Affordances

Affordance

An affordance is a perceptual pattern with survival significance. Affordances are relational, rather than objective or subjective properties. As Gibson, who coined the term, observes, 'An important fact about the affordances of the environment is that they are in a sense objective, real, and physical, unlike values and meanings, which are often supposed to be subjective, phenomenal and mental. But, actually, an affordance is neither an objective property nor a subjective property; or it is both if you like. An affordance cuts across the dichotomy of subjective-objective and helps us to understand its inadequacy' (Gibson 1979, 129). 
[Proust, Glossary, p.309.]

 

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subjective	objective

Re. 'Survival significance' ...

Does this make affordances relevant in clinical education, and education more generally?

What of assisted dying in theory, policy, law and practice?

Are there any implications for the models employed by artificial intelligence - LLMs, neurosymbolic reasoning / AI (wave x)?

Source: Joëlle Proust (2013). The Philosophy of Metacognition: Mental Agency and Self-Awareness.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, Oxford. ISBN: 978-0-19-960216-2

Précis of The Philosophy of Metacognition:
https://joelleproust.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/pdf15.pdf 

See also: 'subject' : 'object' : 'affordance' : 'interface'

Factor Analysis - in the Intra- Interpersonal domain

 'Some Limitations of Factor Analysis.

The mistake should not be made of identifying the whole of the psychology of abilities with factor analysis. Vocational and educational selection and guidance must take account not only of personality traits and interests which might profitably be expressed as factors also, but also of relevant experience, home circumstances and the like. And although there is a strong case for substituting objective tests for the subjective judgments of an interviewer, in practice it is seldom possible to carry out such guidance without an interviewer to bring together all the data and to interpret them to the candidates (cf. Vernon and Parry, 1949). Still more mportant for the development of psychological science are experiments on conditions affecting the performance of skills and of mental tasks, for example, investigations of the design of equipment, or studies of the learning process, of concept formation, of physical or mental fatigue and boredom, and so forth. Here factor analysis is largely irrelevant, since it deals only with the end products of human thinking and behaviour, and throws little light on how these products come about in individual human beings. Factors are indeed a kind of blurred average, for though they derive from the common features displayed by a large group of people, they may stem from very diverse mental and physical processes in different people. Analysis does not even usually tell us which factors an individual uses in any given performance, though it probably could do so. Thus one individual may score well at a test through high g, another might get the same score by virtue of some group factor, yet another through specific ability at that particular test.' p.9.

Philip E. Vernon, (C. A. Mace, Ed.). (1971) The Structure of Human Abilities. Methuen's Manuals of Modern Psychology. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., pp. 208.

See also: 

Seemüller, F., Schennach, R., Musil, R. et al. (2023). A factor analytic comparison of three commonly used depression scales (HAMD, MADRS, BDI) in a large sample of depressed inpatients. BMC Psychiatry 23, 548. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-023-05038-7

Bajraktarov, S., Blazhevska Stoilkovska, B., Russo, M., Repišti, S., Maric, N. P., Dzubur Kulenovic, A., Arënliu, A., Stevovic, L. I., Novotni, L., Ribic, E., Konjufca, J., Ristic, I., Novotni, A., & Jovanovic, N. (2023). Factor structure of the brief psychiatric rating scale-expanded among outpatients with psychotic disorders in five Southeast European countries: Evidence for five factors. Frontiers in Psychiatry, Volume 14-2023. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1207577

Bandalos, D. L. (2018). Measurement theory and applications for the social sciences. New York: Guilford Publications.

Schmitt, T. A. (2011). Current methodological considerations in exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 29(4), 304–321. 
https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282911406653

A paper of special note: 'The Relational Care Framework ...'

