This study focused on determining the attitudes and academic performance of engineering students in Technological University of the Philippines-Manila. A total of 139 male engineering and 47 female engineering students were the respondents of the study. This only dwell on the attitude in learning English Language Vocabulary in terms of their behavioral aspects, cognitive aspects, and emotional aspects. This is a quantitative study utilized by descriptive and inferential method as the research design. Based on the findings, academic grades strongly correlate (...) with their attitude in learning English vocabulary which is a negative correlation coefficient in all its components with r value of -0.3695 in behavioral, -0.5261 in Cognitive, and -0.4332 in emotional aspect. Their P values is less than .00001 which is significant at p<0.05. Thus, the null hypothesis where there is no significant relationship between their ALEV and academic performance is rejected. The researcher recommends that teachers should enhance creativity in teaching vocabulary which inculcate the positive attitudes and motivation towards learning process. Teachers and parents should encourage the learners to read and watch educational related materials. (shrink)

The study focuses on the environmental challenges encountered by grade 11 STEM students at Lopez National Comprehensive High School in Online Distance Learning (ODL). This determines the significant relationship between the demographic profile and the environmental challenges in terms of ICT technical issues and concerns; environmental problems; and physical and digital distractions. The researcher utilized quantitative correlational research with the use of a simple random sampling technique to determine the 90 STEM students at Lopez National Comprehensive High School, Philippines. The (...) data revealed that the students’ demographic profile is significantly related to environmental issues. Based on the results of the study, power outages cause stress and affect students' performance. The power interruptions reduced the willingness of students to develop presentations and prepare for online classes. It also shows that a suffocating environment can make it difficult to stay motivated to complete the tasks assigned in online classes. And lastly, distractions such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok make the students lose their eagerness to do the activities that are given in online classes. The new normal e-learning modality calls for an intervention that includes setting aside a specific space or device for online classes, offering thorough training on how to use the platforms, keeping lines of communication open between students and teachers, implementing flipped classroom instruction, strengthening parent-teacher partnerships to ensure support for students learning from home, and offering advice and counseling to stakeholders. (shrink)

Learning and Development (L&D) is an organizational process which helps in the development of knowledge and achievement of individual and organizational goals. This is quantitative research employed a descriptive method to determine the impact of Learning and Development Programs on the Core Competencies of Level II employees of the Pasay City Government. The respondents of this study were the two hundred forty-two (242) randomly selected PCG Level II employees of the City Government of Pasay. This research used a survey technique (...) in terms of identifying the impact of L&D programs on the level II employees’ core competencies. The study found out that the participants perceived as competent and advanced level, which means that they are knowledgeable, can perform the actions associated with this skill without assistance from others, and can mentor/coach others in terms of applying the core competencies to perform official functions in reaching operational targets. The result shows that r value is 0.480; and 0.484, respectively, which indicates that there is a positive correlation between variables. Moreover, the P value is less than the significance level of 0.05, thus, it rejects the null hypothesis and support the notion that a relationship exists between the extent of implementation of L&D Programs and proficiency level of core competencies of Level II employees. It is recommended for organizations to evaluate the effectiveness and capability of their training programs to produce desired results relevant to the organizational goals and objectives. A proposed enhancement program may be considered for the inclusion in the implementation matrix of the HRD (L&D) Plan of the City Government for Level II employees. (shrink)

Operational activity such crime prevention is extremely significant in promoting peace and order of the community. This study assessed the Pasay City Police Station in the Southern District regarding particular organization and crime operations management capabilities. This paper used quantitative research anchored by descriptive method. The study’s respondents were 130 police officers/members and 150 permanent employees of the Pasay City Police Station who are residents of Pasay City and whose offices are near the police station. It was revealed that the (...) organization variables describing the Pasay City Police Station is “not significant” leading to accept the null hypothesis. The problems encountered by the Pasay City Police Station are grounded from the standpoint of personnel needs, facilities, supplies and equipment, the suggestions offered by the respondent to help solve the problems encountered are specifically geared towards solving the particular problems encountered. The Pasay City Police Officers/Personnel will be more effective in solving crime problem if more intelligence officer is dispatch where criminality is rampant. It is recommended to improve police efficiency and effectiveness in crime prevention, reduction, solution, and crime management capability. There is also a need to increase the number of police officers for the Pasay City Police Station who are educationally qualified and highly trained on police matters. (shrink)

This study deals primarily with the effectiveness of the Land Bank of Philippines as a Depository Bank of Makati Branch in specific organization and bank operations management. This paper provides baseline data in aid of policy formulation to enhance the bank operations management that offers new motivation towards a policy that effectively addresses and solves the bank operations management. This study used the quantitative descriptive method. Thirteen (13) bank personnel and 64 barangays elected chairman, including the appointed treasurer with direct (...) access to the bank transaction regarding the funds of the barangays in Makati City, were purposely taken as research respondents. It was found that no significant difference exists in the assessment of the respondents in organization and bank operations management when grouped according to age, gender, and educational attainment. The mean evaluation of the respondents in the organization and bank operations management with the variables mentioned revealed effectiveness, and the grand mean and the composite mean are within the mean range of 3.50-4.49, interpreted as effective. This implies that the variables mentioned are directly performed to the standard of the bank. It is recommended that the bank look into the deposits of the barangay funds as it is mandated by law to secure the funds of the barangay in the form of deposits and withdrawals. (shrink)

Ito ay pag-aaral sa ibat-ibang form ng nawn preys sa isla ng Biri, Northern Samar. Ang balidasyon, muling pagsusuri, at pag-aanalisa sa mga datos ay ginawa mismo ng mananaliksik bilang taal na mananalita ng Biri-Waray. Inilimita lamang ang pagsusuring ito sa mga fityur at istraktyur ng nawn at mga konstityuwent na bumubuo sa nawn preys sa Biri-Waray. Ang analisis sa pag-aaral na ito ay ibinatay lamang mula sa nakalap na datos mula sa siyam na informant na nagmula sa walong (8) (...) barangay (Poblacion, Sto. Nino, Progress, Pio Del Pilar, Causwagan, MacArthur, San Pedro, at San Antonio) ng munisipalidad ng Biri. Batay sa ginawang pagsusuri, ang NP sa Biri-Waray ay isang preys na maaaring: (1) binubuo ng marker, pronawn, kwantifayer at adjektiv na kumakatawan bilang hed ng nawn, at (2) binubuo ng nawn bilang hed at sinusundan ng mga konstityuwent na nagsisilbing modefayer. May mga form ang NP sa Biri-Waray na binubuo ng mga marker at nawn na kung saan ang marker ang nagpapakilala sa gamit at relasyon sa iba pang mga konstityuwent sa loob ng sentens. May kaibahan ang mga form ng NP ng Biri-Waray sa wikang Tagalog at iba pang mga Bisayan na mga dayalekto kapag binubuo ang NP ng posesiv pronawn + nawn (possessed) dahil hindi nagyayari ang pagkakabit ng ligatyur bilang pang-ugnay. May mga NP rin sa Biri-Waray na nabubuo sa pamamagitan ng relatibisasyon. Sa pamamagitan nito, nangyayari ang pagkatanggal sa nawn na minomodify ng predikeyt na hindi nawn at relativizer na at ang predikeyt na hindi nawn ang sumusunod sa nominativ marker an ‘ang’. Ang pag aaral na ito ay nakitang kahalagahan ng pagsusuri na magagabayan higit lalo na ang mga hindi taal na mananalita ng Biri-Waray sa pag-unawa sa gramatikal na istukrtura ng naturang wika. (shrink)

Scholars are divided on the relationship between cynicism and political life. In this chapter, I describe and endorse what I call 'institutional cynicism' and suggest it can feature within kinds of virtuous civic stances in democratic societies. I accept that some forms of cynicism can be as destructive and as anti-democratic as critics insist. Institutional cynicism, of the sort I describe, can actually make us better citizens. It turns our attention towards sub-optimal aspects of the political institutions of democratic societies, (...) teaching us things about those institutions we need to know, without necessarily leading us into fatalism or despair. (shrink)

