This study investigated the effect of using graphic organizers on 316 regular tracked ninth grade students in social studies. Posttest 1 was an immediate recall test. Posttest 2 was a delayed recall test, which was given three weeks after posttest1. The results indicated that the graphic organizers and/or elaboration SQ3R and SQ3R with metacognition (were the two most effective learning activities used by students. These specific graphic organizers positively affected achievement of ninth grade social studies students. This study also found (...) that the Conventional Method of Teaching: introducing vocabulary, reading chapter questions, reading the chapter and answering the questions in word or sentence form was the least effective way of improving the achievement of ninth grade social studies students. (shrink)

Multidrug resistant organisms are a public health threat that have reduced the effectiveness of many available antibiotics. Antimicrobial stewardship programs have been tasked with reducing antibiotic use and therefore the emergence of MDROs. While fecal microbiota transplant has been proposed as therapy to reduce patient colonization of MDROs, this will require additional evidence to support an expansion of the current clinical indication for FMT. This article discusses the evidence and ethics of the expanded utilization of FMT by ASPs for reasons (...) other than severe recurrent or refractory Clostridioides difficile infection. (shrink)

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) raises anew traditional questions of truth and trust. Challenges to communicating with truth and trust are exacerbated by qualities of CMC which encourage users to communicate mindlessly, particularly its capacity to evoke a sense of being present to an Other, despite different locations in time or space. Rhetorical presence and dialogic presentness are used to explore the communication dynamics of CMC and delineate some of the challenges of truthful and trustworthy CMC.

Theoretical paradigms, the frameworks within which thinking occurs, never capture the complexity of reality and are necessarily selective. Factors most important to understanding the phenomenon in question will be included and explained in a coherent, meaningful manner. But facts and ideas inconsistent with underlying assumptions may then appear less plausible, and, indeed, may be systematically overlooked or ignored. Health-related paradigms have practical importance because they influence what counts as a fact, what theories appear plausible and important, what research questions should (...) be pursued, and, therefore, what health-care interventions make sense. They also contain implicit underlying ideas about.. (shrink)

In the 1930s, Cantonese society paid less attention to the women who smoked opium, than to the yanhua ("flowers of smoke"), the young and pretty waitresses, of modest social pedigree, who prepared pipes for patrons in opium houses. The anxiety about yanhua had to do with fears of social disorder. These girls were accused, because of their beauty and the effects of the drug, of being the cause of inappropriate downward and upward mobility (respectively, that of the male customers ruined (...) by his immoderate consumption and that of the yanhua who succeeded in seducing and marrying a rich patron). (shrink)

Offers information on "Philosophy Now" magazine, published quarterly in London, England. Includes subscription details, an events calendar, and online discussion forums. Highlights features and news from the current issue.

This paper offers two unique service-learning approaches to developself-efficacy toward service and motivation for civic participation incollege business students. The exercises utilize methodologies providinghands-on experiences for students to meet social needs. They alsoprovide real-world settings for students to develop skills and personalgrowth relevant to their business careers. One exercise was used in anorganizational behavior course and the other in a legal environment ofbusiness course. Instructors may easily adapt either methodology toother business courses.

Written by leading scholars in feminist theory, Feminist Frameworks was one of the first anthologies in its field and, in the third edition, remains on the cutting edge. Comprehensive, the book covers current issues, problems, theory, and historical texts regarding the oppression of women. With the third edition comes a new section, "Why Theory?" in Part II, explaining the value of feminist theory. Also, the emerging areas of multicultural feminism and global feminism are covered in Part IV. Introductions to each (...) major theme expose students to the readings in a meaningful context. (shrink)

This paper presents the development andvalidation of new measurement tools to exploreself-efficacy toward service and toward civicparticipation. We developed and administereda survey to 851 students in an AACSB-accreditedcollege of business at a comprehensive publicuniversity located in the Midwest. Traditionalscale development methodologies plusconfirmatory factor analysis and simultaneousfactor analysis in several populations wereused to analyze both a primary sample and aholdback sample. Results strongly support thevalidity and reliability of the surveyinstrument. Future use for the instrumentincludes verification of the effectiveness ofpedagogies designed to (...) increase self-efficacytoward service and motivation for civicparticipation in business students. (shrink)

