The internal structure of ability emotional intelligence tests at item level has been hardly studied, and if studied often the predicted structure did not show. In the present study, an a priori model for responses to EI ability items using Likert response scales with a Situational Judgement Test format is investigated with confirmatory factor analysis. The model consists of a target EI ability factor, an acquiescence factor, which is a method factor induced by the Likert response scales, and design-based error (...) covariances, which are induced by the SJT format. It is investigated whether this a priori model can account for the observed associations between the raw item responses of the Components of Emotion Understanding Test-24. The CEUT-24 is a new test developed to assess emotion understanding, a key aspect of the EI ability construct, based on the componential emotion framework. The sample consisted of 1184 participants from four European countries speaking four different languages. Findings showed that the a priori model fitted the data well in all four languages. Furthermore, measurement invariance testing gave evidence for a well-fitting configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance model. The conclusion is that within a regular CFA framework using raw observed items responses, method factors can be disentangled from the targeted EI ability factor. (shrink)

The number of people who survive critical illness is increasing. In parallel, a growing body of literature reveals a broad range of side-effects following intensive care treatment. Today, more attention is needed to improve the quality of survival. Based on nine individual stories of illness experiences given by participants in two focus groups and one individual interview, this paper elaborates how former critically ill patients craft and recraft their personal stories throughout their illness trajectory. The analysis was conducted from a (...) phenomenological perspective and led to the meaning structure; a quest to find oneself after critical illness. In this structure, illness represented a breakdown of the participants’ lives, forcing them to develop a new understanding of themselves. Despite acute illness, they felt safe in hospital. Coming home, however, meant a constant balancing between health and illness, and being either in or out of control. To gain a deeper understanding of the participants’ narratives of survival, the meaning structure was developed from a phenomenological life world perspective, Heidegger’s concept of homelikeness and Arthur Frank’s typologies of illness narratives. In conclusion listening to and acknowledging the patients’ lived experiences of critical illness may support the patient efforts to establish the newly defined self and hence be vital for recovery. Phenomenology is one approach facilitating care tailored to the patients’ lived experience of critical illness and its aftermaths. (shrink)

This book is available either individually, or as part of the specially-priced Arguments of the Philosphers Collection.

This book is available either individually, or as part of the specially-priced Arguments of the Philosphers Collection.

In the light of contemporary allelopathic research, the intuitively based statements of the early botanists stand up surprisingly well. The walnut tree is now understood to affect the growth of neighboring plants via juglone leached from the leaves, roots, and fruits.118 The replant or soil sickness problem of peach orchards has been related to the toxigenic breakdown of amygdalin, a constituent of peach roots.119 The declining yield of many crop species grown under continuous monoculture has been linked to the accumulation (...) of allelopathic substances in the soil, especially through the mediation of microorganisms.120 Numerous plants cited by de Candolle as being injurious, such as Erigeron,121 thistle (Cirsium),122 flax (Linum),123 and various crucifers (such as Brassica nigra),124 have been found to posses marked allelopathic activity. Over fifty years before the discovery of rhizobia, de Candolle considered the excretory material of legumes to be beneficial to cereals.125Modern reviews of allelopathy commonly credit de Candolle with an insight that was not equaled by the technology of his era.126 In fairness to his detractors, his toxin theory of plant interactions was largely the by-product of an outdated and misconstrued notion of plant nutrition. His critics and most earlier botanists had similarly erred in seeking a single factor responsible for plant growth, much as had the alchemists sought the legendary philosopher's stone. Taking all this into account and considering the forceful personality of Liebig, one can readily appreciate how, 130 years ago, Liebig's theories preempted and stifled those of de Candolle.Today, with modern techniques of plant physiology and soil biochemistry, allelopathy has been shown to be a real but subtle factor in the dynamics of natural and agricultural plant communities. It is unfortunate that the single-mindedness characteristic of previous centuries still persists. The dichotomy between allelopathy and competition is exacerbated by the inherited bias toward the nutritional model of plant interaction fostered by Liebig, and is accentuated in the fact that in modern nutritional studies it is still basically unnecessary to consider plant-plant chemical interactions and their concomitant effects, whereas in allelopathic investigations the converse is regarded as axiomatic.In summary, de Candolle should not be seen as “a prophet crying in the wilderness,” as Fisher would have it.127 The bases of de Candolle's concept of allelopathy were the dubious experiments of Macaire and his own obsolete theory of plant nutrition. Despite this, modern experimental work indicates that allelopathy is important in many plant interactions. De Candolle seems to have been right, at least in part—but for the wrong reasons. (shrink)

A new translation which is eminently readable and extremely accurate. Much of the awkwardness and unnecessary obscurity of the Ogden translation has been eliminated. The comprehensive index which combines both English and German expressions is designed to meet the special problems involved in understanding the Tractatus. Unfortunately Russell's introduction to the 1922 edition is reproduced without any indication of the controversy concerning Russell's interpretation, or subsequent interpretations of the Tractatus.--R. J. B.

This review roundtable discusses Ted McCormick’s Human Empire: Mobility and Demographic Thought in the British Atlantic World, 1500–1800, an ambitious study charting the transformation of early mod...

