Denying knowledge

Intuitions about contextualist cases such as Cohen's airport case pose a problem for classical anti-skeptical versions of invariantism. Recently, Tim Black (2005), Jessica Brown (2006), and Patrick Rysiew (2001, 2005, 2007) have argued that the classical invariantist can respond by arguing that pragmatic aspects of epistemic discourse are responsible for the relevant problematic intuitions. This paper identifies the mechanisms of conversational implicature and impliciture as the basic sources of hope for this explanatory strategy. It then argues that neither of these sources provides the classical invariantist with a convincing response to the airport case and its analogs.     

Denying Services to Prevent Regret

Sometimes the majority of individuals accepting a service regret their decision, and we can predict that future recipients will feel similarly. For example, a hospital might learn that the majority of patients regret accepting a given medical intervention, and a UN agency might learn that most refugees it has helped repatriate regret returning home. I argue that agents providing services that lead to likely regret have one pro tanto reason to discontinue their services, and this reason is weighty if the service is epistemically transformative.     

On Denying the Right God: Aquinas on Atheism and Idolatry

Thomas Aquinas appears not to have been intellectually challenged by formal atheisms, nor are his 'five ways' of proving the existence of God best understood as arguments with formal statements of philosophical atheism. But his emphatically 'negative' theology does seem to offer a response to an over‐optimistic and potentially idolatrous 'affirmativeness', and we might see the relevance of this negative theology as challenging atheisms of our times to come up with more radical forms of denial than they customarily achieve. In the light of this account of Thomas' natural theology, how are we to view his 'five ways'? As on the one hand valid as rational proofs and at the same time as avoiding the pitfalls of a Scotist 'onto‐theological' metaphysics.     

On the Very Idea of Denying the Existence of Radically Different Conceptual Schemes

This paper concentrates on three connected features of Taylor's argument. I begin by considering his historical sections on the formation of the modern identity, raising some doubts about the focus of his discussion and offering some specific criticisms in the case of Locke and Rousseau. Next I examine Taylor's list of the moral imperatives allegedly felt with particular force in the contemporary world. I question the extent to which the values listed by Taylor are genuinely shared, and point to a range of criticisms put forward by conservatives, Marxists, feminists, and other opponents of liberalism, all of whose doubts Taylor appears to underestimate. Finally, I address Taylor's underlying claim that a religious dimension is indispensable if our highest human potentialities are to be realized, and conclude with a critique of his theistic arguments.     

Source Characteristics in Denying Rumors of Organizational Closure: Honesty Is the Best Policy

Effect of source honesty and appropriateness on effectiveness of rumor denial was tested. When the source was perceived as high on honesty, the denial was more successful in reducing belief and anxiety associated with the rumor. Source appropriateness (operationalized as a combination of source knowledgeability and status) did not have a main effect on belief or anxiety reduction. Honesty and appropriateness had an additive effect, such that the denial was most successful in reducing belief when the source was perceived as high on both honesty and appropriateness.     

Language and Civilian Deaths: Denying Responsibility for Casualties in the Gaza Conflict 2014

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 1,462 civilians were killed in Gaza, and six civilians were killed in Israel during the conflict of 2104. This article uses discursive psychology to examine how Israeli spokespeople described the conflict, and Israel's actions, in ways that denied responsibility for civilian deaths. They did this using a number of discursive strategies. These included: (1) using passive and noun constructions which minimized reference to civilian deaths and erased Israeli involvement in those deaths; (2) repeatedly naming and providing details of Hamas weapons and attacks while avoiding reference to Israeli weapons and violence; (3) presenting Israel as only trying to avoid civilian deaths; and (4) describing Hamas as responsible for all deaths. These types of linguistic constructions allow governments and potential supporters to avoid acknowledging the consequences of their military actions and is one way that the virtuous nature of the ingroup is reinforced in political discourse.     

Perceptions of sexual violations: Denying a kiss,stealing a kiss

The purpose of this investigation was to compare female and male perceptions of interactants in scenes involving a minor sexual violation—one in which a male denies consent for a kiss and a woman kisses him regardless, and another in which a woman denies consent and a man kisses her regardless. Undergraduate students (n = 387—approximately 82.5% White, 11% Black, 4.7% Hispanic, 1% Native American, and .8% other) completed scenarios adapted from L. Margolin [(1990) Gender and the Stolen Kiss: The Social Support of Males and Females to Violate a Partner's Sexual Consenting Noncoercive Situation, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 19, pp. 281–291], and evaluated scenario interactants using two sets of semantic differential items and two open-ended questions. Results of several analyses indicated that, first and most importantly, violators' behaviors are considered less acceptable, more negatively aggressive, more complimenting, and less appropriate than deniers' behaviors. Second, violations of sex-role expectations (i.e., female aggressing and male denying consent) are seen as less predictable and more complimenting than interactions where sex role expectations are not violated. Finally, minor distinctions between female and male respondents also were found. In general, findings support Margolin's conclusion that women have more social support than men for determining their sexual behavior and extend his findings to private interactions where motivations are not explicit. Also, trust was found to be an important factor defining perceptions of minor sexual violations, which raises the possibility that an initiation of a kiss and a violation of consent are viewed as different actions.This article is based on Mr. Semonsky's honor's thesis, completed under the direction of Mr. Rosenfeld.     

