Does Free Will Remain a Mystery? A Response to Van Inwagen

In this paper, I argue against Peter van Inwagen’s claim (in “Free Will Remains a Mystery”), that agent-causal views of free will could do nothing to solve the problem of free will (specifically, the problem of chanciness). After explaining van Inwagen’s argument, I argue that he does not consider all possible manifestations of the agent-causal position. More importantly, I claim that, in any case, van Inwagen appears to have mischaracterized the problem in some crucial ways. Once we are clear on the true nature of the problem of chanciness, agent-causal views do much to eradicate it.     

Can psychology be objective about free will?

This paper takes up the question of free will in behaviour, what it can mean, and how it might be said to occur. The case is made that, thanks to psychology's commitment to a 17th century conception of natural science, it has been effectively insulated from putting teleology to a proper empirical test. After presenting a justification and definition of free will in terms of the human being's telosponsive capacities, the paper closes by surveying aspects of the psychological literature which have gathered data relating to telic behaviour only to explain them away via traditional nontelic “scientific” theories.     

Identifying components of type-A behaviour: “toxic” and “non-toxic” achieving

Measures of the Type-A behaviour pattern (TABP) have generally failed to distinguish between different components of the construct, some of which may not constitute risk factors at all. Based on the responses of a total of 632 subjects, the present paper reports on the development of student and working adult questionnaires which comprise discrete and unambiguous indices of “toxic” and “non-toxic” behaviour. Both components reflect high achievement motivation, but in the toxic scale this is compounded by hostile competitiveness and impatience. The scales were related in predictable ways to other relevant indices of personality, and while the toxic factor was significantly associated with deterioration in health status during adaptation, the non-toxic factor conferred a protective effect.     

Perceived Sources of Happiness: A Network Analysis

This study investigated the perceived sources of happiness among young men and women. Rank scores of the perceived reasons for happiness were compared between the two groups and seven significant differences were discerned. Men ranked “sexual activity”, “sports”, being “liked” and having a “good social life” significantly higher than women. Women ranked “helping others”, having a “close family” and being “loved by loved ones” significantly higher than men. A modified form of network analysis was also conducted. Both networks demonstrated similar core representations of happiness with a focus on self-confidence, being free of stress, occupational and social factors, family support and personal relationships. However, the networks show an association between sexual activity and male personal relationships, whereas emotional factors are associated with female personal relationships. The male network also demonstrates the importance of sports and physical activity in male happiness. Despite some gender differences, it is suggested that the similarities within the mean rank scores and networks form the core elements of a shared social representation of happiness.     

Volition as cognitive self-regulation

Living organisms exhibit various levels of self-regulation, the highest of which is man's ability to regulate the operation of his conceptual faculty. Ayn Rand's theory of free will, the basis of this article, identifies this level of self-regulation with volition. The locus of direct volitional choice is placed in the choice “to think or not to think,” where thinking is understood as rational, purposefully directed cognition. The nature of this choice is analyzed in detail, with special emphasis on Rand's concept of mental “focus.” The epistemological status of the theory is discussed, including the role of introspective evidence in its behalf. It is argued that one's volitional control over one's own thinking has the status of an axiom, and that any attempted denial of this control is self-refuting.     

Developing a self-report method for investigating adolescent road user behaviour

The aim of the present study was to develop a self-report questionnaire to provide a classification of aberrant road user behaviour in adolescent children. An Adolescent Road user Behaviour Questionnaire (ARBQ) was developed, comprising 43 items requiring respondents to rate the frequency with which they engaged in specific examples of road-using behaviour. The questionnaire was completed by 2433 children aged 11–16. Factor analysis showed that responses to the 43 items were best fitted by a three-factor solution. Factor 1 comprised items relating to “unsafe road crossing behaviour”, factor 2 comprised items related to “dangerous playing in the road”, and factor 3 comprised items which as a group were termed “planned protective behaviour”. A revised 21-item ARBQ was produced by selecting the items that loaded most strongly on the three factors. The 21-item instrument had good internal reliability. The effects of demographic variables on ARBQ scale scores were investigated. This study provided a tool that could be used in the future by researchers investigating adolescent road user safety. Possible avenues for future research include applying the ARBQ to the study of adolescents’ road accident involvement, and the study of the psychological variables that predict the ARBQ scales.     

Subversive Redemption in Psychoanalysis

Subversive redemption—the sense of overturning the conventional order of things in order to recover lost parts of the self—is a virtually neglected topic in psychoanalysis. With free association, Freud empowered patients to harness unconventional thoughts and feelings. Patients who engage in subversive redemption frequently have a strong sense of agency prompting them to open up in new ways in lieu of “playing it safe.” When patients begin to express certain forbidden ideas, the boundaries of analysis are broadened, freeing the analytic pair to become fully authentic. Psychoanalysis provides patients with an arena to renew themselves as they risk “killing off” their status quo positions to achieve the paradox of living more dangerously in the safety of the analytic surrounds. Patients then feel more confident about undertaking the process of subversive redemption in the wider world.     

