Philosophy of Language and Meta-Ethics

Meta-ethical discussions commonly distinguish 'subjectivism' from 'emotivism', or 'expressivism'. But Frank Jackson and Philip Pettit have argued that plausible assumptions in the philosophy of language entail that expressivism collapses into subjectivism. Though there have been responses to their argument, I think the responses have not adequately diagnosed the real weakness in it. I suggest my own diagnosis, and defend expressivism as a viable theory distinct from subjectivism.     

Gender and Suicide Risk: The Role of Wound Site

That males have higher suicide rates than females is one of the most empirically documented social facts in suicidology, but the reasons for this continue to be debated. For the present paper, we tested a neglected contributing factor to the gender suicide ratio: wound site or the area of the body that is wounded in firearm suicides. Males may have a higher suicide rate, in part, due to their greater likelihood than women for shooting themselves in the head as opposed to the body. This has been related to gender differences in fear of facial disfigurement and suicide intent. Data from the Wayne County Medical examiner's office regarding 807 suicides committed with firearms was analyzed. The dependent variable was dichotomous and referred to the location of the site of the wound: gunshot to the head vs. gunshot to the body. Controls for demographic covariates of suicide included age and race of the suicide victim. The results of the multivariate logistic regression analysis determined that women were 47% less apt than men to shoot themselves in the head. Further analysis determined that women were less apt than men to use shotguns and rifles in their suicides (weapons that make head shooting more awkward). The findings are consistent with the notion that women are more concerned than men with facial disfigurement, and that women have a lower desire to die than men.     

About the Contributors

Introduction

About the Contributors     

Brain potentials related to seeing one''s own name

Subjects were assigned an assumed name and then shown a series of statements of the form, "My name / is / X", where X was the assumed name, their own first name, or one of a set of other false names. Their task was to respond positively to the "assumed" name and reject as false all other names, including their own. An N380 feature of the averaged task-related brain potentials, considered to be inversely related to the degree of contextual priming, was greatly enhanced for the false names compared to the assumed name. The N380 to one's own name was more similar to that of the false than the assumed name, indicating that the sentence context's priming of various names was under the subjects' attentional control, and that the late negativity could be modulated by this attention. In contrast, a large P510 feature distinguished one's own name from the false name, and this difference was unaffected by practice. Even in cases, then, where the context allows anticipation of one verbal event (here, the assumed name), a highly overlearned and salient stimulus such as one's own name continues to produce a distinctive neural response.