Epistemic closure,assumptions and topics of inquiry

According to the principle of epistemic closure, knowledge is closed under known implication. The principle is intuitive but it is problematic in some cases. Suppose you know you have hands and you know that ‘I have hands’ implies ‘I am not a brain-in-a-vat’. Does it follow that you know you are not a brain-in-a-vat? It seems not; it should not be so easy to refute skepticism. In this and similar cases, we are confronted with a puzzle: epistemic closure is an intuitive principle, but at times, it does not seem that we know by implication. In response to this puzzle, the literature has been mostly polarized between those who are willing to do away with epistemic closure and those who think we cannot live without it. But there is a third way. Here I formulate a restricted version of the principle of epistemic closure. In the standard version, the principle can range over any proposition; in the restricted version, it can only range over those propositions that are within the limits of a given epistemic inquiry and that do not constitute the underlying assumptions of the inquiry. If we adopt the restricted version, I argue, we can preserve the advantages associated with closure, while at the same time avoiding the puzzle I’ve described. My discussion also yields an insight into the nature of knowledge. I argue that knowledge is best understood as a topic-restricted notion, and that such a conception is a natural one given our limited cognitive resources.     

Innerdeutsche Migration und psychisches Befinden

In a representative study German migrants within Germany were assigned to two different groups depending on their answers to the following two questions (?Where did you mainly grow up – Eastern Germany or Western Germany?“ and ?Where do you live now?“). The migrants (54 West-East and 68 East-West migrants) were compared with non-migrants (1,136 Western and 294 Eastern Germans) concerning different variables of their psychic condition. Migrants suffered from higher stress, less bodily well-being and more somatic symptoms than non-migrants. Probands migrating from Western to Eastern Germany reported the lowest levels of quality of life.     

Holistic attitudes of high school students toward themselves and their school experiences.

This study was based on an analysis of essays written by 47 teacher education students in response to the question, "If you could live your high school days over again, what, if anything, would you change?" The responses were organized into 20 different categories and tabulated according to students' age and sex. In retrospect, 38% of these students would have improved their attitude toward high school. Thirty-six percent indicated that high school was a positive experience, though this attitude was often unrelated to academic achievement. The responses strongly suggest that for many high school students, general attitude toward school affects achievement more than do attitudes toward specific school characteristics.     

When a Skeptical Hypothesis Is Live

I’m going to argue for a set of restricted skeptical results: roughly put, we don’t know that fire engines are red, we don’t know that we sometimes have pains in our lower backs, we don’t know that John Rawls was kind, and we don’t even know that we believe any of those truths. However, people unfamiliar with philosophy and cognitive science do know all those things. The skeptical argument is traditional in form: here's a skeptical hypothesis; you can’t epistemically neutralize it, you have to be able to neutralize it to know P; so you don’t know P. But the skeptical hypotheses I plug into it are “real, live” scientific‐philosophical hypotheses often thought to be actually true, unlike any of the outrageous traditional skeptical hypotheses (e.g., ‘You’re a brain in a vat’). So I call the resulting skepticism Live Skepticism. Notably, the Live Skeptic's argument goes through even if we adopt the clever anti‐skeptical fixes thought up in recent years such as reliabilism, relevant alternatives theory, contextualism, and the rejection of epistemic closure. Furthermore, the scope of Live Skepticism is bizarre: although we don’t know the simple facts noted above, many of us do know that there are black holes and other amazing facts.     

On Seeing That Someone is Angry

Abstract: Some propose that the question of how you know that James is angry can be adequately answered with the claim that you see that James is angry. Call this the Perceptual Hypothesis. Here, I examine that hypothesis. I argue that there are two different ways in which the Perceptual Hypothesis could be made true. You might see that James is angry by seeing his bodily features. Alternatively, you might see that James is angry by seeing his anger. If you see that James is angry in the first way, your knowledge is inferential. If you see that James is angry in the second way, your knowledge is not inferential. These are different ways of knowing that James is angry. So the Perceptual Hypothesis alone does not adequately answer the question of how you know that fact. To ascertain how you know it, we need to decide whether or not you saw his anger. This is an epistemological argument. But it has consequences for a theory of perception. It implies that there is a determinate fact about which features of an object you see. This fact is made true independently of what you come to know by seeing. In the final section of the paper, I seek to undermine various ways in which the claim that you see James' anger may be thought implausible.     

