduced as a second strategy to counter cognitive entrenchment. In Study 3 (N = 235), we combined the reflection strategies, demonstrating that imaginative thinking was more effective when focused on one’s own experiences rather than on others’ experiences (i.e., vicarious imaginative elaboration). Together, these findings increase our understanding of the effects of different reflection strategies, but also call for further research to address an intriguing observation: none of the reflection strategies led to better outcomes as compared to a control condition without reflection, suggesting that individual reflection might not help creative problem-solving at all.

     

The importance of stories in the act of caring

This article focuses on the essential role and function of story in the care of young children with emotional and behavioral disorders in an institutional setting. Highlighted in this article is the importance of story in the therapeutic relationship, its educational implications, and in theological reflection. A narrative approach of care becomes a way of healing both heart and mind, and is ultimately an act of love.     

Patients taking the lead. A naturalistic investigation of a patient led approach to treatment in primary care

In an earlier paper (Carey, T. A. (2005). Can patients specify treatment parameters? A preliminary investigation. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 12, 326–335) an approach to treatment delivery was examined in which the duration and frequency of the appointments was scheduled by patients. Results of this approach were encouraging but the generalizability of the results was constrained because only one clinician trialed the approach and no standardized assessment measures were used. In the present study there are two clinicians involved and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) was used. The approach was introduced at one GP practice and monitored over a six-month period. Results suggest that this approach might be an effective way of promoting patient access to, and involvement in, service delivery as well as reducing waiting times.     

Short-term and long-term relationships between reflection and performance in teams: evidence from a four-wave longitudinal study

Previous theory and research suggest that team reflection is beneficial for team performance. We argue that results remain inconclusive because prior studies have not accounted for the dynamic nature of this relationship. This paper addresses this research gap by examining time-specific relationships among variables and the intra-team variability of changes across time. In a four-wave longitudinal field study with 97 teams (N = 453 team members) performing a business simulation task, short-term (i.e., autoregressive, cross-lagged effects) and long-term (i.e., latent trajectories) relationships between team reflection and performance were explored. We found evidence that reflection had negative autoregressive effects and that there were direct positive short-term relationships between reflection and performance. Reflection trajectories were seen to decline across time and performance trajectories to increase across time. In addition, teams with either low initial reflection or low initial performance showed higher increases in reflection across time, whilst higher increase in reflection was negatively related to change in performance. Findings are discussed with respect to how they extend the previous literature and what directions they suggest for future research.     

Frankl's concept of time: Existential psychotherapy with couples and families

In this article, Viktor Frankl's ideas about time are used to outline the basic curative factors in an Existential approach to psychotherapy with couples and families. In this approach, the future includes meaning potentials that are available to the couple or family; the present is the time to actualize such meaning potentials; and the past includes these meaning potentials which have been actualized by the couple or family and deposited forever in the past. The function of the psychotherapist in the described approach to treatment is to help the couple or family notice, actualize,and honorfamily meanings and family meaning potentials.     

AN ANALYSIS OF AND INTERVENTION IN THE SEXUAL TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE

Sexually transmitted diseases are a serious threat to the public health. Indeed, when an individual seeks medical treatment for a sexually transmitted disease, health authorities frequently attempt to identify, procure, and treat that individual's sexual contact(s). We conducted a comparative analysis of three alternative approaches to tracing the sexual partners of individuals diagnosed as having a sexually transmitted disease. The first approach involved counseling individuals (n = 27) infected with either gonorrhea or nongonococcal urethritis and exhorting them to procure their sexual partners for treatment. In addition to counseling, the second and third approaches involved distributing “occasion cards” for patients to use when informing sexual contacts of the need for treatment. Moreover, in the second approach, the counselor (a nurse or physician) informed infected patients (n = 19) that they and their partners could waive the $3 clinic fee contingent upon the partners seeking treatment within 1 week. In the third approach, the counselor asked infected persons (n = 19) to accept a follow-up telephone contact if their sexual partners failed to seek treatment within 1 week. The third approach was most effective. Ninety percent of the partners identified through this approach sought treatment, versus only about 60% of the partners in the other two conditions. The third approach was also the least expensive, costing about $2.95 to procure each partner for treatment.     

