Abraham Kaplan

The psychodynamics of terrorism

This article deals with some of the psychodynamics of terrorism. The act of terrorism, the use of force to produce a fearful state of mind, is discussed with the distinctions drawn between target and victim, demands and aims. Those involved in the terrorist act include the terrorist, the victim, the target, and the audience. Topics dealt with include terrorism as the pursuit of the absolute end, as a response to lack of self‐esteem, as a promotion of a renewed sense of masculinity, as a reaction‐formation to positive feelings toward the target, and as a kind of symbol‐magic or sacrament of violence. Recommendations for dealing with acts of terrorism are included. This article will appear in a forthcoming book.

Content Analysis and the Theory of Signs

During the past decade or two the influence of theories of language and meaning has made itself felt in almost every field of study, either because, as in the case of psychology and the social sciences, meaning phenomena were part of the subject matter, or because, as in the case of physics and philosophy, the language used in the study demanded analysis and clarification. In recent years there has been (and is being) developed, especially by H. D. Lasswell and his associates, a technique known as content analysis,l which attempts to characterize the meanings in a given body of discourse in a systematic and quantitative fashion.

The Age of the Symbol: A Philosophy of Library Education

r-r ~ E business of philosophy, as I see it, is not to provide answers a for other peoples questions, and certainly not to make virtual decisions on their behalf without being willing to shoulder the responsibility that goes along with the power to make decisions. To my mind, the role of philosophy is, like art, to hold the mirror up to nature, and particularly to hold the mirror up to human nature-more especially, to human nature in its more confused and miserable moments. So what I intend to do is to restate the problems of which, I think, you are all very well aware but to put these problems in a broader perspective than that in which you ordinarily see them. I hope also that hearing these problems put by someone altogether removed from your profession and having them more fully articulated in this broad perspective may make it easier, if not to solve the problems, at least to continue to live with them. So far as I am aware, librarianship is really in a critical condition-critical not just in terms of the enormous excess of demand over supply with regard to the performance of your function, but critical in a more basic respect. As it appears from the outside, the profession itself is now unsure of what its functions are and unsure also of just how to go about performing whatever functions are assigned to it or that it adopts. This state of affairs seems to me to be entirely understandable in the light of certain developments that affect not merely the profession but our society as a whole.

On the strategy of social planning

Social planning deals centrally with human values—values which are important even though they do not appear as explicit factors in the classical problems of social welfare.The philosophical question as to whether facts can provide a logical basis for values need not be considered by the planner. He focuses, rather, on the specific interplay of values and facts in the concrete context of his concern.In the analysis of this interplay we can distinguish a number ofprinciples, criteria for the specification of social ends; for instance, the maximin principle, that improvements in a value distribution consisting in cutting off the bottom of the distribution have priority over raising the top.Social ends, in turn, are analysable intoideals, goals, andobjectives—directions, regions and points, respectively, in the value space.Cutting across these are the desiredqualities of the experience of pursuing those ends, qualities allowing for the assessment of planned alternatives by configurational judgment, rather than by a presumed summation of component values.

Obscenity as an Esthetic Category

My problem is not what to do about obscenity, but what to make of it. Control over the arts in this country-whether by official power or by unofficial influencerests largely on allegations of obscenity. But patterns of social control cannot reasonably be appraised without some conception of what it is that is being controlled. Accordingly, I ask what constitutes obscenity in relation to the arts: Can a work of art be obscene and still be esthetic in status and function? What part, if any, does the obscene play in the esthetic experience? What characteristics of the art object mark its occurrence? These questions are meant as belonging to the philosophy of art, not to its psychology or sociology. To answer them is not to assert matters of fact, but to clarify relations of ideas. Such a clarification must take facts into account, of course-but its outcome, if successful, is a clear conception rather than a true proposition. Still less does an answer to these questions entail a social policy or a procedure for implementing policy. I do not pretend that the distinctions to be drawn in this essay can be directly applied in a court of law. I shall be content if they throw light on the problem of obscenity for the artist, his audience, and the critic who interprets each to the other.

Moral responsibilities and political realities

Responsibility depends on neither causes nor intentions. It is a matter of answerability to a community of obligation. Only individuals are responsible, for collective actions as well as personal ones. Responsibility is both political and moral. Politics give substance to moral responsibility. Political forms, in turn, reflect the prevailing structure of moral responsibility. Both policy makers and policy analysts can be held responsible; this act itself, however, must be done responsibly.

Reflections of a physicist

In this fascinating personal account, a senior member of the French scientific community reflects on physics and nuclear research as practiced in the 20th century. A long-standing member of the French Academy of Science and past president of the French Physical Society, Abragam is known for his pioneering work in nuclear physics. In addition to summing up in nontechnical language the discoveries he has made in this area, Abragam. reflects on decades of involved research, providing insights into the nature of the physical world and the process of scientific discovery. He concludes his personal reflections with a remembrance of three great physicists--J.H. Van Vleck, Claude Bloch and Felix Bloch--who shaped and encouraged his scientific work. A moving, thoughtful consideration of a lifetime of distinguished scientific achievement, Reflections of Physicist provides stimulating reading for anyone interested in modern science.