The influence of Plato on Philo

Very little is known about the life of Philo-Judaeus of Alexandria, but from his writings we see that he was one of the most spiritually-minded thinkers of his time. He came from an influencial Jewish family and was trained in Greek as well as in Jewish learning. A citizen of the place which was at once the chief heme of the Jewish Dispersion and the chief censer of Hellenistic culture, he owes his position in the history of religious thought which we find in his voluminous writings, to that remarkable fusion of Judaism and Hellenism. He sought to bring harmony between those two cultures by mean of allegory which he had learned from the stoics

The Study of Rule-Governed Behavior and Derived Stimulus Relations: Bridging the Gap

The concept of rule-governed behavior or instructional control has been widely recognized for many decades within the behavior-analytic literature. It has also been argued that the human capacity to formulate and follow increasingly complex rules may undermine sensitivity to direct contingencies of reinforcement, and that excessive reliance upon rules may be an important variable in human psychological suffering. Although the concept of rules would appear to have been relatively useful within behavior analysis, it seems wise from time to time to reflect upon the utility of even well-established concepts within a scientific discipline. Doing so may be particularly important if it begins to emerge that the existing concept does not readily orient researchers toward potentially important variables associated with that very concept. The primary purpose of this article is to engage in this reflection. In particular, we will focus on the link that has been made between rule-governed behavior and derived relational responding, and consider the extent to which it might be useful to supplement talk of rules or instructions with terms that refer to the dynamics of derived relational responding

Can the performance effect be ignored in the attendance policy discussion?

Should universities require students to attend? Academics disagree. One side in the discussion of university attendance policies has tried to dismiss any association between attendance and student performance, insisting that students have a fundamental right to choose what and when to attend. By merging student record data and course attendance data for three cohorts of final-year undergraduate students at a London-based university, we are able to isolate attendance effects for 674 students, giving us a large sample, without the inherent weaknesses of more traditional survey methods. We provide fresh empirical evidence for the positive association between attendance and exam performance, and argue for a more balanced view in the attendance policy discussion. Politicians and higher education policies are increasingly focused on employability, student retention, and completion indicators. Carefully crafted attendance policies can have positive effects on pass and completion rates, primary policy targets of higher education funders and policymakers. Attendance effects therefore cannot be ignored