‘The Static-99R is one of the most commonly used risk assessment instruments for individuals convicted of sexual offenses. It has been validated for use on many populations, but few studies specifically target and describe individuals with mental disorders. Additionally, research on the discriminative properties of the instrument over longer follow-up periods is scarce. This article evaluated the validity of the Static-99R using a cohort of individuals with mental disorders convicted of sexual offenses in Sweden with fixed 5-year, 10-year, 15-year, and (...) 20-year follow-up periods. A Static-99R cut score of 6 demonstrated the highest Youden index, maximizing sensitivity and specificity, with 25.8% of recidivists correctly assumed to reoffend sexually and 95.7% of non-recidivists correctly assumed not to. The Static-99R instrument demonstrated adequate discrimination, with only marginal differences for 10-, 15-, and 20-year fixed follow-up. Calibration was acceptable, with the routine sample norms displaying a decisively better fit to the study cohort compared to the high-risk/high-need sample norms. The results affirm the recommendation that, when in doubt and where there is no recent local norm group large enough available, the Static-99R routine sample found in the evaluators’ workbook should be used. (shrink)

With the publication of The God Delusion Richard Dawkins became enthroned as the unofficial ‘Emperor’ for a cadre of writers advancing a rhetorically robust form of anti-theism dubbed ‘The New Atheism’ by Wired Magazine contributing editor Gary Wolf. Many have cheered Dawkins and his court, seeing in their writings just what they long to see. For, after the fashion of the fairy-tale Emperor's fabled new clothes, the ‘new atheism’ has seen naturalism wrapping itself in a fake finery of counterfeit meaning (...) and purpose. (shrink)

The theory of institutional isomorphism has been criticized for overemphasizing organizational convergence and neglecting organizational divergence. Drawing on a range of empirical data, this paper shows that multi-dimensional accounts of isomorphic change are not necessarily incompatible with accounts emphasizing divergence as a typical form of organizational response to environmental uncertainties. The specific case investigated is the proliferation of academic organizational units teaching law at Australian universities over a ten-year period that saw far-reaching structural transformations of the Australian university system. The (...) key heuristic strategy employed in this paper is to scrutinize when isomorphic responses appear to occur, and which specific organizational form they take. In the empirical case examined, scrutiny of each of these dimensions strongly suggests that at least some isomorphic responses of universities were driven by a dual agenda of manifesting not only similarity but also distinction. (shrink)

As part of his defence of panpsychism, Strawson introduces the notion of 'brute' emergence, and hints at a contrasting notion of 'true' emergence. Panpsychism is true not least because brute emergence is incoherent. The alternative relation of true emergence is coherent and congruent with panpsychism. Strawson's distinction suggests that panpsychists endorse true emergence, while emergentists endorse brute emergence. I show that this yields a false dichotomy, which wrongly associates traditional emergentism with an implausible notion of emergence. I clarify the nature (...) and purpose of true and brute emergence, and I argue that traditional emergentists should reject both of them. (shrink)

Izard’s claim that the term emotion works well as an adjective is closer to B. F. Skinner’s position than is acknowledged. Based on Izard’s survey of scientists, I argue that the lack of consensus on emotion as a unitary construct could be considered to represent the dissolution of emotions. Given that something similar has happened in biology with the dissolution of the unitary gene construct, this development in psychology may not be as problematic as it initially sounds.

In [1] Todorov has shown by means of axiomatic set theory that there exists a nonstandard function Δ: *ℝn → * ℂ such that for all continuous functions φ: ℝn → ℂ, equation image.Here *ℝ and *ℂ are the set of the nonstandard real numbers and the set of the nonstandard complex numbers, respectively, and *φ: *ℝn → *ℂ is the nonstandard extension of φ In the present note we want to prove an analogous theorem by predicative means only.

Adorno had such an affinity for Beckett that he dedicated his posthumously published work, Aesthetic Theory, to him. In 1961, he wrote a thoughtful—if dizzyingly complex—tribute to Beckett’s play, Endgame, a work that models many aspects of Adorno’s cultural criticism. My aim, accordingly, is to offer an Adornian reading of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot by drawing upon his critiques of music, aesthetics, and the culture industry. My goal is twofold: to offer a refreshing analysis of one of the most significant (...) dramatic achievements of the twentieth century, and, in doing so, to demonstrate Adorno’s relevance to contemporary cultural studies by deploying multiple elements of his oeuvre. (shrink)

It is generally agreed that the argument about Achilles and the tortoise was intended to prove that the concept of movement was contradictory or ambiguous and therefore that it did not belong in the foundations of ontology. It is suggested here that the argument stands unless we are prepared to define a standard time by means of dynamical concepts. It would be a premature assumption, however, to suppose that Zeno himself should have been so prepared.

Problems arising from the transformation of Hungary from a monolithic society into a market economy are addressed. In the past, under communism, the worker was a faceless digit in a mass proletariat. He had no rights, but also no sense of obligation to society and the community. How can the business community instil in its worker a sense of their own unique individuality and role in their company and in society, a psychological awakening that will benefit not only the works (...) himself but his employer and the company's end product? This new corporate culture must trickle down from the management who must undertake the task of re?educating their workers in the interests of improved production and a better society. The author calls this the Molecule Maxim, in that management must stop thinking from the top downwards and start at the bottom of the pyramid, radiating outwards and upwards from this infinitesimal particle?the molecule?around which to build the concept, aim the creativity and thus the ultimate success and profitability of the company. (shrink)

Peter Spirtes. Calculating TETRAD Constraints Implied by Directed Acyclic Graphs.

