The dissemination and use of research knowledge in teacher education programs: A nonevent?

Teaching, like other professions, has a developing knowledge base that serves to guide practitioners (Shulman, 1986). Knowledge generated by research is an important component of this knowledge. What are some avenues for dissemination of such research? What are the main impediments to the success of this endeavor? What is a possible link between dissemination efforts and the use of research knowledge by teachers? These questions will be dealt with in this paper.     

What is the future for tool-specific generalized motor programs?

A key issue in cognitive sciences is to understand the cognitive bases of human tool use. Answers have been provided by two competing approaches. The manipulation-based approach assumes that humans can use tools because of the ability to store sensorimotor knowledge about how to manipulate tools. By contrast, for the reasoning-based approach, human tool use is based on the ability to reason about physical object properties. Recently, Caruana and Cuccio proposed a kind of reconciliation, based on the distinction between three types of abductive inference, involving a different contribution of motor and cognitive elements: Automatic abduction (motor + and cognitive-), abduction by selection (motor ± and cognitive±) and creative abduction (motor- and cognitive+). This perspective offers new interesting avenues. Nevertheless, it is also subject to several theoretical and epistemological limitations, which make it in its present form inappropriate for the study of the cognitive bases of human tool use. This article aims to discuss these limitations.     

What in the world is weakness of will?

At least since the middle of the twentieth century, philosophers have tended to identify weakness of will with akrasia—i.e. acting, or having a disposition to act, contrary to one’s judgments about what is best for one to do. However, there has been some recent debate about whether this captures the ordinary notion of weakness of will. Richard Holton claims that it doesn’t, while Alfred Mele argues that, to a certain extent, it does. As Mele recognizes, the question about an ordinary concept here is one apt for empirical investigation. We evaluate Mele’s studies and report some experiments of our own in order to investigate what in the world the ordinary concept of weakness of will is. We conclude that neither Mele nor Holton (previously) was quite right and offer a tentative proposal of our own: the ordinary notion is more like a prototype or cluster concept whose application is affected by a variety of factors.     

What is education? The inhibiting effect of three agendas in schooling

The article seeks to further debate on what we mean by education and how it is to be distinguished from incipient indoctrination. Starting from the politicisation of education, it draws attention to three powerful agendas impacting on the education systems of the West: positivism, utilitarianism, and inclusivism. Intertwined in various ways, these agendas have had the effect of silently restricting understanding of education, moving it closer to a form of control and policing. Some discussion of their impact on music education is given to help clarify what is at stake. A substantial critique of these agendas is then offered before concluding with a brief indication of a way forward.     

What is the role of affect in the spacing effect?

In Experiments 1 and 2, after studying a list containing connotatively neutral words that were presented once or were presented at various spacing intervals, subjects either attempted free recall or made affective judgments of the study-list targets along a pleasant/unpleasant dimension. Spacing effects occurred in recall, and massed items were judged to be more unpleasantthan once-presented and spaced words. In the third experiment, subjects studied homogeneous lists composed of either connotatively good words or connotativelybad ones. Spacing effects were absent in the recall of both types of words because massed-practice words were recalled at a high level, one that was about the same as that for spaced-practice words. Affective judgments were unrelated to presentation condition, and both good and bad massed words were judged to be positive in affect. Although the data suggest that different study conditions can lead to different affective reactions, the results are moot with regard to the relationship between affect and the magnitude of spacing effects.     

What is happening in the world of therapeutic communities?

This overview of the contributions to the special edition illustrates something of how the collection of papers reflects the marginal nature of therapeutic communities, and makes parallels as to how they are forever struggling to survive, yet generate a passion of ideas and intellectual resilience that no project-managed health service can extinguish. It briefly describes the theoretical and geographical terrain covered, and signals how the cross-disciplinary incorporation of congruent ideas can be added to the traditional bedrock of therapeutic community practice. It ends by stating the context of the new, and seemingly successful, organization which assembled these contributions into its inaugural conference – and suggests that the journey could, and ultimate should, go further.     

What is the Problem of Non-Existence?

