Reason and revelation: Kant and the problem of authority

This paper explores the significance of authority for Kant’s understanding of the relationship between reason and revelation. Beginning with the separation of the faculties of Theology and Philosophy in Conflict, it will be shown that Kant sees a clear distinction between the authority of reason and that of revelation. However, when one turns to Religion, it is also clear that Kant sees an important, perhaps necessary, relationship between the two. Drawing on a variety of texts, in particular those concerning the public and private use of reason, this paper then explores the relationship between the authority of reason and that of revelation. From this discussion, several conclusions will be drawn regarding Kant’s understanding of the relationship between reason and revelation, namely that while distinct, the two are not necessarily in conflict and that, ultimately, the proper functioning of public reason must include some reference to revelation.     

Instrumental performance on negative schedules

Three experiments examined the performance of rats pressing a lever for food reinforcement on a schedule in which high rates of response resulted in lowered rates of reinforcement (i.e. a schedule with a negative component). In Experiment 1, rats responded on a variable interval (VI) schedule with a conjoint component such that every 30 responses a reinforcement programmed by the VI schedule was cancelled. These subjects generally emitted a lower response rate than rats responding on a VI schedule yoked to the former subjects with respect to the delivery of reinforcement, although response rate differences were sometimes not large. Similar response-rate effects were obtained in Experiment 2 using a within-subject yoking procedure. In Experiment 3, reinforced interresponse times were matched on negative and VI schedules yoked in terms of reinforcement rate, and the response rate emitted in these conditions were similar. These results give support to theories of instrumental conditioning that stress the strengthening and shaping properties of reinforcement.     

"The Great Transformation" and suicide: local and long-lasting effects of 1930 bank suspensions

Depression-era bank suspensions and failures are conceptualized as products of the first part of what Polanyi (1994) called "The Great Transformation," which involved an imbalanced institutional arrangement in which the economy dominated other institutions. Relying on Durkheim (1897/1951) and Merton (1938, 1968), it is argued that these banking problems accentuated the type of chronic anomie that Durkheim theorized would create normative deregulation and elevated suicide rates over the long-term. Results from county-level analyses are supportive as the 1930 bank suspension rate is positively related to the 2000 suicide rate, controlling for contemporary and historical factors. The mediating roles of integration and chronic anomie are considered, with the latter measured using data from the geocoded General Social Survey.     

We're all career researchers now: breaking open career education and DOTS

This paper reviews career education in the UK's statutory, further and higher education sectors, and finds that, despite considerable changes in theory, provision remains based on the traditional DOTS model of decision learning, opportunity awareness, transition learning and self-awareness. It is argued that the persistent and hegemonic status of this model has delayed the adoption of innovative theory and the development of creative new frameworks. In order to provide policy and practice with new perspectives, a critical reassessment of the DOTS model is conducted, focusing on three areas: theoretical roots; individual-environment interpenetration; and self-opportunity matching. The role of students as career researchers, illustrated by examples drawn from current career education practice, is proposed to indicate new directions for both subject specialists and careers workers.     

Bringing Up Nones: Intergenerational Influences and Cohort Trends

Recent polls show that an increasing number of young adults profess no religious affiliation. Prior research has suggested several explanations for this, among them older ages at marriage, higher education rates, reaction against the priest/pedophile scandal, and political backlash against the religious right, as well as the traditional explanation of youthful rebellion against religious parents. In this article, we propose another theory: intergenerational transmission, an increase in the number of parents and grandparents who have been explicitly socializing their children to a nonreligious worldview. We use a mixed methods approach with data from the 34‐year Longitudinal Study of Generations to examine parents’ and grandparents’ influence on youth over several decades. The rate of nonreligious young persons in our sample tripled between 1971 and 2005. Though this undoubtedly reflects broader cohort trends, we can trace a significant portion of this growth to family intergenerational continuity brought about by explicitly nonreligious socialization by parents as well as grandparents. Qualitative data provide insight into processes of nonreligious influence over generations, seen in three types: multigenerational socialization of humanism, of atheism, and of the unintended socialization of “religious rebels” from highly religious parents.     

Relationship between contingency awareness and human performance on random ratio and random interval schedules

In three experiments, human participants pressed the space bar on a computer keyboard to earn points on random-ratio (RR) and random-interval (RI) schedules of reinforcement. Verbalized contingency awareness (CA) for each schedule was measured after the entire task (Experiments 1 and 2), or after each RR–RI trial (Experiment 3). In all three experiments, an ability to accurately verbalize the appropriate contingency for each schedule was associated with typical schedule responding. In addition, lagged correlational analysis of verbalized contingency awareness and schedule performance was undertaken in Experiment 3. Results of these correlations initially suggested that CA scores were better predictors of typical schedule performance on the following trial than typical schedule performance was of CA scores on the following trial; however, further analysis revealed no significant differences between the alternate lagged correlation types in each pair. Findings, therefore, suggest that operant performance on RR and RI schedules is associated with participant-derived rule governed behavior, and results are discussed in terms of the introduction of a new paradigm for measuring this association, and the potential for further research to manipulate these parameters further in order to investigate causality in this respect.