From Teachers’ Work Engagement to Pupils’ Positive Affect: a Weekly Diary Study on the Role of Pupils’ Autonomous Motivation

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether there is a crossover effect from teacher’s general (trait-level) work engagement to...     

Explanatory Consolidation: From ‘Best’ to ‘Good Enough’

In science and everyday life, we often infer that something is true because it would explain some set of facts better than any other hypothesis we can think of. But what if we have reason to believe that there is a better way to explain these facts that we just haven’t thought of? Wouldn’t that undermine our warrant for believing the best available explanation? Many philosophers have assumed that we can solve such underconsideration problems by stipulating that a hypothesis should not only be ‘the best’ explanation available; rather, it should also be ‘good enough’. Unfortunately, however, the only current suggestion for what it might mean to say that an explanation is ‘good enough’ is, well, not good enough. This paper aims to provide a better account of what is required for an explanatory hypothesis to be considered ‘good enough’. In brief, the account holds that a ‘good enough’ hypothesis is one that has gone through a process that I call explanatory consolidation, in which accumulating evidence and failed attempts to formulate better alternatives gradually make it more plausible that the explanation we currently have is better than any other that could be formulated.     

From dialectic to organization: Bogdanov’s contribution to social theory

This paper situates Bogdanov in the context of social theory generally and socialist theory in particular. It outlines briefly the principal characteristics of his mature system, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of his approach to the fundamental problems of social thought. The paper devotes particular attention to the problem of just how systems develop from less complex to more complex forms of organization, and evaluates Bogdanov’s solution to this problem against the background of populist, social democratic, and Leninist alternatives.     

Response to Lynne Segal: Thatcher’s legacy

In response to Lynne Segal’s paper on the legacy of Margaret Thatcher, I briefly examine how Thatcher redefined the ‘social’ away from being an expression of care and mutuality. Playing on images of the dangers of infection and enfeeblement, she mobilised fears about dependency to create a discourse of strength and self-aggrandising invulnerability, a discourse that is destructive of sociality and an ethic of care.     

Dewey’s Social Ontology: A Pragmatist Alternative to Searle’s Approach to Social Reality

Dewey’s social ontology could be characterized as a habit ontology, an ontology of habit qua second nature that offers us an account of intentionality, social statuses, institutions and norms in terms of habituations. Such an account offers us a promising alternative to contemporary intentionalist and deontic approaches to social ontology such as Searle’s. Furthermore, it could be the basis of a social ontology better suited to explain both the maintenance and the transformation of social reality.     

Dreams: Everyone’s Guide to Inner Space

This broad discussion of dreams and dreaming begins with a consideration of “outer” as opposed to “inner” psychological space—rational outer life in the world contrasted with the inner life of dreams, fantasies, and creativity. Dream theories and many examples of actual present-day dreams follow, often showing the dream’s relationship to the dreamer’s outer life.     

A challenge to ‘self’ centred ‘psycho’: Therapy as an introduction to an ‘inter-relational therapy’

This paper focuses on ‘psychotherapy’, particularly exploring the emphasis on the ‘psyche’. The term ‘psyche’ is described as potentially having different interpretations depending on the underlying ontological assumptions that influence its understanding and these, it is suggested, will have considerable implications for the therapy that identifies with the label ‘psychotherapy’. Two very different ontological perspectives are highlighted in this paper in order to illustrate the different conception of the term ‘psyche’; firstly, Freud’s interpretation of what is meant by ‘psyche’, which is then contrasted with a phenomenological perspective, with reference to the philosophy of Husserl and Heidegger. Both the Freudian and phenomenological approaches are then criticised for focusing on, what is described here as, an egocentric perspective and it is suggested that the term ‘psycho-therapy’ will inevitably lead to a preoccupation with putting the ‘self’ first as a basis for relating to the external world. An alternative term, ‘Inter-relational therapy’, is presented based on the ideas of Levinas and MacMurray, both of who are critical of a cultural preoccupation with focusing on the ‘self’ and suggest a need to acknowledge relationships with the external world, including the other people that populate it, prior to a ‘self’ reflective process.     

