What moral status should we attribute to stem cells? To answer this neglected question, we look in this essay at the properties of embryos and other entities that could develop into beings who have uncontested moral status, namely, adult humans. Our analysis indicates that those who grant moral status to embryos should also grant it to stem cells. This has implications that verge on absurdity, since even if we were to try to do what we can to protect these entities, (...) we would face the dilemma that the development of any embryo requires the destruction of other potential beings. We respond to objections, including the claim that the destruction of human embryos is wrong not because of the potential of human embryos but because human embryos are actual beings with a rational nature. We conclude that the more plausible position is to deny moral status to embryos, and thus to stem cells as well. (shrink)

Recent research has documented that affect plays a crucial role in risk perception. When no information about numerical risk estimates is available (e.g., probability of loss or magnitude of consequences), people may rely on positive and negative affect toward perceived risk. However, determinants of affective reactions to risks are poorly understood. In a series of three experiments, we addressed the question of whether and to what degree mental imagery eliciting negative affect and stress influences risk perception. In each experiment, participants (...) were instructed to visualize consequences of risk taking and to rate riskiness. In Experiment 1, participants who imagined negative risk consequences reported more negative affect and perceived risk as higher compared to the control condition. In Experiment 2, we found that this effect was driven by affect elicited by mental imagery rather than its vividness and intensity. In this study, imagining positive risk consequences led to lower perceived risk than visualizing negative risk consequences. Finally, we tested the hypothesis that negative affect related to higher perceived risk was caused by negative feelings of stress. In Experiment 3, we introduced risk-irrelevant stress to show that participants in the stress condition rated perceived risk as higher in comparison to the control condition. This experiment showed that higher ratings of perceived risk were influenced by psychological stress. Taken together, our results demonstrate that affect-laden mental imagery dramatically changes risk perception through negative affect (i.e., psychological stress). (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo consiste en analizar las definiciones del término terrorismo que preponderan en el discurso académico occidental. Este análisis permitirá constatar una intrínseca imposibilidad de formular una definición consensuada de dicho término. A lo largo del texto se defenderán las siguientes tesis: a) Las definiciones analizadas del término describen, de manera general, el modo en que operan las relaciones capitalistas de producción dentro de su actual etapa histórica. b) Dichas definiciones constituyen, en realidad, la proyección de los (...) elementos insostenibles del propio mundo social en el enemigo, puesto que la figura del terrorista islámico es construida como su reflejo. Se sostiene que el dispositivo del “terrorista islámico” responde a la urgencia de estabilizar las relaciones de poder existentes, demostrando las dificultades de las sociedades capitalistas de conservarse sin la figura del enemigo. (shrink)

A sequent calculus with the subformula property has long been recognised as a highly favourable starting point for the proof theoretic investigation of a logic. However, most logics of interest cannot be presented using a sequent calculus with the subformula property. In response, many formalisms more intricate than the sequent calculus have been formulated. In this work we identify an alternative: retain the sequent calculus but generalise the subformula property to permit specific axiom substitutions and their subformulas. Our investigation leads (...) to a classification of generalised subformula properties and is applied to infinitely many substructural, intermediate, and modal logics. We also develop a complementary perspective on the generalised subformula properties in terms of logical embeddings. This yields new complexity upper bounds for contractive-mingle substructural logics and situates isolated results on the so-called simple substitution property within a general theory. (shrink)

Tarot cards are one means to unlocking an image. In this article, the image is that of the Albanian writer and political dissident Musine Kokalari at her 1946 trial. Her photograph features in Albanian discourses about its communist past. I argue that the image provides clues as to the manner in which the country has faced up to its own history. For what is certain is that the Albanian account of the Enver Hoxha dictatorship remains incomplete. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s (...) notion of ‘here-and-now in a flash’, and Roland Barthes’ and Italo Calvino’s reflections on photography and the power of the visual, we can identify at least two distinct memory regimes in the relevant historical, legal and political narratives. (shrink)

