What is the Grounding Problem?

A philosophical standard in the debates concerning material constitution is the case of a statue and a lump of clay, Lumpl and Goliath respectively. According to the story, Lumpl and Goliath are coincident throughout their respective careers. Monists hold that they are identical; pluralists that they are distinct. This paper is concerned with a particular objection to pluralism, the Grounding Problem. The objection is roughly that the pluralist faces a legitimate explanatory demand to explain various differences she alleges between Lumpl and Goliath, but that the pluralist’s theory lacks the resources to give any such explanation. In this paper, I explore the question of whether there really is any problem of this sort. I argue (i) that explanatory demands that are clearly legitimate are easy for the pluralist to meet; (ii) that even in cases of explanatory demands whose legitimacy is questionable the pluralist has some overlooked resources; and (iii) there is some reason for optimism about the pluralist’s prospects for meeting every legitimate explanatory demand. In short, no clearly adequate statement of a Grounding Problem is extant, and there is some reason to believe that the pluralist can overcome any Grounding Problem that we haven’t thought of yet.     

First-Order da Costa Logic

Priest (2009) formulates a propositional logic which, by employing the worldsemantics for intuitionist logic, has the same positive part but dualises the negation, to produce a paraconsistent logic which it calls ‘Da Costa Logic’. This paper extends matters to the first-order case. The paper establishes various connections between first order da Costa logic, da Costa’s own C_ω, and classical logic. Tableau and natural deductions systems are provided and proved sound and complete.     

Disruption of visual feature binding in working memory

In a series of five experiments, we studied the effect of a visual suffix on the retention in short-term visual memory of both individual visual features and objects involving the binding of two features. Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2 involved suffixes consisting of features external to the to-be-remembered set and revealed a modest but equivalent disruption on individual and bound feature conditions. Experiments 3A and 3B involved suffixes comprising features that could potentially have formed part of the to-be-remembered set (but did not on that trial). Both experiments showed greater disruption of retention for objects comprising bound features than for their individual features. The results are interpreted as differentiating two components of suffix interference, one affecting memory for features and bindings equally, the other affecting memory for bindings. The general component is tentatively identified with the attentional cost of operating a filter to prevent the suffix from entering visual working memory, whereas the specific component is attributed to the particular fragility of bound representations when the filter fails.     

Peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and high salivary cortisol predict poorer memory in children

The predictive relations of peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and salivary cortisol on memory in 168 children aged 12 at Time 1 (T1) were examined using a longitudinal design in which data were collected on four occasions over a 2-year period. Results indicated that: (1) peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and evening cortisol were stable over time, (2) peer victimization and elevated symptoms of depression were concurrently linked at each time, (3) T1 peer victimization predicted elevated symptoms of depression at T2 which in turn predicted lower cortisol levels at T3, and (4) controlling for earlier associations, T3 peer victimization, depressive symptoms, and higher morning and evening cortisol levels uniquely predicted memory deficits at T4. The links between elevated cortisol, symptoms of depression, and poor memory are consistent with published research on depressed adults and extend the findings to children exposed to peer victimization. These findings highlight that peer abuse is harmful and may impact children's long-term mental health and memory functioning.     

Primary care providers' views regarding assessing and treating suicidal patients

Primary care providers (PCPs) usually do not explore patient suicidality during routine visits. Factors that predict PCP attitudes toward the assessment and treatment of suicidality were examined via an online survey of 195 practicing PCPs affiliated with medical schools in the United States. PCPs who perceived themselves as competent to work with suicidal patients were more willing to assess and more willing to treat suicidal patients, with the perception of competency fully explaining the relationship between training and willingness to treat. Female gender predicted lower self-perceived competency, while in-office access to professional mental health (MH) consultation predicted greater self-perceived competency. Higher self-perceived general competence predicted lower subjective valuation of access to MH consultation. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated a three-way interaction between training, gender, and valuation of MH consultation as predictors of perceived competency, with training generally being associated with greater perceived competency to treat suicidality. Relative to their male counterparts, female PCPs have lower confidence in assessing and treating suicidality. Perceived competence in risk assessment should be given more attention in medical training because of its role in PCPs' willingness to treat suicidality.     

Public attitudes toward stuttering in Turkey: probability versus convenience sampling

Purpose: A Turkish translation of the Public Opinion Survey of Human Attributes-Stuttering (POSHA-S) was used to compare probability versus convenience sampling to measure public attitudes toward stuttering. Method: A convenience sample of adults in Eski?ehir, Turkey was compared with two replicates of a school-based, probability cluster sampling scheme. Results: The two replicates of the probability sampling scheme yielded similar demographic samples, both of which were different from the convenience sample. Components of subscores on the POSHA-S were significantly different in more than half of the comparisons between convenience and probability samples, indicating important differences in public attitudes. Conclusions. If POSHA-S users intend to generalize to specific geographic areas, results of this study indicate that probability sampling is a better research strategy than convenience sampling.Educational objectives: The reader will be able to: (1) discuss the difference between convenience sampling and probability sampling; (2) describe a school-based probability sampling scheme; and (3) describe differences in POSHA-S results from convenience sampling versus probability sampling.     

A hundred flowers

The paper discusses where philosophy is going at the moment. Various current trends are singled out for comment. It then moves to the question of where it ought to be going. After a brief discussion of what this question means, it concludes that no guidance can be given except that each philosopher should pursue what they think to be important.     

Emerging research on intergroup prosociality: Group members' charitable giving,positive contact,allyship, and solidarity with others

This paper describes an emerging body of work on intergroup prosociality, drawing together parallel literatures and highlighting some of the themes of the recent research. A broad distinction between benevolence and activism serves as the foundation to explore forms of intergroup prosociality, such as charitable giving, displays of empathy and affirmation (positive and supportive contact), allyship, and solidarity. Gaps and implications for future research are discussed. For example, we propose that it may be useful to distinguish allyship, defined as advocacy for others motivated by the values and norms of the ingroup for its own ends, from solidarity, defined as advocacy on behalf of others from the perspective of a shared, inclusive group. We propose that articulating the similarities between these various forms of intergroup prosociality, and testing the differences, will be a useful direction of future research.