The Al Qaeda 9/11 instructions: a study in the construction of religious martyrdom

A growing global concern about suicide attacks has led to attempts from various disciplines to understand the psychological profiles of persons willing to commit suicide terrorist attacks. Recent reports have suggested that more powerful explanatory models might be discovered using social psychological concepts, with a shift of focus from the individual to the group within which the individual acts and by which the individual is influenced. This paper attempts to do so by presenting an analysis of the Al Qaeda ‘final instructions’ document, which sheds light on the way members of this group were mobilised towards conducting one of the most devastating assaults in modern history. We discuss the use of religious doctrine and rhetorical devices as a psychological strategy employed by this group to inspire, control and mobilise its members before and during the September 11, 2001, attacks.     

Taken with Surprise: Critical Incidents in Teaching

Abstract. This collection of essays tackles thorny questions related to critical incidents in teaching. By using different pedagogical methods and techniques, each author provokes creative thinking about how to address specific concerns common to teaching. The authors demonstrate that the teaching and learning process must make room for – if not celebrate – the surprises that happen not only to the students, but to the teachers as well. The discussion of critical incidents helps to promote reflection on teaching practice and prompt insights into the intricate dynamics shaping the increasingly diverse learning community. Each individual essay is accompanied by reflection questions that can be used to spark conversation among colleagues and/or prompt further personal reflection on teaching and learning.     

Epistemic Injustice The Third Way?

In response to Miranda Fricker's advocacy of a virtue of 'reflexive critical openness', I emphasise the importance of other virtues, such as loyalty, in evaluating an agent's response to testimony, and I query Fricker's claim that in certain circumstances agents can lack a means to correct their faulty evaluations of another's testimony     

Ontogenesis and Phylogenesis in the Analysis of Chinese Classifiers： Remarks on Philosophical Method

Philosophical analysis is commonly assumed to involve decomposing the meaning of a sentence or an expression into a set of conceptually basic constituent parts. This essay challenges this traditional view by examining the potential semantic roles that classifier phrases play in Chinese. It is suggested that the conceptual resources necessary for justifying claims about the semantical status of natural language classifier phrases should be informed in part by methods that accommodate ontogenic and evolutionary contexts. Evidence is provided for the view that many Chinese classifiers （but not all） are features regimented in the grammar of Chinese that have no functional role in normal adult communication, but which play an ontogenetic role in the child＇s development of linguistic competency. Furthermore, it is suggested that this ontogenetic role has features in common with the phylogenetic processes by which Chinese or its classical variants came about, as a later product of mechanisms that evolved in the species in accordance with varying demands for successful communication.     

Counting by Identity: A Reply to Liebesman

David Liebesman (AJP, 2015) argues that we never count by identity. He generalizes from an argument that we don't do so with sentences indicating fractions, or with measurement sentences on their supposed count readings. In response, I argue that measurement sentences aren't covered by the thesis that we count by identity, in part because they don't have count readings. Then I use the data to which Liebesman appeals, in his argument that we don't count by identity using measurement sentences, in order to rebut his argument that we don't count by identity using sentences indicating fractions.     

Confidently Biased: Comparisons with Anchors Bias Estimates and Increase Confidence

Across a wide variety of situations, exposure to anchors has been shown to bias people's estimates. What is not known, however, is whether externally provided anchors influence the confidence that people have in their estimates. Our studies had two goals. First, we tested whether exposure to anchors influenced people's subjective confidence levels (Studies 1 and 2). These studies revealed that people who made estimates after making comparisons with externally provided anchors tended to be more confident in their estimates than people who did not see anchors. The second goal was to test two explanations as to why anchors increase people's confidence. In Study 3, we tested the explanation that anchors increase confidence because participants thought the anchors provided useful information. In Study 4, we tested the explanation that exposure to anchors causes people to consider a narrower range of plausible values as compared to when not exposed to anchors. Support was found only for the explanation that comparisons with anchors increase confidence because people who are exposed to anchors consider a narrower range of plausible values. Taken together, these studies reveal the powerful influence anchors can have—they not only bias estimates, but also increase people's confidence in their biased estimates. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Law, Convention and Objectivity: Comments on Kramer

Since I do not disagree with the line of argument taken by Kramer and the distinctions he draws between the different ways rules can be ‘mind-independent’, my comments focus on some of the complexities involved in the application of his distinctions. I suggest that law, properly understood as a system of rules/conventions is both existentially and observationally weakly mind independent, but nonetheless objective.

Women’s Right to Autonomy and Identity in European Human Rights Law: Manifesting One’s Religion

Freedom of religious expression is to many a fundamental element of their identity. Yet the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights on the Islamic headscarf issue does not refer to autonomy and identity rights of the individual women claimants. The case law focuses on Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides a legal human right to freedom of religious expression. The way that provision is interpreted is critically contrasted here with the right to personal autonomy and identity now developed by that court in interpreting Article 8 which contains a right to respect one’s private life.

The Medical Humanities Today: Humane Health Care or Tool of Governance?

The medical humanities have been presented as a panacea for medical reductionism; a means for 'humanizing' medicine. However, there is a lack of consensus about the appropriate contributing disciplines and how curricula should be taught and assessed. This special issue critically examines the role of the medical humanities in medical education and their potential to serve, inadvertently or otherwise, as a tool of governance. The contributors, who include medical educators and medical practitioners, employ a range of perspectives for analysing the pertinent issues.     

Accelerated cognitive aging in diabetic rats is prevented by lowering corticosterone levels

Diabetes and normal aging are both characterized by increases in levels of glucocorticoids. Because long-term exposure to elevated glucocorticoids can be detrimental to hippocampal function, we evaluated the performance of young diabetic rats in the 14-unit T-maze, a task that is sensitive to hippocampal deficits. To assess the contribution of diabetes-induced elevations in corticosterone levels, we examined maze learning in diabetic rats that had levels of corticosterone 'clamped' through adrenalectomy and low-dose corticosterone replacement. For comparison, we also tested a separate group of young and aged rats in the maze. Adrenally intact diabetic rats learned poorly in the 14-unit T-maze. Preventing the increases in corticosterone levels that accompanies the onset of experimental diabetes also prevented deficits in complex maze learning. The pattern of errors made by adrenally intact diabetic rats was similar to the pattern of errors made by aged rats, suggesting that the cognitive profiles of diabetic and aged rats share common features.