Is Connectedness Necessary to What Matters in Survival

The standard version of the psychological criterion or theory of personal identity takes it that psychological connectedness is not necessary for personal identity, or for what matters in survival. That is, a future person can be you, and/or have what matters in survival for you, even though there is no psychological connectedness between you and that future person. David Lewis, however, holds that psychological connectedness is necessary to both identity and what matters (which he takes to coincide). This entails, Lewis acknowledges, that if a human body were to live longer than connectedness lasts, then that body would 'embody' or 'constitute' a different person later on than it did to begin with. Moreover, Lewis accepts, a body may embody more than one person at any one time. Lewis claims that this can be reconciled to some degree with common sense if we count by person stages rather than by persons. I show, though, that Lewis' view cannot be salvaged in this way, and, moreover, that it leads to further absurdities. I conclude that as an account of identity and of what matters in survival, it is highly implausible, and most unsatisfactory.     

Retrospective questions and correlations

In survey research it is not uncommon to ask questions of the following type: “How many times did you undertake actiona in reference periodT of length τ?.” The relationship is established between τ and the correlation of the number of reported actions with some background variable. To this end it is assumed that the process of actions satisfies a renewal model with individual heterogeneity. Also a model has to be formulated for possible recall effects. Applications are given in the field of medical consumption.     

On the Suffering of Compassion

Compassion is often described in terms of suffering. This paper investigates the nature of this suffering. It is argued that compassion involves suffering of a particular kind. To begin with a case is made for the negative claim that compassion does not involve an ordinary, or afflictive, suffering over something. Secondly, it is argued that the suffering of compassion is a suffering for someone else’s sake: If you feel compassion for another person, P, then you suffer over P:s suffering for P:s sake, and if that is all you do, then you are not affected with an afflictive suffering over something. The final section identifies and addresses a problem concerning self-pity, and a suggestion is made on how to specify the proposed account so as to cover both self-directed and other-directed compassion.     

“Not by bread alone…” How does Jesus free and unite us?

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And he fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered: “It is written: ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’.” Matt. 4: 1–4.     

Re‐framing systemic paradigms for the art of learning

Thoughtful people are increasingly concerned that the current paradigms for social, corporate, and educational activities are in disgraceful disarray. The “problem‐solving” or analytical model, the competitive or game model, the commercial or consumer model, the bureaucratic or institutional model, and the disease or illness model which prevail in public discourse are proving to be especially unwholesome. We cannot, however, educate ourselves without paradigms. A credible educational paradigm must be generally accessible without being simplistic, informative without being monothematic, and accommodating as well as discriminating. Given our disquiet with the current cognitive situation, a renewing paradigm must be somehow novel; given the character of human nature, a sustaining paradigm must be somehow familiar.

For a very long time now, professional Sciences have committed themselves to paradigms about “reality out there,” while professional Arts have devoted themselves to expressing “imagination from within here.” The more these two worldviews polarize in opposition to one another, the more room there is—and the more human heed there becomes—for mediation by an applied philosophy which accommodates the “real” as well as the “imaginary” in a complementary way. Such a philosophy would address not only “what do you know?” and “how do you do?” but also “how do you know?” and “why do you do?” In earlier times, people would have been considered neither educated nor wise unless they appreciated the Sciences and the Arts whole. In our time, we may not survive unless we can re‐integrate our fractured perceptions. How might we proceed to do so? There may be a systemological way.     

Learning to Juggle—the experience of Muslim and Sikh children coping with different value systems

J. Mezzirow (cited in Whitaker, 1995, p. 1) describes learning as a process of adjusting and acclimatising to the world. He sees it as ‘the means by which people come to perceive, interpret, criticise and transform the worlds in which they live’. For the Muslim and Sikh children in this case study the worlds they live in are very different, often presenting conflicting values and ideas. When talking about their lives there is an acute sense of this—the children's learning and development involves a realisation that they must develop their skill of juggling, and they must develop it quickly.

