CAN GROUPS HAVE CONCEPTS? SEMANTICS FOR COLLECTIVE INTENTIONS

A substantial literature supports the attribution of intentional states such as beliefs and desires to groups. But within this literature, there is no substantial account of group concepts. Since on many views, one cannot have an intentional state without having concepts, such a gap undermines the cogency of accounts of group intentionality. In this paper I aim to provide an account of group concepts. First I argue that to fix the semantics of the sentences groups use to make their decisions or express their beliefs, we need to appeal to a conventional semantics like that of Lewis. I then argue that the same reasons we have for taking group intentional states to be irreducible to the intentional states of their members apply also to the terms fixed by a conventional semantics. It follows that the meanings of terms in the sentences expressing a group's intentional states are also fixed by facts about the group, not its members. And recognizing this, I argue, amounts to attributing concepts to groups. Finally, I discuss a real‐life example of a group concept—the meaning of ‘meter’ as fixed by the International Bureau of Weights and Measurements—and I discuss the upshot of these considerations for the question of social externalism about concepts.     

Print Me an Organ? Ethical and Regulatory Issues Emerging from 3D Bioprinting in Medicine

Recent developments of three-dimensional printing of biomaterials (3D bioprinting) in medicine have been portrayed as demonstrating the potential to transform some medical treatments, including providing new responses to organ damage or organ failure. However, beyond the hype and before 3D bioprinted organs are ready to be transplanted into humans, several important ethical concerns and regulatory questions need to be addressed. This article starts by raising general ethical concerns associated with the use of bioprinting in medicine, then it focuses on more particular ethical issues related to experimental testing on humans, and the lack of current international regulatory directives to guide these experiments. Accordingly, this article (1) considers whether there is a limit as to what should be bioprinted in medicine; (2) examines key risks of significant harm associated with testing 3D bioprinting for humans; (3) investigates the clinical trial paradigm used to test 3D bioprinting; (4) analyses ethical questions of irreversibility, loss of treatment opportunity and replicability; (5) explores the current lack of a specific framework for the regulation and testing of 3D bioprinting treatments.     

The relationship between three auditory inspection time tasks and general intelligence

Three inspection-time tasks measuring the amount of time required to discriminate differences in pitch, loudness and phase were administered alongside the Multidimensional Ability Battery and Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices to 75 undergraduate students. The auditory tasks were administered adaptively, and thresholds were estimated by fitting a logistic function to each set of data. After correcting for restriction of range the three thresholds intercorrelated significantly, and correlated between −0.33 and −0.68 with scores on the ability tests. A composite auditory inspection time score correlated between −0.35 and −0.42 with the ability measures (−0.50 to −0.54 after correction). Although strategy-use enhanced performance on the pitch inspection-time task, strategy use was unrelated to intelligence and did not mediate the correlation between inspection time and intelligence.     

The Presentation of Masculinity in Everyday Life: Contextual Variations in the Masculine Behaviour of Young Irish Men

The present study was designed to examine longitudinal predictors of moral courage in late adolescence. Supportive, responsive parenting, which was measured through home observations and family reports in the fifth grade year, predicted girls’ willingness in late adolescence to speak up or take action when they witnessed or experienced injustice or harm. In contrast, parenting that was harsh and restrictive predicted both girls’ and boys’ later reticence in those circumstances. Further, the effects of earlier parenting were mediated by individual and peer-related factors. Specifically, social competence with peers in fifth grade and self-esteem in twelfth grade mediated the effects of parenting on both moral courage and moral reticence for late adolescent girls, and self-esteem in fifth grade mediated the effects of parenting on moral reticence for late adolescent boys.     

This is a Paper about Demonstratives

Philosophia - Demonstratives (words like ‘this’ and ‘that’) and indexicals (words like ‘I’, ‘here’, and ‘now’) seem intuitively to form a...     

Prenatal Exposure to Maternal Smoking and Childhood Behavioural Problems: A Quasi-experimental Approach

This retrospective cross-sectional paper examines the relationship between maternal smoking during pregnancy and children’s behavioural problems at 9?years of age independent of a wide range of possible confounders. The final sample comprised 7,505 nine-year-old school children participating in the first wave of the Growing Up in Ireland study. The children were selected through the Irish national school system using a 2-stage sampling method and were representative of the nine-year population. Information on maternal smoking during pregnancy was obtained retrospectively at 9?years of age via parental recall and children’s behavioural problems were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire across separate parent and teacher-report instruments. A quasi-experimental approach using propensity score matching was used to create treatment (smoking) and control (non-smoking) groups which did not differ significantly in their propensity to smoke in terms of 16 observed characteristics. After matching on the propensity score, children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were 3.5?% (p?<?0.001) and 3.4?% (p?<?0.001) more likely to score in the problematic range on the SDQ total difficulties index according to parent and teacher-report respectively. Maternal smoking during pregnancy was more strongly associated with externalising than internalising behavioural problems. Analysis of the dose–response relationship showed that the differential between matched treatment and control groups increased with level of maternal smoking. Given that smoking is a modifiable risk factor, the promotion of successful cessation in pregnancy may prevent potentially adverse long-term consequences.     

An introduction to the Priority‐Pointing Procedure

A qualitative research‐based diagnostic procedure, the Priority‐Pointing Procedure (PPP), is proposed that synthesizes responses to open‐ended questions about the direction an organization should take. It points to a priority for action by measuring imbalances in the numbers of responses in the context of the structure of adjustment decision‐making from nomology. It is shown to be useful for defining variables and structuring criteria for strategic Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) problems. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.