Theory Claims Research Articles

Why Dreaming Worlds aren’t Nearby Possible Worlds

Abstract A familiar anti-sceptical response (à la Sosa) to radical sceptical scenarios employs the safety of knowledge. Radical sceptical scenarios are purported to be too modally remote to really threaten knowledge of ordinary propositions. Why? Because knowledge requires safety, and safety requires the target belief to be true in all nearby possible worlds, but radical sceptical scenarios purportedly take place at distant possible worlds. Hence, the safety theorist claims that radical sceptical scenarios don’t challenge our knowledge of ordinary propositions. But it's alleged by Sosa and others that there's one radical sceptical scenario that can’t be dismissed so easily: the dream scenario. After all, unlike evil demons and brains in vats, ‘dreaming is a daily part of our lives…it is too close for comfort’. In this paper, I sketch an argument to the effect that there's good reason to think that the dream of dream scepticism describes a modally remote possibility, in which case I argue that if the safety-based anti-sceptical response is successful against the evil demon sceptical scenario, the brain in a vat sceptical scenario, and other Cartesian sceptical scenarios in this mould, then it's successful against the dream sceptical scenario as well.

Mythbusters united? A dialogue over Harris's integrationist linguistics and Gibson's Ecological Psychology

In this paper an integrationist linguist (Peter E Jones) and an Ecological Psychologist (Catherine Read) open a dialogue on the possibility of a productive relationship between the integrationist approach to language and communication of Roy Harris and James Gibson's Ecological Psychology of perceiving/acting/knowing. Within their own disciplinary contexts, each position is one of profound critique and innovation in relation to established and pervasive ‘myths’. Specifically, Harris is concerned with the ‘language myth’—the explicit positions and implicit assumptions in the Western language tradition (including modern linguistics) about the nature of language and the relationship between language and communication. In sharp contrast to mainstream approaches, Harris rejects both coding and representational views of meaning and takes signs (including linguistic signs) to be the product, rather than the precondition, of communicational activity. Similarly, Gibson critiques assumptions about how perception takes place, especially in the case of vision, that have informed Western science at least since Descartes' Optics. In particular, Gibson rejects the passive ‘retinal image fallacy’ of seeing in favour of an activity based non-representational perspective of ‘direct perception’. The paper offers a critical dialogue over the key theoretical perspectives of both traditions, focusing particularly on the import and implications of each theorist's claims and assumptions about the other's field. Highlighting key areas of apparent common ground across the two approaches, we also argue that Gibson appears not to be entirely free of assumptions about language that belong to Harris's ‘language myth’, while Harris appears at times to assume the ‘image’ based model of perception that Gibson rejected. In the context of current interest in a possible reconciliation or combination of integrational linguistics and Ecological Psychology, the paper, therefore, raises fundamental questions around the extent to which these independently developed programmes of demythologization are compatible or possibly synergistic.

Philosophical Groundwork for the Theory of Morality as Cooperation

A novel theory named Morality as Cooperation (MAC) theory has proposed a different perspective in the study of morality, the theory claims that morality is a series of solutions humans gave to questions and problems raised by cooperation throughout history. This paper analyzed the MAC theory in a philosophical way to demonstrate whether the theory is logically justified. In the process, the essay answered the following points: It is true that morality cannot be formed on a personal level, hence interpersonal interaction is required for the development of human morality; human morality as of today is in fact a series of solutions to problems, and cooperation is the source of all these problems. The philosophical exploration of this paper provides some support for the theory: the theory has great potential not only in science but also in philosophy, which also inspires future research to continue the discussion on morality with more perspectives.

