FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM: A CONTEMPORARY DISCUSSION

Abstract. The problem of freedom of the will and determinism is one of the most intriguing and difficult in the whole area of philosophy. It constüutes a paradox. If we look at ourselves, at our ability to deliberate and make moral choices, it seems obvious that we are free. On the other hand, if we look at what we believe about causality (i.e., that every event and thing must have a cause), then it appears that we do not have free wills but are determined. Thus we seem to have inconsistent beliefs. In this paper I set forth and analyze the major contemporary arguments for free will and determinism as well as for compatibilism, the position that tries to combine insights from both theories. I end with a brief conclusion regarding my assessment of the status of the arguments.     

DARWINISM AND DETERMINISM

Abstract. Does Darwinism generally, and human sociobiology in particular, lead to an unwarranted (and possibly socially offensive) determinism? I argue that one must separate out different senses of determinism, and that once one has done this, a Darwinian approach to human nature can be seen to shed important light on our intuitions about free will, constraint, and control.     

Developing positive social-emotional behaviors: a study of training and generalization effects

Four handicapped children were taught four positive social-emotional behaviors: smiling, sharing, positive physical contacting, and verbal complimenting, using instructions, modelling, and praise. Rates of these behaviors were shown to increase in four trained subjects using a within-subject multiple-baseline experimental design. The generality of the behavior change was investigated by integrating three untrained subjects with the trained subjects in a setting free of adult-imposed contingencies and through a series of follow-up observations. Three trained subjects evidenced collateral increases in the generalization setting on at least one other behavior when training in smiling was conducted. One trained subject showed generalization session increases for each behavior when training was conducted to increase that behavior. All three untrained subjects demonstrated increased rates of smiling and sharing when interventions were conducted to increase those behaviors with the trained subjects. There was no appreciable generalization of verbal complimenting by either the trained or the untrained subjects. Both trained and untrained subjects generally maintained their increased rates of smiling, sharing, and positive physical contacting across four weeks of follow-up observations.     

Scale freeness in factor analysis

The notion of scale freeness does not seem to have been well understood in the factor analytic literature. It has been believed that if the loss function that is minimized to obtain estimates of the parameters in the factor model is scale invariant, then the estimates are scale free. It is shown that scale invariance of the loss function is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for scale freeness. A theorem that ensures scale freeness in the orthogonal factor model is given in this paper.The authors are grateful for the suggestions of the referees.     

Responsibility and Self-Expression

I present two different models of moral responsibility -- two different accounts of what we value in behavior for which the agent can legitimately be held morally responsible. On the first model, what we value is making a certain sort of difference to the world. On the second model, which I favor, we value a certain kind of self-expression. I argue that if one adopts the self-expression view, then one will be inclined to accept that moral responsibility need not require alternative possibilities.     

Precurrent contingencies: Behavior reinforced by altering reinforcement probability for other behavior

The present study explored the effects of a precurrent contingency in which one (precurrent) activity increased the reinforcement probability for another (current) activity. Four human subjects responded on a two-key computer mouse. Each right-key press was reinforced (points exchangeable for money) with .02 probability. In one condition (no precurrent contingency), pressing the left key had no scheduled consequence; in another condition (precurrent contingency), pressing the left key increased the reinforcement probability for right-key responding to .08 for 15 s. Initial exposure to the precurrent contingency resulted in acquisition of precurrent left-key responding for 3 subjects, but for the 4th subject a special contingency was required. Right-key responding occurred at a high stable rate across the conditions. Changeovers to left-key responding dropped to near zero when the precurrent contingency was absent and were maintained at enhanced levels when the precurrent contingency was present. Contacts with the left key consisted of short response runs. Right-key responses were more frequently emitted within 15 s of a left-key response when the precurrent contingency was present, an efficient adaptation to the contingency. Continued research on precurrent behavior may produce insights into complex phenomena such as autoclitics and self-control.     

TEILHARD'S TWO ENERGIES

Abstract. Resolution of the entropy‐evolution problem was a significant issue for Pierre Teilhard de Chardin throughout his scientific career. Although never truly satisfied with his solution, he proposed that all energy must be psychic and contain two components. Tangential energy is related to physical energy. Radial energy in some way accounts for increasing complexity and consciousness in evolution. Analysis of developments in thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and information theory show that Gibbs free energy contains both calorimetric and noetic components, thus validating Teilhard's intuition.     

关于癌症病人知情权问题探讨

目前全球癌患者人数超过1000万,中国每年新增癌症病例约160万,探讨如何处理癌症病人的知情权问题,贴近社会公众,具有重要的现实意义.     

Opening to the otherwise: The discipline of listening and the necessity of free‐association for psychoanalytic praxis

It is argued that only free‐association methodically opens the discourse of self‐consciousness (the representations available to reflective awareness) to the voicing of the repressed. The method is key to Freud's originality and the sine qua non of any genuinely psychoanalytic process. Clinical procedures which do not prioritize a steadfast and ongoing commitment to this method (instead emphasizing either interpretative formulations, as decisive acts that appear to fix and finalize the meaning of a particular lived experience, or the vicissitudes of transference‐countertransference in the immediate treatment situation) all too readily entrap the treatment, limiting its capacity to divulge the power of unconscious processes. Influenced by Laplanche, Freud's 1920 principles of lifefulness and deathfulness (the binding and unbinding of psychic energy in representations) facilitate an understanding of the unique significance of free‐associative discourse in opening the representational textuality of self‐consciousness to the voicing of that which is otherwise than representationality and reason. The ‘otherwise’ is intimated as the returning force of the repressed, as the ‘unfathomable navel’ of ‘thing‐presentations,’ experienced and expressed within the text of awareness, yet not translatable into the law and order of its logical and rhetorical reflections. Free‐associative discourse thus affects self‐consciousness in a way that is radically different from other creative procedures (‘psychosynthetic’ or integratively interpretive). In this respect, the status of free‐associative praxis as necessary for a genuinely psychoanalytic process is justified.