Six Levels of Mentality

Abstract

Examination of recent debates about belief shows the need to distinguish:

• (a)?non–linguistic informational states in animal perception;

• (b)?the uncritical use of language, e.g. by children;

• (c)?adult humans' reasoned judgments.

If we also distinguish between mind-directed and object–directed mental states, we have: 1. Perceptual ‘beliefs’ of animals and infants about their material environment.

2. ‘Beliefs’ of animals and infants about the mental states of others.

3. Linguistically-expressible beliefs about the world, resulting from e.g. the uncritical tendency to believe what we are told.

4. Uncritically-formed beliefs about the mental states.

5. Beliefs about the material world arrived at by the weighing of evidence.

6. Beliefs about mental states formed by critical assessment.

     

On the ethical analysis of value issues in public decision-making

Abstract

The nature, methodology, importance and implications of an ethical analysis of value issues pertaining to public decision-making is not evident. In this paper I would like to address these issues by posing the following questions:

• Why is it important to focus on values in any process of public decision-making?

• What is the nature of an ethical analysis of the value issues involved?

• What is the basis, if any, for ethical analysis that moves beyond relativism and subjectivity?

• What difference can such an ethical analysis make to public decision-making?

During the course of discussing these issues, the question “What is ethics?” will be addressed in passing, as well as the usual objections against ethics and the consideration of value issues in public decision-making, namely that

• values cannot be analysed and discussed objectively

• values and ethics are relative to people and cultures

• value and ethical questions cannot be settled in a rational manner

• ethics cannot provide answers

• arguments about value and ethical issues move in circles, taking us nowhere

• values and ethics are so intertwined with emotions and biases that one cannot take them seriously in any process of public decision-making.

     

A new magna charta

In seeking an interpretation of the theory of Gestalt, the analysis revealed that the concept of Gestalt applies to processes and particularly to the way in which events or processes take place. The essential condition for the emergence of Gestalten or configurational properties was found to be—the ability of the parts or factors in the process to influence each other.

In considering first, the more dynamic or formative phase of processes, the significant factors which influence the reciprocity of influence between the parts or factors of the process were found to be

• (i) the properties of the individual parts or factors,

• (ii) the properties of the intervening medium,

• (iii) the ‘distance’ between the parts or factors,

• (vi) ‘factors of rigidity or constraint’.

It was emphasised that these factors operate relatively to one another. The concept of ‘wholeness’ was found to apply to both the dynamic and the more static phase of the process. The resultant or equilibrium position of the process derives some contribution from the whole matrix of interacting factors or influences which are responsible for the resultant being precisely what it is.

The recognition of the causal significance of even small contributions to an event or process is consistent with the concept of ‘wholeness’ and with the ‘matrix’ view of causal explanation. This view of causal explanation is the consistent implication of the theory of Gestalt and the many experimental results associated with this school.     

Access to Health Care for Transgendered Persons: Results of a Needs Assessment in Boston

SUMMARY

The transgender community is a population group that has experienced an increase in visibility, with only a small, concomitant increase in understanding. This study reports on four focus groups, in which 34 transgendered individuals discussed their experiences and interactions with the health care system.

The specific aims of the study were as follows:

• Identify the health needs of transgender and transsexual (TG/TS) individuals;

• Hear the experiences and perceptions of TG/TS individuals who are using the current health care system;

• Identify any barriers to obtaining services, support and/or resources;

• Assess the extent to which health care providers and systems are able to offer sensitive, high quality and user friendly services that meet TG/TS consumers' needs; and

• Identify ways that health care services can be enhanced to better meet the needs of the target population.

What the study found was a system that was anything but high quality in meeting the needs of TG/TS individuals. Ignorance, insensitivity and discrimination appear to be the norm. Specifically, the focus groups found the following:

• Transgendered and transsexual persons frequently encounter providers who will not treat them and blatantly say so. There is a need for education and a change in anti-discrimination law needed to change this.