It is widely held that there is a problem of talking about or otherwise representing things that not exist. But what exactly is this problem? This paper presents a formulation of the problem in terms of the conflict between the fact that there are truths about non-existent things and the fact that truths must be answerable to reality, how things are. Given this, the problem of singular negative existential statements is no longer the central or most difficult aspect of the problem of non-existence, despite what some philosophers say.     

What is the Normativity of Meaning?

There has been much debate over whether to accept the claim that meaning is normative. One obstacle to making progress in that debate is that it is not always clear what the claim amounts to. In this paper, I try to resolve a dispute between those who advance the claim concerning how it should be understood. More specifically, I critically examine two competing conceptions of the normativity of meaning, rejecting one and defending the other. Though the paper aims to settle a dispute among proponents of the claim that meaning is normative, it should be of interest to those who challenge it. After all, before one takes aim, one’s target needs to be in clear view.     

What is the Meaning of Proofs?

Journal of Philosophical Logic - The origins of proof-theoretic semantics lie in the question of what constitutes the meaning of the logical connectives and its response: the rules of inference...     

What is the point of helping?

Philosophical Studies - In some cases, a group of people can bring about a morally bad outcome despite each person’s individual act making no difference with respect to bringing that outcome...     

What is the Point of Sufficiency?

Telic sufficientarians hold that there is something special about a certain threshold level such that benefiting people below it, or raising them above it, makes an outcome better in at least one respect. The article investigates what fundamental value might ground that view. The aim is to demonstrate that sufficientarianism, at least on this telic version, is groundless and as such indefensible. The argument is advanced in three steps: first, it is shown that sufficientarianism cannot be grounded in a personal value. Neither, secondly, is it committed to the person‐affecting view, the view that says that nothing can be better (worse) if there is no one for whom it is better (worse). This, in itself, is of interest because some sufficientarians reject egalitarianism precisely for its alleged incompatibility with the person‐affecting view. Sufficientarians' disavowal of the person‐affecting view implies that their view, similarly to egalitarianism (and, perhaps less famously, prioritarianism), must be anchored in some impersonal value. But crucially, and this is the third step of the argument, there is no apparent value that can fit that role. We must conclude, then, that telic sufficientarianism is groundless.     

What is the Philosophy of Information?

Computational and information-theoretic research in philosophy has become increasingly fertile and pervasive, giving rise to a wealth of interesting results. In consequence, a new and vitally important field has emerged, the philosophy of information (PI). This essay is the first attempt to analyse the nature of PI systematically. PI is defined as the philosophical field concerned with the critical investigation of the conceptual nature and basic principles of information, including its dynamics, utilisation, and sciences, and the elaboration and application of information-theoretic and computational methodologies to philosophical problems. I argue that PI is a mature discipline for three reasons: it represents an autonomous field of research; it provides an innovative approach to both traditional and new philosophical topics; and it can stand beside other branches of philosophy, offering a systematic treatment of the conceptual foundations of the world of information and the information society.     

What is the Role of Culture in the Association of Relationships with Health?

There is now widespread recognition that relationships have important implications for health. To better understand this linkage, scholars have called for greater bridging between relationship science and the study of health. The goal of this paper is to raise awareness of another factor that needs to be incorporated into this area of study: culture. I recommend three steps that researchers can take to systematically incorporate culture into the study of relationships and health. First, I suggest four possible culture patterns to study: similarity, moderation, mediation, and novel constructs. Second, I suggest that theoretically meaningful cultural variation and multiple cultures be concurrently studied. The value of this strategy is highlighted via examples from three contexts that emphasize distinct approaches to self and emotion in relationships. Third, I suggest that key relationship processes in families and couples, two relationships with extensive implications for health, be studied. Selected studies of four relationship processes known to be relevant for health – expectations, formation and maintenance, emotions, and social support – are briefly reviewed to highlight the value of this focus. The theoretical and applied benefit of incorporating culture into the study of the association of relationships with health is discussed.     

What is non-fregean in the semantics of Wittgenstein'sTractatus and why?

From J.M. Bocheski's Rady starego filozofa [Advice of the old philosopher]: 6. Pytaj sie Zawsze (i) co to znaczy? i (ii) dlaczego? [Ask always (i) what does it mean? and (ii) why?]