Philosophical Threads Research Articles

Psychological Inquiry and Scientific Methodology in the Enlightenment: Unveiling the Insights of Jean Trembley

This study delves into the intellectual milieu of the Enlightenment era, offering an in-depth exploration of Jean Trembley’s seminal contributions to empirical psychology and scientific methodology. As a fervent prot\'{e}g\'{e} of Charles Bonnet, Trembley’s work, first published in 1781, marked a significant milestone in the development of French-language discourses on empirical psychology’s methodological approaches. This paper conducts a thorough examination of Trembley’s methodological and epistemological underpinnings, elucidating his staunch advocacy for the centrality of psychology and the indispensable role of empirical evidence in scientific inquiry. In particular, the analysis focuses on Trembley’s multifaceted intellectual pursuits, encompassing domains such as mathematics, physics, psychology, aesthetics, theology, and politics. This exploration uncovers a cohesive philosophical thread that underscores his commitment to a form of cognitive morality, deeply rooted in psychological principles. The investigation highlights how Trembley’s work championed the use of experience and the systematic application of cognitive processes like curiosity, attention, imagination, as well as the dynamics of habit formation and the association of ideas, thereby positioning psychology as a crucial cornerstone in the framework of scientific methodology. Ultimately, this article offers a comprehensive evaluation of Trembley’s lasting impact on the field of empirical psychology during the Enlightenment, illuminating his role as a pivotal figure in the evolution of scientific thought and practice during this transformative period in intellectual history.

Determinants of visitors' festival satisfaction and subjective well-being: tracing the roles of place attachment and satisfaction

PurposeIndia has a marvelous distinction of hosting religious and cultural extravaganzas on an enormous scale, keeping in with its rich lineage and civilizational assortment. The philosophical threads of such festivals are eventually subjective well-being and spiritual awakening. In this context, the authors examine how the visitors' festival motivation culminates in life satisfaction and subjective well-being.Design/methodology/approachThe study follows a theory-driven deductive approach to test the construed relationships. The data were collected from the sites of religious fiesta when the participants were immersed in their cultural fervor. The study uses structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized model.FindingsThe study finds that place attachment and life satisfaction empirically mediate the relationship between festival motivation and subjective well-being. However, the relationship between place attachment and subjective well-being is not empirically strong when life satisfaction mediates their relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is based on a convenience sample and is limited to the visitors of local religious festivals. Future research must verify the suitability of the model in other types of festivals of other religions and different locations. Also, this research deliberates on the relationship between only four variables. Future researchers could discuss other variables such as authenticity, emotional solidarity, festival images, festival values, religious faith, etc. to develop a more robust model to explain the relationship between festival motivation and subjective well-being.Practical implicationsIn India regardless of social strata, people are religiously conscious and inclined toward attending publicly celebrated religious festivals. The scale of these festivals is significant and given the scenario, the local Government has to join hands with the temple administration, local people and visitors to reap the full benefits of the festival. These temple festivals not only foster coordination and involvement among various stakeholders, but also invoke the devotion of the people to jointly organize the celebrations.Social implicationsAs some of the religious festivals go beyond caste, creed and nationality, the celebrations should evolve as multi-cultural mass events uniting the societal cohesiveness, spirit and national culture. The variables chosen and results found in this study will surely support publicizing the significance of religious festivals in the region and provide an idea to the organizers and supporters to develop new strategies to promote similar events.Originality/valueThe results claim several implications for theory and practice. Theoretically, the study contributes to the literature on religious tourism and event management. Practically, the study discussions indicate the importance of disseminating the significance of religious festivals as a platform for local tourist attractions to generate social, cultural and economic benefits.

