Ambiguity,generality, and indeterminacy: Tests and definitions

The problem addressed is that of finding a sound characterization of ambiguity. Two kinds of characterizations are distinguished: tests and definitions. Various definitions of ambiguity are critically examined and contrasted with definitions of generality and indeterminacy, concepts with which ambiguity is sometimes confused. One definition of ambiguity is defended as being more theoretically adequate than others which have been suggested by both philosophers and linguists. It is also shown how this definition of ambiguity obviates a problem thought to be posed by ambiguity for truth theoretical semantics. In addition, the best known test for ambiguity, namely the test by contradiction, is set out, its limitations discussed, and its connection with ambiguity's definition explained. The test is contrasted with a test for vagueness first proposed by Peirce and a test for generality propounded by Margalit.The earliest version of this paper was presented to The Logical Grammar Study Group at The University of Alberta, which included, at that time, Matthew Dryer, Bernard Linsky, Jeff Pelletier, and Len Schubert, Among others. Section 2 of the paper was presented 25 May, 1987 at the annual meeting of the Canadian Philosophical Association (Hamilton, Ontario); and Section 1 was presented 22 January, 1900 to the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa. I am grateful to these audiences and others who have provided helpful criticism and comments.     

Some Psychological and Social Attitude Correlates of Northern Ireland University Students' Contact with the Civil Disturbances

Northern Ireland university students' contact with the Northern Ireland civil disturbances was examined with regard to five dimensions: Friends' Contact; Bomb Contact; Confrontation or Riot Contact; Harassment; and Property Damage. Confrontation and Bomb contact dimensions were further investigated in terms of their personality, social attitude, and alcohol use correlates. Since analyses of variance did not differentiate Protestants and Roman Catholics in terms of intelligence, socioeconomic status, age, location of residence (rural-urban), or religious homogeneity of peer group with regard to these two contact dimensions, these two groups were combined in stepwise discriminant analyses. The discriminant analyses suggested that, for both genders, contact with the "troubles" may be conceptualized in terms of a positive feedback loop involving social dissatisfaction and helplessness combining with previous contacts to produce future contacts. Further, having been in a bombing appeared to subdue males, but to produce pro-social aggression in females. The sample consisted of 65 males and 133 females.     

Are children any more logical than monkeys on the five-term series problem?

Six-year-old children were tested on several versions of the five-term transitivity problem as used by B. O. McGonigle and M. Chalmers (1977, Nature (London), 267, 694–696) with squirrel monkeys as subjects. Both binary and triadic versions of the tests were administered in both verbal and nonverbal modes to help determine whether or not any major procedural differences between the monkey version and that used conventionally in research with children might account for the monkey's apparently nonlogical solution of the problem. The main result is that children showed very similar response profiles to that of monkeys in all the conditions used. In addition, “labeling”, direct seriation, and “association” post-tests suggest that nonlogical strategies can underwrite ostensibly impeccable transitive “reasoning” in child as well as monkey.     

Effects of group variance and advocated position on conformity1

A 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was used to test the influence of amount of group variance, direction of advocated shift, and judgmental instruction sets on conforming responses The hypothesis predicted an interaction where conformity was maximized, with less variance under empirical validation instructions and with more variance under social validation instructions Subjects were preselected for neutral opinions on three items, which were subsequently used as experimental items Social influence was induced by making the responses of four other subjects available on each trial These responses were dispersed with either greater or lesser amounts of variance and either agreed or disagreed with the statement Instructions indicating that expert evaluation was available provided empirical validation instructions, while alternate instructions indicating lack of standardized norms provided social validation instructions Subjects changed opinions significantly more when the group advocated agreement than when it advocated disagreement on the issue The major hypothesis was partially supported by the data Responses on a postexperimental item indicated preferences for less variance under empirical instructions sets but preference for greater variance under social instructions sets The conformity results suggested that the predicted interaction may occur only if the situational context is favorable, as when the group advocates agreement on an issue     

Book reviews

Pseudo‐Problems. How Analytic Philosophy Gets Done, Roy Sorensen, 1993. London, Routledge xi + 291 pp., hb £37.50, ISBN: 0–415–09464X