In the 2013 book Partiality Simon Keller surveys and critiques three most popular theories of morally justified diversions from impartiality: the projects view, the relationships view, and the individuals view. Rejecting the first view, Keller appeals to some of the intuitions which are to be found in the second view to offer his own version of the third. On his proposal, justified partiality is a response to the unique worth of a particular person, the response being determined by the special (...) relationship between the agent and that person. This solution, however, is questionable. The paper attempts to defend the projects view, which Keller rejected, in the version proposed by B. Williams. (shrink)

I enter a debate about state-socialism elite’s reproduction and higher education to propose an implementation of Bourdieu’s hysteresis effect. I argue that the intelligentsia and the interwar university shaped biographical paths of academics stronger than the political factors, which are usually brought to the forefront by contemporary researchers. I analyse academic biographies shaped by the socialist university and reconstruct a model academic biography in the post-WWII period, in particular, in Poland. I compare it with biographies of professors from working-class and (...) peasant backgrounds, and arrive at the conclusion that the differences are minor. Those who formed a seemingly perfect new intelligentsia were socialized by the traditional academic habitus. A few who entered the new academic world from working class or peasant backgrounds had to embrace the interwar university ethos in order to justify their own merits in belonging. I propose a model of opposite hysteresis vectors to explain tensions between academia and political field. (shrink)

Ce compte rendu a déjà paru dans la revue Perspectives médiévales, 35 | 2014. Nous remercions Agata Sobczyk de nous avoir autorisé à le reproduire ici. F. Pomel (dir.), Cloches et horloges dans les textes médiévaux, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2012. Le recueil fait suite à trois autres, consacrés à des objets que l'on peut considérer comme emblématiques pour un certain nombre de textes médiévaux, tous parus sous la direction de Fabienne Pomel aux Presses Universitaires de Rennes : (...) (...) - Recensions. (shrink)

This paper sketches the emergence of, and shifts within, the social, legal, and political figurations of sex workers in Poland. By adopting a genealogical perspective, I investigate how sex workers have been (re)constituted as subjects of governance and unimaginable social justice claimants in legislation, political debates, and law enforcement strategies. With a broad temporal scope, this article traces continuities, transformations, and disruptions within modes of sex work governance in Poland from the adoption of the first laws relating to sex work (...) enacted during the early 19th century to the present day. Through analysis of policy documents, scholarly work on the history of sex work policies in Poland, and personal accounts by sex workers, I identify and examine two dominant discursive and legal figurations of a sex worker: as a threat, and as a victim in need of rescue and protection. While analysing the emergence of and interplay between these two figurations, this article demonstrates how these seemingly contradictory frames of recognition gradually conjoined within 20th-century Polish sex work governance strategies, rendering sex workers unimaginable subjects of rights and social justice claimants. (shrink)

AbstractWhat explains followers’ attraction to tyrannical leaders? They systematically coerce, belittle, and manipulate, often at the expense of subordinates’ mental and physical well-being and their organization’s long-term interests. To help address the question, we examine the tendencies of people who view the tyrannical leader prototype (characterized by domineering, pushy, manipulative, loud, conceited, and selfish traits) as a component of effective leadership (Epitropaki and Martin in J Appl Psychol 89:293–310, 2004; Foti et al. in Leadersh Q 23:702–717, 2012). Specifically, we apply (...) moral and evolutionary psychology to propose and empirically test a mediation model in which belief in a dangerous world (Altemeyer in Enemies of freedom: understanding right-wing authoritarianism. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1988) links positively with endorsement of the tyrannical leader traits, as mediated through the binding components (loyalty, authority, and sanctity) of moral foundations theory (Graham et al. J Pers Soc Psychol 101:366–385, 2011). Regarding gender, our model proposes that the link between the binding foundations and tyrannical leadership endorsement is stronger among males than females. Our overall model was supported across two independent samples of working adults; we also anticipated and found a direct negative association between the individualizing moral foundations (care and harm) and endorsement of the tyrannical prototype. These findings provide insights into the circumstances under which tyrannical traits are viewed as part of effective leadership. (shrink)