Biblical Exegesis and Theology in Thomas Aquinas

In the face of the dichotomy of biblical exegesis and theology, one of the main postulates of Biblical Thomism is the integration of both activities. In this sense, it is understandable why there are philosophical threads in exegesis, and why we find many scripture references in sacra doctrina. The article, first presenting modern attempts to separate exegesis from theology, analyzes the three aspects of studying Sacred Scripture in practicing theology according to Aquinas. For him, exegesis is the alphabet of theology, but the requirement is that the extraction of the meanings of Scripture should be complemented by theological activity.

On the Fear of the Void and Killing Babies in Pascal, Nabokov, and Game of Thrones

Abstract The article places Game of Thrones within a tradition of pessimism, reaching back to Blaise Pascal and coloured by Nabokov’s vision of birth as a separation between two voids. This lineage provides a philosophical thread to analyse the motivations and actions of the protagonists of Game of Thrones, in particular their relation to child-killing. The void looms large in the world of Game of Thrones as the unchartered space beyond the wall. It is the awareness of the reality of this void and the horrors it harbours which is shown to propel those who have it, to go to the greatest lengths to preserve the life of a child.

The importance of metaphysics in the theory of nontrivial physical education – Polish tradition

The sociological cognition of physical education is, in itself complete but insufficient. Within sociological theory we will find explanations of the social and individual functions of physical education. However we find neither 1) justification of the reason for its origins: where does it come from?, why is it here?, nor 2) interpretation of the meaning – what value justifies the meaning ? The first question requires reference to the basics of metaphysics, and the second to the social philosophy and philosophy of culture. Expanding the scope of cognition of physical education by a philosophical thread shows this field of education to be a metaphysical singularity and a cultural universal with a three-stage chain of social causality. In the realities of a pedagogical university, the transformation of a theoretician of physical education into a philosopher of physical education takes place alongside the operation of justifying the sense of being. This is the transition from an explanation of the existence of being in the light of the truth about the cause, to a justification of the rightness of the existence of being in the light of the truth about the good. The intellectualization of the philosophical rationality of a student as a future teacher can increase discreetly the effectiveness of influencing the personality of the student. The aim of the considerations is to show the importance of metaphysical thinking in expanding the explicative range of physical education theory: from the trivial to the non-trivial.

The work of “authenticity” in the age of mechanical reproduction: Constructions of authenticity in South African artisanal brands

From 19th century romanticism to contemporary self-help culture, a popular philosophical thread has asserted, in apparent opposition to the rise of consumer culture, that it is better to focus on who you “really” are, rather than what you have. This paper uses a qualitative research design, social constructionist theoretical framework, and discourse analytic method, to critically discuss the discursive constructions of authenticity deployed by 15 South African artisanal/craft brands. This exploration highlights the tension between a purportedly critical version of authenticity- ostensibly offering an alternative to materialist hierarchies of social status and the manipulations of marketing (James, 2007) – and the increasing appearance of these discourses in lifestyle and marketing media. Here authenticity is offered precisely through personalised consumer options and participation in the dominant regime of consumption. The paper highlights the role that these contradictory discursive articulations play in the production of particular subject positions and social relationships. It hopes to extend the current literature by exploring these issues in a developing country, characterised by inequality.

Is There Pain in hell?

AbstractI present a short summary of the traditional pagan and Christian legacy claiming that hell is above all a place of pain and the objections that have been addressed to it. Then I proceed to my main point:tracing a philosophical thread from Plato to Aristotle and then from Augustine to Aquinas, and citing a psychological experience of everyday life, I maintain that: 1) either there is no pain in hell, or 2) hell is not the worst thing that can happen to a human being. Then I present four possible objections to my thesis and attempt to counter them. In the last section I point to some practical consequences on the pastoral level that could ensue from a different doctrine on the nature of hell.

