Guest Editorial: The Resistance to Belief

William James's essay The Will to Believe proposed that we are sometimes justified, even obligated, to believe from our strong emotional or passional nature that something is true, even though there may not be total logical, evidential proof—which he also wrote is not to be found in this world. This essay explores situations, using a recent dear-death experience (NDE) example, in which there are reasonable evidence and logic, and yet belief seems to be withheld. I postulate and discuss nonrational influences producing resistance to belief, including the fear of being in error, the fear of rejection from the scientific community, irrational requirements of logicality, avoidance of consequences, and paradigm fixation. I also discuss issues in philosophy of science and epistemology in regard to proof.     

Guest Editorial: French Analytic Philosophy Today

Philosophical Studies -     

Guest Editorial: Afterlife Research and the Shamanic Turn

In Western culture, approaches to the afterlife have mutated throughout history, from shamanism and mythology to philosophy, spiritualism, and psychical research. For conceptual reasons, however, survival research seems to many to be languishing, despite some remarkable recent advances. I urge a return to a more experience-based approach, modeled after features of the near-death experience, for its practical benefits; I intend that approach to complement other forms of research, not displace them. Finally, I underscore the unique status of survival research as a scientific pursuit.     

In the Wake of Violence: Enacting and Witnessing Hope Among People

In the territory of violence and despair, hope is rare. Recent work on hope has shifted attention from hope as a feeling to hope as a practice that people can do together. This case report of a family exposed to domestic violence highlights the role played by a South African police officer in the mother's actions to separate from the context of violence. As a witness to the violence, the police officer acted from an ethic of justice and an ethic of compassion. Outsider witnessing of a counseling session resulted in the recruiting of a community of acknowledgement for the mother, the police officer, and an Assistant Commissioner of Police. Listening carefully and doing hope together gave rise to alliances against practices of violence. As a step of accountability, the authors used reflexive practices to question their responses and to avoid colonizing practices.     

Aftermath of Violence: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Vietnam Veterans

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) frequently occurs in the aftermath of violence. A comprehensive four-phase treatment approach for Vietnam veterans with PTSD is presented. Phases in the recovery process are assessment, stabilization of symptoms, working through the trauma, and reintegration into the family and society.     

Guest Editorial: Conceptualizing Justice and Counter-Expertise

ABSTRACT

Systemic injustices exclude counter-experts from telling their stories and influencing the collective imagination. Four papers and some discussant essays illustrate the ways in which counter-experts cross boundaries to contest knowledge claims, legal institutions, and forms of data in order to resist various forms of injustice. Literature on counter-expertise, socio-technical imaginaries, and epistemic injustice highlights how marginalized groups are prevented from participating in the process of collective imagining. A definition of counter-expertise and a new typology of counter-expertise demonstrate how marginalized groups navigate boundaries to pursue epistemic justice. The four papers in the special issue exemplify the ways in which counter-experts navigate identity politics. To combat epistemic injustice within our field, STS scholars can be more inclusive with teaching, mentoring, reviewing and other forms of scholarly gatekeeping.     

Solus Christus within Empire: Christology in the Face of Violence against Women

When seen as the theocentric political confession it is, the confession “only Christ” is possible and meaningful for victim/survivors of violence against women. To confess only Christ undoes what is “required” in an empire of violence against women and is the recognition that Jesus Christ embraces our bodies, all of them. Moreover, this confession changes the body's response—individual and communal—to violence in an empire of violence against women.     

Intimate Partner Violence Within Gay Male Couples: Dimensionalizing Partner Violence Among Cuban Gay Men

Using a quantitative–qualitative mixed design, the current study investigated relationship violence within 35 gay male couples living in Santiago, Cuba. Informants narrated how violence was enacted within their relationship. Qualitative analyses revealed men’s construction of masculinity and the sequelae of economic hardships—which led to economic emasculinization—were primary contributors to relationship abuse. Gendered interpretations to the display of heightened masculinity contributed to intimate partner violence. Enacted interpersonal violence was not meaningfully associated with alcohol consumption or to personality measures. We suggest the economic constraints that are perceived by couples to precipitate relational stress may be similar across heterosexual and gay/lesbian couples, and that the relational power accorded to economic privilege cannot be aligned fully by gender.     

Community Matters: Intimate Partner Violence Among Rural Young Adults

Drawing on social disorganization theory, the current study examined the extent to which community-level poverty rates and collective efficacy influenced individual reports of intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration, victimization, and bystander intervention among a sample of 178 young adults (18–24; 67.4 % women) from 16 rural counties across the eastern US who completed an online survey that assessed demographic information, IPV perpetration, victimization, bystander intervention, and collective efficacy. We computed each county’s poverty rate from the 2007–2011 American Community Survey. Generalized estimating equations demonstrated that after controlling for individual-level income status, community-level poverty positively predicted IPV victimization and perpetration for both men and women. Collective efficacy was inversely related to IPV victimization and perpetration for men; however, collective efficacy was unrelated to IPV victimization and perpetration for women. Whereas IPV bystander intervention was positively related to collective efficacy and inversely related to individual-level income status for both men and women, community-level poverty was unrelated to IPV bystander intervention for both men and women. Overall, these findings provide some support for social disorganization theory in explaining IPV among rural young adults, and underscore the importance of multi-level IPV prevention and intervention efforts focused around community-capacity building and enhancement of collective efficacy.