Agata Żaroń An Attitude as a Three-Determinant Model Defining the Essence of GoodPeople have always been trying to find a principle that could define the essence of good. The present paper propounds a model, based on moral attitudes, which takes into account three determinants: emotional, cognitive and behavioral ones. The first is connected with feelings, especially with moral emotions and sensibility, the second is based primarily on intellectual reflection, which creates appropriate beliefs. They both motivate people to good or (...) evil, and determine their more or less suitable reactions. The last determinant, behavior, is an act that constitutes a condition of existence in interpersonal space and determines whether good or evil are possible to be taken into account. These three determinants are dependent upon each other and they all make a composition which in fact is an attitude. The good in this model is then achievable thanks to manifesting an appropriate attitude. Keywords: essence of good, behavior, feelings, moral emotions. (shrink)

In the pursuit of knowledge, Dorion Sagan argues in this dazzlingly eclectic, rigorously crafted, and deliciously witty collection of essays, scientific authoritarianism and philosophical obscurantism are equally formidable obstacles to discovery. As science has become more specialized and more costly, its questing spirit has been constrained by dogma. And philosophy, perhaps the discipline best placed to question orthodoxy, has retreated behind dense theoretical language and arcane topics of learning. Guided by a capacious, democratic view of science inspired by the (...) examples set by his late parents—Carl Sagan, who popularized the study of the cosmos, and Lynn Margulis, an evolutionary biologist who repeatedly clashed with the scientific establishment—Sagan draws on classical and contemporary philosophy to intervene provocatively in often-charged debates on thermodynamics, linear and nonlinear time, purpose, ethics, the links between language and psychedelic drugs, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and the occupation of the human body by microbial others. Informed by a countercultural sensibility, a deep engagement with speculative thought, and a hardheaded scientific skepticism, he advances controversial positions on such seemingly sacrosanct subjects as evolution and entropy. At the same time, he creatively considers a wide range of thinkers, from Socrates to Bataille and Descartes to von Uexküll, to reflect on sex, biopolitics, and the free will of Kermit the Frog. Refreshingly nonconformist and polemically incisive, _Cosmic Apprentice_ challenges readers to reject both dogma and cliché and instead recover the intellectual spirit of adventure that should—and can once again—animate both science and philosophy. (shrink)

In this essay, I propose five principles to make U.S. nuclear deterrence policy more just and effective in the future: sever the link between the mass killing of innocent civilians and nuclear deterrence by focusing targeting on adversaries’ military power and senior political leadership, not their population; never use or plan to use a nuclear weapon against any target that could be destroyed or neutralized by conventional weapons; reject “belligerent reprisal” threats against civilians even in response to enemy attacks on (...) one's own or allied civilians; replace nuclear “calculated ambiguity” threats against biological or cyberattacks with “deterrence by denial” strategies; and work in good faith toward eventual nuclear disarmament. (shrink)

La vulnérabilité dans la relation de soin est manifeste du côté de la personne malade. Il s’agit ici de mettre à jour l’impensé de cette relation : la vulnérabilité du soignant, exposé non seulement à la souffrance, mais à toute l’existence d’autrui, jusqu’à sa mort. À partir d’une expérience de bénévolat en soins palliatifs, cet article présente quelques aspects de ce que Ricœur appelle une « phénoménologie du soi affecté par l’autre que soi », afin de montrer que la reconnaissance (...) de cette vulnérabilité peut devenir une vertu relationnelle. Juste milieu entre l’impuissance et la toute-puissance, elle ouvre à la sollicitude, qui révèle les capacités et permet une action ajustée à la situation. Reconnue comme « fonds commun » entre soignant et soigné, elle permet de corriger l’asymétrie de la relation pour y introduire une dimension de réciprocité. (shrink)

Hastings Center Report, Volume 52, Issue 3, Page 6-8, May–June 2022.

This paper demonstrates that the progressive interpretation in Ga is an effect of the interaction between the imperfective aspect and a definite description of events. Crucially, the data from Ga point to the consequences of the view that definite descriptions of events encode the familiarity of the discourse referent and its uniqueness in bearing the property in question. Namely, they yield direct evidentiality and the necessary ongoingness of the event at the topic time. Thus, the paper identifies previously unattested variation (...) in the semantics of the progressive in a cross-linguistic perspective and shows that not only lexical but also grammatical aspect exhibits striking parallelisms with the nominal domain. (shrink)

In interpreting the concept of ethnoconfessional specificity of culture, we first of all mean that this is a special form of culture of ethnically related groups of people who have their own special, religiously decorated lifestyle and ethnic identity of which is denominational oriented. This ethno-confessional community acquires, in certain socio-historical conditions, the function of a ethnic representative.

