Mutual Intention

This paper takes as its starting point the problem of characterizing, in a precise way, situations in which two people collaborate to achieve a common goal. It is suggested that collaboration is normally based on an apparently paradoxical state of mind which I call "mutual intention". Mutual intention is a concept belonging to the same family as Lewis's and Schiffer's "mutual knowledge". These concepts have the paradoxical feature that they require, for their definition, an infinite series of propositions of the form X knows (or intends, or assumes) p, where X is a single agent and p is a proposition. The source of these infinite series is traced, and it is shown that they can be represented in a plausible and enlightening way by means of a recursive notation. Finally, three applications of the concept of "mutual intention" are given: (i) in the semantic analysis of certain sentences with plural subjects; (ii) in the analysis of agreement and related speech acts; and (iii) in the clarification of the phenomenon of "implicit agreement".     

Delinquency and the Family

Summary A standardized procedure based upon current social work practicewas used to assess the family circumstances of a randomly drawnsample of Tower Hamlets families with son/s between 11 and 14years of age. These families were compared to those of localboys of the same age before the Courts for a first time. Two-thirdsof the officially delinquent boys came from ordinary families,intact and without serious problems. However, compared to theofficially non-delinquents in the random sample they were significantlymore likely to come from broken homes or unbroken (intact) butwith serious and persistent problems. The differences are notdue to neighbourhood or school factors that appear to a considerableextent to operate independently of family factors. Few firstCourt appearances in Tower Hamlets are explained by boys reactingto serious family stress. Follow up over two years of the delinquentsshowed that just under one-quarter of the boys from ordinaryfamilies became persistent offenders. Just over one-third ofthose from difficult family circumstances reappeared. These findings are discussed in the light of other researchand current social work practice.     

Residential Care for Elderly People: Characteristics of Patients Admitted To Residential and Nursing Home Care from Hospital

Correspondence to Mr W. Power, Department of Social Work, Kingston General Hospital, Hull HU3 IUR Summary Fifty consecutive admissions to residential and nursing homecare from hospital were examined and the results discussed.Patient profile fitted the general pattern expected of frailelderly people with high dependency needs. There was a noticeableshift towards placements in private establishments but onlyabout half the patients were likely to have satisfied criteriafor local authority placement or require nursing home care.Breakdown in care-giver arrangements was found to be a majorreason for entry to care. Apart from a significant number ofwheelchair users going into nursing homes, there were no sharpdivisions between the residential care and nursing homes groups.