Is history important for a historical argument in religious studies?

This review article addresses the historical argument of Norenzayan's Big Gods. It questions the claim that there is enough historical evidence to support the thesis that gods, who are observing human behaviour from high, enable societies to grow beyond the stage of face-to-face groups.     

Comment on John Yolton's ‘Is There a History of Philosophy? Some difficulties and suggestions’

In this comment on John Yolton's ‘Is There a History of Philosophy?’ (Yolton, 1985) I review his account of the development during the 17th to 19th centuries of a common sense of the range of philosophical problems and of the canon of philosophical works. I suggest that his account may be read in light of Rorty's four genres of historiography (Rorty, 1984). I criticize his view of the place of the history of philosophy in philosophy as too timid, though correct as far as it goes. I then suggest, but do not attempt to establish, a bolder thesis. Finally, I raise some doubts about the adequacy of Yolton's reading of Descartes and Berkeley set out in two of his ‘Puzzlements.’ The ‘Puzzlements’ themselves are supposed to illustrate typical misreading of major figures in the history of philosophy.     

Closing the gap? Some questions for neurophenomenology

In his 1996 paper “Neurophenomenology: A methodological remedy for the hard problem,” Francisco Varela called for a union of Husserlian phenomenology and cognitive science. Varela's call hasn't gone unanswered, and recent years have seen the development of a small but growing literature intent on exploring the interface between phenomenology and cognitive science. But despite these developments, there is still some obscurity about what exactly neurophenomenology is. What are neurophenomenologists trying to do, and how are they trying to do it? To what extent is neurophenomenology a distinctive and unified research programme? In this paper I attempt to shed some light on these questions.     

Can animation compensate for temporal processing difficulties in deaf people?

This article addresses the issue of animation as an aid for temporal processing difficulties in deaf people learning the Highway Code. A decision-making task involving static or animated road situations was performed by 21 deaf and 24 hearing participants. They were confronted with four types of driving situations (overtaking, negotiating roundabouts, highways, and intersections) and had to decide whether or not to proceed. Participants were presented with two different formats (static vs. animated) and two levels of difficulty (simple vs. complex). Results showed that deaf participants had poorer performances in the static condition than hearing participants. Performance was better in the animated condition than in the static condition, especially in deaf participants. The benefits of animation were greater in complex situations for all participants. Decisions made on dynamic road situations were facilitated by the presence of spatiotemporal dimensions. These proved helpful to deaf candidates who have difficulties in this particular area.     

Positive and negative deviance: More fuel for a controversy∗

While it is quite clear that there IS a theoretical and empirical accumulation of knowledge in the area of the sociological study of deviance which supports the viability of the notion of “positive deviance,” it also seems that the overwhelming majority of sociologists of deviance reject this possible paradigmatic shift. Hence, the voices “pushing” this shift are generally quiet, typically hesitant and the debate is made on the margins of the acceptable in deviance research. What we may be witnessing here is an attempt to introduce a change into the boundaries of a specific scientific paradigm (to the extent that such a paradigm indeed exists), and the typical reaction in the form of “resistance to innovation.” Once accepted, it is quite clear that sociologists of deviance, as well as others, will have to think in different terms, to develop different research strategies and to acquire new skills ‐ methodological and analytical. In this respect, the position of sociologists of deviance is better than that of criminologists because the latter really work with those acts that were defined by society as negatives ("crimes"). Sociologists of deviance are not limited by this self imposed barricade, hence, they can broaden their view and break new grounds. Grappling with the concept of “positive deviance” is one possible and exciting route.     

Politics without Human Nature? Reconstructing a Common Humanity

Political action requires a concept of humanity grounded in an explicit notion of human nature. Feminists apprehensive about poststructuralism's implications for a feminist politics need methods and discourses that allow feminist politics to proceed toward a vision of human well-being. Recent work by Chris Weedon and Erica Sherover-Marcuse highlights the need for hypotheses that can guide efforts to dismantle oppressed habits of being and help women evaluate and develop political strategies for universal solidarity.     

What teacher factors influence their attributions for children's difficulties in learning?

