bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Languages Treat 1‐4 Specially
Authors: Hurford James R.
Published: March 2003

This commentary is in two sections. The first presents some specifically linguistic evidence regarding Dehaene’s statement that, in animals and prelinguistic humans, only very small numbers (up to about 3) can be represented accurately 1. The second section contains some more general reflections on Dehaene’s work.
Logical Form andthe Vernacular
Authors: Elugardo Reinaldo , Stainton Robert J.
Published: March 2003

Vernacularism is the view that logical forms are fundamentally assigned to natural language expressions, and are only derivatively assigned to anything else, e.g., propositions, mental representations, expressions of symbolic logic, etc. In this paper, we argue that Vernacularism is not as plausible as it first appears because of non‐sentential speech. More specifically, there are argument‐premises, meant by speakers of non‐sentences, for which no natural language paraphrase is readily available in the language used by the speaker and the hearer. The speaker can intend this proposition and the hearer can recover it (and its logical form). Since they cannot, by hypothesis, be doing this by using a sentence of their shared language, the proposition‐meant has its logical form non‐derivatively, which falsifies Vernacularism. We conclude the paper with a brief review of the debate on incomplete definite descriptions in which Vernacularism is assumed as a suppressed premise.
Pragmatics, Modularity and Mind‐reading
Authors: Sperber Dan , Wilson Deirdre
Published: March 2003

The central problem for pragmatics is that sentence meaning vastly underdetermines speaker’s meaning. The goal of pragmatics is to explain how the gap between sentence meaning and speaker’s meaning is bridged. This paper defends the broadly Gricean view that pragmatic interpretation is ultimately an exercise in mind‐reading, involving the inferential attribution of intentions. We argue, however, that the interpretation process does not simply consist in applying general mind‐reading abilities to a particular (communicative) domain. Rather, it involves a dedicated comprehension module, with its own special principles and mechanisms. We show how such a metacommunicative module might have evolved, and what principles and mechanisms it might contain.
Mindreading, Communication and the Learning of Names for Things
Authors: Bloom Paul
Published: March 2003

Children are strikingly good at learning the meanings of names for things. There is considerable evidence that they solve this mapping problem through inferring the referential intentions of other people. This mindreading capacity might also underlie children’s assumptions that words do not overlap in reference, and that new words are likely to refer to whole objects. Finally, there is some support for the view that the mindreading that underlies word learning is due to a general capacity to infer mental states, not a submodule that is dedicated to communication.
Context, Attention and Depth of Processing During Interpretation
Authors: Sanford Anthony J.
Published: March 2003

The contribution that a word makes to the meaning and interpretation of a sentence depends upon access to its (lexical) meaning, and to general knowledge associated with the word. Evidence is presented to support the argument that accessing lexical meaning, as with general knowledge, is a graded affair. We argue that the contribution a word makes depends upon its relevance to the context, and to focus and related variables. Extensions of the argument are made to other aspects of language processing.
Chomsky and Philosophy
Authors: Bilgrami Akeel
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Noam Chomsky, New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind.
Imagining Objects and Imagining Experiences
Authors: Noordhof Paul
Published: March 2003

A number of philosophers have argued in favour of the Dependency Thesis: if a subject sensorily imagines an F then he or she sensorily imagines from the inside perceptually experiencing an F in the imaginary world. They claim that it explains certain important features of imaginative experience, in brief: the fact that it is perspectival, the fact that it does not involve presentation of sensory qualities and the fact that mental images can serve a number of different imaginings. I argue that the Dependency Thesis is false and that, in any event, it does not have the explanatory credentials claimed for it. Some of the features of imaginative experience are incorrectly specified, namely the absence of presentation of sensory qualities. With a more precise idea of what we need to explain, I argue that the explanation should proceed by noting that imagination and perception have phenomenally similar contents and that this is to be explained in terms of the similar kinds of representations in play. I trace the consequences of my discussion for disjunctivist theories of perception, Berkeleian Idealism and the characterisation of knowing what an experience is like.
Spiritualising the Sacred: A Critique of Feminist Theology
Authors: Woodhead Linda
Published: March 2003

This article submits feminist theology to a two‐pronged theological critique. First, the article notes the overwhelmingly critical nature of feminist theology, and suggests that this concentration on critique at the expense of construction is itself a weakness of feminist theology. Further, it argues that the feminist critique tends to construe Christianity in a way which distorts the more complex realities of the faith, placing too much emphasis on the textual nature of Christianity. Second, the article argues that feminist attempts to construct new theologies are flawed because of their dependence upon the contentious notion of ‘women’s experience’ and their consequent failure to engage with the traditional resources of theology. The article concludes with the suggestion that much feminist theology is dependent upon an influential post‐Christian strand of religiosity, and that it uncritically appropriates the latter’s unhelpfully individualistic, monistic and idealist stance.
Why the Debate on Proportionalism is Misconceived
Authors: Quirk Michael J.
Published: March 2003