This overview attempts to explain how we can come to an account of Cynicism and what that account should look like. My account suggests that Cynics are identified by living like Diogenes of Sinope, and that Diogenes' way of life is characterized by distinctive twists on three Socratic commitments. The three Socratic commitments are that success in life depends on excellence of the soul; that this excellence and success are a special achievement, requiring hard work; and that this work (...) requires deprecating mainstream values such as wealth, fame, and ordinary political power. Diogenes' construal of success emphasizes freedom and independence, and his construal of excellence emphasizes endurance and self-mastery. On his account, the work required to achieve these is strikingly unintellectual but difficult, and the deprecation of ordinary values is especially extreme. A few interpretive puzzles about Cynicism are tackled along the way, including whether Cynicism really counts as philosophy and whether Cynics are anti-social. (shrink)

Smartphone technology is ubiquitous and subject to frequent complaints, both by reformers and the recalcitrant. The ubiquity of smartphone technology has led to many negative consequences, some of which may not be fully addressed by empirically oriented literature. One such consequence is a threat to a certain kind of autonomy. I argue that this threat justifies a form of Cynicism about smartphone technology, styled after ancient Cynicism. Cynicism is importantly different from its colloquialized, contemporary namesake (“cynicism”). While ancient Cynicism shares (...) the theme of opting out, in some sense, with contemporary cynicism, it is not a philosophy of withdrawn futility; in fact, the Cynic emphasis on embodiment may have an import on our lives in a time of smartphone ubiquity. Accordingly, I offer one Cynic value, autarkeia (self-sufficiency), which can be recruited to address the way that smartphone technology threatens our autonomy. (shrink)

In recent years, a number of philosophers have turned their attention to developments in Artificial Intelligence, and in particular to deepfakes. A deepfake is a portmanteau of ‘deep learning' and ‘fake', and for the most part they are videos which depict people doing and saying things they never did. As a result, much of the emerging literature on deepfakes has turned on questions of trust, harms, and information-sharing. In this paper, I add to the emerging concerns around deepfakes by drawing (...) on resources from vice epistemology. As deepfakes become more sophisticated, I claim, they will develop to be a source of online epistemic corruption. More specifically, they will encourage consumers of digital online media to cultivate and manifest various epistemic vices. My immediate focus in this paper is on their propensity to encourage the development of what I call ‘intellectual cynicism'. After sketching a rough account of this epistemic vice, I go on to suggest that we can partially offset such cynicism – and fears around deceptive online media more generally – by encouraging the development what I term a trained ‘digital sensibility'. This, I contend, involves a calibrated sensitivity to the epistemic merits of online content. (shrink)

Cynical Reason Cynical Reason is the thirteenth volume in The Tower of Babble, the third installment of The Miscommunication Trilogy, a long-ranging investigation into the nature, evolution, and decline of human communication. Across the trilogy, language is examined not merely as a tool for transmitting information but as the central architecture through which human beings construct reality, organize society, create systems of power, and understand themselves. The overarching theme of the trilogy is the planned obsolescence of language—the gradual process through (...) which linguistic systems lose their capacity to communicate truth, generate understanding, and sustain meaningful human relationships. The concept of planned obsolescence is traditionally associated with products deliberately designed to become outdated. This book applies that concept to language itself. Human speech, political rhetoric, media discourse, ideological vocabulary, academic jargon, and digital communication increasingly display symptoms of exhaustion. Words that once clarified reality now obscure it. Concepts that once unified communities now divide them. Language becomes overloaded with propaganda, manipulation, euphemism, spectacle, and emotional performance. As a result, communication increasingly produces misunderstanding rather than understanding, confusion rather than clarity, and alienation rather than connection. Within this broader framework, Cynical Reason explores one of the most significant consequences of linguistic decline: the rise of cynicism as a dominant mode of consciousness. From the provocative asceticism of the ancient Cynics to the sophisticated scepticism of modern intellectual culture, cynicism has evolved into a powerful response to the collapse of trust in language, institutions, ideologies, and moral systems. As public discourse becomes saturated with contradictions, exaggerations, and manipulative narratives, individuals increasingly adopt cynical attitudes as a defence against deception and disappointment. Drawing upon philosophy, political theory, sociology, literature, cultural criticism, and intellectual history, this volume examines how cynical reason emerges from the growing gap between words and reality. It investigates the relationship between cynicism and mass media, democratic politics, ideology, education, consumer culture, religion, and contemporary forms of social alienation. The book argues that cynicism is both a symptom and a consequence of communicative breakdown. It exposes falsehoods and hypocrisies, yet it can also undermine the possibility of belief, trust, and collective action. As part of The Tower of Babble, Cynical Reason continues the trilogy’s central exploration of how language evolves, deteriorates, and transforms human civilization. It asks whether a society overwhelmed by scepticism can recover meaningful communication, and whether language, despite its obsolescence, can still provide a foundation for truth, understanding, and human solidarity. -/- . (shrink)

Aristotle argued that you need some wealth to live well. The Stoics argued that you could live well with or without wealth. But the Cynics argued that wealth is a hinderance. For the Cynics, a good life consists in self-sufficiency, or being able to rule and help yourself. You accomplish this by living simply and naturally, and by subjecting yourself to rigorous philosophical exercises. Cynics confronted people to get them to abandon extraneous possessions and positions of power (...) to live better. And while the Cynics were experts in living in this way, their ascetic lifestyles made their message curious to some audiences. This paper reflects on Cynic ascetic practices and the ways others perceived them. (shrink)

This paper explores the ancient philosophical school of Cynicism, its key principles, and its most famous proponent, Diogenes of Sinope. It asserts that George Carlin, a modern comedian, embodies the spirit of Cynicism through his sharp social commentary, fearless critique of societal norms, and advocacy for self-sufficiency and freedom. Drawing parallels between Diogenes and Carlin, the paper highlights three core Cynic values: self-sufficiency, living according to nature, and parrhesia (fearless speech). Diogenes, known for his ascetic lifestyle and provocative public actions, (...) championed the rejection of societal conventions and materialism, advocating for a life in harmony with nature. Similarly, Carlin's comedy, marked by irreverence and critique of societal hypocrisies, challenges cultural norms and exposes contradictions in political and ideological systems. Through his routine, Carlin exemplifies parrhesia by boldly confronting taboos and speaking truth to power, much like Diogenes did through his radical actions. The paper argues that Carlin’s satirical humor and philosophical reflections align with the Cynic tradition, using comedy as a tool for philosophical inquiry and societal critique. By comparing Carlin to Diogenes, the paper posits that Carlin’s comedic legacy should be recognized as a modern continuation of the ancient Cynic ethos, making him a contemporary counterpart to the father of Cynicism. The study underscores the relevance of Cynic philosophy in modern society, emphasizing its role in challenging conformity and promoting critical reflection on societal values. (shrink)

For Kant, any authentic moral demands are wholly distinct from the demands of prudence. This has led critics to complain that Kantian moral demands are incompatible with our human nature as happiness-seekers. Kant’s defenders have pointed out, correctly, that Kant can and does assert that it is permissible, at least in principle, to pursue our own happiness. But this response does not eliminate the worry that a life organized around the pursuit of virtue might turn out to be one from (...) which we cannot expect any of this (permissible) happiness. To address this worry, Kant would need to establish that there is a kind of harmony between virtue and our own happiness that can give us confidence that aiming at morality does not require us to abandon our hope for happiness in this life. This paper aims to show that Kant—building on insights from Rousseau that Kant identifies with Cynicism—does offer an account of such a harmony between virtue and worldly happiness. (shrink)

Recently, British Prime Minister Theresa May made a bold anti-cosmopolitan claim: ‘If you believe you are a citizen of the world, you are a citizen of nowhere. You don’t understand what citizenship...

