Rethinking the Priority of Practical Reason in Kant

Throughout the critical period Kant enigmatically insists that reason is a ‘unity’, thereby suggesting that both our theoretical and practical endeavors are grounded in one and the same rational capacity. How Kant's unity thesis ought to be interpreted and whether it can be substantiated remain sources of controversy in the literature. According to the strong reading of this claim, reason is a ‘unity’ because all our reasoning, including our theoretical reasoning, functions practically. Although several prominent commentators endorse this view, it is widely thought to lack exegetical support. This paper seeks to strengthen the case for this reading by showing how theoretical reason's positive function, as Kant presents it in the Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic, may be construed as fundamentally practical. I argue that reason's supreme regulative principle ought to be understood as a categorical practical imperative. This interpretation, I suggest, resolves the apparent inconsistencies that blight Kant's account of the principle in the Appendix, while bringing greater overall coherence to his account of theoretical reason's regulative function.     

Framing Effects in International Relations

Framing is the least well-developed central concept of prospect theory. Framing is both fundamental to prospect theory and remarkably underdeveloped in the prospect theory literature. This paper focuses on the many subtypes and variations of framing: thematic vs. evaluative; successful vs. failed; productive vs. counterproductive; purposeful, structural and interactive framing; counterframing; loss frames vs. gain frames; revolving framing vs. sequential framing; framing by a third party; and framing vs. priming. The bulk of the paper provides an analysis of framing and framing effects in foreign policy settings with an emphasis on U.S. foreign policy. We highlight framing effects during the Cold War, the Persian Gulf War, the current ``war on terrorism', and other IR/foreign policy settings. Our examination highlights the extent to which presidents and other significant world leaders use framing to shape policy debates and national security choices.     

'IT SEEMED TO HAVE TO DO WITH SOMETHING ELSE …': HENRY JAMES'S WHAT MAISIE KNEW AND BION'S THEORY OF THINKING

This article argues that what Maisie knew, as conveyed to readers of James's novel, can fruitfully be considered and interpreted in terms of Bion's theory of thinking, and especially his concepts of K and -K and the container/contained relationship. It is shown that James describes a containing relationship that Maisie, the child protagonist, has with her nurse, and the gradual growth of such a relationship in Maisie's own psyche, leading to her capacity to learn from experience. James's text is shown to contain striking instances of the creation and the destruction of meaning (K and -K) by the adults close to Maisie. It is argued that Maisie's own choice to make links and to desire knowledge is made through her complex experience of the oedipal situation, which gives her opportunities to see herself in 'the third position' (Britton, 1998). Maisie's eventual decision about her life, made by herself in the absence of any adequate parent, is based on the unconscious knowledge that destruction of meaning poisons the mind, and she must do her best to avoid it.     

Working with children with Asperger's Syndrome in the mainstream classroom: A psychodynamic take from the chalk face

There has been considerable discussion by those involved in teaching children with special educational needs (SENs) about how to appropriately categorize children with difficulties in learning. Increasingly, a social inclusion model of SEN has come to the fore in mainstream schools across the developed world. Asperger's Syndrome (AS), however, has presented a challenge to inclusionary approaches. This paper, based on the experiences of a teacher working with a child with AS in the mainstream classroom, explores the role of emotions in relation to the obsessional interests of children with AS. Particular reference is paid to the work of later object relations theorists on the emotional role of rigid patterns of thinking, behaviour and obsessional interest in AS. The possibility that an implicit deficit model may at times be relevant to the development of ‘live’ communication and learning for children with AS in the mainstream classroom is considered. Possible management strategies in the classroom in relation to obsessive interests are discussed.     

Interplay between action and movement intentions during social interaction

Observing the movements of another person influences the observer's intention to execute similar movements. However, little is known about how action intentions formed prior to movement planning influence this effect. In the experiment reported here, we manipulated the congruency of movement intentions and action intentions in a pair of jointly acting individuals (i.e., a participant paired with a confederate coactor) and investigated how congruency influenced performance. Overall, participants initiated actions faster when they had the same action intention as the coactor (i.e., when participants and the coactor were pursuing the same conceptual goal). Participants' responses were also faster when their and the coactor's movement intentions were directed to the same spatial location, but only when participants had the same action intention as the coactor. These findings suggest that observers use the same representation to implement their own action intentions that they use to infer other people's action intentions and also that a dynamic, multitiered intentional mechanism is involved in the processing of other people's actions.     

Social competence and family environment: 15-year follow-up of disturbed adolescents

Measures of familial emotional climate and communication deviance, obtained when subjects were adolescents, were used to predict social adjustment 15 years later. The results showed that disturbed family functioning predicted poor quality of later intimate relationships, but did not predict other dimensions of adult social functioning.