On Making Sense (and Nonsense) of Heidegger

Herman Philipse's Heidegger's Philosophy of Being is an attempt to interpret, analyze, and ultimately discredit the whole of Heidegger's thought. But Philipse's reading of the texts is uncharitable, and the ideas he presents and criticizes often bear little resemblance to Heidegger's views. Philipse relies on a crude distinction between "theoretical" and "applicative" interpretations in arguing that Heidegger's conception of interpretation as a kind of projection ( Entwurf ) is, like the liar's paradox, formally self-defeating. But even granting the distinction, the charge of reflective incoherence is fallacious and question-begging. Finally, Philipse advances the astonishing "interpretive hypothesis" that the seemingly morbid existential themes in Being and Time were part of a deliberate "Pascalian strategy" to win converts to Heidegger's own idiosyncratic "postrnonotheist worship of Being." In short, notwithstanding its nearly comprehensive coverage of Heidegger's works, the book does not represent a sufficiently serious effort to understand the complexities and obscurities of Heidegger's thinking.     

Life and Death Matters: Losing a Sense of the Value of Human Beings

The essay combines a specific and a more general theme. In attacking ‘the doctrine of the sanctity of human life’ Singer takes himself thereby to be opposing the conviction that human life has special value. I argue that this conviction goes deep in our lives in many ways that do not depend on what Singer identifies as central to that ‘doctrine’, and that his attack therefore misses its main target. I argue more generally that Singer’s own moral philosophy affords only an impoverished and distorted sense of the value of human life and human beings. In purporting to dig below the supposedly illusion–ridden surface of our thinking about value, Singer in fact often leads us away from the robust terrain of our lived experience into rhetorical, and sometimes brutal, fantasy.     

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.     

Religion and Health: Making Sense of a Disheveled Literature

A growing body of research suggests that religion may exert a beneficial effect on both physical and mental health. Unfortunately, the rapid growth of this literature has made it difficult to get a clear picture of what has been accomplished. This issue is addressed by presenting a conceptual model that focuses on the needs that are satisfied by religion. In the process, an effort is made to show how this conceptual scheme can be used to add greater coherence to the field.     

Making Sense of Abuse: Case Studies in Sibling Incest

This case study focused on the process of making sense of abuse in two Latino families experiencing sibling incest. Participants included five male children ranging in age from 8 to 15 that were members of two families dealing with the issue of sibling incest. The purpose of this study was to build understanding of how families experience sibling incest and its role in their families. Clinical data from therapy sessions was analyzed to reveal that families made sense of the incest in different ways including abuse as normal and abuse as a mistake. Central concepts that explained how the families responded to the sibling incest included (1) level of family cohesion, (2) role of secrecy, and (3) view of outside systems. The findings suggest that treatment needs to include an in-depth assessment regarding these issues.     

社会技能构成因素及其意义

阐述了社会技能的构成因素,其主要包括自信、报答与强化、非言语交流技能、言语交流技能、同理心、合作、关心他人等;以及社会技能对个体的社会支持、心身健康和工作效率的影响。     

Mothers and Independent Citizens: Making Sense of Wollstonecraft's Supposed Essentialism

Abstract

Mary Wollstonecraft argues that women must be independent citizens, but that they cannot be that unless they fulfill certain duties as mothers. This is problematic in a number of ways, as argued by Laura Brace in a 2000 article. However, I argue that if we understand Wollstonecraft's concept of independence in a republican, rather than a liberal context, and at the same time pay close attention to her discussion of motherhood, a feminist reading of Wollstonecraft is not only possible but enriching. I will attempt to show, in particular, that the seeds of a feminist argument for co-parenting are to be found in the Vindication of the Rights of Woman.     