Deliberative Democracy and Systemic Racism

AbstractExamining recent developments in deliberative democracy alongside growing attention to system-wide racism, I look at the ways deliberative systems theory and practice deals with the tension between the theory's normative claims and the structural injustice against which deliberative systems unfold. I focus on work aimed at deepening inclusion in deliberative systems, noting that this focus on inclusion into unjust systems stops the deliberative literature from taking full responsibility for structural and systemic racism. Taking a critical approach to the deliberative literature's capacity to confront systemic racism and live up to its normative principles of treating all people as equals, I argue that we need to reframe power to centre the relationship between race and democracy. As I do so, I propose ways to begin dismantling foundational injustice in deliberative systems, centring foundational inequalities in deliberative theory and design, and setting out differential responsibilities for listening as deliberative theorists confront the problem of white supremacy in deliberative systems.

Growing up in Nso: Changes and continuities in children's relational networks during the first three years of life

AbstractIt is an undisputed fact among attachment researchers that children need stability and continuity in their caregiving environment for optimal developmental outcomes. However, anthropological studies show that informal and often temporally limited kinship‐based foster care, including changes of children's primary caregivers, is widespread in some cultural contexts and considered normative and thus beneficial for children. Based on ethnographic interviews with Nso families in northwestern Cameroon, we analyzed the dynamics of caregiving arrangements and relational networks during infancy and early childhood. Exploring household compositions, caregiving responsibilities, children's preferred caregivers, and foster care arrangements revealed multiple caregiver networks, with the importance of the mother decreasing and the importance of alloparents and peers increasing as the children grow older. Also, families have fluid boundaries, with about one‐third of the children changing households in the first three years of life. The Nso children's experiences reflect a relational cultural model of infant care as a cooperative task and a communal conception of attachment. The results are discussed in relation to attachment theory's claims about universal patterns of development.

Humour through the Scope of Social Theories and Pragmatic Approaches

Abstract: For many years, humour has been the subject of scientific research and it has been related to movies, television shows, literature, sociology, and others. When analysing how comic effect is achieved, humour can be complicated and multifaceted. For that reason, there is no specific theory that explains humour ideally. However, the various social theories and pragmatic approaches to humour, each of which focuses on the different aspects of humour functioning, complement each other. The article aims to present the propositions on humour and the central claims of different social theories and pragmatic approaches. Attention is focused on the butt of the ridicule, the psychoanalytic aspect of humour, and the surprise element. In addition, human agency, cultural knowledge, linguistic means and cognition, ostensive stimuli, and inferential reasoning are also outlined. Thus, the article contributes to a more profound and adequate understanding of the inventive and resourceful propositions on humour and comic discourse analysis. Keywords: humour, superiority theory, relief theory, incongruity theory, conversational maxims, relevance theory.

Can contract emancipate? contract theory and the law of work

Abstract Contract and employment law have grown apart. Long ago, each side gave up on the other. In this Article, we reunite them to the betterment of both. In brief, we demonstrate the emancipatory potential of contract for the law of work. Today, the dominant contract theories assume a widget transaction between substantively equal parties. If this were an accurate description of what contract is, then contract law would be right to expel workers. Worker protections would indeed be better regulated by—and relegated to—employment and labor law. But contract law is not what contract theorists claim. Neither is contract law what the dominant employment theorists fear—a domain that necessarily misses the constitutive place of work in people’s life-plans and overlooks the systemic vulnerability of workers to their employers. Contract, we contend, is not work law’s canonical “other.” Rightly understood, contract is an autonomy-enhancing device, one founded on the fundamental liberal commitment of reciprocal respect for self-determination. From this “choice theory” perspective, the presumed opposition between employment and contract law dissolves. We show that many employment law doctrines are not external to contract, but are instead entailed in liberal contract itself. Grounding worker protections in contract theory has two salutary effects. First, it offers workers more secure protection than that afforded by their reliance on momentary public-law compromises. Second, it reveals contract’s emancipatory potential for all of us—not just as workers, but also as widget buyers. Contract can empower, and employment can show the way.