First published in 1998, this volume argues that two conditions need to be met for any agreement between people with conflicting desires to count as an unforced one, namely, that the parties argue as if they had equal power and that their antipathy to being coerced exceeds their desire to coerce others. These conditions entail objective moral principles and a theory of justice, modifying and developing Rawls' contractarian theory, but without the veil of ignorance. They support Rawls on basic civil (...) liberties and constitutional liberal democratic government, including religious tolerance, anti-paternalism, anti-racism and anti-sexism, but dispute his Difference Principle, his circumstances of justice, Laws of Peoples, reflective equilibrium, and freedom of conscience as a basic liberty. The book also gives a contractarian account of epistemology, metaethics, education, the rationality of being moral, the rights of animals and other non-persons, and the rights of indigenous peoples. Writers such as Brian Barry, R.S. Peters, Isaiah Berlin, Vinit Haksar, Jurgen Habermas, R.M. Hare, Philip Pettit, Derek Parfit, Michael Smith, Peter Geach, Philippa Foot, Bronwyn Davies, Quentin Skinner and Will Kymlicka are also discussed. (shrink)

Reply by the current authors to the comments made by Jaak Panksepps , James.A. Russell and Louise Sundararajan on the original article by Peter Zachar . I consider the utility of the concept of natural kind, and explore difficulties in applying it reliably. I examine categorical and dimensional approaches to affect with respect to both scientific realism and nominalist approaches to classification. I agree that eliminativist analogies are beneficial but argue that they cannot fully account for the relationship between (...) folk and scientific psychology. I also claim that neither Panksepp's nor Russell's models are incommensurable with Sundararajn's deeper approach to affective science. I suggest that Panksepp's conclusions about the structure of primary affect may be incompatible with the dimensional model, which illustrates the limits of translational work. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article is an attempt to firstly locate and situate the creative practice of Björk in the cultural and musical milieu of late 1970s, early 1980s punk and post-punk world. It traces the impacts, relevancies and typifications that were a part of this milieu and describes their affect on the development of Björk’s work. Secondly it sugg ests that this particular cultural practice worked through notions of the utopian that were and are imbued within processes of cultural hybridity and (...) evolved through a globalized travelogue that was always a transitory moment of unification in different locations and situations. This analysis attempts to give a sense of how the utopian can be actualized momentarily in ‘pirate spaces’ but also how a body of knowledge and practical work can be developed and turned into ‘lifeworld’ practice by these continued engagements. The article utilizes and develops ideas from Schutz, Deleuze and Guattari, Bloch, Levitas and Durrschmidt. (shrink)

Co-opting the PLO analyzes the Oslo Accords, the interim self-government agreements signed between the government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, using a theoretical framework based on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Michael Hardt. Guided by these theoretical insights, Weinberger puts forth an innovative and provocative argument about Israel's simultaneous empowerment and disempowerment of its Palestinian partners-in-peace.

Bernard williams' monograph in "utilitarianism: for and against" contains an argument that utilitarianism is incompatible with personal integrity. though his argument is fatally flawed, its conclusion is supported in the present paper, which argues that the act utilitarianism (au) defended by j j c smart in "utilitarianism: for and against" tends to deprive its adherents of moral integrity. after briefly reviewing smart's version of au, i recount williams' argument and carr's reply concerning a link between au and a loss of (...) integrity. i then present and discuss two examples. these serve to highlight features of au which, it is then shown, cause au to jeopardize the integrity of its adherents. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article is a critical response to a short book by John C. Lennox entitled Where is God in a Coronavirus World? in which he rejects atheism as a world-view equipped to deal with an event such as the coronavirus crisis and makes a case for the Christian outlook as the best way to meet such a crisis. The aim of this article is not to affirm or deny theism, but to examine critically the key arguments put forward for Christianity (...) and against atheism by Lennox. Because of the centrality of the appeal to free will by Lennox in his article, some time is spent considering the free will response to the problem of evil, in which some close examination of the Bible is undertaken. The article finishes by outlining a personal, humanistic, secular response to the coronavirus crisis, and addresses solace and hope, two things Lennox denies atheism can provide. (shrink)

In The Political Limits of Environmental Regulation: Tracking the Unicorn, Bruce Yandle identifies some of the key weaknesses of federal environmental regulation, including its regressive effects, its tendency to better serve selected political interests than the cause of environmental protection, and the EPA's failure to follow sensible priorities. Additional problems may also be cited, including the tendency to exclude citizens? voices from deliberations regarding the degree of pollution control. But Yandle's conclusion regarding the likely superiority of decentralized and market?sensitive alternatives (...) to centralized regulation is overstated. Any such alternatives necessarily will continue to be grounded in relatively uniform national standards. Moreover, in the context of American political economy, market?based controls would continue to deny many citizens real voice and choice. The quest continues to be for the combination of controls that best preserves both the environment and liberty. (shrink)