Prophetic performatives: the New Age’s pending efficacy through self-prophecy

This paper broadens the limited area of scholarship on New Age spiritualism by providing and explanation for the suasive force of one of its main themes, the ‘Law of Attraction’. Rhonda Byrne’s The Secret, is utilised as emblematic of the doctrine, where the individual is seen to engage in a dynamic similar to that of classical predictive prophecy, with the role of prophet being internalised. Three elements discussed are the positioning of the prophet, prophecy’s temporal ambiguity, and its linguistic tense. This paper suggests that the Law of Attraction re-imagines and employs the predictive prophetic structure and suggests that such a belief can act as a fetish.     

Multi(ple) cultural voices speaking “Outside the Sentence” of counselling and psychotherapy

This paper examines the notion that marginalized clients through their socio-cultural and geo-political histories are positioned “outside” the masculine cultural metaphors and conventional theoretical epistemologies of counselling, psychology and psychotherapy. In other words, these minoritized clients are “outside the sentence” of the texts and contexts of therapy. The discursive practice of therapeutic reconstitution and restoration produces a particular set of vocabularies and sentences that facilitate transformation and psychic equilibrium consistent with the process of individuation and self actualization. However, for marginalized groups, such as black and other visible minority, women, deaf, gay and lesbian clients the hegemonic masculine narratives of counselling psychology and psychotherapy only make it possible for these clients to be “outside the sentence”, not just grammatically and metaphorically of the therapeutic project, but in the external reality of how the practice is clinically governed. In other words, the social and cultural marginalization outside the clinic room is in a dialectical relationship with the therapy dyad. For the minoritized client being “outside the sentence” produces the effect of being “inside” another process, i.e., the history of subjugation, domination, diaspora, and displacement. This paper explores this issue and argues that the only way for counselling, psychology and psychotherapy to bring the diversity client “within the sentence” of therapy is to assign and re-inscribe the history, memory and pain of “the Other” voices to the “inside” of the therapeutic space, to interrupt and disrupt the hegemonic masculine narratives, thus transforming “non-sentences” into sentences and paragraphs, and eventually into essays of the discursive subject.     

Observing evidence accumulation during multi-alternative decisions

Most decision-making research has focused on choices between two alternatives. For choices between many alternatives, the primary result is Hick’s Law—that mean response time increases logarithmically with the number of alternatives. Various models for this result exist within specific paradigms, and there are some more general theoretical results, but none of those have been tested stringently against data. We present an experimental paradigm that supports detailed examination of multi-choice data, and analyze predictions from a Bayesian ideal observer model for this paradigm. Data from the experiment deviate from the predictions of the Bayesian model in interesting ways. A simple heuristic model based on evidence accumulation provides a good account for the data, and has attractive properties as a limit case of the Bayesian model.     

Liberalism and the general justifiability of punishment

I argue that contemporary liberal theory cannot give a general justification for the institution or practice of punishment, i.e., a justification that would hold across a broad range of reasonably realistic conditions. I examine the general justifications offered by three prominent contemporary liberal theorists and show how their justifications fail in light of the possibility of an alternative to punishment. I argue that, because of their common commitments regarding the nature of justification, these theorists have decisive reasons to reject punishment in favor of a non-punitive alternative. I demonstrate the possibility of this alternative by means of a careful examination of the nature of punishment, isolating one essential characteristic—the aim to impose suffering—and showing how this characteristic need not guide enforcement. There is logical space for a forceful and coercive, yet non-punitive method of enforcement. This fact poses difficulties for many classical and contemporary justifications of punishment, but it poses particularly crippling problems for general liberal justifications.

Odysseans of the Twenty-First Century

In his book Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human (2005), author-journalist Joel Garreau identifies four technologies whose synergistic activity may transform humankind into a state transcending present human nature: genetic, robotic, information, and nano (GRIN) technologies. If the GRIN technologies follow Moore's Law, as information technology has done for the past four decades, Homo sapiens and human society may be unimaginably different before the middle of this century. But among scientists, futurists, and other pundits there is no agreement on the nature and ramifications of this transformation. Based on dozens of interviews, Garreau sees three possible scenarios for our species. The Heaven Scenario foresees enhanced bodies and minds in a disease-free world, perhaps even immortality; the Hell Scenario warns of losing our identity as a biological entity and perhaps the demise of liberal democracy; the Prevail Scenario predicts that we will muddle through the GRIN technology revolution basically intact, as we have prevailed during past technological upheavals. In this review, these scenarios are examined in the context of Kuhn's “normal” versus “extraordinary” science and in the context of current understanding about gene function.     

The roles of retribution and utility in determining punishment

Three studies examined the motives underlying people’s desire to punish. In previous research, participants have read hypothetical criminal scenarios and assigned “fair” sentences to the perpetrators. Systematic manipulations within these scenarios revealed high sensitivity to factors associated with motives of retribution, but low sensitivity to utilitarian motives. This research identifies the types of information that people seek when punishing criminals, and explores how different types of information affect punishments and confidence ratings. Study 1 demonstrated that retribution information is more relevant to punishment than either deterrence or incapacitation information. Study 2 traced the information that people actually seek when punishing others and found a consistent preference for retribution information. Finally, Study 3 confirmed that retribution information increases participant confidence in assigned punishments. The results thus provide converging evidence that people punish primarily on the basis of retribution.     

试论"真矛盾"及次协调逻辑的哲学价值

二十世纪后期以来,再也没有哪一种逻辑像次协调逻辑那样,在取得丰富研究成果的同时,也领略到了极为尖锐的批判,仿佛其本身就是一种意味深长的“矛盾”。依照次协调逻辑“真矛盾”的观点所构建的次协调逻辑系统,夷非所思地试图要容纳我们所认知的悖论、辩证矛盾、甚至逻辑矛盾。次协调逻辑试图要和悖论永久共存,但我们可以为了暂时的搁置这种矛盾,发展某理论的其他方面而接受这种逻辑技术。次协调逻辑在反映人脑的容错机制上具有重要的描述功能,这对提高计算机的智能化具有十分重要的实践意义。     

Vierordt's The Experimental Study of the Time Sense (1868) and its legacy

The paper discusses the results from Vierordt's 1868 book Der Zeitsinn nach Versuchen [The Experimental Study of the Time Sense]. Illustrations of “Vierordt's Law”, the proposition that short durations are judged as longer than they really are, whereas long durations are judged as shorter, with an “indifference point” in between, are provided, mainly from reproduction experiments where Vierordt and his students or colleagues served as experimental participants. Other work from Der Zeitsinn including time discrimination and categorical timing procedures is also presented. Some subsequent research on Vierordt's Law and the “indifference point” is discussed with respect to some issues in contemporary timing theory.     

How Does Kant Justify the Universal Objective Validity of the Law of Right?

Abstract

Since more than 50 years Kant scholars debate the question whether the Law of Right as introduced in the Metaphysics of Morals by Kant can be justified by the Categorical Imperative. On the one hand we have those who think that Kant’s theory of right depends from the Categorical Imperative, on the other hand we find a growing group of scholars who deny this. However, the debate has been flawed by confusion and misunderstanding of the crucial terms and principles. Therefore, my first task will be to clarify these terms and principles by introducing distinctions that have been neglected too often. After this I try to show a) that the Law of Right can in fact be justified by using the testing method the Categorical Imperative prescribes and b) that there is no other way to justify it. Doing this I criticize in detail the new arguments adherents of the independence thesis have recently put forward.