Two Kinds of Process or Two Kinds of Processing? Disambiguating Dual-Process Theories

Dual-Process Theories (D-PTs) claim there are two qualitatively different types of processes in the human brain-mind. Despite forming the basis for several areas of cognitive science, they are still shrouded in ambiguity: critics erroneously attack D-PTs as a whole (e.g., Evans and Stanovich Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(3), 2013), the qualitative/quantitative distinction is not clear enough (De Neys Perspectives on Psychological Science 16 (6): 1412–1427, 2021; Dewey 2022) and, given this criterion, deciding between qualitative or quantitative differences may even be scientifically irrelevant (De Neys 2021). As a way of disambiguating the discussion and clarifying what exactly means to claim the existence of a second type of process, I define two possible categories of D-PT: The substantial and the instrumental. In the substantial case, Type 2 processes are subpersonal level ones. In the instrumental case, Type 2 processing is a personal level phenomenon that does not necessarily imply subpersonal level Type 2 processes. Discussing the different implications of each of the categories, I use as a main example to illustrate the ambiguity – and the exercise of disambiguation – the model proposed by Evans and Stanovich (2013), making clear its substantial character, and contrast it with Frankish’ (2009) – a clear case of instrumental D-PT. Finally, I discuss the contributions this distinction can make. By making the discussion clearer, it can provide a relatively unanimous framework for dual- and single-process theorists (the instrumental version) and clearer desiderata for those wishing to defend the substantive one.

Intra-party Balance of Power: Cartelisation versus Communist Organisational Tradition in the Cypriot Radical Left AKEL

ABSTRACT The article analyses the effects of cartelisation on the intra-party balance of power among the three ‘party faces’ of the Cypriot AKEL. Aiming to provide a testable hypothesis for other radical left parties with government experience, we investigate the claim of cartel party theory – that the party in central office and the party on the ground have lost their powers to the party in public office – in the light of AKEL’s communist organisational tradition. We ask whether this genetic heritage might have conditioned its adaptation and transformation and allowed it to resist cartelisation. Using a variety of material, including a rich set of unpublished party data, we investigate indices including the decline of the party on the ground, the composition and hierarchy of party organs, the relationship of public office holders to the party executives, and who controls the party’s finances and communication strategy. We find mixed evidence, rather pointing to the endurance of the mass party model, indicative of the strong influence that party history exercises upon AKEL’s present organisational configuration.

African Philosophies of Education and Their Relevance to School Leadership in Africa: <i>A Guide for Educational Systems and School Leaders</i>

Over the past few decades, significant research efforts have been devoted to establishing a relationship between African Philosophies of Education (APE) and School Leadership (SL). Such efforts have revealed how important African Union Philosophies of Education (AUPE) have been, or could be, in shaping School Leadership (SL) policies and practices. To achieve the above, this paper reviews contemporary literature on African Indigenous Education (AIE) and school leadership (SL) research. A descriptive and analytical interpretive approach is used to understand the methodological approaches used by existing research to redress an underdeveloped engagement with theory and practical claims from other studies. In so doing, we identify the salient values of these African philosophies of Education, bringing out their qualities as well as their limitations, and discussing ways in which they could be incorporated into the contemporary field of School Leadership (SL). This study proposes an epistemic theoretical framework to guide the delivery of African Philosophies of Education (APE) in School Leadership (SL) practice. Such a framework would be developed as part of the de-colonisation epistemic movement within the global south, noting that this movement has yet to be significantly felt in the field of educational leadership.

Alzheimer's disease: the hypotheses, known and unknown connections between UV-radiation, mtDNA haplotypes and life span - a review.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease with controversial etiology. One theory claims that AD is due to brain aging affecting mainly the functions of mitochondria, therefore, the factors leading to mitochondrial ageing should lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Another theory is that different mitochondrial DNA haplogroups can be predisposition for the onset of the condition. Here we focused on the possible connection between AD and UV radiation using the data on the monthly UV index in Europe, its correlation with mortality rate due to AD and mitochondrial DNA haplogroups distribution. If a link between the two theories is proved, it will mean that UV radiation is a risk factor not only for skin cancer but also for a large group of neurodegenerative diseases amongst which is the Alzheimer's disease.