Doing a search on 'person-centered care' the following paper was listed. It is useful too in contrasting personhood, and selfhood in relation to dementia, through 'The Relational Care Framework'

Abstract

We argue that contemporary conceptualizations of “persons” have failed to achieve the moral goals of “person-centred care” (PCC, a model of dementia care developed by Tom Kitwood) and that they are detrimental to those receiving care, their families, and practitioners of care. We draw a distinction between personhood and selfhood, pointing out that continuity or maintenance of the latter is what is really at stake in dementia care. We then demonstrate how our conceptualization, which is one that privileges the lived experiences of people with dementia, and understands selfhood as formed relationally in connection with carers and the care environment, best captures Kitwood’s original idea. This conceptualization is also flexible enough to be applicable to the practice of caring for people at different stages of their dementia. Application of this conceptualization into PCC will best promote the well-being of people with dementia, while also encouraging respect and dignity in the care environment.

Matthew Tieu, Steve Matthews, The Relational Care Framework: Promoting Continuity or Maintenance of Selfhood in Person-Centered Care, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine, Volume 49, Issue 1, February 2024, 85–101, https://doi.org/10.1093/jmp/jhad044

The authors may find Hodges' model of relevance.

See also: 'subject' : 'object' : 'relational' : 'objective' : 'subjective' : 'personhood' : 'self' : 'identity'

'Recall Me Maybe' | FT Drama

Stephen Fry and Gemma Whelan star in a new FT drama written by David Baddiel, exploring AI, memory and truth. Fry plays a grandfather with dementia who uses AI to fill in gaps in his memory. While reviewing the archive of his life his family makes a shocking discovery. Which memories are really true? And how AI is defining who we are?

See also: FT Standpoint unveils David Baddiel digital-first drama about AI and dementia -https://www.dropmedia.co.uk/ft-standpoint-unveils-david-baddiel-digital-first-drama-about-ai-and-dementia/

My source: Times Radio. Dom Joly in for Ayesha Hazarika. 1300-1600 BST From 1405-21.
https://www.thetimes.com/radio/show/20250919-32052/2025-09-19

I still need to catch up with last weekend's FT.
https://www.ft.com/video/a4d2ba19-051e-47c5-98ae-c27c59f1b3f0

Dramatherapy iii - A Specification for Care: Nye

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HUMANISTIC  --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

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Group

"Classical psychodrama requires five instruments, the stage, the subject, the director, the auxiliary egos and the audience. Although Moreno frequently stated that psychodrama could take place in many natural settings, he advocated the use of a stage of his own design, circular, 12-15 feet in diameter, 1-2 feet high with two surrounding stepped lower levels, seating for the audience, a 'Juliet' gallery and equipment for varying the colour and brightness of the lighting. This format was was aimed at providing a space and generating an atmosphere in which the subject could rise up to move and act with increased freedom and imagination. 'The locus of a psychodrama, if necessary, may be designated everywhere, wherever the patients are, the field of battle, the class-room or the private home. But the ultimate resolution of deep mental conflicts requires an objective setting, the therapeutic theatre. ...'". p.107-108.

Nye - National Theatre

Davies, M.H. Dramatherapy and Psychodrama, Chap. 5. pp.104-123. In Jennings, S. (Ed.), (1987) Dramatherapy. Theory and Practice for Teachers and Clinicians. Routledge, London. p.106.

Books: Psychiatry and Technology - Phillips, ed. (2008)

Despite the necessity of new (inc. secondhand when possible) titles, the overall push is to reduce the shelf and box count. This means that:

Phillips, James (ed.) (2008). Philosophical Perspectives on Technology and Psychiatry. Oxford University Press.

- will soon have a new home. Before that another look to support the effort here:

"It hardly needs stating that treatment algorithms, the evidence-based approach, and treatment manuals are useful tools in psychiatric practice. What issue is then being addressed in referring to them as examples of technical reason? The issue is that they, and other examples of the technical approach, can at their worst turn psychiatric treatment (or medical treatment for that matter) into a mechanical procedure. The patient becomes an instance of a diagnostic category, and the treater becomes a generic treater. Follow the technicized approach too literally, and one schizophrenic becomes interchangeable with the next, and one psychiatrist with another. In this situation of the fungible patient and the fungible treater, the individuality of both is lost, and the need for individual judgement on the part of the psychiatrist is rendered obsolete." p.9. Introduction.

