Indexicals: what they are essential for

Abstract

Cappelen and Dever have recently defended the view that indexicals are not essential: They do not signify anything philosophically deep and we do not need indexicals for any important philosophical work. This paper contests their view from the point of view of an account of intentional agency. It argues that we need indexicals essentially when accounting for what it is do something intentionally and, as a consequence, intentional action, and defends a view of intentional action as a possible conclusion of practical reasoning where the indexical is essential for the content of such a conclusion.     

Rosamond Rhodes: The trusted doctor: medical ethics and professionalism

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

The reflecting team: dialogue and meta-dialogue in clinical work

A "stuck" system, that is, a family with a problem, needs new ideas in order to broaden its perspectives and its contextual premises. In this approach, a team behind a one-way screen watches and listens to an interviewer's conversation with the family members. The interviewer, with the permission of the family, then asks the team members about their perceptions of what went on in the interview. The family and the interviewer watch and listen to the team discussion. The interviewer then asks the family to comment on what they have heard. This may happen once or several times during an interview. In this article, we will first describe the way we interview the family because the interview is the source from which the reflections flow. We will then describe and exemplify the reflecting team's manner of working and give some guidelines because the process of observation has a tendency to magnify every utterance. Two case examples will be used as illustrations.     

The common value of pausing time in spontaneous speech

Experiments have shown that hesitation increases both before and during speech concerned with the solution of verbal tasks which involve an increasing degree of syntactic or semantic complexity. These experiments have been concerned with differences between tasks. An attempt is made to compare hesitation time between individuals who are set the same tasks, in terms of the quality of their responses to the tasks. Individual dispositions to a characteristic speech-silence ratio complicate such comparisons. Here a strong trend was found between the quality of the subjects' responses and the extra time they took over and above their characteristic speech-silence ratios.     

The power law and Weber's law in fixed-interval postreinforcement pausing: A scalar timing model

Some quantitative properties of the postreinforcement pause under fixed-interval schedules were simulated by a computer model embodying two processes, either of which could initiate responding in an interval. The first was a scalar timing system similar to that hypothesized to underlie behaviour on other tasks. The second was a process that initiated responding without regard to elapsed time in the interval. The model produced simulated pauses with a mean that varied as a power function of the interval value, and a standard deviation that appeared to grow as a linear function of the mean. Both these features were found in real data. The model also predicted several other features of pausing and responding under fixed-interval schedules and was also consistent with the results produced under some temporal differentiation contingencies. The model thus illustrated that behaviour that conformed to the power law could nevertheless be reconciled with scalar timing theory, if an additional non-timing process could also initiate responding.     

Reinforcement magnitude and pausing on progressive-ratio schedules

Rats responded under progressive-ratio schedules for sweetened milk reinforcers; each session ended when responding ceased for 10 min. Experiment 1 varied the concentration of milk and the duration of postreinforcement timeouts. Postreinforcement pausing increased as a positively accelerated function of the size of the ratio, and the rate of increase was reduced as a function of concentration and by timeouts of 10 s or longer. Experiment 2 varied reinforcement magnitude within sessions (number of dipper operations per reinforcer) in conjunction with stimuli correlated with the upcoming magnitude. In the absence of discriminative stimuli, pausing was longer following a large reinforcer than following a small one. Pauses were reduced by a stimulus signaling a large upcoming reinforcer, particularly at the highest ratios, and the animals tended to quit responding when the past reinforcer was large and the stimulus signaled that the next one would be small. Results of both experiments revealed parallels between responding under progressive-ratio schedules and other schedules containing ratio contingencies. Relationships between pausing and magnitude suggest that ratio pausing is under the joint control of inhibitory properties of the past reinforcer and excitatory properties of stimuli correlated with the upcoming reinforcer, rather than under the exclusive control of either factor alone.     

