Naïve Realism,Hallucination, and Causation: A New Response to the Screening Off Problem

This paper sets out a novel response to the ‘screening off’ problem for naïve realism. The aim is to resist the claim (which many naïve realists accept) that the kind of experience involved in hallucinating also occurs during perception, by arguing that there are causal constraints that must be met if an hallucinatory experience is to occur, ones that are never met in perceptual cases. Notably, given this response, it turns out that, contra current orthodoxy, naïve realists need not adopt any particular view about the psychological nature of hallucinatory experience to handle the screening off problem. Consequently, room opens up for naïve realists to endorse whatever theory of hallucinatory experience seems to best capture the distinctive nature of such episodes.     

Beyond “Heartless Conservative” and “Bleeding Heart Liberal” Caricatures: How Religiosity Shapes the Relationship Between Political Orientation and Empathy

Is political orientation associated with self‐reported empathy? Popular caricatures frame political orientation in terms of the “heartless conservative” and the “bleeding heart liberal.” Yet, previous research has produced findings that present mixed evidence to support these caricatures. Using data from the 2004 General Social Survey, analyses show that the caricatures of the caring liberal and the cold‐hearted conservative are supported by results for empathy—in which conservatives have lower levels of empathy than liberals—but this pattern holds only when individuals also have low levels of religiosity. In the context of high religiosity, self‐identified conservatives do not have lower empathy than self‐identified liberals, net of a host of sociodemographic characteristics. Our observations demonstrate that patterns in empathy across political orientation are evident only when levels of different forms of religiosity are considered.     

Propositions on the cheap

Philosophical Studies - According to the classical account, propositions are sui generis, abstract, intrinsically-representational entities and our cognitive attitudes, and the token states within...     

Adjustment following sexual abuse discovery: the role of shame and attributional style.

This study examined adjustment following sexual abuse as a function of shame and attributional style. One hundred forty-seven participants (83 children and 64 adolescents) were seen at the time of abuse discovery and again 1 year later. Once adjustment at abuse discovery was accounted for, shame and attribution style explained additional variation in subsequent adjustment, whereas abuse severity did not. A pessimistic attribution style at abuse discovery moderated the relation between severity of abuse and subsequent depressive symptoms and self-esteem. The relations between abuse severity and these outcomes were significant only at high levels of pessimistic attribution style. Of note, patterns of change in shame and attribution predicted which children remained at risk or improved in adjustment. In addition, age and gender differences were found in adjustment over time.     

Interpersonal workplace stressors and well-being: a multi-wave study of employees with and without arthritis

The within-person influence of interpersonal stressors on affective well-being and physical well-being was investigated for 109 women with and without arthritis. Participants were interviewed on a weekly basis for 12 consecutive weeks, and the prospective data were analyzed by using hierarchical linear modeling. Overall, interpersonal workplace stressors independently predicted both well-being outcomes. Interpersonal stressors outside the workplace were related to negative affect but not to arthritis symptoms. Compared with healthy controls, arthritis patients' ratings of negative affect were equally reactive to workplace stressors. Neuroticism did not moderate stressor reactivity for either dependent variable but did predict mean levels of negative affect. The data support the hypothesis that the psychosocial environment of the workplace contributes unique effects on well-being.     

Yes,Virginia, Lemons are Yellow

This paper discusses a number of themes and arguments in The Quest for Reality: Stroud's distinction between philosophical and ordinary questions about reality; the similarity he finds between the view that coloris unreal and the view that it is subjective; his argument against thesecondary quality theory; his argument against the error theory; and the disappointing conclusion of the book.