Reformed and evolutionary epistemology and the noetic effects of sin

Despite their divergent metaphysical assumptions, Reformed and evolutionary epistemologists have converged on the notion of proper basicality. Where Reformed epistemologists appeal to God, who has designed the mind in such a way that it successfully aims at the truth, evolutionary epistemologists appeal to natural selection as a mechanism that favors truth-preserving cognitive capacities. This paper investigates whether Reformed and evolutionary epistemological accounts of theistic belief are compatible. We will argue that their chief incompatibility lies in the noetic effects of sin and what may be termed the noetic effects of evolution, systematic tendencies wherein human cognitive faculties go awry. We propose a reconceptualization of the noetic effects of sin to mitigate this tension.     

John Calvin,the Sensus Divinitatis,and the noetic effects of sin

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

The titration of death: a new sin

..."Titration of death" is the phrase I have used, in private musings and discussions, to express the undertaking of causing or permitting death to occur within carefully delimited parameters. It is, I think, a new form of sin. I distinguish it from a similar enterprise, in principle benign, that we might call "titration of dying," which attempts to manage the dying process. The focus of attention of titration of dying is the experience of the patient prior to death, with little or no concern given to the condition of the cadaver following death. Titration of death, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with producing, at the close of the process, a cadaver that is usable in some manner; and titration of death, per se, has only incidental concern with the dying process.     

The Beck Anxiety Inventory-Trait (BAIT): a measure of dispositional anxiety not contaminated by dispositional depression

We describe development of the Beck Anxiety Inventory-Trait (BAIT), a measure of trait anxiety. In Study 1 with 191 undergraduates, the BAIT correlated higher with another trait-anxiety measure than with state anxiety and trait depressiveness and lower with depressiveness than the other trait-anxiety measure did. In Study 2 (Ns of 149 undergraduates initially and 107 at 3 weeks later), the BAIT demonstrated convergent validity against the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) and self-rated trait anxiety plus discriminant validity against abstract curiosity. In Study 3 (Ns of 161 undergraduates initially and 121 at 3 weeks later), the BAIT correlated more highly with another anxiety measure than with depression, stress, positive affect, and negative affect. It also showed good internal consistency across studies and high stability in Studies 2 and 3, higher than the BAI's in Study 2. Factor analyses across studies all supported 2 factors, 1 Somatic and 1 Subjective.     

The effects of dispositional empathy on emotional reactions and helping: A multidimensional approach

Recent research indicates that an affective state termed empathic emotion, and characterized by feelings of sympathy and compassion for another, is associated with altruistic responding. That is, persons experiencing high levels of empathic emotion offer help to another even when escape from the situation is easy. Persons experiencing high levels of another emotional state—personal distress—help much less when escape from the situation is easy. A study was conducted to test two related hypotheses. The first was that individual differences in empathy can influence empathic emotion and personal distress, above and beyond the influence of situational factors. The second hypothesis was that this effect of individual differences is due to variation in emotional and not cognitive empathy. The results provide support for both hypotheses. Regarding hypothesis 1, a significantly greater proportion of the variance in emotional reactions was accounted for when individual difference factors were included as predictors. Hypothesis 2 was also supported: It was found that a dispositional measure of emotional empathy was clearly related, and a dispositional measure of cognitive empathy was clearly unrelated, to these emotional reactions. The results provide support for a multidimensional view of empathy.     

The dispositional inference strikes back: situational focus and dispositional suppression in causal attribution

The authors propose that correction of dispositional inferences involves the examination of situational constraints and the suppression of dispositional inferences. They hypothesized that suppression would result in dispositional rebound. In Study 1, participants saw a video of either a free or a forced speaker. Participants shown a forced speaker later made stronger dispositional inferences about a 2nd, free speaker than control participants did. Study 2 provided evidence for higher rebound among participants who reported trying harder to suppress dispositional inferences during the 1st video. In Study 3, participants were asked to focus on situational constraints or to avoid thinking about the speaker's characteristics. Only the latter instructions led to a dispositional rebound. These data support the view that the correction of dispositional inferences involves 2 processes that lead to distinct consequences in subsequent attribution work.     