Hodges' Health Career - Care Domains - Model
Axes and Care (knowledge) Domains

"Qualified users [of technology] have a professional responsibility to be reflective users. They should be 'thinkers'. Reflective use means being able to step back and become more conscious of one's professional activity." p.46. Chapter 2 Examples from Psychiatry.

"A concern for objective truth is at the heart of the scientific enterprise. An unfortunate consequence of the rigid dichotomies associated with a scientistic epistemology is that objective truth is defined in opposition to subjective values. The result is the 'Either/Or' thinking characteristic of the 'science wars' where science is either reduced to a relativistic exercise of political power or characterized as a value-neutral exercise progressing in an inevitable fashion determined solely by the facts." p.120. Chapter 6 Rational Argumentation.

Book review ii "Human Landscapes: Contributions to a pragmatist anthropology"

When I have a book to review I need a hard copy - too much screen already - and while I hope the review is worth the author's and publisher's kind engagement my purpose includes gathering insights and evidence to support the project here.

Back in July I lost this book (OK I fessed up). I've searched ... and must have left it somewhere! This is a great loss.*

Human Landscapes

Thankfully, Roberta forwarded an early pdf, and I'm enjoying an informed and challenging read:

The author's task:

"... only a few scholars have sought to outline a philosophical anthropology through a pragmatist lens." p.8.

Distracted, as ever, I'm making progress and can see an author who is:

- embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended (p.7) - in this subject matter.

I'm going backwards from post i, but I commented on this:

"Even if Michael Quante’s proposal is not grounded in Pragmatism, I agree with his claim that, in order to be pragmatistic, a philosophical anthropology should assume that each concept or theory requires questions like: “How is this related to human action? What place does it have in the context of our
actions? (2018, 22)." p.15.

In the context here, this is precisely the role of Hodges' model, at the conceptual level - placement in the care domains, and in theory, care approach (context), philosophy. I like Dreon's focus on evaluation too, and the fact that an example is the impact of COVID on education and the resort and reliance of online learning.

Dreon concentrates on the organism and the environment (a key debate) from across the literature, and discusses concepts that are notoriously problematic, terms like, sensibility, and human nature.

"The situation is particularly complex because, evidently, this is not a merely
theoretical issue; rather, it has serious existential implications, both moral
and political." p.17.

Reading, I instantly thought of the social determinants of health [SDoH], moving away from reductive explanations. But the SDoH are precarious in the extent to which they will affect policy, and give rise to specific metrics - similarly to the sustainable development goals [SDGs]. These have a pragmatic and clearly anthropocentric quality about them. As Dreon notes the oppositions and dichotomies (very quickly as per post i) these policies 'light up' the humanistic domains. As health professionals and educators we can shout, warm, warmer, colder ... to the policy makers (and currently the 'purse' holders).

A 'good' book reassures you about what you've read - Whorf, time, Hopi; but also points to what you might like to read:

"In his entry for the Encyclopaedia, Dewey claims that isolating
the allegedly native and original constitution of human nature is possible
only through the assumption of a static point of view on it, for example,
by privileging features at birth over traits characterizing the intrauterine
past or the organism’s future development and adulthood." p.19.

Bubbles: Spheres I by Peter Sloterdijk, Wieland Hoban (Translator) - my emphasis above.

My .pdf copy is littered with comments where I (inevitably) read evidence in support of h2cm. I don't want to dilute Dreon's purpose, which is comprehensive (for me) in referencing and critical analysis of the latest thought. But if Roberta and Suny Press will (please) forgive me for losing the hard-copy hopefully they can see why I draw attention to the following:

"Grene was very careful to avoid reducing the relationship between biological factors and culture to causal dependence: she preferred to speak of a widespread dependence of sociocultural life on biophysical reality and to consider the relation as an “anthropological circle” (Peterson 2010)." p.24.

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sustainable mindset (volunteered - incentivised)	"biophysical reality"
"sociocultural life"	circular economy

There are many circles, not just at work, but circles that need to work.

More to follow - as I pick up speed ...

