Parallels Between Gaps and Gluts

This paper compares two proposed solutions to the liar paradox, both of which involve revisions to classical semantics. The first, that of truth value gaps, denies that all sentences are true or false. The second, that of truth value gluts, asserts that some sentences are true and false. A natural question about these proposals is, ‘Do they offer equally good (or bad) solutions, or is one better than the other?’ Parsons 1990 Parsons, Terence. 1990. True Contradictions. Canadian Journal of Philosophy, 20/3: 335–54. [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] suggested an answer to this question, arguing that for every problem for one solution, there is a parallel problem for the other. Since then, several people have given arguments for and against the idea that the two face parallel problems. This paper advances the debate in two ways. First, it answers four attempts by Graham Priest to reject the parallel. In particular, it discusses alleged advantages for the gap solution with regard to the teleological account of truth, an extended liar paradox, Berry's paradox, and inexpressibility. Second, it discusses where, if anywhere, the parallel may be broken.     

Parallels Between Near-Death Experience Prophetic Visions and Prophecies from the Bible and Mormon Holy Writ

In 1982, Kenneth Ring identified a phenomenon where some near-death experiencers were permitted to see a picture of the Earth's future as a prophetic vision or PV. In his study of the PV, Ring identified five elements of the PV for the future of the Earth as geophysical changes, meteorological changes, supply and economic breakdowns, nuclear war, and a new era of love and world peace. He also mentioned two other features, the death of many and a time frame for the elements. A comparison of the events of near-death experience prophetic visions of the Earth's future and prophecies from the Bible and the Mormons' Doctrine and Covenants shows nearly complete agreement. These catastrophic events are prophesied to occur on the Earth into the 21^st century and to culminate with a new world of peace that is constituted of good people.     

Parallels between depression and lament

This article compares the experiences portrayed by the psalmists in Psalm 31 and Psalm 102, both psalms of lament, with the current concept of major depression. It concludes by exploring how the insights of the psalms may be applied in pastoral care directed toward those who suffer from depression.     

Parallels Between Action‐Object Mapping and Word‐Object Mapping in Young Children

Across a series of four experiments with 3‐ to 4‐year‐olds we demonstrate how cognitive mechanisms supporting noun learning extend to the mapping of actions to objects. In Experiment 1 (n = 61) the demonstration of a novel action led children to select a novel, rather than a familiar object. In Experiment 2 (n = 78) children exhibited long‐term retention of novel action‐object mappings and extended these actions to other category members. In Experiment 3 (n = 60) we showed that children formed an accurate sensorimotor record of the novel action. In Experiment 4 (n = 54) we demonstrate limits on the types of actions mapped to novel objects. Overall these data suggest that certain aspects of noun mapping share common processing with action mapping and support a domain‐general account of word learning.     

The Relationship Between Size of Living Space and Subjective Well-Being

Against a background of shrinking new homes and forebodings of “rabbit hutch Britain”, the relationship between size of living space and subjective well-being has never been more topical in the UK. Using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and fixed effects regressions, this paper is the first to examine this relationship comprehensively. Two pathways are proposed between space and subjective well-being. First, space facilitates values and activities. Second, space signals wealth which in turn influences social status. It is proposed that wealth is a more important determinant of status for men than women, and that pathway two is therefore gendered. Part one of the paper examines the effect of a change in number of rooms per person on housing satisfaction and subjective well-being in the BHPS as a whole. Despite having a similar effect on the housing satisfaction of both genders, an increase in living space has only a (weak) positive linear effect on the life satisfaction and mental health of men. This suggests that space affects subjective well-being through pathway two, status. Part two of the paper tracks the housing satisfaction and subjective well-being over time of those individuals who move for “larger accommodation”. Consistent with various theories of adaptation, housing satisfaction increases in the year of the move; then decreases slightly before levelling out. Moving for “larger accommodation” has no positive impact on subjective well-being. Overall the results imply a weak positive relationship between size of living space and subjective well-being, but only for men.     

Working Memory Differences Between Children Living in Rural and Urban Poverty

This study was designed to investigate if the working memory profiles of children living in rural poverty are distinct from the working memory profiles of children living in urban poverty. Verbal and visuospatial working memory tasks were administered to sixth-grade students living in low-income rural, low-income urban, high-income rural, and high-income urban developmental contexts. Both low-income rural and low-income urban children showed working memory deficits compared with their high-income counterparts, but their deficits were distinct. Low-income urban children exhibited symmetrical verbal and visuospatial working memory deficits compared with their high-income urban counterparts. Meanwhile, low-income rural children exhibited asymmetrical deficits when compared with their high-income rural counterparts, with more extreme visuospatial working memory deficits than verbal working memory deficits. These results suggest that different types of poverty are associated with different working memory abilities.     

Forgivingness: Similarities and Differences Between Buddhists and Christians Living in China

Mourners often rely on faith following loss, but not all find spirituality comforting. Some grievers engage in negative religious coping (NRC), signaled by behaviors and thoughts such as anger toward God or their faith community, feeling spiritually abandoned, or questioning God's power. Our longitudinal study of 46 African American homicide survivors explored the relation of both positive religious coping (PRC) and NRC to complicated grief (CG) and investigated whether religious coping more strongly predicted psychological distress or vice versa. Results indicated that NRC was associated with CG, whereas PRC was substantially unrelated to bereavement outcome. Significantly, CG prospectively predicted high levels of spiritual struggle 6 months later, both in terms of CG and NRC composite scores and at the individual-item level. Clinical implications regarding spiritually sensitive interventions are noted.     

