Aleksej Losev's Antiutopia

This article is devoted not only to Losev'sphilosophical works, but also to his fiction,which he created during 1930s and 1940s.Losev's eight books of the 1920s (his``octateuch'') combine into a single whole thatamounts to his philosophy of life and historydepicted in expressive images. At the same timeLosev's ``octateuch'' strikes one as having beenwritten at a single sitting and in a singlestyle, in a genre that can be identified as the``philosophical novel'' having as much right asSpengler's opus to be called an ``intellectualnovel.'' In his prose of the 1930s and 1940sLosev tries with artistic methods to resolvethe philosophical problems which he raised inhis works of the 1920s. Losev's ``octateuch'' andhis fiction are directed against thosecontemporary materialists who seek to embodyPlato's Republic, whom he christens``soil-less nihilist idealist utopians.'' All ofthis leads to the conclusion that Losev'sintellectual novel belongs to a definite andmore specific subgenre. It is undoubtedly ananti-utopia, full of the grotesque. In additionto its scientific and social orientation,Losev's anti-utopia is also religious innature. Thus Losev not only depicts the realconsequences of utopian dreams, but also turnsto the ``life of the artist,'' which is far fromany technological or social utopias but isfilled with another, no less terrifying ornihilistic utopia: that of the non-religiousexistence of the human person. Losev preservedhis anti-utopian and anti-nihilist viewsthrough his late period (1950s–1980s), despitethe care he took not to cross Sovietcensorship. Losev's anti-utopia is the kind ofChristian realism to which he appealedthroughout his life.     

The relationship between marital interaction behaviors and affective reactions to one's own and one's spouse's self-evaluation needs

A recent extension (Beach, & Tesser, 1993) of Tesser's self-evaluation maintenance model (SEM: Tesser, 1988) proposed that a person's motivation to feel good about the self, and his or her concern for the partner's need to feel good about the self, can affect the couple's interaction behavior. In the present study, individual differences in the motivation to maintain one's own and one's partner's SEM needs are used to predict the couple's problem-solving discussion behaviors. Fifty-three married couples were videotaped for 20 minutes while discussing an important relationship issue on which there was disagreement. From these video records, husbands' and wives' favorable and unfavorable discussion behaviors were coded. During a subsequent session, couples reported their affective reactions to a number of SEM scenarios recalled from memory, which were used to create an individual difference measure representing the strength in motivation to maintain one's own and one's partner's self-evaluation needs. In general, husbands' and wives' responsiveness to their partners' SEM needs was associated with favorable interaction behavior, whereas responsiveness to one's own SEM needs was associated with unfavorable interaction behavior. The results of this study suggest that the extended SEM model provides an experimental framework that incorporates research directed at both the elucidation of individual differences and the examination of the couple as a unit.     

Another serious misunderstanding: Jung,Giegerich and a premature requiem

Barreto's paper, ‘Requiem for analytical psychology’ utilized Jung's dreams and visions to argue for the obsolescence of Jungian psychology. Its thesis rested upon the theoretical assumptions of Giegerich's psychology as a Discipline of Interiority, which he and Giegerich claim are themselves based in Jung's psychology. Here I argue that that claim is misplaced because it depends upon a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of Jung's psychological project. I shall further argue that Giegerich's arguments for a Jungian basis to his psychology rely upon misreadings and decontextualisations of Jung's original texts. Finally, I shall attempt to draw attention to the weaknesses and contradictions involved in Barreto's interpretations of Jung's dreams and visions.     

