“Now We Will Have the Dalit Perspective”

This article seeks to resolve the present impasse within Dalit theology generated by an overreliance on and undertheorizing of the question of Dalit identity. It argues that the implicit location of Dalit theology as a theology of identity does a disservice to Dalit theology itself. Rather, what is needed is to nuance the question of Dalit identity and then flesh out what we mean when we speak of “the Dalit perspective.” Key to doing this is to reconceptualize Dalit identity as a fluid identity: that is, an identity that both destabilizes and allows for the assemblage of alliances among all afflicted.     

Looking for two targets at the same time: One search or two?

A considerable amount of evidence suggests that, under conditions of high discriminability, subjects are able to process multiple elements in a visual display simultaneously when searching for a single target among distractors. Relatively little emphasis, however, has been placed on the question of whether subjects can search for and detect multiple targets simultaneously. This latter question is the focus of the present report. In two experiments, we compare performance in single-target and multiple-target detection tasks in order to investigate whether or not multiple targets can be detected simultaneously. In Experiment 1, subjects searched for one or two targets that were defined by color. In Experiment 2, subjects searched for a color and/or a letter target. When the two targets were presented in the same location (e.g., a red X when Target 1 was red and Target 2 was an X), they seemed to be detected simultaneously. Implications for object-based processing of visual information are discussed.     

“Looking Up” and “Looking Down”: On the Dual Character of Mechanistic Explanations

Mechanistic explanation is at present the received view of scientific explanation. One of its central features is the idea that mechanistic explanations are both “downward looking” and “upward looking”: they explain by offering information about the internal constitution of the mechanism as well as the larger environment in which the mechanism is situated. That is, they offer both constitutive and contextual explanatory information. Adequate mechanistic explanations, on this view, accommodate the full range of explanatory factors both “above” and “below” the target phenomenon. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that mechanistic explanation cannot furnish both constitutive and contextual information simultaneously, because these are different types of explanation with distinctly different aims. Claims that they can, I argue, depend on several intertwined confusions concerning the nature of explanation. Particularly, such claims tend to conflate mechanistic and functional explanation, which I argue ought to be understood as distinct. Conflating them threatens to oversell the explanatory power of mechanisms and obscures the means by which they explain. I offer two broad reasons in favor of distinguishing mechanistic and functional explanation: the first concerns the direction of explanation of each, and the second concerns the type of questions to which these explanations offer answers. I suggest an alternative picture on which mechanistic explanation is understood as fundamentally constitutive, and according to which an adequate understanding of a phenomenon typically requires supplementing the mechanistic explanation with a functional explanation.     

Fame,Narcissism, and the Capacity for Intimacy: A Daughter’s Reflection

In a culture in which fame has come to be viewed as the pinnacle of human achievement, it is natural to assume that celebrity status must be deeply gratifying to the person who has achieved it—a source of exceptional and stable self-esteem. In this article, I draw on my experience of my father’s celebrity at the peak of his career as a source of insight into the reality of fame as a psychological phenomenon, highlighting the paradoxical relationship between the larger-than-life public image of the celebrity and the way in which that person actually experiences himself or herself and is experienced by intimate others. I suggest that the drive behind the achievement of fame is typically a feeling of deep personal inadequacy, and a desperate hope that public acclaim will ease this self-doubt. But, in truth, no amount of public admiration can promote genuine feelings of self-acceptance where early parental love has failed to do so. The article then explores why we humans, as a species, are deeply invested in the glorified images of our celebrities, ascribing them godlike qualities, and taking comfort in the illusion that they have achieved an enviable state of grace.     

Where Have We Been, How Did We Get There, and Where Shall We Go?

Commentators expressed a wide variety of views on my evaluation of the state of assessment center (AC) research and practice. In this response, I first trace the evolution of the construct validity paradox "urban legend." Next, I consider the commentators' comments as they relate to (a) my recommendation to abandon dimension-based ACs in lieu of task- or role-based structures (b) my recommendation to discontinue design fix attempts toward making ACs conform to multitrait–multimethod construct validity criteria, and (c) considerations of construct validity and validation evidence. Finally, I offer some directions for future AC research and practice.     

‘We believe in One,Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’: the Armenian Apostolic perspective

This article reviews the four marks of the Church ? Unity, Holiness, Catholicity and Apostolicity ? from the perspective of the Armenian Apostolic historical, doctrinal and liturgical tradition, with particular reference to the importance of the total identification of church and people and drawing attention to comparisons with the ecclesiological works and treatises of Western traditions. Within the rich context of the history and liturgical life of the Armenian Orthodox Church, the author expounds the meaning of the four marks of the Church, their co-inherence and linkage with the Incarnation of Christ, which enables the Church, ‘in her earthly and heavenly missions’ to reflect ‘the historical and mystical realities of what the apostles experienced in their mission as witnesses and teachers sent by Jesus Christ himself’.     

Preschool Assessment: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?

This article reviews trends in the assessment of preschool children. Preschool assessment is compared with the assessment of other populations and early history, current status, recent advances, and future needs are discussed. Preschool assessment is seen as having both similarities with and important differences from other types of assessment. Though the last two decades have seen changes in models, procedures, and theories, it is concluded that much remains to be accomplished.     

