Longitudinal Effects of Television on Children's Leisure-Time Reading A Test of Three Explanatory Models

Using a sample of 1,050 Dutch elementary schoolchildren who were in Grades 2 and 4 at the outset of the research, this study investigated (a) the longitudinal effects of television viewing on the frequency with which children read books and comic books at home, and (b) the causal mechanisms that underlie television's effects on leisure-time reading. The children were surveyed three times, at 1-year intervals. Structural equations analysis suggested that television viewing reduced children's comic book reading only in the period from Year 2 to Year 3. Book reading, however, was found to be reduced by television viewing over both measurement periods. The data suggest that two causal mechanisms underlie television's reductive effect on children's book reading: (a) a television-induced deterioration of attitudes toward book reading, and (b) a television-induced deterioration of children's ability to concentrate on reading.     

Right Action and the Non‐Virtuous Agent

According to qualified‐agent virtue ethics, an action is right if and only if it is what a virtuous agent would characteristically do in the circumstances. I discuss two closely related objections to this view, both of which concern the actions of the non‐virtuous. The first is that this criterion sometimes gives the wrong result, for in some cases a non‐virtuous agent should not do what a virtuous person would characteristically do. A second objection is it altogether fails to apply whenever the agent, through previous wrongdoing, finds herself in circumstances that a virtuous person cannot be in. I focus on Rosalind Hursthouse's account of right action, and argue that it can provide a satisfactory response to both these objections. I do so by drawing attention to the distinction between action guidance and action assessment, and arguing that while the above criterion is adequate as a means of action assessment, we should turn to the virtue‐ and vice‐rules (v‐rules) for action guidance.