On Hare's attempt to bridge the Kantian-consequentialist gap: A response to Forschler's rejoinder

In a paper in this journal (Wall 2016), the author of the present paper critiqued Scott Forschler's attempt (2013) to establish that Jens Timmermann's argument (2005) against R. M. Hare's attempt (1981) to bridge the Kantian-consequentialist gap is unsuccessful. Forschler's thesis is that Hare's utilitarianism is strictly normative, not metaethical. In Hare's ethical rationalism, which is metaethical but contains no intrinsic ends (Forschler 2013), reason determines the proper ends, and preference satisfaction has no value prior to reason's determinations (Forschler 2013). The present author responded that Hare's moral approach presupposes that preference satisfaction is the ultimate end (Wall 2016) and that an analysis of preference satisfaction in Hare's moral approach cannot be confined to normative ethics. Forschler's rejoinder (2017) suggests that Hare's moral theory was misinterpreted by the author, who now shows that such a judgment results from significant oversights concerning the foundation of Hare's moral theory and utilitarian foundations.     

Participation in God and the Nature of Christian Community: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel

This article explores the theme of the church's participation in God by way of two contemporary theologians' accounts of the matter: Robert Jenson and Eberhard Jüngel. Specifically, the question of how Jenson's and Jüngel's respective accounts of the church's participation in God determine their accounts of the church's presence in and to the world is explored. The theme of ‘mission’ is taken up along the way, and it is suggested that Jenson's construal of the church's place in God prevents a sustained account of the church's sending into the world. Jüngel's construal of the church's participation in God, it is argued, allows for an alternative depiction of the church's presence in and to the world that accounts for the fundamentally missionary nature of the Christian community.     

Short article one's own face is hard to ignore

One's own face possesses two properties that make it prone to grab attention: It is a face, and, in addition, it is a self-referential stimulus. The question of whether the self-face is actually an especially attention-grabbing stimulus was addressed by using a face–name interference paradigm. We investigated whether interference from a flanking self-face on the processing of a target classmate's name was stronger than interference from a classmate's flanking face on the processing of one's own name as the target. In a control condition a third familiar face served as the flanker for both decisions from the participant's own name and from the classmate's name. The presentation of the self-face as a flanker produced significantly more interference on the identification of a classmate's name than the presentation of that classmate's face did on the identification of one's own name. This result was due to the interfering power of the self-face and not to a particular resistance of one's name to interfering facial stimuli. We argue that the emotional value or the high familiarity of one's own face may explain its attention-grabbing property.     

Evaluating the Effect of Listeners' Response on Speakers' Later Recollection and Impression of the Story

The purpose of this study was to investigate a listener's role in a speaker's later recollection and impression of the story through a story-retelling method. Two experiments were conducted, and listener responses were manipulated in each experiment in different ways. Experiment 1 examined the effect of a listener's attitude toward story retelling, and Experiment 2 studied the effect of a listener's subtle nonverbal reaction to a specific part of the story's retelling on a speaker's later recollection and impression of that story. Results showed that the listener's verbal empathetic attitude encouraged more word utterances from the speaker, changed the narrative content more positively, and reinforced the speaker's recollection, especially with positive ideas. It also amplified the speaker's emotions more than the non-empathetic attitude (Experiment 1). However, the listener's nonverbal reaction to the specific part of the speaker's story did not appear to have a direct effect upon later recollection nor on the impression of the story (Experiment 2).     

Parental interest in children's education,children's self‐esteem and locus of control,and later educational attainment: Twenty‐six year follow‐up of the 1970 British Birth Cohort

Background. Few studies have investigated if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to educational attainment via their impact on child's self‐esteem and locus of control. Aims. (1) To investigate (after controlling for known confounding factors) the long‐term effect of mother's and father's interest in child's education at age 10 and child's locus of control and self‐esteem at age 10 in educational attainment at age 26; and (2) to explore if mother's interest and father's interest in child's education are linked to child's educational attainment via their effect in increasing child's self‐esteem and internal locus of control. Sample. The study used longitudinal data from sweeps of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). The initial sample was those 1,737 men and 2,033 women with valid data on age 10 self‐esteem, locus of control, father's interest, mother's interest, and age 26 educational attainment. Of these, 1,326 men and 1,578 women were included in the final analysis. Method. The birth to age 10 factors that were controlled for were birth weight, parental social class, socio‐economic disadvantage, emotional/behavioural problems, cognitive ability, and mother's educational attainment. Results. At the multivariate level, internal locus of control and mother's interest (but not self‐esteem) were significantly related to educational attainment in both men and women. Father's interest was a significant predictor of educational attainment only in women. Parent's interest was not linked to educational attainment via its impact on child's self‐esteem or locus of control. Self‐esteem predicted educational attainment in both genders by increasing internal locus of control, and fathers' interest predicted educational attainment in men by increasing mother's involvement. Conclusion. Although mothers' and fathers' interest in their children's education were not linked to educational attainment via their impact on children's self‐esteem or locus of control, they were significant predictors of educational attainment especially in daughters.     