“One Never Knows,Do One?”: Commentary on Paper by the Boston Change Process Study Group

I discuss the work of the Boston Change Process Study Group, focusing on the paper in this issue of Psychoanalytic Dialogues, but also addressing broader issues across the range of their work. After describing the considerable similarities between their views and mine, I focus on three areas about which I have questions: the concept and clinical use of mutual enactment, BCPSG's use of nonlinear dynamic systems theory, and certain problems revolving around science and social construction.     

One pastoral perspective on “anticipatory grief: The search for destiny”

I have been asked to respond to this case (Black, 1994) from the pastoral perspective of soul. More specifically, the perspective is that of minding the soul as a way of remembering who we are. For in Marcia's being present with Bill and Esther we are privileged to enter into their holy of holies, the inner sanctum of their souls as they found a way of remembering who they were together and individually. First, I will say more about soul and its meaning in relation to what Marcia has described. Next, I will briefly sketch an expanded view of the object-seeking frame in which she places it by including meaning-making as the destiny-fulfilling dynamic of all object-seeking relatedness. Finally, I will venture a response to her question of her being their descendant and this paper-presentation being their last legacy.     

Blake's Development of the Number Words “One,” “Two,” and “Three”

A mother tracked her preschooler's number word development daily from 18 to 49 months of age. Naturalistic observations were supplemented with observations during structured (Kumon) training and microgenetic testing. The boy's everyday use of “two” did not become highly reliable and selective for 10 months (at 28 months), emerged later than that of words representing less abstract concepts, and was used in a relatively abstract manner to describe various visible pairs of items. He quickly generalized “two” to partially visible collections and then those that were not visible. Highly reliable use of “one” and “two” appeared to develop simultaneously, before he started using a plural rule, and before he could put out two items upon request. Reliable and accurate use of number words in everyday situations, particularly child-initiated efforts, preceded such use in the contexts of the Kumon training and microgenetic testing, both of which involved adult-initiated tasks. Educational implications include underscoring differences among the first number words by contrasting, for instance, one with two, and pointing out non-examples of a number (“not two”) as well as a wide variety of examples, such as “two blocks, two hands, two socks, two airplanes.”     

Frontotemporal Dementia and the Reactive Attitudes: Two Roles for the Capacity to Care?

People who have a particular behavioural variant of Frontotemporal Dementia (bvFTD) suffer from a puzzling early set of symptoms. They appear to caregivers to cease to care about things that they did before, without manifesting certain other significant deficits that might be expected to accompany this change. Are subjects with bvFTD appropriate objects of reactive attitudes like resentment and indignation that seem to presuppose responsible agency? I explore two possible routes to answering this question in the negative that both appeal to the role of the capacity to care in accounts of responsible agency. The first appeals to the capacity to care as fundamental in determining the aptness of moral demands and appraisals; the second appeals to the capacity to care as required for the very possibility of being someone who could in principle receive deserved praise or blame. In order to assess these lines of reasoning, it will be necessary to settle on a plausible account of caring, and the case of subjects with bvFTD can help in illuminating the relevant capacities. I suggest that the two routes, when clarified, are promising, but that interesting questions about the nature of desert and its relationship to caring remain open.     

‘We Are All One,We Are All Gods’: Negotiating Spirituality in the Conscious Partying Movement

Research literature has been growing over the past five years which explores the religious significance of electronic dance music cultures. This article adds to this work by offering an analysis of spiritual discourses used within a particular underground dance scene in the UK, the ‘conscious partying’ movement. An ethnographic account is given of a typical dance night within this scene, which demonstrates how these spiritual discourses are embedded within a range of musical, artistic, therapeutic, and political networks and practices. The use and salience of spiritual discourses of oneness, energy, and immediatism within this scene are then analysed. It is argued that the conscious partying scene in the UK reflects spiritual ideas and practices within the wider global psy-trance music scene and that this study demonstrates the importance of ethnographic research for examining the complex ways in which such broader spiritual discourses may be negotiated within specific groups. The article concludes by identifying possible future research that explores in more depth the relationships between spiritual discourses, the aural properties of electronic dance music, and embodied practices of dance.     

“In One”: The Bearer Issue and the Principles of Exemplification

Traditionally, the so-called exemplification or the relation between the particular and the universal has been one of the three central problems making up the classical problem of universals: (1) What is a particular? (2) What is a universal? (3) What is the relation between the particular and the universal? I used the expression “classical problem of universals” instead of “the problem of universals” since the classical formulation of the problem could be said to contain a questionable assumption, namely that substance should be the bearer “in” which are the entities of (other) categories. Under these circumstances, a neutral approach to the problem of universals could consist in reformulating the three problems of the classical problem as follows: (4) What is the fundamental bearer of categories? (5) What categories are there? (6) What is the relation between the fundamental bearer and the categories? My purpose in this paper is to answer the latter three questions. In order to accomplish this task, I shall discuss the views of two leading figures in substance-ontology, Aristotle and Jonathan Lowe, and the views of two leading figures in fact-ontology, Gustav Bergmann and Reinhardt Grossmann. I shall answer the first question by claiming that the fundamental bearer of categories is facts; the second, by pointing out that it depends on the answer to the previous one; and the third, by showing that the relation between the fundamental bearer and the categories is the one between facts and its constituents, not between a substance or particular and its accidents or properties. In this connection, I shall argue that the “in” of property exemplification should be categorially reconstructed in order for entities other than properties, say, particulars, relations, connectives, numbers, and even facts, to be “in” facts. This categorial reconstruction will also argued for with respect to the Principle of Exemplification.