Acquisition of dispositional attributions: effects of sample size and covariation

Two experiments examined whether dispositional attributions are sensitive to the sample size of the evidence indicating a given level of covariation between person and behavior. Participants were given high or low levels of covariation (i.e. consensus and distinctiveness), and the acquisition of dispositional attributions was monitored by requesting dispositional trait ratings at fixed intervals. The results showed that dispositional attributions were sensitive to sample size, and increased given more evidence on high person‐behavior covariation while they decreased given more evidence on low person‐behavior covariation. Additional analyses suggested that in making dispositional inferences (e.g. about the actor), there was a slight preference for agreement information (e.g. low distinctiveness) over difference information (e.g. low consensus). The effects of sample size are inconsistent with current statistical or probabilistic models of covariation, but are in line with connectionist networks using an error‐correcting learning algorithm. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring dispositional humility: a first approximation

Humility is a psychological construct that has not received much empirical attention until recently. This new emphasis on positive psychology and humility has been both conceptual and empirical. The present study had two objectives: to review the literature briefly to verify the importance of humility and its positive perception by others, and to begin to develop a preliminary measure of humility. Results indicated that humility is held in high regard by others. Two factors emerged from exploratory factor analysis that appear to converge on measuring humility, with acceptable convergent and divergent validity and internal consistency reliability. These results are discussed in terms of the expected relationships among humility and other constructs (e.g., social desirability, narcissism, self-esteem).     

The dispositional account of colour

Conclusion The dispositional account of colour has recently come under fire from a number of different directions (reflecting the various alternative options mentioned at the beginning). I believe that in the above I have dealt with the principal objections raised against this account by those who reject it. I cannot pretend to have established that the account is true; but if I am right about the failure of the objections I have discussed, and the difficulites of alternative accounts of colour, then dispositionalism appears to remain the most promising account of colour available.     

The dispositional account of credence

Philosophical Studies - In this paper I offer an alternative—the ‘dispositional account’—to the standard account of imprecise probabilism. Whereas for the imprecise...     

Jung and Kabbalah: imaginal and noetic aspects

Jung made use of kabbalistic images and motifs in various parts of his opus, including in his alchemical studies, in Aion, and extensively in Mysterium Coniunctionis. He also recorded an important dream after his heart attack which made use of kabbalistic symbolism in Memories, Dreams, Reflections. In this paper I explore Jung's ideas in relation to Kabbalah, first, by differentiating between Jung's imaginal approach to kabbalistic symbolism and the noetic intention of the Kabbalah itself in its use of imaginal material. Second, I present a number of typical examples of how Jung understands (and sometimes misunderstands) kabbalistic material that he cites. Third, I briefly survey the development of the Kabbalah as an imaginal noetic system, and present a core self-understanding of kabbalists--as engaged in inner 'self-work' which intends to 'sweeten the harsh judgments of existence in their very roots'. Finally, I differentiate Jung's understanding of the psychical living symbol from the kabbalistic understanding of the mystical symbol. In this fourth section of the paper, I conclude by presenting a basic Hasidic/kabbalistic teaching on the nature and function of verbal contemplative prayer--as an illustration of the difference between the two understandings of symbolism. The four sections of the paper are framed by a 'Prelude' and a 'Coda'.     

Examining dispositional and situational effects on outgroup attitudes

Two research lines have dominated the quest for the antecedents of outgroup attitudes. Whereas the first has viewed outgroup attitudes as a result of individual differences, the second stressed the importance of the intergroup situation. In order to investigate the interplay of individual differences and situational characteristics, key predictors of the individual differences perspective (i.e. right‐wing authoritarianism or RWA, and social dominance orientation or SDO) and the intergroup relations perspective (i.e. ingroup identification and ingroup threat) were simultaneously tested. Two studies revealed additive but no interaction effects of RWA and SDO, ingroup identification and threat. Additionally, Study 1 showed that threat effects remain limited to the outgroup that is portrayed as threatening and do not generalize to other outgroups. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The moderating effects of dispositional empathy on alcohol-related aggression in men and women

The author investigated the influence of dispositional empathy on alcohol-related aggression in men and women. Participants were 204 (111 men, 93 women) healthy social drinkers, 21-35 years old. Dispositional empathy was measured with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Following the consumption of either an alcoholic or a placebo beverage, participants were tested on a modified version of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm in which mild electric shocks were received from, and administered to, a fictitious opponent during a competitive task. Alcohol increased aggression for persons (particularly men) with lower, as opposed to higher, levels of empathy. Men with lower empathy levels exhibited the most aggression followed by men with higher empathy levels. Women displayed the least aggression regardless of their empathy levels.     

