BLOCKING THE PATH FROM VAGUENESS TO FOUR DIMENSIONALISM*

There is a general form of an argument which I call the ‘argument from vagueness’ which attempts to show that objects persist by perduring, via the claim that vagueness is never ontological in nature and thus that composition is unrestricted. I argue that even if we grant that vagueness is always the result of semantic indeterminacy rather than ontological vagueness, and thus also grant that composition is unrestricted, it does not follow that objects persist by perduring. Unrestricted mereological composition lacks the power to ensure that there exist instantaneous objects that wholly overlap persisting objects at times, and thus lacks the power to ensure that there exists anything that could be called a temporal part. Even if we grant that such instantaneous objects exist, however, I argue that it does not follow that objects perdure. To show this I briefly outline a coherent version of three dimensionalism that grants just such an assumption. Thus considerations pertaining to the nature of vagueness need not lead us inevitably to accept perdurantism.     

The Metaphysical Equivalence Of Three And Four Dimensionalism

I argue that two competing accounts of persistence, three and four dimensionalism, are in fact metaphysically equivalent. I begin by clearly defining three and four dimensionalism, and then I show that the two theories are intertranslatable and equally simple. Through consideration of a number of different cases where intuitions about persistence are contradictory, I then go on to show that both theories describe these cases in the same manner. Further consideration of some empirical issues arising from the theory of special relativity lead me to conclude that the two theories are equally explanatory, and thus finally that they are metaphysically equivalent.     

Pathways to suicidal behaviors in childhood

Path analyses were applied to test a model that includes internalizing and externalizing behavior problems as predictors of suicidal behaviors in children. Parents of an inpatient sample of boys (N=87; M age=9.81 years) rated the frequency of suicidal ideation and completed standardized measures of behavior problems. Blind raters rated the severity of the children's suicidal behaviors. Results revealed a significant direct effect for suicidal ideation on suicide attempt and for depressive symptoms on suicidal ideation. There was also a significant indirect path from impulsivity to suicidal ideation through aggressive and depressive symptoms. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Identification and the development of competence: a 44-year longitudinal study from late adolescence to late middle age

The role of defense mechanisms in the development of planful competence (J. A. Clausen, 1993) was studied over a period of 44 years in participants from the Oakland Growth Study, who are part of the Intergenerational Studies of the Institute of Human Development. Planful competence was assessed on 4 occasions, from late adolescence (ages 15-18) to late middle age (age 62). The use of the defense mechanisms of denial, projection, and identification was assessed in late adolescence, based on Thematic Apperception Test (H. A. Murray, 1943) stories coded with the Defense Mechanism Manual (P. Cramer, 1991b). In late adolescence, the defense mechanism of identification was found to be positively related to competence, whereas the less mature defense of projection was related to lower levels of competence. For the group as a whole, hierarchical linear modeling (Bryk & Raudenbush, 1992) indicated that competence increased across the adult years, with a modest decline at late middle age. Individual differences for intraindividual change in competence were related to the use of identification: high use of identification in late adolescence was associated with relative stability in adult competence, whereas low use of identification in adolescence predicted changes in adult competence.     

The effect of gaze on gaze direction while looking at art

In highly controlled cuing experiments, conspecific gaze direction has powerful effects on an observer’s attention. We explored the generality of this effect by using paintings in which the gaze direction of a key character had been carefully manipulated. Our observers looked at these paintings in one of three instructional states (neutral, social, or spatial) while we monitored their eye movements. Overt orienting was much less influenced by the critical gaze direction than what the cuing literature might suggest: An analysis of the direction of saccades following the first fixation of the critical gaze showed that observers were weakly biased to orient in the direction of the gaze. Over longer periods of viewing, however, this effect disappeared for all but the social condition. This restriction of gaze as an attentional cue to a social context is consistent with the idea that the evolution of gaze direction detection is rooted in social communication. The picture stimuli from this experiment can be downloaded from the Psychonomic Society’s Archive of Norms, Stimuli, and Data, www.psychonomic.org/archive.     

How a supportive partner may increase relationship satisfaction

The way in which satisfaction with a romantic relationship may be affected by how supportive a partner is and how constructively they deal with conflict in that relationship was examined in young adults. Both greater support and less conflict were found to be independently associated with relationship satisfaction, implying that both are necessary for a satisfactory relationship. While support did not mitigate the possible effects of conflict on satisfaction, it may lead to more constructive conflict which in turn may enhance satisfaction. Support seen as being available as well as support that was received were independently associated with relationship satisfaction. Of the different forms of available support measured, only support reflecting being cared for was independently associated with relationship satisfaction. These results suggest that encouraging couples to be emotionally supportive to each other may improve the effectiveness of relationship counselling as well as relationship enhancement and problem prevention programmes.     

Talking About a Universalist World

The paper defends a combination of perdurantism with mereological universalism by developing semantics of temporary predications of the sort ’some P is/was/will be (a) Q’. We argue that, in addition to the usual application of causal and other restrictions on sortals, the grammatical form of such statements allows for rather different regimentations along three separate dimensions, according to: (a) whether ‘P’ and ‘Q’ are being used as phase or substance sortal terms, (b) whether ‘is’, ‘was’, and ‘will be’ are the ‘is’, ‘was’, ‘will be’ of identity or of constitution, and (c) whether ‘Q’ is being used as a subject or predicate term. We conclude that this latitude is beneficial, as it conforms with linguistic reality (i.e., the multiple uses actually in place) and also enables one to turn what is ordinarily perceived as a problem for universalist perdurantism viz., a commitment to all sorts of weird and gerrymandered temporally extended entities, into an advantage, for the richness in questions allows us to make sense of the many different readings of sentences of the same grammatical form.     

Socio-demographic conditions, subjective somatic health, Axis I disorders and personality disorders in the common population: the relationship to quality of life

Quality of life (QOL) was studied in a population of 2,065 subjects in Norway. A broad concept of QOL was applied, including subjective well-being, self-realization, negative life events, and a number of interpersonal relationships. The assessment of QOL, based on interview, was related to a number of socio-demographic variables, subjectively experienced somatic health, the most common Axis I disorders, and all Axis II personality disorders (PDs). The results of multivariate analyses showed that being female and living with a partner in the outskirts of a city and having good physical health are important positive correlates of QOL. Controlling for all these variables, major depression, dysthymic disorder, and somatoform disorders were the Axis I disorders that have a negative statistical effect on global QOL. Specific anxiety disorders did not add to the effects. Among the PDs, avoidant, schizotypal, paranoid, and schizoid PD traits were the most important statistical negative determinants of QOL, followed by borderline, dependent, antisocial, and also self-defeating and narcissistic PDs, restricted to some specific sub-indexes of QOL. The study also showed that our results vary and are sometimes the opposite, depending on the sub-index of QOL examined. The study showed that it is necessary to apply a broad concept of QOL to disclose the real nature or the relationship between mental disorders and QOL. Furthermore, demographic variables, subjectively experienced somatic health, Axis I disorders, and PD traits appeared to be independently associated with QOL.     

There is No <Emphasis Type="Italic">Simpliciter Simpliciter</Emphasis>

This paper identifies problems with indexicalism and abverbialism about temporary intrinsic properties, and solves them by disentangling two senses in which a particular may possess a property simpliciter. The first sense is the one identified by adverbialists in which a particular possesses at all times the property as a matter of foundational metaphysical fact regardless of whether it is manifest. The second involves building on adverbialism to produce a semantics for property-manifestation according to which different members of a family of second-order properties of the foundational property are relevant to property manifestation at different times.