‘Introspectionism’ and the mythical origins of scientific psychology

According to the majority of the textbooks, the history of modern, scientific psychology can be tidily encapsulated in the following three stages. Scientific psychology began with a commitment to the study of mind, but based on the method of introspection. Watson rejected introspectionism as both unreliable and effete, and redefined psychology, instead, as the science of behaviour. The cognitive revolution, in turn, replaced the mind as the subject of study, and rejected both behaviourism and a reliance on introspection. This paper argues that all three stages of this history are largely mythical. Introspectionism was never a dominant movement within modern psychology, and the method of introspection never went away. Furthermore, this version of psychology’s history obscures some deep conceptual problems, not least surrounding the modern conception of “behaviour,” that continues to make the scientific study of consciousness seem so weird.     

Simulation, projection and empathy

Simulationists have recently started to employ the term “empathy” when characterizing our most basic understanding of other minds. I agree that empathy is crucial, but I think it is being misconstrued by the simulationists. Using some ideas to be found in Scheler’s classical discussion of empathy, I will argue for a different understanding of the notion. More specifically, I will argue that there are basic levels of interpersonal understanding—in particular the understanding of emotional expressions—that are not explicable in terms of simulation-plus-projection routines.     

Externalism, the environment, and thought-tokens

In “Contents just are in the head” (Erkenntnis 54, pp. 321–4.) I have presented two arguments against the thesis of semantic externalism. In “Contents just aren’t in the head” Anthony Brueckner has argued that my arguments are unsuccessful, since they rest upon some misconceptions regarding the nature of this thesis. (Erkenntnis 58, pp. 1–6.) In the present paper I will attempt to clarify and strengthen the case against semantic externalism, and show that Brueckner misses the point of my arguments.     

Stimulus timing by people with Parkinson's disease

Previous literature suggests that Parkinson’s disease is marked by deficits in timed behaviour. However, the majority of studies of central timing mechanisms in patients with Parkinson’s disease have used timing tasks with a motor component. Since the motor abnormalities are a defining feature of the condition, the status of timing in Parkinson’s disease remains uncertain. Data are reported from patients with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease (both on and off medication) and age- and IQ-matched controls on a range of stimulus timing tasks without counting. Tasks used were temporal generalization, bisection, threshold determination, verbal estimation, and a memory for duration task. Performance of patients was generally “normal” on all tasks, but significant differences from performance of controls were found on the memory for duration task. Among the “normal” effects noted were arithmetic mean bisection, asymmetric temporal generalization gradients, and subjective shortening on the memory for duration task. The results suggest (a) that some previous reports of timing “deficits” in Parkinson’s patients were possibly due to the use of tasks requiring a timed manual response and (b) small differences between patients and controls may be found on tasks where two stimuli are presented on each trial, whether patients are on medication or off it.     

Signal duration and suppression of operant responding by free reinforcement

Pigeons were trained on a VI (variable interval) schedule of food presentation with a superimposed schedule of response-independent food. Substantial suppression of the operant response rate occurred when the free food was presented without a signal. When the free food was preceded by a short (4 sec) signal, the degree of suppression was similar to that with unsignaled free food. But when the signal was lengthened to 12 sec, the degree of suppression was substantially reduced. Experiment 3 assessed the effect of signal duration using a baseline schedule of delayed reinforcement, in which contingent reinforcers were themselves preceded by a signal. The signal preceding the free reinforcers was then either the same as or different from this contingent signal. Signal duration effects occurred only when the two types of signals were different. These differences as a function of signal duration have implications for both “context-blocking” and “comparator” interpretations of the effects of noncontingent reinforcement in both Pavlovian and operant procedures.     

Eliminative and enumerative behaviour in a conceptual task

P. C. Wason's paper “On the Failure to Eliminate Hypotheses in a Conceptual Task” is criticized on the grounds that the task set is in important respects untypical of problem solving situations in general. It is suggested that few or no subjects are “Eliminators” in Wason's sense and that although many are “Enumerators” in his sense, enumerative behaviour is a function of the situation. An experiment is reported in which it appears that modification to the situation can sharply reduce the incidence of enumerative behaviour and increase the subject's chance of success at an early stage. The frequency with which hypotheses are directly eliminated is shown to be very low in all groups.     

Emotional Schemas and Self-Help: Homework Compliance and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Many patients will either refuse to enter treatment or will drop out of treatment where exposure and response prevention (ERP) are employed. Patients may have a number of “good reasons” for noncompliance with ERP. For example, they may view their intrusions as conveying responsibility, reflecting higher threat, as personally relevant, and as requiring perfect and certain solutions. Inducing anxiety, from this perspective, only exacerbates the “problem.” Moreover, patients may employ beliefs about emotion and anxiety that conflict with exposure—such as the belief that anxiety should always be avoided or decreased because it is assumed to rise indefinitely and cause psychological harm. Homework or between-session self-help necessarily involves exposure with increased anxiety and discomfort. In the current case study, both meta-cognitive and meta-emotional conceptualization and strategies were employed in the treatment of a previously treatment-resistant case of OCD, and homework compliance was improved through the use of an emotional schema approach.     