In the Ukrainian scientific literature, theology and journalism, the concepts of "Kievan Christianity", "Kyiv-Christian tradition of Volodymyr's baptism", "Ukrainian Orthodoxy", "Churches of the Kiev Tradition "," Kiev Churches "," branches of the Kiev Church "," heirs of Vladimir baptism ", etc. However, analyzing the arguments in the disclosure of these concepts by different authors, we are confronted with the traditional problem of Ukrainian science - a variety of interpretations, engagement, and politicization of approaches. And in our case there is also (...) a confessional approach, which many researchers can not always avoid. (shrink)

The article analyses the scientific work of Bohdan Jałowiecki, highlighting his influence on the development of interdisciplinary urban studies in Poland. By integrating elements of sociology, geography and spatial planning, Jałowiecki contributed significally to the internationalisation of Polish scientific thought, including the intoduction of the French concepts of Henri Lefebvre and Manuel Castells. The introduction of the idea of social production of space and rational electicism in research methodology allowed for a deeper understanding of socio-spatial processes. The article discusses Jałowiecki's (...) assessment of development policies during socialism and systematic transformation, incuding his early warnings against the uncritical adoption of the dogma of economic growth. Jałowiecki emphasised the importance of socialising spatial planning and citizen participation in decision-making processes, stressing the need to integrate economic and spatial planning in order to fully reflect the public interest and shape the spatial order. (shrink)

The present report examined the hypothesis that two distinct visual routes contribute in processing low and high spatial frequencies of fearful facial expressions. Having the participants presented with a backwardly masked task, we analyzed conscious processing of spatial frequency contents of emotional faces according to both objective and subjective taskrelevant criteria. It was shown that fear perception in the presence of the low-frequency faces can be supported by stronger automaticity leading to less false positives. In contrary, the detection of high-frequency (...) fearful faces was more likely supported by conscious awareness leading to more true positives. (shrink)

Russian-Estonian Relations After 2007: Current Status and Development Prospects The article highlights the major points that have influenced relations between Russia and Estonia after 2007. These relations were rather poor during the post-Soviet period. The number of Russian people who lived in Estonia after gaining independence in 1991 exceeded 30%, which resulted in the very keen interest of Russia in Estonian politics. April 2007 created a new reality for relations between the countries. The decision to move the statues of Second (...) World War Soviet soldiers from main squares to cemeteries provoked negative reactions from Russians living in Estonia, but also infuriated leaders of the Russian government. As a consequence there were harsh verbal attacks from Moscow, the Estonian ambassador to Moscow was harassed, cyberspace attacks took place and traffic over the bridge in Narva, which is a key highway from Russia, was blocked. The Estonian authorities know there is no point in maintaining conflict with Russia. The President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, has stressed that Estonia's relationship with its biggest neighbour, Russia, can only get better. Russia plays an incredibly important role in the Estonian economy and tourist industry, according to Andrus Ansip, the Prime Minister of Estonia. (shrink)

The “New Biology” that arose in the Eastern Block during Stalinist times was based on the idea of the heritability of acquired characteristics. In rejecting the paradigm of Mendelian chromosome genetics as well as science-based farming, the New Biology led to a deterioration of scientific life and the free exchange of ideas. In imposing Lysenko’s ideas onto zoology, the New Biology adopted the totalitarian language of Newspeak, which dominated public discourse in communist countries. Newspeak had several defining elements: a limited (...) dictionary, strong valuations, binary oppositions, the magical function of language, militarization, and ritualization of language. In this study, the concept of Newspeak is used to analyze primary sources in Polish zoology in the period between 1948 and 1956. Once the practice of Newspeak began to wane, so did the New Biology that had been founded on this specific ritualistic language. (shrink)