Background Identifying the factors that influence teacher beliefs about teaching children with learning difficulties is important for the success of inclusive education. This study explores the relationship between teachers' role, self‐efficacy, attitudes towards disabled people, teaching experience and training, on teachers' attributions for children's difficulties in learning. Method One hundred and eighteen primary school teachers (44 general mainstream, 33 mainstream learning support, and 41 special education teachers) completed the short form of the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale, the Interaction with Disabled Persons Scale (IDP), and a revised version of the Teacher Attribution Scale. Results Regression analysis found that teachers' role influenced stability and controllability attributions. However, for stability attributions the effect was not sustained when examined in the context of the other factors of teaching efficacy, experience, training, and attitudes towards disability. What emerged as important instead was strong feelings of sympathy towards disabled people which predicted stable attributions about learning difficulties. Experience of teaching children with additional support needs and teaching efficacy positively predicted external locus of causality attributions. Surprisingly, training was not found to have an impact on attributions. A mixed MANOVA found that mainstream teachers' controllability attributions were influenced by whether or not the child had identified learning support needs. Conclusions Teacher efficacy, experience of teaching students with support needs, attitudes towards disabled people, and teachers' role all impact on teacher attributions, but no relationship with training was found. Implications for teacher training and development, and for student achievement and student self‐perception are discussed.     

Utopia and history. Some remarks about Nikolai Berdjaev’s struggle with history

The article deals with the philosophy of Nikolai Berdjaev (1874–1948), which he formulated between The Philosophy of Inequality (written in 1918, but published in 1923) and The New Middle-Ages (1924). Berdjaev’s philosophy is analyzed in the context of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and its aftermath. The other point of reference is the crisis of culture and civilisation, which affected the West in the inter-war period. Berdjaev’s position has been interpreted in view of the archetypal myth of the struggle of the two principles, the principle of order (cosmos) and the forces of destruction (chaos). This myth is tied to the millenialist world view. Berdjaev took an anti-utopian stance. He juxtaposed the utopian-revolutionary principle with the hierarchical-creative one. From this position he criticized among others democracy, liberalism and socialism. In the midst of the crisis of the 1920s he remarked the possibility of spiritual rejuvenation putting forward the concept of the New Middle-Ages. One can say that at that time Berdjaev’s philosophy evolved within the conservative-creative framework, from the utopia of conservatism to the utopia of ‘free creativity’.     

Do smokers have a negative implicit attitude toward smoking?

Swanson, Rudman, and Greenwald (2001 Swanson, J. E., Rudman, L. A. and Greenwald, A. G. 2001. Using the Implicit Association Test to investigate attitude-behavior consistency for stigmatised behaviour. Cognition and Emotion, 15: 207–230. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) used an Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure attitudes toward smoking and found that smokers have negative implicit attitudes toward smoking. In a first experiment, we replicated the results of Swanson et al. but showed that scores on an attitude IAT do discriminate between smokers and nonsmokers to the same extent than scores on an IAT that is designed to measure associations between smoking and approach or avoidance. In a second experiment, we did find positive implicit attitudes toward smoking in smokers when we used a personalised version of the IAT that was designed to be less susceptible to effects of societal views. Our results indicate that implicit attitudes should not be dismissed as a causal factor in the maintenance of smoking behaviour.     

Age and gender differences in negative affect—Is there a role for emotion regulation?

Elderly people report less negative affect than the young, and women report more negative affect than men. This study investigated whether age and gender differences in negative affect could be explained by emotion regulation, measured as defensiveness and rumination, while controlling for the influence of life events. One-hundred-and-ninety-five young (20–35 years) and 302 elderly (70–85 years) men and women completed the Emotional Control Questionnaire-Rehearsal, Marlowe–Crowne Social Desirability Scale, Profile of Mood States, Beck’s Depression Inventory and List of Recent Experiences. Hierarchical regressions with negative affects as dependent variables showed that age was reduced to non-significance when controlling for defensiveness, and gender was reduced to non-significance when controlling for the interaction between age and gender, which in turn was reduced when entering rumination. Life events also influenced the association between age and negative affect. The results indicate that age differences in negative affect are mediated by defensiveness and life events and that when these two influences are accounted for elderly people score higher on sadness. Gender differences in negative affect were due to the young women’s higher scores on negative affect and this is partly explained by rumination.     

