German Readers of Dewey – Before 1933 and After 1945

Few pedagogical theories and practices have met with such strongreactive ambivalence in Germany as Dewey's. As it contained theideas of democracy and pragmatism it clashed with the monarchial andidealistic patterns of school-practice and pedagogic theory right fromthe beginning. On the other hand, reformists of all kinds wereoverwhelmed with enthusiasm. But even in the democratic phases of political development this ambivalence continued. The traditionof setting metaphysical and religious backgrounds stood in the way of a free examination of Dewey. Therefore, the reception has, upuntil now, been signed by mistakes and misinterpretations, but also by a minority of fruitful debates.     

The renewal of dewey — trends in the nineties

This article proposes that the ‘renewal’ of Dewey might contribute to filling the gap between the pedagogical commitment to contingency and plurality and the fact that the pedagogical tradition, until now, has neutralized contingency and denied its systematic meaning for education. Therefore, the main traits of the ‘renewal of Dewey’ are shown in the work of some Dewey scholars who, critically and creatively, reconstruct Dewey in the mirror of poststructural, communicational and constructive theory developments. Following Dewey, these researches balance the objective evaluation of Dewey’s work by a deliberate and overt pursuit of their own intentions and (pre-)selections by the scholars. Intersubjectivity and communication are key concepts in this renewal of pragmatism rejecting the subject-centered philosophy of consciousness, the traditional western epistemology and metaphysics. The turn to the philosophical priority of the unforeseeable also leads to an understanding of action as an essential focus. In this context Dewey’s pragmatistic view of radical democracy is received as a non-foundational theory and the concept of consensus is criticized. The scholars clarify that the boundaries of the subject are broadened by communicative destabilization. At the end of the article it is asked what the renewal-dimensions mean for education located in the public sphere.     

Metaphor and readers’ attributions of intimacy

Previous theorists have suggested that figurative language may be an especially salient means by which speakers and addressees establish and recognize specific feelings of interpersonal closeness. To explore readers' sensitivity to this interpersonal function of figurative language use, brief stories were created that described interactions between two ambiguously related characters. In the course of these conversational narratives, one character always used either a metaphoric or literal referring expression to refer to some antecedent information from the story. Across three experiments, readers consistently judged these story characters as knowing each other better when their interactions contained metaphoric references. Moreover, this occurred even when addressees failed to give explicit evidence of having understood the critical expressions. To the extent that language use highlights assumptions about commonalities, readers may generate inferences about social relationships alongside more meaning-driven comprehension processes.     

Leader–member exchange and turnover before and after succession events

We conducted two studies that investigated the role of leadership succession as a moderator of the relationship between LMX and turnover in organizations. In a sample of 330 employees in 45 veterinary hospitals, high-LMX employees were less likely to leave the organization prior to a succession event but in nine hospitals that experienced a succession event, high-LMX employees were more likely to leave than low-LMX employees following the event. In the second study, we used a between subjects repeated measures simulation of leadership succession in a survey of 496 employed adults across different organizations. We found LMX is predictive of affective and cognitive reactions to succession events, and that these reactions mediate the relationship between LMX and turnover intentions after a simulated succession event. We discuss the implications of finding that succession events can be disruptive to organizations and groups because high-LMX employees may subsequently leave.     

Comprehension of “before” and “after” by normal and educable mentally retarded children

This study reports findings on appreciation of the “before” and “after” event sequence with normal and educable mentally retarded (EMR) children matched on verbal mental ability (MA). Before and after constructions were associated with three variables at a time: semantics (logical vs. arbitrary event sequence), syntax (complex when conjunction preposed vs. simple when conjunction embedded), and an order of mention strategy (coinciding with the event occurence or reversing the event occurence). The data show that normal children perform significantly better than EMR children and suggest that the linguistic performance of EMR children cannot be best predicted on the basis of MA. Before is better understood than after, in general, by both groups, but a number of interactions between syntax, semantics, and an order of mention strategy suggests that differences in performances between normal and EMR children are of a quantitative rather than a qualitative nature. Linguistic (PPVT IQ) and cognitive (WISC-Picture Arrangement) factors are, as MA, poor predictors of before and after comprehension by normal and EMR children.     