Corporations and investors are responding to recent major ethical scandals with increased attention to the social impacts of business operations. In turn, business colleges and their international accrediting body are increasing their efforts to make students more aware of the social context of corporate activity. Business education literature lacks data on student attitudes toward such education. This study found that postscandal business students, particularly women, are indeed interested in it. Their interest is positively related to their past donation, volunteerism, and (...) non-profit organization membership activities, whether limited or extensive. Some evidence supports the proposition that education can modify internal principles over time. We offer suggestions for classroom and program uses of these findings in hopes of enriching the vision of future business managers. (shrink)

The use of robots had already been proven to encourage the promotion of social interaction and skills lacking in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, who typically have difficulties in recognizing facial expressions and emotions. The main goal of this research is to study the influence of a humanoid robot to develop socio-emotional skills in children with ASD. The children’s performance in game scenarios aiming to develop facial expressions recognition skills is presented. Along the sessions, children who performed the game scenarios (...) with the robot and the experimenter had a significantly better performance than the children who performed the game scenarios without the robot. The main conclusions of this research support that a humanoid robot is a useful tool to develop socio-emotional skills in the intervention of children with ASD, due to the engagement and positive learning outcome observed. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Bonaventure's Commentary on the Gospel of John, written between 1254 and 1257, provides the reader with an analysis of each verse of the Johannine text, usually in the classic questio mode common to Scholasticism beginning with exposition, question/objection and followed by a fuller exposition contained in the rebuttal. In this respect, it seeks to explain the Gospel according to contemporary Scholastic exegetical norms, relying heavily on Patristic and Medieval (...) predecessors who are liberally quoted. It is one of many biblical commentaries written by Bonaventure and, in a superficial way, functioned as an academic exercise expected of a Master at the University of Paris. It is also a "working document" aimed at the conversion of the reader and intended as an aid to preaching, and this is accomplished through an exposition of Christological doctrine.Bonaventure was also a member, later General Minister, of the Order of Friars Minor and, as such, the Commentary on John combines the Scholastic and Franciscan worlds in which Bonaventure lived in a complementary way as the exposition of Christology is applied to the praxis of conversion and Bonaventure reveals an itinerarium, both Scholastic and Franciscan, within the over-arching, and equally compatible, Christological context of the Fourth Gospel. The juxtaposition of the Scholastic and Franciscan worlds could also be problematic. The problem, if indeed it really is a problem and not simply an invitation to an ever-enriched understanding, is exacerbated when considering Bonaventure as an interpreter of Francis or a master in his own right of the exposition of the Franciscan way. There is nothing new in this. Bonaventure was controversial in his own time and remains so today. Consideration of Bonaventure as an interpreter of the Franciscan vita presupposes an important question: Is it possible to translate the intuitive vision of the founder into the formal academic language of the Scholastics? The answer to the question, though crucial, remains the subject of debate. It must be acknowledged that a vast chasm exists between the rustic world-view of Francis of Assisi and the sophisticated Parisian milieu of Bonaventure. This was apparent from the inception of the Franciscan project, and was keenly felt in Bonaventure's own time. Certainly it is safe to say that Bonaventure's intent is to synthesize, perhaps also to reconcile, the often polarized dialectic present in the relationship of the Franciscan movement of grassroots, intuitive spirituality and the formalized theology of Paris. The Commentary is well suited to this task. Beginning with the Christological suppositions that form the basis of both the Franciscan vita and the core of Scholastic theology, one finds the itinerarium of conversion described by the Fourth Gospel itself quite capable of providing a framework within which the Scholastic and Franciscan concerns can meet, mingle and – hopefully – enrich one another.The Gospel of John is also, fundamentally, aimed at the conversion of the reader and this is described as a process comprised of three stages: one sees Jesus, but it is by no means certain what exactly is being perceived. He is the carpenter from Nazareth, a miracle worker and, by his own testimony, the "One sent from heaven." Two separate roads lie before the observer – to perceive the divine esse in the carpenter from Nazareth, or to refute that supposition and name Jesus a charlatan. The course of the Fourth Gospel follows parallel accounts of various characters as they traverse each of these roads. For those on the path of conversion, the second stage is summed up in "believing." This is not construed, either in the Gospel or by Bonaventure, as blind faith. Rather it is an informed process of understanding as the believer comes to grasp who Jesus is and, in doing so, what he came to do. In this respect, the Johannine formula matches the Scholastic endeavor, which aimed at the reclamation of pre-lapsarian knowledge and, in Bonaventure's usage, is found.. (shrink)