• The lack of provider training on transgender issues creates insensitivity to simple issues of respect for trans people. One example is the unwillingness to address TG/TS people by the pronoun preferred by the patient/client.

• Many providers lack the knowledge to adequately treat many of the routine health care needs of TG/TS individuals when such treatment relates to issues of hormone use, gynecological care, HIV prevention counseling, or other concerns related to gender or sexuality.

• Providers frequently refer to trans issues in unrelated health care situations such as setting a broken bone, filling a cavity or treating a cold. Greater familiarity with the health care needs of the trans population would reduce such incidents.

• Mental health and substance abuse treatment providers need additional training in order to work cooperatively with TG/TS clients to identify when gender issues are or are not relevant to specific mental health or substance abuse treatment episodes. Sometimes gender issues are central to mental health or substance abuse treatment, sometimes they are peripheral and sometimes they are unrelated.

• Discrimination in health insurance is the rule, not the exception. There is a need for education to encourage policy changes on the part of insurers and public policy changes on the part of legislators and regulators.

     

Identifying Training Needs of Health-Care Providers Related to Treatment and Care of Transgendered Patients: A Qualitative Needs Assessment Conducted in New England

SUMMARY

The Transgender Training Project of the New England AIDS Education and Training Center has been providing training on transgender-related issues to health-care providers in the New England region since 1999, having trained nearly 600 providers in that time. The Transgender Training Project embarked on a study during the 2001–2002 grant year to interview providers of HIV-related care and advocacy on their knowledge and experience with working with trans-gendered people and to assess training needs to increase their effectiveness with transgendered clients.

The methodology consisted of face-to-face interviews with 13 providers of HIV treatment and care who are affiliated with the New England AIDS Education and Training Center network to discuss clinical challenges in working with transgendered people.

In this exploratory study, we found that providers had:

1. Desire to treat transgendered patients respectfully but admitted discomfort and lack of tools for specific interviewing/assessments.

2. Experience with a range of transgendered patients, but lack of information on distinctions among transgendered experiences.

3. Restrictions based on time constraints that create an overarching barrier in building trusting relationships with clients, and trusting relationships are integral to quality care.

4. Concern and frustration with lack of information, studies and research.

5. Concern and frustration with lack of treatment guidelines, (or ability to access them), referral contacts and ways to advocate for transgender clients.

6. Belief that training by transgendered people themselves was an essential teaching element.

These results point to the need for the development and dissemination of specific training materials and resources for health-care providers serving transgendered people living with or at risk for HIV.     

Work function dependence on the thickness and substrate of carbon contamination layers by Kelvin probe force microscopy

The contact potential difference (CPD) between carbon contamination (CC) layers and the several substrates on which they were deposited has been measured as a function of the film thickness by means of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM). The observed CPD trends may be divided into three categories:

2. an increase, or decrease, in CPD with thickness up to a saturation value with sign inversion with respect to the substrates (Al and Si);

3. an oscillation with no sign inversion (substrates, gold and platinum);

4. an oscillation through sign inversion (palladium substrate).

Effects (ii) and (iii) seem to be typical of CC, since they have not been observed for other materials, including evaporated carbon. Several possible causes of the above two effects are examined, but a satisfactory interpretation has not been found yet. The sensitivity of KPFM is such that CC layers 10 nm thick are easily visible, whereas they are hardly detectable by topography.     

Parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) in young children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

Parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT) is an evidence-based treatment for typically developing children with disruptive behavior. We conducted a randomized-controlled trial of PCIT versus wait-list control (WLC) with 23 children with ASD (3–7?years) and disruptive behavior. Over 16 treatment sessions, PCIT significantly predicted reductions in disruptive behavior over WLC and explained a significant variation in scores on the ECBI Intensity subscale. Additionally, parent skills improved significantly compared to WLC. However, no statistically significant group differences were found on child compliance rates, autism severity, or parental stress. Results support PCIT as an evidence-based treatment for disruptive behavior in ASD.