What happens before and after acute enactments? An exercise in clinical validation and the broadening of hypotheses

This paper seeks to validate clinical facts and theoretical hypotheses that have been discussed before and that address configurations involving chronic and acute enactments. Its validation process compares clinical material from psychoanalytic work in different psychoanalytic cultures - work from South America-Uruguay (Yardino), Europe-Spain (Sapisochin), South Africa (Ivey), Europe-UK (Bateman). It documents clinical facts described in four articles and confirms that during chronic enactments the analytic dyad gets caught up in a dual relationship that veils and congeals the triangular situation because acknowledging it would be traumatic. The lack of triangular space impedes the formation of symbols as well as dreaming and creates non-dreams-for-two. During chronic enactments analysts use their implicit alpha-function to assemble traumatic areas. These areas emerge as a mix of discharges and non-dreams that are dreamed through acute enactments. Acute enactments occur when chronic enactments dissolve and patients experience an abrupt contact with reality. The attenuated trauma is then dreamed alive. The linking of new symbols develops a network of symbolic thought and creates dreams-for-two and broadens the patient's mental universe. The validation process has deepened our vision concerning clinical facts, especially in relation to: (1) the wavering between acute and chronic enactments, (2) analysts' inhibitions and feelings of guilt, and (3) the influence of analysts' personalities on the configurations they describe. These theoretical hypotheses have been confirmed and broadened not only in relation to the vicissitudes of dream work in traumatic areas, but also in relation to defenses such as thin or thick skin, and in relation to listening in countertransferential detours.     

Individual problem‐solving styles and attitudes toward divergent thinking before and after training

ABSTRACT:

Afield experiment was conducted to examine the mediating effect of individual creative problem‐solving style on the impact of training in creative thinking. This intensive hands‐on training emphasized a specific three‐phase process which synchronizes divergence and convergence in problem‐finding, problem‐solving, and implementation. Two attitudes associated with divergent thinking were measured before and after training. The sample was comprised of a mixture of organizational members representing both managers (n = 90) and non‐managers (n = 66) and a variety of functional specialties, hierarchical levels, and types of business organizations. The most significant finding was that the optimizer style of creative problem‐solving improved more than the other three styles (generator, conceptualizer, and implementor) on measures of both creative thinking attitudes.     

What do mind readers know and what do we know about mind readers?

In this commentary, I raise various questions about Kim and Harris's fascinating findings. I ask what kind of knowledge children expect telepathic individuals to have, who children might consider to be good mind readers, why children value telepathy, and how puzzled children are by telepathy. I suggest potential ways to address some of these questions and end by reiterating the importance of probing individual differences in scepticism and credulity.     

Teaching children to comprehend propositions conjoined by “before” and “after”

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate a language-training procedure in which preschool children (age 51 months) were given sentences evoking opposite interpretations of the same syntactic structures. The syntactic forms of interest were before/after sentences in which order of event mention reverses the order of event occurrence. It was known that precomprehenders would misinterpret reverse-order forms describing two arbitrarily sequenced events but not two logically sequenced events. The training procedure entailed presenting exemplars which expressed both kinds of events in alternating order so that the discrepancy in interpretations might be detected and corrected by the child. Results indicated that this procedure was effective. A third experiment showed that its success was not due simply to practice with logically sequenced exemplars. Performance patterns gave evidence for the role of interpretational strategies during the course of acquisition. Processes of cognitive disequilibrium and restructuring are offered to explain results although alternative explanations are not ruled out.     