Proportionalists and anti‐proportionalists assume that, insofar as moral description is a problem, the solution is a theory of moral description. McCormick and Finnis (as well as John Paul II) are test‐cases for showing this. However, both sides neglect the primacy of moral practice. Disputes about moral description can be recast as disputes about practices and virtues, leaving aside the whole conceptual apparatus of the proportionalism debate.
A Messiah for the Third Millennium
Authors: Ford David F.
Published: March 2003

The first part explores briefly the significance of Jesus over two millennia. It then examines the relations of Christians and Jews, with special concentration on a theological alternative to the Christian supersessionism, which sees the church as superseding the Jews as the people of God. This is done through a plain sense of pragmatic reading of the Letter to the Ephesians in dialogue with the approach to scripture advocated by Peter Ochs. Finally, Nicholas de Lange's question, “Where was Jesus at Auschwitz?” is responded to through a theology of Jesus Christ facing Auschwitz, with implications for Christians and Jewish‐Christian relations at the turn of the millennium.
Fear of the Dark
Authors: Lash Nicholas
Published: March 2003

Meditating on the liturgy of Holy Week, Aemiliana Lohr insisted that “the real Christian Pasch remains the mysterium of night”. The Christian mysterium is “always entire”, but its entirety we can never directly state or see; the darkness of our circumstance wans and waxes. We fear the dark, but what kind of fear is compatible with the command to “fear not”? Exploring this question in relation to Mark's passion narrative, the paper considers the kinds of context in which such reassurance as the first Christians sought might still be needed, for what is required of Christians is “patience”: the of staying awake in the dark. The paper concludes with remarks on the trinitarian grounds and christological character of patience.
Poets, Cynics and Thieves: Vicious Love and Divine Protection in Kierkegaard's Works of Love and Repetition
Authors: Hall Amy Laura
Published: March 2003

In Kierkegaard's Repetition, “the girl” on whom a young man focuses his esteem becomes an encumbrance from which a cynic must rescue him. Using Works of Love as the time through which we judge these men allows us to consider false love's perfidious perception of the (here female) other. Kierkegaard's sobering rendition of the love commandment in Works of Love, wherein the beloved is more than the beholder's vision of her, exposes that there is indeed a “girl” in the story and two men who would idolize, trick or banish her. In Works of Love, Kierkegaard distinguishes true love from the poetic perspective, which distorts the other to fit the lover's ideal; from the vampiric gaze, which devours her; and from the sage's inspection, which deems her disposable. Love unguarded by God's command endangers the beheld as well as the overlooked, and Kierkegaard skillfully depicts each of these three distortions in Repetition.
Postmodern Illusions and the Challenges of African Theology: The Ecclesial Tactics of Resistance
Authors: Katongole Emmanuel m.
Published: March 2003

Contemporary African theological reflection has not sufficiently paid attention to the reality of postmodernism in general, its cultural expressions in particular. In this essay, I depict some of the illusions of a postmodern culture and how their power to shape the economic, cultural and imaginative visions of Africans remains one of the key theological challenges. Accordingly, the crucial test for African theology today will be whether it can generate enough critical skills and inspire new forms of community, which are capable of challenging, as well as offering alternatives to, the dangerous and playful nihilism of a postmodern culture.
God Takes our Place: A Religious‐Philosophical Approach to the Concept of Stellvertretung
Authors: Gestrich Christof
Published: March 2003

What does it mean to say, theologically, that God takes our (human beings') place (Stelle)? In himself becoming human (the incarnation), does God enter into joys and needs, into the possibilities and the limitations of the human, in such a way as to take them all to himself? Or does he, specifically, take the blame of all people? Or only that of those who believe? Or is it something else again that is meant? What does it mean to say that ‘God stands up for us’ is the event of salvation– a claim which the church has in mind with its central dogma of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ? How is human Stellvertreten, occurring in different forms, connected with the divine Stellvertreten? What does the word ‘Stelle’ (of humans) mean at all?
Telework and the Information Age
Authors: Stanworth Celia
Published: March 2003

This article provides a critical analysis of the information age literature, explores its attractions for management and assesses evidence of the impact of the information age on the UK. It finds that material changes to work organisations and employment relationships frequently contrast with the optimistic predictions contained in much of the writing.
Managing strategic change through TQM: learning from failure
Authors: Redman Tom , Grieves Jim
Published: March 2003

