At the same time

The essay on Husserl’s phenomenology of touch in Derrida’s recent On Touching—Jean-Luc Nancy represents his only substantial re-engagement with Husserlian phenomenology to be published following the series of texts dating from the period marked by his Mémoire of 1955 through to the essay ‘Form and Meaning’ included in Margins (1972). The essay, devoted to some key sections of Husserl’s Ideas II, appears to break new ground in Derrida’s readings of Husserl, but in fact demonstrates a profound continuity with his earlier readings. In fact, I argue that this continuity is in a part an effect of Derrida’s ongoing commitment to the ‘methodology’ of deconstruction. I show how this commitment leads Derrida to conflate three separate distinctions within Husserl’s discussion, a conflation that obliges Derrida to misread the letter of Husserl’s text, and which, in turn, blinds him to a certain radical potentiality within Husserl’s phenomenology of sensibility.

At the threshold of knowledge

We explore consequences of the view that to know a proposition your rational credence in the proposition must exceed a certain threshold. In other words, to know something you must have evidence that makes rational a high credence in it. We relate such a threshold view to Dorr et al.’s (Philosophical Studies 170(2):277–287, 2014) argument against the principle they call fair coins: “If you know a coin won’t land tails, then you know it won’t be flipped.” They argue for rejecting fair coins because it leads to a pervasive skepticism about knowledge of the future. We argue that the threshold view of evidence and knowledge gives independent grounds to reject fair coins.     

The effect of stopping before turning on the direct observational measure of whole body turning bias

Turning bias, the preferential tendency to turn toward a given direction has been reported in both rodents and human participants. The observational gait method of determining turning bias in humans requires a stop prior to turning. This study removed the stop and hypothesised that turning bias would remain the same between stop and non-stop conditions if bias was solely under the control of neurochemical asymmetries. The results showed that statistically turning bias remained the same (to the left) regardless of method used but there was no agreement between the methods thus rejecting the hypothesis. It is likely that when not stopping biomechanical factors related to gait when turning influence the direction of turn rather than solely neurochemical asymmetries.     

At Home with the Homeless:

The tragically increasing incidence of homelessness and the reasons for it have been documented and speculated about extensively in recent years. While having such information is necessary toward understanding the phenomenon in general, it still doesn't assure that one can communicate and empathize adequately with homeless people. More effective, if more discomforting, is to actually experience the world as they experience it. This p aper describes the efforts of one professional person to do this. After sleeping in office building doorways, in mission houses and homeless shelters, visiting welfare and employment offices and begging on the streets for two months, the author reaches some conclusions and recommendations rarely seen in the social science literature.     

At the Intersection of Institutional Identity and Type

Journal of Academic Ethics - Positive public perceptions of academic quality and professional ethics are critical to the long-term legitimacy of American colleges and universities. Faculty codes of...