An American Philosopher at Moscow State University, 1964–1965

For an American philosopher participating in a cultural exchangeprogram with the Soviet Union in 1964–65, a year spent in thePhilosophy Faculty of Moscow State University, studying and doingresearch in the history of Russian philosophy, provided manyinteresting insights – some of them surprising – into the theoryand practice of Marxism-Leninism and the nature of philosophicaleducation in Russia in the 1960s.     

State capacity,economic policy and world system mobility, 1970–1985

Weak states and ineffective economic policies are assumed to mediate the constraints of the world system and to prevent upward mobility among peripheral countries. This article tests the effects of state strength and economic policy on world system mobility in the period 1970–85 on a sample of 162 countries. World system role and mobility were operationalized using role equivalence based network measures. Countries with effective neoorthodox policies experience significantly higher mobility, even after controlling for economic performance, as do countries with states that have high despotic capacity. No effect, direct or indirect, was found for infrastructural state capacity. Ronan Van Rossem studied sociology at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Brown University, and Columbia University, and at present is a Senior Researcher at the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the New York State Psychiatric Institute in New York City. At present he is involved in a study of the developmental consequences of perinatal brain injury in low birthweight children, and in an evaluation study of ER intervention programs for adolescents who attempt suicide. In his spare time his interests go out to comparative development, political economy, and collective action.     

Citizenship Education and Liberalism: A State of the Debate Analysis 1990–2010

What kind of citizenship education, if any, should schools in liberal societies promote? And what ends is such education supposed to serve? Over the last decades a respectable body of literature has emerged to address these and related issues. In this state of the debate analysis we examine a sample of journal articles dealing with these very issues spanning a twenty-year period with the aim to analyse debate patterns and developments in the research field. We first carry out a qualitative analysis where we design a two-dimensional theoretical framework in order to systematise the various liberal debate positions, and make us able to study their justifications, internal tensions and engagements with other positions. In the ensuing quantitative leg of the study we carry out a quantitative bibliometric analysis where we weigh the importance of specific scholars. We finally discuss possible merits and flaws in the research field, as evidenced in and by the analysis.     

The Differential Assessment of State–Trait Anxiety and Depression in a Clinically Anxious Sample

Empirical investigation into anxiety and depression has led some researchers to question the conceptual distinctness of these constructs. N. S. Endler, B. J. Cox, J. D. A. Parker, and R. M. Bagby (1992) provided empirical evidence that state and trait anxiety (using the Endler Multidimensional Anxiety Scales; N. S. Endler, J. M. Edwards, and R. Vitelli, 1991) may be differentiated from depression (using the Beck Depression Inventory; A. T. Beck, 1978) in a student sample. The present study extended this research by employing a different sample, a clinical sample of panic disorder patients (N = 189). Further support for the conceptual distinctness of anxiety and depression is presented herein. The concept of a general distress factor that encompasses both constructs is also discussed.     

Managing Muslim–Christian Conflicts in Northern Nigeria: A Case Study of Kaduna State

This article sets out to identify the causes of Christian–Muslim conflicts in Northern Nigeria and suggest strategies for peaceful co-existence among the adherents of the two religions. It is based on in-depth interviews with the community and religious leaders and a survey of media coverage of the crises. The article examines the sudden upsurge of violent conflicts between Christians and Muslims in Northern Nigeria in general and Kaduna State in particular. Analysts posit that these conflicts arise from clashes of values and claims to scarce resources, power and status. The article examines how non-Muslims view the emirate system of administration with its Islamic origin, the Shari^ca system of law operating in the Northern States, and the effects of these on Christian–Muslim relations.     

What Cognitions Predict State Anger?

This study evaluated the relationship between specific cognitions and state anger. Clinical outpatients (23%), workplace recruits (37%), and college students (40%) (N = 236, mean age = 31.68) completed a questionnaire, the Anger Episode Record (AER), which asked them to describe an experience that elicited feelings of irritation, annoyance, anger, fury, or rage. They rated the intensity of their anger, cognitions, physiological responses, behaviors, and consequences for the specific episode. A stepwise multiple regression suggests that cognitions for revenge accounted for the greatest variance in predicting state anger, R = .26, p = .00, followed by demands on event, R = .32, p = .00, self-efficacy, R = .37, p = .00, and demands of others, R = .39, p = .04, respectively. The role of these cognitions in psychotherapy and interventions for angry clients is discussed.     