The values which these children juggle with come from three distinct areas of their lives; the home, the community and the school. To a lesser degree the wider world also breaks in, becoming more influential as the children get older. Initially I should like to introduce you to the school and to how our information was collected. I make no apology for quoting the children and staff at length throughout as their comments can convey far more clearly both the issues they raised and the points I wish to make in this article.     

The Newcomb Problem: An Unqualified Resolution

The Newcomb problem is analysed here as a type ofcommon cause problem. Inrelation to such problems, if you take the dominatedoption your expected outcomewill be good and if you take the dominant optionyour expected outcome will be notso good. As is explained, however, these arenot conventional conditional expectedoutcomes but `conditional evidence expectedoutcomes' and while in the deliberationprocess, the evidence on which they are based isonly hypothetical evidence.Conventional conditional expected outcomes aremore sensitive to your currentepistemic state in that they are based purely onactual evidence which is available toyou during the deliberation process. So althoughthey are conditional on a certain actbeing performed, they are not based on evidencethat you would have only if that actis performed. Moreover, for any given epistemicstate during the deliberationprocess, your conventional conditional expectedoutcome for the dominant option willbe better than that for the dominated option. Theprinciple of dominance is thus inperfect harmony with the conventional conditionalexpected outcomes. In relation tothe Newcomb problem then, the evidence unequivocallysupports two-boxing as therational option. Yet what is advanced here isnot simply a two-boxing strategy. Tosee why, two stages to the problem need to berecognised. The first stage is thatwhich occurs before the information used by thepredictor in making his predictionshas been gained. The second stage is after thispoint. Provided that you are still inthe first stage, you have an opportunity toinfluence whether or not the predictorplaces the $1m in the opaque box. To maximisethe probability that it is, you need tocommit yourself to one-boxing.     

共情对广义互惠的影响：自我-他人重叠的中介作用

与“我帮你,你帮我”的直接互惠相比,“我帮你,你帮他”的积极广义互惠,促使受助者转变为助人者帮助更多的人。与之相反,“我伤你,你伤他”的消极广义互惠,易导致受害者转变为伤害者波及无辜他人。以往研究未探寻到既能促进积极广义互惠,又能抑制消极广义互惠的因素。采用两阶段独裁者博弈任务范式,通过两项实验发现,共情是一个能够起到扩大积极广义互惠传递效应并削弱消极广义互惠传递效应双重作用的特殊变量,其机制在于自我-他人重叠,支持了自我扩张模型。这一研究为营造良好社会道德氛围,加强公民道德建设,保障公正和谐的社会环境提供了思路。     

Responding to indirect speech acts

Indirect speech acts, like the request Do you know the time?, have both a literal meaning, here “I ask you whether you know the time,” and an indirect meaning “I request you to tell me the time.” In this paper I outline a model of how listeners understand such speech acts and plan responses to them. The main proposals are these. The literal meaning of indirect speech acts can be intended to be taken seriously (along with the indirect meaning) or merely pro forma. In the first case listeners are expected to respond to both meanings, as in Yes, I do—it's six, but in the second case only to the indirect meaning, as in It's six. There are at least six sources of information listeners use in judging whether the literal meaning was intended seriously or pro forma, as well as whether there was intended to be any indirect meaning. These proposals were supported in five experiments in which ordinary requests for information were made by telephone of 950 local merchants.     

Going beyond self-esteem to predict life satisfaction: The Chinese case

The present study examined three fundamental components contributing to life satisfaction among Chinese college students − who you are, how you conceive of yourself, and how you understand the world in which you function. To account for life satisfaction beyond self-esteem, we used two comprehensive measures of personality and social beliefs that have recently established their cross-cultural applicability: the Cross-Cultural Personality Assessment Inventory and the Social Axioms Survey. It was found that the personality variables tapping interpersonal relationship and social axioms tapping perceptions of social contexts were significantly related to life satisfaction over and above its relationship to self-esteem. These and other constructs were discussed as emic and possibly pancultural contributors to subjective well-being.     

