Fine-Tuning, Multiple Universes, and the "This Universe" Objection

Abstract: When it is suggested that the fine-tuning of the universe for life provides evidence for a cosmic designer, the multiple-universe hypothesis is often presented as an alternative. Some philosophers object that the multiple-universe hypothesis fails to explain why this universe is fine-tuned for life. We suggest the "This Universe" objection is no better than the "This Planet" objection. We also fault proponents of the "This Universe" objection for presupposing that we could not have existed in any other universe and that the values of the free parameters of the Universe could have been different. Lastly, we reflect on why fine-tuning for life needs explaining     

"A coherent datum of perception": Gordon Allport, Floyd Allport, and the politics of "personality"

This paper examines Floyd and Gordon Allport's early work on "personality" psychology. In the early 1920s, personality was an unorthodox topic, and for the Allports it initially served as an intellectual and personal bond. Floyd proposed the subject to his brother as a dissertation topic, and the two worked closely on developing personality tests. By 1924, however, "personality" had become the site of a dispute between the two brothers over the intellectual and methodological character of American psychology. The present study examines the origins of this dispute, while gauging the personal and professional ramifications of the dispute. On a larger level, this essay explores the role and meaning of "personality" in the academic culture of 1920s America.     

National Identity,Instrumental Identifications,and the Caribbean's Culture of "Play"

The ability of West Indians to have multiple identifications, "to play the field" yet sustain a strong personal, participatory national identity shows that in their own way they have achieved freedom of the human condition. And, not trivially, this freedom is a double-edged sword. On the positive side, it reverts to their personal benefits and through that to real benefits to their islands. Evidence of such benefits are the steady flow of remittances and the money-spending tourism to the "home" country. On the negative side is the continued insularity and parochialism that prevents broader alliances of an enduring political type. Although good at coalescing for specific tactical and strategic ends, each island remains a "nation." The hope for a "West Indian nation" is as remote as it ever was.     

Nohl, Durkheim, and Mead: Three Different Types of "History of Education"

Historiography of education is not only a question of construction but also of selection. In 19th century history of education was typically a genre of great educators, mostly male and only marginally female. This construct is influential up to now, at least in popular contexts of educational reasoning. The article discusses in the introductory section problems of selection of names and meanings within history of education, and then three types of historiographical writing that are not only concerned with great educators but have larger Philosophical impact. The first type is Herman Nohls history of German progressive education, the second one is Emile Durkheims history of Higher Education in France, and the third one is George Herbert Meads Movements of Thought in 19th Century. The article compares them and discusses their implications for further development of historical writing in education.     

The "subliminal" versus the "subconscious" in the American acceptance of psychoanalysis, 1906-1910.

Insofar as Frederic W. H. Myers' conceptions of the "subliminal" were spread by the Boston-based "Emmanuel movement" for medically supervised religious psychotherapy (fl. 1906-1910), the movement probably did more to help than to hinder American acceptance of Freudian ideas. Certainly, many academic psychologists' conceptions of the "unconscious" and "subconscious" were a hindrance.     

Mahler's concepts of "symbiosis" and separation-individuation: revisited, reevaluated, refined

Mahler's developmental theories are reviewed in the light of subsequent clinical experience and theoretical and empirical critique. Several modifications are proposed, each tending to particularize and focus the nature and scope of developmental events. Particular attention is accorded the "symbiosis" concept, and focus placed on transmission of psychodynamic issues from mother to infant and on the progressive buildup of self-sustaining pathological systems. Overall, an argument is advanced for the continued developmental import of Mahler's "symbiotic" and "separation-individuation" phase formulations, though with recognition of significant individual differences in their role in individual lives. An argument is advanced also for the clinical utility of these ideas, and illustrations presented, though the link between clinical applications and psychoanalytic theories of early development remains problematic.     

Ferenczi's "Teratoma": A Result,not a Process

In Martin Stanton's 1990 monograph Sandor Ferenczi: Reconsidering Active Intervention , one of six exegetical chapters was titled "Teratoma", using Ferenczi's own word for malformations of (psychic) development. Since then, there has been a tendency in the larger Ferenczi literature to use "teratoma" as a metaphor, leading to the creation of many odd readings and contexts for this very specific, medical, anatomic term. When Stanton becomes expansive in viewing the teratoma as a "transitional object" which "negotiates a relationship between the growth of ideal-ego ideas in oneself and the outside 'influence' of inner systems of thought" (p. 176), he is entering the play-space that opened between Ferenczi and Groddeck during the 20s as Ferenczi's relationship with Freud became increasingly constricted. What this misses is that Ferenczi was a physician, as was Groddeck. For all their fanciful explorations of mind and body relatedness, for both Ferenczi and Groddeck there would be a shared background of certain basic terminology. In that medical terminology, "teratoma" refers to variable numbers of primordial germ cells in the embryo, which in the course of development become displaced, sequestered and grotesquely overgrown; they can never become the tissues they were meant to be. Their potential is forever squandered. "Monsters" they may be; "doubles" they may seem; but they are utterly non-viable. In his metaphorical application of the term "teratoma" to the natural history of (psychic) trauma, Ferenczi proposes a biological and psychological isomorphism that is both clinically illuminating and intuitively prophetic of the course of treatment of trauma, which he was discovering. Clinical and literary material are used to explore the gap between the anatomic teratoma and the psychic teratoma.     