This article argues that the study of total quality management (TQM) failure is a valuable vehicle to extend our knowledge of strategic change management. The article reviews the literature on TQM and, after reporting the findings from an in‐depth case study concludes by discussing the meaning of ‘failure’ and the lessons for managing strategic change that can be learnt from the study of TQM decline.
Leaning on lean: the reception of a management fashion in Germany
Authors: Benders Jos , Van Bijsterveld Mark
Published: March 2003

The ‘fashionable’ concept of lean production has been discussed more intensively in Germany than elsewhere in Europe but has resulted not only in rationalisation measures such as downsizing and delayering but also in implementing ‘Gruppenarbeit’. Through interpretation processes at different levels, the outcomes of action undertaken in the name of a concept can become loose‐coupled to its original meanings. Fashion’s ‘interpretive viability’ allows for this.
Industrial restructuring, ‘globalisation], and the trade union response: A study of MSF in thesouth west of England
Authors: Upchurch Martin , Danford Andy
Published: March 2003

This article examines the trade union response to industrial restructuring in two sectors highly exposed to international market competition in the south west of England. The authors have conducted interviews of MSF representatives in the insurance and aerospace industries and supplemented this qualitative data with data collected from a wide questionnaire distribution.
Women, social skill and interactive service work in telephone call centres
Authors: Belt Vicki , Richardson Ranald , Webster Juliet
Published: March 2003

This paper contributes to current debates about gender, work and skill in the service economy, focusing specifically on the case of women’s employment in telephone call centres. The paper asks whether call centre employers are capitalising on women’s ‘feminine’ social skills, and examines the degree to which these skills are being developed, acknowledged and recognised.
The Guru, the Logician, and the Deflationist: Truth and Logical Consequence
Authors: Shapiro Stewart
Published: March 2003

The deflationary view of truth and reference as I’ve presented it ... applies only to words and sentences that we understand. This may well seem worrisome, and it is important to ask both whether it should seem worrisome and whether it could be avoided. Field (1994, 260)
The economic cost of low domestic product prices in OPEC Member Countries
Authors: Gürer Nadir , Ban Jan
Published: March 2003

The present state of subsidies on major oil products (gasoline, kerosene, diesel and fuel oil) in OPEC Member Countries is analysed, in order to quantify their economic cost, keeping in mind the importance of reforming or gradually removing subsidies as one of the crucial economic challenges facing many Member Countries. The paper begins with a general definition and description of subsidies, then discusses briefly the key issues in reforming/removing them, with the potential benefits. Following a section on subsidy level estimations in recent years, the subsidy implications in terms of the accruing budget burden and foregone revenues from additional export potential are presented. This is together with some arguments supporting the process of adjustment towards internationally competitive prices for oil products as an inescapable development for Member Countries; this should progress in gradual, but firm steps.
The Gas Dimension in the Iraqi Oil Industry
Authors: Ghadhban Thamir Abbas , Al‐Fathi Saadallah
Published: March 2003

This paper takes a broad overview of the outlook for the Iraqi gas industry. It notes that the country is the least explored among the major hydrocarbon producers, and that its undiscovered gas reserves (free and associated) are estimated at more than 9,000 billion cubic metres — compared with 3,000 bcm for proven reserves. Gas production and consumption have been growing steadily in the past ten years, despite war damage and the United Nations embargo. Liquefied petroleum gas is the preferred domestic fuel, and plans are under consideration for enhancing its consumption. Studies are being directed towards optimising the use of the countrys gas resources, both associated and free, and the export possibilities are being examined.
The Puzzle of Jobless Growth in Indian Manufacturing
Authors: Bhalotra Sonia R.
Published: March 2003

In the 1980's, India experimented with deregulation in industry and trade. Manufacturing output accelerated but employment declined, raising doubts about the desirability of the policy reforms. This paper proposes an explanation of employment behaviour in terms of increases in total factor productivity, in actual hours worked, and in the product wage. Using robust methods, it is shown that neglect of hours worked results in a substantial upward bias in estimates of the wage elasticity. Growth in productivity and hours appears to be associated with the reform process, with the increase in hours worked reflecting recovery of lost time. To the extent that hours must hit a ceiling, the drop in employment on this count is expected to be temporary. Other things being equal, employment prospects appear to depend considerably on the course of productivity growth.
How Important is Foreign Direct Investment?
Authors: Cantwell John , Bellak Christian
Published: March 2003

The degree of multinationality of an economy's production is determined by the extent of production in other economies by domestically‐owned firms, and by production located in the economy in question by foreign‐owned firms. In the absence of direct measures, international production (that is, production under foreign ownership) is normally measured at a national level by outward and inward foreign direct investment (FDI) stocks. Unfortunately, the existing practice of reporting FDI stocks on a historical cost basis (i.e. book values) is unsatisfactory, because it does not take into account the age distribution of stocks, thus making accurate international comparisons of FDI stocks almost impossible (see e.g. Cantwell, 1984, 1992; Bellak and Cantwell, 1996). We have re‐estimated the FDI stocks of Japan, Germany, the US and the UK at replacement values using a perpetual inventory model (PIM). The results cast doubt on some of the conventional wisdoms about international production, derived from historic cost data.
Changes in the Determinants of Employer‐funded Training for Full‐time Employees in Britain, 1984–94
Authors: Shields Michael
Published: March 2003