项目表述效应的统计控制：以中文版生活定向测验为例

本研究以中文版生活定向测验（LOT-R）为例,使用CTCM和CTCU方法进行建模,旨在探讨中文表述的量表中是否存在项目表述效应以及影响项目表述效应的特质因素。采用中文版生活定向测验等量表组成的问卷对334名大学生进行测试。结果表明,中文版LOT-R存在项目表述效应,是一种反向题的项目表述效应,也可称为语言标签效应;在分离了反向题项目表述效应后,发现中文版LOT-R只存在乐观因子,而不再有悲观因子。这表明乐观-悲观同属于一种人格特质,而非两种不同的人格特质;反向题项目表述效应是一种结构性误差,会导致量表结构的扭曲。研究还发现担心错误和父母期望与反向题项目表述效应存在显著的负相关,表明越是担心错误或父母期望水平越高的被试,他们对反向题的项目表述效应（语言标签效应）越小。社会赞许性对反向题项目表述效应没有影响。     

The Seam Between Life and Death and Therapeutic Presence

This paper will explore the difficulties of treating people in an environment that is intraumatic-where trauma never ends. These circumstances evoke the massive use of primitive defence mechanisms that makes it difficult to work through the horror. I will examine the ongoing relationship between life and death and the clinical meaning of walking the line between them while maintaining it. In the heart of this approach is the paradoxical statement that in order to live you have to maintain the feeling of death. The therapeutic position is not necessarily interpretive but more of holding the infinitive unbearable and enigmatic meaning of death. Questions of setting are raised, especially around meeting a patient outside the therapeutic setting, for instance at the grave.     

Happiness in a Flux? The Instability Problem

In the recent discussion of happiness it has become popular to claim that being happy means having a certain positive attitude towards your life. This attitude involves both a judgement that your life measures up to your standards and a feeling of satisfaction with your life. In this paper, I am going to discuss a serious problem inherent in this account that has important ramifications for the normative question of how we ought to pursue happiness. If happiness is in part determined by your standards, how shall we determine whether you are happier in one life than in another when your standards change across these lives? Perhaps you will judge a life as a parent as better than a childless life, if you were to become a parent, but judge a childless life as better than a parenting life, if you were to remain childless. Which standard should determine the comparative happiness of the two lives? In this paper, I shall argue that some innocent-looking answers to this question will generate inconsistencies. To find an acceptable resolution, we need to make a difficult choice between what on the face of it look like two equally valid principles of happiness.     

“Sport is community:” An exploration of urban Aboriginal peoples' meanings of community within the context of sport

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to better understand the meanings of community, particularly as it is understood within the context of sport, for urban Aboriginal youth and adults in Edmonton, Alberta.DesignA community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach was used to guide this research.MethodOne-on-one interviews were conducted with 18 Aboriginal youth and adults. Data was analyzed using Elo and Kyngäs' (2008) process of content analysis. The integrated indigenous-ecological model was used as a framework for data analysis and the interpretation of findings.ResultsFindings are represented by five themes that are supported by direct quotes from participants. Participants described community as: (1) belonging, (2) family and friends, (3) supportive interactions, (4) sport, and (5) where you live and come from.ConclusionsFindings from this research suggest that urban Aboriginal youth identify with a number of different communities, and their complex meanings of communities are comprised of various interpersonal level factors. The knowledge shared by participants provides necessary insights into meanings of community, which are necessary for ensuring that community-driven and community-based sport programs are relevant to Aboriginal youth.     

Clergy Work-Related Psychological Health: Listening to the Ministers of Word and Sacrament Within the United Reformed Church in England

Drawing on the classic model of balanced affect proposed by Bradburn (The structure of psychological well-being, Aldine, Chicago, IL, 1969), this study conceptualised poor work-related psychological health in terms of high levels of negative affect in the absence of acceptable levels of positive affect. In order to illuminate self-perceptions of work-related psychological health among a well-defined group of clergy, a random sample of 58 ministers of word and sacrament serving within the west midlands synod of the United Reformed Church in England completed an open-ended questionnaire concerned with the following six guiding questions. Do you enjoy your work? How would you define stress? How would you define burnout? What stresses are there in your ministry? What do you do to keep healthy? What can the church do to enhance the work-related psychological health of ministers? Content analysis highlighted the main themes recurring through these open-ended responses. The conclusion is drawn that ministers of word and sacrament within the United Reformed Church in England are exposed to a number of recurrent recognisable sources of stress. Suggestions are advanced regarding the need for future more detailed research and for the development of more effective pastoral strategies.