Perception, Content and Rationality

Anil Gupta's Empiricism and Experience is a stylish and stimulating contribution to our subject. My expectation is that those who disagree with some of its central theses will, like me, learn greatly from thinking through where and why they part company with Gupta's lucidly presented position. For the purposes of a Symposium, I select three points of disagreement. Each point in one way or another concerns the epistemic role of the content of experience.     

The mediating influence of interpersonal problems on the intergenerational transmission of relationship aggression

Intergenerational patterns of relationship aggression have received considerable theoretical attention and empirical support. A developmental account of such effects suggests that childhood exposure to family violence leads to interpersonal problems that are subsequently manifested in aggressive dating relationships. The current study tested this hypothesis using structural equation modeling with data from a sample of female college students (N= 207). The theoretical model of interest, in which interpersonal problems with dominance, intrusiveness, and vindictiveness fully mediate the link between violence in the family of origin and participation in physically aggressive dating relationships, provided a very good fit to the data. This mediational model was preferable to alternative models that (a) included both direct and indirect influences of family‐of‐origin violence, (b) reversed the direction of effects by modeling interpersonal problems with dominance as a result of intimate partner aggression; and (c) modeled interpersonal problems with submissiveness as mediating intergenerational violence patterns. The findings implicate interpersonal problems with dominance as an important mediating factor in the developmental pathway linking family‐of‐origin violence to intimate partner violence in adulthood for young adult women.     

KANT'S TRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM,FREEDOM AND THE DIVINE MIND1

Without denying the importance of a range of independent epistemic and metaphysical considerations, I argue that there is an irreducibly theological dimension to the emergence of Kant's transcendental idealism. Creative tasks carried out by the divine mind in the pre‐critical works become assigned to the human noumenal mind, which is conceived of as the (created) source of space, time and causation. Kant makes this shift in order to protect the possibility of transcendental freedom. I show that Kant has significant theological difficulties ascribing such transcendental freedom to creatures in relation to God, and that he intends transcendental idealism to be a solution to these difficulties. I explain how this provides Kant with a powerful motivation and reason for denying the so‐called “neglected alternative”, and conclude by suggesting that the nature of any theological response to Kant will depend upon some fundamental options about how to conceive of the relationship between the creator and creation.     

A META-ANALYSIS OF CONDITIONAL REASONING TESTS OF AGGRESSION

James et al. (2005) reported an estimate of criterion-related validity (corrected only for dichotomization of criteria) of r = .44 across 11 conditional reasoning test of aggression (CRT-Aggression) validity studies. This meta-analysis incorporated a total sample size more than twice that of James et al. Our comparable validity estimate for CRT-Aggression scales predicting counterproductive work behaviors was r = .16. Validity for the current, commercially marketed test version (CRT-A) was lower (r = .10). These validity estimates increased somewhat (into the .24–.26 range) if studies using dichotomous criteria with low base rates were excluded from the meta-analysis. CRT-Aggression scales were correlated r = .14 with measures of job performance. As we differed with James et al. in some of our coding decisions, we reran all analyses using James et al.'s coding decisions and arrived at extremely similar results.     

A Defense of Stiffer Penalties for Hate Crimes

After defining a hate crime as an offense in which the criminal selects the victim at least in part because of an animus toward members of the group to which the victim belongs, this essay surveys the standard justifications for state punishment en route to defending the permissibility of imposing stiffer penalties for hate crimes. It also argues that many standard instances of rape and domestic battery are hate crimes and may be punished as such.     

Where Have All the Communes Gone? Religion's Effect on the Survival of Communes

Although previous research has found religion to have a significant effect on commune survival, these conclusions were typically based on bivariate analyses. Drawing on data collected by the Fellowship for Intentional Community, we present a multivariate analysis of communal survival using a comparatively large sample (N = 454) of modern American communes. Controlling for key factors suggested by the literature, we find that religion does not have a significant, direct effect on commune survival. Rather, the total population of the commune, whether the commune owned the land, and its longevity significantly influenced survival of a commune between 1995 and 2000. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on the role of religion in communes.     

FACTORS AFFECTING PRE-DECISIONAL COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOR AFTER HELPING REQUESTS1

A field experiment was conducted to explore the relationship between two known determinants of helpfulness (cost of helping and dependency of other) and predecisional communication behavior. Male undergraduates were contacted by telephone and asked to volunteer for a survey study. The caller was either very dependent or less dependent on the subject for help. The survey was described as taking 3 hours (high cost), 1 hour (moderate cost), or 20 minutes (low cost). Following the request for aid, the information seeking and information giving behavior of the subject was coded. As anticipated, the greatest information giving was elicited from non-helpers, especially among subjects in the high cost-high dependency condition. Path analysis of the data indicated a causal sequence in which information giving mediated the effects of cost on decision to help. The findings were discussed in terms of Schwartz's (1975) model of normative behavior.