We examine the role of the American Psychological Association (APA) in the weaponization of American psychology post-9/11. In 2004, psychologists’ involvement in the detention and interrogation of terrorist suspects generated controversy over psychological ethics in national security (PENS). Two signal events inflamed the controversy. The 2005 APA PENS Report legitimized clinical psychology consultation in support of military/intelligence operations with detained terrorist suspects. An independent review, the 2015 Hoffman Report, found APA collusion with the US Department of Defense in producing the (...) APA PENS Report and subsequent policies. Ongoing activities within APA to weaponize psychology sharpened the controversy. The authors—two psychologists and four former military/intelligence professionals—bring a military/intelligence operational perspective to detail two neglected areas of collateral damage. The first is the toll on psychology as a scientific enterprise. The second is covert influence on professional associations for incompatible security-sector objectives. We establish epistemic, historical, institutional, legal, and operational foundations for evaluation of these damages, as well as implications for APA and related professional associations in the ongoing Global War on Terror. (shrink)

After outlining the life and works of interpreter Yoshio Gonnosuke, this paper introduces the manuscript witnesses of his hitherto unstudied comparative Dutch–Japanese syntax written in the mid‐1820s, which was modelled on Pieter Weiland's Nederduitsche spraakkunst (1805). This is followed by a closer look at the process of compilation and publication of Philipp Franz von Siebold's “Epitome linguae japonicae,” of which only the first part was published in 1826. Evidence is provided to confirm Yoshio's involvement in this work and (...) to suggest that Yoshio's syntax was in fact intended to form the core of its unpublished second part. (shrink)

Summary Franz Brentano, 1838–1917, introduced the intriguing concept of “plerosis” in order to account for aspects of the continuum that were “explained” by formal mathematics in ways that he considered absurd from the perspective of intuition, especially visual awareness and imagery. In doing this, he pointed in directions later developed by the Dutch mathematician Luitzen Brouwer. Brentano’s notion of plerosis involves distinct though coincident points, which one might call “atomic entities with parts”. This notion fits the modern concepts (...) of “receptive field” in neurophysiology, “perceptive field” in psychology and “differential operator” in the formal theory of scale space. We identify Brentano’s boundary points as the primordial atomic Gestalts of visual imagery. The concept deserves to play a key role in Gestalt theory. (shrink)

Fusing philosophy and theology, the book assigns both Judaism and Christianity distinct but equally important roles in the spiritual structure of the world and ...

The contemporary theory of epistemic democracy often draws on the Condorcet Jury Theorem to formally justify the ‘wisdom of crowds’. But this theorem is inapplicable in its current form, since one of its premises – voter independence – is notoriously violated. This premise carries responsibility for the theorem's misleading conclusion that ‘large crowds are infallible’. We prove a more useful jury theorem: under defensible premises, ‘large crowds are fallible but better than small groups’. This theorem rehabilitates the importance of deliberation (...) and education, which appear inessential in the classical jury framework. Our theorem is related to Ladha's (1993) seminal jury theorem for interchangeable (‘indistinguishable’) voters based on de Finetti's Theorem. We also prove a more general and simpler such jury theorem. (shrink)

Te Deum Laudamus – Grosser Gott, wir loben dich. A discussion of translations in Afrikaans. The German hymn ‘Grosser Gott, wir loben dich’, written by the Catholic priest, Ignaz Franz, is based on the ‘Te Deum’, one of the oldest hymns in the Christian tradition. The ‘Te Deum’ and the original German text of ‘Großer Gott’ are discussed and a short overview of the reception of the text is given. It is followed by a discussion of translations into Afrikaans: (...) a text in a Lutheran hymnal, the two versions included in the second official hymnal of the Dutch Reformed Churches in South Africa, and another version, also included in the current official hymnal, Liedboek van die Kerk. Theological and hymnological aspects, as well as connections and similarities with the ‘Te Deum’ and the original text in German are investigated.Contribution: The background and reception history of the hymn Grosser Gott, wir loben dich are given, and various translations into Afrikaans are discussed with regard to differences and similarities to the original text. It is shown that changes to texts could contribute to hymns being used to promote strange issues. (shrink)

Recent accounts of actual causation are stated in terms of extended causal models. These extended causal models contain two elements representing two seemingly distinct modalities. The first element are structural equations which represent the or mechanisms of the model, just as ordinary causal models do. The second element are ranking functions which represent normality or typicality. The aim of this paper is to show that these two modalities can be unified. I do so by formulating two constraints under which extended (...) causal models with their two modalities can be subsumed under so called which contain just one modality. These two constraints will be formally precise versions of Lewissystem of weights or priorities” governing overall similarity between possible worlds. (shrink)

(Winner of The Res Publica Essay Prize) This article defends a moderate version of state perfectionism by using Gerald Gaus’s argument for liberal neutrality as a starting point of discussion. Many liberal neutralists reject perfectionism on the grounds of respect for persons, but Gaus has explained more clearly than most neutralists how respect for persons justifies neutrality. Against neutralists, I first argue that the state may promote the good life by appealing to what can be called “the qualified judgments about (...) the good life,” which have not been considered by liberal perfectionists including Joseph Chan and Steven Wall. Then I clear up several possible misunderstandings of these judgments, and argue that: (a) moderate perfectionism does not rely on controversial rankings of values and is committed to promoting different valuable ways of life by pluralistic promotion; and (b) moderate perfectionism requires only an indirect form of coercion in using tax money to support certain moderate perfectionist measures, which is justifiable on the grounds of citizens’ welfare. Thus, I maintain that moderate perfectionism does not disrespect citizens, and is not necessarily unfair to any particular group of people. It is, in fact, plausible and morally important. The defence of moderate perfectionism has practical implications for the state’s policies regarding art development, drug abuse, public education, and so on. (shrink)

Belief revision theory studies how an ideal doxastic agent should revise her beliefs when she receives new information. In part I I will first present the AGM theory of belief revision (Alchourrón & Gärdenfors & Makinson 1985). Then I will focus on the problem of iterated belief revisions.

