Thoughts Without Distinctive Non-Imagistic Phenomenology

Silent thinking is often accompanied by subvocal sayings to ourselves, imagery, emotional feelings, and non-sensory experiences such as familiarity, rightness, and confidence that we can go on in certain ways. Phenomenological materials of these kinds, along with our dispositions to give explanations or draw inferences, provide resources that are sufficient to account for our knowledge of what we think, desire, and so on. We do not need to suppose that there is a distinctive, non-imagistic 'what it is like' to think that p , and a different non-imagistic 'what it is like' to think that q. Nor need we suppose that there is a proprietary 'what it is like' to have one propositional attitude type rather than another.     

Beyond the “Birds and the Bees”: Gender Differences in Sex‐Related Communication Among Urban African‐American Adolescents

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full‐text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ). The current study examined gender differences in communication about sex‐related topics in a community sample of urban, African‐American mothers and adolescents living in impoverished neighborhoods with high HIV rates. One hundred and sixty‐two mother–adolescent dyads completed self‐report measures of sex‐related communication. Youth also reported on their sexual risk. We identified the range of sexual‐based topics that adolescents discussed with their mothers, fathers, friends, and at school. The relationship between the frequency of sexual communication and sexual risk was examined. We also investigated congruency between adolescent and mother report about whether sexual‐based discussions occurred. Consistent with prior research, girls talked to their mothers, fathers, friends, and at school about sex‐related topics more than boys. Findings indicated that mothers not only communicated more frequently about sexual issues with their daughters than sons but that parental messages for girls were more protective. Greater sexual communication with mother was significantly associated with decreased HIV risk in the past 90 days and increased protection from HIV. Inconsistencies between mother and adolescent reports about sexual communication were marginally associated with decreased protection from HIV. Findings reveal the protective effect of sexual communication and the general lack of congruence between mother and adolescent reports of sexual communication.     

RE-SITUATING SCOTIST THOUGHT

In "Duns Scotus: His Historical and Contemporary Significance", Catherine Pickstock presents several levels of a critique against Scotist thought. My response focuses upon the assumptions that ground her critique. In sum, I think that Pickstock's argument errs on two counts. While her contemporary critique may be better lodged upon the interpreters and not the Franciscan himself, her much more elaborated critique of Scotus is not well founded. I conclude my essay with a few comments about the danger of historical categories such as "voluntarism" or "intellectualism" for any authentic retrieval of a medieval thinker.