Models and theories II: Issues and applications

This paper is the second of a two‐part series on models and theories, the first of which appeared in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 11, No. 2, 1997. It further explores some of themes of the first paper and examines applications, including: the relations between “similarity” and “isomorphism”, and between “model” and “interpretation”, and the notion of structural explanation.     

Total Exertion: Zen,Psychoanalysis, Life

This paper integrates Zen and psychoanalytic concepts; introduces the Zen concept of total exertion; elaborates the profound implications that the notion of total exertion has for the psychoanalytic encounter and the psychotherapist’s capacity for maintaining an optimal attentional stance; addresses anxiety-driven interferences to both the psychoanalytic process and deepened Zen practice. Clinical vignettes, personal experiences, poetry and psychoanalytic theory serve to demonstrate the abstract aspects of the discussion.     

Clinical and psychopathological research on attachment: the contribution of the psychic envelopes model

This paper proposes to put into perspective the attachment model (Bowlby) and that of psychic envelopes (Anzieu) so as to grasp the contribution of attachment theory to the field of psychopathology. Having laid the foundations of the epistemological debate between these two models, relying on a discussion of the stakes inherent in the psychoaffective development approach, the author refers to current forms of psychopathology, which draw massively on the borderline and narcissistic concepts, in order to discuss the sense and benefits of the “skin–ego” model as an alternative and complement to attachment theory. Beyond altering reference models in psychopathology, this debate and related inputs lead to consider therapeutic applications through a combination of the notion of “caregiving group” – a group version of the attachment figure – and the notion of therapeutic offer as a necessary alternative to the ideology of demand.     

A Symbolic Model of the Nonconscious Acquisition of Information

This article presents counter evidence against Smolensky's theory that human intuitive/nonconscious congnitive processes can only be accurately explained in terms of subsymbolic computations carried out in artificial neural networks. We present symbolic learning models of two well-studied, complicated cognitive tasks involving nonconscious acquisition of information: learning production rules and artificial finite state grammars. Our results demonstrate that intuitive learning does not imply subsymbolic computation, and that the already well-established, perceived correlation between “conscious” and “symbolic” on the one hand, and between “nonconscious” and “subsymbolic” on the other, does not exist.     

Utopian Vision: A Grand Solution for a Scholarly Dilemma

Reconciling the Zen‐like paradox on the back of every red penny—“out of many, one”—is not for the faint of heart. It is a diversity motto, and a lofty desire that the United States claims to covet. But can its citizens, undocumented or otherwise, even agree on what it is? Is not the desire to maintain a strong sense of community in conflict with a Noah's Ark conception of diversity? Using my personal experience in an intentional community determined to foster racial integration, I explore the complicated possibility of having it both ways. To do so, however, we must construct a notion of community, diversity, and The Good Life that will make us believe and work for this synthesis. Our reactions to the word “utopia” offer a glimpse of the challenges ahead.     

Reinflating the semantic approach

The semantic, or model‐theoretic, approach to theories has recently come under criticism on two fronts: (i) it is claimed that it cannot account for the wide diversity of models employed in scientific practice—a claim which has led some to propose a “deflationary” account of models; (ii) it is further contended that the sense of “model” used by the approach differs from that given in model theory. Our aim in the present work is to articulate a possible response to these claims, drawing on recent developments within the semantic approach itself. Thus, the first is answered by utilizing the notion of a “partial structure”, first introduced in this context by da Costa and French in 1990. The second claim is undermined by consideration of van Fraassen's understanding of “model” which corresponds well with that evinced by modem mathematicians. This latter discussion, in particular, has an impact on the continuing debate regarding the relative merits of the semantic and syntactic views and the developments presented here can be taken to provide further support to the former.     

