Ill-structured measurement designs in organizational research: implications for estimating interrater reliability

Organizational research and practice involving ratings are rife with what the authors term ill-structured measurement designs (ISMDs)--designs in which raters and ratees are neither fully crossed nor nested. This article explores the implications of ISMDs for estimating interrater reliability. The authors first provide a mock example that illustrates potential problems that ISMDs create for common reliability estimators (e.g., Pearson correlations, intraclass correlations). Next, the authors propose an alternative reliability estimator--G(q,k)--that resolves problems with traditional estimators and is equally appropriate for crossed, nested, and ill-structured designs. By using Monte Carlo simulation, the authors evaluate the accuracy of traditional reliability estimators compared with that of G(q,k) for ratings arising from ISMDs. Regardless of condition, G(q,k) yielded estimates as precise or more precise than those of traditional estimators. The advantage of G(q,k) over the traditional estimators became more pronounced with increases in the (a) overlap between the sets of raters that rated each ratee and (b) ratio of rater main effect variance to true score variance. Discussion focuses on implications of this work for organizational research and practice.     

Simulation, projection and empathy

Simulationists have recently started to employ the term “empathy” when characterizing our most basic understanding of other minds. I agree that empathy is crucial, but I think it is being misconstrued by the simulationists. Using some ideas to be found in Scheler’s classical discussion of empathy, I will argue for a different understanding of the notion. More specifically, I will argue that there are basic levels of interpersonal understanding—in particular the understanding of emotional expressions—that are not explicable in terms of simulation-plus-projection routines.     

Resting on laurels: the effects of discrete progress markers as subgoals on task performance and preferences

This article investigates the influence of progress certainty and discrete progress markers (DPMs) on performance and preferences. The authors suggest that the effects of DPMs depend on whether progress certainty is high or low. When the distance to the goal is uncertain, DPMs can help reduce uncertainty and thus improve performance and increase preference. However, when the distance to the goal is certain, DPMs may generate complacency, sway motivation away from the end goal, and decrease performance in the task, as well as its appeal. Therefore, the addition of more information, feedback, or progress indicators may not always improve task performance and preference for the task. The authors validate these claims in 4 experiments.     

Internalism,externalism, and transcendental idealism

The analyses of the mind–world relation offered by transcendental idealists such as Husserl have often been dismissed with the argument that they remain committed to an outdated form of internalism. The first move in this paper will be to argue that there is a tight link between Husserl’s transcendental idealism and what has been called phenomenological externalism, and that Husserl’s endorsement of the former commits him to a version of the latter. Secondly, it will be shown that key elements in Husserl’s transcendental idealism, including his rejection of representationalism and metaphysical realism, is shared with a number of prominent contemporary defenders of an externalist view on the mind. Ultimately, however, it will be suggested that the very alternative between internalism and externalism—an alternative based on the division between inner and outer—might be inapplicable when it comes to phenomenological conceptions of the mind–world relation.     

"大一统"中国的重新塑造:近代边疆危机与建省改制

领土与国家权力的严格重合是现代民族国家的一个特征.现代意义的国界与古代意义的边疆之内涵差别,体现了现代民族国家国际体系不同于与传统国际关系的特征.在现代民族国家国际体系的冲击和压力下,为了抵抗外来威胁、保持国家统一,清朝末年采取了的一系列边疆建省举措,使中国传统"大一统"框架内的边疆意识和边疆政策发生了根本变化,从而实现了从边疆向国界的转化.国家主权在边疆地区得到更确实的体现,这是一个使疆域"领土"化的过程,也是从传统性国家向现代民族国家转化的体现.国际体系的压力导致了国家内涵的改变,但中国的统一内涵并没有丧失.     

The over-generalization problem: predicates rigidly signifying the “unnatural”

According to the simple proposal, a predicate is rigid iff it signifies the same property across the different possible worlds. The simple proposal has been claimed to suffer from an over-generalization problem. Assume that one can make sense of predicates signifying properties, and assume that trivialization concerns, to the effect that the notion would cover any predicate whatsoever, can be overcome. Still, the proposal would over-generalize, the worry has it, by covering predicates for artifactual, social, or evaluative properties, such as ‘is a knife,’ ‘is a bachelor,’ or ‘is funny.’ In defense, it is argued that rigidity for predicates as characterized plays the appropriate theoretical role, and that the contention that “unnatural” properties are not to be rigidly signified is ungrounded.     

Contra Cartwright: Structural Realism, Ontological Pluralism and Fundamentalism About Laws

In this paper I argue against Nancy Cartwright’s claim that we ought to abandon what she calls “fundamentalism” about the laws of nature and adopt instead her “dappled world” hypothesis. According to Cartwright we ought to abandon the notion that fundamental laws (even potentially) apply universally, instead we should consider the law-like statements of science to apply in highly qualified ways within narrow, non-overlapping and ontologically diverse domains, including the laws of fundamental physics. For Cartwright, “laws” are just locally applicable refinements of a more open-ended concept of capacities. By providing a critique of the dappled world approach’s central notion of open ended capacities and substituting this concept with an account of properties drawn from recent writing on the subject of structural realism I show that a form of fundamentalism is viable. I proceed from this conclusion to show that this form of fundamentalism provides a superior reading of case studies, such as the effective field theory program (EFT) in quantum field theory, than the “dappled world” view. The case study of the EFT program demonstrates that ontological variability between theoretical domains can be accounted for without altogether abandoning fundamentalism or adopting Cartwright’s more implausible theses.