Psychotherapy and religion: The emmanuel movement

This paper reconsiders the significance of the Emmanuel movement, a pre- Freudian psychotherapeutic system founded by Dr. Elwood Worcester as a method of church-sponsored healing. Its significance lies in three areas: (1) Historically, it was a popular effort by Protestant clergy to claim religious authority over psychological and psychosomatic ailments, a struggle that the medical profession eventually won almost completely. (2) The Emmanuel movement was an effort to combat the scientific materialism and medical somaticism of its time, including the excessive use of drugs. It aimed at greater individual control over emotional wellbeing through a self-help movement taught by religious leaders using some Christian ideas. Significant parallels can be found with present-day holistic health efforts. (3) Theoretically, Worcester's conception of the person is of interest as an effort to construct a nonreductionist view of the interactions of body, mind, and spirit.     

Thresholds for movement direction: Two directions are less detectable than one

Thresholds for detecting movement direction were measured for two different types of dynamic dot display; first, one in which all dots moved upwards, and secondly, one in which half the dots moved upwards and half moved downwards. Direction sensitivity was found to be worse for the stimulus containing two simultaneous directions of motion than for the stimulus in one direction. These data are taken as evidence of some form of competition, or AND-NOT gating, between the outputs of direction-specific analysers during threshold determination.     

Pickup of essential kinematics underpins expert perception of movement patterns

In a series of 3 experiments, the authors examined the ability of badminton players of different skill levels (12 experts and 12 nonexperts) to anticipate the direction of badminton strokes. Participants viewed either film or point-light displays under a range of temporal or spatial occlusion conditions. World-class players were able to consistently pick up useful predictive information from the advance (precontact) kinematics of both the lower body and the racquet when the motion of those features was presented in isolation, whereas recreational players' use of the same information depended on the concurrent presence of linked segments. Participants' information pickup closely matched key biomechanical changes in the movement pattern being viewed, although, contrary to a common-coding view of perception and action (e.g., W. Prinz, 1997), some important differences were evident between the characteristics of the experts' movement prediction and those of expert movement production.     

The postmodern counsellor: Some implications for practice,theory, research and professionalism

What is postmodernism? What are the implications of the death of God, science and the subject for counselling? Further questions include: To what extent does postmodernism, show that behavioural, humanistic, existential, and most psychoanalytic theories are delusional in that they would have the clients/patients believe that they are the core, the centre, the subject? What are the dangers of seeing ‘others’ practically, theoretically and when conducting research as either enhancing our narcissism and/or the counselling order? In terms of an ethical practice, can the postmodern counsellor stop counselling from reverting to a technique orientated mechanism of professional vested interests, and instead find a better way for us all to put the other first?     

Preratio pausing: effects of an alternative reinforcer on fixed- and variable-ratio responding

Seven rats responding under fixed-ratio or variable-ratio schedules of food reinforcement had continuous access to a drinking tube inserted into the operant chamber. Under different conditions they could drink either tap water or one of two saccharin solutions. In a baseline condition, the drinking bottle was empty. Preratio pausing was observed with both schedules, more so with the fixed-ratio than the variable-ratio schedule, and increasing the concentration of the saccharin solution increased the duration of pausing. Comparisons with baseline performances revealed that the additional pausing was largely, but not entirely, spent drinking. The results support the view that pausing under ratio schedules is a consequence of competition between the scheduled reinforcer and alternative reinforcers that also are available within the experimental environment.     

The homophile movement: Its impact and implications

Conclusion We do not conclude that homosexuality must be accepted by society. We do hope that society's attitudes towards homosexuals can be more intelligent, less confused. Perhaps our society will reject homosexuality on a basis of manifestly conscious prejudice of the majority who simply find it distasteful; but at least this will be more honest than many current rationalizations. Perhaps it will be possible and desirable because of changing conditions to accept homosexuality in our culture at some future time. Any sincere effort to confront the issues raised by homosexuality in our culture will be rewarded with a deeper understanding of many other aspects of human life.Presented to One Inc., Los Angeles, May 7, 1967.