A comment on arguments of mental model theory of causation

ABSTRACT Causation is a complex concept. No single monistic theory of causation is likely to account for it (Wolff, P. (2014). Causal pluralism and force dynamics. In B. Copley, F. Martin, & N. Duffield (Eds.), Forces in grammatical structures: Causation between linguistics and philosophy). Nonetheless, mental model theory (MMT) claims to provide a unified account of causal representation and inference. In MMT, a singular causal claim “A caused B” has a deterministic meaning referring to three temporally ordered possibilities: A and B, not-A and B, not-A and not-B. No internal components such as mechanisms, powers, or dependencies are part of the core meaning of causal claims. It is argued that MMT’s attempts to refute counterexamples to its proposals are manifestly inadequate. Theoretically, the all-encompassing ambition of MMT make it so flexible as to be trivial. Technically, the term “modulation” is an unanalyzed and self-inconsistent concept. Moreover, in many situations, mental models are redundant for causal representation and inference. MMT’s monistic-deterministic view cannot capture the full complexity of causation.

Applied Mathematics without Numbers

Abstract In this paper, I develop a “safety result” for applied mathematics. I show that whenever a theory in natural science entails some non-mathematical conclusion via an application of mathematics, there is a counterpart theory that carries no commitment to mathematical objects, entails the same conclusion, and the claims of which are true if the claims of the original theory are “correct”: roughly, true given the assumption that mathematical objects exist. The framework used for proving the safety result has some advantages over existing nominalistic accounts of applied mathematics. It also provides a nominalistic account of pure mathematics.

The neurobiological basis of affect is consistent with psychological construction theory and shares a common neural basis across emotional categories

Affective experience colours everyday perception and cognition, yet its fundamental and neurobiological basis is poorly understood. The current debate essentially centers around the communalities and specificities across individuals, events, and emotional categories like anger, sadness, and happiness. Using fMRI during the experience of these emotions, we critically compare the two dominant conflicting theories on human affect. Basic emotion theory posits emotions as discrete universal entities generated by dedicated emotion category-specific neural circuits, while psychological construction theory claims emotional events as unique, idiosyncratic, and constructed by psychological primitives like core affect and conceptualization, which underlie each emotional event and operate in a predictive framework. Based on the findings of 8 a priori-defined model-specific prediction tests on the neural response amplitudes and patterns, we conclude that the neurobiological basis of affect is primarily characterized by idiosyncratic mechanisms and a common neural basis shared across emotion categories, consistent with psychological construction theory. The findings provide further insight into the organizational principles of the neural basis of affect and brain function in general. Future studies in clinical populations with affective symptoms may reveal the corresponding underlying neural changes from a psychological construction perspective.

Scalar implicatures in adult L2 learners: A self-paced reading study

Using self-paced reading, the present study compared native English and adult L1-Korean–L2-English speakers’ processing behaviors during online comprehension of underinformative scalar sentences and non-scalar sentences like Some/All elephants have trunks and ears. Results indicate that native speakers showed online sensitivity (i.e. slower reading) to underinformative scalar sentences relative to non-scalar sentences, but second language (L2) speakers did not. These results are interpreted in support of the Relevance Theory claim that scalar implicature generation is modulated by contextual and individual factors, in particular by the language condition, that is, whether sentences are presented in L1-English versus L2-English.