In the Company of Mump & Smoot and Pochsy

Canadian clowns Michael Kennard, John Turner, and Karen Hines (Mump & Smoot and Pochsy respectively) grew out of the fringe festival circuit in the late eighties. They have gone on to play in numerous major regional theatres throughout North America, including Astor Place Theatre off-Broadway, Yale Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Canadian Stage, and Alberta Theatre Projects. Along the way they have garnered numerous awards, critical acclaim, and a widespread audience through their extensive performing, teaching, directing, writing, and mentoring. They have made significant contributions to both the evolution of clowning in Canada and the Canadian independent theatre scene. In this discussion, these longtime collaborators reflect on their time together, their teachers, the keys to the longevity of their connection, and their artistic interest in horror. They also reflect on how their approaches to performance, and clowning as an art form in particular, differ from one another, as well as the significant philosophical threads that run throughout all of their work.

Weaving a philosophical thread linking everyday practice and theory when ‘it depends … ’

There is a phrase that social pedagogues employ time and again to characterise contextual thinking in everyday practice: ‘it depends … ’. This is often used when seeking answers akin to a formula that can be applied across situations; but can leave the listener with the thought that socio-pedagogical explanations are woolly or even incoherent. Yet when aware of context, pedagogues are clear about specific actions they take and can articulate the reasons behind such actions. What are the underlying principles, assumptions about the nature of reality, of humanity and of relationships that shape such an attitude? Dialectical epistemology and ontology assume that reality is in constant motion, that contradictions are the driver of that process of change. Further, understanding comes from highlighting relationships between different entities rather than separating them from their context. In this article, I use concepts taken from activity theory – a Marxist theory of learning using dialectical thinking – to articulate the relationship between particulars of everyday situations that are the bread and butter of socio-pedagogical practice. By showing that both activity theory and Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed have the same philosophical basis, I argue that these commonalities have explanatory potential for social pedagogues when ‘it depends … ’. I hope that this will encourage practitioners interested in social pedagogy to expand their understanding of the importance of the philosophical assumptions behind their work, and join the work needed to further explore the development of social pedagogy within an activity theoretical framework.

St. Basil the Great’s Philosophy of Time

Basil the Great’s theory of time is a fascinating testimony to the metaphysics and philosophy of nature of the fourth century AD. In his treatises Basil sought to tackle such foundational issues of philosophy as God’s being, its hypostatic instantiations, and God’s creative acts. In order to properly address these issues he had to scrutinize the notion of time, thus turning the discussion of time into one of the key philosophical threads of his treatises. Basil’s works unequivocally exhibited his careful approach to and respect for philosophical tradition, along with his innovative brilliance. Moreover, Basil’s oeuvre clearly indicates that he was well acquainted with the then current philosophical literature on the subject. This article aims to shed light on various aspects of Basil’s theory and its conceptual underpinnings. It endeavors to demonstrate that Basil’s theory, at its highest point, cannot be understood apart from its protological and eschatological premises. It also argues that Basil was not merely an eclectic thinker, in that he used various concepts inherited from the late antique philosophical tradition to arrive at a uniquely Christian theological and eschatological synthesis. It concludes with an affirmation of Basil’s theory of time as a valuable extension to our understanding of the topic.

