A Realistic Argument for Scientific Realism: How to be a Realist Without Really Knowing It

Philosophia - In this paper I provide a novel argument for scientific realism (SR). In contrast to most recent defenses of SR, my defense of SR does not rely on the no-miracles argument (NMA)....     

How Berkeley Can Maintain That Snow Is White

Berkeley has made the bold claim on behalf of his theory that it is uniquely able to justify the claim that snow is white. But this claim, made most strikingly in the Third of his Three Dialogues , has been held, most forcefully by Margaret Wilson, to conflict with Berkeley's argument in the First Dialogue that, because of various facts to do with perceptual variation, colors are merely apparent and hence, mind-dependent. This paper develops an alternative reading of the First Dialogue arguments, in which their project is not to establish the mind-dependence of colors but instead to undermine the position that colors are also mind-independent. Under these circumstances, the coherence of the First and the Third Dialogue arguments is assured, just so long as the Third Dialogue claim to have established that snow is really white is not taken to mean that snow is mind-independently white, but instead, something like that our experiences of snow are stably and regularly white.     

To Live Is to Know,to Know Is to Change: Change in Personal Construct Psychology and Psychological Constructivism

This article deals with the subject of personal change. As such, one could be tempted to say that it deals with psychology as a whole: What else should psychology be concerned with? But this is not exactly how things are, as I will argue by answering a first question: Is psychology, as a discipline, mainly concerned with the study of human change? To a second question—whether personal construct theory (PCT) in particular is mainly concerned with the study of human change—I give an affirmative answer, after some necessary qualifications. I would like to dwell particularly on answering a third question: Can the way personal construct theory deals with change be regarded as centering around a peculiarity? I am convinced that the revolutionary and cutting-edge nature of PCT can be fully appreciated only by pinpointing and highlighting such a peculiarity. In discussing this, I find it convenient to answer a last question: Is the way PCT deals with change akin to the way other theories handle it? After having discussed personal change as it is treated in PCT, I give a bird's eye view of the contribution of personal construct psychology to the fields of psychology more concerned with change—namely, developmental and educational psychology. The last part of the article will focus on the role of change in clinical psychology, and on what Kelly pointed out as the focus of convenience of his theoretical construction: personal construct psychotherapy as a relational process aimed at favoring a personal change.     

Some Esoteric Aspects of SEM That Its Practitioners Should Want to Know

The topic of this article is the interpretation of structural equation modeling (SEM) solutions. Its purpose is to augment structural modeling's metatheoretic resources while enhancing awareness of how problematic is the causal significance of SEM-parameter solutions. Part I focuses on the nonuniqueness and consequent dubious interpretability of loop pathweights in nonrecursive SEMs: Solutions for a nonrecursive SEM's open parameters are strongly indeterminate absent constraints that in most applications would be arbitrary. The generic indeterminacy is well known, but how severely this thwarts identification of a linear dynamic system's structural coefficients from synchronic (one-panel) data still seems inadequately appreciated. Part II introduces an efficient formalism for recognizing an important facet of lawful regularity—locus displacements—that is generally suppressed by the equations in which mathematical models are standardly written. (Preoccupation with SEM's matrix algebra and fit appraisal has masked the cognitive poverty with which SEM applications are prevailingly conceived.) Introduced here are some unfamiliar concepts that enable us to think about system structure more deeply than matrix equations can express. The Appendix attempts to incite some debate on how we can best conceptualize and exploit different levels (molar vs. molecular) of subject conception while appreciating that not all becauses are productive causes. It provides an overview of explanatory determinations comprising more than just production causality.     

On Explaining Why Time Seems to Pass

Usually, the B‐theory of time is taken to involve the claim that time does not, in reality, pass; after all, on the B‐theory, nothing really becomes present and then more and more past, times do not come into existence successively, and which facts obtain does not change. For this reason, many B‐theorists have recently tried to explain away one or more aspect(s) of experience that they and their opponents take to constitute an experience of time as passing. In this paper, I examine three prominent proposals of this kind and argue that, though intriguing, the proposals undermine, to some extent, the assumption that there is an element of experience that B‐theorists need to take to be illusory.     

