Building on Treacherous Ground: Sense-of-Purpose Research and Demarcating Problematic Purposes

Developmental psychologist Damon’s (Damon, Menon, & Cotton Bronk, 2003) ongoing research program on youth purpose may have important practical implications for education. However, in the course of the development of this research, two fundamental conceptual questions have not yet been resolved satisfactorily: (a) How should “sense of purpose” be defined? and (b) How can one distinguish between noble and ignoble purposes? A careful examination of Damon et al.’s (2003) approach to these two questions is conducted, and some significant shortcomings in the analysis are pointed out. Specifically, Damon et al.’s definition of purpose is shown to be idiosyncratic, and some defects are pointed out in the criteria offered to differentiate between noble and ignoble purposes. In conclusion, an alternative approach to demarcating purpose is offered that relies on Erikson’s (1968) concept of totalized identity

Recovering a Forgotten Pioneer of Science Studies: C. E. Ayres’ Deweyan Critique of Science and Technology

This paper brings to light the ideas of a pioneering but largely forgotten social critic, C. E. Ayres. In his first book, Science: The False Messiah (1927), which was written in consultation with John Dewey, Ayres advanced a forceful and original critique of science and technology. He argued that technological change was occurring at a pace that had overwhelmed existing social institutions, and further claimed that efforts to solve the problem by educating citizens about science and technology would prove fruitless. The analysis presented in this paper outlines Ayres’ key arguments, examines the mutual influences between Dewey and Ayres, and makes a case that many of Ayres’ innovative arguments remain surprisingly relevant today

NICMOS Imaging of the Dusty Microjansky Radio Source VLA J123642+621331 at z = 4.424

We present the discovery of a radio galaxy at a likely redshift of z = 4.424 in one of the flanking fields of the Hubble Deep Field. Radio observations with the VLA and MERLIN centered on the HDF yielded a complete sample of microjansky radio sources, of which about 20% have no optical counterpart to I < 25 mag. In this Letter, we address the possible nature of one of these sources, through deep HST NICMOS images in the F110W (J) and F160W (H) filters. VLA J123642+621331 has a single emission line at 6595-A, which we identify with Lyman-alpha at z = 4.424. We argue that this faint (H = 23.9 mag), compact (r = 0.2 arcsec), red (I - K = 2.0) object is most likely a dusty, star-forming galaxy with an embedded active nucleus.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. 11 pages, 4 figures, uses aastex v5.0 and psfi

A Mesolithic settlement site at Howick, Northumberland: a preliminary report

Excavations at a coastal site at Howick during 2000 and 2002 have revealed evidence for a substantial Mesolithic settlement and a Bronze Age cist cemetery. Twenty one radiocarbon determinations of the earlier eighth millennium BP (Cal.) indicate that the Mesolithic site is one of the earliest known in northern Britain. An 8m core of sediment was recovered from stream deposits adjacent to the archaeological site which provides information on local environmental conditions. Howick offers a unique opportunity to understand aspects of hunter-gatherer colonisation and settlement during a period of rapid palaeogeographical change around the margins of the North Sea basin, at a time when it was being progressively inundated by the final stages of the postglacial marine transgression. The cist cemetery will add to the picture of Bronze Age occupation of the coastal strip and again reveals a correlation between the location of Bronze Age and Mesolithic sites which has been observed elsewhere in the region