When considering the value of friendship, most philosophers ignore the negatives. Most assume that humans need friends to flourish, and some argue that friendships can be good, no matter the risks entailed. This makes conversations about the value of friendship one-sided. Here, I argue that Cynics and Pessimists have an important view on friendship, despite it being ignored. They hold that: (a) friendship is unnecessary for flourishing, and (b) friendship presents ethical risks, especially to one’s own self-sufficiency. I defend (...) these views. Then I conclude with reflections on why Cynics and Pessimists actually make great friends. By helping people to focus on vulgar human nature and the flaws that humans have, they create an unpretentious basis for friendship. (shrink)

Cynicism is a unique philosophy. You could even say that they took their principles a little too far, perhaps. Diogenes' core idea was that Man should live in accordance with nature, as simply as possible. He along with his students were missionaries of a sort, traveling city-to-city preaching about the life of simplicity. To Diogenes, material things like money and lavish accessories corrupted nature. Not only did he despise concrete things, but he also disapproved of social conventions. Like every philosopher (...) in the Hellenistic period, Diogenes believed that virtue was the highest good. Virtue was the rejection of desires and the pursuit of goods earned by the individual, according to Diogenes. What he meant by goods earned by the individual was that things granted by other people and nature happen purely by chance. Diogenes said that everything we own should come from ourselves: confidence, happiness, et cetera. Diogenes said that everything we own should come from ourselves: confidence, happiness, et cetera. Two of the key principles of Cynicism were freedom (eleutheria, ελευθερια) and free speech (parrhesia, παρρησια). To be a Cynic, you must be free from society's and life's constraints and you must also speak without fear. Desires of wealth and reputation were unnatural and made us less human, property and social classes dehumanized us, and conventional, man-made norms limited our freedom. (shrink)

We aim to do two things in this article. On the positive end, our goal is to explain how some seemingly incompatible aspects of belief live together, by presenting distinct mechanistic explanations of each of them: in particular we want to show how belief can be discerning, credulous, rational, and irrational. After clarifying our positive view, we take aim at some competitor views in the second half of the paper, particularly offering critiques of epistemic vigilance and social marketplace accounts of (...) belief. We conclude by inviting proponents to provide an architecture for belief that can be tested against existing models. (shrink)

This is a commentary on a paper by the social psychologist C. Daniel Batson. I too think virtue is rare, but not so rare as Batson seems to think, despite his ingenious experiments on "moral hypocrisy.".

This essay posits the existence of two forms of disavowal: cynical and fetishistic. It explores how cynical disavowal involves maintaining a manipulative distance by obscuring the gap between belief and action, allowing the cynic to disavow their investment in an unattainable object and their knowledge of the Other’s lack. In contrast, fetishistic disavowal acknowledges both the objective reality of things and their subjective appearance to the fetishist. Unlike cynicism, fetishism does not rely on obscuring the gap between belief and action; (...) instead, it recognizes and embraces both aspects. In doing so, the essay highlights significant differences between the manipulative distance of the cynic and the self-awareness of the fetishist. It acknowledges the role of cynicism in maintaining the limits and prohibitions within ideology and authority, through examples of banality, while also emphasizing the unique qualities of fetishistic disavowal. (shrink)

How can one make sense of our current political, ecological and technological dilemmas through the lens of Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother (2019)? Well-received, the film has been commended for its account of the increasing role and impact of artificial intelligence and its relation to our ongoing ecological dilemmas and potential catastrophe. While these issues are played-out through the on-screen relationship between robotic mother and human daughter, the film can also be used to help shed light on our current ideological (...) predicaments. With a narrative that steers towards our preference for cynical detachment, apathy and resignation, this review draws upon Lacan’s notion of the big Other, and its relation to the subject, in order to provide further discussion on the film’s ambiguous ending and the deeper sense of impotence that it accurately portrays with regards to our current political malaise. (shrink)

Authenticity depicts a return to the original intention of a constituted being; this is not limited to merely individuals but political phenomena as well. Hegel offers a theoretical pathway to address political apathy and cynicism. It goes beyond the empirical measurement of manifestations of the said phenomena, therefore ascertaining Hegelian dialectical concepts of freedom, recognition, and ethical life. These concepts are set as categories to qualify and translate the Heideggerian principles of Eigentlichkeit (Authenticity) and Uneigentlichkeit (Inauthenticity). The Hegelian concepts further (...) build on prominent political experiences and circumstances that Heidegger qualifies as social. Therefore, having Hegelian qualifications of Heideggerian principles ascertain a categorical understanding of being political in the realm of being social. The importance of using Hegelian concepts does not mean inclination to being eclectic rather this is a methodological necessity. While it is true that Heidegger sheds light on how political actions may be manifested as authentic or inauthentic at the level of individuality, it is Hegel that provides the instruments to diagnose those actions as contributory to collective rationality, development in historicity, and institutionalism Moreover, the paper utilizes a dynamic understanding of collective rationality through the Geist – an unfolding spirit in historicity which is a counterforce against apathy and cynicism. Thus, exposing that the phenomena are not merely behavioral issues but existential pathologies within the socio – political sphere. The Geist is not confined to the political being alone but rather transcends to the political circumstance and their ontological impact to posterity. Further, the paper prominently proposes a Hegelian understanding of the sociological facet of politics where it becomes a force that is anti – apathetic and anti – cynical. This study argues that the mark of inauthenticity in political life, manifested by erosion of public trust, political disengagement, and low voter – turn out is a regression away from authentic political participation, self – actualization, and recognition. (shrink)

By holding that the anthropological condition of unsociable sociability forms the sinew of Kant’s conception of political action, this essay distinguishes the relationship between experience and political agency from that between experience and moral agency. It argues that the former cannot be fully subsumed under the latter since political action, for Kant, is bound up with the mobilisation and manoeuvring of our cynical experiences. Kant maintains that the cunning of nature assists politics by channelling selfish interests into outcomes that ultimately (...) advance a lawful civil order. The essay then turns to experiences that are, by contrast, symbols of the moral faculty by virtue of involving a ‘disinterested interest’, as most clearly articulated by Kant in his account of aesthetic experience. Given that political action primarily operates on prudential grounds, it may seem unlikely that it would also serve as a symbol of humanity’s moral predisposition. Yet, foregrounding disinterested interest as a general trait of morally significant experience opens an intriguing space to read Kant’s consideration of revolution as a historical sign of our moral vocation. (shrink)

This paper explores the socio-epistemic practice of shopping for experts. I argue that expert shopping is particularly likely to occur on what Thi Nguyen calls cognitive islands. To support my argument, I focus on macroeconomics. First, I make a prima-facie case for thinking that macroeconomics is a cognitive island. Then, I argue that ordinary people are particularly likely to engage in expert shopping when it comes to macroeconomic matters. In particular, I distinguish between two kinds of expert shopping, which I (...) call cynical and wishful, and introduce the notion of assisted expert shopping, which occurs when people or organizations shop for experts on behalf of other people. I argue that assisted expert shopping can sometime result in what I call a propagandistic use of expertise. Finally, I critically examine some possible reasons for optimism and find them wanting. I conclude by suggesting that that much of what I said about shopping for macroeconomic experts might also apply mutatis mutandis to other policy-relevant domains of expertise. (shrink)