"Solar love": Nietzsche,Merleau-Ponty and the fortunes of perception

Both Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty repudiate the mirror view of perception and embrace what Nietzsche refers to as solar love or creative perception. I argue that Merleau-Ponty thinks of this type of perception primarily in terms of convergence and Nietzsche in terms of divergence. I then show how, contrary to their own emphases, Merleau-Ponty's notion of flesh and Nietzsche's idea of chaos suggest that convergence and divergence are abstractions from an ontologically prior realm of hybrid perceptions. In this realm, each perception is shot through with the others, simultaneously inside and outside one another. The creative tension among these perceptions continually produces new perspectives or voices, that is, a realm whose very being is metamorphosis. Moreover, this realm of hybrid perceptions suggests a political principle that might prove attractive for communities in an age of diversity and cultural hybridity.     

The "semiconscious" form of pathologic alcoholic intoxication, its characteristics and differences from "classical" forms of pathologic intoxication

An account of eight forensic-psychiatric reports characterises the special features of the "semiconscious" form of pathological and pathologically biased inebriation, and contrasts them with "classical" pathological forms.     

Bipolarity, monopolarity and "dichotomous functional decay" as principles of differential diagnosis and "functional pathology" of endogenous psychoses

On the basis of Leonhard's Classification of the endogenous psychoses an attempt is made to trace the phenomenology of the monopolar and bipolar affective psychoses as well as Leonhard's "unsystematic schizophrenias" to three different functional anomalies. The differential diagnosis between the "cycloid psychoses" and the "unsystematic schizophrenias" as well as the problem of the so-called schizoaffective psychoses connected with them, is of particular interest. The arrangement to "functional areas" seems to be suitable.     

"La manie d'ecrire": psychology, auto-observation, and case history

This essay examines the modern psychiatric case study as a scientific method and as a genre of writing about the self. As psychological discourse became a privileged language of selfhood at the fin de siècle, the penultimate signifier of the self came to be found in the realm of sexuality, in the particular contours of an individual's sexual desire. The investigative tool used to uncover these secrets of identity was the case history. This article concerns an influential project of sexual research based on "auto-observations"-autobiographical patient narratives-conducted by Dr. Georges Saint-Paul, who published under the inverted pseudonym "Laupts." The article focuses on the central autobiography of his collection, the "roman d'un inverti," and related sexological literature to suggest how this emphasis on patient stories in psychiatric writing engendered new narrative possibilities for doctors and patients alike. Putting patient stories at the center of psychiatric investigation created a new relationship between patient and doctor, observation and diagnosis, subject and discourse. The tools of psychological observation simultaneously placed a subject's confession more firmly at the center of the investigation and made it more open to interpretation by nonspecialists. Rather than simply confirming the authority of the trained observer, the story of Laupts's enquête suggests that the method actually authorized inquiry by others.     

"Lesbians, gay men, and their parents": a critique of LaSala and the prevailing clinical "wisdom"

This article challenges the popular assumption that coming out to family of origin is important for lesbians and gay men's mental health and couple relationships. First, I present theory emphasizing the unique position of lesbians/gays in families of origin and the significance of "families of choice." Second, I review the quantitative research on social support received by lesbians/gays from family of origin, friends, and other social network sources. Third, I demonstrate how the dominant clinical opinion about coming out to family is based on an unwarranted use of theory developed for heterosexuals and on overgeneralization of findings from studies of white, upper-middle-class, North American lesbians/gays. Fourth, I propose five determinants of lesbian/gay persons' decisions to come out to family-of-origin members. Fifth, I argue that such decisions are constrained by "realistic" costs/benefits in various sociocultural niches rather than being a simple function of individuals' levels of differentiation. Lastly, I offer an expanded contextual stance for the family therapist working with lesbian/gay clients.     