While Aristotle's account of the happy life continues to receive attention, many of his claims about virtue of character seem so puzzling that modern philosophers have often discarded them, or have reworked them to fit more familiar theories that do not make virtue of character central. In this book, Paula Gottlieb takes a fresh look at Aristotle's claims, particularly the much-maligned doctrine of the mean. She shows how they form a thought-provoking ethic of virtue, one that deserves to be (...) developed and refined. The first part of the book addresses the nature of virtue and the virtues, illuminated by the doctrine of the mean. Building on the conclusions of this analysis, the second part explains the mentality of the good person and the type of society that will allow such a person to flourish. (shrink)

Presidential rhetoric can matter immensely in moments of national crisis, and even during times of less melodrama. But the possibilities for rhetorical impact are slipping away from American presidents. In light of the multiplication of presidential spokespeople, commentators, on‐line editors, and audiences, and the relative intimacy of other personalities viewed by those audiences, one might posit that “presidential speech,” as described and analyzed by Tulis, is hurtling toward its demise. Tulis’s important thesis may therefore need some serious updating.

Between June 1702 and December 1708 the astronomer, Kirch in Berlin and the philosopher, Leibniz in Hannover exchanged eleven letters. The letters from Leibniz to Kirch were published in 1900. The author will prove in this article, that the letters, which are kept in the Leibniz-Archives in Hannover, are Kirch's original answers to Leibniz. For first time, these letters will be published here in extracts.

Depressive symptoms are associated with cognitive-functional impairment in normal aging older adults (NA). However, less is known about this effect on people with mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer’s disease dementia (AD). We investigated this relationship along with the NA-MCI-AD continuum by reanalyzing a previously published dataset. Participants (N=274) underwent comprehensive neuropsychological assessment including measures of Executive Function, Language/Semantic Memory, Episodic Memory, Visuospatial Abilities, Activities of Daily Living (ADL), and the Geriatric Depression Scale. MANOVA, logistic regression and chi-square tests (...) were performed to assess the association between depression and cognitive-functional performance in each group. In the NA group, depressed participants had a lower performance compared to non-depressed participants in all cognitive and functional domains. However, the same pattern was not observed in the MCI group or in AD. The results suggest a progressive loss of association between depression and worse cognitive-functional performance along the NA-MCI-AD continuum. (shrink)

Melanie presented at twenty weeks of gestation to an obstetrics clinic in a critical access hospital in rural Vermont. She was excited to undergo routine fetal ultrasonography, but her obstetrician gave her grave news: the ultrasound revealed hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a devastating congenital heart defect. Initially, Melanie agreed in general to pursue surgical care for her fetus—a three‐stage process that has somewhat uncertain results and could only be done in tertiary care facilities far from her home in Vermont. A (...) week later, while the maternal fetal medicine and pediatric cardiology units made arrangements with colleagues in Boston, Melanie began having second thoughts. An ethics meeting was called to discuss conflicting clinician reactions to Melanie's dilemma. Most of the clinicians were stunned that the patient would change her mind. What advice should the ethics consultant offer the team about caring for Melanie? (shrink)

El objetivo central de este trabajo fue identificar los patrones funcionales-valorativos presentes en un corpus de informes de arbitraje, género clave en la producción de conocimiento científico. Para el análisis, se utilizó un procedimiento que implicó, primero, la identificación de los elementos funcionales o propósitos comunicativos más frecuentes y, luego, su descripción con algunas categorías del modelo de la valoración. El corpus, de carácter intencionado, estuvo compuesto por 42 informes de arbitraje de la revista de lingüística y traducción de la (...) Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Onomázein. Algunos de los resultados muestran que los propósitos comunicativos más frecuentes son “Describir un problema”, “Destacar un aspecto positivo”, “Solicitar una acción” y “Sugerir una acción”. La alta frecuencia de los propósitos “Describir un problema” y “Destacar un aspecto positivo” eran esperables en un género evaluativo. Ambos propósitos se focalizan más en elementos de contenido y presentan un fuerte posicionamiento monoglósico intensificado con significados de Gradación. El patrón monoglósico puede explicarse por la situación de poder en que se encuentra el árbitro al ser el evaluador del artículo. La alta frecuencia de los propósitos comunicativos “Solicitar acción” y “Sugerir acción” da cuenta de la función negociadora del género. Por último, tanto en la solicitud como en la sugerencia de acciones, los significados de actitud tienen como foco los elementos de forma y no de contenido. (shrink)