Dreon R. (2022) Human landscapes. Contributions to a pragmatist anthropology. Suny Press, Albany.

https://sunypress.edu/Books/H/Human-Landscapes

*Looking at the photo, the table looks like a Booths cafe? I have phoned them and elsewhere - no joy. :-(

Book review - "Human Landscapes: Contributions to a pragmatist anthropology"

'After Ethnos', a previous book review was an enjoyable challenge. As a nurse, you are, to a certain extent several disciplines all rolled into one, sociologist, psychologist, diplomat, anthropologist ... but After Ethnos and now Dreon's 'Human Landscapes' bring their own demands.

If it was experiment that attracted me to Tobias Rees's book, Dreon's title works on two levels.

Hodges' model anticipates different 'landscapes'. The model also provides a lesson in pragmatism (another post) with pragmatism identified as a method to research Hodges' model.

On health care education programmes, how often do we write of human nature, cognition, or cognitive processes, qualitative and quantitative, subjective and objective? How quickly do we present ourselves, and the readers of assignments with dichotomies, dualities, and polarities?

Just 40 pages in they are here in expected and welcome abundance. I clearly have some reading to do [ that's why it's a review! :-) ] and from reading, much to critique in my differentiation between phenomena and as concepts presented here on W2tQ.

"... the conceptual framework for my approach to human nature is represented by cultural naturalism— that is, a nonreductive form of naturalism that assumes culture to be continuous with nature, rooted in the very organic and environmental conditions of human life, and yet irreducible to the mere association of preexisting resources." p.23

Human landscapes

"Nonetheless, even if we wish to focus on a theoretical analysis of the concept, the idea of human nature seems to display a tangle of problems, punctuated by distinctions that could be useful when treated as functional and connected to specific contexts, but which are actually turned into dogmatic oppositions. One first form of dualism concerns the opposition between the innate and the acquired, between the allegedly innate equipment existing on the genetic or neural level and the properties and ways of behaving this is assumed to give rise to. To give but one example, based on Chomsky’s influential hypothesis, the idea of a neural program for producing grammar encoded in our genes has been assumed to be an efficient (and sometimes sufficient) cause for specific linguistic practices. From this point of view, nurture, culture, and institutions seem to be something completely different from nature, since they supervene on an already fixed material substratum as an adjunct." pp.17-18.

"Taking this or that snapshot of a human could be a useful intellectual expedient in specific circumstances, but “[b]iologically all growth is modification and all organs have to be treated and understood as developments out of something else and as pointing forward to still something else” (Dewey 1985b, 32–33)." pp.19-20.

"I believe that the conceptual opposition between subjective and objective qualities is like a net with too wide a mesh, unable to catch the complexity of our interactions with the world. The problem, I would argue, is that this opposition often involves the idea that qualitative experience is a private, purely first-person experience, consequently posing problems of public access." pp.33-34.

"The section 2 will focus on the Pragmatists’ conception of experience as something broader and richer than cognition—because, in turn, cognition is understood as a specific phase within experience, responding to the needs and problems emerging from qualitative experience and ultimately returning to it. In this approach, perception through the senses and pure sense data are reframed within the context of inquiry, as features that are pointed out, discriminated, and isolated from a more holistic field of experience according to an
idea, namely, the anticipation of the possible consequences of an action or a certain assumption." pp.37-38.

Not sure why, but at one point, reading prompted consideration of: 'lived experience' and the role of peer support workers?

Starting the book, Dreon is (naturally) laying out the scope and structure of the book. Not just a preface but first chapter, and it looks like - the second. As I get more accustomed to Dreon's style (I'm a nurse remember) there are valuable lessons in laying out arguments, with more reward to follow I trust. I have a sense of a wall, not an impenetrable one, but one that is well argued - the blocks shifting into place - even if I cannot grasp their true significance to specialists in this field.

More to follow.

Dreon R. (2022) Human landscapes. Contributions to a pragmatist anthropology. Suny Press, Albany.

Many thanks to Roberta and Suny Press for my copy (confession to follow).

"Field of Vision" from an excellent book

If 2020 confirms anything for humankind,
it is the need to assure our field of view
- beyond '2020' vision.

individual

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group - population

Ernst Mach, Visual Field; looking through Mach’s left eye at his own body stretched out in his studio; limited by the curvature of the eye socket,  one sees his nose and beard.	Mathematics and Art: A Cultural History

Lynn Gamwell (2016) Mathematics and Art: A Cultural History. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691165288. p.283.