本研究对中国传统文化核心命题“儒道互补”进行了批判性的去神圣化解构。长期以来，儒道互补被视为中国人的生存智慧，即“达则兼济天下，穷则独善其身”。然而，本研究指出，在现代权力场与职场语境下，这一模式已异 化为一种极其精密的“精神套利策略”。 -/- 其核心逻辑在于：个体通过在儒家的“秩序服从”与道家的“消极解脱”之间进行无缝切换，构建了一套低风险、高收益的心理避险机制。在权力扩张期，儒家被工具化为获取资源与道德优越感的入场券；在责任承担期，道家则 被矮化为逃避公共契约与制度纠偏的解压阀。这种“双重变色龙”式的机会主义，本质上消解了真理的彻底性与道德的刚性。 -/- 研究进一步发现，儒道互补形成了一个封闭的心理回路，导致了文明的“热寂”现象：它通过虚假的“圆融”修辞掩盖了社会结构的根本矛盾，阉割了原本具有解构力量的批判精神。这种文化性格不仅制造了现代职场中广泛存在 的精致利己主义与犬儒色彩，更在根本上阻碍了契约精神与法治思维的建立。本文主张，必须击碎这种伪善的二元博弈，重建具有现代性特征的、不可交易的人格尊严与批判锋芒。 -/- This study conducts a critical de-sacralizing deconstruction of the core proposition of traditional Chinese culture, the “Confucian–Daoist complement.” For a long time, this complement has been regarded as the wisdom of Chinese survival, encapsulated in the maxim: “When successful, one benefits the world; when unsuccessful, one cultivates oneself.” However, this study argues that within the context of modern power structures and workplace environments, this model has degenerated into an alienated “spiritual arbitrage strategy.” -/- Its (...) core logic lies in the seamless switching between Confucian “obedience to order” and Daoist “passive detachment,” through which individuals construct a low-risk, high-return psychological hedging mechanism. During phases of power expansion, Confucianism is instrumentalized as a ticket for acquiring resources and moral superiority; during phases of responsibility-bearing, Daoism is reduced to a pressure-release valve for evading public contracts and institutional correction. This “dual-chameleon” opportunism fundamentally dissolves the integrity of truth and the rigidity of morality. -/- The study further finds that the Confucian–Daoist complement forms a closed psychological loop, leading to a phenomenon of civilizational “heat death”: it conceals the fundamental contradictions of social structures through a false rhetoric of “harmonious integration,” while castrating the critical spirit that originally possessed deconstructive power. This cultural disposition not only produces the refined egoism and pervasive cynicism in modern workplaces, but also fundamentally obstructs the establishment of contractual spirit and rule-of-law thinking. This paper argues that this hypocritical dualistic game must be shattered, and a modern personality characterized by inalienable dignity and critical sharpness must be reconstructed. -/- . (shrink)

This paper rereads the thesis formulated by Guy Debord in *The Society of the Spectacle*—"The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images"—through Jacques Lacan's concept of the *gaze* (*regard*). While Debord's critique of the spectacle focuses primarily on the reinforcement of mystification and the reproduction of *separation* (*séparation*), Lacan does not presuppose the stability of the "seeing subject." For Lacan, the gaze is not a function of the eye but a form (...) of *objet petit a* (hereafter *objet a*)—a point of rupture that captures the subject precisely at the moment when the subject attempts to objectify and possess the world. From this perspective, the spectacle is not merely an apparatus that provides "something to watch," but rather a screen that domesticates the gaze so that the subject can maintain the fantasy of "I see, therefore I am a subject"—an apparatus for managing the anxiety of the gaze. -/- Through this framework, this paper reconceptualizes the persistence of the spectacle not as "the success of deception" but as "jouissance-management." By "jouissance-management" I mean the way the spectacle organizes libidinal investment so that participation persists even under disbelief. The spectacle not only provides imaginary identification, i(a)—the image one wants to become—but also mobilizes symbolic identification, I(A)—the position of the Other's gaze from which value judgments are made—thereby binding the subject to the circuit of systemic reproduction. Consequently, today's subject is produced in the form of cynical reason: one who "knows" the spectacle is false, yet continues to participate. Furthermore, this paper points out that the "unmediated directness/authenticity" implicitly invoked by Debord's strategy may itself be, in Lacanian terms, yet another fantasy, and analyzes how the discourse of authenticity is absorbed into the exchange circuit of approval (likes, recognition, ethical superiority). -/- Finally, this paper proposes the concept of "self-ratification" (*Selbstratifizierung*) as a means of shifting the response to the spectacle from the schema of "abolition/exposure" to "traversing the fantasy." Self-ratification does not stop at the distancing of "it's the structure's fault," but rather inscribes—without external excuse—the fact that I am already entangled in the circuit of identification and jouissance, and signs "my share" of actions taken within it as an ethical procedure. In sum, the spectacle is not "that which makes us see" but "that which positions us to be seen," and since this position is precisely Lacan's position of the gaze, the task of critique must be reconstituted beyond mere ideological exposure and cynical distancing—as self-ratification, the act of taking responsibility for one's own actions and affirming one's desire. (shrink)

Source: Author: Agnes F. Montalbo The aim of this study was to measure the exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy that would determine an individual’s level of burnout. A convenient sample of employees was obtained from different call centers in Metro Manila. The results indicated a high level of exhaustion for the age group of 18-29 years old and for the female respondents. More than half of the respondents were high in cynicism and those who reported a low professional efficacy were (...) mostly females. Age showed a significant relationship with exhaustion and cynicism while tenure at present job showed a significant relationship with professional efficacy. Results implied that working in a call center may lead to employee burnout especially for females and those who are new in their job. ]]>. (shrink)

This paper examines how contemporary design structures the experience of enjoyment through the production of smooth and frictionless interactions. Drawing on Lacanian psychoanalysis and the critical theory of Slavoj Žižek, the analysis distinguishes between need, demand, and desire in order to understand how design organizes patterns of consumption and attention. Interfaces, product semantics, and algorithmically structured environments stabilize forms of interaction that minimize interruption and reinforce repetitive engagement. The paper argues that this logic of smooth experience contributes to the emergence (...) of a cynical subject who continues to participate in systems that they critically understand. At the same time, the smoothing of interaction obscures the consequences of technological systems and weakens the relationship between action and responsibility. In response, the paper proposes a critical design ethics that reintroduces moments of rupture, opacity, and friction into technological interaction. Such interruptions can reopen spaces of judgment and reconnect enjoyment with the material and ethical conditions of action. (shrink)

Synopsis The Conspiracy of Speech The Conspiracy of Speech is the second part of Volume I with the same name in THE MISCOMMUNICATION TRILOGY. It builds upon the theoretical groundwork laid earlier and moves from diagnosing the structural decay of language toward examining how speech actively participates in the production of distortion, misunderstanding, and ideological cohesion in contemporary society. The central claim of the book is that speech is never neutral. Far from being a transparent vehicle of truth, it functions (...) as a mechanism of coalition-building, power negotiation, and social positioning. The word “conspiracy” is used not in the narrow sense of secret plotting but in its etymological sense of con-spirare — to breathe together. Speech creates communities. Yet this same capacity to unite also enables exclusion, manipulation, and the manufacturing of shared illusions. The book opens with the diagnosis of a language crisis. Public discourse, saturated with slogans, media soundbites, and algorithmically amplified outrage, produces more noise than understanding. Nonsense and stupidity are not treated as individual deficiencies but as systemic outcomes of communicative environments designed for visibility and emotional intensity rather than clarity. Language and evil are examined not as metaphysical abstractions but as social phenomena emerging from habitual distortions of speech. Ayolov introduces the idea that indoctrination operates linguistically. Before beliefs are institutionalised, they are normalised through repetition, framing, and rhetorical conditioning. Speech creates mental architecture long before policies are implemented. In this sense, conspiracy is not always hidden; it is often embedded in ordinary language practices. A substantial section of the book explores conspiracies as communicative structures. Facts, biases, and hegemony interact in the formation of narratives that appear self-evident to insiders yet opaque to outsiders. Conspiracy speech thrives in environments where trust erodes and interpretative communities fragment. The book does not simply dismiss conspiratorial thinking; it analyses how speech patterns, metaphorical framing, and selective emphasis construct persuasive alternative realities. The concept of kayfabe and roleplaying expands this argument. Public actors, particularly in politics and media, often perform sincerity rather than inhabit it. Speech becomes theatrical. The boundary between authentic belief and strategic positioning blurs. Under such conditions, discourse transforms into spectacle, and communication becomes performance addressed to an imagined audience rather than a concrete interlocutor. In the section devoted to Homo loquens, Ayolov returns to the anthropological roots of speech. Talking is presented as drama — a staging of identity, intention, and alliance. To speak is to act. The modalities of thought are inseparable from the modalities of language available within a culture. Inner speech and public speech mirror one another, shaping perception and self-understanding. The analysis of small talk is particularly revealing. Phatic speech — language used to maintain social bonds rather than convey information — is not dismissed as trivial. Instead, it is shown to be foundational for social cohesion. However, when banal speech dominates public discourse, depth diminishes. The “evil of banality” is not loud deception but the quiet erosion of seriousness. Words lose weight through overuse and automatic repetition. Throughout the book, Ayolov argues that mass communication technologies intensify these tendencies. Speech circulates faster than reflection. Visibility replaces accountability. The public sphere fragments into echo chambers where language signals belonging more than it communicates meaning. Under these conditions, miscommunication becomes structural rather than exceptional. Yet the book does not collapse into cynicism. By exposing the mechanics of speech as coalition and performance, it invites greater awareness of how language operates. The solution is not silence but responsibility — a renewed attention to who speaks, why, and to whom. Genuine communication requires scale, sincerity, and the willingness to resist purely performative speech. The Conspiracy of Speech thus functions as a critical anatomy of contemporary discourse. It demonstrates that language is not merely deteriorating from neglect but is actively reshaped by incentives embedded in political, economic, and technological systems. Speech binds communities together, but it can also entrap them in shared distortions. As the second part of Volume I in THE MISCOMMUNICATION TRILOGY, the book deepens the investigation into linguistic decay by focusing on the performative and conspiratorial dimensions of speech itself. It prepares the ground for the broader examination of entropy and fragmentation that the trilogy will continue to unfold. -/- . (shrink)

