Doxastic Research Articles

Saint Augustine on the Resurrection of Christ: Teaching, Rhetoric, and Reception. By Gerald O’Collins

This slim and accessible book brings together first a brief account of what Augustine taught in various writings about the resurrection of Jesus and its central place in Christian faith and in his understanding of Christ’s eternal priesthood (chs. 1–2). Second, this teaching is brought into a fruitful conversation with later Christology and with objections which have been put to a reasonable belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus (chs. 3–4). In this way Professor O’Collins defends the continuing relevance of Augustine’s thought but also seeks to supplement its shortcomings. Chapter 1 shows how Augustine, influenced by John’s Gospel, ‘highlights Christ’s active role in his own resurrection’ (p. 1). For Augustine ‘Jesus rose in the same body in which he died’ (p. 8), which is ‘spiritual’, not in the sense of ceasing to be physical, but in the sense of being ‘sustained by a life-giving spirit’ (p. 9, citing De civ. dei, 13.22). While the risen Christ eats before the ascension to scotch the notion of his being a ghost, Augustine insists that the risen body is incorrupt and needs no such sustenance (pp. 17–18). Such appearances do not tell us whether we shall actually eat and drink at the heavenly banquet. The risen Christ is both the pledge and instrument of his followers’ resurrection (p. 20), and they will share this incorruption. Like his, their bodies will remain sexually differentiated, but there is to be no marriage, intercourse, or child-bearing in the life to come. Augustine also distinguishes between the resurrection of the soul ‘brought about by the eternal and unchanging substance of Father and Son’ and the resurrection of the body brought about ‘through the efficacy of the Son’s [crucified, risen, and glorious] humanity, which is not co-eternal with the Father’ (p. 22, citing Io. ev. tr. 23.13).

A Combinatorial Argument against Practical Reasons for Belief

A Combinatorial Argument against Practical Reasons for Belief

Accelerating the Development of Second-Order False Belief Reasoning: A Training Study With Different Feedback Methods.

One-hundred-six 5-year-olds' (Mage =5;6; SD=0.40) were trained with second-order false belief tasks in one of the following conditions: (a) feedback with explanation; (b) feedback without explanation; (c) no feedback; (d) active control. The results showed that there were significant improvements in children's scores from pretest to posttest in the three experimental conditions even when children's age, verbal abilities, or working memory scores were controlled for. The training effect was stable at a follow-up session 4months after the pretest. Overall, our results suggest that 5-year-olds' failures in second-order false belief tasks are due to lack of experience and that they can be helped over the threshold by exposure to many stories involving second-order false belief reasoning, including why questions.

Doxastic logic: a new approach

ABSTRACTIn this paper, I develop a new set of doxastic logical systems and I show how they can be used to solve several well-known problems in doxastic logic, for example the so-called problem of logical omniscience. According to this puzzle, the notions of knowledge and belief that are used in ordinary epistemic and doxastic symbolic systems are too idealised. Hence, those systems cannot be used to model ordinary human or human-like agents' beliefs. At best, they can describe idealised individuals. The systems in this paper can be used to symbolise not only the doxastic states of perfectly rational individuals, but also the beliefs of finite humans (and human-like agents). Proof-theoretically, I will use a tableau technique. Every system is combined with predicate logic with necessary identity and ‘possibilist’ quantifiers and modal logic with two kinds of modal operators for relative and absolute necessity. The semantics is a possible world semantics. Finally, I prove that every tableau system in the paper is sound and complete with respect to its semantics.

A Simple Model for the Distribution of Dark Matter

In recent times, the subject of dark matter has engaged the public thanks to reports in popular scientific journals and newspapers. In a first course in physics, we frequently encounter questions regarding reasons for belief in dark matter. Related questions regarding the composition and density of dark matter are also raised. In this article, we address the issue of the density distribution of dark matter.

Transparency or Loopholes: Target Locations, FISA Warrants, and Reasonable Belief

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 was a grand compromise. FISA aimed at continued collection of national security intelligence, while preserving American civil liberties from government overreach. This compromise sought to assuage concerns from the tech industry and high-level government officials by providing protection to both from litigation. The FISA comprise was premised on the independence of a specially created judicial court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), overseeing executive power while providing reporting to Congress. A true balance of power. From its inception, FISA's basic foundation for legality is founded on government knowledge of the physical location of targets. This foundation has not aged well as technology has evolved. In addition to technological advances, the law itself has not been updated to reflect the changes in technology. Congress has shown a penchant for reacting to either the executive or the Supreme Court. Congress' reaction to litigation in 2018, the Court's recent ruling in Carpenter, and Special Counsel Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference with subsequent Congressional disclosures, all threaten the vitality of FISA. This article outlines the foundation, covers the technological developments, and exposes flaws in the FISA system. The Article argues the Government, along with the tech industry must rework another grand compromise to ensure the continued vitality of national security surveillance, while continuing to protect American civil liberties from government overreach.