The intersection of fashion, collective behaviour and the philosophical tradition of symbolic interactionism (SI) is explored through this article, highlighting how fashion serves as a key mechanism in social interaction and cultural change. Drawing from the intellectual tradition of SI, developed by Mead and Blumer, this study demonstrates how fashion facilitates collective adaptation and construction of meaning in a cultural landscape that is continually changing. Fashion is analysed not only as a vehicle for individual expression but as a significant social (...) object that embodies symbols, signs and shared meanings. Through social interaction, these meanings are constructed, deconstructed, and continuously reshaped, influencing both personal identities and broader social structures. By analysing fashion’s role in collective selection and its potential for societal transformation, the findings of this article reveal fashion’s capacity to introduce new cultural models, challenge established norms, and guide upcoming social dynamics. These insights highlight how fashion holds a relevant influence in shaping cultural imaginaries, constructing collective meanings, and driving social change. (shrink)

Aristotle's discussion of the motivation of the good person is both complicated and cryptic. Depending on which passages are emphasized, he may seem to be presenting a Kantian style view according to which the good person is and ought to be motivated primarily by reason, or a Humean style view according to which desires and feelings are or ought to be in charge. In this book, Paula Gottlieb argues that Aristotle sees the thought, desires and feelings of the good (...) person as interdependent in a way that is sui generis, and she explains how Aristotle's concept of choice is an innovative and pivotal element in his account. Gottlieb's interpretation casts light on Aristotle's account of moral education, on the psychology of good, bad and half-bad people, and on the aesthetic and even musical side to being a good person. (shrink)

The relationship between law and morality is a topic which receives special importance and attention, especially in "liberal democracies" in which the law is supposed to regulate highly pluralized and fragmented societies. Under conditions of plurality of values, many social forces and legal theories require a certain kind of neutrality from the legal system, a means of compatibility of the many "world views" and "moral systems" that are present within the same social space. Such a conciliating commitment sounds particularly relevant (...) in times of the doctrinal ubiquity of ideas such as "peace based on human rights". This was the title of the 28th World Congress of the IVR in Lisbon, with the special workshop "Law and Morals" on which this book is based. It is divided into four parts: "Law and Practical Reason", "Conceptual Approaches on Law and Morals", "Legal versus Moral Normativity", and "Morals and Legal Positivism". (shrink)

Fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) have been implicated in many developmental and regenerative events, including axial organisation, mesodermal patterning, keratinocyte organisation and brain development. The consensus view that this reflects a role for one or other of the nine known members of the fibroblast growth factor family in these processes has recently been challenged by the suggestion that FGFRs might be directly activated by a much wider range of ligands, including heparan sulphate proteoglycans and neural cell adhesion molecules. In addition, (...) two novel soluble ligands for FGFRs have been identified using yeast two‐hybrid technology. Overall, the new findings suggest that in terms of ligand binding the FGFRs might be an even more promiscuous family of receptor tyrosine kinases than was already appreciated. (shrink)

Our paper describes a “life-long learning” approach to teaching business ethics courses, in which the instructor embarks on a journey alongside the students, encouraging self-awareness, empathy and reflexive thought (thinking about thinking). A central tenet of our approach is that students cannot improve their decision making in ethical contexts unless they move beyond learning and applying different philosophical approaches for moral reasoning, and begin to understand the processes underlying initial “problem setting or “framing” that trigger and set the premises for (...) subsequent moral reasoning. Students must recognize also that effective ethical decision making requires conscious consideration of alternative viewpoints and ongoing efforts to preserve and enhance moral awareness or moral sensitivity. (shrink)

The article “Diálogos de paz en Colombia: una Mirada desde la justicia del resarcimiento”[1] holds that the end-of-conflict agreement signed by the Colombian government and the FARC does not bring any general utility; specially because of the absolute impunity that Transitional Justice implies. The deal is dubbed “utilitarian”, meaning that the agreement was made in the personal interests of those who intervened in it -Government and guerrilla-. In contrast, this article will defend the general utility of the agreement and show (...) that, although there are social costs, these were necessary to end the conflict. And they are more than offset in terms of general well-being by the outcome itself.------------------------[1] Article written by Ángel Emilio Muñoz Cardona and published by this journal in the vol. XXI/2 2017. (shrink)

Discusses conceptual models and research findings into how affect influences non-conscious processing. Divided into two sections, the book discusses affect and perception, and affect and attention.

