Impulse and Self-Reflection: Frankfurtian Responsibility versus Free Will

Harry Frankfurt's early work makes an important distinction between moral responsibility and free will. Frankfurt begins by focusing on the notion of responsibility, as supplying counterexamples to the principle of alternative possibilities; he then turns to an apparently independent account of free will, in terms of his well-known hierarchy of desires. But the two notions seem to reestablish contact in Frankfurt's later discussion of issues and cases. The present article sets up a putative Frankfurtian account of moral responsibility that involves the potential for free will, as suggested by some of Frankfurt's later remarks about taking responsibility. While correcting what seem to be some common misinterpretations of Frankfurt's view, the article attempts to extract some reasons for dissatisfaction with it from consideration of cases of unfreedom, particularly cases involving addiction.     

Can the World Help Us in Fixing the Reference of Natural Kind Terms?

According to Putnam the reference of natural kind terms is fixed by the world, at least partly; whether two things belong to the same kind depends on whether they obey the same objective laws. We show that Putnam's criterion of substance identity only “works” if we read “objective laws” as “OBJECTIVE LAWS”. Moreover, at least some of the laws of some of the special sciences have to be included. But what we consider to be good special sciences and what not depends upon our values. Hence, “objective laws” cannot be read as “OBJECTIVE LAWS”. It follows that the reference of natural kind terms cannot be fixed by the world, not even partly. The final conclusion applies to a variety of realisms. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Graded differential reinforcement: Response-dependent reinforcer amount

After key pecking had been autoshaped, six pigeons were exposed to a condition in which the duration of grain availability at the end of an 8-second trial depended on the number of responses emitted during the trial (0.25-second access to grain per response). This procedure, called correlated reinforcement, alternated across conditions with the automaintenance baseline in which the 8-second trial terminated with a constant 2.5-second access to grain. Two control procedures were run; in both, the reinforcer durations were yoked to those obtained in the last correlated session. In the yoked control no responses were required, but in the single-response yoked control at least one response was required to receive the yoked duration. The correlated condition maintained response rates above those produced by the two control conditions. These results may be accounted for by differential reinforcement.     

The Temporal Dynamics of Wish to Live,Wish to Die,and Their Short-Term Prospective Relationships With Suicidal Desire

The internal debate hypothesis (Kovacs & Beck, 1977) suggests that those at risk for suicidal thoughts and behaviors may experience fluctuations in both the wish to live (WTL) and wish to die (WTD). Previous research has investigated this hypothesis using various cross-sectional (Goods et al., 2019 [cf. Page & Stritzke, 2020]) and longitudinal methodologies (e.g., Bryan et al., 2016). No investigations have determined the within-day temporal dynamics of WTL and WTD using ecological moment assessment (EMA), however. N = 49 undergraduate university students recruited from a research participant pool from a large southeastern university in the United States with a lifetime history of suicide ideation completed the current 10-day EMA investigation. Results demonstrated that WTL, WTD, and resulting suicidal ambivalence (i.e., relatively equal WTL/WTD ratings) demonstrated similar within-person person variability; however, WTD scores appeared to demonstrate higher average variability compared to WTL and ambivalence scores. Although state WTL and WTD were concurrently related to state suicidal desire, only WTD prospectively predicted suicidal desire when controlling for the influence of the outcome variable at the previous timepoint. Ambivalence scores also prospectively predicted suicidal desire when controlling for suicidal desire at the previous timepoint. Results support the clinical and theoretical utility of separate WTL and WTD assessment. WTD was relatively stable within this sample but may be closely related to risk for future suicidal thinking. Changes in WTL may reduce state risk for suicidal desire but could be more trait-like in nature compared to WTD. Future research that investigates these hypotheses should consider the study limitations outlined.     

Reflections on how color term acquisition is constrained

Compared with object word learning, young children typically find learning color terms to be a difficult linguistic task. In this reflections article, I consider two questions that are fundamental to investigations into the developmental acquisition of color terms. First, I consider what constrains color term acquisition and how stable these constraints are over culture and age. I review recent studies that have identified conceptual, attentional, and linguistic constraints that seemingly operate on the acquisition of color terms compared with object words and the differential acquisition of color terms within a given language. Second, I consider whether these constraints are specific to the acquisition of color terms or whether they reflect more general constraints that operate on other classes of lexical terms such as different abstract property terms.     

Pettit on Consequentialism and Universalizability

Philip Pettit has argued that universalizability entails consequentialism. I criticise the argument for relying on a question-begging reading of the impartiality of universalization. A revised form of the argument can be constructed by relying on preference-satisfaction rationality, rather than on impartiality. But this revised argument succumbs to an ambiguity in the notion of a preference (or desire). I compare the revised argument to an earlier argument of Pettit’s for consequentialism that appealed to the theoretical virtue of simplicity, and I raise questions about the force of appeal to notions like simplicity and rationality in moral argument.     

从心理学角度再析理学中的理欲辨

理可总称人合乎礼的诸种需要;从表现形态上看,欲是比情更为激烈的心理活动：欲具有促使人行动、情产生和“生百善”等方面的功能,人欲则具有“诱人为不善”、“害吾心”、使情变坏和损害身心健康等作用。理学中的理欲之辨也可看作是关于合理需要与不合理需要的内涵、相互关系及对待二者的态度之争。     

试论伊壁鸠鲁的精神疾患的认知疗法

伊壁鸠鲁创立的哲学在晚期希腊时期的影响甚至超过了斯多亚派,伊壁鸠鲁及其传人卢克莱修的唯物主义哲学其实是面对人类的肉体和精神疾病而进行的治疗活动,其基本原则在两千后演化为精神治疗术中应用广泛、声名著卓的认识疗法。依据伊壁鸠鲁残篇分析了这种古代精神治疗术的基本原理、实施方法及其在思想史上的重要意义。