论疾病诊治中的顾此失彼

"顾此失彼"指在疾病的诊治中发现、意识或处理了事物的一个方面或一个事物,而遗漏、忽视了事物的另一个方面或另一个事物。首先,表现在没有全面地收集和分析相关的临床资料。其次,表现为疾病诊断的不全面。再次,表现为疾病治疗的总体安排、治疗方案或药学监护等方面的顾此失彼。与疾病诊断和治疗有关的"彼"是必须被发现和意识的。但在处理时,则根据"彼"与诊断或治疗关系的程度分别对待。为减少或减轻疾病诊治中"顾此失彼"的不良后果,需要采取一系列相应对策,如实施毕业后规范化培养、学习诊治指南和临床路径、重视疾病诊治的程序、提高临床技能、积累临床经验、丰富相关知识、培养临床思维、提高职业素养等。     

Luke 2:2: Making Sense of the Date of Jesus' Birth

The suggestion made in this note is that in Luke 2:2 we shouldread ‘Quintilius’ instead of ‘Quirinius’.The evidence is primarily that of Tertullian, and the conclusionis that Luke 2:2 as emended confirms that the evangelist orhis source held that Jesus was born not in AD 6, but in 7 or6 BC, in line with other evidence in Luke himself and in Matthew.Further textual suggestions as to how we could make sense ofthe census are appended.     

Making Sense of Sense-Making: Reflections on Enactive and Extended Mind Theories

This paper explores some of the differences between the enactive approach in cognitive science and the extended mind thesis. We review the key enactive concepts of autonomy and sense-making. We then focus on the following issues: (1) the debate between internalism and externalism about cognitive processes; (2) the relation between cognition and emotion; (3) the status of the body; and (4) the difference between ‘incorporation’ and mere ‘extension’ in the body-mind-environment relation.

Between Same-Sex Marriages and the Large Hadron Collider : Making Sense of the Precautionary Principle

The Precautionary Principle is a guide to coping with scientific uncertainties in the assessment and management of risks. In recent years, it has moved to the forefront of debates in policy and applied ethics, becoming a key normative tool in policy discussions in such diverse areas as medical and scientific research, health and safety regulation, environmental regulation, product development, international trade, and even judicial review. The principle has attracted critics who claim that it is fundamentally incoherent, too vague to guide policy, and makes demands that are logically and scientifically impossible. In this paper we will answer these criticisms by formulating guidelines for its application that ensure its coherence as a useful normative guide in applied and policy ethics debates. We will also provide analyses of cases that demonstrate how our version of the principle functions in practice.     

Making Sense of the APA: A History of the Relationship Between Psychology and the Military

The American Psychological Association (APA) has been steadfast in its position that psychologists must have the right to participate in interrogations in U.S.-run illegal detention centers. One wonders why the APA is so resolute in this view especially in light of the opposition to involvement in these sites by all other relevant professional organizations. This paper offers an answer to this question by means of an exploration of the historical bond between American psychology and the military. It is demonstrated that the dramatic growth of psychology after World War II is attributable to resources supplied by the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency. It is argued that the historical and current dependency of psychology on the military for research funds as well as clinical training and treatment has resulted in a historical and current debt on the part of psychology to both of these organizations. This debt is repaid by an unquestioned endorsement of military policy, no matter how questionable its ethical or legal basis might be.     

Making Sense of Compound Nouns: A Study of Word Relatedness in Telugu

Lexical development is typically viewed as elaboration, differentiation, and integration of semantic codes—codes that signify the meanings embodied in the words. Our earlier work based on 50 noun + noun (NN) compounds in Telugu has shown that children in the age group 8–14 years exhibit clear-cut developmental trends in producing and segmenting the NN compound nouns and generating words that are related in meaning to the target compounds. The database for the present study is drawn from our earlier work, and it consists of 1800 words reported to be related in meaning to the 50 target compound nouns by 36 children (12 III grade children, 12 VI grade children, and 12 IX grade children) and 600 words produced by 12 adults. A thorough analysis of the individual word associations generated by the subjects revealed that children tended to generate: (1) compounds with the same head word as the target word but with a new modifier word, (2) novel compounds that have phonetic/phonological association with the target words, most of which are actually nonwords in the language; and (3) new single-stem nouns and new compounds that are considerably fewer in number than those produced by adult subjects. Some of the theoretical and pedagogical implications of the differences in performance of children vs. adult subjects in the encoding of word meanings in an experimental context are discussed in this paper.     