Money or funny: Effective connectivity during service recovery with a DCM-PEB approach

While monetary compensation is considered the most effective service recovery strategy, relief theory claims that humor may also be useful in service recovery situations. This study investigated the effects of humor in service recovery using dynamic causal modeling and parametric empirical Bayes analysis to identify effective connectivity (EC) patterns in the dopaminergic reward system across four conditions representing different service recovery strategies: monetary compensation and humor (MH), monetary compensation and an apology (MA), non-monetary compensation using humor (H), and non-monetary compensation using an apology (CON, the control condition). The findings support the importance of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the monetary compensation (MH and MA) conditions and the amygdala in the non-monetary compensation (H and CON) conditions. Monetary compensation (MH and MA) resulted in right substantia nigra (rSN) to NAc EC, suggesting the processing of recovery satisfaction associated with perceived outcome fairness. Conversely, non-monetary compensation strategies (H and CON) resulted in left substantia nigra (lSN) to amygdala EC, suggesting the processing of satisfaction related to perceived interactional fairness. The use of humor for service recovery resulted in VTA-to-lSN-to-amygdala EC during humor appreciation, while the use of apologies (CON and MA) resulted in lSN-to-amygdala and lSN-to-VTA connectivity. Surprisingly, processing satisfaction in the MH condition did not activate the amygdala during humor appreciation. Coping humor could be norm-violating for service recovery, and its effectiveness depends on multiple factors. The results suggest that monetary compensation, humorous responses, and apologies play key roles in neurological responses to service recovery strategies.

Drill the Cork of Information Bottleneck by Inputting the Most Important Data.

Deep learning has become the most powerful machine learning tool in the last decade. However, how to efficiently train deep neural networks remains to be thoroughly solved. The widely used minibatch stochastic gradient descent (SGD) still needs to be accelerated. As a promising tool to better understand the learning dynamic of minibatch SGD, the information bottleneck (IB) theory claims that the optimization process consists of an initial fitting phase and the following compression phase. Based on this principle, we further study typicality sampling, an efficient data selection method, and propose a new explanation of how it helps accelerate the training process of the deep networks. We show that the fitting phase depicted in the IB theory will be boosted with a high signal-to-noise ratio of gradient approximation if the typicality sampling is appropriately adopted. Furthermore, this finding also implies that the prior information of the training set is critical to the optimization process, and the better use of the most important data can help the information flow through the bottleneck faster. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate our conclusions.

Henrik Ibsen and Conspiracy Thinking: The Case of Peer Gynt

Henrik Ibsen and Conspiracy Thinking: The Case of <i>Peer Gynt</i>

The value of vaccines.

Optimizing vaccine spending depends on recognizing the full value of vaccination (VoV). Existing taxonomies of such value are not comprehensive because they are not guided by general theories. I rely on two such theories: subjective-value theory claims that what has value is determined by what people actually or ideally want in life. A welfarist theory of government states that a fundamental objective of government is to promote social value (or social welfare). These jointly imply that any aspect of life that individuals actually or ideally value and that could be negatively affected by vaccine-preventable diseases (and therefore positively affected by preventive vaccines) is an element of VoV. I build a more comprehensive-value taxonomy than currently exists based on this implication.

The transfer of global and local processing modes.

Förster and Dannenberg's (2010) GLOMOsys theory claims that people process perceived events and internal information in a more global or more local processing mode and that adopted modes should transfer to other, unrelated tasks. If so, global/local processing modes would qualify as metacontrol states that are assumed to regulate processing dilemmas, like persistence/flexibility, exploitation/exploration, or speed/accuracy (Goschke, 2000). Given increasing rates of nonreplications of previously demonstrated far transfer from prime tasks that are likely to induce a particular global or local processing bias to logically and temporally unrelated probe tasks, we tested whether near and far transfer can be demonstrated under conditions that should be optimal for such transfer. We reduced the temporal distance between prime and probe trials by integrating them into a dual-task paradigm and used probe tasks that were either almost identical to the prime task or at least shared the relevant modality and attentional demands. We obtained significant transfer effects between almost identical visual global/local tasks, irrespective of the degree of cognitive conflict that these tasks generated, but did not find any evidence for somewhat farer transfer to other visual tasks, like a flanker task and an attentional blink task. That is, any substantial change in the probe task's characteristics compared with the prime task eliminated almost any signs of transfer. Altogether, we conclude that either global/local processing modes as envisioned by GLOMOsys do not exist or they normally do not transfer from global/local tasks to other, unrelated tasks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).