The determinants of employer‐funded training are examined for 1984, 1989 and 1994, using data from the Labour Force Surveys of the United Kingdom. Logit regressions for each year are estimated for male and female full‐time employees. Time‐wise decompositions of the estimates suggest that the majority of the training growth over the period 1984–89 was attributable to changes in the demand for skilled labour by employers, rather than underlying changes in workforce characteristics. The opposite was found to be true for the period 1989 to 1994, with the (smaller) increase in training driven by changes in workforce characteristics.
Trade Union Decline and the Distribution of Wages in the UK: Evidence from Kernel Density Estimation
Authors: Bell Brian D. , Pitt Michael K.
Published: March 2003

This paper assesses the impact of changes in union density on the male structure in the UK over the 1980s. Using four separate data sets, we estimate the kernel density of hourly wages for men. Counterfactual densities are then generated to predict how the distribution of wages has changed over time because of the decline in union membership. We find that approximately 20 percent of the increase in the variance of log wages over the period can be attributed to changes in unionisation. The effect is particularly strong in the latter part of the period. We also present disaggregated estimates of the impact of declining unionisation. Our results are robuts across all the data sets we examine and similar results are obtained if union coverage is used rather than union membership.
Do the Rich Stay Unemployed Longer? An Empirical Study for the UK
Authors: Stancanelli Elena G. F.
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the impact of individual asset holdings on the probability of leaving unemployment. According to the theory, higher levels of financial wealth will result in higher reservation wages and longer unemployment durations. I estimate the impact of financial assets on the hazard rate, using data for Great Britain. The empirical findings indicate that individual asset holdings affect significantly the escape rate out of unemployment. In particular, negative (positive) levels of wealth increase (reduce) the hazard of leaving unemployment. The size of the impact is, however, rather small. Increasing by 100% the level of wealth of a representative individual, with net wealth and other individual characteristics equal to the sample mean, increases the duration of the unemployment spell by half a week.
Testing for Quasi‐Market Forces in Secondary Education
Authors: Bradley Steve , Crouchley Robert , Millington Jim , Taylor Jim
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the effect of introducing quasi‐market forces into secondary education on the allocation of pupils between schools and on the exam performance of pupils. A unique database is used which covers all publicly‐funded secondary schools in England over the period 1992–98. We find several effects consistent with the operation of a quasi‐market. Firstly, new admissions are found to be positively related to a school’s own exam performance and negatively related to the exam performance of competing schools. Secondly, a school’s growth in pupil numbers is positively related to its exam performance compared to its immediate competitors. Thirdly, there is strong evidence that schools experiencing an excess demand for places have responded by increasing their physical capacity. Fourthly, there is some evidence of an increase in the concentration of pupils from poor family backgrounds in those schools with the poorest exam performance of schools during 1992–98 can be attributed to the introduction of quasi‐market forces.
A Note on the Power of Money‐Output Causality Tests
Authors: Cheung Yin‐Wong , Fujii Eiji
Published: March 2003

This study suggests that some empirical findings against money‐output causality can be the consequence of ignoring autoregressive conditional heteroskedastic (ARCH) errors. Monte Carlo results confirm that ARCH effects drastically reduce the power of the standard causality test. The maximum likelihood approach allowing for ARCH effects, on the other hand, provides a good power performance. Using different specifications and sample period, Friedman and Kuttner (1993) and Thomas (1994) report limited evidence of money causing output. We detect significant ARCH effects in the models considered by these studies. Once ARCH effects are explicitly accounted for, we find that the monetary effect is significant though its magnitude is quite small.
Child Growth in the Time of Drought
Authors: Hoddinott John , Kinsey Bill
Published: March 2003

This paper examines the impact of rainfall shocks on a measure of child health, growth in height, drawing on a unique household panel data set from rural Zimbabwe. We find that children aged 12 to 24 months lose 1.5‐2 cm of growth in the aftermath of a drought. Catch‐up growth in these children is limited so that this growth faltering has a permanent effect. By contrast, there is no evidence that older children experience a slowdown in growth. There is some evidence that the loss in growth is unequally distributed with children residing in poorer households and offspring of women who are daughters of the household head appearing to be especially vulnerable.
Neanderthals: A History of Interpretation
Authors: Drell Julia R. R.
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the history of Neanderthal construction in different domains of social life and media. It establishes three broad tendencies within Neanderthal reconstructions: following the expulsion of Neanderthals from ‘humanity’ in the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth century, the 1950s are characterized by a shift in this perception. From then, Neanderthals appear as essentially human creatures trapped in archaic bodies. Following this initial ideological oscillation the recent decades represent a parallel existence of both paradigms as well as a widening of conceptualizations. This paper argues that these ideological constructs remain operative, continuing to inform and form our perceptions of what Neanderthals are/are not.
Access, Style and Imagery: The Audience for Prehistoric Rock Art in Atlantic Spain and Portugal, 4000–2000 BC
Authors: Bradley Richard
Published: March 2003