(Thank you to PUP for the review copy - more to follow.)

Image source:
http://earwaveevent.org/article/cezanne-and-music/

Thought Cages: c/o BBC Radio 4

individual

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humanistic ----------------------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group

Motivations Experience	"Elephant in the brain"
Friends, Family (+ the test) Receiving treatment Patient - Professional relationship	NHS Companies Health expenditure

Be Successful or Be Loved: The NHS Dilemma

Digital health interventions: How might we measure “meaningful engagement”?

How might we measure “meaningful engagement”? Is a lack of usage of a #digitalhealth intervention a sign of disengaging or a lesson learned? This week's Digi-Hub blog post by @kathleen_ryan33 @UCC on designing for "meaningful engagement" https://t.co/TdNvDuMmUr pic.twitter.com/Zmx0MNlgAt

— UCL Behaviour Change (@UCLBehaveChange) April 20, 2018

I admit I am struggling to stop blogging, even as the pull of Drupal and a new site will (must) win-out. The above tweet prompts these thoughts ...

A key point from Kathleen Ryan's blog post reads:

"The design process* needs to be reflective..."

I wholeheartedly agree - it is the way that we reflect to achieve a socio-technical synergy that counts. Even with the socio-technical bases covered there are other factors too:

individual

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Person-related issues (e.g. their beliefs, cognitions and values). What 'x' means to me. "... attention, interest and how the person feels and thinks about the intervention (where more attention / affect / enjoyment = more engagement)." Patient (Person?) Activation measures? Yes - 'person-centredness' is 'up-here' according to the axes of the model, BUT we must take into account the social and political milieu of the individual concerned. *design purposes subjective

diseases Technology-related issues "No matter how well-crafted and evidence-based the intervention, active ingredients proven to effect health behaviour change simply cannot work if the technological components that house them are not accessed by participants. As such, lack of adequate engagement with DHIs poses a barrier to evaluating the effectiveness of these interventions." *design process ‘Law of Attrition’ Usage metrics: statistics, logs, frequency, totals e-health and m-health objective

prevention & treatment of - 'lifestyle diseases' social incentives socialisation 'health seeking behaviour' Health literacy  "human contacts can allow for “supportive accountability” via remotely delivered prompts, social support and encouragement." *design practices

National use of 'Patient activation'? (Forms of profiling) Incentives - health policy Nudge - behaviour change? Health insurance/credits HEALTH meaning within? SYSTEMS  paternalistic--'degrees of freedom'?--autonomy ADVERTISING 'The Market' *design policy

Perhaps, future measures need to simultaneously combine analysis AND synthesis - the subjective AND objective... a job for AI ..?

Thanks to Kathleen Ryan
https://twitter.com/kathleen_ryan33

Ack. This week learned of 'Patient activation' attending a Best Practice Meeting.

 *The 4Ps within Hodges' model. 

What is meant by 'universal' design?

Yes, there is an ironic element to this post and recent others in respect of 'meaningful engagement' and 'the meaning of evidence'? Do people recognise 'evidence'?

Book: Knowledge and Action (open access)

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KNOWLEDGE	ACTION

Knowledge and Action

There are of course many types of knowledge. There must be if our muscles can also be said to have a 'memory'. Here I am referring to the cognitive phenomena of an individual's possession of knowledge and how this is elicited, assessed and expressed clinically, educationally and in our day-to-day experiencesl. Clearly knowledge is, or should be translated into practice with evidence in the actions that follow.

This new, open access book on "Knowledge and Action" is a valuable and timely arrival. Timely as chapter 12 - Semantic Knowledge, Domains of Meaning and Conceptual Spaces is by Prof. Peter Gärdenfors. It is already a year since the last Conceptual Spaces Workshop in Sweden.

There are also two chapters related to healthcare.

