To escape blame, don't be a hero—Be a victim

In situations where people (or their lawyers) seek to escape blame for wrongdoing, they often use one of two strategies: frame themselves as a hero (hero strategy) or as a victim (victim strategy). The hero strategy acknowledges wrongdoing, but highlights previous good deeds to offset blame. The victim strategy also acknowledges wrongdoing, but highlights the harms suffered by the perpetrator to deflect blame. Although commonsense suggests that past good deeds can offset blame from transgressions, moral typecasting (Gray & Wegner, 2009) suggests otherwise. Despite past good deeds, heroes remain blameworthy as moral agents. On the other hand, victims are moral patients and thus incapable of blame. Three studies found that victim strategy consistently reduced blame, while the hero strategy was at best ineffectual and at worst harmful. This effect appeared to stem from how the minds of victims and heroes are perceived.     

To Be is to Be the Object of a Possible Act of Choice

Aim of the paper is to revise Boolos’ reinterpretation of second-order monadic logic in terms of plural quantification ([4], [5]) and expand it to full second order logic. Introducing the idealization of plural acts of choice, performed by a suitable team of agents, we will develop a notion of plural reference. Plural quantification will be then explained in terms of plural reference. As an application, we will sketch a structuralist reconstruction of second-order arithmetic based on the axiom of infinite à la Dedekind, as the unique non-logical axiom. We will also sketch a virtual interpretation of the classical continuum involving no other infinite than a countable plurality of individuals.     

Religious Counseling: To Be Used,Not Feared

Our society is placing more emphasis on religion and religious issues. Persons seeking counseling often request Christian counseling. Students in academic settings often express an interest in becoming Christian counselors. Often the religious aspect is left out or avoided in courses for training counselors. This article gives some specific ways in which religious issues can be used in a counseling setting using the three ps: place, personhood and philosophy.     

"做人"是一种德性——兼论个体道德的起点

我们必须超越时"做人"的常识化理解,从更加具有普遍意义的关系视阚而非日常私人交往领域来重新审视"做人","做人"是一种德性,内含着人的本质性规定.同样,对"做人"的评价、对"好人"的认定也要超出日常的私人交往领域,为"做好人"确立一个相对客观的标准和宽松的环境.在市场经济条件下和民主社会公共交往扩大的背景下,按照新的"做人"观念学会做人应成为个体道德建构的起点.     

To Be Philosophical, Even if One Will Not Be a Professional Philosopher: The Aim and Mission of Philosophy Education

In contemporary society,the number of students who major in philosophy at universities has decreased.Furthermore,as Richard Mervyn Hare said many years ago,"Most of my pupils are going to be,not professional philosophers,but businessmen,politicians,schoolmasters,clergymen,lawyers,journalists,civil servants,and,indeed,almost anything but philosophers;and a substantial number of these may be expected to reach the highest ranks of their professions" (Hare 1971,39).     

To Be Young,Gifted, and Strategic: Advantages for Memory Performance

Gifted and nongifted children's use of an organizational strategy was contrasted on multitrial free-recall tasks, using different sets of items on each trial. In an initial experiment, gifted children initially had higher levels of recall and strategic functioning than nongifted children, but this advantage was lost on later trials. While overall there was an advantage to memory of being strategic, this advantage was statistically significant for the gifted children only at trial 1, whereas it was significant for the nongifted children on trials 2 through 5. A sort-recall procedure was used in Experiment 2, with results indicating that gifted children benefited more than nongifted children when strategy use was simplified, while the results of Experiment 3, which used nonsense words as stimuli, demonstrated that gifted children demonstrated greater use of active strategies than nongifted children. The results of these experiments were interpreted as evidence that at least a portion of gifted children's advantage on free recall tasks lies in nonstrategic processes.     