Is Belief an Internal State?

This paper is a discussion of Michael Thau’s interesting critique in Chapter 2 of Consciousness and Cognition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002, of the common view that beliefs are internal states.     

The Effects of Social Anxiety and State Anxiety on Visual Attention: Testing the Vigilance–Avoidance Hypothesis

A growing theoretical and research literature suggests that trait and state social anxiety can predict attentional patterns in the presence of emotional stimuli. The current study adds to this literature by examining the effects of state anxiety on visual attention and testing the vigilance–avoidance hypothesis, using a method of continuous visual attentional assessment. Participants were 91 undergraduate college students with high or low trait fear of negative evaluation (FNE), a core aspect of social anxiety, who were randomly assigned to either a high or low state anxiety condition. Participants engaged in a free view task in which pairs of emotional facial stimuli were presented and eye movements were continuously monitored. Overall, participants with high FNE avoided angry stimuli and participants with high state anxiety attended to positive stimuli. Participants with high state anxiety and high FNE were avoidant of angry faces, whereas participants with low state and low FNE exhibited a bias toward angry faces. The study provided partial support for the vigilance–avoidance hypothesis. The findings add to the mixed results in the literature that suggest that both positive and negative emotional stimuli may be important in understanding the complex attention patterns associated with social anxiety. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Family Homelessness: State or Trait?

Compares conceptualizations of homelessness as a temporary state through which people pass or a permanent trait that emanates from individual characteristics. Evidence from a longitudinal study of 564 homeless families in New York City and additional secondary sources supports the view that for families, homelessness is a temporary state that is resolved by the provision of subsidized housing. Even for single individuals with severe mental disturbances, housing is a key factor in ending homelessness, although here there is more evidence that social services also contribute. Policy implications are that governments should take a more active role in reducing homelessness by providing access to subsidized housing.     

Comparative Latent State–Trait Analysis of Satisfaction with Life Measures: The Steen Happiness Index and the Satisfaction with Life Scale

The variance in satisfaction with life can be broken down into trait- and state-like components. We ran tests to determine if a new scale for the measurement of satisfaction with life, the Steen Happiness Index (SHI), was more sensitive to situational changes than the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), which is currently used as a gold standard, with well-established state–trait characteristics. The study consisted of 292 young adults aged 18–35, who were recruited and interviewed three times with 5-month intervals at their places of residence. They completed a set of questionnaires involving the SHI and the SWLS. A latent autoregressive state–trait model showed an adequate fit, χ² (56) = 81.35, p = .02, χ²/df = 1.45, RMSEA = .06, CFI = .98, SRMR = .06. The results indicated that the two scales are strongly correlated on the trait level (r = .98) and on the occasion-specific level (between r = .53 and r = .65) variables. For both scales, stable and occasion-specific influences determine inter-individual differences. For both scales, it is not possible to predict half of the variance by either traits or states measured earlier in time.     

Multicultural Education in the Zionist State – The Mizrahi Challenge

In this paper, we explore a specific variant of multicultural education inIsrael that developed within the dominant Jewish cultural identity, that isthe claim of Jews from Islamic countries (Mizrahi Jews) for educational autonomy. This demand arose against the backdrop of an aggressive nationalist ideology – Zionism – that claimed torepresent all Jews, and yet was too ambivalent toward its non-European Jewish subjects. The Mizrahi Jews' dual identity, as Jews and as products of the Arab culture, conflated with the state's problematic self-conception as both Jewish and democratic. This phenomenon, apparently, is evidenced by the two types of multicultural responses that developed within the Mizrahi sector: a critical multiculturalism with a social-democratic character on the one hand, and an autonomist multiculturalism with fundamentalist featureson the other.     