Ovid's Homer: Authority, Repetition, and Reception by Barbara Weiden Boyd

388 PHOENIX careful assessment of Horace’s representations of the mythic exempla of Ulysses and Teiresias in Serm. 2.5 is especially instructive as he draws out both the contrasts, and the similarities, between the satiric ego and the mythical figures who exemplify the flatterer and the corrupt advisor respectively, to show the satirist confronting the possibility of a reflexive reading of the charges of flattery and false friendship. Horace addresses the charge head-on in Serm. 2.6, a poem of gratitude to his patron for the gift of the Sabine farm, in which he represents himself as the owner of a prosperous estate of the kind sanctioned by Philodemos in his treatise On Property Management. Yona concludes by drawing together the philosophical threads that tie Serm. 2.5 to 2.6: “the poet is able to strengthen his self-portrayal [in Serm. 2.6] as a virtuous client whose frank advice results in financial rewards from a wealthy patron by contrasting it with that of Ulysses, whose riches are a result of opportunistic and ambitious flattery [in Serm. 2.5]” (248). The fifth and final chapter (“Deficient Wealth, Excessive Frankness: Satires 2.2, 2.3, and 2.7”) explores the application of Epicurean ethical precepts in the administration of wealth and the patronage relationship in Serm. 2.2, 3, and 7. Yona reads the speaker of Serm. 2.2, Ofellius, as a dispossessed rustic sage, who bears the loss of his Apulian farm (the location of his erstwhile estate making him an alter-ego of the satirist) with the equanimity of an Epicurean philosopher. He contrasts Ofellius with the long-winded speaker of Serm. 2.3, Damasippus, a recent convert to Stoicism whom Horace portrays as driven to madness (in accordance with the Stoic proverb “all fools are mad”) by his own financial ruin. Upon the sudden and unexpected restoration of his fortunes, Damasippus delivers himself of a diatribe against economic vice that shows him to be both hypocritical and ineffectual in his ostensibly frank criticisms. Like Serm. 2.3, Serm. 2.7 is set in the mouth of an overly harsh Stoic interlocutor, but one who speaks even closer to home, as the satirist’s own slave Davus. Both Damasippus and Davus expatiate at excessive length, offering harsh and unconstructive criticism at odds with the Epicurean principle of therapeutic frankness. Yona succeeds admirably in his goal of demonstrating the unifying presence of Epicurean philosophical doctrine in Horace’s two books of Sermones. He brings to the discussion of Horatian satire an enviably broad and deeply sophisticated knowledge of Philodemos’ treatises that greatly enriches our appreciation of the ethical dimensions of Horace’s earliest poetry collections. The complexity of Yona’s discussions of individual satires can be daunting, but they are richly rewarding throughout. University of Toronto Alison Keith Ovid's Homer: Authority, Repetition, and Reception. Barbara Weiden Boyd. New York: Oxford University Press. 2017. Pp. 320. Even a cursory glance at Ovid’s vast body of work reveals his career-long fascination with Homer’s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which are the wellspring of all classical literature. Ovid’s sophisticated interpretations of Homeric characters transform them into complicated denizens of his own poetry, from Penelope writing to her absent husband in Heroides 1 through the entire Iliad boldly miniaturized in Book 13 of the Metamorphoses to Ovid reimagined as Odysseus himself in his laments from exile. As no monograph explicitly devoted to Ovid’s intense and sustained engagement with Homer BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 389 existed prior to Boyd’s book, assuredly it will spur further examination of both these bedrock poets. Boyd’s study is divided into a preface, a brief introduction, and nine chapters. Chapter One, “Starting from Homer,” lays the groundwork, though perhaps it could have been incorporated into the introduction proper. The takeaway is this: “A prominent characteristic of Ovid’s reading and reinterpretation of his [Homeric] models generally speaking is a distinctly contrarian perspective” (36). The poet’s famous playfulness is not only a pose but also a creative strategy of startling complexity. Chapter Two, “Seeing Double: Ovid’s Diomedes,” is a case study, in which Boyd argues that...

Rethinking Pātañjala Yoga Through the Concepts of Abhyāsa and Vairāgya

This paper offers a close reading of Patanjali’s Yogasūtra through the concepts of abhyāsa and vairāgya, “repetitive practice” and “dispassion,” drawing on Patanjali’s classical commentators and on Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya’s “Studies in Yoga Philosophy,” an (almost) forgotten chapter of his corpus. I open with a critical examination of Patanjali’s citta-vṛtti scheme, his attempt of “mapping” the contents of consciousness. Thereafter, I discuss the “procedure of yoga,” based on the mutual operation of abhyāsa and vairāgya for the sake of nirodha, cessation of the vṛttis, or “movements” of consciousness. A close analysis of Patanjali and his commentators indicates that both abhyāsa and vairāgya are depicted as consisting of a strong reflective dimension. This is to say that the radical meditative act of “emptying” the consciousness of its objective content is in fact a rational conclusion of the mind, as it reflects upon itself. This reflection is both sensitive to the “limitedness” of the objective world and “receptive” to the silent presence of the “unlimited” selfhood beyond, which Patanjali, following the Sāṃkhya tradition, refers to as puruṣa. It is implied here that the yogic act of disengagement from the worldly and objective (conveyed by the notions of pratyāhāra, vairāgya, and kaivalya) is as much an act of will (emphasized and “taken forward” by Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya), as it is an act of self-sacrifice. Finally, the analysis offered here reveals substantial “philosophical threads” in the Yogasūtra, a text which is usually considered as too “practical,” or “therapeutic,” or “spiritual,” to be “really” philosophical.

