Fictional Truth, Fictional Names: A Lewisian Approach

The account of fictional truth proposed by David Lewis in his seminal 1978 paper “Truth in Fiction” remains of central importance to much contemporary discussion of this issue --- namely, how we should analyse what is, so to speak, ‘true in a fiction’. Despite this, Lewis says relatively little about fictional names as such, nor have Lewis’s views on fictional names received much scholarly attention --- surprising, given the extent to which the issues of fictional truth and fictional names overlap. In this paper I argue that Lewis’s account of fictional truth forces us to adopt an account of fictional names as non-rigid designators, whose reference is fixed satisfactionally at a given world. However, as such, I argue that Lewis’s account is vulnerable to challenges analogous to Kripke’s criticisms of classical descriptivism: namely, that this account is seemingly incompatible with intuitively coherent patterns of ‘counter-fictional’ reasoning

Physical capability and the advantages and disadvantages of ageing : Perceptions of older age by men and women in two British cohorts

In an increasingly ageing society, its older members are receiving considerable political and policy attention. However, much remains to be learnt about public perceptions of older age, particularly the views and experiences of older individuals themselves. Drawing on qualitative interviews carried out with members of two British cohorts (N = ??) who have reached the ‘third age’, this paper discusses perceptions of age, focusing particularly on how perceived advantages and disadvantages differ by respondents’ self-reported physical capability. The interviews were carried out in ???? as part of the HALCyon (Healthy Ageing across the Life Course) collaborative research programme. Findings suggest there is some difference in the way older people view aspects of ageing by capability and that although advantages are widely perceived, physical decline and associated health concerns were the overwhelming theme across the conversations. The article concludes by making tentative suggestions to inform the positive ageing agenda and its related policies

Fighting Means Killing: Civil War Soldiers and the Nature of Combat

“War means fighting, and fighting means killing.” Famed Confederate cavalryman Nathan Bedford Forrest’s well-known and brutally concise statement of the essence of war serves to set the theme of Jonathan M. Steplyk’s study of the nature of killing in Civil War combat. Utilizing wartime and postwar accounts of participants, a number of which are quite familiar to Civil War readers, Steplyk analyzes this peculiar and ultimate experience of war from the point of view of the men who were necessarily tasked with killing their erstwhile countrymen

For Duty and Honor: Tennessee’s Mexican War Experience

Timothy D. Johnson of Nashville’s Lipscomb University has a well-deserved reputation as a leading historian of the Mexican War. In For Duty and Honor, he studies the political, military and social aspects of the war as it affected Tennesseans of the day, both at home and at the front. The result is a well-written book of remarkable depth that will set the standard for future state and/or unit studies on that oft-neglected war of expansion

Tried Men and True or Union Life in Dixie

A New Unionist Perspective Frequently overlooked in the history of the Confederacy is the significant unionist minority that existed in the upper South. Tennessee initially voted against secession in February, 1861. Only after Abraham Lincoln\u27s call for volunteers after the surrender of...

‘Global Britain’? assessing Boris Johnson’s major changes to national security and foreign policy

There is a real risk that the shake-up of UK national security and foreign policy currently being orchestrated by Number 10 will not provide the solutions the country needs, write Edward Elliott and Sam Goodman. Here they interview former National Security Advisers, former Foreign Secretaries, former foreign policy advisers to PMs, and former senior diplomats, to assess recent developments and their potential repercussions

The Emotional Wellbeing of Doctoral Students Conducting Qualitative Research with Vulnerable Populations

Qualitative studies have the potential to evoke emotional distress among participants, particularly where sensitive issues are explored. Consequently, novice qualitative researchers become well versed in strategies to minimise risk to participants. But what happens to the novice researcher when they are confronted with the emotional account of a participant? While research practices consistently serve to protect the wellbeing of participants, concern for researcher wellbeing is often overlooked. This study explored doctoral students’ experiences of undertaking qualitative research projects with vulnerable populations, and the ways in which this influenced their emotional wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six doctoral candidates attending a public Australian university. The analysis shed light on the ways in which doctoral students navigate their emotional wellbeing, pointing to a range of challenges and resources. This article discusses potential intervention points throughout doctoral candidature, while pondering deeper questions about the responsibilities of universities to support early career researchers

Prioritising Doctoral Students’ Wellbeing In Qualitative Research

As novice researchers, doctoral students undertaking qualitative research become well-versed in strategies that should be adopted to minimise risk to participants. But what happens when a researcher is confronted with the complex, emotional account of a participant? Despite the consistent emphasis on participant safety, many doctoral students are not explicitly prompted to consider how they will negotiate their own emotional wellbeing throughout the research process. This is particularly important when conducting qualitative research with vulnerable populations. In these situations, sensitive and difficult topics are often discussed, with numerous risks to participants and researchers alike. However, concern for researcher wellbeing is seemingly ignored or addressed in an ad-hoc manner across all levels of the research process. This oversight is reinforced by ethics applications that require a compelling response surrounding potential burdens to participants, without prompting any explicit consideration of those individuals actually undertaking the research. While previous research acknowledges multiple vulnerabilities of doctoral students, with respect to generic anxiety and exhaustion, we suggest that researcher wellbeing might be further compromised due to the nature of the study. In this paper, we argue that current research training processes and university support structures are generally not sufficiently robust to protect novice researchers and participants and call for advances in research and practices to this end