回归文本，回归生存

[主持人手记]这些年来,也许是受到海德格尔的影响,西方哲学史研究界开始重视古希腊哲学;所以有所谓的"回归古希腊的小气候"之称。但总体看来,古典哲学研究有两个禁忌:其一是缺乏文本;其二是缺乏生气。在一些学术著作中,我们常能读到对巴门尼德、苏格拉底、柏拉图或亚里     

Back to the future

Significant components of psychoanalytic technique, and the theory that underlies it, seem to remain buried in our past, but are central to the growth of psychoanalysis as a treatment method based on understanding a patient's mind. By updating technique based on a theory of mind with structure, the author views the increasing freedom of the patient's mind as central to the curative process, and takes the position that in interpretive work, the analyst needs to pay more attention to the patient's capacity to meaningfully receive and integrate the analyst's interventions.     

Back to the actual future

The purpose of the paper is to rethink the role of actuality in the branching model of possibilities. We investigate the idea that the model should be enriched with an additional factor—the so-called Thin Red Line—which is supposed to represent the single possible course of events that gets actualized in time. We believe that this idea was often misconceived which prompted some unfortunate reactions. On the one hand, it suggested problematic semantic models of future tense and and on the other, it provoked questionable lines of criticism. We reassess the debate and point to potential pitfalls, focusing on the semantic dimension of the Thin Red Line theory. Our agenda transcends the semantics, however. We conclude that semantic considerations do not threaten the Thin Red Line theory and that the proper debate should be carried in the domain of metaphysics.

     

Back to Black

This is a brief sequel to Max Black's classic dialogue on the Identity of Indiscernibles. Interlocutor A defends the bundle theory by endorsing the (by now popular) view according to which Black's world does not contain two indiscernible spheres but rather a single, bi‐located sphere. His opponent, B, objects that A cannot distinguish such a world from a world with a single, uniquely located sphere, hence that the view in question adds nothing to A's original response to Black's challenge. A is simply denying that there can be worlds with two or more indiscernible entities.     

Back to the self and the future

The thought-experiment presented by Bernard Williams in ‘The self and the future’ continues to draw the attention of writers in the debate about personal identity. While few of them agree on what implications it has for the debate, almost all agree that those implications are significant ones. Some have even claimed that it has consequences not only for personal identity, but also concerning the viability of thought-experiment as a method. This paper surveys what these consequences might be at both levels—as a substantive contribution to the debate on identity, and as to what it shows about the usefulness of thought-experiments. It argues ultimately that thought-experiments like Williams's do provide a useful philosophical tool as long as we temper our expectations of them, and that it offers some support to a view of personal identity but one which is at odds with Williams's own view.     

Bringing the Body Back to Sexual Ethics

The body and bodily experience make little appearance in analytic moral philosophy. This is true even of analytic sexual ethics—the one area of ethical inquiry we might have expected to give a starring role to bodily experience. I take a small step toward remedying that by identifying one way in which the bodily experience of sex is ethically significant: some of the physical actions of sex have a default expressive significance, conveying trust, affection, care, sensitivity, enjoyment, and pleasure. When people having sex don't in fact have these feelings, the sex can be misleading, even if they've antecedently communicated that they don't have these feelings. This account of how sex can mislead is inspired by a perhaps surprising source, Catholic sexual morality. Analytic sexual ethicists could benefit from emulating Catholic sexual morality's attentiveness to the bodily nature of sex and its ethical significance.     

Back to Social Behavior: Mining the Mundane

The factors influencing a defendant's decision to accept a plea bargain were investigated in a field study. Convicted defendants who had plea bargained their cases (N = 67) were interviewed. Data were collected that included: reasons for plea-bargain acceptance, firmness of decision, satisfaction with the plea bargain, and other plea-related information. A factor analysis showed seven significant factors contributing to plea-bargain acceptance. A subsequent discriminant analysis showed that defendants who had accepted a plea bargain primarily to minimize suffering tended to feel that their best deal was mediocre and that the defense attorney had little input into the decision. Defendants accepting for reasons other than minimization of suffering tended to feel pressure from the prosecutor and felt that conviction was likely. Additionally, firmness and satisfaction with the decision to accept were negatively related to external sources of pressure.