Indian Buddhist Philosophy by Amber D. Carpenter (review)

Reviewed by: Indian Buddhist Philosophy by Amber D. Carpenter Malcolm Keating (bio) Indian Buddhist Philosophy. By Amber D. Carpenter. Durham, UK: Acumen Publishing, 2014. Pp. v–xvii + 313. isbn 978-1-84-465298-3. Authors generally take one of two approaches to surveying Buddhist philosophy. There is the historically oriented introduction, which charts the development from early Abhidharma to later Madhyamaka and Yogācāra. Examples of this style include David Kalupahana’s A History of Buddhist Philosophy: Continuities and Discontinuities (1992) and Paul Williams and Anthony Tribe’s Buddhist Thought (2000). Then there is the topic-oriented introduction, which focuses on major questions under discussion (What is suffering and how do we end it? What is the theory of no-self? How does the concept of emptiness square with the doctrine of rebirth?). Mark Gowan’s Philosophy of the Buddha: An Introduction (2003) and Mark Siderits’ Buddhism as Philosophy (2007) and are two instances of this approach. The risk in focusing on historical development is losing the philosophical thread in a morass of texts and commentaries, schools and sub-schools. On the other hand, isolating topics from their historical context runs the risk of misrepresentation and oversimplification. An excellent survey, using either method, will be attentive to the situatedness of philosophical claims without losing sight of the overarching conversation. This enables a reader to engage in the conversation from within her own philosophical tradition, equipped with an awareness of how it relates to Indian Buddhism, so that she might, in Gadamerian terms, aim toward a fusion of horizons. In her recent book, Indian Buddhist Philosophy, Amber D. Carpenter marries both historical and topical approaches in an excellent introduction to the themes and texts of Indian Buddhist philosophy. If the book leans toward one of the two styles, it is toward the topical (despite the book copy advertising it as “roughly chronological”). However, she doesn’t fall into historical oversimplification for the sake of philosophical dialectic. Carpenter’s aim is to unfold the development of Indian Buddhist thought with a particular focus on ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. Since her goal is to orient the reader only to Indian Buddhist philosophy, she does not emphasize non-Buddhist interlocutors. Nor, since she focuses on Indian philosophy, does she continue much beyond the seventh century, since, by this point in history, Buddhism was making inroads into Tibet through Śāntarakṣita and others. Carpenter organizes Indian Buddhist Philosophy into eight chapters, which take the reader from the auspicious birth of Siddhartha Gautama in the fifth century b.c.e. up to the Mādhyamika Śāntideva’s miraculously levitating recitation of the Bodhicāryāvatāra in the eighth century c.e. Chapter 1 introduces the history and legends of the Buddha, the Four Noble Truths, and the Eightfold Path. In this chapter, Carpenter explores different ways to frame suffering, concluding that it is best understood [End Page 1000] as mutually dependent origination, or pratītyasamutpāda. With the concept of “metaphysical suffering,” the fact that everything is conditioned by something else, she begins chapter 2 with a focus on the theory of no-self. This chapter introduces readers to the Abhidharma, the pudgalavādins (Buddhists who believe that there are persons), and the famous chariot metaphor found in the Milindapañhā. Along the way she draws some connections with Greek and Christian accounts of suffering and self as well as the Vedic background against which early Buddhists defined themselves. Carpenter makes another cross-cultural connection in chapter 3, this time with Friedrich Nietzsche, who rejected Buddhism (at least Schopenhauer’s version of it) as being a nihilistic, world-denying way of life. She uses Nietzsche as a foil with which to introduce the Theravāda-Mahāyāna dispute, to identify precisely in what sense nirvāṇa is a cessation of desire, and to explain how Buddhism can motivate ethical activity without internal contradiction, given that desire seems necessary for action and yet is also the very thing that Buddhists seek to dismantle. Carpenter then shifts to Mahāyāna Buddhism, using chapter 4 to focus on the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā and the Ratnāvalī, and she explains how Nāgārjuna moves beyond...

