L’expertise judiciaire n’est pas un préalable obligatoire au changement de sexe à l’état civil pour les personnes transsexuelles

The changing of the sex designation on the civil status for transsexual persons in France is not governed by the legislator but by the case law, the Court of cassation. This system is now insufficient, given the unequal treatment between citizens among jurisdictions. Courts and ministerial orders cannot compensate such a situation. A legislative intervention seems to be necessary. The recent decisions from the Court of cassation have awakened fears regarding the so-called obligation of a legal and medical examination before a changing of the sex designation. We do consider that it is not a preliminary stage to succeed for such a proceeding.     

Problems for Dogmatism

I argue that its appearing to you that P does not provide justification for believing that P unless you have independent justification for the denial of skeptical alternatives – hypotheses incompatible with P but such that if they were true, it would still appear to you that P. Thus I challenge the popular view of ‘dogmatism,’ according to which for some contents P, you need only lack reason to suspect that skeptical alternatives are true, in order for an experience as of P to justify belief that P. I pursue three lines of objection to dogmatism, having to do with probabilistic reasoning, considerations of future or hypothetically available justification, and epistemic circularity. I briefly sketch a fall-back position which avoids the problems raised.     

Comparing Exemplar- and Rule-Based Theories of Categorization

ABSTRACT— We address whether human categorization behavior is based on abstracted rules or stored exemplars. Although predictions of both theories often mimic each other in many designs, they can be differentiated. Experimental data reviewed does not support either theory exclusively. We find participants use rules when the stimuli are confusable and exemplars when they are distinct. By drawing on the distinction between simple stimuli (such as lines of various lengths) and complex ones (such as words and objects), we offer a dynamic view of category learning. Initially, categorization is based on rules. During learning, suitable features for discriminating stimuli may be gradually learned. Then, stimuli can be stored as exemplars and used to categorize novel stimuli without recourse to rules.     

古典中国哲学中身体的意义

作者在区分“两极相关论”和“二元对立论”的基础上,从中国先秦哲学文献中梳理出有关身体的观念如“身”、“形”和“体”等概念,认为中国传统的身体观念倾向于用“过程”而不是用实体语言来表达。身心之间是“两极相关”而非“二元对立”的,双方互为必要条件,也只有在互涉的情况下,身心才能够得到理解。“人”被视为一个整体的身心交关的过程。在过程本体论中,每一个特定的个体都是每一个“他者”的结果。每一个特定的个体既是自我决定的,同时又是被每一个其他的特定个体所决定的。那些构成存在的各个个体实际上是“自我”的构成性成分。     

On component analyses

Principal components analysis can be redefined in terms of the regression of observed variables upon component variables. Two criteria for the adequacy of a component representation in this context are developed and are shown to lead to different component solutions. Both criteria are generalized to allow weighting, the choice of weights determining the scale invariance properties of the resulting solution. A theorem is presented giving necessary and sufficient conditions for equivalent component solutions under different choices of weighting. Applications of the theorem are discussed that involve the components analysis of linearly derived variables and of external variables.Preparation of this article was supported in part by National Institute of Aging Grant NIA-AG03164-03 to William Meredith.     

Sex-role stereotypes and clinical judgments of mental health: The Brovermans' findings reexamined

This study attempted to evaluate the progress of mental health professionals regarding sex-role stereotyping in clinical functioning, identified as a problem over 10 years ago by Broverman et al. (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1970, 34, 1–7). A comparable format and questionnaire were used in order to replicate faithfully the earlier study and facilitate past-present comparisons. One hundred four psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers were randomly assigned to three instruction-set conditions in completing the Stereotype Questionnaire: sexunspecified adult instruction set, female instruction set, and male instruction set. No significant differences were found related to sex of clinician. A significant effect (p<.001) was found for social desirability and what was judged as healthy for sex-unspecified adults. No significant relationship was found, however, for social desirability of traits and conventional sex-role stereotypes. Based on the results of this study it is possible to speculate either that the Boverman results were primarily an artifact of their forced-choice methodology or that progress has been made in a more nonsexist direction among mental health professionals. Limitations of this research are presented and considered relative to the Brovermans' study. The basically attitudinal nature of this work is noted and the question is raised as to whether nonsexist attitudes are translated into nonsexist clinical functioning.     

Sex roles,stress, and distress: A study of person by situation contingency

Literature on the relationship between sex roles and adjustment has suggested that masculine traits, rather than the androgynous interaction of masculine and feminine traits, are associated with positive adjustment. Studies with noncollege student populations, however, raise questions as to the generalizability of these findings. Suggestions that sex role traits are associated with particular defensive styles raise the possibility that the sex role-adjustment link is mediated by situational factors. The present study assessed sex role orientation, depression, hostility, and stress in 105 students of nursing. Femininity predicted positive vocational adjustment within the group, masculinity was associated with lower levels of depression, and femininity predicted lower hostility. Within the sex role orientations studied, androgynous nurses reported lower depression and vocational stress than their undifferentiated counterparts. It is suggested that feminine sex roles, promoting an internalization of threat, aid positive adjustment in settings marked by joint instrumental and interpersonal demands.     

Intensional and extensional analogy items: Differences in performance as a function of academic major and sex

Is there a relationship between academic field and ability to use different types of semantic relation? Performance on two types of analogy item in the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test was compared. Intensional relations are inherent in the meanings of the words and are based on shared or contrasting properties (e. g. farmer:person, breeze:gale, alive: dead, beggar: poor). Extensional relations reflect empirical relations between things in the world and are based on contiguity or causality (e. g.farmer:tractor, road:sidewalk, flu:headache). Performance on the two kinds of analogy items was compared for a single administration of the GRE for English and History majors (verbal group, n = 2238) and electrical engineering, computer science, and mathematics majors (practical group, n = 2143). The verbal group did better on intensional, and the practical group did better on extensional analogies. The difference was not explained by a correlated gender difference by which women did better on intensional and men did better on extensional items. Thus differences in the ability to use intensional and extensional relations was related to academic training, although the direction of this relationship was not established.