Urban Preservation and the Judgment of Solomon

ABSTRACT Facing heretofore unknown waves of new immigrants, the Israeli Government and the mayor of Jerusalem issued a comprehensive development programme, including rapid and massive construction. Cities with historical and aesthetic uniqueness, particularly Jerusalem, are likely to lose their special features and beauty. A question is raised: how can an argument in favour of conservation of the special beauties of such cities be advanced in light of the urgent need to supply shelter and jobs for their inhabitants? The paper has two aims: to analyse the reasons for environmental ethics'failure to discuss urban preservation so far, and to put forward a rationale for urban preservation. The latter derives from the political wisdom of King Solomon and from the notion of anthropocentric intrinsic value.     

A defense of local miracle compatibilism

David Lewis has offered a reply to the standard argument for the claim that the truth of determinism is incompatible with anyone’s being able to do otherwise than she in fact does. Helen Beebee has argued that Lewis’s compatibilist strategy is untenable. In this paper I show that one recent attempt to defend Lewis’s view against this argument fails and then go on to offer my own defense of Lewis’s view.

Reconsidering the miracle argument on the supposition of transient underdetermination

In this paper, I will show that the Miracle Argument is unsound if one assumes a certain form of transient underdetermination. For this aim, I will first discuss and formalize several variants of underdetermination, especially that of transient underdetermination, by means of measure theory. I will then formalize a popular and persuasive form of the Miracle Argument that is based on “use novelty”. I will then proceed to the proof that the miracle argument is unsound by means of a mathematical example. Finally, I will expose two hidden presuppositions of the Miracle Argument that make it so immensely though deceptively persuasive.     

The explanatory power of local miracle compatibilism

Local miracle compatibilists claim that we are sometimes able to do otherwise than we actually do, even if causal determinism obtains. When we can do otherwise, it will often be true that if we were to do otherwise, then an actual law of nature would not have been a law of nature. Nevertheless, it is a compatibilist principle that we cannot do anything that would be or cause an event that violates the laws of nature. Carl Ginet challenges this nomological principle, arguing that it is not always capable of explaining our inability to do otherwise. In response to this challenge, I point out that this principle is part of a defense against the charge that local miracle compatibilists are committed to outlandish claims. Thus it is not surprising that the principle, by itself, will often fail to explain our inability to do otherwise. I then suggest that in many situations in which we are unable to do otherwise, this can be explained by the compatibilist’s analysis of ability, or his criteria for the truth of ability claims. Thus, the failure of his nomological principle to explain the falsity of certain ability claims is no strike against local miracle compatibilism.     

Richard L. Solomon and learned helplessness

This article reviews the course of development of research on a currently popular explanatory approach to dysfunctional behavior, the learned helplessness analysis. The early history is prominent in this review as it reflects the inspirations of Richard L. Solomon, a scholar who fostered the resurgence of psychologists’ interests in Pavlovian conditioning in the 1950s and 1960s. Current research is characterized as having four separate themes: elaboration of “symptoms,” elucidating the role of fear, explicit modeling, and extensions involving attributional constructs.     

Introduction: Robert C. Solomon and the Spiritual Passions

Robert C. Solomon saw spirituality and emotion as interpenetrating themes. I will summarize his views on spirituality and then introduce the articles in the special issue in his honor. Relating emotional integrity to spirituality, Bob argues that it is precisely through engagement - throwing ourselves into relationships and endeavors - that we come to recognize ourselves as part of something much larger than ourselves. Spirituality is an on-going adventure according to Bob, and it recommends itself in the way that all adventures do. It is exciting and fun, a matter of an overflowing passionate life.     

Fixation and the stereokinetic phenomenon

One of two circles on a rotating disk appears to execute a planetary motion about the other circle. It is shown that the fixated circle serves as the center of rotation for the nonfixated circle. The effect of fixation is absent when polygons replace the circles. However, when one corner of an isolated square is fixated, the remaining corners rotated about the fixated corner. These planetary effects are consistent with the retinal paths followed by the elements of a display during fixation. This is not unlike the failure of position constancy associated with smooth pursuit of linearly moving targets in environments lacking a stationary visual frame of reference. In the present instance, however, the “retinal” responses occur during tracking of circularly moving targets, even in the presence of a visual frame of reference. These results are discussed in relation to the stereokinetic phenomenon. It is also shown that there is a strong interaction between the effects of fixation and the configurational features of the display. When a circle and a square are overlapping on a rotating disk, fixation of the square does not produce the perception of planetary motion. However, when the circle is fixated, the square is readily perceived as executing a planetary path about the circle. The possibility that position constancy in general is attributable to the geometry of the scene rather than to a “discounting” of information about eye movements is mentioned.     

The transcendent function in adolescence: miracle cures and bogeymen

Abstract: This paper proposes that Damasio's mental images, Stern's moments of meeting and Tronick's dyadically expanded consciousness refer to different aspects of the same psychological process as Jung describes in the transcendent function. This proposition is illustrated with two case vignettes of adolescents who functioned on a pre‐symbolic level, but who through a transformative experience were catapulted into new developmental trajectories and the beginning of symbol formation.     

The miracle of Maglavit (1935) and the Romanian psychology of religion

This paper examines the debates around the “miracle of Maglavit”, a shepherd's vision of God that took place in 1935 in Romania and attracted much contemporary popular and intellectual interest. The debates drew in arguments from doctors and theologians, who discussed the psychology of divine revelation and tried to elaborate the implications that such an event could have for the life of the Romanian nation. The paper places these debates in the context of wider contemporary discussions about psychology and religion. I argue that what Maglavit shows is that, in Romania at least, public debates about visionary experience in the 1930s were not only debates about its psychology, but of a psychology thoroughly imbricated with political concerns.     

Visual masking and the recovery phenomenon

Two experiments were carried out to investigate visual masking and target recovery. In the first experiment it was found that with superimposed disks of various sizes masking increases with increasing target-mask similarity and contour proximity. The results of the second study show that the extent of masking produced by a disk, which is slightly larger than the target, is drastically reduced when the mask in turn is followed by a ring, the inner contour of which is contiguous with the contour of the mask. This “facilitation effect” decreases as the interval between the mask and the third stimulus is increased. Target recovery in this situation appears to be brought about as a result of the reduction or elimination of the contour of the mask, which, as the first study has shown, is critical in bringing about the masking effect. The results are discussed in terms of some of the known physiological properties of the visual system.     

Filipino psychic surgery: Myth,magic, or miracle

This essay considers the current impact and evaluation of Far Eastern psychic healing typified by the psychic surgery of the Philippine Islands. On the basis of a literature survey as well as interviews with persons who had visited the healers and received psychic surgery, an analysis of the spiritual dynamics and physical effects is reported. An attempt is made to balance the positive reports of those who were healed with the more objective and/or skeptical reports of religious and scientific leaders. Cultural, psychological, medical, and magical aspects are considered. An expansion of philosophic outlook coupled with a search for new tools of investigation is suggested.This paper is the result of an exploration of various healing modalities by the authors.