God’s Random Selection: Reply to Steinberg

In this reply to Jesse Steinberg’s ‘God and the possibility of random creation’, I suggest a procedure whereby a being such as God could randomly select a number from an infinite set.     

From ‘slumdog’ to humanitarian: educating orphans to save the world

The purpose of education should not only be to build content knowledge and literacy but to awaken the inherent human values within each child and encourage the translation of those values into social transformation. At the Hariharananda Balashram, we see one example of how destitute children are being provided with a moral and academic education that fits both Paulo Freire’s model of empowering the oppressed and Joseph and Efron’s emphasis on the seven worlds of moral education. The result is a group of children who not only are determined to succeed, but to use that academic and moral foundation to give back to their communities and become agents of social change.     

There’s No Need to Rethink Desert: A Reply to Pummer

Pummer (Philosophical Review 123(1): 43–77, 2014) ingeniously wraps together issues from the personal identity literature with issues from the literature on desert. However, I wish to take issue with the main conclusion that he draws, namely, that we need to rethink the following principle: Desert.: When people culpably do very wrong or bad acts, they deserve punishment in the following sense: at least other things being equal they ought to be made worse off, simply in virtue of the fact that they culpably did wrong—even if they have repented, are now virtuous, and punishing them would benefit no one. (Pummer Philosophical Review 123(1):43–77, 2014: 43–44) Pummer offers an argument that is intended to show that this principle, along with widely-held views about personal identity, entails an inconsistent triad of propositions. I agree. But I think Pummer's argument attacks a straw man. I believe that no-one holds Desert, at least as it is stated, and that once the principle is stated correctly it is easy to see that no inconsistent triad follows from it. So, Desert does not need rethinking. It just needs to be stated correctly.     

I acknowledge your help: capuchin monkeys’ sensitivity to others’ labor

Our society is sustained by wide-ranging cooperation. If individuals are sensitive to others’ gains and losses as well as the amount of labor, they can ensure future beneficial cooperative interaction. However, it is still an open question whether nonhuman primates are sensitive to others’ labor. We asked this question in tufted capuchin monkeys in an experimental food-sharing situation by comparing conditions with labor by two participants equalized (Equal labor condition) or unequalized (Unequal labor condition). The operator monkey pulled the drawer of one of the two food containers placed between two monkeys, each containing a food for him/herself and another for the recipient monkey. The recipient received either high- or low-value food depending on the operator’s choice, whereas the operator obtained the same food regardless of his/her choice. In Unequal labor condition, the operator first had to pull the handle of the board to which the containers were glued and then pull the drawer of one of the containers, while the recipient received food with no labor. In Equal labor condition, the recipient had to pull the handle of the board so that the operator could operate a container. Results showed that operators chose the high-value food container for recipients more often than when the recipient was absent only in Equal labor condition. This suggests that capuchin monkeys are sensitive to others’ labor and actively give food to a partner who has helped them to complete a task.     

Perceptual asymmetry and youths’ responses to stress: Understanding vulnerability to depression

This research examined the hypothesis that reduced posterior right hemisphere activity interferes with the regulation of emotions and behaviour in response to stress, creating vulnerability to depression. Consistent with a diathesis–stress model, we predicted that youths with a reduced posterior right hemisphere bias in emotional processing would engage in less adaptive responses to stress, which would be associated with depressive symptoms in those who reported the recent experience of high, but not low, levels of stress. Participants were 510 4th through 8th graders who completed the Chimeric Faces Task and measures of responses to stress and depressive symptoms. Results supported the idea that responses to stress account for the association between reduced posterior right hemisphere activity and depressive symptoms in youths who report high, but not low, levels of stress. This study provides insight into one process through which reduced posterior right hemisphere activity may confer vulnerability to depressive symptoms, and implicates responses to stress as a target for intervention.