Locke,Arnauld, and abstract ideas

A great deal of the criticism directed at Locke’s theory of abstract ideas assumes that a Lockean abstract idea is a special kind of idea which by its very nature either represents many diverse particulars or represents separately things that cannot exist in separation. This interpretation of Locke has been challenged by scholars such as Kenneth Winkler and Michael Ayers who regard it as uncharitable in light of the obvious problems faced by this theory of abstraction. Winkler and Ayers argue that Locke instead held that to have an abstract idea is to attend selectively to some portion of the content of a particular idea. On this view, to have an abstract idea is not to have a special kind of idea but to have an ordinary idea in a special way. Ayers argues that Locke inherited this theory from Arnauld. I argue that the case made by Ayers for the attribution of the extrinsic theory to Locke rests on a misinterpretation of Arnauld. In fact, both Locke and Arnauld regard selective attention as part of a process whereby a new kind of idea is constructed.     

Rawls and Research on Cognitively Impaired Patients: A Reply to Maio

In his paper, “The Relevance of Rawls’ Principle of Justice for Research on Cognitively Impaired Patients” (Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 23 (2002):45–53), Giovanni Maio has developed athought-provoking argument for the permissibility of non-therapeutic research on cognitively impaired patients. Maio argues that his conclusion follows from the acceptance of John Rawls’s principles of justice, specifically, Rawls’s “liberty principle” Maio has misinterpreted Rawls’s “libertyprinciple” – correctly interpreted it does notsupport non-therapeutic research on cognitivelyimpaired patients. Three other ‘Rawlsian’ arguments are suggested by Maio’s discussion –two “self-respect” arguments and a “presumed consent” argument – but none of them are convincing. However, an alternative argument developed from Rawls’s discussion of “justice in health care” in his most recent book, Justice as Fairness: A Restatement, may justify certain kinds of non-therapeutic research on some cognitively impaired patients in special circumstances. We should not expect anything more permissive from a liberal theory of justice. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

John Nash: The Sufferings of Those Who Loved Him

This article, as a sequel to three previous papers on John Nash by Capps (2003, 2004a, & 2004b), focuses on the other side of Nashs beautiful mind by examining the sufferings of those who loved him. Nashs mistress and wife, appear to have suffered the most by Nashs narcissistic and paranoid schizophrenic tendencies due to his noncommittal and disrespectful attitudes. Nashs exploitive and experiential ways of relating to his close male friends (special friendships) seemed to have caused much pain and agony in at least two of his special friends. In addition, Nashs two sons also suffered from his lack of affection and responsibility. Thus it is crucial for people in mental health professionals as well as in pastoral care and counseling not only to care for the mentally ill but also for those who are around him or her.     

Book Reviews

Sudhir Kakar, The Colors of Violence: Cultural Identities, Religion, and Conflict
Paul Kivel Uprooting Racism Benjamin P. Bowser and Raymond G. Hunt (eds.), Impacts of Racism on White Americans, Second Edition
Michael S. Lund, Preventing Violent Conflicts: A Strategy for Preventive Diplomacy
Marc Howard Ross, The Management of Conflict: Interpretations and Interests in Comparative Perspective
Amos Kiewe (ed.), The Modern Presidency and Crisis Rhetoric
Sarah Sanderson King and Donald P. Cushman (eds.), Political Communication: Engineering Visions of Order in the Socialist World
Donald P. Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice     

‘Securing the day’s devotion’: the spirituality of John Henry Newman and his Anglican inspirers

John Henry Newman’s spirituality and understanding of prayer was formed and framed by his years as an Anglican, from 1801 until his move to the Roman Catholic Church in 1845, and particularly by the years following his Anglican ordination in 1824. Influenced originally by the aspects of the Evangelical tradition, Newman discovered both the Fathers of the Church and the seventeenth-century Anglican divines. This paper explores the significance for him of the devotional work of three Anglican divines, the Sacra Privata of Thomas Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man (1663–1755), the Golden Grove of Bishop Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667), and the Preces Privatae of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626), as encapsulating models of Christian devotion which, as an Oxford Movement leader, he wished to commend to others.     

Categorized and uncategorized attributes as recall cues: The phenomenon of limited access

Our most general proposition is that access to a memory unit is limited to those cues which specify the identifying property of the unit. In our first experiment we had subjects categorize a colored shape by either its shape or color property. Recall for the other member of a unit was faster and better when the cue was the categorized rather than the uncategorized property. In a subsequent experiment evidence was presented which suggested that the asymmetry of the two types of cues was an access rather than an associative asymmetry. Finally, we found that retrieval latency to the uncategorized cue decreased sharply as list length was decreased, while very little effect was evident for the categorized cue, suggesting different retrieval processes for the two types of cues. We are led to infer that when a unit is stored it is also classified and that direct access to that unit is only possible via cues which are specified in the classification system.     

A follow-up developmental study of hypothesis behavior among mentally retarded and nonretarded children

To clarify the roles of IQ and mental age (MA) in hypothesis behavior, MA-matched subjects at three levels of IQ (70, 100, and 130) and three levels of MA ($\text{5}\text{1}\text{2}\text{, 7}\text{1}\text{2}\text{,}\text{and}\text{9}\text{1}\text{2}\text{years}$) received blank-trial discrimination learning problems using procedures designed to discourage position-oriented responding. With position responding discouraged, earlier findings were contradicted in that no hypothesis measure showed a main effect of IQ. This suggest that previously reported IQ group differences in hypothesis behavior may not reflect cognitive deficits inherently linked to low IQ, but instead may reflect the influence of specific methodological factors. The finding and interpretation are consistent with Zigler's (American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 1969, 73, 536–556) “developmental” theory of retardation and inconsistent with the general “difference” position. In additional findings, the predictions that subjects at all three MA levels would use hypotheses, and that retarded children from special-education classes would use hypotheses more often than retarded children “mainstreamed” in classes for the nonretarded were confirmed.     

The differential effect of three auditory stimuli on the frequency of stuttering behaviors

In view of the frequent clinical use of external auditory stimuli in fluency building programs, the purpose of the present experiment was to compare the effects of rhythmic pacing, delayed auditory feedback, and high intensity masking noise on the frequency of stuttering by dysfluency type. Twelve normal hearing young adult stutterers completed an oral reading (approximately 250 syllables) and conversational speech task (3 min) while listening to the three auditory stimuli and during a control condition presented in random order. The results demonstrated that during oral reading all three auditory stimuli were associated with significant reductions in stuttering frequency. However, during conversational speech, only the metronome produced a significant reduction in total stuttering frequency. Individual dysfluency types were not differentially affected by the three auditory stimuli.