In the presently unfolding deepfake era, recurrent inflationary algorithmic superintelligence (ASI) achievement claims degenerated from being a mere reflection of an exaggerated but candid initial enthusiasm to becoming a convenient tool for misdirection facilitating epistemic perpetuum mobile (EPM) scams. This transdisciplinarily conceived paper compactly analyzes the underlying ASI definition avoidance problem which emerged from interactions between three major epistemic trends in the ASI debate: boomerism, doomerism and pragmatism. Via taking a fourth external perspective entertained by a fictive entity called Cyogenes (...) who volunteers as a philosopher and criticizes contemporary conventions (inspired by the ancient Cynicism lived by early Greek philosophers including Antisthenes and Diogenes of Sinope), the paper highlights key strengths but also particularly pitfalls within those three aforementioned epistemic trends all of which face the ASI definition avoidance problem – clearing the way for global EPM scams. After this philosophical analysis, a deflationary account of ASI (i.e. the epistemic perpetuum mobile) is discussed. Thereafter, practical cybersecurity-oriented threat models and defenses against EPM scams are formulated. In brief, fruitless EPM scams unnecessarily risk intensifying the near-term existential risk of epistemic self-sabotage and reinforcing totalitarian aspirations. (shrink)

Modern political life is marked less by the absence of critique than by its endless repetition. Ideological conflicts persist, yet public suffering remains largely unchanged. This paper argues that the core problem of modern politics lies not merely in institutional failure or deliberate deception, but in ego-centered rationalization embedded in political deliberation itself. Drawing on Yogācāra philosophy, particularly the concept of manas, this study interprets ideological hypocrisy as a structural outcome of ignorance (avidyā), rather than as a product of malicious (...) intent. Political elites often articulate policies through language that appears reasonable and morally justified, yet this language functions primarily to preserve authority, coherence, and identity. As a result, political speech becomes increasingly detached from lived experience. The paper further examines how this ego-centered structure extends beyond political elites to shape public participation. Citizens recognize hypocrisy but experience powerlessness, leading to fatigue, cynicism, and the fragmentation of political discourse. Awareness without efficacy reproduces the very logic it seeks to oppose. Against this backdrop, the paper proposes the idea of non-egoic politics—not as a new ideology or moral ideal, but as a practical shift in political awareness. Non-egoic politics begins with the deconstruction of manas: the loosening of rigid self–other distinctions and the exposure of rationalized self-preservation in political language. This shift enables public articulation of structural connections among power, ideology, and suffering, opening space for more responsive and accountable deliberation. Rather than offering a utopian solution, this study presents non-egoic politics as an ongoing practice of awareness. It suggests that meaningful political transformation depends less on replacing ideologies than on transforming the cognitive habits through which political meaning is produced and sustained. (shrink)

Is capitalism inherently predatory? Must there be winners and losers? Is public interest outdated and free-riding rational? Is consumer choice the same as self-determination? Must bargainers abandon the no-harm principle? Prisoners of Reason recalls that classical liberal capitalism exalted the no-harm principle. Although imperfect and exclusionary, modern liberalism recognized individual human dignity alongside individuals' responsibility to respect others. Neoliberalism, by contrast, views life as ceaseless struggle. Agents vie for scarce resources in antagonistic competition in which every individual seeks dominance. This (...) political theory is codified in non-cooperative game theory; the neoliberal citizen and consumer is the strategic rational actor. Rational choice justifies ends irrespective of means. Money becomes the medium of all value. Solidarity and good will are invalidated. Relationships are conducted on a quid pro quo basis. However, agents can freely opt out of this cynical race to the bottom by embracing a more expansive range of coherent action. (shrink)

This study traces the conceptual evolution of “the Good” across ancient Greek philosophy, arguing that its meaning undergoes a progressive transformation from functional excellence to metaphysical transcendence. Beginning in the archaic period, the Good is identified with aretē—publicly validated excellence tied to honor, martial prowess, and social function in Homer and Hesiod. The Pre-Socratics abstract this notion into cosmological order, associating value with harmony, limit, and the Logos. The Sophistic movement destabilizes objective morality through relativism and the physis–nomos distinction, provoking (...) a philosophical crisis. In response, Socrates internalizes the Good as virtue grounded in knowledge, while Plato elevates it to the Form of the Good—an ontological and epistemological principle “beyond being.” Aristotle reconfigures the Good teleologically as eudaimonia, realized through rational activity and practical wisdom. In the Hellenistic period, philosophy becomes therapeutic: Epicureans define the Good as tranquil pleasure (ataraxia), Stoics as rational virtue in accordance with nature, Cynics as ascetic self-sufficiency, and Skeptics as suspension of judgment. Finally, Plotinus synthesizes the tradition by identifying the Good with the ineffable One, the transcendent source of all being. The trajectory reveals a gradual interiorization and metaphysical elevation of the Good, mapping the development of Western ethical and ontological thought. (shrink)

The question of forgiveness in politics has attained a certain cachet. Indeed, in the fifty years since Arendt commented on the notable absence of forgiveness in the political tradition, a vast and multidisciplinary literature on the politics of apology, reparation, and reconciliation has emerged. To a novice scouring the relevant literatures, it might appear that the only discordant note in this new veritable symphony of writings on political forgiveness has been sounded by philosophers. There is a more-than-healthy cynicism directed at (...) what many philosophers see as an uncritical promotion of forgiveness, which – they fear – risks distorting and cheapening forgiveness as a moral ideal, on the one hand, and ignoring the moral and political values of justice, accountability and the cessation of harmful relationships, on the other. Are philosophical fears about the dangers of thinking about forgiveness in political terms warranted – or do they perhaps depend in part on conceptual conservatism regarding what exactly political forgiveness might be? I argue that most, if not all, standard objections to political forgiveness emerge from theoretical reliance on a picture of forgiveness I will call the Emotional Model. Once we make conceptual space for descriptions of forgiveness in performative and social terms, the concept is more easily adapted to a political account without at least some of the risks feared by philosophers. (shrink)