• Highlights

• Parent skills were significantly improved for those receiving PCIT

• Intensity of disruptive behaviors decreased significantly for those receiving PCIT

• Parental stress and autism severity did not significantly decrease with PCIT

     

The Internal Problem of Dreaming: Detection and Epistemic Risk

Abstract

There are two epistemological problems connected with dreaming, which are of different kinds and require different treatment. The internal problem is best seen as a problem of rational consistency, of how we can maintain all of:

1. Dreams are experiences we have during sleep.

2. Dream‐experiences are sufficiently similar to waking experiences for the subject to be able to mistake them for waking experiences.

3. We can tell that we are awake.

(1)–(3) threaten to violate a requirement on discrimination: that we can only tell Xs from Ys if there is some detectable difference between Xs and Ys. Attempts to solve the problem by Descartes and Williams are considered. It is suggested that if we take account of levels of epistemic risk, we can use Descartes’s criterion of lack of coherence, at least with hindsight – which is the time when we need to use it.     

Foreign accents reduce false recognition rates in the DRM paradigm

ABSTRACT

More cognitive resources are required to comprehend foreign-accented than native speech. Focusing these cognitive resources on resolving the acoustic mismatch between the foreign-accented input and listeners’ stored representations of spoken words can affect other cognitive processes. Across two studies, we explored whether processing foreign-accented speech reduces the activation of semantic information. This was achieved using the DRM paradigm, in which participants study word lists and typically falsely remember non-studied words (i.e. critical lures) semantically associated with the studied words. In two experiments, participants were presented with word lists spoken both by a native and a foreign-accented speaker. In both experiments we observed lower false recognition rates for the critical lures associated with word lists presented in a foreign accent, compared to native speech. In addition, participants freely recalled more studied words when they had been presented in a native, compared to a foreign, accent, although this difference only emerged in Experiment 2, where the foreign speaker had a very strong accent. These observations suggest that processing foreign-accented speech modulates the activation of semantic information.

Highlights

• The DRM paradigm was used to explore whether semantic activation is reduced when processing foreign-accented speech.

• Across two experiments, false recognition of non-studied semantic associates was lower when word lists were presented in a foreign accent, compared to native speech.

• The above results suggest semantic activation may be reduced when processing foreign-accented speech.

• Additionally, it was found that when the foreign speaker had a mild accent, correct recall of studied words was uninfluenced. If the foreign speaker had a strong accent, however, correct recall of studied words was reduced.

     

Consensus and Cognitivism in Habermas’s Discourse Ethics

Abstract

Habermas asserts that his discourse ethics rests on two main commitments:

1. Moral judgements have cognitive content analogous to truth value; and

2. moral justification requires real-life discourse. Habermas elaborates on the second claim by making actual consensus a necessary condition of normative validity. I argue that Habermas’s two commitments sit uneasily together. The second entails that his cognitivism is revisionist in the sense that it must reject the law of the excluded middle. Moreover, Habermas’s argument in defence of the need for real-life discourse is unconvincing and his derivation of the principle which requires consensus is fallacious.

     

Toward a Theory of Progressive Evolution (Large-Scale Stages of Evolutionary Progress)

Here I discuss the basic elements, major stages, and completion of progressive evolution. The cosmic world of self-realization is based on extensive self-development within a closed contour: temporal counter-transitions of spatial counter-elements (energy bonds and media and, basically, substance structures) form of local worlds within it through evolution of informational structures.

• The organic world of reproduction develops through the open informational path: the initial substance, through energy exchange and metabolism, reproduces similar substance; the latter interacts with the environment and, subsequently, reproduces its like, and so on.

• The animal world of self-regulation builds up a closed informational contour in the environment through the informational input and command output.

• The human world of self-cognition forms the intensive type of development within the internal closed informational contour of cognition. Counter-transitions of ideal images and signs relate to their real prototypes. In the course of cognition, abstractive thinking develops and brings man to the possibility of reflection of the initial world in its integrity (thus, elevates man to the infinite, by Hegel).