Belief revision theory studies how an ideal doxastic agent should revise her beliefs when she receives new information. In part I, I have first presented the AGM theory of belief revision. Then I have focused on the problem of iterated belief revisions. In part II, I will first present ranking theory (Spohn 1988). Then I will show how it solves the problem of iterated belief revisions. I will conclude by sketching two areas of future research.

On Jewish Learning collects essays, speeches, and letters that express Rosenzweig's desire to reconnect the profound truths of Judaism with the lives of ordinary people.

The following key ideas of the Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd (1894–1977) can already be found in the nineteenth century German philosopher, Franz von Baader (1765–1841): religious antithesis, the law idea (Wetsidee) contrasted with autonomy of thought, Ground Motives in history, the method of antinomy, the use of Kant’s ideas to criticize Kant’s own Critique, cosmic time, the supratemporal heart, the prism analogy, modalities, sphere sovereignty, sphere universality, analogies of time, anticipation and retrocipation, Christ as the Second Root, pre-theoretical (...) experience, the Subject-Object relation, the Gegenstand relation, theoretical synthesis, and cultural unfolding. A comparison with Baader helps to interpret Dooyeweerd. (shrink)

Historians of Reformational philosophy often claim that Abraham Kuyper obtained the idea of sovereignty in its own sphere from Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer. But very little historical research has been done on Groen’s sources for and development of this idea. The first use of the Dutch phrase souvereiniteit in eigen sfeer is much earlier than previously thought; it was used in 1853 by J.I. Doedes, an associate of the “ethical theologian” Daniël Chantepie de la Saussaye. Groen became aware of (...) the ideas of Franz von Baader through journals founded by them, and by reading and corresponding with them and others, such as J.H. Gunning Jr. and Friedrich Fabri. Groen himself owned some of Baader’s books. He also relied strongly on the work of the jurist Friedrich Julius Stahl, who was 37 years younger than Baader but taught for a while at the same Munich university and shared Baader’s anti-revolutionary ideas. (shrink)

Le texte traduit ici est tiré d’un recueil réunissant plusieurs écrits du philosophe allemand Franz Brentano (1838-1917) et publié en 1925 par son disciple Alfred Kastil sous le titre Essai sur la connaissance. La pièce maîtresse du recueil est un manuscrit de Brentano intitulé « À bas les préjugés ! », portant le sous-titre : « Une exhortation pour inciter l’époque actuelle à renoncer, dans l’esprit de Bacon et de Descartes, à tous les a priori aveugles » (1903). Nous (...) avons traduit la première partie de ce texte, dans laquelle Brentano s’attaque simultanément au common sense du philosophe écossais Thomas Reid et aux jugements synthétiques a priori d’Immanuel Kant. Cet extrait constitue l’un des rares documents dans lesquels Brentano expose sans détours son opposition radicale à un certain kantisme et, plus largement, à toute forme de constructivisme. Brentano s'attaque à l'idée kantienne du synthétique a priori, en jetant les bases d'un programme gnoséologique dont l'axe central est l'exhibition des sources empiriques de nos concepts fondamentaux (substance, cause, être, nécessité, etc.). Ce programme sera développé à son tour par Carl Stumpf ('Erkenntnislehre', 1939). (shrink)

Ein unveröffentlichter Text (Nachlaß-Paginierung: 30604 – 30620) Herausgegeben und eingeleitet von Wilhelm Baumgartner -/- Wahrscheinlich Palermo, März 1900; zur Datierung vgl. die inhaltliche Übereinstimmung mit dem Brief an A. Marty vom 28.3.1900 im Anhang. -/- Emilie grüsst. -/- Emilie Brentano. Der Briefwechsel Brentano-Marty wird z.Z. bei der Franz Brentano Forschung an der Universität Würzburg von W. Baumgartner für eine kritische Edition bearbeitet.

Alfred North Whitehead, although probably known best for his collaborative work with Bertrand Russell on the Principia Mathematica, also developed an original theory of learning and instruction which has much to offer for our times. His theory will be discussed in this paper. In order to do so, two criteria are first developed which in their combination give rise to five categories: radical behaviorism, cognitivism, and radical constructivism, with the intermediary categories of moderate behaviorism and moderate constructivism. A great number (...) of educational researchers are ascribed to one of these five categories. After discussing the shortcomings of the three major philosophical proponents of these three major educational approaches (Hume, Kant, and Berkeley), the basic assumptions of Whitehead’s philosophy of organism are presented, and his assumptions concerning learning and teaching are discussed in view of it. Finally, it is shown that Whitehead’s organismic philosophy is able to offer a frame for integrating Behaviorism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism, thereby solving a long standing scandal of education. (shrink)

"Today, more than three-quarters of a century after it was written, the critique of philosophy in this book is what makes it of such great interest.

Lettre à Margrit Rosenstock du 29 juillet 1917 (p. 17) Cher être singulier, – car c’est ce que tu es maintenant redevenue depuis des jours, et le temps que cette lettre arrive, cela fera déjà tellement longtemps que tu y seras de nouveau habituée. La période qui suit une permission est et demeure affreuse ; moi non plus je ne me sens pas encore bien dans ma peau d’ours. Ce dimanche qui m’avait momentanément rendu figure humaine était trop beau. S’ajoute (...) à cela pour moi maintenant la contrarié... (shrink)

Not only does this book further our understanding of Rosenzweig's daunting work, The Star of Redemption -- a seemingly inexhaustible text -- but of Rosenzweig's ...