Are You Ready for Some Football? A Monday Night Documentary?

According to three of the most prominent contemporary theories of documentary—those of Gregory Currie, Noël Carroll, and Carl Plantinga—live televised sports broadcasts like Monday Night Football count as members of that category. I begin this article by explaining how each of these theories encompasses live televised sports. Next, I argue that this inclusion is a serious mistake. Attention to it reveals that any adequate account of documentaries must include a condition that Currie, Carroll, and Plantinga ignore. After considering some candidates for this condition, I develop a technical notion of “account” and defend the proposal that documentaries are primarily accounts. Any theory of documentary that incorporates this insight will fit more comfortably with the standard categorical distinctions made in critical and everyday practice.     

Vocational Guidance for Trainee Teachers?: Some Caribbean Evidence

Guidance in further and higher education is comparatively neglected in many countries. This is particularly true of vocational guidance for trainee teachers. It is suggested that one can no longer assume that such trainees are already committed to a career in teaching. Evidence is offered from Jamaica and Antigua to show that about half the trainee teachers in those territories neither wanted nor look forward to a career in teaching. It is argued that their occupational preferences indicate a need for vocational guidance even as they are being trained for teaching. Finally, it is suggested that this policy is not as paradoxical as it may sound.     

Intellectual Tennis without a Net? Thought Experiments and Theology

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between thought experiments and theology in three respects. First, it explores the theological dimension of Newton's famous bucket experiment. Second, it looks at the role of the biblical narrative of Adam's Fall in discussions that resulted in the foundations of modern science. Finally, the paper argues that there are at least two classes of thought experiments in medieval thought that depend for their existence on theological assumptions.     

Acquisition of a unique cue in positive and negative patterning?

Forty college students received a classical differential conditioning procedure involving both positive and negative patterning, each of these being associated with a different pair of stimuli. In positive patterning, elemental stimuli, A and B, were presented without an unconditioned stimulus while their compound, AB, was paired with electric shock. In negative patterning, elemental stimuli, C and D, were paired with shock while their compound, CD, remained unpaired. Thirty of these subjects then received a negative patterning transfer test on new stimuli, while ten subjects received a positive patterning transfer test. First interval response (FIR) and second interval response (SIR) were measured. During initial acquisition, positive patterning occurred in both dependent measures, but negative patterning was present only in the SIR. The transfer tests showed almost significant transfer of positive patterning in FIR and SIR. Negative patterning showed significant transfer neither in FIR nor SIR. It was concluded that, although elementary models of conditioning can explain positive patterning on the basis of summation of excitation from the elements to the compound, the occurrence of negative patterning in the SIR and the almost significant transfer of positive patterning in FIR and SIR appear to require the additional assumption of a unique cue.     

Does Marriage Require a Head? Some Historical Arguments*

Are hierarchies necessary in human relationships’! This issue is a central one for feminist theory, and there is a continuing need to rethink relationships and to envision what they might be like without any sort of dominance of some over others. To aid this process of envisioning alternatives, this paper examines more closely the way one of the most intimate of hierarchies — marriage — has been argued and envisioned historically.     

Naming without knowing and appearance without associations: Evidence for constructive processes in semantic memory?

Abstract

This study describes a patient (SE) with temporal lobe injury resulting from Herpes Simplex Encephalitis, who displayed a previously unreported impairment in which his knowledge of associative and functional attributes of animals was disproportionately impaired by comparison with his knowledge of their sensory attributes (including their visual properties and characteristic sounds). His knowledge of man-made objects was preserved. A striking aspect of the present case was that the patient remained able to name many animals from their pictures, despite making gross errors in generating associative information about these same animals. This suggests that a semantic representation incorporating stored sensory knowledge may be sufficient for naming (at least for biological categories) and associative information may be unnecessary. Semantic knowledge may normally incorporate more information than is necessary for identification. SE's errors were found to be confabulatory and reconstructive in nature and it is argued that this aspect of his performance challenges passive conceptions of semantic memory couched in terms of a catalogue of stored representations. It is proposed that the patient's disorder affects a dynamic, constructive, and inferential component of his knowledge base, and that this component is sensitive to semantic category.