     

“Beyond Frontiers of Traditional Project Management”: The Concept of “Project Management Second Order (PM-2)” as an Approach of Evolutionary Management

Fundamental changes in sciences offer new perspectives for the management of complexity. Increased complexity in society, economics, and technology requires a new and suitable organization and management. What are the consequences and results for project management? That is the theme of this article. First of all it will given a short introduction to project management, which will be later called “traditional project management” or “project management 1st order (PM-1).” Then, the challenges by the fundamental changes in sciences and the increased complexity in society, economics, and technology will be discussed. It will state that traditional project management cannot solve these challenges. The widespread working-themes and results of the research program “Beyond Frontiers of Traditional Project Management” as an answer to these challenges will be presented at a glance. Subsequently, it will discuss some selected results of the research program:

• The principle-definition and foundation of “Evolution of 1st and 2nd Order.”

• The Evolution of 1st Order and the impact on Project Management methods and processes.

• Evolution of 2nd Order and the Grand Evolutionary Systems Theory (GEST) of E. Laszlo as also the impact on Project Management methods and processes.

• Management of crisis: turn a change to advantage or risk-assurance?

Thereafter, the concept of “Project Management Second Order (PM-2)” is presented as a highlighted result of the research program, as a new paradigm in project management, and as an answer to the challenges, described earlier will be explained in detail. Finally, a real example of transfer evolutionary and self-organizational management principles in a real project life will be demonstrated.     

Enlarged Range of Free Flaps for Phalloplasty in Transsexual Reassignment Surgery

ABSTRACT

Our concept for complete phalloplasty which we applied in 66 female-to-male transsexuals, using free prelaminated osteofasciocutaneous fibula or fasciocutaneous forearm flaps, consisted of the following three operative stages:

1. mastectomy, ovariohysterectomy, urethra lengthening, colpectomy, and neourethra prelamination

2. after 3–6 months, neophallus creation with free sensate and prelaminated osteofasciocutaneous fibula (n = 41) or radial forearm flaps (n = 25)

3. 3–6 months later, urethral connection, neoscrotum formation and testicle prosthesis implantation.

Results: After mastectomy 2 hematoma had to be removed, and twice colpectomy revision was needed because of hematoma. No complications occurred after ovariohysterectomy. Partial flap necrosis took place in 1 patient of the forearm group and total necrosis in 2 patients of the fibula group. Eleven patients presented urethral stricture, and 9 a fistula. In 7 patients an operative stricture expansion was required, and in 6 patients surgical closure of the fistula. Overall patients' satisfaction was excellent.

Conclusions: The applied results demonstrates the effectiveness of such a multistage and interdisciplinary approach for female-to-male transsexual and it shows, that the fibula flap is an equal routine method extending the therapeutical range of gender assignment operations in female-to-male transsexuals.     

British,Asian and Hindu: identity,self‐narration and the ethnographic interview

This article, based on a longitudinal study of young British Hindus’ perceptions of their religious tradition, explores their understandings of themselves as ‘British’, ‘Asian’ and Hindu’ [1] [1] The Longitudinal Study of Young British Hindus’ Perceptions of their Religious Tradition was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and directed by Professor Robert Jackson in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick 1995‐97. Earlier ethnographic study of these young people is reported in Jackson and Nesbitt (1993). View all notes. A theoretical framework is provided by psychologists’ and philosophers’ acknowledgement of the processual, interactive, integrative nature of identity and the conceptualisation of it as both narrative and interpretative. The young people's narratives of identity are contextualised by the ‘between two cultures’ debate, and by Jacobson's (1997) recent analysis of the factors in young British Pakistanis’ increasing preference for an Islamic rather than Asian or Pakistani identity. It is suggested that a binary model is over simple and that ‘Hindu’ emerges as a transgenerational, core identity, but with significant differences from the young South Asian Muslims’ preferred Islamic identity.

