The search for an effective clinical behavior analysis: the nonlinear thinking of Israel goldiamond

This paper has two purposes; the first is to reintroduce Goldiamond's constructional approach to clinical behavior analysis and to the field of behavior analysis as a whole, which, unfortunately, remains largely unaware of his nonlinear functional analysis and its implications. The approach is not simply a set of clinical techniques; instead it describes how basic, applied, and formal analyses may intersect to provide behavior-analytic solutions where the emphasis is on consequential selection. The paper takes the reader through a cumulative series of explorations, discoveries, and insights that hopefully brings the reader into contact with the power and comprehensiveness of Goldiamond's approach, and leads to an investigation of the original works cited. The second purpose is to provide the context of a life of scientific discovery that attempts to elucidate the variables and events that informed one of the most extraordinary scientific journeys in the history of behavior analysis, and expose the reader (especially young ones) to the exciting process of discovery followed by one of the field's most brilliant thinkers. One may perhaps consider this article a tribute to Goldiamond and his work, but the tribute is really to the process of scientific discovery over a professional lifetime.     

Weighted constraints in generative linguistics

Harmonic Grammar (HG) and Optimality Theory (OT) are closely related formal frameworks for the study of language. In both, the structure of a given language is determined by the relative strengths of a set of constraints. They differ in how these strengths are represented: as numerical weights (HG) or as ranks (OT). Weighted constraints have advantages for the construction of accounts of language learning and other cognitive processes, partly because they allow for the adaptation of connectionist and statistical models. HG has been little studied in generative linguistics, however, largely due to influential claims that weighted constraints make incorrect predictions about the typology of natural languages, predictions that are not shared by the more popular OT. This paper makes the case that HG is in fact a promising framework for typological research, and reviews and extends the existing arguments for weighted over ranked constraints.     

The ‘We’ in ‘Me’: An Account of Minimal Relational Selfhood

Topoi - Many philosophers contend that selfhood involves a uniquely first-personal experiential dimension, which precedes any form of socially dependent selfhood. In this paper, I do not wish to...     

The second epistemic way revisited: Reply to Professor Beard's, ‘Professor Lucas on omniscience’

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

SLOTE ON RATIONAL DILEMMAS AND RATIONAL SUPEREROGATION

The so-called optimising conception of rationality includes (amongst other things) the following two claims: (i) that it is irrational to choose an option if you know there is a better one, and (ii) there are no situations in which an agent, through no practical fault of her own, cannot avoid acting irrationally. As part of his ongoing attempt to explain why we need to go beyond the optimising conception, Michael Slote discusses a number of examples in which it seems that (i) and (ii) are inconsistent. According to Slote, these situations seem to involve the existence of rational supererogation (a denial of (i)), or rational dilemmas (a denial of (ii)). The purpose of this paper is to examine Slote's arguments for these claims, and to propose an alternative solution to the problem he presents.     

Pornographic Materials and Commodity Theory

In a 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 (age restriction vs. no age restriction × sex of subject × pornography vs. nonpornography × pre-stimuli vs. post-stimuli test) factorial design, 40 males and 40 females received an experimental booklet containing either pornographic or nonpornographic pictures. Prior to seeing the pictures, half of the subjects of each sex were informed that the photographs came from magazines for adults only (21 years old and over), while the other half received no such information. Subjects were asked to rate the desirability of the pictures as well as their liking of and desire to read and purchase such materials prior to viewing and after viewing the pictures. The results indicated that (a) subjects who were not given age restriction information rated the yet unseen pictures more desirable than subjects who received age restriction information; (b) subjects who were given age restriction information rated the already seen pictures more desirable than subjects who received no age restriction information; (c) males rated pornographic pictures more favorably than did females; (d) subjects in the age restriction information condition expected the yet unseen pictures to be more pornographic than subjects in the no age restriction information condition; and (e) subjects, after seeing the stimuli, rated nonpornographic pictures more desirable than pornographic pictures. There was no support for the hypothesis that the effect of age restriction is an anticipatory phenomenon. The data in part supported and in part conflicted with Fromkin and Brock's (1973) proposition that imposing restrictions on the sale or purchase of pornographic materials will make these materials more attractive and desirable than they would be if there were no restrictions on them.     

The counseling assignment problem

A disposition index, DI, which provides information about each possible placement to be considered in a personnel classification situation is discussed. The index is readily computed by machine methods and can be used by counselors required to make assignments. The use of the disposition index provides an adequate approximation to optimal solutions obtained by other methods.This report is based on work done under ARDC Project No. 7702, Task No. 17051, in support of the research and development program of the Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Permission is granted for reproduction, translation, publication, use, and disposal in whole and in part by or for the United States Government.     

The futures of physicians: Agency and autonomy reconsidered

The corporatization of U.S. health care has directed cost containment efforts toward scrutinizing the clinical decisions of physicians. This stimulated a variety of new utilization management interventions, particularly in hospital and managed care settings. Recent changes in fee-for-service medicine and physicians' traditional agency relationships with patients, purchasers, and insurers are examined here. New information systems monitoring of physician ordering behavior has already begun to impact on physician autonomy and the relationship of physicians to provider organizations in both for-profit and ‘not-for-profit’ sectors. As managed care practice settings proliferate, serious ethical questions will be raised about agency relationships with patients. This article examines health system dynamics altering the historical agency relationship between the physician and patient and eroding the traditional autonomy of the medical profession in the United States. The corporatization of medicine and the accompanying information systems monitoring of physician productivity is seen to account of such change, now posing serious ethical dilemmas.