This research examines whether the mere presence of asking about gender pronouns in a survey enhances participants’ attitudes and satisfaction of answering the questions. A large sample of heterosexual, cisgender, and LGBTQIA+ participants across the United States were surveyed an online “personality test”, with the real purpose of examining whether asking a pronoun question enhanced their perceptions of the survey. Three demographic groups were included: heterosexual–cisgender, gay–cisgender, and genderqueer. Half of each group were randomly given either a survey that included (...) a gender pronoun question or not, and then all rated their perceptions of the survey questions. For participants who identified as heterosexual or gay, no major differences were found between survey conditions. However, participants who identified as genderqueer experienced significant increases of satisfaction, comfort level, and perceived relevance of the questions when given a survey that asked their gender pronouns versus the survey that did not. These findings have implications for any surveys that ask about personal demographics, and suggest that any form of written communication should include clarity about gender pronouns. (shrink)

[Barbara Grabowska, Samotny egoista czy odpowiedzialny obywatel].

In the process of implementing an ethical code of conduct, a business organization uses formal methods. Of these, training, courses and means of enforcement are common and are also suitable for self-regulation. The USA is encouraging business corporations to self regulate with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (FSG). The Guidelines prescribe similar formal methods and specify that, unless such methods are used, the process of implementation will be considered ineffective, and the business will therefore not be considered to have complied with (...) the guidelines. Business organizations invest enormous funds on formal methods. However, recent events indicate that these are not, by themselves, yielding the desired results. Our study, based on a sample of 812 employees and conducted in an Israeli subsidiary of a leading multinational High-Tech corporation headquartered in the US, indicates that, of the methods used in the process of implementation, one of the informal methods (namely, the social norms of the organization) is perceived by employees to have the most influence on their conduct. This result, when examined against employee tenure, remains relatively stable over the years, and stands in contradistinction to the formalistic approach embedded in the FSG. We indirectly measure the effectiveness of the percieved most influential implementation process methods by analyzing their impact on employee attitudes (namely, personal ethical commitment and employees'' commitment to organizational values). Our results indicate that the informal methods (manager sets an example or social norms of the organization) are likely to yield greater commitment with respect to both employee attitudes than the formal method (training and courses on the subject of ethics). The personal control method (my own personal values) differs significantly from all the other methods in that it yields the highest degree of personal ethical commitment and the lowest degree of employees'' commitment to organizational values. (shrink)

Decisions are affected by the potential consequences as much as any factor during the decision-making process. This prospective influence represents another flaw overlooked by most experiments that raises questions about the use of certain laboratory paradigms. Lethal force encounters are a prime example of this problem, where negative consequences of slow decisions and wrong decisions should be considered alongside behavior.

Artificial Knowing challenges the masculine slant in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) view of the world. Alison Adam admirably fills the large gap in science and technology studies by showing us that gender bias is inscribed in AI-based computer systems. Her treatment of feminist epistemology, focusing on the ideas of the knowing subject, the nature of knowledge, rationality and language, are bound to make a significant and powerful contribution to AI studies. Drawing from theories by Donna Haraway and Sherry Turkle, (...) and using tools of feminist epistemology, Adam provides a sustained critique of AI which interestingly re-enforces many of the traditional criticisms of the AI project. Artificial Knowing is an esential read for those interested in gender studies, science and technology studies, and philosophical debates in AI. (shrink)

Like most realistically oriented philosophers, I accept that the growth of explanatory power of cognitive system is a sign of the cognitive progress. In other words, I assumecertain version of the principle of „inference to the best explanation”. In the paper I propose a unified and more sophisticated criterion for the „betterness” of explanation, which is formulated in van Fraassen's terminology.

The vitality of Platonism.--The divine origin of the soul.--The doctrine of the logos in Heraclitus.--The Hymn of Cleanthes.--Ancient Greek views of suffering and evil.--The moral and intellectual value of classical education.

"[An] important essay by a philosopher who more convincingly than any other I can think of demonstrates the continuing significance of his vocation in the life of our culture."—Karsten Harries, _The New York Times Book Review_ With _The Presence of Myth_, Kolakowski demonstrates that no matter how hard man strives for purely rational thought, there has always been-and always will be-a reservoir of mythical images that lend "being" and "consciousness" a specifically human meaning. "Kolakowski undertakes a philosophy of culture which (...) extends to all realms of human intercourse—intellectual, artistic, scientific, and emotional.... [His] book has real significance for today, and may well become a classic in the philosophy of culture."—_Anglican Theological Review_. (shrink)

W systemie filozoficznym Jana Szkota Eriugeny wszystko, co istnieje, to natura złożona z bytów i niebytów. Poznawalne dla ludzkiego intelektu części natury to byty, natomiast niepoznawalne części natury to niebyty. Bytem jest zmysłowa część natury ludzkiej oraz rzeczywistość materialnych form. Dla ludzkiego intelektu Niebytem jest Bóg oraz ustanowione przez Niego prymordialne przyczyny i materia. Bóg stworzył wszystko z niczego w ludzkiej naturze. Nierozumny wybór człowieka doprowadził do upadku ludzkiej natury i stworzenia, które z doskonałości przeszło do istnienia w świecie doczesnym. (...) Syn Boży – Bóg-Logos stał się człowiekiem, który dokonał odkupienia ludzkości. W ostatecznych czasach rzeczywistość materialna zostanie zniesiona i stworzenie w ludzkiej naturze dostąpi powszechnego powrotu do pierwotnej doskonałości. Ludzkie intelekty dokonają własnego – ostatecznego sądu i wybrani skierują się ku Stwórcy. Następnie dojdzie do przebóstwienia wybranych – zjednoczenia stworzenia ze Stwórcą bez zmieszania natur, bez zniesienia fundamentalnych różnic ontologicznych oraz bez panteizmu, który w tej koncepcji jest wykluczony. Przebóstwieni będą kontemplować Boga, co oznacza, że będą wiecznie poznawać Niepoznawalnego. Wydaje się, że nawet dla ludzi zgłębiających załomy filozoficznej wiedzy o Bogu w XXI wieku ta szczęśliwa wizja przebóstwienia, które będzie nieustannym procesem poznawania Niepoznawalnego, może być atrakcyjna. (shrink)