Spiritual sensitivity in the classroom: a teaching experiment in Finnish upper secondary religious education

The interest to research spirituality in the classroom has been constant over the last decade. However, empirical research into classroom pedagogy and the lived experience of religious education has been scarce. This study describes a small-scale intervention that aimed to promote students’ spiritual reflection in Finnish upper secondary school RE classes by using stimulating tasks. One class (N?=?23) of upper secondary school students (16–18?years of age) participated in the study. Analysis of students’ responses after the silent reflection moments suggested that the tasks were successful in eliciting some level of spiritual reflection for most of the students. In this article, we describe the experiment and the content and nature of this reflection, as well as discuss the advantages and challenges of spiritually sensitive teaching methods in a classroom of heterogeneous worldviews.     

Dream Reflection in Logotherapy: Facilitating the Psychotherapeutic Process and Case Studies

Logotherapy or Existenzanalyse is a treatment orientation developed by the late Viennese psychiatrist, Dr. Victor Frankl. Frankl's orientation places primary emphasis upon helping the client to notice, actualize and honor the meaning and meaning potentials in his or her life. This helps the client to shrink his/her existential meaning vacuum, and the symptoms and problems that grow and flourish in this existential vacuum. In this article Frankl's treatment orientation is briefly outlined, with a focus on the use of dream reflection to facilitate the Logotherapeutic process which is illustrated through case material.     

Subjectivity,Reflection and Freedom in Later Foucault

Abstract

This paper proposes a new reading of the interaction between subjectivity, reflection and freedom within Foucault’s later work. I begin by introducing three approaches to subjectivity, locating these in relation both to Foucault’s texts and to the recent literature. I suggest that Foucault himself operates within what I call the ‘entanglement approach’, and, as such, he faces a potentially serious challenge, a challenge forcefully articulated by Han. Using Kant’s treatment of reflection as a point of comparison, I argue that Foucault possesses the resources to meet this challenge. The key, I contend, is to distinguish two related theses about reflection and freedom: Foucault’s position is distinctive precisely because he accepts one of these theses whilst rejecting the other. I conclude by indicating how this reading might connect to the longstanding question of Foucault’s own right to appeal to normative standards.     

Diakonia and diaconate in the World Council of Churches

Since the World Council of Churches (WCC) was founded in 1948 both diakonia and diaconate have been on the agenda of the organisation. As time has passed the understanding of these concepts has changed, and the theological importance given to them has varied due to external and internal factors. In this article I shall describe this development. My basic hypothesis is that the reflection on diakonia and diaconate has followed two separate tracks, the first considering diakonia as inter-church aid in contexts of human need, while the entry point of the second has been the ecumenical perception of the Church's ministry and within it a possible renewal of the diaconate. It is my hypothesis that these two tracks to a large degree have not been interrelated, but have mainly been isolated from each other. In my opinion this has limited the reflection on both concepts, and consequently both have lost momentum in ecumenical theology.     

The use of operant technology to measure behavioral priorities in captive animals

Addressing the behavioral priorities of captive animals and the development of practical, objective measures of the value of environmental resources is a principal objective of animal welfare science. In theory, consumer demand approaches derivedfrom human microeconomics should provide validmeasures of the value of environmental resources. In practice, however, a number of empirical and theoretical problems have rendered these measures difficult to interpret in studies with animals. A common approach has been to impose a cost on access to resources and to use time with each resource as a measure of consumption to construct demand curves. This can be recorded easily by automatic means, but in a number of studies, it has been found that animals compensate for increased cost of access with longer visit time. Furthermore, direct observation of the test animals’ behavior has shown that resource interaction is more intense once the animals have overcome higher costs. As a consequence, measures based on time with the resource may underestimate resource consumption at higher access costs, and demand curves derived from these measures may not be a true reflection of the value of different resources. An alternative approach to demand curves isreservation price, which is the maximum price individual animals are prepared to pay to gain access to resources. In studies using this approach, farmed mink (Mustela vison) paid higher prices for food and swimming water than for resources such as tunnels, water bowls, pet toys, and empty compartments. This indicates that the mink placed a higher value on food and swimming water than on other resources.     