     

A Response to <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion</Emphasis> from two Perspectives

This review considers the The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion (Rambo and Farhadian 2014) from the perspective of Western counseling practice and its applicability to Eastern religious traditions. The Handbook presents a nuanced approach to conversion that emphasizes its complex and dynamic qualities, providing counselors/pastors with practical perspectives to enhance their understanding of people in various stages of a conversion career. By addressing non-Abrahamic traditions, The Handbook also looks at “conversion” from a wider perspective, raising issues about whether it can legitimately be applied to traditions that do not share Western religious assumptions (such as exclusivity) and religious identity. From both perspectives, The Handbook challenges readers to expand their perspectives and rethink their preconceived notions of religious conversion, especially those assumptions based on Western Protestant interpretation of the story of Paul’s conversion.     

Axiomatic world theory: An overview the general theory of evolution in brief

The world, its many subsystems and all their theories, starting with logic, can be reduced to two related functions: a combinatorial system generator and a hamiltonian system organizer. These can be derived, in turn, from an Axiom of Lawfulness, the expansion being guided by pseudo‐category and pseudo‐functor analysis to produce an axiomatic theory of the world or general theory of evolution. Specifically, world evolution is generated by a constrained combinatorial world generator, F:G_(X), deduced from two related axioms: I. The Axiom of World Lawfulness and II. The Axiom of World Constraint Constants, c = c₁, c₂, of primordial physical combinatee (substance), c₁, and physical combinator (motion), c₂.

Axiom I postulates a lawful analysis by an analyzer adhering to appropriate coordinate systems, CS, of a lawful analysand obeying a conservation law, X = X. The analysand consists of a base combinatee (the set and elements), X = {x₁, x₂,… x_n}, and a base combinator, namely, the universal Boolean operator, NOR = NOT + OR. Base combinatee and combinator both have attributes of quantity combinatorially generated by NOR operating on the universal number, 1, and of quality generated by NOR operating on the universal dimensions, MLT (mass, length, time), including the null sets.

Axiom II fixes the base constants, c, = c₁, c₂, thereby converting X to material substance using c₁ and NOR to material motion using c₂. This comprehensive, quality and quantity‐competent foundational science is called Universal Combinatorics. Its elements comprise the logical alphabet or metavector, A = {c, 1, MLT; X, NOR}, where c is obtained from the remaining terms. These give: (1) the attributive pseudo‐functor, F = P_(c,1,MLT), where P is the power set of the indicated attributes, and (2) the logic generator, G_(X), where G = NOR_(NOR). F then maps G_(X) into world evolution, F:G_(X) → world evolution, as follows:

Expanding the abstract generator, F₁:G,_(x), with world constants eliminated, i.e., c = 0, generates Universal Grammar consisting of (1) the substantive content of the abstract science chain running from linguistic grammar to mathematics and logic and (2) a comprehensive epistemology equivalent to an explicit theory of the strategic aspects of the scientific method, including a universal hamiltonian theory structure informally related to a mathematical category. The four epistemological theorems are:

1. I. The Combinatorial System Generator, F:G_(X), (read as “The attributive functor, F, maps the logic generator, G_(X), into world theory” or “The world is an attributive combinatorial function of logic").

2. II. The Hamiltonian System Operating Theorem, h (an abstract theory‐category structure).

3. III. The System Stability Theorem, PI?, where PI is the extremal Performance Index or controlling law.

4. IV. The Intersystem Abstraction Ranking Theorem given by the Attributive Functor/ Function, F.

F₂ admits the world constants, c > 0, to materialize the grammar generator, G_(X), to an homologous concrete Euler combinatorial physical wave generator, namely, the superstring equation of quantum theory, E_(NI) = A(σ,τ), where E is the permutational function, NI, is the set of nonintegers and the solution is the dual amplitude, σ,τ. Expanding generates the elementary particles of nonadaptive physics and, by inference, the substantive content of Universal Physics consisting of three additional primary systems comprising the world, where a primary system is defined as one having a distinct but derivative extremal controlling law:

1. I. Nonadaptive physics and chemistry (harmonic hamiltonian wave systems) : Minimize Action, subject to conservation constraints.