A “RESOLUTE” LATER WITTGENSTEIN?

Abstract: “Resolute readings” initially started life as a radical new approach to Wittgenstein's early philosophy, but are now starting to take root as a way of interpreting the later writings as well—a trend exemplified by Stephen Mulhall's Wittgenstein's Private Language (2007) as well as by Phil Hutchinson's “What's the Point of Elucidation?” (2007) and Rom Harré's “Grammatical Therapy and the Third Wittgenstein” (2008). The present article shows that there are neither good philosophical nor compelling exegetical grounds for accepting a resolute reading of the later Wittgenstein's work. It is possible to make sense of Wittgenstein's philosophical method without either ascribing to him an incoherent conception of “substantial nonsense” or espousing the resolute readers' preferred option of nonsense austerity. If the interpretation here is correct, it allows us to recognize Wittgenstein's radical break with the philosophical tradition without having to characterize his achievements in purely therapeutic fashion.     

Eco on Dewey

This study seeks to examine Umberto Eco's views of the key ideas in John Dewey's Art as Experience. Eco's proferred suggestion of transactional psychology as a corrective to Dewey's views is criticized as a misreading of Dewey's position.     

Fathers Do Matter: Evidence From an Asian School-Based Aggressive Sample

The impact of children's perception of a father's and mother's support on children's quality of relationship with their classroom teacher was examined in a sample of 51 third and fourth grade Asian children rated by their teachers as aggressive. Children's perception of a father's support predicted teacher-ratings in all three areas of the teacher-student relationship (instrumental help, satisfaction, and conflict) but children's perception of a mother's support did not. This adds to a gradually expanding research base documenting the benefits of fatherly support across selected and unselected samples in various cross-cultural settings. Implications of the findings for child and family therapy are discussed.     

Impossible objects∗

This paper deals with the Meinong‐Russell controversy on nonsubsistent objects. The first part notes the similarity of certain contemporary semantical developments to Meinonj;'s theory of nonsubsistent objects. Then it lays out the major features of Meinong's famous theory, considers Russell's objections to same and Meinong's counter‐objections to Russell, and argues that Russell's well‐known argument fails. However, it is possible to augment Russell's argument against Meinong with sound Russellian principles in such a way that it presents at least a strong inclining reason against Meinong's theory of impossible objects.     

Reflection,Nature, and Moral Law: The Extent of Catharine Cockburn's Lockeanism in her Defence of Mr. Locke's Essay

This essay examines Catharine Cockburn's moral philosophy as it is developed in her Defence of Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. In this work, Cockburn argues that Locke's epistemological principles provide a foundation for the knowledge of natural law. Sheridan suggests that Cockburn's objective in defending Locke's moral epistemology was conditioned by her own prior commitment to a significantly un‐Lockean theory of morality. In exploring Cockburn's views on morality in terms of their divergence from Locke's, the author hopes to underscore the extent of Cockburn's intellectual independence and her philosophical creativity.     

Alice in Systems Wonderland: A Children's Systems Learning Guidebook Accompanying Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The author proposes the development of systems learning guidebooks to accompany famous children's classic books. Children's classic books can make excellent bases for children's learning guidebooks on systems thinking and global ecology, because they are fun to read and well known worldwide. If such learning guidebooks are properly designed with humor and entertaining aspects, they could stimulate children to learn more about systems thinking. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is chosen as a pilot case for developing such a children's guidebook. The systems learning guidebook that accompanies Alice's Wonderland shall be entitled Alice in Systems Wonderland and will help its readers look at the Alice's Wonderland story with a systems perspective.     