Changing Tools: Case Studies in the History of Scientific Methodology, Marta Feher, 1995. Adademiai Kiado £23.17, ISBN: 9630567288

Evolutionary Naturalism, Michael Ruse, 1995, London, Routledge pp. 316, hb £35, ISBN 0–415–08997–2

Knowledge and the Body‐Mind Problem: in Defence of Interaction, Sir Karl Popper, 1994 London, Routledge ix+ 158 pp., hb £25; £10.99 pb, ISBN: 0–415–11504–3

Whys and Ways of Science, Peter J. Riggs, 1992 Melbourne University Press ix + 235 pp., £11.95, ISBN: 0522844715

Rethinking Objectivity, Aixan Megill, Ed., 1994 Durham and London, Duke University Press ix +342pp., £43.50, ISBN: 0822314797

Projective Probability, James Logue, 1995 Clarendon Press xiii+ 171 pp., £24.75, ISBN: 0198239599

Self‐motion: from Aristotle to Newton, M. L. Gill & J. G. Lennox (Eds), 1994 Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press xxi + 367 pp., £36.50, ISBN: 0–691–03235–1     

Polarization as a function of meaning and consequences

Studied the effect of meaning and consequences on shifts toward extreme judgments (polarization) as a result of group discussion. Since it was hypothesized that high levels of both meaning and consequences would activate pressures to conform to the appropriate cultural norm, greater polarization was predicted under those conditions. Consequences were varied by asking subjects how willing they were to participate in another actual (high consequences) or hypothetical (low consequences) experiment. Meaning was varied by information that the proposed experiment would have high or low social and scientific significance. Sixty male college students discussed their preferences in three-person groups. Prediscussion, consensus, and postdiscussion scores were obtained; the critical polarization scores were computed on the basis of individual's movement away from the prediscussion mean of their group. Partial support for the hypotheses is provided by a cross-over interaction (p < .05) in changes from the prediscussion to consensus scores, which indicate greater polarization in the high-meaning, low-consequence condition, and in the low-meaning, high-consequence condition. The results are discussed with respect to their implications for research in which subjects do not expect real consequences to follow from their statements of opinion.     

Beyond the twee: Thuy’s practical expression of living the Mercy Education Value of hospitality

This article utilises hermeneutic phenomenology as a theoretical framework for reflecting upon and interpreting the Mercy Education Value of hospitality. It describes an incident involving the author’s encounter with a member of staff upon his new appointment in a Catholic secondary college formed in the Mercy Tradition. Through this article, the possibilities opened by such an encounter for hermeneutic phenomenology are explored using van Manen’s lifeworld existentials as guides to reflection upon the described incident. The four lifeworld existentials are lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality) and lived other (relationality). In using these as guides to reflection, it is argued that some insights into the Mercy value of hospitality may be gleaned, namely that to be Mercy involves: (1) exceeding the carefully and socially programmed how are you – fine exchange; (2) an encounter with the other – the stranger – in whom is to be found the person of Jesus Christ, in which both participants are transformed; and (3) taking a risk – pushing boundaries so as to enter into relationship with the other.     

Applying an exemplar model to an implicit rule-learning task: Implicit learning of semantic structure

Studies of implicit learning often examine peoples’ sensitivity to sequential structure. Computational accounts have evolved to reflect this bias. An experiment conducted by Neil and Higham [Neil, G. J., & Higham, P. A.(2012). Implicit learning of conjunctive rule sets: An alternative to artificial grammars. Consciousness and Cognition, 21, 1393–1400] points to limitations in the sequential approach. In the experiment, participants studied words selected according to a conjunctive rule. At test, participants discriminated rule-consistent from rule-violating words but could not verbalize the rule. Although the data elude explanation by sequential models, an exemplar model of implicit learning can explain them. To make the case, we simulate the full pattern of results by incorporating vector representations for the words used in the experiment, derived from the large-scale semantic space models LSA and BEAGLE, into an exemplar model of memory, MINERVA 2. We show that basic memory processes in a classic model of memory capture implicit learning of non-sequential rules, provided that stimuli are appropriately represented.