Improving relations among conservatives and liberals on a college campus: A preliminary trial of a contextual-behavioral intervention

The US has never been more divided politically. Polarization is notable on majority-liberal college campuses where conservatives feel outnumbered and marginalized. In this study, we examined the effectiveness of a half-day workshop to decrease polarization and improve closeness between conservatives and liberals at a majority-liberal college campus. Informed by political psychology and relationship science, the intervention employed exercises derived from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy to encourage identification of core beliefs and vulnerable discussions of deeper reasons for core political beliefs aimed at generating closeness and understanding between participants. Participants (N = 20) were assigned to 2 groups: one of mixed conservatives and liberals, and one of all liberals. All participants reported improvements in attitudes and hostility towards outgroup members from pre- to post-workshop, but only differences in relations with specific outgroup workshop participants were maintained at 1-month follow-up. Participants also reported arguing less than expected.

The Osmolyte TMAO Modulates Protein Folding Cooperativity by Altering Global Protein Stability

The folding of many globular proteins from the unfolded (U) to the native (N) state appears to be describable by a two-state N ↔ U model, which has led to the general belief that protein folding occurs in a highly cooperative manner. One reason for the widespread belief in "two-state folding" is that protein folding reactions are invariably studied by ensemble averaging probes and not by probes that can distinguish as well as quantify the multiple conformations that may be present. Consequently, how cooperativity is affected by protein stability, protein sequence, and solvent conditions is poorly understood. In this study, hydrogen exchange coupled to mass spectrometry (HX-MS) of the PI3K SH3 domain was carried out in the presence of a stabilizing osmolyte, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO). By showing that HX occurs under the EX1 regime even in the presence of 2 M TMAO, we were able to examine the temporal evolution of the populations of the different conformations present together. A strong link between protein folding cooperativity and protein stability is revealed. Increasing stability is accompanied by an increase in the ruggedness of the free energy landscape as well as diminished cooperativity; the number of amide sites simultaneously opening up their structure decreases with an increase in TMAO concentration. A comparison of the effect of TMAO to that of urea on the intrinsic dynamics of the PI3K SH3 domain indicates that TMAO counteracts the effect of urea not only on protein stability but also on protein folding cooperativity.

Why Doxastic Dependence Defeats Grue: A Response to Dorst's Reply

Why Doxastic Dependence Defeats Grue: A Response to Dorst's Reply

School Treasurer Held Not Liable for Payroll Taxes Because of Reasonable Belief Taxes Were Being Paid

The US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, on April 23, held that a volunteer treasurer serving a tax‐exempt school, even though a responsible person, was not liable for the school's unpaid employee payroll taxes because he reasonably believed that the taxes were being paid by the school (Bibler v. United States (S.D. Ohio)).

Maternal cognition talk in the mother–toddler dyad mediates the influence of early maternal emotional availability on preschoolers' belief reasoning

AbstractThe present longitudinal study of 83 mother–child dyads (40 girls) assessed how emotional availability (EA) and maternal mental state language (MSL) are related to children's first‐ and second‐order false belief understanding (FBU). EA was measured with the emotional availability scales at 7 and 50 months, maternal MSL within free play at 7 months, and within a book context at 24 months. First‐order FBU was assessed at 50 months and second‐order FBU at 70 months. The results emphasize the specific importance of high emotional connectedness between mother and infant for early and later mother–child conversations about inner states. They also stress the prominent role of maternal cognition MSL for children's first‐ and second‐order FBU. Thereby, maternal cognition MSL seems to mediate the influence of early EA on preschoolers' first‐order FBU. The results are discussed within different theoretical frameworks of FBU development.

Believing for Practical Reasons

AbstractSome prominent evidentialists argue that practical considerations cannot be normative reasons for belief because they can't be motivating reasons for belief. Existing pragmatist responses turn out to depend on the assumption that it's possible to believe in the absence of evidence. The evidentialist may deny this, at which point the debate ends in an impasse. I propose a new strategy for the pragmatist. This involves conceding that belief in the absence of evidence is impossible. We then argue that evidence can play a role in bringing about belief without being a motivating reason for belief, thereby leaving room for practical considerations to serve as motivating reasons. I present two ways in which this can happen. First, agents can use evidence as a mere means by which to believe, with practical considerations serving as motivating reasons for belief, just as we use tools (e.g. a brake pedal) as mere means by which to do something (e.g. slow down) which we are motivated to do for practical reasons. Second, evidence can make it possible for one to choose whether or not to believe – a choice one can then make for practical reasons. These arguments push the debate between the evidentialist and the pragmatist into new territory. It is no longer enough for an evidentialist to insist that belief is impossible without evidence. Even if this is right, the outcome of the debate remains unsettled. It will hang on the ability of the evidentialist to respond to the new pragmatist strategy presented here.