The "don't ask, don't tell" policy and military performance

This paper is a response to Schumm's 2004 critique of Belkin's 2003 article, dealing with the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in the U.S. military. Schumm's critique specified four reasons for continuing to exclude homosexuals from military service: military effectiveness, sexual asymmetries, Christian soldiers' dilemma of "living a lie" and skewed opinions of policy makers and military elites. Each of these categories is analyzed and discussed.     

"Psychotherapy" versus "treatment"

Presents a comment on "Psychological treatments" by D. H. Barlow. Barlow proposed that we distinguish between the terms "treatment" and "psychotherapy." The author believes that not only is the distinction unnecessary, but that its implications could have negative consequences for the field of clinical psychology. It is the proposed distinguishing feature that treatments are "specifically tailored to the pathological process that is causing the impairment and distress" that is most problematic. Clinical psychology does not need a distinction that further exacerbates the split between researchers and practitioners.     

Social Capital, Television, and the "Mean World": Trust, Optimism, and Civic Participation

Robert Putnam argues that much of the decline in social trust and civic engagement in the United States can be attributed to increased television viewing. People who watch a lot of television are likely to believe that the real world is as "mean" as the "television world," and hence withdraw their trust from other people and decline to participate in civic affairs. Using data from the GSS and other surveys, I show that it is not television that makes people less trusting, but optimism for the future that makes people more trusting. When measures of optimism were used as determinants of trust in the estimation of a simultaneous equation model, the effects of television vanished. There is no support for the argument that television makes us less trusting because of the content of the shows we watch, or for the argument that television makes us withdraw from civic engagement because of the amount of time consumed by viewing. In addition, no evidence for specific cohort effects was found.     

"Munchausen syndrome" with variable, largely neurologic symptoms

The paper gives an account of a man, now 32 years old, who has exhibited the typical characteristics of a "Münchhausen Syndrome", increasing in intensity, since later childhood. The increasingly neurological-neurosurgical range of his predominantly simulated and manipulated complaints covers in the main seizures, attempted suicide, craniocerebral injuries, hemiplegia, and paraplegia. The patient has had four operations for a "Cauda Syndrome". The complex conditioning the complaint, and appropriate medical reaction, are discussed with critical reference to previous literature on the subject.     

"Enmeshment" and "Fusion"

The paper examines two related concepts utilized by two different schools of family therapy. Any family seen to be "enmeshed" is also seen as "fused," and vice versa. The difference in the level of focus, on the "system containing the individuals" (structural) or the "individual in the system" (fusion), determines the difference in therapeutic approach of these two schools.     

The "Natural" and the "Formal"

The paper presents an argument against a metaphysical conception of logic according to which logic spells out a specific kind of mathematical structure that is somehow inherently related to our factual reasoning. In contrast, it is argued that it is always an empirical question as to whether a given mathematical structure really does captures a principle of reasoning. (More generally, it is argued that it is not meaningful to replace an empirical investigation of a thing by an investigation of its a priori analyzable structure without paying due attention to the question of whether it really is the structure of the thing in question.) It is proposed to elucidate the situation by distinguishing two essentially different realms with which our reason must deal: the realm of the natural, constituted by the things of our empirical world, and the realm of the formal, constituted by the structures that we use as prisms to view, to make sense of, and to reconstruct the world. It is suggested that this vantage point may throw light on many foundational problems of logic.     

There's something about obesity: culture, contagion, rationality, and children's responses to drinks "created" by obese children

Theories of the development of obesity stereotypes cannot easily explain the stigma associated with being obese. Evidence that important similarities exist between the symptoms of obesity and contagious illnesses, young children have "theories" of illnesses, and obesity stereotypes are among the earliest that children develop led to the hypothesis that children would find beverages purportedly created by obese children less tasteful and more memorable than beverages created by average weight children. After assignment to two story conditions in which a child became ill after eating an unfamiliar food, Caucasian-American and Chinese 7- and 10-year-olds sampled identically flavored "obese-created" and "average-created" beverages. Taste ratings were lower, ratings of the chances of feeling sick were higher, and memory was superior for obese-created drinks than for average-created drinks, particularly when the character in the story contracted a contagious illness and memory was scored for "gist." Finally, children often created the false memory that the story character was an obese beverage creator. The roles of contagion and magical beliefs are discussed, as are the rationality of children's responses and the relevance of the findings for theories of obesity stereotypes.     

"情"与"智"概念的相关研究及思考

综述了国内外关于“情”与“智”的研究成果,指出,“情”与“智”是相互依赖,相互整合的关系。“智”对“情”有一定的决定作用,合理控制利用“情”也有利于“智”的发挥。处理两者之间的关系应该用整体论的思想进行考察,把二者有效地结合起来,合而为一,这样才能达到整体大于部分之和的功效,才能实现布鲁姆所提倡的教学目标。