Conversations, Conferences, and the Practice of Intellectual Discussion

This paper analyzes a conference panel discussion entitled "Identity in Crisis: The Issue of Agency in Social Constructionism and Postmodernism" in order to identify some limits to intellectual discussion. The panel participants made a deliberate attempt to engage in a self-reflexive language game about the language game of intellectual discussion in the conference format. This attempt revealed the highly sedimented nature of discursive practice in the conference setting, at least, and perhaps more generally. This analysis of the extent to which sedimented practices limit the exercise of agency highlights academic practices which typically are hidden or considered too obvious to merit attention.     

Timing, remembering, and discrimination

Four pigeons were first trained in a timing procedure. In one condition, each trial began with the presentation of an X on the center key, followed by a delay (short or long), after which two side keys were lit. If the delay was short, pecks to the red side key were reinforced. If the delay was long, pecks to the green side key were reinforced. In a second condition, the opposite contingencies applied following presentation of a square on the center key. Choice responses were then tested at 10 time intervals ranging from short to long (1 to 4 s and 4 to 7 s in different conditions). The two timing conditions were combined to create a remembering condition in which correct responding depended upon discrimination of both the sample stimulus (X or square) and the delay interval (short or long). Choices varied systematically across delay in timing conditions, but in remembering conditions, accurate choice at the training delays did not initially generalize to intermediate delays. However, with prolonged training in the remembering task, the response pattern began to resemble that of the timing conditions. Generalization gradients were asymmetrical, in accordance with Weber's Law, in that greater generalization occurred with longer delays than with shorter delays.     

Consciousness,Power and sacrifice: Conversations with Marie-Louise von Franz

Marie-Louise von Franz has long been regarded as one of the leading thinkers in the world of Jungian psychology. In this wide-ranging conversation, which took place in her home at Kusnacht, Switzerland, she discusses some trends in current-day spiritual movements within the broader context of the historical evolution of consciousness in religion and psychology. Her message is particularly appropriate for those who are working toward the resolution of conflict between nations, as well as for anyone who is on an inner path of Self development.     

Timing, clocks, and dynamical systems.

Theoretical and experimental issues for our understanding of the timing of motor acts are reviewed, contrasting stochastic and dynamic timing models. It is argued that the theory of dynamical systems and, in particular, of limit cycle attractors, provides a unified framework within which these issues can be appreciated. The strength of stochastic timing models in the domain of absolute timing is contrasted with the strength of dynamic timing models in the domain of relative timing, the unification of the two domains being currently under way. It is further argued that accounts of timing must examine the interrelation between timing and other levels of processing involved in movement generation, in particular, the representation of spatial aspects of movement and the control of movement. The emergence of discrete event structure in timing skills is discussed from a dynamical systems perspective. Finally, the understanding of the timing structure of discrete movement is raised as a further challenge for future work.     

Conversations About Responsible Nanoresearch

There is currently a strong focus on responsible research in relation to the development of nanoscience and nanotechnology. This study presents a series of conversations with nanoresearchers, with the ‘European Commission recommendation on a code of conduct for responsible nanosciences and nanotechnologies research’ (EC-CoC) as its point of departure. Six types of reactions to the document are developed, illustrating the diversity existing within the scientific community in responses towards this kind of new approaches to governance. Three broad notions of responsible nanoresearch are presented. The article concludes by arguing that while the suggestion put forward in the EC-CoC brings the concept of responsible nanoresearch a long way, one crucial element is to be wanted, namely responsible nanoresearch as increased awareness of moral choices.     

Conversations about religious education

The wide‐ranging field of theory about religious education may be thought of as a series of ongoing and at times overlapping conversations (Foster, 2003 Foster, C. (2003). Where shall we sit? The vocational conversation of a religious educator. Religious Education, 98(3): pp. 311–330[Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]), each most meaningful within its own context, whether this context is educational, ecclesial or societal. This paper begins by mapping these conversations, then uses them as a lens through which to view the perceptions of 57 student teachers of religious education, as they describe critical incidents that occurred for them in their teaching practice. In this way it is possible to see where, in the ongoing conversations about religious education, the student teachers' perceptions fall. This brings insights to theory development in religious education, and the educational as well as social factors that influence it. Along the way the task requires a discussion of the role of reflective techniques in promoting teacher thinking, and an explanation of the processes through which the student teachers' perceptions were collected. A critical analysis of the student teachers' thinking about religious education concludes the paper and sets direction for further research.     

Semantic Drift in Conversations

The lability of the meaning of words has been a longstanding topic in ethnomethodology, and this review provides many specific details while analyzing the drift of the sense of words over the course of naturally occurring conversations. Ethnomethodologists do not see equivocality in the meaning of words merely as a problem for members, but they recognize that it is a resource for parties in their organizing the local interaction. Through the use of many concrete illustrations, an account of this pervasive phenomenon makes clear just-how sense develops, evolves over the course of an interaction, and is used to organize the local orderliness. Some ethnomethods used by parties to tame the developing sense for practical purposes are described and analyzed. Especially, the reflexive properties of sense-establishment are identified and described, along with their material details, and the opportunism of parties in taking advantage of the semiotic play of their talk is summarized. Finally, the components of a model for analyzing communication intersubjectively are presented.     