The starting point of the article is claim, that the well-known distinction between natural sciences as explaining and human sciences as interpreting made by W. Dilthey and distinction between idiographic and nomothetic sciences made by H. Rickert are both inadequate at present. Human sciences separate their research areas using logics and statistics and formulating many generalizations and even laws. So it can be argued that they can give explanations sensu stricto. First part of the article describes contemporary controversy naturalism-anti­naturalism in (...) formulation of M. Salmon, who presents the third middle way, that some human science as linguistics or evolutionary psychology can give causal explanations without appealing to human reasons as causes. This standpoint, however, can lead to reductionism and necessity of separating in each human science some kind of "scientific core", which seems to be undesirable. Second part of the article presents possible applications of the D-N model of explanation of C. G. Hempel in human sciences, which is connected with well-known controversy whether these sciences formulate any laws (especially history but also linguistics for example). Leaving out, however, this important question and accepting statement proposed by J. Such, that some generalizations can serve as a premises in D-N arguments, we can claim that some D-N explanations are possible also in human sciences. (shrink)

This chapter presents a model of risk‐taking behaviour. That is, it describes some simpler patterns of preference than real people ever have, and then discusses some strategies that would make sense for people with these simple preferences when faced with choices between risky options. These strategies can also make sense for people, with the more complicated preferences. The chapter also discusses some more detailed assumptions about snobs' preferences. There are several ways in which the Snobs can find their way through (...) risky situations. The chapter considers two. The first is, in effect, to refuse to reason probabilistically. Given every risky prospect they can decide what the most likely outcome is, equate it to a certainty of that outcome, and choose accordingly. In more complex situations something closer to real probabilistic reasoning will be needed. And this is the second way in which preferences such as those of the snobs can come to terms with risk. (shrink)

Three children try to catch an escaped cat.

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 99 Heft: 1 Seiten: 51-88.

We analyse the reception of Niklas Luhmanns social metatheory in Slovenian social. The first part outlines the intellectual climate that prevailed in the decade before the post-socialist transition. The decline of the previously dominant Marxist ideology created space for other social theories. Luhmanns ideas were the most prominent among social macro theories in the initial phase. The second part describes variations in the reception of his ideas. The initial affirmative approach was upgraded by a number of more selective and critical (...) approaches. The third part shows that, although his ideas are no longer quite so prominent, his work is both well recognized and firmly embedded in Slovenian social thought. (shrink)

In this follow-up to _The Kingdom and the Glory_ and _The Highest Poverty_, Agamben investigates the roots of our moral concept of duty in the theory and practice of Christian liturgy. Beginning with the New Testament and working through to late scholasticism and modern papal encyclicals, Agamben traces the Church's attempts to repeat Christ's unrepeatable sacrifice. Crucial here is the paradoxical figure of the priest, who becomes more and more a pure instrument of God's power, so that his own motives (...) and character are entirely indifferent as long as he carries out his priestly duties. In modernity, Agamben argues, the Christian priest has become the model ethical subject. We see this above all in Kantian ethics. Contrasting the Christian and modern ontology of duty with the classical ontology of being, Agamben contends that Western philosophy has unfolded in the tension between the two. This latest installment in the study of Western political structures begun in _Homo Sacer_ is a contribution to the study of liturgy, an extension of Nietzsche's genealogy of morals, and a reworking of Heidegger's history of Being. (shrink)

I take as my starting point the evident fact that people are capable of modifying their beliefs in response to reasons in the course of deliberation. This fact is sufficient to make notions such as responsibility, blameworthiness, and praiseworthiness applicable to people with regard to their beliefs. If a state is such, and one is such, that one is capable of determining it through one’s best evaluations of reasons in the course of deliberation, then even if it isn’t under one’s (...) voluntary control, it is attributable to one as something for which one is appropriately held accountable. There is thus conceptual space for the possibility of one’s conducting oneself poorly or well with regard to it, and accordingly for the application of praise or criticism. And there is room for an evaluation of whether one has conducted oneself responsibly or irresponsibly – that is, whether one has proceeded in a way that takes proper account of the considerations which one reasonably could have been expected to take account of, or not. (shrink)

We answer some questions about graphs that are reducts of countable models of Anti-Foundation, obtained by considering the binary relation of double-membership $x\in y\in x$. We show that there are continuum-many such graphs, and study their connected components. We describe their complete theories and prove that each has continuum-many countable models, some of which are not reducts of models of Anti-Foundation.

Cet éditorial a paru le 30 janvier 2022 à l'occasion du 30e anniversaire de la revue Time & Society. Thirty years ago, as founding editor of Time & Society, l set out the challenges for contributors in the Editorial to the first issue. T&S was launched as an international trans-disciplinary journal, primarily straddling the sciences and humanities. This involved taking great care that all published communications connected with readers outside contributors' own - Brèves.