The prehistoric rock art of western Iberia is normally divided into several styles with different associations, distributions and chronologies. Some are associated with monuments and others are found in the open air. A more basic division may help to account for the degree of overlap between these separate groups. This paper suggests that it may be possible to learn something of the significance of the painted and carved designs by considering their accessibility and the audiences to whom they could have been addressed. The argument is illustrated by recent fieldwork at Monte Penide and El Pedroso.
Earnings Differentials between State and Non‐State Enterprises in Urban China
Authors: Zhao Yaohui
Published: March 2003

The present paper estimates earnings differentials between state and non‐state sectors for Chinese urban residents in 1996 by taking into account differences in non‐wage benefits. Household survey data are used to estimate wage differentials while aggregate statistics are utilised in estimating non‐wage benefits. We find that state‐sector workers earned significantly more than workers in urban collective and domestic private enterprises in 1996. Unskilled workers in foreign invested enterprises (FIE) earned significantly less than those in the state sector but skilled workers earned more in FIE than in the state sector. These findings shed light on the source of labour immobility that state‐owned enterprise had experienced until recently.
Micro Convergence and Macro Convergence: Factor Price Equalization and Per Capita Income
Authors: Rassekh Farhad , Thompson Henry
Published: March 2003

Factor price equalization implies the equality of prices of the same productive factors across countries owing to free trade. The present paper examines the relationship between factor price equalization and the equality of per capita (per worker) incomes in the contexts of the static Heckscher–Ohlin trade model and the dynamic two‐sector neoclassical growth model. Factor price equalization is shown to be neither necessary nor sufficient for equality of per capita incomes across trading countries.
Production Networks and Patterns of Trade: Evidence from Taiwan
Authors: Chen Tain‐Jy , Liu Meng‐chun
Published: March 2003

This paper investigates the role of production networks in determining the pattern of international trade. Using Taiwan's trade data for 1991, production networks are found to have a discernible impact on the pattern of trade, aside from the variables typically envisaged by conventional and new trade theories, including factor proportions and technological difference. Taiwan's industries are shown to be relatively strong in horizontal networks, but weak in vertical ones. However, the strength in horizontal networks can be undermined by high wages, and the weakness in vertical networks can be strengthened by high R&D intensities. Both networks are conducive to intra‐industry trade, which means that networks are useful devices for product differentiation.
Bilateral Agreements in a MultiFirm Industry: Technology Transfer and Horizontal Merger
Authors: Marjit* Sugata , Kabiraj Tarun , Mukherjee Arijit
Published: March 2003

The paper studies the profitability of technology transfer and horizontal merger between two asymmetric firms in a multifirm Cournot oligopoly. If there is only one technologically advanced firm and one or many technologically backward firm(s), a profitable technology deal between two asymmetric firms exists if and only if the collaborating firms are “close” in terms of their initial technology levels. With more than one advanced firm such a technology deal is “always” profitable. Contrary to that, a profitable bilateral horizontal merger occurs if and only if the gap of technologies between the two partners is larger than a critical level. The paper also studies the relative profitability of these two bilateral arrangements.
China’s Economic Policy in the Context of the Current Asian Financial Crisis
Authors: Chow* Gregory
Published: March 2003

This paper is based closely on the author’s Y. C. Jao lecture presented to the Hong Kong Economic Association in November 1998.
Banks’ Capital Structure and the Liquid Asset – Policy Implication of Taiwan
Authors: Yu* Hai‐Chin
Published: March 2003

Banks’ size, liquidity and profitability are the main determinants of their capital ratios in Taiwan. Large banks implicitly substitute bank capital for regulator’s capital and banks mainly depend on internal cash flows for capitalization. However, medium‐sized banks in Taiwan use liquidity as a substitute for bank capital, and small banks with low liquidity tend to have lower capital ratios. Regulators should pay close attention to these banks since they may be undercapitalized.
Multiple Buyers, Rent‐Defending and the Observed Social Costs of Monopoly
Authors: Davis Douglas D. , Reilly Robert J.
Published: March 2003

