Job as Apologetic: The Role of the Audience

A key to interpreting the Book of Job, following from the general methodology for the human sciences set out by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, is to regard the field in which the text is embedded as the beliefs of its audience rather than its explicit content of story and characters. Bourdieu has shown the extent to which belief and practice involve elements of uncertainty and strategy, allowing inconsistencies to be interpreted as rhetorical effects. Several conclusions follow: the main focus of the Book is honour and wisdom; belief in divine transcendence may be produced as an effect of discontinuity and uncertainty in the narrative; piety may appear as an ideological effect of a pre-monetary economic order; and the principle of temporal retribution is shown to be reinforced by the text. At the same time, the Book is shown to furnish its own critique of conventional piety and to articulate an alternative piety grounded in critique itself. Religion is not purely ideological, for piety is portrayed as a critique of the ideological effects of the symbolic order.     

Stance,feeling and phenomenology

This paper addresses Bas van Fraassen’s claim that empiricism is a ‘stance’. I begin by distinguishing two different kinds of stance: an explicit epistemic policy and an implicit way of ‘finding oneself in a world’. At least some of van Fraassen’s claims, I suggest, refer to the latter. In explicating his ordinarily implicit ‘empirical stance’, he assumes the stance of the phenomenologist, describing the structure of his commitment to empiricism without committing to it in the process. This latter stance does not incorporate the attitude that van Fraassen takes to be characteristic of empiricism. Thus its possibility serves to illustrate that empiricism as an all-encompassing philosophical orientation is untenable. I conclude by discussing the part played by feelings in philosophical stances and propose that they contribute to philosophical conviction, commitment and critique.     

The Nurturing Stance: Making Sense of Responsibility without Blame

Mental health‐care clinicians report that they hold patients responsible for morally objectionable behaviour but at the same time consider blaming attitudes to be inappropriate. These practices present a conundrum for all Strawsonian theories of responsibility. In response to this conundrum, Pickard has proposed severing the Strawsonian connection between being responsible and being an appropriate target of blaming attitudes. In this article I will argue that her solution fails to explain the practices at stake and provide an alternative solution that uncovers an under‐theorized stance we take towards those whose abilities are underdeveloped or compromised.     

The Burden of Criticism: Consequences of Taking a Critical Stance

Some critical reactions hardly give clues to the arguer as to how to respond to them convincingly. Other critical reactions convey some or even all of the considerations that make the critic critical of the arguer’s position and direct the arguer to defuse or to at least contend with them. First, an explication of the notion of a critical reaction will be provided, zooming in on the degree of “directiveness” that a critical reaction displays. Second, it will be examined whether there are normative requirements that enhance the directiveness of criticism. Does the opponent have in circumstances a dialectical obligation to provide clarifications, explanations, or even arguments? In this paper, it is hypothesized that the competitiveness inherent in critical discussion must be mitigated by making the opponent responsible for providing her counterconsiderations, if available, thus assisting the proponent in developing an argumentative strategy that defuses them.     

Clinical utility of self-disclosure for adults who stutter: Apologetic versus informative statements

PurposeThe purpose of the present study was to explore the clinical utility of self-disclosure, particularly, whether disclosing in an informative manner would result in more positive observer ratings of the speaker who stutters than either disclosing in an apologetic manner or choosing not to self-disclose at all.MethodObservers (N = 338) were randomly assigned to view one of six possible videos (i.e., adult male informative self-disclosure, adult male apologetic self-disclosure, adult male no self-disclosure, adult female informative self-disclosure, adult female apologetic self-disclosure, adult female no self-disclosure). Observers completed a survey assessing their perceptions of the speaker they viewed immediately after watching the video.ResultsResults suggest that self-disclosing in an informative manner leads to significantly more positive observer ratings than choosing not to self-disclose. In contrast, use of an apologetic statement, for the most part, does not yield significantly more positive ratings than choosing not to self-disclose.ConclusionClinicians should recommend their clients self-disclose in an informative manner to facilitate more positive observer perceptions.     