2. II. Adaptive physics or biology (membrane bound duplicating polymer‐copolymer hamiltonian systems) : Maximize Survival, subject to energy constraints.

3. III. Sentient physics or sociopsychology (neuromatrix hamiltonian systems) : Maximize subjective Happiness, subject to survival constraints and

4. IV. Representational physics or language (a symbolic combinatorial routine): Maximizes the Information Gain, subject to happiness constraints.

The world can then be viewed as a perpetual superfluid computer implicitly using the epistemology of Axiom I as a world program to process the physical data base, c > 0, of Axiom II into world evolution. After evolving through Systems I and II, mankind, i.e., System III, evolves as an internal metacomputer which makes the combinatorial program explicit and uses it to put all four primary systems in standard hamiltonian theory (pseudo‐category) format and terminology. This can be viewed as a generalization of the Darwinian variation‐and‐selection theme in which combinatorial‐variation is recursively hamiltonian‐selected thereby incrementing world logic and logic constraints on successive primary systems. Because Universal Physics and Universal Grammar are functor‐related homologous concrete and abstract combinatorial pseudocategories, related by a pseudo‐functor, thus, differing only in the presence and absence, respectively, of the World Constants, c ≥ 0, they constitute, ipso facto, Universal Science (Formal Philosophy, World Evolution, World Unification, Explicit Theory of Everything, ETOE, or Axiomatic World Theory).

QED: Because intricate verified predictions, ranging from particles to personality types, mental disorders, political parties and the abstract sciences, result from a system which is merely expanding to fill its possibility set, it is concluded that the world is lawful and that this means it is an object deterministic but not fully analytically determinable combinatorial system. In the object domain, the world is system‐number complete at four. Dually, in the analytical codomain, understanding of it is approximately complete, as measured by a world information gain function. Hence, the dualistic, analysand‐analyzer world program is finite and has dualistic completion criteria, as required of an involuted program.     

Implications of Religious Identity Salience,Religious Involvement,and Religious Commitment on Aggression

Social identity can affect perceptions of external threats and the type of response elicited to those threats. Religion is a social identity with eternal group membership and revered beliefs and values; thus, religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement may have implications for aggressive responses to perceived threats to a person’s religious identity. In a sample of 176 Christians, Muslims, and Jews, we investigated whether people respond aggressively to collective threat as a function of religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement. Religious commitment was positively related to anger only when religious identity was salient. Religious involvement was negatively related to anger and hostility only when religious identity was salient. Religious identity salience appears to act as a moderator by either enhancing perceptions of threat or by activating internal religious beliefs and values.     

Knowledge and modality

Kripke claims that there are necessary a posteriori truths and contingent a priori truths. These claims challenge the traditional Kantian view that

1. (K)
   All knowledge of necessary truths is a priori and all a priori knowledge is of necessary truths.
    

Kripke’s claims continue to be resisted, which indicates that the Kantian view remains attractive. My goal is to identify the most plausible principles linking the epistemic and the modal. My strategy for identifying the principles is to investigate two related questions. Are there compelling general supporting arguments for (K)? Are there decisive counterexamples to (K)? My investigation uncovers two intuitively plausible principles that are not open to decisive counterexamples but which enjoy no compelling independent support.

     

The 2007 Birmingham Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education: a new direction for statutory religious education in England and Wales

The aim of this article is to introduce and summarise the main feature of the new Birmingham City Council Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education (2007 Birmingham City Council (BCC). 2007. Agreed Syllabus for Religious Education, Birmingham: City Council.  [Google Scholar]), consider the relevance of its commitments and conclusions to ongoing debates within British religious education, and, finally, offer some kind of provisional assessment of its strengths and worth. By way of introduction, attention is given both to the mounting controversy that currently attends British religious education, which has given rise to conflicting opinions and estimates of its achievements and value, and to the historical role and legal status of agreed syllabuses within English and Welsh education.