What Compositionality Still Can Do

Proponents of deflationism about meaning often claim that the principle of compositionality, when properly understood, places no constraint whatsoever on the nature of lexical meaning. This deflationary thesis admits of both strong and weak readings. On the strong reading, the principle does not rule out any theory of lexical meaning either alone or in conjunction with other independently plausible semantic assumptions. On the weak reading, the principle alone does not rule out any such theory. I argue that, though weak deflationism about compositionality has better initial prospects than strong, neither version of the thesis is credible. In particular, weak deflationism cannot be maintained in conformity with the deflationist commitment to explaining facts about phrase meanings in compositional terms, that is, by appeal to facts about the lexicon.     

What We Owe to the Global Poor

This essay defends an account of the duties to the global poor that is informed by the empirical question of what makes countries rich or poor, and that tends to be broadly in agreement with John Rawlss account in The Law of Peoples. I begin by introducing the debate about the sources of growth and explore its implications for duties towards the poor. Next I explore whether (and deny that) there are any further-reaching duties towards the poor. Finally, I ask about the moral foundations for the duties to the poor of the sort that earlier parts argue there are.     

Unemployment: What Counselors Can Do About It

The psychological impact of unemployment on many people is just short of devastating. This article attempts to outline some of the relevant considerations in trying to assist the unemployed. It also endeavors to set out some ways in which counselors have sought to respond to the needs of those without work.     

Future of Psychometrics: Ask What Psychometrics Can Do for Psychology

I address two issues that were inspired by my work on the Dutch Committee on Tests and Testing (COTAN). The first issue is the understanding of problems test constructors and researchers using tests have of psychometric knowledge. I argue that this understanding is important for a field, like psychometrics, for which the dissemination of psychometric knowledge among test constructors and researchers in general is highly important. The second issue concerns the identification of psychometric research topics that are relevant for test constructors and test users but in my view do not receive enough attention in psychometrics. I discuss the influence of test length on decision quality in personnel selection and quality of difference scores in therapy assessment, and theory development in test construction and validity research. I also briefly mention the issue of whether particular attributes are continuous or discrete.     

What Research Institutions Can Do to Foster Research Integrity

Science and Engineering Ethics - In many countries attention for fostering research integrity started with a misconduct case that got a lot of media exposure. But there is an emerging consensus...     

Reading and Social Imagination: What Relationally Oriented Reading Instruction Can Do for Children

Twenty-two second and third grade children experiencing difficulties with social relationships and reading comprehension participated in small group Relationally Oriented Reading Instruction for eight weeks. Developmental and literacy assessments done before and after the reading intervention showed statistically significant improvements in the understanding of text and in social imagination. Analysis of writing samples resulted in a typology of relationally oriented response. Together these data provide initial evidence linking the understanding of texts to the development of other relational capacities like social imagination, and indicate that purposeful use of picture books within relationally oriented reading instruction may enhance this development.     

A Feminist Perspective on How Therapists Can Harm Marriages and What We Can Do About It

Abstract

On July 3rd 1999, William Doherty gave a keynote speech at the Smart Marriages Conference in Washington, DC. The title of his speech was “How Therapists Harm Marriages and What We Can Do About It.” Doherty discussed two dangers that face people seeking marital therapy. The first is individually trained therapists and the other is therapists with an individualistic orientation which may undermine marital commitment. In my comments regarding Doherty's speech, I commend his whistle blowing on the field and add to his comments from a feminist point of view.     

Revisiting the Right to Do Wrong

Rights to do wrong are not necessary even within the framework of interest-based rights aimed at preserving autonomy (contra Waldron, Enoch, and Herstein). Agents can make morally significant choices and develop their moral character without a right to do wrong, so long as we allow that there can be moral variation within the set of actions that an agent is permitted to perform. Agents can also engage in non-trivial self-constitution in choosing between morally indifferent options, so long as there is adequate non-moral variation among the alternatives. The stubborn intuition that individuals have a right to do wrong in some cases can be explained as stemming from a cautionary principle motivated by the asymmetry between the risk of wrongly interfering and that of refraining from interfering.     

Poor Women of Color Do Great Therapy

No abstract available for this article.     

进展期胃癌术后生存质量影响因素探讨

胃癌是我国发病率和病死率较高的恶性肿瘤,且住院病例90％以上为中晚期。因此预后不佳。近年来在进展期胃癌诊断和治疗方面有较大进展,尤其是人们对术后生存质量的重视。本文初步探讨了进展期胃癌术后生存质量的影响因素：如患者一般状况、手术方式、术后辅助放化疗和中医药治疗等。     

What the Disjunctivist is Right About

There is a traditional conception of sensory experience on which the experiences one has looking at, say, a cat could be had by someone merely hallucinating a cat. Disjunctivists take issue with this conception on the grounds that it does not enable us to understand how perceptual knowledge is possible. In particular, they think, it does not explain how it can be that experiences gained in perception enable us to be in 'cognitive contact' with objects and facts. I develop this challenge to the traditional conception and then show that it is possible to accommodate an adequate account of cognitive contact in keeping with the traditional conception. One upshot of the discussion is that experiences do not bear the explanatory burden placed upon them by disjunctivists.     

老树冤枉

在我的家乡,有一个地方名叫松树坡。地名的由来,是因为山坡上有一棵巨大的铁杉;铁杉的树干上长有层层鳞状的甲,所以当地人把它叫做铁甲松。树高约20多米,树干的胸径近两米,两个小伙子合抱还不能围拢,把直径大约有10多米的树冠稳稳地举在空中,就像一朵缩小的氢弹爆炸后形成的蘑菇云。 方园百里之内,找不出第二棵这么大的老树。听一个已90多岁的老人说,在她还是小孩子的时候,此树就是这个样子了;在她之上的上辈人留给她的回忆也是“小时候就见它是这个样子了”。按这么一个“不见长进”的速度估计,此树至少已是位“千岁爷”了。     

What the Study of Eminence Can Teach Us

This article presents a revised theory of what eminence is, its relation to productivity, its measurement, and the markers for it. The historical, systematic, and informational bases of families are used for this revised theory, with the Bronte; family being used for illustration. One important conclusion is that persons who are truly eminent (i.e., who create original and significant work), and persons who are simply high achievers, tend to come from different families entirely. Another important conclusion, which exemplifies the revised theory, is that gifted children may not change their families. In earlier work, gifted children had been described as organizers within families, but they may primarily organize families in terms of what the family wants and has already been doing. It may thus be best to describe families as ongoing systems. There is much that goes on within a family that is not going to be changed for gifted children that includes a richness of talent.