Turing and Church formulated two different formal accounts of computability that turned out to be extensionally equivalent. Since the accounts refer to different properties they cannot both be adequate conceptual analyses of the concept of computability. This insight has led to a discussion concerning which account is adequate. Some authors have suggested that this philosophical debate—which shows few signs of converging on one view—can be circumvented by regarding Church’s and Turing’s theses as explications. This move opens up the possibility that (...) both accounts could be adequate, albeit in their own different ways. In this paper, I focus on the question of whether Church’s thesis can be seen as an explication in the precise Carnapian sense. Most importantly, I address an additional constraint that Carnap puts on the explicative power of axiomatic systems—an axiomatisation explicates when it is clear which mathematical entities form the theory’s intended model—and that implicitly applies to axiomatisations of recursion theory used in Church’s account of computability. To overcome this difficulty, I propose two possible clarifications of the pre-systematic concept of “computability” that can both be captured in recursion theory, and I show how both clarifications avoid an objection arising from Carnap’s constraint. (shrink)

After the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration released in April 2019 the first empirical images of a black hole, an astrophysical object previously thought “unseeable,” much of the public discourse has approached these images as straightforward visual depictions of a black hole. This article challenges this view by showing that the first images of a black hole went beyond merely making an invisible cosmic object visible and that the images published in April 2019 were just the first in a series of (...) black hole images the researchers continue producing. Drawing primarily on Sybille Krämer’s concept of the cartographic impulse, the article demonstrates that the Event Horizon Telescope images are, first and foremost, epistemic tools. These epistemic tools enable researchers to actively explore various physical aspects and dynamic properties of a black hole’s immediate environment and test theoretical predictions about it, thus making this elusive environment empirically knowable. To demonstrate this, the article analyses the mapping operations that combined automated algorithmic procedures with expert human judgment and through which these images were produced, read, and interpreted. It also examines how the different Event Horizon Telescope images relate to one another, which particular epistemic functions they fulfil in the research context, under which conditions, and with which limitations, thus tracing how these images facilitate the production of new scientific knowledge about black holes. (shrink)

This paper defends Kant's conception of architectonic as furthering emancipatory reforms of critical philosophy. The author argues that while Lambert's reform of architectonic was the catalyst for Kant's attention to the term, Rousseau was important for Kant's conception of what architectonical thinking should be for philosophy. Kant's cosmopolitan meaning of architectonic requires that it not be based on an analogy to an architect, but on that of a "teacher in the ideal" who attempts to further essential ends of human reason (...) by discovering systems that can interrogate doctrines for their significance for the whole vocation of humanity. (shrink)