The ontology of intentionality II: dependence ontology as prolegomenon to noetic modal semantics

This is the second in a sequence of three essays which axiomatize and apply Edmund Husserl's dependence ontology of parts and wholes as a non-Diodorean, non-Kantian temporal semantics for first-order predicate modal languages. The Ontology of Intentionality I introduced enough of Husserl's dependence-ontology of parts and wholes to formulate his account of order as effected by relating moments of unity, and The Ontology of Intentionality II extends that axiomatic dependence-ontology far enough to enable its semantic application. Formalizing the compatibility [Vereinbarkeit] relation implicated in Husserl's notorious doctrine of impossible meanings, the essay introduces a compatibility restriction on relations to formulate Husserl's distinction between singular [einheitliche] and plural [mehrheitliche] objects, using plural relating moments to define first-order versions of Husserl's notions of relation complexes (i.e. Sachverhalte), abstracta of n-ary relation complexes, categorial relations, abstract eide as unifications of categorial relations, semantic domains as completions of abstract eide, and material regions as semantic domains which are compatibility upper bounds of categorial relations. These concepts will enable the formal dependence-ontological noetic semantics for two-valued, first-order modal languages introduced in the sequel Two-Valued Logics of Intentionality, the third essay in the sequence.     

Risk perception and risky choice: Situational, informational and dispositional effects

We investigated how situational (gain–loss), informational (opportunity–threat framing) and dispositional (achievement motive and avoidance motive) variables affected opportunity–threat perception and risky choice in managerial decision-making contexts. In Study 1, the risk preference of the participants showed a reflection effect due to situational differences (gain or loss) and a partial framing effect caused by presenting the same choice information in terms of either opportunities or threats. However, both effects were in the opposite direction of predictions from prospect theory. Gains and positive framing enhanced risk-seeking preference whereas losses and negative framing augmented risk-averse preference. Risk-seeking choices were mediated by opportunity perception whereas risk-averse choices were mediated by threat perception. In Study 2, the participants high in achievement motive perceived greater opportunities in a negative situation, and the participants high in avoidance motive perceived greater threats in a positive situation, suggesting that ambition (achievement motive) operates more significantly in the face of adversities whereas cautiousness (avoidance motive) functions more significantly in prosperity.     

Intuitive interactionism in person perception: effects of situation--behavior relations on dispositional judgments

To examine the effects of the relationships between behavior and the situation in which it occurs, we manipulated such relations and exposed subjects to them. Impressions were similar when based on the behaviors presented with situations unspecified (e.g., child hits) or when the situations in which they naturally occurred were specified (e.g., child hits when provoked). However, when situations were specified, subjects' impressions more accurately predicted individual differences in the children's actual levels of overall aggressive behavior. When the veridical situation-behavior relations were increasingly altered, the targets were perceived as being less plausible and increasingly maladjusted and odd, and correlations decreased between the perceived level of the children's aggressiveness and their actual aggressive behavior. Thus, both personality impressions and predictive accuracy were influenced by the relations between the target's behaviors and their situational contexts.     

The dispositional architecture of epistemic reasons

Epistemic reasons are meant to provide justification for beliefs. In this paper, I will be concerned with the requirements that have to be met if reasons are to discharge this function. It is widely recognized, however, that only possessed reasons can justify beliefs and actions. But what are the conditions that have to be satisfied in order for one to possess reasons? I shall begin by motivating a particular condition, namely, the ‘treating’ requirement that has been deemed to be necessary for possessing reasons. In Sect. 1, I explain and criticize some of the existing accounts of the treating requirement for reason-possession. In Sect. 2, I will suggest a dispositional account of reason-possession in which the treating condition features prominently. Section 3 will deal with the some of the consequences of this account for such issues as the structure of epistemic defeat, the immediacy of perceptual justification and logical knowledge.

     

The sin of subjectivism: A reply to Shapiro

Shapiro criticises our book on two grounds. He first outlines a series of mistakes. None of them we believe, in fact, have been made and this is usually quite clear from our book. His second criticism rejects our ‘subjectivist’ approach to measurement. We argue that he misrepresents our methods and fails to grasp their ability both to collect accurate data and deal adequately with possible sources of bias. Indeed in these, in its attention to the dating of both independent and dependent variables, and in the flexibility of its approach to the respondent, we feel our approach is better equipped than other existing instruments to tackle the problem of the aetiological role of psycho-social factors in illness.