Deleuze's Use of Kant's Argument from Incongruent Counterparts

The aim of this paper is to explore Deleuze's use of Kant's argument from incongruent counterparts, which Kant uses to show the existence of what he calls an “internal difference” within things. I want to explore how Deleuze draws out an important distinction between the concept and the Idea, and provides an incisive account of his relationship to both the Kantian and Leibnizian projects. First, I look at Kant's use of the argument to provide a refutation of the Leibnizian account of space, before showing how this criticism in fact rests on the question of the conceptual determination of object. Second, I show how Deleuze develops a taxonomy of difference on the basis of his reading of Kant's argument. Finally, I look at what Deleuze sees as the limitations in Kant's understanding of this concept and Deleuze's attempt to overcome these limitations through the introduction of the notion of the Idea, which will provide a genetic and nonconceptual account of the object. In doing so, I show why Deleuze takes the formulation of an adequate account of difference to be one of the central aims of his own metaphysics.     

From cleaning up to helping out: Parental socialization and children's early prosocial behavior

Relations between parental socialization and infants’ prosocial behavior were investigated in sixty three 18- and 30-month old children. Parents’ socialization techniques (e.g., directives, negotiation, reasoning) differed for the two age groups, as did relations between socialization and different forms of emerging prosocial behavior (helping; sharing).     

Assaults in the air: Concerning attacks against flight attendants

Violence directed at airline personnel by passengers while an aircraft is in flight presents an interesting and uncommon form of deviant behavior that can inform the study of deviance in general. Such behavior has been identified by various observers as a growing social problem. This paper explores the phenomenon of assaults against flight attendants through analysis of official data including both case files and statistics, interviews with officials, and a multidisciplinary literature review. Specifically, we identify factors related to both the etiology of, and reactions toward such behavior. Factors related to etiology include (1) the physical environment of an aircraft; (2) the juxtaposition of status roles between passenger and attendant; (3) the exercise of authority as a precipitating event; (4) the pervasiveness of sexual stereotypes; (5) the consumption of alcohol and drugs; and (6) psychological changes related to the experience of flying. In examining the responses to assaults we discuss (1) the statutory laws regarding aircraft assaults; (2) patterns in official statistics; (3) factors related to the underreporting of such incidents; (4) reactions by companies, unions, and the government, including the politics of deviance‐defining; and (5) changes in patterns of response. Unlike common assaults, the offenders are almost exclusively middle‐ and upper‐class persons. Suggestions for further research are offered.     

Plans and Semantics in Human Processing of Language

The analogy between humans and computers as language processors has previously been exploited primarily with respect to the parsing or analysis phase of processing, as opposed to a synthesis phrase. Here we pursue the analogy on the synthesis side by positing cognitive algorithms that correspond to target language code generated by a compiler. We consider the computational resource demands of these cognitive algorithms and compare them to what is required to carry out syntactic and semantic processing. It is argued that cognitive demands are responsible for certain empirical results in developmental psycholinguistics that have previously been attributed to syntactic complexity. The analysis suggests new empirical studies whose results, in turn, provide support for the analysis.     

Emotion and prior knowledge in memory and judged comprehension of ambiguous stories

Abstract

Two experiments investigated the effects of experimentally induced mood states on memory and judged comprehension of stories. The experiments examined the issue of whether induction of a depressed mood would affect prose memory and comprehension and impair the ability of individuals to use prior knowledge, activated by way of a title, in remembering the passage. In Experiment 1, depressed subjects who were given a title for the passage recalled fewer idea units when compared with neutral control conditions, but no depressive deficit in recall occurred in the absence of a title. In Experiment 2 the same pattern of results occurred when subjects learned two successive passages. The depressive deficits obtained were interpreted in terms of a resource allocation model which proposes that emotional states increase the production of irrelevant, competing thoughts that interfere with processes important in remembering the criterion passage. Alternative explanations involving cognitive initiative and schema theory were discussed. Finally, judgments of comprehension predicted passage recall and were better predictors for neutral than depressed mood subjects. A depressed mood state did not affect average judgments of comprehension even when recall was correspondingly impaired.     

Book reviews

Colley, A. M. & Beech, J. R. (Eds.). (1988). Cognition and action in skilled behaviour. Amsterdam: North-Holland. Pp. 425. ISBN 0-444-70493-0. $108

Coltherat, M. Sartori, G. & Job, R. (Eds.) (1987). The cognitive neuropsychology of language. Hove & London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp. 416. ISBN 0-86377-036-3. £29.95

Shallice, T. (1988). From neuropsychology to mental structure. Cambridge: Cmbridge University Press. Pp. 462. ISBN 0-521-30874-7, £40.00 (hardback); ISBN 0-521-31360-0. £15.00 (paperback)

Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking: from intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Pp. 355. ISBN 0-262-12137-9. £35.95

Hargreaves, D. J. (Ed.) (1989). Children and the arts. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Pp: 176. ISBN 0335-098819, £27.50. 9 (hardback); ISBN 0335-098800, £9.90 (paperback).

De Valois, R. L. & De Valois, K. K. (1988). Spatial vision. New York: Oxford University Pass. Pp 381. ISBN 0-19-505019-3. £65.00