Forgiveness as a positive response to wrongdoing is a widespread phenomenon that plays a role in the moral lives of most persons. Surprisingly, Kant has very little to say on the matter. Although Kant dedicates considerable space to discussing punishment, wrongdoing and grace, he addresses the issues of human forgiveness directly only in some short passages in the Lectures on Ethics and in one passage of the Metaphysics of Morals. As noted by Sussman, the TL passage, however, betrays some ambivalence. (...) Kant establishes a duty of virtue to be forgiving (TL, 6:460), yet he immediately warns against its excess: meek toleration of recurrent wrongs could manifest a lack of self-respect and a violation of a duty to oneself (TL, 6:461). Sussman claims that this ambivalence ultimately arises from the fact that forgiveness sits uncomfortably in Kant’s moral thought. First, forgiveness has an ‘ineluctably elective aspect’ that makes it, to a certain extent, arbitrary and dependent on particular features of the forgiver’s psychology and, as such, in tension with Kant’s central claims that human beings are autonomous agents capable of determining their own moral status. Second, according to Sussman, Kant’s moral retributivism, i.e. ‘the particular moral position that every moral wrong against another deserves punishment of the wrongdoer’ seems to be in tension with the possibility of a ‘truly redemptive forgiveness’. Moreover, forgiveness also seems to be in tension with a passage of the Religion in which Kant argues that the moral guilt from our original evil disposition cannot be understood as a debt or liability that can be compensated, erased, transferred or otherwise wiped out by others (Rel, 6:72). Thus, to the extent that forgiveness might be thought to involve the forgoing of moral guilt, it seems incompatible with Kant’s views on culpability and punishment. This chapter seeks to clarify Kant’s views on forgiveness in order to show that, although not often appreciated, personal forgiveness plays an important role in the lives of ordinary human agents as understood by Kant. In particular, I aim to show there is a conception of forgiveness available to Kant that is not incompatible with Kant’s views of punishment and culpability. In Section 1, I argue that, for Kant, far from being merely ‘elective,’ forgiveness is, under certain conditions, morally required. I provide a brief summary of an interpretation of Kant’s theory of forgiveness that I have defended in recently published work , in order to argue that Kant’s duty to be forgiving should be understood as an imperfect duty of virtue which is conditional on repentance. Kant is not ambivalent about this duty because he maintains that when the relevant conditions are not met, we have a perfect duty to ourselves not to forgive unrepentant wrongdoers. The TL passage thus identifies two different duties. In Section 2, I show that forgiveness, as conceptualised by Kant, does not require the forgoing of punishment or the overcoming of moral guilt and that this could, in fact, be seen as an attractive feature of Kant’s position. I end by offering a very brief assessment of Kant’s views. (shrink)

Recent application of theories of embodied or grounded cognition to the recognition and interpretation of facial expression of emotion has led to an explosion of research in psychology and the neurosciences. However, despite the accelerating number of reported findings, it remains unclear how the many component processes of emotion and their neural mechanisms actually support embodied simulation. Equally unclear is what triggers the use of embodied simulation versus perceptual or conceptual strategies in determining meaning. The present article integrates behavioral research (...) from social psychology with recent research in neurosciences in order to provide coherence to the extant and future research on this topic. The roles of several of the brain's reward systems, and the amygdala, somatosensory cortices, and motor centers are examined. These are then linked to behavioral and brain research on facial mimicry and eye gaze. Articulation of the mediators and moderators of facial mimicry and gaze are particularly useful in guiding interpretation of relevant findings from neurosciences. Finally, a model of the processing of the smile, the most complex of the facial expressions, is presented as a means to illustrate how to advance the application of theories of embodied cognition in the study of facial expression of emotion. (shrink)

We read with interest Lanphier and Anani’s manuscript on trauma-informed ethics consultation. Their model rightly integrates trauma-informed principles within the ethics c...

In this essay, Paula McAvoy critiques a commonly held view that teaching young people to be good choice makers should be a central aim of sex education. Specifically, she argues against David Archard's recommendation that sex educators ought to focus on the development of autonomy and teaching young people that “choice should be accorded the central role in the legitimation of sexual conduct.” Instead, McAvoy argues that under conditions of gender inequality this view advantages boys and disadvantages girls. Juxtaposing (...) a case of a culturally arranged marriage with a spring break scene from Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, McAvoy shows that focusing on sexual choice making obscures and reifies the unequal social conditions that young people navigate. She concludes by suggesting an alternative that is in line with Sharon Lamb's argument in “Just the Facts? The Separation of Sex Education from Moral Education” that intimate encounters are better governed by attending to our ethical obligations to others. (shrink)

Hysteria, a mysterious disease known since antiquity, is said to have ceased to exist. Challenging this commonly held view, this is the first cross-disciplinary study to examine the current functional neuroimaging research into hysteria and compare it to the nineteenth-century image-based research into the same disorder. Paula Muhr's central argument is that, both in the nineteenth-century and the current neurobiological research on hysteria, images have enabled researchers to generate new medical insights. Through detailed case studies, Muhr traces how different (...) images, from photography to functional brain scans, have reshaped the historically situated medical understanding of this disorder that defies the mind-body dualism. (shrink)