The Interface Between Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Zen

While Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) highlights the norm of people's dogmatic, fanatical, and rigid religious beliefs, it has always favoured several aspects of Zen-Buddhism as a modus vivendi. Scientifically-based REBT and wisdom-oriented Zen have more in common than one might think at first sight. In this chapter, I, Albert Ellis and Maurits Kwee show how REBT and Zen have significant commonalities as well as differences. “What are these commonalities?”, and “What are the issues of mutual interest for REBT and Zen?” are the main questions that we deal with here. It is submitted that most of REBT theory and practice are in keeping with the spirit of Zen. We note that East and West may in some ways cross-fertilise each other in the interface between these two proposed ways of living. The narrative techniques of Zen by means of koans (e.g., analogies, metaphors, parables) and of REBT (its many cognitive, emotive, and behavioural methods derived from its phenomenological view of human neurosis) are somewhat complementary to each other. Zen practice, if stripped of its mystical and Utopian aspects, particularly by omitting the non-verifiable concepts of the ostensible “higher” (non-thinking) state of consciousness, can often even be merged with REBT. One main (cultural) difference is that Zen attempts to go beyond rationality/relativity by striving for a certain kind of self-realisation (the irrational experience of satari) through paradoxically abolishing the self. The end result of this is not that the Zen adept becomes a “better” human being, but often becomes more aware of the hassles of life and how to cope with them from day to day. Something like the REBT practitioner, who practices what she or he preaches, the Zen practitioner remains the ordinary (though unique) imperfect human being as she or he was before, sadder but a little wiser. REBT had better be integrated with the most useful of other therapies, including Zen, so that it becomes and remains effective with many (not all) people much (not all) of the time. Due to cultural differences, the practice of Zen is not always compatible with the practice of Zen. However, the practice of REBT does fit with (post)modern Zen as an open living system. This chapter is laced with two dozen classic and modern koans that are to be used readily in therapy by the reader.     

儒家的宗教性及其与西方基督教精神之比较

本文力图从一个中西学术界争论颇多的问题———“儒家是否是宗教”的问题中发掘出问题背后所隐含的中西宗教文化交流的时代契机。作者首先对儒家“宗教性”的概念进行定义 ,然后从哲学、道德和超越性三方面阐释了儒家宗教性的具体体现 ,并比较分析了传统向度意义上的儒家和西方基督教在宗教精神方面的不同 ,包括超越意识、终极性宗教存在、对“人”的认识以及对“心灵”的认识。最后探讨了儒家与基督教对话的可能性和必要性。     

Introduction to Margalit's Paper and Aron's Discussion: Contextualizing Memory and Nostalgia

The paper “Nostalgia” by Avishai Margalit and Lew Aron's discussion of it, which were the opening papers for the IARPP 2009 conference in Tel-Aviv, explicate the complex nature of memory and its ethical and relational components. Margalit explores the evaluative and ethical dimensions of memory in the private and collective spheres, describing “good” and “bad” nostalgia, and Aron brings Margalit's arguments to a meeting with psychoanalytic ideas of the transformative as well as defensive functions of memory and of “lived memory.”     

Objective Being and “Ofness” in Descartes

It is generally assumed that Descartes invokes “objective being in the intellect” in order to explain or describe an idea’s status as being “of something.” I argue that this assumption is mistaken. As emerges in his discussion of “materially false ideas” in the Fourth Replies, Descartes recognizes two senses of ‘idea of’. One, a theoretical sense, is itself introduced in terms of objective being. Hence Descartes can’t be introducing objective being to explain or describe “ofness” understood in this sense. Descartes also appeals to a pretheoretical sense of ‘idea of’. I will argue that the notion of objective being can’t serve to explain or describe this “ofness” either. I conclude by proposing an alternative explanation of the role of objective being, according to which Descartes introduces this notion to explain the mind’s ability to attain clear and distinct ideas.     

Theoretical status of computational cognitive modeling

This article explores the view that computational models of cognition may constitute valid theories of cognition, often in the full sense of the term “theory”. In this discussion, this article examines various (existent or possible) positions on this issue and argues in favor of the view above. It also connects this issue with a number of other relevant issues, such as the general relationship between theory and data, the validation of models, and the practical benefits of computational modeling. All the discussions point to the position that computational cognitive models can be true theories of cognition.     

Reply to Commentaries

The author examines the gendered Oedipal dynamics in Steven H. Cooper’s discussion and the notion of the “phallic collapse” in the context of recruiting a “third.” By comparison, the developmental thrust of Jody Messler Davies’s commentary is examined, specifically the idea of the various registers located in particular self-other configurations and the primacy of sensory experience in unlocking the impasse.     