This paper uses analytical and experimental methods to assess the effects of fracturing the interests of agents seeking to maintain the competitive status quo in a rent‐seeking contest for a monopoly franchise. Theoretically, it is shown that while “rent‐defending” can ameliorate the social costs of rent‐seeking, these beneficial effects deteriorate quickly as the interests of those seeking to maintain the status quo become fractured. Experimental results indicate that overbidding is persistent when bidders have different sharing rules. In fact, the observed social costs of rent‐seeking often increase just when rent‐defending has the greatest predicted ameliorative effect.
The Accuracy of OECD Forecasts for Japan
Authors: Ash J. C. K. , Smyth D. J. , Heravi S. M.
Published: March 2003

A variety of accuracy measures, error diagnostics and rationality tests are applied to the OECD's macroeconomic forecasts for Japan of aggregate demand and output, inflation and the balance of payments. It is found that the OECD forecasts are superior to naive no‐change predictions and forecasts generated by simple autoregressive time‐series models. Most forecasting error is nonsystematic. As predictors of direction the OECD's six‐month ahead forecasts should be considered valuable; this cannot be said for forecasts which look ahead a year and 18 months. Many forecasts fail bias, efficiency and consistency tests so that the rational expectations hypothesis is not generally supported.
On "On what there is"
Authors: Azzouni Jody
Published: March 2003

All sides in the recent debates over the Quine‐Putnam Indispensability thesis presuppose Quine's criterion for determining what a discourse is ontologically committed to. I subject the criterion to scrutiny, especially in regard to the available competitor‐criteria, asking what means of evaluation there are for comparing alternative criteria against each other. Finding none, the paper concludes that ontological questions, in a certain sense, are philosophically indeterminate.
Selves and Moral Units
Authors: Shoemaker David W.
Published: March 2003

Derek Parfit claims that, at certain times and places, the metaphysical units he labels “selves” may be thought of as the morally significant units (i.e., the objects of moral concern) for such things as resource distribution, moral responsibility, commitments, etc. But his concept of the self is problematic in important respects, and it remains unclear just why and how this entity should count as a moral unit in the first place. In developing a view I call “Moderate Reductionism,” I attempt to resolve these worries, first by offering a clearer, more consistent account of what the concept of “self” should involve, and second by arguing for why selves should indeed be viewed as moral (and prudential) units. I then defend this view in detail from both “conservative” and “extreme” objections.
The Character of Temptation: Towards a More Plausible Kantian Moral Psychology
Authors: Brewer Talbot
Published: March 2003

Kant maintained that dutiful action can have the fullest measure of moral worth even if chosen in the face of powerful inclinations to act immorally, and indeed that opposing inclinations only highlight the worth of the action. I argue that this conclusion rests on an implausibly mechanistic account of desires, and that many desires are constituted by tendencies to see certain features of one’s circumstances as reasons to perform one or another action. I try to show that inclinations to violate moral requirements sometimes manifest a morally objectionable half‐heartedness in one’s commitment to those very requirements, and ‐ by extension ‐ to the values that undergird these requirements.
Truth Values and the Value of Truth
Authors: Adams Ernest
Published: March 2003

This paper explores the ways in which truth is better than falsehood, and suggests that, among other things, it depends on the kinds of proposition to which these values are attached. Ordinary singular propositions like “It is raining” seem to fit best the bivalent “scheme” of classical logic, the general proposition “It is always raining” is more appropriately rated according to how often it rains, and a “practically vague” proposition like “The lecture will start at 1” is appropriately rated according to its nearness to exactness. Implications for logic of this “rating system” are commented on.
A Comparison of the No Blame Approach to Bullying and the Ecosystemic Approach to Changing Problem Behaviour in Schools
Authors: Tyler Ken
Published: March 2003

This paper compares the No Blame approach to bullying with the ecosystemic approach to changing problem behaviour. It suggests that there are several similarities between the two approaches: they are both applicable in particular kinds of situation; their success depends to a great extent on the people using the technique, in particular the degree to which they can bring the quality of genuineness to the situation; they are not directly concerned with punishment, truth or control; and they challenge the assumptions teachers make about children's problem behaviour. A key point is the need for teachers to recognize that bullying is a natural event (in so far that it is a regular one) and the need to suspend their own feelings of anger and repugnance. As the writer points out, ‘a process which fails to engage the bully and makes no attempt to enhance feelings of concern and understanding is unlikely to bring about any fundamental change in behaviour’. Though written at a fairly theoretical level, what the writer says has direct relevance to practice in schools.
School Management and Pupil Care
Authors: Marland Michael
Published: March 2003

This paper opens with a debate about the importance of care in education and the author suggests it is not near the heart of current policy. He then explores some of the special challenges for care and this includes a focus on some pupils whose need for care is extra great. He then highlights key aspects of secondary–school management including issues around the curriculum, assessment, the role of pastoral leader, the use of ICT and the use of support staff. He uses his range of experience to critically review developments since his first writing on this topic in the 1970s.
Punishment and Pastoral Care
Authors: Wilson John
Published: March 2003