“Past continuous”: Philosophy in Hungary before and after the political turn

Studies in East European Thought -     

Relief and rehabilitation of Jewish DPs after the Shoah: the Hachsharot in Italy (1945–48)

In the aftermath of the Second World War, thousands of Jewish DPs reached Italy on their way to Palestine or other countries and received assistance by UNRRA and other organizations. Many joined the hachsharot that were established all over the country between 1945 and 1948. This article analyses the differences between UNRRA and the Joint in providing relief and rehabilitation to the DPs and the role of hachsharot, discussing to what extent they provided better opportunities for rehabilitation compared to DP camps.     

The effects of satiation after first— and second-order appetitive conditioning in rats

Rats received first- and second-order conditioning based on a food unconditional stimulus (US). The effects of postconditioning satiation on the performance of detailed behavioral components of general activity evoked by first- and second-order conditional stimuli (CSs) were then assessed in extinction tests. Satiation reduced the frequency of all components of general activity evoked by first-order CSs but had little or no effects on behaviors evoked by second-order CSs. These results are consistent with earlier suggestions that first-but not second-order conditional responding is mediated by a representation of the US and that a major effect of satiation is to devalue that representation.     

The effects of readers’ goals on inference generation and memory for texts

We investigated the effects of readers' goals on inference generation and memory for expository text. College students (N = 82) read texts for the purpose of either study or entertainment. On-line inference generation was recorded via think-aloud procedures, and off-line memory was assessed via free recall. Reading goal strongly influenced inferential activity: Readers with a study goal produced more coherence-building (i.e., backward/explanatory and forward/predictive) inferences, whereas readers with an entertainment goal produced more associations and evaluations. These differences were associated with superior memory for the texts in the study condition. The results indicate that inference generation during reading is partly strategic and is influenced systematically by reading purpose. We propose that reading goals influence readers' standards of coherence, which in turn influence the types of inferences that they draw and the final memory representations that they construct.     

Herder's ‘Expressivist’ Metaphysics and the Origins of German Idealism

Charles Taylor's influential exposition of Hegel made the doctrine of expressivism of central importance and identified Herder as its exemplary historical advocate. The breadth and generality of Taylor's use of ‘expressivism’ have led the concept into some disrepute, but a more precise formulation of the doctrine as a theory of meaning can both demonstrate what is worthwhile and accurate in Taylor's account, and allow us a useful point of entry into Herder's multifaceted philosophy. A reconstruction of Herder's overall philosophical position, centred around a refined theory of what this paper labels ‘Herderean expressivism’, reveals a naturalistic, teleological metaphysics. This metaphysics fulfils the Hegelian aim of providing what Dieter Henrich has called a ‘feedback loop’ between ontology and epistemology. Exploring Herder's expressivism, therefore, helps further the case for his decisive impact on Hegel's philosophy. Herder's methodological naturalism, however, represents an obstacle to Hegel's absolute idealism.     

John Dewey and the development of education in russia before 1930 — report on a forgotten reception

This article explores the kinds of response John Dewey (1859–1952) received in Russia between 1900 and 1930, and the impact he had on the educational debate there. The study’s main findings are: Both before and after the Socialist October Revolution of 1917, Dewey had a significant impact on the development of the Russian school system. The ultimate rejection of Dewey’s pedagogy towards the end of the 20s was not due to educational but to political and ideological reasons.     

On the locus of morphological effects in spoken-word recognition: before or after lexical identification?

The temporal locus of morphological decomposition in spoken-word recognition was explored in three experiments in which French participants detected the initial CV (LA) or CVC (LAV) in matched monomorphemic pseudosuffixed (lavande) and polymorphemic-suffixed (lavage) carrier words. The proportion of foil trials was increased across experiments (0, 50, or 100%) to delay the moment when participants responded. For the experiment without foils and with the fastest reaction times, a similar pattern of results was obtained for the two types of carrier words. In contrast, an interaction between target type and morphological status of the carrier was obtained when the proportion of foils was higher and the detection latencies were slower. These results point to a late processing locus of morphological decomposition.