Making Sense of Heterosexuality: An Exploratory Study of Young Heterosexual Identities in Turkey

On the basis of the understanding that the shaping, experience, and meaning of sexual identities is informed by the social context, an exploratory study of sexual identities was done with a college sample in urban Turkey. Participants included 225 students taking an introductory psychology course at a private urban university in İstanbul (66.5% women, 33.5% men, age range: 18–30 years, M=20.1, SD=1.7, 98% heterosexual identified). A questionnaire was used to investigate how young people explain the development of their sexual identity and how it affects their lives. An overwhelming majority identified their sexual identity, feelings, and experiences as always having been the same and were quite confident that their sexual identity would remain the same into the future. Participants saw their heterosexuality as mostly having to do with ‘outside forces’ including general references to the role of society, culture, and social expectations and norms, family structure and socialization, peer relations, and modeling. Most perceived their sexual identity to have a positive effect on their lives. Results suggest some evidence of interest in and openness to considering issues of sexual identity among these young people, and are discussed in the context of previous research on heterosexual identity development, sociocultural factors, and with reference to the historical meanings of sexual identities and practices in Turkey.     

股票投资决策中的处置效应:心理机制及调节变量

处置效应是股票投资决策中的典型现象.它是指当投资者面对盈利时急于卖出股票,而当他们面对亏损时长时间持有股票的现象.自发现处置效应以来,研究者就不断探索其心理机制及其调节变量.目前,大量研究者从前景理论、认知失调理论、过度自信理论以及后悔理论等方面探索处置效应的心理机制.文章最后指出了当前在处置效应的研究中仍然存在的问题,并对未来的研究趋势进行了展望.     

RETRACTED ARTICLE: Losing control: Mostly incongruent lists postpone,but do not eliminate,the Stroop effect

Identifying the color (e.g., red) of a color word that is incongruent (e.g., “BLUE”) can be remarkably difficult. The Stroop effect is a measure of the interference between activity from word and color pathways. The efficacy of these pathways is thought to be highly contingent on the frequency of incongruent trials within a block. A block of trials with mostly incongruent (MI) trials typically results in a smaller Stroop effect than a block with mostly congruent (MC) trials. This reduction of the Stroop effect has been largely attributed to the strategic list-wide control of the word pathway. Here, the time course of the Stroop effect was explored using speed-accuracy tradeoff functions (SATfs) in tasks with 50 % congruent, MC, and MI trials. In the MC and 50 % congruent condition, color-word congruency affected the rate parameter of the SATf. In the MI condition, however, congruency affected the asymptote. This evidence is consistent with the idea that the strategic control of the word pathway is an effortful, temporary phenomenon, prone to buckle if responding is held in check.     

Housing-Related Subjective Well-Being in Turin (Italy) and Havana (Cuba): Dimensions and Prediction

In the present study, we conceptualized housing-related subjective well-being (HRSWB) as a three-dimensional construct, defined by positive and negative emotions related to housing and housing satisfaction. Moreover, we predicted the construct via a mediated model, with the objective characteristics of the household as exogenous variables and its subjective evaluation as a mediator. A survey performed on 409 participants (285 residents in Torino, Italy, women = 52.3%, M_age = 42.81, SD = 12.73, and 124 residents in Havana, Cuba, women = 58.1%, M_age = 40.48, SD = 19.21) showed that fewer square meters per capita and living in an apartment had a negative association with perceived housing quality, which in turn had a positive association with HRSWB. Home ownership was not associated with HRSWB. The model was invariant across genders, age classes, and cities of residence. Possible developments and limitations of this research are discussed.

     

How (and Why) Emotion Enhances the Subjective Sense of Recollection

ABSTRACT— A growing body of evidence suggests emotion boosts memory accuracy to an extent but affects the subjective sense of recollection even more. The result is vivid memories for emotional events that are held with confidence but that may be surprisingly inaccurate in their details. We examine the neural circuitry underlying emotion's impact on memory and the subjective sense of recollection to provide insight into this puzzling phenomenon. This research suggests that for emotional stimuli the quality and strength of memory for a few details may mediate judgments of recollection, whereas for neutral stimuli the quantity of contextual details may be more important. Finally, we speculate that the enhanced subjective sense of recollection with emotion, in the absence of absolute veridicality, may have evolved to enable fast and unambiguous decision making in emotional situations.