Detachment and defeasibility in deontic logic

The purpose of the paper is to present a logical framework that allow to formalize a kind of prima facie duties, defeasible conditional duties, indefeasible conditional duties and actual (indefeasible) duties, as well as to show their logical interconnections.     

The effects of vocal variation on listener recall

The effects of variations in speaker rate and pitch on listener recall were studied. One hundred and twenty participants listened to an audiotape of one of two individuals speaking in one of four different styles-low variation in both rate and pitch, variation in rate but not in pitch, variation in pitch but not in rate, and variation in both rate and pitch. After hearing the audiotape, listeners were tested on the information in the presentation; they also completed questionnaires rating the speaker's benevolence and competence. Results indicated that the combined effect of pitch and rate variety significantly increased listener recall over no variety or pitch variety or rate variety alone. Additionally, pitch variety and combined pitch and rate variety significantly increased attributions of speaker competence over no variety or rate variety alone, but significantly decreased attributions of speaker benevolence.     

Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Client Spiritual Development: Counseling Implications

The spiritual development of sexually traumatized clients is an important area of concern for counselors. In this paper, spirituality is defined, and its relevance for counselors who work with childhood sexual abuse survivors is discussed. Impact of abuse on client spirituality is described, and several suggestions are given for assessment and intervention approaches that address spiritual issues as part of the counseling process.     

Text Comprehension Training for Disabled Readers: An Evaluation of Reciprocal Teaching and Text Analysis Training Programs

Forty-six reading disabled adolescents were randomly assigned to one of three 25-hr instructional programs. Two programs provided training in expository text comprehension, and a third offered training in academic problem solving and organizational and study skills (an alternative treatment control). One reading comprehension program was designed to remediate a deficient knowledge base, forcing disabled readers to elaborate and further process new text knowledge, focusing on both specific informational content in a text and knowledge of text structure per se. The second program was patterned after the Palincsar and Brown (1984) reciprocal teaching techniques and focused on training four text comprehension strategies used by skilled comprehenders. Both the “knowledge-base” and the “strategy” training approaches were associated with significant improvement in disabled readers' comprehension skills, although training effects did not generalize across all aspects of reading comprehension performance. Strategy-trained readers applied the trained strategies with equal success on instructed and uninstructed text materials, providing strong evidence of transfer of learning. Knowledge-base readers also demonstrated successful transfer of specifically trained procedures (semantic mapping, text analysis) to unfamiliar text. In both programs, the best outcomes were obtained when specific strategies and operations were targeted for training.     

CHRISTIANITY AND EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS: SKETCH TOWARD A RECONCILIATION

Abstract. Evolutionary ethics posits the evolution of dispositions to love self, kin, and friend. Christianity claims that God's ethical demand is to love one's neighbor. I argue that the distance between these two positions can be interpreted theologically as original sin, the disposition to disobey God's command and practice self-love and nepotism rather than neighbor-love. Original sin requires Incarnation and Atonement to unite God and humanity. The ancient doctrine of the Atonement as educative does not invoke the Fall. Its revival may help reconcile Christianity and evolutionary ethics.     

Compassion: An east‐west comparison

Compassion is an emotion that occupies a central position in Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy while it is often a neglected subject in contemporary western philosophy. This essay is a comparison between an Eastern view of compassion based upon Mahāyāna Buddhist perspectives and a western view of the same emotion. Certain principles found in Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy such as the Bodhisattva Ideal, and suffering (dukkha) to name two, are explored for the information they contain about compassion. An essay by Lawrence Blum is taken as representative of a Western view (but not exclusively) and it is analyzed for its shortcomings in light of the Buddhist view. The conclusion briefly describes the value of understanding an eastern view on compassion as a means of filling the void one finds in western medical ethics discourse which focuses so heavily, and redundantly, upon issues such as patient autonomy and paternalism.     

Marketing human organs: The autonomy paradox

The severe shortage of organs for transplantation and the continual reluctance of the public to voluntarily donate has prompted consideration of alternative strategies for organ procurement. This paper explores the development of market approaches for procuring human organs for transplantation and considers the social and moral implications of organ donation as both a “gift of life” and a “commodity exchange.” The problematic and paradoxical articulation of individual autonomy in relation to property rights and marketing human body parts is addressed. We argue that beliefs about proprietorship over human body parts and the capacity to provide consent for organ donation are culturally constructed. We contend that the political and economic framework of biomedicine, in western and non-western nations, influences access to transplantation technology and shapes the form and development of specific market approaches. Finally, we suggest that marketing approaches for organ procurement are and will be negotiated within cultural parameters constrained by several factors: beliefs about the physical body and personhood, religious traditions, economic conditions, and the availability of technological resources.     

Predictability,controllability, and inoculation against learned helplessness

Nondepressed human subjects were divided into seven groups. On a series of discrimination problems, a helplessness group received insoluble problems, a solvable group received contingent feedback, and a no treatment control group received no feedback. For two other groups insoluble problems were preceded by success feedback on a different task presented according to a fixed ratio (FR) or variable ratio (VR) schedule of reinforcement. Two control groups received either FR or VR schedules of success but were not examined on the discrimination problems. All groups were tested for escape/avoidance performance on a human shuttle box. Both FR and VR schedules produced an inoculation against learned helplessness; escape performance by the helplessness group was significantly worse than that of FR and VR inoculation groups. These latter groups performed similar to the solvable and three control groups. Significantly worse than that of FR and VR inoculation groups. These latter groups performed similar to the solvable and three control groups. Significantly fewer subjects in the VR inoculation group exhibited avoidance responses than their counterparts in the FR inoculation group. despite similar escape performance. The findings indicate that learned helplessness can be prevented in humans and suggest different sources of interference produced by unpredictable and uncontrollable events.