Reflections on an Anti-discriminatory Stance in Psychotherapy

Challenges and opportunities for psychologists and psychotherapists in respect to explicit and implicit discrimination issues in therapy are explored, both from the side of the therapist and the client. Furthermore, personal reflections on such issues are discussed drawing on examples of indirect discrimination on the basis of race and sexual orientation. It is suggested that a combination of professional anti-discriminatory guidelines, a willingness to understand deeply the client’s frame of reference and self-reflection can guard against such phenomena that can harm ethical and constructive psychotherapy.     

Undisturbed Upright Stance Control in the Elderly: Part 1. Age-Related Changes in Undisturbed Upright Stance Control

The authors investigated age-related changes in postural control in 33 healthy young adults (18-31 years), 29 seniors (62-75 years), and 22 elderly people (75-96 years). A force platform recorded the results. The horizontal motions of the center of gravity (CG_h) and their difference in the plane of support CP - CG_v were deduced from the complex center of pressure (CP) trajectories. With fractional Brownian modeling, one can establish that the aging process seems to induce a transition phase in which seniors take more time to initiate the corrective process in the mediolateral (ML) axis than do younger people. The elderly develop a new strategy characterized by the mobilization of higher neuromuscular energy to maintain equilibrium. In the ML axis, the larger displacements could be caused mainly by a hip strategy that could facilitate step initiation. In the anteroposterior (AP) axis, seniors and elderly individuals maintain a relative ability to stabilize their CG into the base of support compared with younger people.     

Stance Width Influences Postural Stability and Motion Sickness

We examined the influence of stance width (the distance between the feet) on postural sway and visually induced motion sickness. Stance width influences the magnitude of body sway, and changes in sway precede the subjective symptoms of motion sickness. Thus, manipulation of stance width may influence motion sickness incidence. Participants (healthy young adults) were exposed to complex, low-frequency oscillation of a moving room. Participants stood with their feet 5 cm, 17 cm, or 30 cm apart. During exposure to visual motion, the widest stance (30 cm) was associated with reduced incidence of motion sickness. For all stance widths, motion sickness was preceded by significant changes in motion of the head and torso. The results support the postural instability theory of motion sickness and suggest practical implications for the prevention of motion sickness. Adoption of wider stance may decrease the risk of motion sickness in operational situations.     

Cogent Bodies,Self-Aware Souls: An Apologetic for Theater in Christian Higher Education

Mission statements of Christian institutions of higher education often include the purpose of forming individuals to live out their Christian commitments in larger society. This article presents the case that including theater in Christian higher education prepares students to further God's kingdom in this world after graduation—whether or not they do so through the medium of theater. Specifically, the argument is that training in theater serves two primary and interrelated goals in students' development: cogent bodies, capable of representing God to others through relationships, and self-aware souls, foundational for the development of character. The conclusion offers a case example of a successful theater program at Wheaton College.     

Function and the Origins of the Design Stance

We report 2 experiments addressing children's developing understanding of design. Experiment 1 showed that although 5-year-old children judged an object's function according to its original design rather than a subsequent accidental activity, design was not preferred over a subsequent intentional use. Adults select the design function in both cases, suggesting that children's initial assignment of function is based on any intended goals for which the object is used. Experiment 2 compared assignment of function with object categorization, demonstrating that although 5-year-old children's assignment of object function is based on any goals associated with the object, their categorization is adult-like and based on the category intended by the object's creator (over a category assigned by another agent). We conclude that preschoolers appreciate the link between creators and categories before constructing a design stance supporting reasoning about artifact functions.     

Confirming Mathematical Theories: an Ontologically Agnostic Stance

The Quine/Putnam indispensability approach to the confirmation of mathematical theories in recent times has been the subject of significant criticism. In this paper I explore an alternative to the Quine/Putnam indispensability approach. I begin with a van Fraassen-like distinction between accepting the adequacy of a mathematical theory and believing in the truth of a mathematical theory. Finally, I consider the problem of moving from the adequacy of a mathematical theory to its truth. I argue that the prospects for justifying this move are qualitatively worse in mathematics than they are in science. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.