What Is the Role of Quaker Education in a Time of Terror?

Abstract

This article presents not only the distinctive pedagogical philosophy of Quaker education, but discusses the special relevance of Friends values and educational methods in a time when America is at war. The article also includes a listing of print resources on Quaker values and education.     

What Is the Role of Transparency in Cancellation?

A series of experiments is reported in which the cancellation axiom is investigated by manipulating the transparency of gamble option formulations. The findings suggest that previous demonstrations of violations of the cancellation axiom might not be conclusive. While violations in nontransparent conditions have led to substantial changes in expected utility (EU) theory, the present data suggest that violations in transparent conditions require a fundamental change in the models that have been suggested as alternatives to EU theory.     

What's in a Name?

This paper is about the mode of being of names. The paper begins by explaining why the joke is on commentators who see Lewis Carroll's White Knight as applying the use/mention distinction. Then it argues that the real problem with the distinction is that the idea that names are used to mention what they name depends on mistakenly conceiving of language as existing autonomously; and that philosophers have this conception because they fail to appreciate what they are doing when they philosophise about language. This failure also explains why philosophers mistakenly think of any manifestation of a name as a (physical) token.     

What’s in a Name? Two Approaches to Evaluating the Label Feminist

Across two studies, we employed unique approaches to investigating the meaning of the label feminist using a sample of undergraduates from a large Northeastern university in the U.S. In Study 1 (N = 60), we utilized an impression formation paradigm to investigate the meaning of the label feminist when applied to typical college student. The results revealed that feminist males were rated less favorably than nonfeminist males and feminist females were rated more favorably than nonfeminist females. In Study 2 (N = 112), we examined the context-free associations that people have with the label feminist using two implicit attitude measures. Females reported positive implicit associations with the label feminist while males expressed neutral to slightly negative implicit associations with feminists.     

What Is a Context of Utterance?

Philosophical Studies -     

What’s In a Name? Marital Name Choice Revisited

In two studies we assessed the percentage of brides who chose nontraditional marital names and characteristics that were related to name choice. In Study 1 we analyzed wedding announcements from The New York Times, 1982–2002. In Study 2 we surveyed the name choices, reasons for them, and associated characteristics of a sample of 126 college-educated women who have been part of a longitudinal study since 1993. A substantial minority of brides (29%) chose nontraditional names in Study 1, whereas 46% did in Study 2; the difference reflects the higher proportion of Women of Color and the higher educational level of women in Study 2. Other characteristics associated with nontraditional naming were: older age at marriage, more feminist attitudes, higher career commitment, and less value of the role of mother.     

What Is the Role of Tone in the Phonological Similarity Effect?

The Psychological Record - To recall a list of phonologically similar words is more difficult than to recall a list of phonologically dissimilar words; this is the well-known phonological...     

Is Understanding Epistemic in Nature?

Is understanding epistemic in nature? Does a correct account of what constitutes understanding of a concept mention epistemological notions such as knowledge, justification or epistemic rationality? We defend the view that understanding is epistemic in nature – we defend epistemological conceptions of understanding. We focus our discussion with a critical evaluation of Tim Williamson's challenges to epistemological conceptions of understanding in The Philosophy of Philosophy. Against Williamson, we distinguish three kinds of epistemological conceptions and argue that Williamson's arguments succeed against only the most heavily committed kind, and leave the less heavily committed kinds untouched. Further, we argue that Williamson's elaboration of lessons from his arguments point in a direction opposite of his own conclusions and give vivid articulation and support to epistemological conceptions. We suggest also that skepticism about Williamson's larger metaphilosophical conclusions – according to which understanding plays no special role in the epistemology of philosophy – may be in order.     

What Is the Model in Model-Based Planning?

Flexibility is one of the hallmarks of human problem-solving. In everyday life, people adapt to changes in common tasks with little to no additional training. Much of the existing work on flexibility in human problem-solving has focused on how people adapt to tasks in new domains by drawing on solutions from previously learned domains. In real-world tasks, however, humans must generalize across a wide range of within-domain variation. In this work we argue that representational abstraction plays an important role in such within-domain generalization. We then explore the nature of this representational abstraction in realistically complex tasks like video games by demonstrating how the same model-based planning framework produces distinct generalization behaviors under different classes of task representation. Finally, we compare the behavior of agents with these task representations to humans in a series of novel grid-based video game tasks. Our results provide evidence for the claim that within-domain flexibility in humans derives from task representations composed of propositional rules written in terms of objects and relational categories.     

What Is a Parergon?

Despite important recent work, the rehabilitation of parergon as a critical concept in the history of art has yet to be fully broached. From the time Jacques Derrida introduced the term into contemporary critical theory in The Truth in Painting, its character and function have been largely understood as referencing a threshold or boundary—in particular, that of the border of the artwork. Yet a review of the term's long history suggests a meaning that differs in significant ways from its current near‐univocal characterization as a synonym for a frame. In particular, premodern art theory and criticism identifies a parergon with matters such as the background action in a history painting, the inclusion in a landscape of picturesque embellishments, or, following Kant, the addition of ornament to a painting, a statue, or a building. This article therefore proposes we ask again: What is a parergon?     

Is Humility a Virtue in the Context of Sport?

I define humility as a virtue that includes both proper self‐assessment and a self‐lowering other‐centeredness. I then argue that humility, so understood, is a virtue in the context of sport, for several reasons. Humility is a component of sportspersonship, deters egoism in sport, fuels athletic aspiration and risk‐taking, fosters athletic forms of self‐knowledge, decreases the likelihood of an athlete seeking to strongly humiliate her opponents or be weakly humiliated by them, and can motivate an athlete to achieve greater levels of excellence in her sport. In the context of team sports, humility can contribute to an athlete being a better teammate, foster unity amidst diversity within a team, and contribute to the overall moral and athletic excellence of a team. I also argue that an individual who is truly the world's greatest athlete can know and communicate this truth, while remaining humble.     

What's in a Name? A Multiracial Investigation of the Role of Occupational Stereotypes in Selection Decisions

Bertrand & Mullainathan (2002) found evidence that race-typed names can have a significant influence on the evaluation of résumés. The current study expanded on their research by manipulating both the race (Asian American, Black, Hispanic, White) and quality of the résumé (high, low), and by considering occupational stereotypes as an explanatory mechanism. White male participants ( N =155) read a fictitious résumé, evaluated the applicant, and judged his suitability for jobs. The results revealed that Asian American individuals were evaluated highly for high-status jobs, regardless of their résumé quality. White and Hispanic applicants both benefited from a high-quality résumé, but Black applicants were evaluated negatively, even with strong credentials. Results of mediation analyses demonstrated that occupational stereotypes accounted for the relationship between race and evaluations of applicants.     

What Is the Practical Utility of Value Research for Organisational Practitioners in a Global Context?

The lead article by Arieli and colleagues provides an overview of value research in broadly defined organisational contexts. The proposed aim of the review is to “integrate theories and empirical studies aiming to portray the role of personal values in shaping the choices and behavior in work settings” (p. 1). In my review I highlight problems with implicit assumptions and limitations of the current literature, in particular: (1) the assumption that values show a universal structure across populations and situations; (2) the assumption that values are relatively stable over a person's career; (3) the unclear ontological status of values combined with a lack of studies examining causality underlying value-behaviour correlations; (4) the relative effect sizes of value research and their organisational relevance; and (5) unclear paths for actions that organisations may take based on the current value literature (what interventions can organisations adopt to improve value profiles?). In summary, the review provides a summary of current organisational value research that highlights how much we still have to understand about value processes.