An essay on resolution logics

This paper discusses the resolution principle in the context of non-classical logics.Research supported by the grant from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

An essay on inequalities and order-restricted inference

This essay was prompted by a concern on the part of many senior members of the Society for Mathematical Psychology that the training of contemporary cognitive scientists exhibits a trend away from quantitative sophistication. Such a trend, if it goes unchallenged, can only serve to further marginalize mathematical psychology. There are several ways to combat this disturbing situation. Members of the Society might involve themselves more vigorously with scientific problems that are widely viewed as substantively or methodologically important, problems that require technical skill for their resolution; one example, discussed here, concerns order-restricted inference. We can also do more to encourage graduate students to develop and explore sophisticated theoretical models by giving them the tools to do so; that last battle must take place in the classroom.     

Switching tracks in psychotherapy: Parallel paradigms in psychology and religion

Can a practitioner work with patients who frame their concerns in religious terms and are ignorant of or hostile to psychological theory? A “roundhouse” metaphor, predicated upon the assumption that psychology and religion employ models wherein individuals are influenced byagencies that expressintentions in service ofdesigns, is proposed to facilitate movement from psychology to religion and back again. Utilizing the personality theory of C. G. Jung, a case is analyzed to see how well the roundhouse assists in using psychology to address the religious issues of the patient.     

An essay on time and the phenomenology of imprisonment

Social philosophy and sociological theory have determined time to be central to human reality. In particular, phenomenolo‐gists have argued that space and time is essential to human being. Thus, alterations in the nature of experienced time are significant areas for sociological investigation. One such case is present in the experience of imprisonment. The structure of time in prison is very different from that of everyday life. Prison time is, most importantly, futureless. Prisoners have developed several ways of adjusting to, and even resisting, the unique nature of prison time. These include, most consequentially the use of reverie. None, however, completely avoids the dehumanizing affects of the prison life‐world.     

Double bind: An essay on counselling training

Gerard Egan's problem management and opportunity development model is currently in use training prospective counsellors, social workers, nurses, managers, etc. the skills of helping. This essay attempts, experimentally, to depict in three different ways Egan's work and its relationship to operations of power: (1) from a relatively uncritical stance, (2) from a personal experience stance, and (3) from a social constructionist perspective. The whole piece, taken together, attempts to tackle the issue of theory as practice — to ground/unmask/make present the ways in which we are socialised into a profession and the problems inherent in that process. Two themes run through the work: the double bind created for a student on a counselling course which makes some claim to train around Rogers' core conditions, and which is also assessed/accredited; the connections between theory, training and practices.     

Rhetoric,reasonableness and ethics: An essay on Perelman

The article deals with an interpretation of the work of Ch. Perelman. The author tries to determine the meaning of reasonableness in a hermeneutical and anthropological perspective. He then places the work of Perelman in the light of the theory of symbolic interactionism of G.H. Mead.     

Relational diagnosis: An essay review

A review ofHandbook of relational diagnosis and dysfunctional family patterns. Florence W. Kaslow, Ed. 566 pages. $55. Cloth. ISBN # 0471-08078-0. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.     

Diverse knowledges and competing interests: An essay on socio-technical problem-solving

Solving complex socio-technical problems, this paper claims, involves diverse knowledges (cognitive diversity), competing interests (social diversity), and pragmatism. To explain this view, this paper first explores two different cases: Canadian pulp and paper mill pollution and siting nuclear reactors in seismically sensitive areas of California. Solving such socio-technically complex problems involves cognitive diversity as well as social diversity and pragmatism. Cognitive diversity requires one to not only recognize relevant knowledges but also to assess their validity. Finally, it is suggested, integrating the resultant set of diverse relevant and valid knowledges determines the parameters of the solution space for the problem. The author is a Professor of Philosophy at The University of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.     

An appraisal of religion and psychiatry since 1954

Conclusion The conclusion needs to be a word of warning rather than of congratulation. During the entire past generation, the slow but clear progress in constructive relationship between religion and psychiatry has been mainly a matter of increased understanding, and then mutual co-operation, between cleargymen and psychiatrists. But clergymen are not all there is of religion, and psychiatrists are not all there is of psychiatry. While, in the years ahead, the mutual understanding and co-operation between psychiatrists and clergymen must be increased, much more must be done on the larger scale: mutual understanding and co-operation between the whole of the psychiatric team, and the whole of the religious team. I believe that taking the full implications of team into account is the most important consideration in planning for these years ahead.