Parallels between remembering and predicting an object's location

Three experiments explore effects of rotational axis and velocity on observers' predictions regarding an object's future position, and begin to explore connections between this extrapolation task and representational momentum (RM). In general, observers accept as "correct" positions that are behind the correct extrapolated location, as shown in previous work (Cooper & Munger, 1993; Finke & Shyi, 1998). These prediction distortions are in the opposite direction of typical RM memory distortions, suggesting that these tasks are unrelated. However, new effects of axis for the extrapolation task are reported which parallel axis effects previously observed for RM and mental rotation tasks. Specifically, participants make larger negative distortion errors for axes of rotation that are not coincident with the viewer's coordinate system, as if these paths of rotation are harder to extrapolate. Effects of velocity and axis are examined for RM and extrapolation tasks, and the overall pattern of distortions supports a link. In particular, participants who misremember the location of an object as further along the implied path of motion also accept as "correct" positions relatively further along the extrapolated path of motion, suggesting that these apparently opposite types of errors are indeed related.     

Paul Preston: Mother Father Deaf: Living Between Sound and Silence

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -     

Relationship Between Social Relations and Mortality of Older Japanese People Living Alone

The association of social relations with mortality was studied over a 54-month period in 535 older Japanese people living alone. Sex-specific proportional hazard analyses indicated that finding it difficult to establish and maintain relationships with other people was significantly related to mortality, regardless of age, general health status, history of health management, psychological conditions, or economic status. The adjusted hazard ratio for finding relations with other people difficult was 4.61 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.39–15.30] for men and 4.56 (95% CI: 2.19–9.48) for women. The adjusted hazard ratio for nonparticipation in social activities was 1.45 (95% CI: 0.42–4.97) for men and 1.72 (95% CI: 0.70–4.22) for women and did not reach statistical significance. On the other hand, there was a gender difference in the direction of the association between a low-level contact with children, siblings, or other relatives and mortality, for which the adjusted hazard ratio was 3.16 (95% CI: 0.94–10.62) for men and 0.51 (95% CI: 0.27–0.97) for women. These results suggest the need to create a different model for the relationship between social relations and mortality for men and for women living alone.     

Self and Attitude Strength Parallels: Focus on Accessibility

Numerous parallels exist between the literatures on attitudes and the self, yet they are generally considered in isolation. In this paper, we focus on some parallels with respect to the concept of self-strength – that is, aspects of self-esteem and the self-concept that impart the qualities of durability and impactfulness. Using research on attitude strength as our foundation, we first introduce some relevant strength variables such as accessibility, certainty, and ambivalence. Then, as a case study we review existing research on self-view accessibility. Our review is organized based on parallel findings on attitude accessibility in order to demonstrate the utility of this approach. By considering research on attitude strength, we are able to organize, and in some cases reinterpret, previous self-related findings, make new predictions regarding the self, and increase the precision of predictions. We believe that this approach can foster integration between the areas of attitudes and the self, advancing theory and research on both.     

Near Death Experiences and Gnostic Christianity: Parallels in Antiquity

Long considered to be heretical, ancient Gnostic Christian texts unearthed this century display compelling similarities between Gnostic conceptions of life and death and modern NDEs. The Gnostic texts devoted extensive tracts to what readers could expect to encounter when they died. Other passages make numerous allusions to NDE-like experiences that can be realized in this life, most notably the human encounter with a Divine Light. The Gnostic Christian literature gives us one more example of NDEs and similar experiences in the ancient world.     

Parallels between competence- versus morality-related traits and individualistic versus collectivistic values

The distinction between individualistic (IV) and collectivistic (CV) instrumental values was compared to the distinction between competence-related and moral personality traits. Study 1 (N=89 students) showed that IV referred mostly to competence and were self-profitable, whereas CV referred mostly to morality and were other-profitable in their nature. Therefore, IV were predicted to reach a relatively higher position in the value hierarchy formulated for the self, whereas CV were predicted to rank higher in the value hierarchy formulated for other people. Both hypotheses were confirmed in study 2 (N=118 high school students) in which subjects ordered 18 instrumental values of the Rokeach Value Survey according to their importance either for themselves, or for other people. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chinese Landscape Painting and the Study of Being: An Imagined Encounter Between Martin Heidegger and Xia Gui

In this paper, we pose a speculative encounter between Heidegger and the Chinese Song Dynasty landscape painter Xia Gui. Our intention is to reassess Heidegger’s theory of the fourfold. By placing the concept in a cross-cultural context, we argue that Heidegger was essentially correct in that the world is structured as a fold between interrelated elements. At the same time, we challenge the quantity and quality of the folded elements. If one turns to the work of Xia Gui in conjunction with relevant Daoist texts, what one finds is a threefold structure to the world, composed of earth, sky, and mortals without Heidegger’s emphasis on divinities. In conclusion, we suggest that studying the folding structure of the world ought to be done through cultural comparisons of philosophical and aesthetic traditions in order to understand the potentiality for worldhood as an xfold.