The Job Demands and Resources Decision Making (JD-R-DM) Model

This study explores the effects of nurses’ daily job characteristics (i.e., job demands and resources) and general work engagement on their daily decision making (i.e., analytical and intuitive) and consequently their daily performance (i.e., task and contextual). Participants completed a baseline questionnaire and a diary for five consecutive days. Results reveal a positive influence of the job demands “work pressure” and “predictability” on analytical decision making. In turn, analytical decision making promotes task performance. Work pressure also negatively influences intuitive decision making which, in turn, stimulates task and contextual performance. However, the job resource (i.e., autonomy) had a nonsignificant relationship with decision making. General work engagement had positive effects on analytical decision making and moderated the relationship between intuitive decision making and contextual performance. For those high on work engagement, the relation was stronger compared to their counterparts low on work engagement. Results corroborate that expanding and testing decision-making theories can increase understanding on how the work environment and engagement influence employee decision making and performance.     

Representation of Homoerotism by the People’s Daily Since 1949

This is the second installment of a media representation series dedicated to uncovering the history of sexuality in the “new China period”. The first installment “Transgender Representation” witnessed the official construction of Occidentalism where sexuality served as a tool for the government apparatus to construct socialist superiority and capitalist inferiority, which has significantly contributed to shaping the official attitude and media representation of queer sexualities in mainland China. This new installment continues to explore the sex culture of “new China” with a discussion of the influences of socialist ideologies. While the overall trend of same-sex culture can be roughly depicted as a fall and a subsequent revival during “new China”, this article examines in what situation homoerotism fell and revived, and how the “notion of gay” came into circulation anew in a land with profound same-sex tradition.     

Order,disorder, and the absolute: An experiment in dialogue

The first section of this dialogue is excerpted from an edited conversation between Sean Kelly and the late David Bohm, and focuses on the concepts of order, disorder, and the Absolute. The second section explores these concepts in greater depth, with Bohm maintaining the impossibility of absolute knowledge and the fundamental unintelligibility of the concept of disorder, preferring instead to speak of “orders of infinite degree” which emerge out of an “unknown ground.” Kelly responds by proposing the concept of “absolute knowing” as the cognitive process within which the concepts of order and disorder, the known and the Unknown are seen as dialectically related moments of the Absolute as complex whole. The third section is Edgar Morin's response to the preceding dialogue. He begins by outlining his views on the nature and limits of rationality, maintaining, with Bohm, the superiority of the “negative modality” of speaking about “being” or “reality.” In the second part, however, he proposes the notion of nature as “chaosmos,” which he understands as a creative “dialogic” of order, disorder, and organization.     

Pragmatic Contextualism

Contextualism in epistemology has traditionally been understood as the view that “know” functions semantically like an indexical term, encoding different contents in contexts with different epistemic standards. But the indexical hypothesis about “know” faces a range of objections. This article explores an alternative version of contextualism on which “know” is a semantically stable term, and the truth‐conditional variability in knowledge claims is a matter of pragmatic enrichment. The central idea is that in contexts with stringent epistemic standards, knowledge claims are narrowed: “know” is used in such contexts to make assertions about particularly demanding types of knowledge. The resulting picture captures all of the intuitive data that motivate contextualism while sidestepping the controversial linguistic thesis at its heart. After developing the view, the article shows in detail how it avoids one influential linguistic objection to traditional contextualism concerning indirect speech reports, and then answers an objection concerning the unavailability of certain types of clarification speeches.     

Circumstantial ignorance and mitigated blameworthiness

It is intuitive that circumstantial ignorance, even when culpable, can mitigate blameworthiness for morally wrong behavior. In this paper I suggest an explanation of why this is so. The explanation offered is that an agent’s degree of blameworthiness for some action (or omission) depends at least in part upon the quality of will expressed in that action, and that an agent’s level of awareness when performing a morally wrong action can make a difference to the quality of will that is expressed in it. This explanation makes use of Holly Smith’s (1983. “Culpable Ignorance.” Philosophical Review 92 (4): 543–571) distinction between benighting and benighted actions as well as a notion developed here called “capture.”     

“I'll Have What She's Having”: Commentary on Paper by Karen E. Starr and Lewis Aron

This discussion utilizes a feminist discourse originating in the 1970s to reconsider Freud's famous question, “What do women want?” and from there explores some hidden dimensions in Starr and Aron's paper concerning female agency, sexuality, and the twists and turns of psychoanalytic theory and social conventions. Highlighting Rachel Maines's researches into the use of vibrators in medical treatment in particular, the discussion illuminates how social conventions function as powerful determinants that legislate what is seen and not seen, what is questioned and what is accepted—and ultimately what is considered psychoanalytic “bedrock.”