State,religion and the legal framework in Estonia ∗

Abstract

Estonia has a reputation as one of the most liberal countries as far as religion is concerned. At the same time Estonian society is also highly secularised. In the postcommunist period the principles of freedom of religion were laid down in the constitution adopted by referendum in 1992, and the first law on religious associations as legal entities was passed by parliament in 1993. This law reflected the ‘free market’ atmosphere of the early 1990s: all religious associations registered according to the law were treated equally. There are areas where state and religious institutions have found common interests. The main partners for the state have been the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church and the ecumenical association the Estonian Council of Churches. Could this be considered discriminatory when approximately 98 per cent of the adherents of any religion in Estonia claim to be Christians? There are different answers to this question. In 2002 a new law on religious associations replaced the previous law, but followed the principles established in 1993. There are also other laws and regulations on different aspects of religion, from the role of religion in public institutions like the army to religious traditions such as the slaughtering of animals. It could be argued that the successful establishing and maintaining of a liberal legislative framework for religion in Estonia is at least partly the outcome of the high secularisation level of Estonian society.     

Phonon–phason coupling in a Mg–Ga–Al–Zn icosahedral quasicrystal

Precise X-ray diffraction measurements have revealed that phonon (conventional) strain is introduced at the phase transition from an icosahedral quasicrystal to its orthorhombic crystal approximant in a Mg–Ga–Al–Zn alloy. From the magnitude of the measured phonon strain, the phonon–phason coupling constant has been evaluated. This constant is approximately ?0.03μ (μ: shear modulus) and it is in good agreement with the result of a theoretical calculation reported previously (W.-J. Zhu and C.L. Henley, Europhys. Lett. 46 748 (1999)). This is the first study that experimentally evaluates the phonon–phason coupling constant in any existing quasicrystalline phase.     

Selecting a Relevant Mental State in Young Children’s Persuasion

Previous studies have found that understanding another person’s mental states is a requirement for effective responding to that person. This study examined whether effective responding also requires selecting a relevant mental state of another person. Using a hypothetical persuasion paradigm, we investigated if late 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 120) could present information to counter a receiver’s opposition. For example, a boy is attempting to persuade his mother to let him have a bird. If the mother objects to her son having the bird because bird is noisy, then the boy should ask her to have a quiet bird. Presenting appropriate information (e.g., a quiet bird) was found to be more difficult when the person had plural beliefs (e.g., a bird would be clean and noisy) and children had to select the source of opposition (e.g., a bird would be noisy). This suggests that selecting an appropriate mental state of another person is necessary for effective responding. Contingency and developmental analyses revealed that children could present appropriate information only when they could select the source, indicating that the ability to select an appropriate mental state is a key factor in responding effectively to others.     

Formation of plate-shaped Guinier–Preston zones during natural aging of an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu–Zr Alloy

Plate-shaped Guinier–Preston (G–P) zone formation in an Al–Zn–Mg–Cu–Zr alloy has been studied using transmission electron microscopy. The results provide, for the first time, direct evidence showing nucleation and growth of plate-shaped coherent G–P zones during natural aging.     

Rapid dendritic growth within an undercooled Ni–Cu–Fe–Sn–Ge quinary alloy

A liquid quinary alloy with composition Ni–5%Cu–5%Fe–5%Sn–5%Ge has been prepared from a containerless state by undercooling. Dendritic growth of α-Ni phase took place with a velocity of 28 m s^?1 at the maximum degree of undercooling, which was as high as 405 K (0.24T _L). All of the four solute elements Cu, Fe, Sn and Ge exhibited a significant solute trapping effect during the rapid dendrite growth. Segregation-less solidification is consequently realized when the degree of undercooling is sufficiently large. The lattice constant of α-Ni solid solution phase is found to increase with the amount of multicomponent solute trapping.     

Miller on Dumézil: The Current State of Play

Robert A. Segal, Joseph Campbell: An introduction. New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1987, $22.00

Lawrence A. Hoffman, Beyond the text: A holistic approach to liturgy. Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1987, 213 pp

Wesley A. Kort, Modern Fiction and Human Time: A Study in Narrative and Belief. Tampa, University of South Florida Press, 1985, pp. x + 227. $20.00.

Bentley Layton (ed.), The Gnostic Scriptures. London, SCM Press, 1987, pp. xiii + 526, £25.

H. H. the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, The Kālachakra Tantra : Rite of initiation for the stage of Generation, a commentary ; text edited, translated and introduced in Jeffrey Hopkins. London, Wisdom Publications, 1985, 511 pp. £11.95.     

What is it Like to Have an Unconscious Mental State?

Philosophical Studies - HOST is the theory that to be conscious of a mental state is totarget it with a higher-order state (a `HOS'), either an innerperception or a higher-order thought. Some...