Supplementary Documents for Russell’s Logic, 1905–08

A philosopher may develop ideas on his or her own or follow them in the works of others. Different kinds of documentary threads will develop. Historians of a subject may follow either kind. In the period of Toward “Principia Mathematica”, 1905–08 , Russell engaged with developments in the writings of Poincare, Haldane, Schiller and Berry, among others. What follows are remarks on supplementary documents (one being online) for a fuller study of logical and philosophical threads in the period.

Supplementary Documents for Russell’s Logic, 1905–08

A philosopher may develop ideas on his or her own or follow them in the works of others. Different kinds of documentary threads will develop. Historians of a subject may follow either kind. In the period of Toward “Principia Mathematica”, 1905–08, Russell engaged with developments in the writings of Poincaré, Haldane, Schiller and Berry, among others. What follows are remarks on supplementary documents (one being on-line) for a fuller study of logical and philosophical threads in the period.

О филозофским основама теорије прототипова и когнитивне лингвистике

The main purpose of the paper is to show the influence of various philosophical ideas on the development of prototype theory, an integral part of experiential realism and one of the key strongpoints of modern cognitive linguistics. After providing an overview of the main tenets of experiential realism, the paper deals with the position of prototypes within the basic approaches to categorization in thought and language, which is followed by a summary of a number of ideas of Immanuel Kant, Edmund Husserl and Ludwig Wittgenstein, with a special emphasis on Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations and the Blue and Brown Books, i.e. on his explorations of the problem of categorization, language games and family resemblances. The paper proves that the philosophical thread which brings us to the modern ideas of cognitive linguistics began with Kant’s views on knowledge and the nature of categorization, Husserl’s concept of categorical intuition and, finally, Wittgenstein’s treatment of categories based on the complex network of family resemblances.

The cognitive process in metrology

Human aspiration for deeper and fuller understanding of reality results from the philosophical meaning of the science developed by the man. The way that leads him to the utter recognition is made by more and more perfect systems of thinking. They enable the man to create infinitely complicated models of various phenomena from simple yet subtle laws of the nature.This work shows the philosophical threads of metrology as a set of theoretical and empirical facts verifying human hypotheses as well as the metrology intellectual superstructure.

Epistemological Threads in the Fabric of Pedagogical Research

Context Over the past 15 years, a philosophical renaissance has emerged within the educational research literature, raising conundrums about the nature of knowledge and how to acquire it. To date, such philosophical conundrums have not been directly posed in relation to pedagogical research, particularly our understanding of what constitutes quality in teaching. Purpose Our purpose in writing this article is to focus a philosophical lens on quality teaching in general, and the High-Quality Teaching (HQT) study in particular, an examination of what teachers do to help fourth- and fifth-grade students succeed in reading and mathematics. Our intent is to demonstrate how such philosophical scrutiny can lead to a fuller understanding of high-quality teaching in its varied manifestations. Research Design This article is an analytical essay. We first identify multiple philosophical threads (epistemological perspectives on knowledge) that can be used to characterize education broadly, and teaching specifically. We next demonstrate how these epistemological perspectives have informed our understandings of quality teaching, the nature of mathematics and reading education, and the use of different research paradigms to investigate teaching and learning. Finally, we apply these epistemological threads to the HQT study retrospectively, highlighting how identifying them helps us better understand our own work and the effects of the decisions that we made. Conclusions Our philosophical scrutiny leads us to conclude that efforts to engage in meaningful and informative research on teachers and teaching would be enhanced if the epistemological threads of such research were explicit and valued components in the conceptualization, design, implementation, and interpretation of research results.

