Truly Justified Belief

I defend the view that justified belief is preferable to plain belief only because the former enhances the likelihood that the belief is true: call that sort of justification truth-linked. A collection of philosophical theories either state outright that this is not so, imply it via other doctrines, or adopt a notion of truth that renders the link innocuous. The discussion proceeds as follows. Issues and various positions are outlined, and needed qualifications are entered (parts I-III). We then note general shortcomings of all views rejecting the truth-link, and critically examine a powerful thought experiment underlying the rejection (part IV). In the final sections we explore two other challenges to the truth-link. First (part V), we consider forms of idealized justification theory that would imply the independence of justification from the relevant sort of truth conduciveness; next (part VI) we investigate a view, Pragmatism, which maintains that epistemic justification is sanctioned by ends other than a tendency towards truth.     

Family Process 1962-1969

This is a personal recollection of the first 8 years of Family Process, the volumes published under the first Editor, Jay Haley, and strongly influenced by the Mental Research Institute at Palo Alto, of which Haley was a member. The later influence of the group's "double bind" hypothesis of schizophrenia is explored. Some ideas about the influence of theory on practice are suggested. Several examples of experiments in the social setting of family work are picked out of these volumes because of their influence on later programs. Finally, the essay offers a retrospective appreciation of the influence of Gregory Bateson on the mood of "revolution" forecast in the opening years of Family Process.     

Making Sense of It All: Hermeneutics and Family Therapy

In this personal narrative, the author presents his journey as a beginning therapist. He focuses on the changes that have taken place in his personal and therapeutic worldview as a result of conceptualizing therapy as a hermeneutic process. Three constructs essential to hermeneutics are discussed. The author illustrates how each construct is used in the interpretation of a biblical text and then discusses how the same construct is applied to therapy. Finally, he offers his ideas to stimulate conversation to further clarify his own thinking about therapy.     

Truly incidental encoding of frequency information

Four experiments demonstrated that adults can reliably remember frequency of occurrence information about items they have been exposed to under truly incidental memory conditions. Subjects neither knew that the ultimate test task would concern item frequency nor that they had any reason to remember the items. This was accomplished by presenting items under the guise of one of three cover tasks: anagram solving, sentence completion, and picture naming in a Stroop-like task. In addition, one experiment found that subjects who were prewarned for either a nonspecific memory test or a frequency test were no better able to judge frequency than were subjects operating under truly incidental conditions.