Claudia Blöser has recently proposed that Kant’s duty to be forgiving is grounded on the need to be relieved from the burden of our moral guilt, a need we have in virtue of our morally fallible nature, irrespectively of whether we have repented. I argue that Blöser's proposal does not fit well with certain central aspects of Kant’s views on moral guilt. For Kant, moral guilt is a complex phenomenon, that has both an intellectual and an affective aspect. I argue (...) that it is not even possible for us to fully overcome our intellectual guilt, and to the extent that it is possible to ameliorate our felt guilt, this is largely a matter of self-forgiveness. However, self-forgiveness is only appropriate when there is repentance for the wrongful action and rejection of its underlying immoral maxim by the wrongdoer as part of a project of moral transformation. I offer an alternative account of the human need for forgiveness, an account that makes forgiveness conditional on repentance. (shrink)

Board gender diversity has extensively generated interest from both researchers and practitioners, as it is not only driven by an economic logic but also a matter of ethics and social justice. However, in hierarchical business groups (BGs) where headquarters (HQs) effectively control the affiliated firms, the latter’s board diversity practices can be attributed to a cascading effect of the former’s governance practices. By adopting an organizational approach to acyclical social hierarchy and drawing on power dependence theory, we examine a sample (...) of hierarchical BGs with HQs located in European OECD countries. We find that affiliates indeed follow their HQs’ board gender diversity practices, even if they have to defy the ethical expectation to enhance board gender diversity by having a low percentage of women directors. This finding suggests that HQs’ influence over their affiliates is a double-edged sword for board gender diversity practices, thereby raising an ethical concern regarding whether affiliates should follow or not their respective HQs’ practices. Moreover, our findings show that HQ’s control, attention, and organizational proximity to the affiliate intensify the cascading effect. Thus, the cascading effect of BG gender diversity practices depends on the power dependence of the affiliate with respect to the HQ. (shrink)

Forty years on, G. A. Cohen’s reconstruction and defence of Marx’s theory of history is still widely, and justifiably, considered the best of its kind, and it remains unsurpassed in clarity, argumentation and textual support. This article presents an under-explored critique of the theory that arises once we recognize that it is meant to apply to the circumstances of women as well as men. The article argues that, when extended to women, the reconstructed theory’s predictions fail to materialize, its characterizations (...) of historical stages fall apart, and its functional explanations appear implausible. In addition, although the theory claims to be able to explain the emergence and diffusion of different ideologies by their effects on productive development, it cannot plausibly explain the presence of sexist ideologies despite their pervasive and profound impact across history. The article concludes by showing that these flaws highlight the many respects in which Cohen’s orthodox version of Marxism is a conservative ideology, and one that egalitarians in particular should view with suspicion. Once we analyse the different components of the theory, the idea of a right-wing Marxism no longer seems as odd as it sounds. (shrink)

Forgiveness is clearly an important aspect of our moral lives, yet surprisingly Kant, one of the most important authors in the history of Western ethics, seems to have very little to say about it. Some authors explain this omission by noting that forgiveness sits uncomfortably in Kant’s moral thought: forgiveness seems to have an ineluctably ‘elective’ aspect which makes it to a certain extent arbitrary; thus it stands in tension with Kant’s claim that agents are autonomous beings, capable of determining (...) their own moral status through rational reflection and choice. Other authors recognise that forgiveness plays a role in Kant’s philosophy but fail to appreciate the nature of this duty and misrepresent the Kantian argument in support of it. This paper argues that there is space in Kant’s philosophy for a genuine theory of forgiveness and hopes to lay the grounds for a correct interpretation of this theory. I argue that from a Kantian perspective, forgiveness is not ‘elective’ but, at least in some cases, morally required. I claim that, for Kant, we have an imperfect duty of virtue to forgive repentant wrongdoers that have embarked on a project of self-reflection and self-reform. I develop a novel argument in support of this duty by drawing on Kant’s theory of rational agency, the thesis of radical evil, Kant’s theory of moral development, and the formula of humanity. However, it must be noted that this is a conditional duty and Kant’s position also entails that absence of repentance on the part of the wrongdoer should be taken as evidence of a lack of commitment to a project of self-reflection and self-reform. In such cases, Kant claims, we have a perfect duty to ourselves not to forgive unrepentant wrongdoers. I argue that this duty should be understood as one of the duties of self-esteem, which involves the duty to respect and recognise our own dignity as rational beings. (shrink)