Aversive CSs suppress lever pressing for food but not the eating of free food

Forty rats received CER acquisition, half “on the baseline” (response lever present), half “off the baseline.” During initial CER extinction, Ss received: (a) normal CER extinction (lever available), (b) free food during CSs only (no lever), (c) free food during non-CSs only (no lever), or (d) free food during both CS and non-CS periods (no lever). While normal extinction Ss were highly suppressed in the presence of the CS, all free food groups readily ate but did not differ in eating latencies. On subsequent CER extinction trials on the baseline, those Ss which received free food during the CSs were no less suppressed than other Ss. These data offer no support for Estes' (1969) reciprocal inhibition explanation of CER and punishment, nor do they support a fear interpretation of CER.     

Curriculum, Critical Common-Sensism, Scholasticism, and the Growth of Democratic Character

My paper concentrates on Peirce’s late essay, “Issues of Pragmaticism,” which identifies “critical common-sensism” and Scotistic realism as the two primary products of pragmaticism. I argue that the doctrines of Peirce’s critical common-sensism provide a host of commendable curricular objectives for democratic Bildung. The second half of my paper explores Peirce’s Scotistic realism. I argue that Peirce eventually returned to Aristotelian intuitions that led him to a more robust realism. I focus on the development of signs from the vague and indeterminate to the determinate and universal. The primary example will be the evolution of the very idea of number. I believe we will never arrive at the end of number history because we can never fully contain creativity. I draw similar conclusions for the idea of curriculum. Whether or not there is an end to the evolution of signs in Peirce is a matter of debate. I incline toward the opinion there is not, though I am unsure. I conclude by arguing that rationality itself is but the form and structure of poetic creation and that we should embrace paradox and even contradiction rather that become caught in totalizing and totalitarian end of history stories.     

Animals and humans,thinking and nature

Studies that compare human and animal behaviour suspend prejudices about mind, body and their relation, by approaching thinking in terms of behaviour. Yet comparative approaches typically engage another prejudice, motivated by human social and bodily experience: taking the lone animal as the unit of comparison. This prejudice informs Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s comparative studies, and conceals something important: that animals moving as a group in an environment can develop new sorts of “sense.” The study of animal group-life suggests a new way of thinking about the creation of sense, about the body, the brain, and the relation between thinking and nature.     

The effects of video game play on young children's aggression, fantasy, and prosocial behavior

From the ecological perspective of human development the emergence of significant media may affect children's behavior. It has been suggested that the home computer has the potential to affect young children's behavior, but no published data currently exist to support this hypothesis. However, home computer games have features similar to television. In that vein, research on television and aggression lends itself as a paradigm for studying the effects of video games on young children's behavior. From past television research it may be hypothesized that exposure to violent video games will increase children's aggressive behavior. Twenty-eight children, age 4 to 6 years were observed in a free play setting at baseline, after watching a violent cartoon and after playing “Space Invaders”. Results indicated significant differences in aggressive behavior, relative to baseline behaviors, after watching television and after playing video games. There was no difference between the television and video game conditions. It was concluded that violent video games arouse children in much the same way as violent television cartoons.     

Hierarchical structure in perceptual representation

A theoretical framework for perceptual representation is presented which proposes that information is coded in hierarchical networks of nonverbal propositions. The hierarchical structure of the representations implies selective organization: Some subsets of a figure will be encoded as integral, structural units of that figure, while others will not. A context-sensitive metric for the “goodness” of a part within a figure is developed, corresponding to the probability that the subset will be encoded as a structural unit. Converging evidence supporting this position is presented from four different tasks using simple, straight-line figures. The tasks studied are (a) dividing figures into “natural” parts, (b) rating the “goodness” of parts within figures, (c) timed verification of parts within figures, and (d) timed mental synthesis of spatially separated parts into unitary figures. The results are discussed in terms of the proposed theory of representation, the processes that operate on those representations, and the general implications of the data for perceptual theories.     

Fusions and Ordinary Physical Objects

In “Tropes and Ordinary Physical Objects”, Kris McDaniel argues that ordinary physical objects are fusions of monadic and polyadic tropes. McDaniel calls his view “TOPO”—for “Theory of Ordinary Physical Objects”. He argues that we should accept TOPO because of the philosophical work that it allows us to do. Among other things, TOPO is supposed to allow endurantists to reply to Mark Heller’s argument for perdurantism. But, we argue in this paper, TOPO does not help endurantists do that; indeed, we argue that anyone who accepts TOPO should reject endurantism.