According to the work of Pierre Hadot, ancient philosophy is unique in that, unlike modern and contemporary philosophy defined as a speculative discipline constituting a system of truths (a wisdom sophia, or a science epistêmê), it is instead set out in terms of a spiritual training, a practice (a praxis) based on a form of asceticism (askêsis). It aims to transform its reader’s mind to put it in a different disposition. And this is done by exercises in self-transformation. Philosophy conceived (...) of in this manner would be a “way of life (bios),” that is, the object of an initial choice experienced as a true conversion, an “existential choice.” -/- The philosopher, first described by Pythagoras as the one who observes (theôreô), chooses the contemplative life (bios theôrêtikos), taking care of his soul rather than of his body. He is, however, the one who, being a scholar and a wise man, eventually has the vocation to take charge of political life and to show how the path he has chosen to take (hodos) is also an entrance on the world stage (parodos), by which he assumes his exemplary character. -/- The chapter shows how, from this Pythagorean setting, Plato, Aristotle, and then the Cynics, Stoics, and Epicureans reformulate the scheme of the way of life, until the final reinterpretation of it by the Skeptics. It also proposes to show why the reduction of ancient philosophy to a way of life, or to a transformative experience, is nevertheless contested by the ancient philosophers themselves. (shrink)

The relationship between burnout and depression is one of the most contested questions in occupational health psychology. The empirical literature documents substantial overlap (exhaustion–depression correlation r ≈ 0.80; Bianchi et al., 2021) while also identifying structural neurobiological differences (burnout: prefrontal/striatal circuits; depression: hippocampal-amygdalar circuits). The debate has not been resolved because both sides operate at the symptom layer: they compare observable clinical features without a structural theory that specifies why burnout and depression are similar in some respects and different in (...) others. This paper applies La Profilée (LP), a structural theory of persistence under real transformation, to burnout and depression as failure modes of personal identity persistence. LP specifies a universal persistence condition IR = R / (F · I) ≤ 1. When IR > 1 is sustained, structural identity erosion occurs. The person — as a system maintaining identity under continuous transformation — is subject to this condition as are cells, organisations, and ecosystems. The central structural finding is: Burnout and depression are not the same condition at different severity levels. They are structurally distinct failure modes that share the same terminal structural condition (IR > 1) but differ in the variable configuration that generates it. Burnout — most coherently modelled as Type 1 collapse (R-explosion dominant): External demands (R) escalate faster than integration capacity (I). The person is overwhelmed — not because identity is absent, but because the transformation pressure exceeds what identity-preserving integration can absorb. MBI exhaustion = I ↓; cynicism = F ↓ (Frame erosion); reduced efficacy = IK → 0. Depression (in the occupationally-related, anhedonic-rigide configuration addressed here) — most coherently modelled as Type 2/3 collapse (I-collapse and M-stagnation dominant): Integration capacity collapses — not from excess R, but from structural I-depletion or Frame-driven suppression of M (anhedonia = M → 0). The person is imprisoned in their own identity structure, unable to generate or absorb transformation. CL is extreme. The Burnout → Depression transition is structurally describable: Burnout (Type 1) depletes I. As I → 0, the system compensates by raising CL (withdrawal, rigidity) — which transitions structural dynamics from Type 1 to Type 2/3. The transition is not a matter of severity; it is a structural regime shift. This explains both the high empirical overlap (shared IR > 1 condition) and the neurobiological distinction (different variable configurations generating IR > 1). LP further demonstrates that the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) — the dominant clinical instrument in burnout research — measures LP structural proxy variables without knowing it: exhaustion proxies I; cynicism proxies Frame erosion; reduced professional efficacy proxies IK. The existing clinical measurement apparatus is therefore already a partial LP proxy framework. LP provides the structural theory that explains why these three dimensions cluster as they do. (shrink)

This essay explores the psychological and philosophical consequences of living in a simulated world amid ecological collapse. Drawing from Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality, James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis, and Stoic philosophy, it argues that the modern world confronts not only an environmental crisis but a crisis of perception and meaning. In a society where symbolic gestures often replace real environmental action, individuals are left feeling anxious, cynical, and powerless. This state of hyperreal frustration manifests in climate anxiety, performative politics, and (...) digital escapism. Yet amid this simulated landscape, Stoicism offers a grounded and actionable response—one that rejects illusion, accepts natural limits, and cultivates ethical resilience. By reorienting individuals toward clarity, virtue, and personal agency, Stoicism equips us to face ecological collapse not with despair, but with dignity. -/- The Age of Hyperreality and the Crisis of Frustration In the 21st century, humanity faces an unprecedented crisis—not only of ecology but of perception. Climate change, mass extinction, and resource depletion unfold before our eyes, yet instead of addressing these existential threats with meaningful action, societies construct elaborate illusions of progress. Governments sign climate agreements that lack enforcement mechanisms, corporations launch “sustainability” campaigns while continuing unsustainable practices and the media transforms environmental catastrophe into entertainment. These actions do not engage with reality; they simulate solutions while allowing destruction to continue unchecked. -/- Jean Baudrillard’s concept of hyperreality explains this phenomenon: in modern society, symbols and representations have replaced reality itself. Instead of confronting the material consequences of industrial capitalism, we engage with a world of signs that simulate responsibility—carbon offset programs, “green” products, political rhetoric about a “sustainable future.” Yet the natural world does not operate within simulation. James Lovelock’s `Gaia Hypothesis` suggests that Earth functions as a self-regulating system, indifferent to human illusions. No matter how much we manipulate perception, Gaia responds in real biological and geophysical terms—rising temperatures, collapsing ecosystems, and increasingly severe natural disasters. -/- This gap between illusion and reality fuels a growing sense of frustration. People recognize that something is wrong, but they are trapped within a system that offers only symbolic solutions. Climate anxiety, political cynicism, and existential despair are symptoms of this dissonance. This essay argues that Stoicism offers a way to navigate the crisis. Unlike hyperreality, which encourages denial and distraction, Stoicism demands an embrace of reality as it is. By rejecting illusion, accepting natural limits, and cultivating inner resilience, Stoicism provides an ethical and psychological framework for confronting ecological collapse without despair. (shrink)

Standard motivational internalism is the claim that by a priori or conceptual necessity, a psychological state is a moral opinion only if it is suitably related to moral motivation. Many philosophers, the authors of this paper included, have assumed that this claim is supported by intuitions to the effect that amoralists—people not suitably related to such motivation—lack moral opinions proper. In this paper we argue that this assumption is mistaken, seeming plausible only because defenders of standard internalism have failed to (...) consider the possibility that our own actual moral practice as a whole is one where moral opinions fail to motivate in the relevant way. To show this, we present a cynical hypothesis according to which the tendency for people to act in accordance with their moral opinions ultimately stems from a desire to appear moral. This hypothesis is most likely false, but we argue, on both intuitive and methodological grounds, that it is conceptually possible that it correctly describes our actual moral opinions. If correct, this refutes standard motivational internalism. Further, we propose an explanation of why many have seemingly internalist intuitions. Such intuitions, we argue, stem from the fact that standard amoralist cases allow (or even suggest) that we apprehend the putative moral opinions of amoralists as radically different from how we understand actual paradigmatic moral opinions. Given this, it is reasonable to understand them as not being moral opinions proper. However, since these intuitions rest on substantial a posteriori assumptions about actual moral opinions, they provide no substantial a priori constraints on theories of moral judgment. (shrink)

