Jung and Lévy-Bruhl

For his knowledge of 'primitive' peoples, C. G. Jung relied on the work of Lucien Lévy-Bruhl (1857-1939), a French philosopher who in mid-career became an armchair anthropologist. In a series of books from 1910 on, Lévy-Bruhl asserted that 'primitive' peoples had been misunderstood by modern Westerners. Rather than thinking like moderns, just less rigorously, 'primitives' harbour a mentality of their own. 'Primitive' thinking is both 'mystical' and 'prelogical'. By 'mystical', Lévy-Bruhl meant that 'primitive' peoples experience the world as identical with themselves. Their relationship to the world, including to fellow human beings, is that of participation mystique. By 'prelogical', Lévy-Bruhl meant that 'primitive' thinking is indifferent to contradictions. 'Primitive' peoples deem all things identical with one another yet somehow still distinct. A human is at once a tree and still a human being. Jung accepted unquestioningly Lévy-Bruhl's depiction of the 'primitive' mind, even when Jung, unlike Lévy-Bruhl, journeyed to the field to see 'primitive' peoples firsthand. But Jung altered Lévy-Bruhl's conception of 'primitive' mentality in three key ways. First, he psychologized it. Whereas for Lévy-Bruhl 'primitive' thinking is to be explained sociologically, for Jung it is to be explained psychologically: 'primitive' peoples think as they do because they live in a state of unconsciousness. Second, Jung universalized 'primitive' mentality. Whereas for Lévy-Bruhl 'primitive' thinking is ever more being replaced by modern thinking, for Jung 'primitive' thinking is the initial psychological state of all human beings. Third, Jung appreciated 'primitive' thinking. Whereas for Lévy-Bruhl 'primitive' thinking is false, for Jung it is true--once it is recognized as an expression not of how the world but of how the unconscious works. I consider, along with the criticisms of Lévy-Bruhl's conception of 'primitive' thinking by his fellow anthropologists and philosophers, whether Jung in fact grasped all that Lévy-Bruhl meant by 'primitive' thinking.     

Bad company generalized

The paper is concerned with the bad company problem as an instance of a more general difficulty in the philosophy of mathematics. The paper focuses on the prospects of stability as a necessary condition on acceptability. However, the conclusion of the paper is largely negative. As a solution to the bad company problem, stability would undermine the prospects of a neo-Fregean foundation for set theory, and, as a solution to the more general difficulty, it would impose an unreasonable constraint on mathematical practice.     

Performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals: when uncertainty makes a difference

Performance-avoidance goals (the desire to avoid performing more poorly than others do) have been shown to have consistently deleterious effects on performance but the effects of performance-approach goals (trying to outperform others) are more complex. Two studies examine uncertainty as a moderator of the effect of performance-approach goals on performance. Experiment 1 shows that manipulated performance-approach goals lead to better performance than do performance-avoidance goals in the absence of uncertainty about performance but when participants learn that a coactor disagreed with them about problem solutions, creating uncertainty, performance-approach goals do not differ from performance-avoidance goals in their effect on performance. Experiment 2 shows that uncertainty also moderates the effects of self-set performance-approach goals. Moreover, the same dynamic occurs with another kind of uncertainty: negative competence feedback.     

Signalling In Languages With Imperfect Information

This paper is a short survey of different languageswith imperfect information introduced in (Hintikka and Sandu 1989).The imperfect information concerns both quantifiers and connectives.At the end, I will sketch a connection between these languages and linearlogic.     

On the relationship between Karen Horney's tripartite neurotic type theory and personality disorder features

[Horney, 1945] and [Horney, 1950] interpersonal theory [Horney, K. (1945). Our inner conflicts. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.; Horney, K. (1950). Neurosis and human growth. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co., Inc.] postulated that individuals could move toward, move against, and move away from others as manifestations of their character development. In the present studies, it was hypothesized that Horney's tripartite theory might be useful in the elucidation of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders personality disorder features. In the first study, college students (n=198) completed the Coolidge Axis II Inventory [CATI; Coolidge, F. L. (1999), Coolidge Assessment Battery Manual. Port Huron, MI: Sigma Assessment Systems and Coolidge, F. L., & Merwin, M. M. (1992). Reliability and viability of the Coolidge Axis II Inventory: a new inventory for the assessment of personality disorders. Journal of Personality Assessment, 59, 223–238] and Cohen's 1967 35-item test [Cohen, J. B. (1967). An interpersonal orientation to the study of consumer behaviour. Journal of Marketing Research, 4, 270–278] of Horney's three types: Compliant, Aggressive, and Detached. In the second study, another group of college students (n=881) completed the CATI and Coolidge's 57-item test of Horney's three types. Results showed that both scales were reliable, generally similar, and numerous predicted correlational relationships were found. The usefulness of Horney's constructs in the understanding of personality disorders was discussed.     

Splitting as a predictor of depression.

146 university students completed measures of splitting, depression, and self-esteem. Splitting was positively correlated with depression and negatively related to self-esteem.