Alternative Thesis Research Articles

Is neutralization necessary for criminal behavior?

Criminological theories currently place much emphasis on neutralization of norms, i.e., extension or distortion of norms to allow guilt‐free infraction, as a key element in criminal behavior. This paper examines the major assumptions underlying the neutralization thesis and a critical alternative thesis, which argues that criminal beliefs rather than neutralizations permit criminal actions. Analysis of data from a sample of college students calls into question the neutralization theory assumption of homogeneity of moral values in this society. The alternative thesis is supported by the finding of variation in moral values and its link to differential criminal involvement. It is argued that this evidence precludes the need for a concept such as neutralization to account for criminal behavior.

A resurgent taphrogenic lineament of Precambrian origin in eastern Africa

The East African Rift System is now generally regarded as a prime example of an early stage of continental separation. The alternative thesis, that it marks a Precambrian lineament affecting the whole of the lithosphere, has not been disproved and justifies further investigation. Recently published geological and geophysical observations support the alternative hypothesis of a resurgent Precambrian taphrogenic lineament extending 5000 km from the Afar triangle to the Orange River in South Africa.

Presidential Popularity and Negative Voting: An Alternative Explanation of the Midterm Congressional Decline of the President's Party

Midterm congressional elections have been generally viewed as relatively sterile affairs marked by reduced turnout, party voting, and the play of politically idiosyncratic forces such as friends-and-neighbors voting. The usual reduction in the number of seats controlled by the President's party, according to the “surge and decline” thesis, simply reflects the departure of short-term forces which presumably benefited the president's party two years earlier. In this study an alternative thesis is proposed which considers midterm election outcomes within the context of the current political environment. Evaluations of the President's performance are found to be directly associated with congressional preferences over a series of midterm elections from 1946 through 1966. Moreover, controlling for party identification, persons who disapprove of the President's performance were generally more likely to vote and to cast their ballot against the President's party than were his admirers to support it. This “negative voting” bias helps to explain why the Democratic and Republican parties have performed more poorly in those midterm elections during which they occupy the White House.

Presidential Popularity and Negative Voting: An Alternative Explanation of the Midterm Congressional Decline of the President's Party

Midterm congressional elections have been generally viewed as relatively sterile affairs marked by reduced turnout, party voting, and the play of politically idiosyncratic forces such as friends-and-neighbors voting. The usual reduction in the number of seats controlled by the President's party, according to the “surge and decline” thesis, simply reflects the departure of short-term forces which presumably benefited the president's party two years earlier. In this study an alternative thesis is proposed which considers midterm election outcomes within the context of the current political environment. Evaluations of the President's performance are found to be directly associated with congressional preferences over a series of midterm elections from 1946 through 1966. Moreover, controlling for party identification, persons who disapprove of the President's performance were generally more likely to vote and to cast their ballot against the President's party than were his admirers to support it. This “negative voting” bias helps to explain why the Democratic and Republican parties have performed more poorly in those midterm elections during which they occupy the White House.

The Roy-Lenin Debate on Colonial Policy: a New Interpretation

Before the opening of the Second World Congress of the Communist International (July 19–August 7, 1920) [which met on the first day in Petrograd but subsequently in Moscow], Lenin prepared a draft thesis on the national and colonial question. M. N. Roy, a young Bengali attending his first international Communist gathering, eagerly responded to Lenin's request for criticisms. As a result, Lenin invited him to write an alternative thesis. Both theses were modified as a result of discussions within the National and Colonial Commission, and both were subsequently adopted by the Congress. After his encounter with Lenin, Roy rose rapidly in the Comintern hierarchy. In 1922 he was elected a candidate member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI), and a full voting member in 1924. He became a member of the Presidium in 1924. It was in the year 1926, however, that Roy attained the peak of his influence in the Comintern. In February of that year he was appointed to the editorial staff of theCommunist International, and in the following December he was reelected to the Presidium and joined the Political Secretariat of the ECCI. At the time of the Seventh Plenum of the ECCI (November 12–December 16, 1926), Roy became Secretary of the Chinese Commission, a post he held jointly with Petrov, and a member of the Agrarian Commission. The Plenum, convened for the purpose of considering the China problem, adopted a thesis on the question and Roy was sent to China as a representative of the Comintern to carry it out. Following the events in China in 1927, Roy's influence declined precipitately, though he was not formally expelled until December, 1929.

Religion A / Religion B

This article is concerned with the relation of ‘religion A’ to ‘religion B’ in the thought of Søren Kierkegaard. The point of departure for my study is a disagreement with the views of Walter Lowrie, one of the most prolific translators of SK into English and the author of the extensive and competent biography, Kierkegaard (Princeton, 1938). Lowrie's main discussion of the question at hand occurs in his introduction to the Postscript. If my alternative thesis has any merit, it is indeed unfortunate that English readers are confronted with Lowrie's understanding of the matter before they have had a chance to form a judgment of their own.

VIII.—An Attempt at a Realistic Interpretation of Experience

INTRODUCTION ‘The task of science’, writes Niels Bohr, ‘is both to extend the range of our experience and to reduce it to order.’ ‘Science’, echoes a modern philosopher, ‘is ultimately intended to systematize the data of our experience.’ In the following paper I shall try to show that these two statements, in spite of their simplicity and their apparently innocuous character, have consequences which are at variance with scientific method and reasonable philosophy. For convenience I shall call any interpretation of science (and of theoretical knowledge in general), which implies an assumption equivalent to the two statements quoted above, a positivistic interpretation . Examples of positivistic interpretations in this sense are (1) instrumentalism, i.e. the view that scientific theories are instruments of prediction which do not possess any descriptive meaning; and (2) the more sophisticated view that scientific theories do possess meaning, but that their meaning is due to the connection with experience only. I shall proceed in the following way. After a few preliminary remarks on the notion of observability I shall develop some consequences of positivism. These consequences will be expressed in the form of a thesis (stability thesis, section 3). It will be shown that there exist serious objections against the stability thesis as well as against the customary attempts to defend it (sections 4 and 5). An alternative thesis will be considered and its consequences developed (section 6).