Why perfect being theology?

I display the historical roots of perfect being theology in Greco-Roman philosophy, and the distinctive reasons for Christians to take up a version of this project. I also rebut a recent argument that perfect-being reasoning should lead one to atheism.     

Thinking about non‐being∗

There are genuine references to non‐existent objects, as can be seen through elucidating reference in common language and applying the criteria enumerated to expressions used in writing and speaking about fiction. The concept of a fictitious entity is simply accepted in the adoption of the ‘language‐game’ of fiction and has no undesirable ontological consequences. To think otherwise is to fail to attend to the conceptual status of such talk. Accounts of fictional discourse by Russell, Ryle, and Chisholm are found objectionable. The concept of existence is touched on, and consequences concerning reference to abstract and other objects and also concerning method in ontology mentioned.     

Are there universal human being skills?

The issue of what constitutes a skilled human being is fundamental to counselling and psychotherapy. Furthermore, multicultural counselling and therapy is based on the two primary assumptions of common humanity and cultural diversity. However, nowhere have I seen in the psychotherapy theory and the multicultural literature the issue addressed of whether there are universal human being skills that underlie and transcend cultural diversity. By 'universal human being skills' I mean skills that characterize the good or effective person regardless of the culture or country in which they live. Arguably the widespread possession of such human skills throughout the world is fundamental to creating happiness and avoiding suffering on a daily basis. Furthermore, the survival of the species depends on the existence of sufficient good or skilled human beings to protect the interests of future generations.     

Impacting teachers' and students' spiritual well‐being

Spiritual well‐being (SWB) is reflected in the quality of relationships that people have with themselves, others, environment and/or God. This paper ties together several studies of SWB among teachers and students in primary and secondary, state, Catholic, other Christian, and independent schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers' lived experiences have greatest impact on their perceptions of help provided by schools for students' SWB. Factors other than teachers contribute most to students' SWB. As well as presenting an overview of key supports for students' SWB this paper reports ways in which spiritual dissonance can be identified. These findings could be used to lay a foundation for further support in nurturing the total well‐being of staff and students in schools.     

What is being masked in object substitution masking?

Object substitution masking (OSM) is said to occur when a perceptual object is hypothesized that is mismatched by subsequent sensory evidence, leading to a new hypothesized object being substituted for the first. For example, when a brief target is accompanied by a longer lasting display of nonoverlapping mask elements, reporting of target features may be impaired. J. T. Enns and V. Di Lollo (2000) considered it an outstanding question whether OSM masks some or all aspects of a target. The authors report three experiments demonstrating that OSM can selectively affect target features. Participants may be able to detect a target while being unable to report other aspects of it or to report the color but not the orientation of a target (or vice versa). We discuss these findings in relation to two other visual phenomena.     

Will managed care change our way of being?

The authors studied psychotherapeutic practices commonly used in managed care settings and the theories and rhetorical strategies that justify them to speculate about if or how they are beginning to influence societywide understandings about the proper way of being human at the turn of the millennium. The practices--and effects--of managed care regulations on the self are interpreted by studying how the patient, the therapist, and the therapeutic relationship come to light in managed care settings. These categories are then used to speculate about the configuration of the newly emerging, 21st-century self. By extending hermeneutic concerns about instrumentalism and technicism, the authors suggest a new way of thinking about psychotherapy modeled less on positivist science and more on moral discourse. Finally, given this more hermeneutic understanding of psychotherapy, the authors speculate about alternative conceptions and arrangements of care.     

On questioning being: Foucault’s Heideggerian turn

Attempts to resolve the question of Foucault’s relationship to Heidegger usually look for points of substantive correlation between them: the coincidence of being and power, the meaning of truth, technology, ethics, and so on. Taking seriously Foucault’s claim in his final interview that he uses Heidegger as an ‘instrument of thought’, this paper looks for a correlation in practice. The argument focuses on a structural isomorphism between Heidegger’s concept of the fourfold event (Ereignis) of being and later Foucault’s critique of ‘problematization’ (problématique). This isomorphism, I argue, indicates a covert philosophical confrontation between Foucault and Heidegger, which was determinative for Foucault in the period of the turn to ethics (1976–84). This is a confrontation over the meaning of the ‘event of thought’. Such an interpretation not only permits a literal reading of Foucault’s comments regarding Heidegger in his final interview, but also casts the developments in Foucault’s later work in a fascinating new light. Foucault’s critique of problematization, on this view, is founded in an historicized version of Heideggerian ‘other’ thinking, and pivots on a ontologically tempered enactment of the Heideggerian turn (Kehre).     

“Transitional subjects”: Therapeutic persons being curative

Abstract

The concept of therapeutic persons as “transitional subjects” has been denoted and described primarily by Benedetti. When the intersubjective dimension of providing patients with self-object experiences is supplemented by a very specific personal commitment on the part of the therapist, the constitution of a transitional subject can take place. Transitional subjects can be envisioned as “eu-constructions” or eu-constructive personal transactions, which facilitate patients to enter new territories of experience. Clinical examples are cited where these piloting phenomena emerge. Transitional subjects are based on therapeutic self-object experiences, go a step further, and try to enable novel movements, for example in the area of the capacity to mourn. New psychic possibilities assist efforts to integrate disparate psychic parts and to develop new choices. Various options to comprehend the phenomena of transitional subjects are presented.     