Electronic cigarette use among patients with cancer: Reasons for use, beliefs, and patient-provider communication.

Smoking tobacco cigarettes after a cancer diagnosis increases risk for several serious adverse outcomes. Thus, patients can significantly benefit from quitting smoking. Electronic cigarettes are an increasingly popular cessation method. Providers routinely ask about combustible cigarette use, yet little is known about use and communication surrounding e-cigarettes among patients with cancer. This study aims to describe patterns, beliefs, and communication with oncology providers about e-cigarette use of patients with cancer. Patients with cancer (N=121) who currently used e-cigarettes were surveyed in a cross-sectional study about their patterns and reasons for use, beliefs, and perceptions of risk for e-cigarettes, combustible cigarettes, and nicotine replacement therapies. Patient perspectives on provider communication regarding e-cigarettes were also assessed. Most participants identified smoking cessation as the reason for initiating (81%) and continuing (60%) e-cigarette use. However, 51% of patients reported current dual use of combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes, and most patients reported never having discussed their use of e-cigarettes with their oncology provider (72%). Patients characterized e-cigarettes as less addictive, less expensive, less stigmatizing, and less likely to impact cancer treatment than combustible cigarettes (Ps<.05), and more satisfying, more useful for quitting smoking, and more effective at reducing cancer-related stress than nicotine replacement therapies (Ps<.05). Patients with cancer who use e-cigarettes have positive attitudes toward these devices and use them to aid in smoking cessation. This study also highlights the need for improved patient-provider communication on the safety and efficacy of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation.

Skeptical Theism and Morriston’s Humean Argument from Evil

There’s a growing sense among philosophers of religion that (i) Humean arguments from evil are some of the most formidable arguments against theism, and (ii) skeptical theism fails to undermine those arguments because they fail to make the inferences skeptical theists criticize. In line with this trend, Wes Morriston has recently formulated a Humean argument from evil, and his chief defense of it is that skeptical theism is irrelevant to it. Here I argue that skeptical theism is relevant to Humean arguments. To do this, I reveal the common structure of skeptical theism’s critiques. Seeing the common structure reveals why some versions of skeptical theism are irrelevant to Humean arguments from evil. It also points the way forward to formulating a relevant version. By combining skeptical theism with a plausible principle concerning reasonable belief, I formulate a version of skeptical theism that undermines Morriston’s argument that is also immune from his objections.

How to Make Correct Predictions in False Belief Tasks without Attributing False Beliefs: An Analysis of Alternative Inferences and How to Avoid Them

The use of new paradigms of false belief tasks (FBT) allowed to reduce the age of children who pass the test from the previous 4 years in the standard version to only 15 months or even a striking 6 months in the nonverbal modification. These results are often taken as evidence that infants already possess an—at least implicit—theory of mind (ToM). We criticize this inferential leap on the grounds that inferring a ToM from the predictive success on a false belief task requires to assume as premise that a belief reasoning is a necessary condition for correct action prediction. It is argued that the FBT does not satisfactorily constrain the predictive means, leaving room for the use of belief-independent inferences (that can rely on the attribution of non-representational mental states or the consideration of behavioral patterns that dispense any reference to other minds). These heuristics, when applied to the FBT, can achieve the same predictive success of a belief-based inference because information provided by the test stimulus allows the recognition of particular situations that can be subsumed by their ‘laws’. Instead of solving this issue by designing a single experimentum crucis that would render unfeasible the use of non-representational inferences, we suggest the application of a set of tests in which, although individually they can support inferences dissociated from a ToM, only an inference that makes use of false beliefs is able to correctly predict all the outcomes.

Epistemic Vice and Motivation

AbstractThis article argues that intellectual character vices involve non‐instrumental motives to oppose, antagonise, or avoid things that are epistemically good in themselves. This view has been the recent target of criticism based on alleged counterexamples presenting epistemically vicious individuals who are virtuously motivated or at least lack suitable epistemically bad motivations. The paper first presents these examples and shows that they do not undermine the motivational approach. Finally, having distinguished motivating from explanatory reasons for belief and action, it argues that our epistemic practice of vice attribution supplies evidence in favour of motivational accounts of vice.