条件推理中否定前件下信念偏差发生阶段的ERP研究

以日常生活中的条件推理语句为实验材料,采用大、小前提和结论依次呈现的“推断-判断”范式,利用事件相关电位(event-related brain potential, ERP)技术探讨了条件推理中否定前件下信念偏差效应的脑内时程动态变化。结果发现：在行为反应上,较信念促进,信念阻碍下的正确率更低反应时更长;在脑电上,两条件(信念阻碍和信念促进)诱发的ERP波形仅在大前提加工阶段出现明显的分离。这表明该推理下的信念偏差效应可能早在对大前提的语义表征阶段就已发生。     

Fixing Identity by Denying Uniqueness: An Analysis of Professional Identity in Medicine

Cultural forces such as film create and reinforce rigidly-defined images of a doctor's identity for both the public and for medical students. The authoritarian and hierarchical institution of medical school also encourages students to adopt rigidly-defined professional identities. This restrictive identity helps to perpetuate the power of the patriarchy, limits uniqueness, squelches inquisitiveness, and damages one's self-confidence. This paper explores the construction of a physician's identity using cultural theorists' psychoanalytic analyses of gender and race as a framework of analysis. Cultural theorists' politically-motivated work provides an excellent point of departure for destabilizing parts of the authoritarian medical hierarchy that can damage a student's professional development. Drawing on such discourse, this paper examines the processes by which a doctor's identity becomes rigidly defined and fixed by daily training. It finally proposes a way for a medical student to extrapolate himself from the current definitions of this identity and create a broader, more malleable concept of professional identity by defining himself from outside of, rather than through, difference.     

Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train and Leconte's Man on a Train: Denying and Befriending the Shadow

This paper offers an analysis of two films made 50 years apart. Both films deal primarily with the shadow archetype and with a pair of male characters who are at once opposites and doubles of one another and whose lives collide or converge in fateful ways. The relationship between persona and shadow archetypes is explored in both films, as are the negative and positive contents in the shadow. Hitchcock pairs a politically ambitious tennis player with a charming but psychopathic killer in order to examine how denying the shadow through repression and projection leads to dangerous and self-destructive shadow eruptions. Hitchcock's main character never fully acknowledges or integrates his shadow and never accepts his complicity in the murder commited by his double. French director Patrice Leconte pairs two unlikely characters, a retired teacher and a world-weary gangster. As their friendship deepens, each character comes to understand how his very different life represents the unlived life of the other man. Acknowledging their differences, learning from one another, exchanging gifts and roles and maintaining the tension of opposites, both men enrich their lives and integrate their shadows. The dynamics of the shadow archetype—the success or failure of characters to bring to consciousness, acknowledge, and integrate their darker sides—is the focus of this essay and the central concern of these two psychologically complex, entertaining films.     

Rape Rumors: The Effects of Reporting or Denying Rumors of Sexual Assaults on Campus1

Two studies examine the effects of reporting rumors of sexual assaults on a college campus. Participants read headlines and short articles about an unfamiliar college. Key headlines and articles reported an increase in sexual assaults as a fact, a rumor, a denied rumor, or a proven falsehood. Participants then rated perceptions of the college, including opinions on the level of crime and safety on campus. Results showed that both reporting the crimes as rumors and reporting denials of the rumors increased concerns compared to control conditions, but these concerns were lower than the concerns raised by reporting the assaults as fact. Findings are in line with predictions and match previous research on rumors and the impact of reported innuendo.     

Denying humanness to others: a newly discovered mechanism by which violent video games increase aggressive behavior

Past research has provided abundant evidence that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior. So far, these effects have been explained mainly as the result of priming existing knowledge structures. The research reported here examined the role of denying humanness to other people in accounting for the effect that playing a violent video game has on aggressive behavior. In two experiments, we found that playing violent video games increased dehumanization, which in turn evoked aggressive behavior. Thus, it appears that video-game-induced aggressive behavior is triggered when victimizers perceive the victim to be less human.     

Denying Diversity: Perceptions of Beauty and Social Comparison Processes Among Latina,Black, and White Women

The purpose of this study was to investigate Latina, Black, and White women's conceptions of beauty and perceptions of cultural standards of beauty, as well as whether or not the participants were engaging in similar social comparison processes, specifically, the denial of personal disadvantage. One hundred and fifty-seven college women participated: 48 Latinas, 52 Black women, 51 White women, and 6 Others. Results indicate that there are significant differences in Latinas', Black women's, and White women's relationships with their bodies, and their relationships to dominant cultural standards of beauty. In addition, there were differences by race in the tendency to engage in the denial of personal disadvantage response. These findings contribute to the understanding of how racial identity affects, or interacts with, the experience of beauty standards among Latina, Black, and White women.     

From the fixity of the past to the fixity of the independent

There is an old but powerful argument for the claim that exhaustive divine foreknowledge is incompatible with the freedom to do otherwise. A crucial ingredient in this argument is the principle of the “Fixity of the Past” (FP). A seemingly new response to this argument has emerged, the so-called “dependence response,” which involves, among other things, abandoning FP for an alternative principle, the principle of the “Fixity of the Independent” (FI). This paper presents three arguments for the claim that FI ought to be preferred to FP.

     

On the interaction of the subject and the experiment in the matching model

Two types of matching designs, static and dynamic, are differentiated. While all matching designs are logically the same in terms of the probability model which determines chance level of performance, an attempt is made to demonstrate that there is an interaction between the tactics, strategies, and actual knowledge ofS and the type of design used which will, in turn, lead to different results even whenS's knowledge is held constant. It is suggested that analogous situations may exist within the framework of the traditional psychometric model.The work reported in this paper was supported by a National Science Foundation Undergraduate Research Participation Grant (NSF-G15797) to the senior author. The authors are indebted to Joel E. Greene for his advice and criticism.