La Profilée (LP) establishes a multiplicative persistence condition IK = F · I · C, where F, I, and C are structurally necessary components of any persisting system. Prior publications have shown that the three dimensions of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) — Emotional Exhaustion (EE), Depersonalisation/Cynicism (DP), and reduced Personal Accomplishment (PA) — inadvertently proxy the LP variables I, F·C, and IK respectively. The MBI literature documents the sequence and correlation structure of these dimensions but has not derived structural (...) predictions about their collapse dynamics from first principles. This paper derives four testable predictions that follow necessarily from the multiplicative structure of IK. These predictions have not been made by any existing burnout framework, differ from what correlation structure alone implies, and are testable against existing longitudinal MBI datasets. They are submitted as prospective structural claims prior to empirical testing. The four predictions concern: (P1) interaction dominance in PA variance — models including EE×DP must outperform additive models, especially in high-burnout regimes; (P2) a detectable structural breakpoint in the EE–PA relationship consistent with the IR = 1 threshold; (P3) a specific directional lag structure between EE onset, DP onset, and PA collapse; and (P4) a crossover interaction in intervention efficacy between structurally distinct collapse types. Taken jointly, P1–P4 form a pattern that no standard additive or latent-factor model can reproduce. (shrink)

Abstract This paper reconstructs the systematic and escalating logical crisis engineered by a distinct methodological lineage within pre‐Platonic thought: the Logicians. Comprising Xenophanes of Colophon, Parmenides of Elea, Zeno of Elea, and Gorgias of Leontini, these thinkers were united not by a shared metaphysics but by a shared commitment to using pure logic as a destruc- tive tool—testing and ultimately dismantling the foundations of coherent discourse. We trace the crisis from its origin in Xenophanes’ epistemic humility, through Parmenides’ legislative ban (...) on the indeterminate ground, Zeno’s dialectical enforcement of that ban, to Gorgias’s terminal reductio that left philosophy without an object, a method, or a medium. The paper then maps the resulting radiation of post‐crisis philosophical strategies—sophistry, atomism, cynicism, skepti- cism, and Plato’s reconstructive attempt—arguing that Socrates of Athens alone provided an exit that preserved philosophy as a truth‐directed enterprise by transforming the crisis into a nav- igational way of life. Finally, we show how the Neo‐Pre‐Platonic Naturalist (NPN) framework completes this Socratic project, formalizing “long seeking” into a recursive, corrective protocol for navigating a reality whose ultimate ground remains, as the Logicians correctly saw, unspeak- able. -/- Keywords: Logicians, Xenophanes, Parmenides, Zeno, Gorgias, Eleatic crisis, indeterminate ground, Apeiron, reductio ad absurdum, dialectic, nihilism, Socratic elenchus, long seeking, Neo‐Pre‐Platonic Naturalism, Navigator Protocol. (shrink)

Joseph Heath presents his market failures approach to business ethics as a happy medium between cynicism and the idealism of traditional moral theories such as Kantian ethics, which Heath believes to be incompatible with important forms of competition. The market failures approach defends some real ethical limits in business, beyond following the law, but it condones certain deviations from the norms of everyday morality in the interest of economic efficiency. On this view, a certain level of sleaziness in business is (...) permissible and inevitable, even if it is regrettable. This article argues that Kantian ethics provides a better account of the ethics of competition than the market failures approach does. Kantian ethics is in fact compatible with competition, both on the market and in the workplace. On some key issues, notably including the issue of truthfulness and disclosure, Kantian ethics permits competitive strategies that the market failures theory forbids. Moreover, when Kantian ethics deems the reasoning behind a competitive strategy morally acceptable, it endorses the strategy without any ethical reservations. There is no reason to regard justified business practices as regrettable or sleazy. (shrink)

The norms of simplicity, convenience, unfussiness, and self-control guide Diogenes the Cynic, Zeno of Citium, Chrysippus, Seneca, Musonius Rufus, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius in approaching food. These norms generate the precept that meat and dainties are luxuries, so Stoics should eschew them. Considerations of justice, environmental harm, anthropogenic global climate change, sustainability, food security, feminism, harm to animals, personal health, and public health lead contemporary Stoics to condemn the meat industrial complex, debunk carnism, and select low input, plant-based foods.

In this paper, I explore how theorists might navigate a course between the twin dangers of piety and excess cynicism when thinking critically about state apologies, by focusing on two government apologies to indigenous peoples: namely, those made by the Australian and Canadian Prime Ministers in 2008. Both apologies are notable for several reasons: they were both issued by heads of government, and spoken on record within the space of government: the national parliaments of both countries. Furthermore, in each case, (...) the object of the apology – that which was apologized for – comes closer to disrupting the idea both countries have of themselves, and their image in the global political community, than any previous apologies made by either government. Perhaps as a result, both apologies were surrounded by celebration and controversy alike, and tracing their consequences – even in the short term – is a difficult business. We avoid excessive piety or cynicism, I argue, when we take several things into account. First, apologies have multiple functions: they narrate particular histories of wrongdoing, they express disavowal of that wrongdoing, and they commit to appropriate forms of repair or renewal. Second, the significance and the success of each function must be assessed contextually. Third, when turning to official political apologies, in particular, appropriate assessment of their capacity to disavow or to commit requires that consider apologies both as performance and as political action. While there remain significant questions regarding the practice of political apology – in particular, its relationship to practices of reparation, forgiveness and reconciliation – this approach can provide a framework with which to best consider them. (shrink)

European Journal of Political Theory, Volume 21, Issue 3, Page 601-607, July 2022. Ayelet Shachar's The Shifting Border deploys a powerful map metaphor to support rethinking of borders and their functions. I interrogate this metaphor, developing some of the representational, constructive, and normative functions of maps, along with their connections to legal mechanisms for decoupling migration from territory. I survey three responses to the extra-territorialization of migration: a cynical response that rejects the possibility of migration justice, an abolitionist response connected (...) to open borders, and a revisionist response that advocates for widescale institutional reform. The revisionist response illuminates how Shachar's essay challenges us to reflect on what sorts of maps and accompanying social and political organizations would best support migrant justice. (shrink)