To Be,or Not to Be,Linear: An expanded representation of personality and its relationship to leadership performance

In this study, we tested for a set of complex, nonlinear relationships between derailing/dark side personality composites and leadership performance using two independent samples of managers/leaders (N=1306 and N=290 for Study 1 and 2, respectively). Based on the structure and characteristics of the derailing/dark side trait composites, we expected the relationship between these composites and leadership performance would best be described with an inverted U function. In Study 1, we found evidence of a nonlinear relationship between the derailing composite, as measured by the Global Personality Inventory^©, and behaviorally based, structured ratings of leadership performance in an assessment center. Similarly, Study 2 found evidence for a nonlinear relationship between dark side composites, as measured by the Hogan Development Survey^©, and supervisory/other ratings of leadership performance. We discuss the implications of these complex, nonlinear findings with respect to the continued use of personality for the selection and promotion of future leaders. Limitations of the current study and directions for future research are noted.     

To Change,Be Yourself: An Illustration of Paradox in Gestalt Therapy

Gestalt therapy emphasizes contact with unwanted and disowned aspects of self. This article describes the use of a therapeutic exercise based on paradoxical intent within the framework of Gestalt therapy and uses one client's account of the experience to illustrate its effectiveness.     

To Be the Eye Within the Storm,I Am Challenged Not Stressed

Via the lens of Cognitive Activation Theory of Stress (Ursin & Eriksen, 2004) we explored the stress experience in seven Olympic Norway coaches. We present elements that impact their stress experience. The phenomenological analysis of the semistructured interviews helped us identify that their expectancy to cope with the situational demands and specific defense mechanisms filtered the evaluation of stressors that were interpreted as manageable challenges. To nurture these 2 filters, the coaches used their confidence and engaged in systematic reflection and learning. These findings are related to the existing literature, practical applications, limitations, and future research.     

Events (Like Objects) Are Things,Can Have Affordance Properties,and Can Be Perceived

Stoffregen (target article, this issue) argues that events and affordances are qualitatively distinct properties; that affordances are animal and observer referential, whereas events are not; and that only affordances are perceived and events are not. In this commentary, I argue to the contrary-that events are perceived as well as affordances and that animals do not perceive disembodied properties anymore than they could perceive propertyless things. I argue that events are not properties but are substantial, spatiotemporal things that have properties. Events can exhibit affordances that must vary in scope to support the perceptually guided temporal evolution of behaviors.     

To Be or Never to Have Been: Anti-Natalism and a Life Worth Living

David Benatar argues that being brought into existence is always a net harm and never a benefit. I disagree. I argue that if you bring someone into existence who lives a life worth living (LWL), then you have not all things considered wronged her. Lives are worth living if they are high in various objective goods and low in objective bads. These lives constitute a net benefit. In contrast, lives worth avoiding (LWA) constitute a net harm. Lives worth avoiding are net high in objective bads and low in objective goods. It is the prospect of a LWA that gives us good reason to not bring someone into existence. Happily, many lives are not worth avoiding. Contra Benatar, many are indeed worth living. Even if we grant Benatar his controversial asymmetry thesis, we have no reason to think that coming into existence is always a net harm.     

“做人”及其相关日常伦理观念分析——以廖申白先生“做人”和“做事”两文为基础

"做人"是一个基本的日常伦理观念。作为目标的"好人"和作为方法的"会做人"是"做人"的题中之义,在日常使用中显示出与现代公共生活不适应的问题。"做事"对"做人"的约束不等同于现代公共生活要求的客观性。即便如此,"做人"依然是一个具有生命力的观念,它越是接受符合时代共识的限制,越能焕发活力。"做人"观念起源于"家"这一独特的互动机制和关系网络,向家之外的语境扩展时不是推广某一种身份,不是推荐某一个品质,不是扩张某一类组织,具有开放的特点,这亦是它保持生命力的原因。     

欲育精英则先为精英——临床医学教育师德刍议

医学教育作为精英教育对于教师的素质要求较高,而实践中医学教学现状和师德要求之间还存在一定的不足,针对医学教育的现状及其精英教育的性质,结合中国传统文化中师德的内涵和临床教学实践提出了“欲育精英则先为精英”的观点,并从“博学、慎思、笃行、修身”四个方面对医学教师师德培养进行了探讨.