The Burden of Proof and Its Role in Argumentation

The notion of “the burden of proof” plays an important role in real-world argumentation contexts, in particular in law. It has also been given a central role in normative accounts of argumentation, and has been used to explain a range of classic argumentation fallacies. We argue that in law the goal is to make practical decisions whereas in critical discussion the goal is frequently simply to increase or decrease degree of belief in a proposition. In the latter case, it is not necessarily important whether that degree of belief exceeds a particular threshold (e.g., ‘reasonable doubt’). We explore the consequences of this distinction for the role that the “burden of proof” has played in argumentation and in theories of fallacy.     

美国判例法上医师注意义务的扩展

法律的一般原则是医师仅就自己的过失行为对自己的患者承担责任,但是,从近年来美国判例法的发展看,如果医师在诊治患者时可以合理预见第三人将会遭受患者损害,医师的注意义务可扩展到与其不存在直接的医患关系但存在特殊关系的非患者。     

《周易参同契》作者新证(二)——从文本用韵看《参同契》为齐人所著

《周易参同契》全书均为韵语。古无韵书,《三百篇》即为韵书。孔子传《易》,亦不能改方音。所以,通过用韵来判断《周易参同契》作者的籍贯,是十分可靠的方法。为此,我们为传世本《周易参同契》作了厘定韵例、编制韵谱的工作,并从中分析出这部书用韵的特点。再根据已有的秦汉方音研究成果参校比勘,说明《周易参同契》一书具有十分明显的齐鲁方音的特点,进一步证明它应该是齐鲁作者所著。     

Ethics in counselling research fieldwork

Research dealing with sensitive subjects, feelings and emotional wellbeing requires constant reflection and rebalancing in order to meet the needs of all the parties involved and to be ethical. This paper examines some of the issues involved in applying ethical guidance to the reality of fieldwork in a study of the personal and emotional support needs of women who have left an abusive relationship. It considers organisational ethics, the complexities of informed consent, the duty of care and the need for reciprocity, and argues that the key to ethical research lies in respect for the individual.     

Effects of the School-to-Work Group Method among young people

This study examines effects of the School-to-Work Group Method among 17-25-year-old young people facing the transition from vocational college to work. After baseline measurement (N = 416) participants were randomized into experimental and control groups. The results of ten month follow-up (N = 334) showed notable beneficial impacts of the group method on both employment itself and on how well it matched participants’ education and personal career plans. The group method also had a significant preventive effect on psychological distress and depression symptoms among those initially at risk of suffering from mental disorder. Moreover, it considerably increased participants’ personal work life, finances and property goals.     

Hypermnesia for pictures: Incremental memory for pictures but not words in multiple recall trials

Two studies are reported on multiple forced recall following a single visual presentation of a sequence of pictures or words. In both experiments, a hypermnesic memory function (in which performance improved with repeated recall) was obtained for pictures, while a flat, nonincremental function was obtained for words. Interpolation of intervals of thinking between recall trials further enhanced hypermnesia for pictorial items. Retrieval, whether overt (recall trials) or covert (thinking), apparently produces increased net recovery of pictures but not words.     

Problems with a false recognition paradigm for developmental memory research

Developmental changes in memory organization based on synonym and antonym relationships were examined in three experiments. Although Cramer (1973) claimed that second-grade children organized their memory for words based on synonym relationships while sixth-graders used antonyms, no support for this interaction was found. The present studies employed additional procedures in an attempt to replicate and extend Cramer's finding. Some inadequacies of a false recognition paradigm for developmental research are identified and some alternative analyses are proposed.     

Deprivation and reward stimuli as compound stimuli

In Experiment 1 the experimental group was tested with a deprivation level and a reward magnitude which it had experienced previously but which it had not experienced in combination. This group was inferior in test performance to a group which had experienced the test deprivation-reward combination prior to test. These results were interpreted as indicating that deprivation stimuli and reward stimuli form a compound stimulus and training on the elements of the compound produces performance inferior to training directly on the compound. In Experiment 2, the decrement associated with two different shifts in deprivation and reward did not differ despite the different size change of total incentive involved in the two shifts. The results were interpreted as indicating that the deprivation-reward stimulus is not produced by a single underlying incentive mechanism.     

A Call to Act Together

This article offers a discussion of the Assembly Message, ‘A Call to Act Together', which unpacks, reframes, critiques and amplifies some key texts and concepts and explores their missiological relevance from an Indian and indigeneous perspective. The Assembly Message highlights love as the moving force for mission, but the article questions if the Ecumenical movement has the boldness and inclusiveness required by love rooted in Christ. The call for reconcilitation is unpacked through reflections on the Ao Naga practice of Aksü, which is a tradition and custom for enabling reconciliation and peacemaking. The article offers Aksü as an illustration of the practices that could ground the Message's claim for reconciliation and names dimensions of the spirituality needed to sustain the Ecumenical movement's future direction. Love and reconciliation point to interrelationship, which the article insists must be inclusive of commonality and difference, but also move forward against the systems of marginalisation.