Better but Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the United States Since 1950

Back to table of contents Previous article Next article Book ReviewFull AccessBetter but Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the United States Since 1950William H. Fisher Ph.D.William H. Fisher Ph.D.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:1 Jun 2007https://doi.org/10.1176/ps.2007.58.6.881AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail As illustrated by Jeffrey Geller's ( 1 ) overview of 50 years of discussions regarding psychiatric services, the last half of the 20th century was a time of major upheaval in the delivery of mental health services. From the late 1970s to the early 1990s a number of volumes by historians, sociologists, policy analysts, and psychiatrists provided narrative for these events ( 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ). The 1990s—which saw the introduction of managed care, privatization, redoubled efforts to close state hospitals, and the ascendancy of Medicaid as a major driving force in mental health service delivery—were in many ways the culmination of the events of the preceding 40 years. But just as things got really interesting, the pace of narrative production in the form of books diminished. Someone needed to succinctly tie together the policy, organization, financing, clinical, and philosophical threads that constitute the fabric of current mental health policy in a succinct overview that could be read and understood by a wide audience. In Better but Not Well Richard Frank and Sherry Glied address that need admirably. Better but Not Well , a title recycled from a paper written in the 1970s by the late Gerald Klerman ( 5 ), begins with an overview of what is known about the prevalence of mental illness from current epidemiological studies. The book then proceeds to describe research regarding the status of contemporary treatment approaches for psychiatric disorders. The next two chapters deal with how that treatment is funded and the changing landscape of systems for delivering that treatment. The sixth chapter succinctly outlines the status of mental health policy and briefly describes the historical processes that created the current policy environment. Chapter 7 summarizes current data on the well-being of persons with mental illness—a discussion that fits particularly well in the context of the chapters leading up to it. In some ways, this chapter answers the question "What has been the product of the last half century's efforts?" As the book's title suggests, the authors argue that the status of persons with psychiatric disabilities has improved significantly in the past 50 years in a host of different dimensions but still is not where it could or should be. In the final chapter the authors suggest reforms for further improving the lives of persons with psychiatric disorders. Their observations are responsive to those of Rosalynn Carter, who, in her foreword to the book, argues that progress has been attempted but in some cases thwarted politically and that much reform remains to be accomplished. The subtitle of this book led me to expect a dense, massive tome. It is anything but. It provides a wealth of information but contextualizes that information extremely well. As such, it will serve for many years as a useful reference for persons working in this field. The book is also an amazingly good read for one providing so much information and could easily be assigned to advanced undergraduates and graduate students. But Better but Not Well should be assigned to every practitioner, mental health clinician, administrator, and advocate—as well as every legislator and policy maker—concerned with the status of Americans with serious mental illness and what might be done to improve it. Dr. Fisher is affiliated with the Center for Mental Health Services Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.

A materialist development of some recent contributions to the labour theory of value

The paper offers a novel interpretation and affirmation of the opening arguments of Capital, answering the fundamental but neglected question of why labour is the substance of value. Marx's arguments require that two philosophical threads, often separated in the literature on value, be woven together. The argument that value is the intrinsic ‘content’ making commodities exchangeable employs the thread of realism. The argument that abstract labour is the emergent ‘social substance’ of value employs the thread of dialectics. This interpretation develops the materialist and dialectical philosophy of E.V. Ilyenkov and deepens the approach to value theory initiated by Ben Fine.