This book tells the story of modern ethics, namely the story of a discourse that, after the Renaissance, went through a methodological revolution giving birth to Grotius’s and Pufendorf’s new science of natural law, leaving room for two centuries of explorations of the possible developments and implications of this new paradigm, up to the crisis of the Eighties of the eighteenth century, a crisis that carried a kind of mitosis, the act of birth of both basic paradigms of the two (...) following centuries: Kantian ethics and utilitarianism. The new science of natural law carried a fresh start for ethics, resulting from a mixture of the Old and the New. It was, as suggested by Schneewind, an attempt at rescuing the content of Scholastic and Stoic doctrines on a new methodological basis. The former was the claim of existence of objective and universal moral laws; the latter was the self-aware attempt at justifying a minimal kernel of such laws facing skeptical doubt. What Bentham and Kant did was precisely carrying this strategy further on, even if restructuring it each of them around one out of two alternative basic claims. The nineteenth- and twentieth-century critics of the Enlightenment attacked both not on their alleged failure in carrying out their own projects, but precisely on having adopted Grotius’s and Pufendorf’s project. What counter-enlightenment has been unable to spell out is which alternative project could be carried out facing the modern condition of pluralism, while on the contrary, if we takes a closer look at developments in twentieth-century ethics or at on-going discussions on practical issues, we might feel inclined to believe that Grotius’s and Pufendorf’s project is as up-to-date as ever. Table of Contents Preface I. Fathers of the Reformation and Schoolmen 1.1. Luther: passive justice and the good deeds; 1.2. Calvin: voluntarism and predestination; 1.3. Baroque Scholasticism; 1.4. Casuistry and Institutiones morales II Neo-Platonists, neo-Stoics, neo-Sceptics 2.1. Aristotelian, neo-Platonic, neo-Epicurean and neo-Cynic Humanists; 2.2. Oeconomica and the art of living; 2.3. Neo-Stoics; 2.4. Neo-Sceptics; 2.5. Moralistic literature III Neo-Augustinians 3.l. The Jansenists on natura lapsa, sufficient grace, pure love; 3.2. Nicole on the impossibility of self-knowledge; 3.3. Nicole on self-love and charity; 3.4. Nicole against civic virtue, for Christian civility; 3.5. Malebranche on general laws and necessary evil; 3.6. Malebranche on Neo-Augustinianism and Platonism. IV Grotius, Pufendorf and the new moral science 4.1. Grotius against Aristotle and the sceptics; 4.2. Mersenne and Gassendi; 4.3. Descartes on ethics as the last branch of philosophy’s tree; 4.4. Hobbes on scepticism and the new moral science; 4.5. Spinoza on the new moral science as a descriptive science;4.6. Locke on voluntarism and probabilism; 4.7. Pufendorf on natural law as an exact science; 4.8. Pufendorf on physical and moral entities; 10. Pufendorf on self-preservation V The empiricist version of the new moral science: from Cumberland to Paley 5.1. Cumberland against Hobbesian voluntarism; 5.2. Cumberland and theological consequentialism; 5.3. Cumberland on universal benevolence and self-love; 5.4. Shaftesbury on the moral sense; 5.5. Hutcheson on natural law and moral faculties; 5.6. Gay, Brown, Paley and theological consequentialism. VI The rationalist version of the new moral science: from Cudworth to Price 6.1. The Cambridge Platonists; 6.2. Shaftesbury on the moral sense; 6.3. Butler and a third way between voluntarism and scepticism; 6.4. Price and the rational character of moral truths; VII Leibniz’s compromise between the new moral science and Aristotelianism 1.Leibniz against voluntarism; 2.Leibniz against the division between the physical and the moral good; 3.Leibniz on la place d’autrui and theological consequentialism; 4.Thomasius, Wolff, Crusius VIII French eighteenth-century philosophers without the new moral science 8.1. The genealogy of our ideas of virtue and vice; 8.2. Maupertuis and moral arithmetic 8.3. The philosophes and the harmony of interests; 8.4. Rousseau on corruption, self-love, and virtue; 8.5. Sade on the merits of vice IX Experimental moral science: Hume and Adam Smith 9.1. Mandeville’s paradox; 9.2. Hutcheson on the law of nature and moral faculties; 9.3. Hume on experimental moral philosophy and the intermediate principles; 9.4. Hume’s Law; 9.5. Hume on the fellow-feeling; 9.6. Hume on natural and artificial virtues and disinterested pleasure for utility; 9.7. Adam Smith’s anti-realist metaethics; 9.8. Adam Smith on self-deception and the paradox of happiness; 9.9. Adam Smith on sympathy and the impartial spectator; 9.10. Adam Smith on the twofold criterion for moral judgement and its paradox; 9.11. Reid on the refutation of scepticism and the self-evidence of duty X Kantian ethics 10.1. Kantian metaethics: moral epistemology; 10.2. Kantian metaethics: moral ontology; 10.3. Kantian metaethics: moral psychology; 10.4. Kantian normative ethics; 10.5. Kant on the impracticability of applied ethics; 10.6. Kantian moral anthropology; 10.7. Civilisation and moralisation; 10.8. Theology on a moral basis and the origins of evil; 10.9. Fichte and the transformation of theoretical philosophy into practical philosophy XI Bentham and utilitarianism 11.1. Bentham’s linguistic theory; 11.2. Bentham’s moral ontology, psychology, and theory of action; 11.3. The principle of greatest happiness; 11.4. The critique of religious ethics; 11.5. The new morality; 11.6. Interest and duty; 11.7. Virtues; 11.8. Private ethics and legislation XII Followers of the Enlightenment: liberal Judaism and Liberal Theology 12.1. Mendelssohn; 12.2. Salomon Maimon; 12.3. Haskalā and liberal Judaism; 12.4. Liberal Theology. XIII Counter-Enlighteners 13.1.Romanticism and the fulfilment of individuality as the Summum Bonum; 13.2. Hegel on history as the making of liberty; 13.3. Hegel on the unhappy consciousness and the beautiful soul; 13.4. Hegel on Morality and Sittlichkeit; 13.5. Marx on ideology, alienation, and praxis; 13.6. Schopenhauer on compassion; 13.7. Kierkegaard on faith beyond ethics. XIV Followers of the Enlightenment: intuitionists and utilitarian 14.1 Whewell‘s criticism of utilitarianism; 14.2 Whewell on morality and the philosophy of morality; 14.3 Whewell on the Supreme Norm; 14.4 Whewell on the conflict between duties; 14.5 Mill and the proof of the principle of utility; 14.6 Mill’s eudemonistic utilitarianism; 14.7 Mill on rules XV Followers of the Enlightenment: neo-Kantians and positivists 15.1. French spiritualism; 15.2. Neo-Kantians: the Marburg school; 15.3. Neo-Kantians: the Marburg school; 15.4. Comte’s positivism and the invention of altruism; 15.5. Social Darwinism; 15.6. Wundt and an ethic of humankind XVI Post-enlighteners: Sidgwick 16.1. Criticism of intuitionism; 16.2. On ethical egoism; 16.3. Criticism of utilitarianism XVII Post-enlighteners: Durkheim 17.1. Sociology as physics of customs; 17.2. Morality as physics of customs and as practical science; 17.3. On Kantian ethics and utilitarianism; 17.4. The variability of moralities;17.5. Social solidarity as end and justification of morality; 17.6. Secular morality as “sociodicy”; XVIII Post-enlighteners: Nietzsche 18.1. On the Dionysian; 18.2. On the deconstruction of the world of values 18.3 On the twofold genealogy of moralities; 18.4. On ascetics and nihilism; 18.5. Normative ethics of self-fulfilment Bibliography / Index of names / Index of concepts. (shrink)

This paper argues that contemporary political systems are experiencing not merely ideological crises, but a deeper structural collapse of judgement. Using the Judgemental Triad—Constructivity, Coherence, and Resonance—we evaluate whether modern institutions still enable meaningful political judgement. We find that while constructibility may persist through formal procedures, coherence is increasingly fragmented and resonance has eroded under digital fragmentation, public cynicism, and institutional opacity. As a result, political decisions are made in a structurally unjudgeable environment, reducing politics to performance and policy to (...) inertia. We propose a structural reconstitution of political systems grounded in resonance repair. (shrink)

What are we to make of the fact that world leaders, such as Canada’s Justin Trudeau, have, within the last few decades, offered official apologies for a whole host of past injustices? Scholars have largely dealt with this phenomenon as a moral question, seeing in these expressions of contrition a radical disruption of contemporary neoliberal individualism, a promise of a more humane world. Focusing on Canadian apology politics, this essay instead proposes a nonideal approach to state apologies, sidestepping questions of (...) what they ought to do and focusing instead on their actual functioning as political acts. Through a sociologically informed speech act theory and Foucault’s work on power, apology is conceptualized as a speech act with an essentially relational nature. The state, through apologizing, reaffirms the norms governing its relationship to its subjects at a moment when a past transgression threatens to destabilize this relation. From a Foucauldian point of view, the state’s power inheres in the very stability of the state–citizen relation, and we should therefore see apologies as defensive moves to protect state hegemony. In the context of Western liberal democracies, such as Canada, apologies embody, rather than challenge, the logic of neoliberal governmentality by suggesting that everything, including resentment against the state, can be managed within the current status quo. Nevertheless, total cynicism about apology politics is not warranted. In many indigenous apology campaigners’ demands for contrition we see another side of apologies: their potential to bring about change by enacting counterhegemonic relations to the state. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Schopenhauer's argument against suicide has served as a punching bag for many modern-day commentators. Dale Jacquette, Sandra Shapshay, and David Hamlyn all argue that the premises of this argument or its conclusion are inconsistent with Schopenhauer's wider metaphysical and ethical project. This paper defends Schopenhauer from these charges. Along the way, it examines the relations between suicide, death by voluntary starvation, negation of the will, compassion, and Schopenhauer's critiques of cynicism and stoicism. The paper concludes that there may be (...) gaps in Schopenhauer's system, but not where the aforementioned commentators tried to locate them. (shrink)