From Four‐ to Five‐Dimensionalism

Philosophers have long noticed the similarity of identity over time and identity across worlds. Despite this similarity, analogous views on these matters are not always taken equally seriously. Four‐dimensionalism is one of the most well‐known accounts of identity over time. There is a clear modal analogue of four‐dimensionalism, on which objects are modally extended and their trans‐world identity is a matter of having distinct modal parts located in different possible worlds. Yet this view, which we might call ‘five‐dimensionalism,’ is rarely discussed or defended, in comparison to its temporal counterpart. I argue that five‐dimensionalism is at least as plausible as four‐dimensionalism and deserves serious consideration as an account of trans‐world identity. The strategy is to show that arguments typically used in defence of four‐dimensionalism can be adapted to defend five‐dimensionalism as well. A powerful consideration in favour of four‐dimensionalism is the fact that it provides an elegant and unified solution to a variety of puzzles concerning material coincidence. I show that such puzzles come in equally troubling modal varieties and that five‐dimensionalism provides an equally unified and elegant solution to them. 1     

Dupré's Anti–Essentialist Objection to Reductionism

In his 'The Disorder of Things' John Dupré presents an objection to reductionism which I call the 'anti–essentialist objection': it is that reductionism requires essentialism, and essentialism is false. I unpack the objection and assess its cogency. Once the objection is clearly in view, it is likely to appeal to those who think conceptual analysis a bankrupt project. I offer on behalf of the reductionist two strategies for responding, one which seeks to rehabilitate conceptual analysis and one (more concessive) which avoids commitment to any such analysis.     

Two‐ to three‐month‐old infants prefer moving face patterns to moving top‐heavy patterns

Newborn infants prefer face‐like patterns over non‐face‐like patterns. This preference is explained by newborns' preference for a “top‐heavy” configuration, that is, for geometric patterns that have more elements in the upper part than in the lower part of the configuration (Simion, Valenza, Macchi Cassia, Turati, & Umiltà, 2002). However, for 3‐month‐old infants, face preference cannot be explained only by a preference for “top‐heaviness” because they prefer veridical face images over top‐heavy images. The present study used geometric patterns to investigate whether 2‐ to 3‐month‐old infants' preference for face patterns exceeds their preference for top‐heavy configurations. In Experiment 1, we revealed that the infants preferred the face pattern to the top‐heavy pattern only when the internal elements of the patterns were presented with face‐like movements. This facilitative effect of internal movement was observed again in Experiment 2, in which the patterns were presented with non‐face‐like movements. These results suggest that 2‐ to 3‐month‐olds' preference for geometric face patterns is greater than their preference for top‐heavy patterns only when aided by the movement of internal elements.     

Winnicott's invitation to ‘further games of Jung‐analysis’

Winnicott signs off his celebrated review of Jung's (1963) autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections with the warning that translation of ‘erreichten’ as ‘attained’ (implying assimilation) rather than as ‘reached to’, could ‘queer the pitch for further games of Jung‐analysis’. This subtly underscores his view that Jung—who he described earlier as ‘mentally split’ and lacking ‘a self with which to know’—remained essentially dissociated. However, Winnicott, whilst immersed in this work on Jung, wrote a letter to Michael Fordham describing himself as suffering ‘a lifelong malady’ of ‘dissociation’. But this he now reported repaired through a ‘splitting headache’ dream of destruction, dreamt ‘for Jung, and for some of my patients, as well as for myself’ (Winnicott 1989, p. 228). Winnicott's recurrent concern during his last decade was with ‘reaching to’—that quintessential Winnicottian term—some reparative experience that could address such difficulties in constellating a ‘unit self’. This is correlated with his engagement with Jung and tracked through his contemporaneous clinical work, particularly ‘Fear of Breakdown’ (1963). Themes first introduced by Sedgwick (2008) and developed by the author's earlier ‘Winnicott on Jung; destruction, creativity and the unrepressed unconscious’ (2011) are given further consideration.     

A sorting‐to‐matching method to teach compound matching to sample

Individuals with developmental disabilities may fail to attend to multiple features in compound stimuli (e.g., arrays of pictures, letters within words) with detrimental effects on learning. Participants were 5 children with autism spectrum disorder who had low to intermediate accuracy scores (35% to 84%) on a computer‐presented compound matching task. Sample stimuli were pairs of icons (e.g., chair–tree), the correct comparison was identical to the sample, and each incorrect comparison had one icon in common with the sample (e.g., chair–sun, airplane–tree). A 5‐step tabletop sorting‐to‐matching training procedure was used to teach compound matching. The first step was sorting 3 single pictures; subsequent steps gradually changed the task to compound matching. If progress stalled, tasks were modified temporarily to prompt observing behavior. After tabletop training, participants were retested on the compound matching task; accuracy improved to at least 95% for all children. This procedure illustrates one way to improve attending to multiple features of compound stimuli.     

Seven‐ to 9‐month‐old infants use facial expressions to interpret others' actions

In Study 1, 7‐month‐old infants (N = 58) looked reliably more at an adult's face when she playfully pulled a toy away from them compared with when she simply handed them the toy. In Study 2, 7‐ and 9‐month‐old infants (N = 36) interacted with an adult who played a teasing game and then held a neutral or happy facial expression. Compared with a baseline in which infants looked equally to both expressions, after the tease, infants looked longer at the neutral compared with the happy expression. By 7 months, infants may use facial expressions to disambiguate others' actions.