GARRETT ON THE THEOLOGICAL OBJECTION TO HUME'S COMPATIBILISM

Between 1927 and 1936, Martin Heidegger devoted almost one thousand pages of close textual commentary to the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. This article aims to shed new light on the relationship between Kant and Heidegger by providing a fresh analysis of two central texts: Heidegger's 1927/8 lecture course Phenomenological Interpretation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and his 1929 monograph Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics. I argue that to make sense of Heidegger's reading of Kant, one must resolve two questions. First, how does Heidegger's Kant understand the concept of the transcendental? Second, what role does the concept of a horizon play in Heidegger's reconstruction of the Critique? I answer the first question by drawing on Cassam's model of a self-directed transcendental argument (‘The role of the transcendental within Heidegger's Kant’), and the second by examining the relationship between Kant's doctrine that ‘pure, general logic’ abstracts from all semantic content and Hume's attack on metaphysics (‘The role of the horizon within Heidegger's Kant’). I close by sketching the implications of my results for Heidegger's own thought (‘From Heidegger's Kant to Sein und Zeit’). Ultimately, I conclude that Heidegger's commentary on the Critical system is defined, above all, by a single issue: the nature of the ‘form’ of intentionality.     

Elementary schoolchildren's perceived competence and physical activity involvement: the influence of parents' role modelling behaviours and perceptions of their child's competence

ObjectivesTo study the influence of fathers' and mothers' physical activity involvement and perceptions of their children's physical competence upon children's perceptions of competence and children's time spent in physical activity. Two forms of parental socialization influence were assessed: the direct influence of parents' actual physical activity (PA) behaviour (role modelling) on children's physical activity and the indirect influence of parents' beliefs systems about their children's PA competence on children's physical activity through children's self perceptions.MethodsLongitudinal, with data from 152 French children (M=9.5 yrs, SD=0.8 yrs) and their parents collected at two times over a 12-month period and examined through structural equation modelling (SEM).ResultsSEM indicated that mothers' role modelling behaviour had a direct effect on children's time spent in PA and that mothers' beliefs about their child's competence had an indirect effect on children's PA by influencing children's perceived competence which, in turn, contributed to children's level of physical activity involvement. Fathers' beliefs directly influenced their child's PA as did the children's own self-perceptions of competence.ConclusionsParents can affect their children's PA involvement in direct and indirect manners through their role modelling of physical activity and through their beliefs about their child's competence. Furthermore, the influence of fathers and mothers may be manifested in different ways. Father and mother could influence their child's PA by different processes.     

Memory,Quasi-memory,and Pseudo-quasi-memory

Bishop Butler objected to Locke's theory of personal identity on the grounds that memory presupposes personal identity. Most of those sympathetic with Locke's account have accepted Butler's criticism, and have sought to devise a theory of personal identity in the spirit of Locke's that avoids Butler's circularity objection. John McDowell has argued that even the more recent accounts of personal identity are vulnerable to the kind of objection Butler raised against Locke's own account. I criticize McDowell's stance, drawing on a distinction introduced by Annalisa Coliva between two types of immunity to error through misidentification.     

Practical and scientific rationality: A Bayesian perspective on Levi's difficulty

In ‘Practical and Scientific Rationality: A Difficulty for Levi's Epistemology,’ Wayne Backman points to genuine difficulties in Isaac Levi's epistemology, difficulties that Backman attributes to Levi's having required, and for no good reason, that a rational person adopt but one standard of possibility for all her endeavors practical and scientific. I argue that Levi's requirement has, in fact, a deep and compelling motivation that tips the scales in favor of a different diagnosis of Levi's ills — i.e., that Levi's error lies simply in his having set insufficiently high qualifications for admission into the corpus that determines a person's standard of possibility.