Part of the utility of Hodges' model lies in how it can encompass knowledge (in all its forms), action AND space, the latter is also a key focus of the text. In addition I often added the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity to posts. The quote below from the book which I am citing at length to retain the meaning is also interesting as it could apply to Hodges' model as a whole. Hodges' model is multicontextual and situated. In addition:

We might also say that healthcare is invariably intersubjective; into which the evidence-based ethos would have us inject the largest dose possible of objectivity through scientific and/or political means(?).

Please see the specific chapter for the references in what follows:

Current theories of practice constitute an effort to reformulate the Aristotelian conception of phronesis, which implies that practice is seen as the basis and purpose of theoretical knowledge (Flyvbjerg, 2001). That conception also implies an escape from the dualism of the subjective and objective (Bernstein, 1971; Stern, 2003, p. 185). Schatzki is seen as one of the leading thinkers in this approach, and he bases his practice theory on a new societal social ontology in which the dualism of ontological individualism and holism is overcome (Schatzki, 2006). He calls his new ontology site ontology, defining site as a type of context in which human coexistence takes place and which also includes the social entities themselves. Social events can thus be understood only through an analysis of this site. The close relationship between this concept of site and the geographic concept of place^# (Tuan, 2001) is evident:  

    Practice theory places practices at the center of the socio-human sciences instead of traditional structures, systems, events, actions. None of the practices can be reduced to a sum of its elements, which are of a complex character: they are mental and material, factual and relational, human and material, individual and supra-individual, etc. This conception also overcomes the dualism action/structure, … Each practice then operates in a typical regime, according to particular scenarios, it has its inherent normativity, etc. (Višňovský, 2009, p.391).

As an open access text this is valuable source, which I will revisit again soon.

Huib Ernste (2017) Rationality and Discursive Articulation in Place-Making. Chapter 3. In Knowledge and Action. editors: Peter Meusburger, Benno Werlen, Laura Suarsana. Vol 9. Online: Springer (Open) International Publishing.

^# I have wondered about this combination of cognition and geography -
https://hodges-model.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/cogneography
There is existing work on 'psychogeography' post to follow.

My source for this book with thanks: Library | Lancaster University

Inner model II: Hodges' model - helping to locate Social Sciences...

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subjective	objective
A scheme for analysing assumptions about the nature of the social sciences, The subjective-objective dimension The Subjectivist The Objectivist Nominalism ontology Realism Anti-positivism epistemology Positivism Voluntarism human nature Determinism Ideographic methodology Nomothetic

Burrell, G., and Morgan, G. Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis. London: Heinemann, p.3.

My source: Table 1.1 A scheme for analysing assumptions about the nature of the social sciences, The subjective-objective dimension, Tudor, K. (1996). Mental Health Promotion, Paradigms and practice, London: Routledge, p.30.

Related link: http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/org_theory/Scott_articles/burrell_morgan.html

A Spin on Logic, Belief, Facts & Truth

individual

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SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group-population

Doxastic Logic Individual Belief	Post-truth (time) Short : Long term Statistics Facts Proton Spin Mystery
The public The crowd The people The public - the politicians deserve	Post-truth (politics) Alternative-Facts Fake news False promises True Spin The politicians - the public deserve

My original source:
Simon Kuper, (2017). The age of broken promises, FT, Magazine, 28/29 January, p.5.

Book: Cure - A journey into the science of mind over body

individual

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group-population

CURE: Book cover

Triangulation: c/o Roger Ballen

individual

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group-population

Triangulation: (c) Roger Ballen
	Triangulation: (c) Roger Ballen

© 2016 Roger Ballen

The Theatre of Apparitions

My source and original image (top):
Jackson, K. Snapshots Primitive power in black and white. The New Review, The Observer, 30 October 2016. p.5.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/oct/29/through-a-glass-darkly-roger-ballens-theatre-of-apparitions-in-pictures

Amazing open access Townsend Archive - Poverty in the UK materials

The Townsend archive provides open access to a range of original documents underlying the 1967/68 Poverty in the UK survey led by Peter Townsend. This survey pioneered the application of relative deprivation in measuring poverty.