Can concerns relating to the care and support of pupils and those with punishment and blame be reconciled? Much is written on the former but today even when discipline and control are the focus there is little consideration of punishment and blame. Indeed, we might think that discussion of these issues can be excluded from the educational debate. In this paper John Wilson argues to the contrary. He posits that our backgrounds and experience may make us disinclined to punish and that what we can do is significantly limited by the law. Wilson suggests that this situation means that we lose contact with a whole set of basic concepts that underpin human life and are essential for any form of moral, personal and social education. Punishment is not just an unpleasant necessity but an essential part of education and perhaps even care.
The Winter Soldiers Movement: GIs and Veterans Against the Vietnam War
Authors: Cortright David
Published: March 2003

Books reviewed in this article:

Andrew E. Hunt, The Turning: A History of Vietnam Veterans Against the War

Richard Moser, The New Winter Soldiers: GI and Veteran Dissent During the Vietnam Era
The Brave New World of Sir John Laws
Authors: Griffith J.A.G.
Published: March 2003

This article considers the political philosophy of Lord Justice Sir John Laws who, in a series of articles, developed a theory of the UK constitution based on Kant’s principle of the sovereign autonomy of the individual. The author points to the dangers of entrusting the judiciary with too much power at the expense of the democratic process.
Future Uncertainty as a Challenge to Law’s Programmes: The Dilemma of Parental Disputes
Authors: King Michael
Published: March 2003

The article poses the problem of the need for judges to make ‘right’ decisions. It then describes how judges have attempted to meet this requirement in difficult cases concerning parental disputes over contact with children where there have been allegations of domestic violence. Applying Luhmann’s concepts of the legal system, law’s function, law's coding and law’s programmes (Das Recht der Gesellschaft (Society’s Law) 1997), offers a very different perspective on the issue to that of the judiciary or legal commentators who tend to see the issue of the law, determining, with expert help, what is best for the child. Law’s function of stabilizing expectations over time obliges it to deal with all matters that come before the courts through the application of ‘conditional programmes’ and prevents it from applying the ‘purpose oriented programmes’ of politics and those who see the issue in terms of ideological conflict.
The Theoretical Controversy Concerning Judicial Review
Authors: Halpin Andrew
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Christopher Forsyth (ed), Judicial Review and the Constitution
Consent or Property? Dealing with the Body and its Parts in the Shadow of Bristol and Alder Hey
Authors: Mason J. K. , Laurie G. T.
Published: March 2003

This article first considers the tenuous base on which the law of property in the body is founded, and then discusses the practical results of this in the light of the recent furore surrounding events at Bristol and Alder Hey. The authors suggest that neither the consent‐based model followed by the official inquiries into these events nor a possible policy based on a full‐blown property model adequately cover the private rights of an individual’s next of kin or the right of the public to an efficient and reliable pathological service within the NHS. Rather, they propose that a combined model in which a ‘cascade of possession’ for the recognition of various property interests is initiated by assent on the part of the next of kin and terminates in full possession of the body vested in the executor for the purposes of its disposal. The authors recommend further that any reform of the law should apply property rights to body parts taken from both the living and the dead.
The Pinochet Case: International Criminal Justice in the Gothic Style?
Authors: Sugarman David
Published: March 2003

Book reviewed in this article:

Woodhouse, Diana (ed), The Pinochet Case: A Legal and Constitutional Analysis
Restitution, Rectification, and Mitigation: Negligent Solicitors and Wills, Again
Authors: O’Dell Eoin
Published: March 2003

A solicitor, when drafting a will, can owe a duty of care in tort to the intended beneficiary of a bequest under that will. The Court of Appeal has recently confirmed that where a solicitor has misdrafted the will, the intended beneficiary can sometimes rectify it, and recover the intended gift. The pattern of this rectification is restitutionary, raising the question analysed in this article of whether an intended beneficiary can have a direct personal action in restitution to reverse the unjust enrichment of an unintended recipient. It seems that, though fraught, such an action may indeed in principle lie.
Controlling the New Media: Hybrid Responses to New Forms of Power
Authors: Murray Andrew , Scott Colin
Published: March 2003

The development of new media industries, stimulated by the technology of digitalisation, has thrown up an important literature on mechanisms for regulation and control. In this article we elaborate on and develop Lawrence Lessig’s ‘modalities of regulation’ analysis. As we reconceive them the four basic control forms are premised upon hierarchy, competition, community and design and can be deployed in fifteen pure and hybrid forms. This analysis is enriched through elaborating on the essential elements of control systems (standard–setting, monitoring and behaviour modification) to demonstrate the importance and variety of hybrid forms that real–world control systems take in the new media domains. Although the article does not provide any universal prescriptions as to which control forms are likely to be most appropriate in particular domains, it does provide a richer analytical base both for understanding existing control mechanisms and the potential for using greater variety. The development of regulatory regimes which are both legitimate and effective in any given domain is likely to require sensitivity to the particular context and culture of both the domain and the jurisdiction within which it is located.
On the Argument for Divine Timelessness from the Incompleteness of Temporal Life
Authors: Lane Craig William
Published: March 2003

A promising argument for divine timelessness is that temporal life is possessed only moment by moment, which is incompatible with the existence of a perfect being.

