Burden of Proof Rules in Social Criticism

The article discusses burden of proof rules in social criticism. By social criticism I mean an argumentative situation in which an opponent publicly argues against certain social practices; the examples I consider are discrimination on the basis of species and discrimination on the basis of one's nationality. I argue that burden of proof rules assumed by those who defend discrimination are somewhat dubious. In social criticism, there are no shared values which would uncontroversially determine what is the reasonable presumption and who has the burden of proof, nor are there formal rules which would end the debate and determine the winner at a specific point.     

Exploring collaborative problem solving in adulthood

Collaborative problem solving occurs in situations in which two or more individuals cooperate in appraising, representing, and solving a variety of cognitive tasks. Collaborative groups are the context for much everyday cognitive activity in adulthood. Collaboration has been explored as a means through which older adults may maintain high levels of performance, perhaps compensating for individual-level cognitive and neurological decline. This study explored the effects of collaboration (group size) and adult age on solving both fixed- and unrestricted-alternatives 20 Questions tasks. Younger (M=24.3 years) and older (M=67.9 years) adults were randomly assigned to one of three homogeneous group size conditions: individuals, dyads, and tetrads. Results indicated some dissociation between individual-level performance (poorer for older adults) and collaborative performance (better for older adults). For the fixed-alternatives task, older adults produced more of the relatively inefficient hypothesis-scanning questions than did younger adults. In contrast, older collaborative groups produced more of the efficient constraint-seeking questions than hhpothesis-scanning questions, and an amount equivalent to that of younger adults. Overall performance for the difficult unrestricted-alternatives task was less efficient for both younger and older adults. The roles of task type, group characteristics, and adult age are discussed.     

Socratic Proofs and Paraconsistency: A Case Study

This paper develops a new proof method for two propositional paraconsistent logics: the propositional part of Batens' weak paraconsistent logic CLuN and Schütte's maximally paraconsistent logic Φ_v. Proofs are de.ned as certain sequences of questions. The method is grounded in Inferential Erotetic Logic.     

儿童在回答无意义问题时的反应倾向与年龄特征

研究设计了无意义问题来考察5、6、81、0岁共128名儿童在回答问题时的反应倾向。研究结果发现:(1)5~10岁儿童在回答无意义问题时,存在猜测答案的倾向,且受问题形式的影响。较开放问题,儿童在面对封闭问题时猜测答案的倾向更强烈。(2)在无意义的非比较问题上,随年龄的增长,儿童猜测答案的倾向更强烈。(3)5~10岁儿童回答封闭的非比较问题时存在否定反应倾向,但在封闭的比较问题上则不存在这种倾向。     

Intergroup relations in action: Questions asked about lesbian,gay and bisexual issues in diversity training

This paper focuses on the questions which heterosexual trainees ask about lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) experience within diversity training about LGB issues. Drawing on a data corpus of 162 questions asked by trainees in 13 tape‐recorded training sessions, questions were coded into six categories: (1) general ‘understanding’ questions; (2) questions about the trainer's life, experience and practices; (3) professional practice questions; (4) questions about lesbian and gay related legislation, policies and procedures; (5) questions about specific people and projects and (6) questions about the meanings, derivations and correct use of terms and symbols. ‘Real’ questions are compared with the decontexualized questions (and answers to them) that are provided in training manuals and it is demonstrated that these questions differ markedly from how questions actually get asked and how they actually get answered. Recommendations are provided for improving training and the argument made for turning towards analyses of the real world in action, especially when considering intergroup relations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

终末期肾脏疾病治疗的社会问题

终末期肾脏病是一种常见的导致劳动力丧失的疾病,在我国主要靠血液透析、腹膜透析或肾移植等替代治疗,医疗资源的不平衡分布致使只有部分患者能得以治疗,长期的替代治疗给患者的家庭造成巨大的经济负担,使患者对医护人员家庭成员等产生强烈的依赖感,从而使其处于焦虑、抑郁等负面心理状态,影响家庭与社会的稳定。针对这些社会和心理问题制定相关的行业规范是必需和必要的。     