The archive includes over 2500 digitised questionnaires from the survey. On these questionnaires you will find hand-written notes made, at the time of the interview, by the survey field workers. They provide telling details of the living standards and attitudes of that time. They are searchable by region, interviewer and survey booklet number.

The archive also covers a range of other papers associated with the administration and conception of the survey and notes and drafts of Townsend’s book. You can also download Townsend’s ‘Poverty in the United Kingdom’ book.

You will also find video interviews with researchers, fieldworkers and colleagues involved in, or associated with, the Poverty in the UK survey. David Donnison, Hilary Land, Adrian Sinfield, John Veit-Wilson and others reflect back on this landmark project. These interviews provide unparalleled insights into survey and research methods then and now, the relationship between social policy research and policy making across the last 45 years, and the impact, or otherwise, of research on tackling poverty.

To take a look at this fascinating resource visit: http://poverty.ac.uk/townsend-archive

Original source includes SOCIAL-POLICY AT JISCMAIL.AC.UK

A Checklist for Personhood

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"Philosophers disagree on exactly what it would 
take for an animal to qualify as a person. 
Kristin Andrews at York University in Toronto, Canada, 
suggests searching for the six attributes listed here." p.17

SUBJECTIVITY (REASONING) -------------- PERSONALITY NARRATIVE SELF AUTONOMY	(OBJECTIVITY) --------------- RATIONALITY
RELATIONSHIPS

HI Peter,

Oh, that's interesting! I'd move Rationality to objectivity/science, though, as it refers to the ability to engage in logical reasoning, solve problems, etc. There's been a lot of interest recently on the logical abilities of babies (Sue Carey's team) and chimpanzees (e.g. Josep Call's team) and they both seem to be able to engage in exclusion reasoning (i.e. disjunctive syllogism).  I discuss animal rationality in my book The Animal Mind. 

Rationality isn't consciousness; I could add consciousness to the list, but it's there already, just subsumed by narrative self and relationships too.

cheers,

Kristin

___________________________________________________________
Kristin Andrews
Associate Professor
Philosophy/Cognitive Science
York University
4700 Keele St.
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
CANADA

www.yorku.ca/andrewsk

Rutkin, A. (2016). Almost human? New Scientist, 2 July. 231:3080. 16-17.

Additional link:
BBC Future: 'Wisdom of the crowd'; The Myths and Realities

CuixArt - CuixCare? Joan Brossa et al.

Hodges' model: Four Knowledge Domains and the Spiritual 

Joan Brossa 

Dau al Brossa

My source:
Mayoral: Cuixart. Geometria experimental

"Values in Advanced Directives" mapped to Hodges' model

Hechter, et al. (1999) consider values in respect of advanced directives and medical treatment. The authors discuss an old debate in social science that still divides objectivists and subjectivists. Below, with my emphasis the four designated values are mapped to Hodge' model:

individual
|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES
humanistic ---------------------------------------  mechanistic
SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL
|
group

(ii) self-concept values involving feelings of dignity, self-control, and/or physical capacity (designated as function);	(i) hedonic values about pain, aversive physical states, chances for recovery to some minimally satisfactory level, and so forth (designated hereafter as pain);
(iii) allocentric values referring to concerns with creating an emotional burden for family and/or loved ones (designated as burden)	(iv) financial considerations (designated as cost) (p.409).

Since 1999 and considering the above I have added the following additions to reflect elements of change and a more generic view:

identity, self-expression (of needs), consistency in expressed wishes, intentionality, mood, alternative-adaptive forms of communication, time - active listening	distance, logistics (family, friends), what telecare might offer in terms of communication, evidence-based interventions, measures, assessment
independent advocacy, standards of social care, 'appropriate' placement for ongoing care, social - life history;	legislation - mental capacity, advocacy, evidence-based care - policy, pension, safeguarding;

While the focus of Hechter, et al. is specific these values also apply in a more generic sense. As students and lifelong learners engage with patients, carers and public they must learn to have due regard for the totality of values that might be encountered.

Hechter, M., Ranger-Moore, J., Jasso, G., & Horne, C. (1999). Do Values Matter? An Analysis of Advance Directives for Medical Treatment. European Sociological Review, 15(4), 405-430.