A sampler of Russell's writings from 1963 to 1959 which provides representative selections from his multifarious writings. The book is designed more for the general reader than for the scholar interested in piecing together the complex mosaic of the man and his work. There is a preface by Bertrand Russell. Handsomely printed, the total effect shows once again how unique and many-sided is this twentieth-century intellectual explorer.--R. J. B.

This collection of articles on Kierkegaard is designed to help make the secondary literature on Kierkegaard more available to graduate and undergraduate students. The book is divided into three parts: "The Philosophical Context"; "Reason and Faith"; and "The Ethico-Religious." The articles are a good sampling ranging from Louis Mackey's brilliant exposition of the philosophic context of Kierkegaard's thought to Brand Blanshard's graceful criticism. This anthology would have been much more helpful if it contained an index, an annotated bibliography, and an (...) introduction to orient the reader.--R. J. B. (shrink)

The author outlines and compares the ethics of the six orthodox systems, Buddhism, Jainism and the Cärväka System as well as the ethical teaching of the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bahagavadgïtä. The concluding four chapters deal with the ethics of Tagore, Radhakrishnan, Gandhi and Nehru. Dr. Sharma is particularly concerned with showing that the ethics of these schools have more in common than is ordinarily supposed, that ethics must be grounded in metaphysics and that the ethical theories of the East (...) are "superior" to those of the West. The highly polemical nature of this book, as well as the author's reliance on secondary sources detracts from its purported usefulness to the scholar and student.—R. J. K. (shrink)

The authors have attempted a sustained exploration of the cluster of problems involved in the relationship between Christian faith and intellectual integrity. They alternate brief essays, each picking up where the other left off. The latter sections tend to become somewhat technical for a book intended for use by undergraduate students, but there is some fruitful philosophical encounter which could make this book useful in courses in the philosophy of religion.--R. J. W.

Intended as a comprehensive overview aimed more at the layman than the professional philosopher, the author thinks of functionalism as being in the pragmatic tradition. Nevertheless "functionalism is not pragmatism, because it attempts to eliminate crass relativism, establish a working teleology, and develop a metaphysics." Little attempt is made to explicate and justify the views expressed here.—R. J. B.

By studying church-school lesson materials of four Protestant denominations, the author explores the relationship between religious faith and prejudice. The book is divided into a summary and interpretation of the study and a more technical discussion of the methods of the study. One interesting result of the study is a qualification and partial denial of the thesis of the authors of The Authoritarian Personality, that religious faith and ethnic and religious bigotry are interrelated.--R. J. W.

With a great deal of fanfare and coverage by the popular press, an era of dialogue between Communism and Christianity has been initiated. Symposia, books and discussions have been encouraged on Marxist-Christian dialogue throughout the Western world. Roger Garaudy, onetime Stalinist and a leading member of the French Communist party, has become the apostle for the new Communist desire for dialogue, which draws heavily on Marx's secular humanism. While serious scholars have struggled to assess and incorporate the rediscovery of the (...) early Marx in a balanced understanding of Marx's thought, Garaudy exaggerates and sentimentalizes the fashionable humanism of Marx. The result reads more like a personal testament than a judicious assessment and presentation of Marxism.—R. J. B. (shrink)

The author attempts to show that Plato continued to hold his theory of Forms in his later period by arguing that analysis of the late dialogues reveals their assumed existence. The objects of knowledge considered in the later dialogues have the basic traits attributed to the Forms in the middle and early dialogues. The Forms are not known by "intuition" or "acquaintance," but as that which is required for λόγος. The result of this approach is a kind of Kantian interpretation (...) of Plato—that the Forms are definitive of our experience of things, not of the things themselves.—R. J. W. (shrink)

This volume consists of fourteen papers most of which have been published before during a twenty year period. A number of these papers played significant roles in the development of the dialogue of twentieth century analytic philosophy, e.g., "Fallacies in Moral Philosophy", and "Ryle's The Concept of Mind". While Hampshire has been trained as an analytic philosopher, there is something about his distinctive vision that sets him apart from many of his Oxford colleagues. When these essays are read together as (...) a book they indicate how much of Hampshire's thought has been shaped by his reading and appreciation of the subtle and robust naturalism of Aristotle and Spinoza. At the same time, one comes away with the feeling that Hampshire's forte is precisely the literary and philosophic essay, rather than a sustained critical, book or monograph. Each essay raises as many issues as it attempts to resolve. While a complex philosophy of mind and ethics is sketched in broad outline, there is a lack of detailed explication and justification.--R. J. B. (shrink)

Papers by Hempel, Sellars, Caspari, Grünbaum and Feyerabend are included in this new series of lectures in the philosophy of science given at the University of Pittsburgh. Hempel defends his theory of historical explanation against recent critics; Sellars' exciting paper is the best introduction to the philosophic viewpoint that he has developed during the past fifteen years; Grünbaum argues that the problem of the nature of time belongs to physics; and Feyerabend surveys the present state of philosophic problems of quantum (...) physics. All the lectures are excellent, though little new ground is broken. Carefully edited and well designed.--R. J B. (shrink)