Principals’ experiences of being disempowered by union members

This study explored school principals’ experience of managing unionised schools in South Africa. Qualitative in-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted with a purposeful selected sample of 13 school principals of unionised schools (age range 36-60 years). The school principals responded to open-ended interviews on their managing of school business with staff labour union activity. Thematic coding was utilised to analyse the collected data. Findings indicate the school principals to experience managerial paralysis from adversarial and confrontational engagement by union leaders and members towards them. They reported union activity a significant task diversion through mob-mentality co-option of the membership preventing rational discourse and compromising work health and safety of all school community members. Avenues need to be explored for school staff unionisation to be a resource for the core business of child education.     

Is there an epistemic advantage to being oppressed?

Do the oppressed have an epistemic advantage when it comes to knowing about the systems that oppress them? If so, what explains this advantage? In this paper, I consider whether an epistemic advantage can be derived from the oppressed's contingent tendency to have more relevant experiences and motivation than the non-oppressed; or, alternatively, whether an advantage derives from the oppressed's very lived experience, thus being in principle unavailable to the non-oppressed. I then explore the potential role of knowledge-how for explaining an epistemic advantage. Ultimately, I conclude that the oppressed tend to have a contingent advantage, while rejecting that they have one in principle, except for when their phenomenological experience has an effect on the veracity of the claims they make. This has the important upshot that privileged people are not epistemically disadvantaged in principle and are thus often blameworthy for their ignorance about oppression.     

How is the therapeutic relationship talked into being?

A review of the place of the therapeutic relationship within systemic approaches to therapy is provided. This serves to contextualize the findings of a research study that subjects therapy sessions to a discursive analysis. The purpose of the analysis is to learn more about the therapeutic relationship through an examination of what actually takes place in sessions. Moments in therapy where therapeutic engagement is stronger and moments when it is weaker are identified and analysed. The discursive contours of a robust therapeutic relationship are highlighted. A theoretical account of the constituents of a stronger therapeutic relationship is constructed from this analysis.

相似文献   

The logic of ‘being informed’ revisited and revised

The logic of ‘being informed’ gives a formal analysis of a cognitive state that does not coincide with either belief, or knowledge. To Floridi, who first proposed the formal analysis, the latter is supported by the fact that unlike knowledge or belief, being informed is a factive, but not a reflective state. This paper takes a closer look at the formal analysis itself, provides a pure and an applied semantics for the logic of being informed, and tries to find out to what extent the formal analysis can contribute to an information-based epistemology.     

Establishment sociology: The value of being value‐free

This is an excursion into the sociology of American sociology. It is an attempt to present a typology of the relationship between sociological empiricism as an ideology, and the pre‐eminence and power of empiricist sociologists. Toward this end, such concrete factors as recruitment practices, educational orientations, status strivings of the social scientists, forms of financial subsidization, and the profes‐sionalization of the field are taken into account. The article concludes by noting the limited field of investigations open to sociological empiricism, and its general impoverishment as the leading ideology of the science of sociology.     

The default self: feeling good or being right?

The medial prefrontal cortex exhibits a higher resting metabolic rate than many other brain regions. This physiological default mode might support a psychological default state of chronic self-evaluation that helps people consider their strengths and weaknesses when planning future actions. However, a recent imaging study that relates medial prefrontal cortex activity to self-evaluation raises new questions about whether the psychological default mode of self-evaluation is best characterized by accurate self-evaluations or by feeling good about yourself.     

The congruency effect: just what is being learned?

G. H. Bower, S. Thompson-Schill, and E. Tulving (1994) found that when stimulus-response sets in A-B, A-C learning belong to unique categories (congruent-triads), learning appropriate responses appear rapid and memory performance on a modified modified free recall (MMFR) test is enhanced. Bower et al. assumed that category cues protect associations from interpair interference, allowing more rapid learning. However, unlike arbitrary pairs, congruent pairs also allow a reliance on preexperimental associations. As a result, MMFR test performance may not be an unbiased test of what was learned. In the present experiment, free recall (FR) demonstrated that responses were learned approximately equally in all conditions and that the pattern of clustering was compatible with the hypothesis that preexperimental associations continue to play a major role in FR test performance.     

Middle school victims of bullying: Who reports being bullied?

This study examined factors that influence a student's decision to report being bullied at school. An anonymous survey of 2,437 students in six middle schools identified 898 students who had been bullied, including 25% who had not told anyone that they were bullied and 40% who had not told an adult about their victimization. We investigated chronicity and type of bullying, school climate, familial, demographic, and attitudinal factors that influenced victim reporting to anyone versus no one, to adults versus no one, and to adults versus peers. Logistic regression analyses indicated that reporting increased with the chronicity of victimization. Reporting was generally more frequent among girls than boys, and among lower grade levels. Students who perceived the school climate to be tolerant of bullying, and students who described their parents as using coercive discipline were less likely to report being bullied. Implications for improving victim reporting of bullying are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 30:373–388, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Against Hamri’s argument for the ultimate ground of being

In this paper, I reply to Hamri's (Int J Philos Relig.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-017-9625-2, 2017) new kind of cosmological argument for the ultimate ground of being by blocking the argument in more than one place.