How to Make Naturalism Safe for Supernaturalism: An Evaluation of Willem Drees's Supernaturalistic Naturalism

Naturalism is often considered to be antithetical to theology and genuine religion. However, in a series of recent books and articles, Willem Drees has proposed a scientifically informed naturalistic account of religion, which, he contends, is not only compatible with supernaturalistic religion and theology but provides a better account of both than either purely naturalistic or purely supernaturalistic accounts. While rejecting both epistemological and methodological naturalism, Drees maintains that ontological naturalism offers the best philosophical account of the natural world and that, in addition, it provides the opening for a supernaturalistic understanding of religion and theology, one that best fits the condition of epistemic and moral distance from the transcendent characteristic of religious wonderers and wanderers. In this paper I examine Drees's claim and argue that it is seriously flawed. I show that Drees's naturalism is, in fact, both methodologically and epistemologically naturalistic. I also show that his attempts to limit naturalism to the sphere of the natural world by means of the phenomena of limit questions and underdetermination fail. Arguing for a more optimistic, but also, I contend, more empirically accurate account of human epistemic and moral capacities, I propose a full-fledged scientifically based naturalistic account of theology.     

Examining different types of comparison questions in a field study of CQT polygraph technique: Theoretical and practical implications

Two types of questions are most important in the CQT polygraph examination, relevant questions that deal directly with the case under query and comparison questions, which usually deal with past probable misdeeds of the examinees that they choose to deny. The simplistic core reasoning behind the CQT is that the risk of being detected for lying is a threatening situation and like any kind of threat, it automatically triggers the autonomic nervous system to respond with the “fight or flight” type of reaction. For the deceptive examinee, the relevant questions pose the main threat, whereas the truthful examinee, knowing that he is telling the truth on the relevant issue while probably lying to the comparison questions, perceives the latter as more threatening, considering his goal to appear truthful on the test. Accordingly, the deceptive examinee reactions are focused on the relevant questions, whereas the truthful focuses them on the comparison ones. Results of the current field study suggest that at least with truthful examinees, comparison questions, which do not incorporate any lies to be afraid of their exposure, or any lies at all, might function similarly to probable lie questions, by just increasing their salience in a manner that presumably creates some concerns about them. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in line with the RIG strength notion (Ginton, 2009 ).     

Use of context in question answering by 3-, 4- and 5-year-old children

This study investigates, within the theory of relevance of Sperber & Wilson (1995), how 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children (n = 45) use context when answering questions. The children were required to answer questions that placed differing contextual and processing demands on them, as predicted by the theory. The results indicate that an increasing ability to use complex contextual information was related to age and was reflected in the children's ability to answer questions appropriately. A developmental pattern became evident in terms of how the children assigned referents, enriched semantic underdetermination, and recovered implicatures. It also became evident that even at the age of 5 years 6 months the children were in the process of becoming more skilled at integrating contextually complex inferences. It was further shown how children's selection of the appropriate context, given the focus of the question, depended on how relevance was achieved in that context.     

The epigenesis of stuttering

This paper examines the data on which the Demands and Capacities Model (DCM) is based with the purpose of identifying areas where future research might determine consilience among genetic influences at the physiological, behavioral, and cultural levels. The determination of consilience across different levels would tend to validate the genetic influence on stuttering, but more importantly it would also sharpen the focus of researchers interested in the various possible expressions that genetic influences might have and the way in which they influence the development of the disorder.

Educational objectives: The reader will (1) learn about the distinction, as outlined in the DCM, between environmental/contextual influences on stuttering development and intrinsic/genetic influences on stuttering development; (2) learn about the concept of consilience and its usefulness in conferring validity on parallel constructs at the physiological, behavioral, and cultural levels of stuttering theory; and (3) be able to identify potential areas for research that might help in refining our understanding of the genetic influences on stuttering development.