Conversations with My Father

ABSTRACT

This article provides a brief review of the literature describing successful aging life tasks, such as reminiscence, meaning-making, and forming substantive connections. Using Relational-Cultural Theory as a base, the article addresses the need for connection and ways that connections can be developed and sustained in later life. Through a personal account, the authors also illustrate how grown children can use music to connect with their parents. Finally, the authors adapt A Musical Chronology and the Emerging Life Song, an intervention that uses music and memories, for use with older adults.     

Children's Earliest Experiences with Death: Circumstances,Conversations, Explanations,and Parental Satisfaction

Parents (n = 140) of children 2 to 7 years responded to an online survey regarding their children's experiences and conversations about death. A total of 75% of parents indicated that they had spoken to their child about death, and the majority of conversations were first initiated when children were between 3 and 3.5 years of age. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to explore factors that could predict conversations about death. Parents (n = 88) provided narratives of the explanations of death that they gave their child and subsequently reported their level of satisfaction with their explanation. The content of the explanations was coded and examined in relation to children's age and parental satisfaction. Results revealed that parents who provided explanations to a continued existence after death reported significantly higher levels of satisfaction than those parents who discussed the absence of a future physical relationship after death. Finally, explanations of a continued existence were not always in reference to an afterlife and could include discussing the memory of the deceased or their continued impact even after death. Thus, when talking to young children about death, parents may feel greater satisfaction in finding ways to discuss the continued legacy of those who have died compared to more biological explanations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Carnap,Tarski, and Quine at Harvard: Conversations on Logic,Mathematics, and Science

This paper is both a survey and a review of the current state of the debate concerning verisimilitude. As a survey it is intended for the interested outsider who wants both easy access to and some comparison between the respective approaches. As a review it covers the first three books on the topic: those of Oddie. Niiniluoto and Kuipers.     

Interpersonal Sensitivity in Computer-Mediated and Face-to-Face Conversations

Two studies were designed to assess the impact of computer-mediated communication (CMC) on the development of dominant/subordinate status roles and on the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions during dyadic, text-based conversations. Results comparing face-to-face (FtF) and synchronous CMC interactions indicated: (a) that dyads established dominant/subordinate roles in both communicative environments, although these roles were more clearly differentiated in the CMC interactions; and (b) that the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions did not differ substantially during CMC and FtF interactions. Considered together, these data pose problems for theoretical accounts of CMC suggesting that the impoverished social cues in this form of text-based communication tend to equalize hierarchical differences in the status of participants and undermine the accuracy of interpersonal perceptions.     

Transdisciplinary Conversations in Child and Youth Care

Beginning from the proposition that doing transdisciplinary child and youth care (CYC) entails an ethic of risk and vulnerability, four graduate students from differing social, spiritual, bodied, and academic locations trace how our research and professional projects encounter, challenge, support, and disrupt one another. Thinking through two concepts critical to the field of CYC in Canada (politics and care), we aim to (a) make visible the possibilities, tensions, and incommensurabilities that emerge when we collectively risk generous, rigorous dialogue between distinct research projects, practice orientations, and lived ontological and epistemological loyalties; and (b) imagine the practices required to enact, and the creative collaborations that might emerge through, transdisciplinary conversations in child and youth care.     

Corrupting Conversations with the Marquis de Sade: On Education,Gender, and Sexuality

In this essay, the author joins a conversation started by Martin (Reclaiming the conversation: the ideal of the educated woman. Yale University Press, New Haven, 1985) regarding gender and education seeking to extend the conversation to address sexuality. To do so, the author brings a reading of the Marquis de Sade to challenge the emphasis on reproduction in education as it relates to gendered and sexual norms. The author, following Martin’s approach in Reclaiming the Conversation, reads one particular text of Sade’s—Philosophy in the Bedroom—to argue for queer possibilities that Sade brings to the conversation around gender and sexuality within twenty-first century education. The Marquis de Sade may viscerally seem an inappropriate choice to return to and use to join the conversation, but his novelic imagination incites complications in the conversation. Following in the footsteps of Martin’s re-reading of historic philosophical texts the author offers not only another layer of thinking about “female education,” but also opens up space for engaging gender and sexuality in the history and philosophy of education. As issues around gender and sexed bodies become ever more present and contested in educational discourses, does Sade continue the conversation in ways that corrupt the reproductive aims of education?     

Process Ontology: Conversations and Argumentations,Controversies in Mathematics and Mathematics as Socialisation

To better conceive the socializing and pragmatic aspects of mathematics, it can be useful to use a process ontology, which allows, starting from an analysis of the processes of conversations, to compare their recourse, from degree to degree, to supposedly common “virtualities”, in particular in argumentative conversations, with the construction of more complex mathematical entities that allow new symmetries, but also with controversies between mathematicians on the use of these entities.