Reconstructing and Evaluating Genetic Arguments in Judicial Decisions

Although the genetic argument is a widely used interpretative argument, what it amounts to does not seem to be altogether clear. Basic forms of the genetic argument that are distinguished are often too rough to provide an adequate basis for the evaluation of an interpretative decision. In this article I attempt to provide a more detailed analysis of the genetic argument by making use of pragma-dialectical insights. The analysis clarifies the character and the structure of different forms of the genetic argument and thus the elements that are relevant for the evaluation of the argument.* * An earlier version of this paper was presented at 21st IVR World Congress (Lund, 2003).     

“Battling something bigger than me”: A phenomenological investigation of generational trauma in African American women

The lived experiences of eight African American women college students were explored from an interpretive phenomenological analytic framework. The researchers identified six main themes about participants and their reported family dynamics: (a) collectivistic yet disconnected, (b) avoidance, (c) functioning in dysfunction, (d) gendered differences, (e) motivation to change the family's homeostasis, and (f) talking about generational trauma as a motivator to repair communication. Implications for culturally responsive counseling and generational trauma-informed counselor training are discussed.     

The expectation of guilt and resistance to temptation

Children's expectations about the emotions that surround a moral transgression were examined. In experiment 1, children aged 4-6 years and 8-9 years listened to a story about a child who resisted but then yielded to the temptation to take a sweet without permission. In line with earlier findings (Nunner-Winkler and Sodian, 1988), older children were more likely than younger children to expect the wrongdoer to feel pleased at resisting, but to feel bad after yielding to, temptation. In experiment 2, the relation between expectations of emotion and actual resistance to temptation was studied. Children aged 5-6 years again made judgements about a story character who eventually yielded to temptation. Their own resistance to temptation was assessed by means of a cheating task: children were given an opportunity to cheat by peeking during the experimenter's absence. Children who did not peek were more likely to attribute morally oriented feelings to the story protagonist. The results suggest that children who readily anticipate the emotional consequences of wrongdoing are more likely to resist the temptation to transgress.     

Lay understanding of genetic disease: A British study of families attending a genetic counseling service

Although lay people know that various diseases can be inherited, the idea that unhealthy life styles are the crucial cause of ill health has been promoted by health education policy in the United Kingdom. However, a new paradigm seems to be developing. The medical profession is increasingly using genetics to explain ill health, and people are being referred to geneticists for information and counseling. Lay conceptions of genetic disease emerged during this qualitative study of the process of genetic counseling. The results reported in this paper suggest that many lay people lack knowledge of genetics and inheritance, and that there is considerable stigma attached to genetic disease. Misconceptions and fears may not always be recognized or resolved during the process of genetic counseling. The implications of such misunderstandings and beliefs are considered in this paper.     

Künstliche Intelligenz und Philosophie

Artificial Intelligence can be considered as the so far last attempt to decode the anthropological comparison between human beings and machines. Thereby it also represents in a prominent way what can be called systemic thought. Searle's conclusive argument against strong AI (that is the idea of computers having intention in a literal way) refers to his precise distinction between syntax and semantics. This difference obviously opposing some of Searle's other essential ideas will only convince if it also explains the genetic-pragmatic aspect. A theory explaining the life of mind and the possibility of understanding needs to combine representation and intention with the subjective causation of signs. At the same time they have to be contextualized within a model of teleologically interpreted life recognized with the help of self-experience and self-reflection. This suggests that AI is a simulation which wrongly believes to be a real duplication. Actually it is a semiotic reduction (syntax and semantic surface of signs only) and a psychological compensation (Turing test) connected with a genetic or abductive fallacy. The biological decontextualization, in fact the elimination of teleology and intention, the deconstruction of subjectivity, the loss of the genetic-pragmatic dimension and the abductive fallacy induce the strong AI to confuse its surface-illusion of simulated understanding with the real process itself.     

Historical overview of child discipline in the United States: Implications for mental health clinicians and researchers

Discipline of children is a major topic of concern in our society. This paper places discipline in a historical perspective by briefly tracing disciplinary practices from the 1600s to the present day in the United States. Four primary trends are then delineated. These include the following: movement from strict discipline to lax discipline to mixed messages concerning discipline; determinants of discipline changing from Puritan religious beliefs to experts in fields such as psychology; the increasing role of legislative efforts focusing on children's rights; and the changing role of fathers in childrearing in general and discipline in particular. Viewed against such a historical account, implications for mental health professionals in shaping disciplinary practices are offered. These include generating data to provide needed answers and assuming an active role in setting policy.     

The hermeneutic background of C. G. Jung

Hermeneutics has been central to the practice of Jung's psychology from the beginning, although he never fully and consistently developed a hermeneutic method of inquiry and the literature addressing this aspect of his psychology is not extensive. In this paper(1) we undertake a critical re-examination of Jung's relationship to hermeneutic thought, based on his explicit references to hermeneutics in the Collected Works and his theoretical development of the notion of archetypes. Although Jung did not consistently formulate a hermeneutic approach to inquiry, his theoretical development of archetypes is rich in hermeneutic implications. In particular, his notion of the archetype as such can be understood hermeneutically as a form of non-conceptual background understanding. Some implications of this construal of archetypes for Jungian hermeneutics as a form of inquiry are considered.     

The Discursive Construction of the 1978–1979 Iranian Revolution in the Speeches of Ayatollah Khomeini

This article examines the discursive construction of the 1978–1979 social movement that ultimately became the Iranian Revolution, as constructed through the discourse of the charismatic leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. This article illustrates that Khomeini was able to strategically co‐opt the Shiite symbolism of the Battle of Karbala to bring together the most unlikely of bedfellows to unite in one common opposition movement. We first provide a summary of the socio‐political events that contextualised Khomeini's discourse and then examine two commemorative declarations given by Khomeini in the key months before the overthrow of the Pahlavi regime. We will illustrate, via a discourse‐historical analysis, that the two primary narratives prominent in Khomeini's discourse are as follows: (i) the continuation of the Battle of Karbala and (ii) the idea of a foreign conspiracy and a dangerous foreign other. We will also describe various discursive strategies that rendered Khomeini's discourse purposefully vague enough to appeal to Iran's fragmented opposition. Although the conspiratorial appeal of Khomeini's speeches has been discussed in the literature, we seek to show that it is the co‐opting of a national myth in an all‐encompassing language that drives the mass appeal of the discourse. The methods described in this study can be utilised by social and community psychologists seeking to understand how political actors discursively construct history in such a way as to serve their political ends. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Japanese and British Children's Understanding of the Social Function of Pretend Crying

The purpose of this study was to investigate cross-cultural differences in children's understanding of pretend crying. Five- and 6-year-olds from Japan and the United Kingdom (N = 71) heard two hypothetical stories in which the protagonist of each story pretended to cry in front of another person. Children were asked about the appearance–reality distinction of pretend crying, the other character's thoughts and behavior, and the children's own moral judgment of pretend crying. Cultural differences were found in their understanding of the social function of pretend crying. Japanese children judged that pretend crying elicited another's concern and prosocial behavior more than British children. There were no significant differences in appearance–reality distinction or moral judgments between Japanese and British children. All participants successfully discriminated between pretend crying and real crying, and most participants judged pretend crying as “not good” behavior. These results suggested that Japanese children might be more expected to be sensitive to others’ feelings, and that such cultural differences in communication and socialization lead to different patterns in expectations of the social consequences of pretend crying.