Honesty in Theology?

There is risk of intellectual dishonesty in the act of modernizing traditional doctrines. One reason theologians reform traditional doctrines is that the original formulations have become incredible to them. This is seldom honestly admitted. It is further dishonestly claimed that new formulations have a direct conceptual link to the old as if the new were the old retold. However, many times the connection between the new theology and the old is in name only, with radically new understanding for an old term. Can we honestly say so? Theology should resuscitate questions of intellectual honesty that were present at the Liberal theology's origins in the interest of maximizing honest theological inquiry. Can theology construct an ethics of belief for itself?     

Careers in Recession?

Purely individualistic approaches to careers are contrasted with organisational human resource strategies related to career management. It is argued that individual and organisational interests can be reconciled by means of repeated negotiations of the psychological career contract, and that such negotiations constitute the organisational career. However, many organisations cannot currently offer a broad range of career contracts because they are of one particular strategic type; others cannot reliably offer one at all, since they are in the process of shifting from one strategic type to another; while others again are in reactor strategic mode as a result of recession. It is concluded that it is difficult but not impossible for the individual to discover an organisation where satisfactory negotiations can be enjoyed.     

Growth in Criticism?

Reports of global ecumenical conversations are regularly published by the World Council of Churches in a collection of volumes titled Growth in Agreement. The assumption is that the dialogues are not just repeating the same arguments they made half a century ago, but that relations between member churches have grown qualitatively as a result of this process. This paper asks whether Orthodox critique of Roman Catholic ecclesiology reflects signs of growth or continues “traditional” stereotypical thinking about other churches and religions. The paper first examines Orthodox reactions to Lumen Gentium during and immediately after the Second Vatican Council, then compares them with Orthodox reactions to the council’s 50th anniversary. The paper concludes by asking whether Pope Francis’ endeavour to reform the Catholic Church in the direction of greater synodality is partly the result of the expectations of our sister churches’ representatives over the past 50 years.     

Lost in Translation?

Topoi - According to neo-Russellianism, in a sentence such as John believes that Mont Blanc is 4000 m high, any other proper name co-referring with Mont Blanc can be substituted for it...     

Relational Learning in Pigeons?

Two experiments investigated whether discrimination learning and transposition by pigeons were facilitated by the opportunity to compare rectangles differing in luminance or stars differing in number of vertices. In Experiment 1, one group was trained with stimuli from the same dimension appearing simultaneously on each trial, but for a second group such stimuli appeared on separate trials. The opportunity to compare stimuli from the same dimension on a single trial facilitated the learning of the luminance discrimination but not of the stars discrimination. Such comparison also resulted in greater luminance but not greater stars transposition. Using a different training procedure, Experiment 2 confirmed that the opportunity for comparison facilitated a luminance discrimination. The results for the star discrimination are entirely consistent with 'absolute' theories of discrimination learning; but the results for the luminance discrimination suggest some kind of 'relational' learning. Given the difference between the star and luminance discriminations, a low-level, sensory theory of relational learning seems most consistent with the data.     

Word learning in dogs?

In a recent paper, Kaminski, Call and Fischer report pioneering research on word-learning in a dog. In this commentary we suggest ways of distinguishing referential word use from mere association. We question whether the dog is reasoning by exclusion and, if so, compare three explanations - learned heuristics, default assumptions, and pragmatic reasoning - as they apply to children and might apply to dogs. Kaminski et al.'s work clearly raises important questions about the origins and basis of word learning and social cognition.     

What's in a smile?

In positive social contexts, both adults and older infants show more Duchenne smiling (which involves high cheek raising) than non-Duchenne smiling (which does not). This study compared Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles in early infancy for clues to their emotional significance. Infants (N = 13) from 1 to 6 months of age were videotaped weekly for 5 min in 208 face-to-face interactions with their mothers. Levels of Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiling were correlated within interactive sessions, and the 2 smiles had similar developmental trajectories. Duchenne smiles were typically preceded by non-Duchenne smiles. The results suggest these frequently contrasted types of smiles occur in similar situations and are often different temporal phases of a continuous emotional process. In contrast to adults, infant Duchenne smiles had longer durations than non-Duchenne smiles, suggesting infant smiling does not fit adult models of emotional functioning.     

What's in a Name?

This paper is about the mode of being of names. The paper begins by explaining why the joke is on commentators who see Lewis Carroll's White Knight as applying the use/mention distinction. Then it argues that the real problem with the distinction is that the idea that names are used to mention what they name depends on mistakenly conceiving of language as existing autonomously; and that philosophers have this conception because they fail to appreciate what they are doing when they philosophise about language. This failure also explains why philosophers mistakenly think of any manifestation of a name as a (physical) token.     

What's in a function?

In this paper we argue that Revision Rules, introduced by Anil Gupta and Nuel Belnap as a tool for the analysis of the concept of truth, also provide a useful tool for defining computable functions. This also makes good on Gupta's and Belnap's claim that Revision Rules provide a general theory of definition, a claim for which they supply only the example of truth. In particular we show how Revision Rules arise naturally from relaxing and generalizing a classical construction due to Kleene, and indicate how they can be employed to reconstruct the class of the general recursive functions. We also point at how Revision Rules can be employed to access non-minimal fixed points of partially defined computing procedures.I thank Nuel Belnap, Rich Thomason, Ken Manders, and Jamie Tappenden for much helpful advice given while I was trying to get clear on the ideas presented here. I also thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments and criticisms on an earlier version of this paper.     

What's in a look?

The most common behavioral technique used to study infant perception, cognition, language, and social development is some variant of looking time. Since its inception as a reliable method in the late 1950s, a tremendous increase in knowledge about infant competencies has been gained by inferences made from measures of looking time. Here we examine the logic, utility, and future prospects for further gains in our understanding of infant cognition from the use of looking time measures.     

Order in the house?

Abstract

The notion that human life at Creation had been set into a series of ordered relationships was central for the Lutheran reformers’ understanding of Church, home, and state. Expositors developed this imaginative theological construct primarily out of the narrative of the Creation and Fall, and they used it as a framework for understanding the obligations of humankind in relation to the Creator, as well as for homes and societies rightly ordered. The Christian home, however, did double duty, serving as an archetype not only of life rightly ordered (law) but also of the love and freedom given by Christ in union with the Church (gospel). Lutheran expositors struggled to balance these two, especially when they derived the coercive authority of the state from parental, or paternal power. Could the institution of marriage simultaneously provide the foundation for state authority, and image the love between Christ and the Church?