Angażujące wykłady. Filozofia poprzez istotność i aktualność

The article addresses the challenge of student engagement in undergraduate lectures on philosophy. It presents a variation of the problem-based approach to course design, proposing an emphasis on relevance and recency as effective means for drawing students into the material, while also helping them to understand that philosophy is very much alive today. Two example modules are also provided to illustrate the idea – one concerning personal identity and the other concerning existentialism. They can be adapted and integrated into existing courses outright, or they may be used as models informing the development of new modules exploring different issues.W artykule poruszono kwestię zaangażowania studentów w wykłady z filozofii na poziomie studiów licencjackich. Przedstawiono wybrane podejście do tworzenia kursów oparte na omawianiu konkretnych problemów, proponując przy tym nacisk na istotność i aktualność jako skuteczne sposoby na zaangażowanie i przyciągnięcie uwagi studentów do omawianego materiału, jednocześnie pomagające im zrozumieć, że filozofia jest wciąż żywą dziedziną. W celu zilustrowania tego pomysłu przedstawiono również dwa przykładowe moduły – jeden dotyczący tożsamości osobistej, a drugi egzystencjalizmu. Mogą one zostać zaadaptowane i zintegrowane z istniejącymi kursami lub mogą być wykorzystane jako przykład prezentujący rozwój nowych modułów badających różne zagadnienia

Multimethod Assessment of Childhood Depression: Evidence for Convergent and Discriminant Validity Across Developmental Levels.

The convergent and discriminant validity of three assessment methods were investigated in relation to the construct of childhood depression for a sample of elementary, intermediate, and secondary students. The three assessment methods of self-report, teacher, and peer rating scales were used to assess the response classes of depression, social withdrawal, social skills, and aggression. The self-report, teacher, and peer rating scales were subjected to a series of analyses to determine their psychometric properties. Test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities were generally acceptable, although the stability and item homogeneity of individual factors varied from the low-to-high range within each of the rating scales. Four factors (i.e., Depression, Social Skills, Aggression, and Social Withdrawal) were extracted from the self-report, teacher, and peer rating scales following a confirmatory factor analysis. Evidence for the criterion-related validity of the three rating scales was obtained using a self-report rating scale of depression, and two teacher rating scales of social skills, externalizing behavior problems, and internalizing behavior problems. The main purpose of the present study was to examine the convergent and discriminant validity of childhood depression across three sources and three grade levels through four multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) matrices. Evidence for convergent validity was found for the full MTMM matrix of grades 3 through 12 and for the three grade levels (i.e., 3-6, 7-9, and 10-12) using Campbell and Fiske\u27s criteria. Of the 12 validity coefficients in each matrix, 10 attained statistical significance in the full matrix, 7 in the elementary grade matrix, 6 in the intermediate grade matrix, and 8 in the secondary grade matrix. Although the Aggression factor and the self/peer method showed the highest convergent validity, some evidence was obtained for the Depression factor, the Social Skills factor, and the other methods. Minimal evidence was gathered for discriminant validity using Campbell and Fiske\u27s criteria. Results of an analysis of variance model for MTMM matrices showed significant convergent and discriminant validity for each of the four matrices, but also significant method variance. Findings were discussed in relation to the methodological problems in the assessment of childhood depression and to suggested areas of future research

The problem with ‘anti-anti-missile’ and possible words

This paper examines the ontological status of possible words by reassessing Hawthorne and Lepore’s argument from morphological productivity, in particular their example involving iterated forms of ‘anti-missile.’ While their position has been challenged by Miller on the grounds that these are merely possible rather than actual words, I explore a deeper concern: that such iterated morphological constructions may not qualify as words in the first place. Drawing on work involving lexicalization and holistic processing, I argue that extreme cases of iterated expressions, like those involving numerous repetitions of ‘anti-’ in ‘anti-missile,’ fail to meet the cognitive and linguistic criteria for wordhood. Instead, they function more like phrases. I then propose an alternative, grounded in coining and modulating reference, which allows for an infinite set of possible words without appealing to problematic morphological recursion. This reframing salvages the philosophical intuition that there is a significant set of unarticulated words, while avoiding the issues inherent in Hawthorne and Lepore’s original formulation

An inferentialist account of lying

The inferentialism due to Robert Brandom presents a compelling normative-deontic picture of language and discursive practices, and as such it is well positioned to address phenomena like lying. This short work outlines a simple account of how lying can be conceptualized within that framework. To that end, the basic Brandomian position is extended to include a novel type of status – namely, pseudo-commitments, which are unique in their being non-binding. The traditional definition of lying is then given a status-oriented form, such that lying consists in presenting a pseudo-commitment with the intention for it to be attributed as a standard commitment. Importantly, this can be articulated in our scorekeeping practices, which is demonstrated with three example exchanges – one featuring an undetected lie, one featuring a detected lie, and one featuring a bald-faced lie. Though simple, the account works and invites extension to other similar phenomena, like sarcasm, acting, bullshit, etc. The notion of pseudo-commitment may also find application outside of the inferentialist context

Brief report: Suggestibility, compliance and psychological traits in high-functioning adults with autism spectrum disorder

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may be over-represented within the criminal justice system; it is therefore important to understand how they fare under police questioning. The present study examined interrogative suggestibility and compliance in individuals with ASD, and whether this is associated with certain psychological traits. Adults with ASD and their typical counterparts completed the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scales (GSS), Gudjonsson Compliance Scale (GCS), and measures of state-trait anxiety, self-esteem, fear of negative evaluation by others and paranoia. In contrast to previous research (North, Russell, & Gudjonsson, 2008), there was no difference between the ASD and comparison groups on the measure of compliance, and groups also did not differ on any of the GSS measures, despite the ASD group reporting significantly higher paranoia. Findings indicate that individuals with ASD may be no more likely to succumb to interrogative pressures than their typical counterparts

(Necessarily) Finite Lexis

This short work sets out to argue that the set of simple expressions comprising the lexicon of a given individual and the lexis of a given community are not just contingently but necessarily finite at any given moment in time. Where the lexicon is concerned, this is done by adapting a very simple argument presented by Fred Dretske (1965) concerning whether an individual can count to infinity. This is extended to the more challenging case of the lexis of a community by introducing lexicalization as a condition, which facilitates the same sort of argument as presented for the lexicon. Though the lexicon and lexis are often implicitly assumed to be finite, with little need for further argumentation, there does appear to be grounds for the stronger and more interesting claim that they are necessarily finite at any given moment in time