Since the argument is based on the experience of time’s passage, it cannot be circumvented by appeal to a tenseless theory of time.

Neither can the argument be subverted by appeals to a temporal deity’s possession of a specious present of infinite duration.

Nonetheless, because the argument concerns one’s experience of time’s passage rather than the objective reality of temporal becoming itself, it is considerably weakened by the fact that an omniscient being possessing perfect memory and foreknowledge, need not find such experience to be an imperfection.
Faith Beyond Nihilism: The Retrieval of Theism in Milbank and Taylor
Authors: Klaushofer Alexandra
Published: March 2003

This article examines the thought of John Milbank and Charles Taylor, taking them as case studies which suggest, from a philosophical perspective, what a post‐metaphysical conception of the religious might look like. It highlights, firstly, how their work takes on board many features of the Nietzschean critique of religion, eschewing foundationalism and absolutism, while retaining a positive notion of faith, as dogmatic theology for Millbank and as one viable form of meaning in modernity for Taylor. It identifies, secondly, the alternative grounding for such reconceptions as broadly communitarian in character, lying in the cultural and historical consitions of spiritual meanings and practices. This entails an immanent turn which removes the need for absolutist justifications and so undercuts claims for religious superiority. Milbank’s postmodern Christian apologetics exemplifies such a position and yet at the same time involves exclusivist claims for the superiority of the Christian faith which, I argue, forecloses a genuine engagement with a pluralist reality. In contrast, Taylor’s more tentative diagnosis of the state of Western culture and faith involves an openness to change and to the legitimacy of other accounts of moral reality, and signals how a new conception of the problem of faith and pluralism might emerge out of a refigured theism.
‘Whereof We Speak’: Gregory of Nyssa, Jean‐Luc Marion and the Current Apophatic Rage
Authors: Laird Martin
Published: March 2003

Recent postmodern discussions of the Christian apophatic tradition level a noteworthy criticism: after all its negations doesn't Christian apophatic discourse in fact slip back into kataphatic assertions about God? This article seeks to address this claim by bringing into concert two important Christian apophaticists (Gregory of Nyssa and Jean‐Luc Marion) in order to designate a type of discourse that emerges from apophatic union, a discourse that is not kataphatic but logophatic.
The ‘Fourfold Sense’: De Lubac, Blondel and Contemporary Theology
Authors: Hughes Kevin L.
Published: March 2003

Henri de Lubac's contribution to Catholic theology is well‐known. But the work of the latter part of his career on medieval exegesis has received less scholarly acclaim. Historians of exegesis find it apologetic and too theological, and thus unhelpful in their field, while most theologians, with a few exceptions, have seemed to find it too historical for their work. This article argues that de Lubac's Medieval Exegesis is an exercise in theology, but specifically a tradition‐oriented historical theology. Drawing upon Maurice Blondel's philosophical definition of tradition, de Lubac aims to describe the ‘fourfold sense’ as a tradition, a theological mentalité, often implicit, that suffuses ancient and medieval Christian theology. It is the author' hope that the recognition of the proper genre and aim of de Lubac's magnum opus et arduum is the catalyst for further, properly theological, reflection upon its claims about scripture and tradition.
Grounding Providence in the Theology of the Creator: The Exemplarity of Thomas Aquinas
Authors: Hoonhout Michael A.
Published: March 2003

Discussion of divine providence was traditionally grounded in the wisdom and benevolence of the Creator, until the impact of nominalism which narrowed the theological focus upon the absolute power and freedom of the divine will. An exemplary approach for discussing providence which predates nominalism and which has surprising contemporary relevance is the one developed by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae. It is exemplary both for how it discusses providence and for what is says about it. Methodologically, Aquinas explains providence in two contexts, one theological, the other cosmological, in order to avoid misconstruing the reality of one term because of the dynamics pertinent to the other. Substantively, this understanding of providence rests upon the theological foundation of the Creator’s wisdom and benevolence, which in the world find expression as a comprehensive order oriented towards emergent goodness. Through this order God is provident by the genuine and contingent causal actions of creatures, a natural and non‐deterministic means that makes it highly compatible with modern science.