Why and How to Learn Why: Analysis-based Generalization of Procedures

Max Wertheimer, in his classic Productive Thinking, linked understanding to transfer: Understanding is important because it provides the ability to generalize the solution of one problem to apply to another. Recent work in human and machine learning has led to the development of a new class of generalization mechanism, called here analysis-based generalization, which can be used to provide a concrete account of the linkage Wertheimer suggested: these mechanisms all, in different ways, use understanding of examples in the generalization process. In this paper I review this class of mechanism, and describe a method for causal attribution that can produce the analyses of examples that the generalization methods require, in the domain of simple procedures in human-computer interaction. This causal analysis method is linked with analysis-based generalization to form EXPL, an implemented model which is a concrete, though limited, instontiation of Wertheimer s scheme. EXPL constructs an understanding of an example procedure and generalizes it on the basis of that understanding. Results of an empirical study suggest that some of EXPL's attribution heuristics are used by people, and that while a subclass of analysis-based methods, called superstitious methods, seem to provide a more plausible account of people's generalization under the conditions of the study than a contrasting class of rationalistic methods, at least some participants appear to use methods from both classes. The results also show that explanation-based methods, which rely on comprehensive domain theories, must be used in conjunction with a means for extending the domain theory. If thus enhanced, explanation-based methods are able to mimic the effects of other analysis-based methods, and can provide a good account of the data, though combinations of other methods must also be considered. Finally, I return to Wertheimer s ideas to argue that none of the current analysis-based generalization methods fully captures Wertheimer s notion of understanding. Proper choice among different possible analyses of an example is crucial for Wertheimer, but I argue that this problem may be beyond the reach of learning systems.     

Time Travel and Changing the Past: (Or How to Kill Yourself and Live to Tell the Tale)

According to the prevailing sentiment, changing the past is logically impossible. The prevailing sentiment is wrong. In this paper, I argue that the claim that changing the past entails a contradiction ultimately rests upon an empirical assumption, and so the conclusion that changing the past is logically impossible is to be resisted. I then present and discuss a model of time which drops the empirical assumption and coherently models changing the past. Finally, I defend the model, and changing the past, against objections.     

安乐死立法为什么这样难

关于安乐死的争论由来已久,虽然目前全世界仅有荷兰等极少数国家通过了有关安乐死的法案,但安乐死实际已经在许多国家悄悄实施,越来越多的人对安乐死持肯定态度已成为不争的事实.贵州省贵阳市一个体行医者赵某还声称自己实施过几例"安乐死".我们实在不知道这种"违规"操作在现实中究竟有多少?这些事实提醒我们不应再就安乐死问题采取回避和视而不见的态度,而应正视它,并尽快制定出明确的法规,在认可安乐死的同时,规范安乐死的实施,作出符合人类理性的选择和符合人类法的精神决断.     

遵守规范为什么十分困难?——关于规范与失范的理论命题探讨

社会成员既是规范的受益者,也是规范的建设者,遵守、维护社会规范也要支付一定的成本.在人们遵守或者违反规范的行为中,可以发现许多公开的或潜在的某些具有规律性的原则.本文提出了社会规范的命题:规范收益的社会预期、规范相对剥夺感、规范需求不平衡、规范的社会成本、规范使用价值、规范的标示性、规范奖赏与惩处、规范的榜样效应、规范遵守的非理性等十个命题.还提出了社会失范的命题:图方便、插队、失范感染、失范累加、失范的"晕轮"效应、失范的隐匿空间、"稻草人"规范、适度压力、规范变动、规范替代等十个命题.     

Teaching Children How to Feel Good Without Rating Themselves

This article identifies how REBT views the concept of self-worth and self-acceptance as they apply to children, adolescents and parents. The practical blending of a competency model with REBT to conceptualize a functional model for enhancing self acceptance is discussed. Practical suggestions for assisting children, adolescents, and parents in this process are described.