THE WAR CONVENTION AND THE MORAL DIVISION OF LABOUR

My claim is that despite powerful arguments to the contrary, a coherent moral distinction between the jus in bello code and the jus ad bellum code can be sustained. In particular, I defend the traditional just war doctrine according to which the independence between the in bello and ad bellum codes reflects the moral equality between just and unjust combatants and between just and unjust non-combatants. In order to establish this, I construe an in bello proportionality condition which can be satisfied by just and unjust combatants alike.     

The relationship between interests-job incongruity and selection of avocational activity

The present paper presents two independent studies (n₁ = 240, n₂ = 66, respectively) conducted in two different countries, and which were designed to investigate the function of leisure activities for people with varying degrees of vocational congruence. The results of the studies showed similar trends and thus, provided a cross validation to the findings. Following S. Parker (The future of work and leisure. New York, Praeger, 1971), a distinction was made between extension compensation, and neutral functions for avocational activity choice, with corresponding inventories measuring each of them. Little more than a third of the people reported their leisure activities to be neutral avocations pursued for relaxation and tension release. Taken together, the results show the following trends: (1) people tend to select leisure activities congruent with their personality pattern; (2) people in congruent occupations were vocationally satisfied and conceived their preferred activities as an extension of the type of activities they do at work; (3) people in incongruent occupations are vocationally dissatisfied, and compensate for this by selecting compensatory leisure activities and they tend to show higher salience for their avocational activities. The distinction amongst the various leisure activity functions seems to be crucial for further research in selection of avocational activities; this may prove useful in counseling people to choose an appropriate leisure activity. It may especially benefit those in incongruent occupations.     

Individual differences in the visual component of prism adaptation

The centrality of individual differences in the visual component of perceptual adaptation was examined in a massed-practice-terminal-exposure, prism-viewing paradigm. With positive (adaptive) adjustments in the judgment of the visual straight-ahead, target-pointing aftereffects were found to be equivalent to the sum of the visual and proprioceptive (head-arm) aftereffects. For subjects showing negative visual adjustments to prism exposure, the target-pointing aftereffect was not significantly different from the change in proprioception alone. Implications of these findings for hypotheses concerning the process of perceptual adaptation are discussed.     

Essays: RELIGIOUS MEDICAL ETHICS: A Study of the Rulings of Rabbi Waldenberg

This article seeks to examine how religious ideas that are not the focus of a particular halakhic question become the crux of the ruling, thereby molding it and dictating its bias. We will attempt to demonstrate this through a study of Jewish medical ethics, based on some of the rulings of one of the greatest halakhic decisors of the previous generation: Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Waldenberg (1915–2006). Rabbi Waldenberg molds his rulings on the basis of a religious principle asserting that the legitimacy of any medical procedure is qualified and limited. Rabbi Waldenberg rejects certain accepted medical practices, including plastic surgery, in vitro fertilization, and organ transplants. Even if these procedures are regarded by other halakhic decisors as being legitimate, for Rabbi Waldenberg they are ethically and religiously improper, and therefore they are halakhically forbidden.     

Is separation anxiety in adolescents and parents related to parental differentiation of self?

The current study examined the relationship between separation anxiety in adolescents after their transition to middle school, on the one hand, and differentiation of self and separation anxiety in their parents, on the other hand. The sample included 88 adolescents from northern Israel, together with their biological parents. Adolescents' separation anxiety was found to be negatively associated with maternal I-position (IP). In terms of gender differences, mothers' levels of emotional reactivity and fusion with others were higher than fathers', while fathers' levels of IP and emotional cut-off were higher than mothers'. Furthermore, parents' levels of differentiation of self were negatively correlated with their own levels of separation anxiety. The study found an absence of gender differences in separation anxiety, both for parents and adolescents. Also, parents' separation anxiety was not related to adolescents' separation anxiety. The results indicate that differentiation of self among mothers is a significant characteristic in understanding adolescents' separation anxiety. On a practical level, this study has the potential to increase the awareness of teachers, school counsellors and psychologists of those familial sources that promote and increase adolescents' separation anxiety.