Hospitable Kinship in Theological Education: Cross‐Cultural Perspectives on Teaching and Learning as Gift Exchange

Abstract. Using an autobiographical approach for pedagogical reflection, the author raises questions about how to include “hospitable kinship” and “gift exchange” in teaching and learning. Her experience with a Zimbabwean community circle of hospitable kinship has prompted her to consider how this method of community formation might be employed in classroom situations. Definitions for hospitable kinship and gift exchange are woven throughout the narrative. Attention to the role of the teacher as host is provided as well. The essay prompts readers to turn their attention toward specific strategies that will aid in the formation of classroom community.     

Sartre,The Condemned of Altona and the Critique of Dialectical Reason-to-come: Insanity or Bad Faith Running Away with Itself?

What for Sartre happens when bad faith goes so deep that one is no longer master of it? In The Condemned of Altona, Franz Gerlach, after an initial show of resistance, joins the Nazi cause and tortures prisoners of war in his charge. Fleeing home from Russia at the war’s end, he sequesters himself in the attic of the family mansion and attempts to absorb the guilt of the twentieth century by frantically arguing his case before a tribunal of scuttling crabs.

What does Sartre’s portrayal of hallucination tell us about the human condition and is it the result of insanity? As a harbinger for the Critique of Dialectical Reason (CDR), Sartre’s ontology has shifted away from an emphasis on human isolation and absolute freedom to a concern with how behaviour, even of an irrational kind, is a profound reflection of one’s place in a social hierarchy. Also a reflection of a CDR-type approach, Sartre’s views change regarding the status of truth and interpersonal relations. For while someone like Nausea’s Roquentin exhibits a redemptive value through introspection, fantasy and private experience, Franz’s behaviour points to a repeated failure to deal with social reality and the associated attempt to redeem his own existence by acting authentically towards others.     

Can more business ethics teaching halt corruption in companies?

Abstract

This article deals with the question of whether an increased teaching of business ethics can/will have a positive effect on the fight against corruption in companies. It is written from a (South) African perspective. Statistics about the alarming state of corruption in South African businesses are provided in the beginning. A Hegelian approach to the problem, in terms of which theory can and does influence practice, is compared to a Marxist approach, in terms of which theory is only a reflection of practice. The author chooses a position that mediates between these two extremes. In the end, he develops a model that relies heavily on the idea of an ethics of responsibility that draws on Aristotle’s idea of phronesis (practical wisdom based on deliberation). The practical implications of these ideas for the utilization of business ethics teaching in companies are consequently spelt out. While more teaching of this discipline cannot guarantee better morals in a company, it can better equip all involved to deal with the ever-increasing moral problems that business people have to deal with.     

What the Wise Ought Believe: A Voluntarist Interpretation of Hume's General Rules

This paper advances an interpretation of what Hume called ‘the general rules’: natural principles of belief-formation that nevertheless can be augmented via reflection. According to Hume, reflection is, in part, what separates the wise from the vulgar. In this paper, I argue that for Hume being wise must therefore be, to some degree, voluntary. Hume faced a significant problem in attempting to reconcile his epistemic normativity, i.e. his claims about what we ought to believe, with his largely involuntarist theory of the mind. Reflection on the General Rules, and an interpretation of that reflection as voluntary, helps explain not only Hume's theory of belief, but also how he hoped to reconcile epistemic normativity with naturalism about the mental.     

How Does the Analytic Supervisor Teach Group Therapy?

This paper presents a detailed account of the role of the analytic supervisor of group therapy. In addition to overseeing the teaching of clinical skills, the analytically-oriented supervisor monitors the dynamics of the supervisee and the supervisory relationship itself. Unconscious processes may both interfere with, and shed light on what is occurring in the treatment. The author suggests that a collaborative relationship characterized by safety and mutual reflection promotes learning. The distinctions between analytic and nonanalytic supervision of groups are discussed.