Mental Rotation in False Belief Understanding

This study examines the spontaneous use of embodied egocentric transformation (EET) in understanding false beliefs in the minds of others. EET involves the participants mentally transforming or rotating themselves into the orientation of an agent when trying to adopt his or her visuospatial perspective. We argue that psychological perspective taking such as false belief reasoning may also involve EET because of what has been widely reported in the embodied cognition literature, showing that our processing of abstract, propositional information is often grounded in concrete bodily sensations which are not apparently linked to higher cognition. In Experiment 1, an agent placed a ball into one of two boxes and left. The ball then rolled out and moved either into the other box (new box) or back into the original one (old box). The participants were to decide from which box they themselves or the agent would try to recover the ball. Results showed that false belief performance was affected by increased orientation disparity between the participants and the agent, suggesting involvement of embodied transformation. In Experiment 2, false belief was similarly induced and the participants were to decide if the agent would try to recover the ball in one specific box. Orientation disparity was again found to affect false belief performance. The present results extend previous findings on EET in visuospatial perspective taking and suggest that false belief reasoning, which is a kind of psychological perspective taking, can also involve embodied rotation, consistent with the embodied cognition view.

False Belief Reasoning in Adults with and without Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Similarities and Differences.

A central diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the qualitative impairment in reciprocal social interaction and a prominent hypotheses that tried to explain this impairment is the Theory of Mind (ToM) deficit hypotheses. On a behavioral level the critical test for having a ToM, the understanding of false beliefs (FB), is often used for testing ToM abilities in individuals with ASD. Investigating the neural underpinnings several neuroimaging studies revealed a network of areas involved in FB reasoning in neurotypical individuals. For ASD individuals the neural correlates of false belief processing are largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and an adapted unexpected transfer task, that makes it possible to distinguish between the computation of diverging beliefs and the selection of a belief-associated response, we investigated a group of adult high-functioning individuals with ASD (N = 15) and an age and IQ matched group of neurotypical adults (NT; N = 15). On the behavioral level we found no group differences. On the neural level, results were two-fold: In the story phase, in which participants had to compute whether the character's belief is congruent or incongruent to their own belief, there were no differences between neurotypical participants and those diagnosed with ASD. But, in the subsequent question phase, participants with ASD showed increased activity in the bilateral anterior prefrontal cortex, the left posterior frontal cortex, the left superior temporal gyrus, and the left temporoparietal area. These results suggest that during the story phase in which the participants processed observable actions the neural correlates do not differ between adult individuals with ASD and NT individuals. But in the question phase in which participants had to infer an unobservable mental state results revealed neural differences between the two groups. Possibly, these subtle neural processing differences may contribute to the fact that adult ASD individuals are able to master explicit false belief tasks but fail to apply their strategies during everyday social interaction.

The Underwater Acoustic Target Recognition Algorithm Based on Evidence Clustering

In underwater acoustic target recognition, the target signal is usually complex and the samples which are difficult to obtain also have some uncertain information. In order to effectively solve these problems, the evidence clustering recognition algorithm (TECRA) is presented. In this new method, the k-nearest neighbor are first determined by using the feature distance between the object and its neighbors in each class of the training set, and a reasonable initial basic belief assignments (bba's) for each target data are constructed by the improved k-nearest neighbor classification algorithm. Then the final global bba's of the target is obtained by optimizing the objective function of the algorithm. Finally the object can be recognized by the fusion result and the classification rule presented in the paper. Several experiments based on real underwater acoustic data sets are made to test the effectiveness of TECRA in comparison with some other methods. The results indicate that TECRA can effectively improve the recognition accuracy.

Assessing the integrity of the cognitive processes involved in belief reasoning by means of two nonverbal tasks: Rationale, normative data collection and illustration with brain-damaged patients.

Every day, we engage in social interactions with other people which require understanding their as well as our own mental states. Such capacity is commonly referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM). Disturbances of ToM are often reported in diverse pathologies which affect brain functioning and lead to problems in social interactions. Identifying ToM deficits is thus crucial to guide the clinicians in the establishment of adequate rehabilitation strategies for patients. Previous studies have demonstrated that ToM is not a unitary function yet currently there are very few standardized tests which allow identifying the type of cognitive processes affected when a patient exhibits a ToM deficit. In the current study, we present two belief reasoning tasks which have been used in previous research to disentangle two types of processes involved in belief reasoning: self-perspective inhibition and the spontaneous inference of another person’s belief. A three-step procedure was developed to provide clinicians with the tools to interpret the patients’ performances on the tasks. First, these tasks were standardized and normative data was collected on a sample of 124 healthy participants aged between 18 and 74. Data collected showed a decrease in performance as a function of age only in the task that loaded most in spontaneous other-perspective demands. There was however no effect of gender or educational level. Cut-off scores to identify deficits were then calculated for the different age groups separately. Secondly, the three-step procedure was applied to 21 brain-damaged patients and showed a large diversity of profiles, including selective deficits of the two targeted ToM processes. The diversity of profiles shows the importance to take into account the multiple facets of ToM during the diagnosis and rehabilitation of patients with suspected ToM deficits.