Given corporate lobbying’s double-edged nature, previous research has been interested in what motivates firms to engage in lobbying. In this study, we build on previous works to analyze how two types of aspiration, historical aspiration, which represents the level of performance firms aim to achieve given past self-performance, and social aspiration, which represents the level of performance firms aim to achieve given competitors’ achievements, shape corporate lobbying decisions. Our premise is that when a firm’s product market performance is below historical (...) aspirations, then the firm is motivated to engage in lobbying because the benefits of lobbying outweigh the potential costs. However, when a firm’s product market performance is below social aspirations, then decision-makers perceive that the potential challenges of lobbying outweigh the benefits and decide not to engage in lobbying. By examining automotive firms in the U.S. light vehicle market from 1998 to 2013, we find significant empirical support for our general premise. Using Tobit regression analysis, we find that automotive firms present diverging motivations for lobbying depending on whether they attend to historical or social aspirations for sales performance. (shrink)

Malebranche presents two major arguments for occasionalism: the “no necessary connection” argument (NNC) and the “conservation is but continuous creation” argument (CCC). NNC appears prominently in his Search After Truth but virtually disappears and surrenders the spotlight to CCC in his later major work, Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion . This paper investigates the possible reasons and motivations behind this significant shift. I argue that the shift is no surprise if we consider the two ways in which the CCC (...) is preferable to NNC: it is not only more effective against opponents but also more consistent with his own views on freedom. (shrink)

This essay defends the role of law-like explanation in the social sciences by showing that the "argument from complexity" fails to demonstrate a difference in kind between the subject matter of natural and social science. There are problems internal to the argument itself - stemming from reliance on an overly idealized view of natural scientific practice - and reason to think that, based upon an analogy with a more sophisticated understanding of natural science, which makes use of "redescriptions" in the (...) face of obstacles like complexity, we have reason to be optimistic about the prospects for a nomological social science. (shrink)

The Moral Media provides readers with preliminary answers to questions about ethical thinking in a professional environment. Representing one of the first publications of journalists' and advertising practitioners' response to the Defining Issues Test (DIT), this book compares thinking about ethics by these two groups with the thinking of other professionals. This text is divided into three parts: *Part I includes chapters that explain the DIT and place it within the larger history of three fields: psychology, philosophy, and mass communication. (...) It also provides both a statistical (quantitative) and narrative (qualitative) analysis of journalists' responses to the DIT. *Part II adds to scholarship theory building in these three disciplines and makes changes in the DIT that adds an element of visual information processing to the test. *Part III explores the larger meaning of this effort overall and links the results to theory and practice in these three fields. The Moral Media pursues connections among various intellectual disciplines, between the academy and the profession of journalism, and among those who believe that what journalists do is essential. As a result, this book is appropriate for aspiring journalists; scholars in journalism and mass communication; psychologists, particularly those interested in human development and behavior; and philosophers. (shrink)

Barbour, Hawking, Misner and others have argued that time cannot play an essential role in the formulation of a quantum theory of cosmology. Here we present three challenges to their arguments, taken from works and remarks by Kauffman, Markopoulou and Newman. These can be seen to be based on two principles: that every observable in a theory of cosmology should be measurable by some observer inside the universe, and all mathematical constructions necessary to the formulation of the theory should be (...) realizable in a finite time by a computer that fits inside the universe. We also briefly discuss how a cosmological theory could be formulated so it is in agreement with these principles. (shrink)

This study gathered preliminary baseline data on the moral development of journalists using the Defining Issues Test, an instrument based on Kohlberg's 6 stages. Results show that a sample of journalists scored 4th highest among professionals tested using the DIT. The journalists ranked behind seminarians/philosophers, medical students, and physicians but above dental students, nurses, graduate students, undergraduate college students, veterinary students, and adults in general. No significant differences were found between various groups of journalists, including men and women, and broadcast (...) and print journalists. The journalists in the study scored significantly higher on the 3 journalism-specific dilemmas than on 3 nonjournalism dilemmas. (shrink)

Journal of Social Philosophy, EarlyView.

BackgroundAssisted dying has wide support among the general population but there is evidence that those providing care for the dying may be less supportive. Senior doctors would be involved in implementing the proposed change in the law. We aimed to measure support for legalising physician assisted dying in a representative sample of senior doctors in England and Wales, and to assess any association between doctors' characteristics and level of support for a change in the law.MethodsWe conducted a postal survey of (...) 1000 consultants and general practitioners randomly selected from a commercially available database. The main outcome of interest was level of agreement with any change in the law to allow physician assisted suicide.ResultsThe corrected participation rate was 50%. We analysed 372 questionnaires. Respondents' views were divided: 39% were in favour of a change to the law to allow assisted suicide, 49% opposed a change and 12% neither agreed nor disagreed. Doctors who reported caring for the dying were less likely to support a change in the law. Religious belief was also associated with opposition. Gender, specialty and years in post had no significant effect.ConclusionMore senior doctors in England and Wales oppose any step towards the legalisation of assisted dying than support this. Doctors who care for the dying were more opposed. This has implications for the ease of implementation of recently proposed legislation. (shrink)

: In this paper I argue that belief in the greater confirmatory value of prediction over accommodation can best be understood as a function of the practice rather than the logic of science. Attempts to account for this asymmetry within the logic of science have revealed no non-arbitrary way to address the problem of underdetermination as it applies to prediction and thus have failed to account for the preference for prediction over accommodation on logical grounds. Instead, I propose a model (...) that not only justifies and explains this preference, but allows for a richer taxonomy of the types of evidential confirmation that are employed in scientific reasoning. (shrink)

Political character, the dynamic intersection of personality and public performance within a cultural and historical context, is appropriately the subject of news reports. The article provides journalists with an ethical rationale for covering political character while acknowledging the human need for privacy and then outlines a set of characterrelated issues that journalists should explore. It concludes with the suggestion that journalists should once again begin to cover the public record of political figures in-depth and that this public record be linked (...) with deeper, psychologically based explorations of character. (shrink)

According to a standard picture of Leibniz’s mature views on creaturely causation, Leibniz held what some interpreters have described as his ‘thesis of spontaneity’: “every non-initial, nonmiraculous state of every created substance has as a real cause some preceding state of that very substance.”2 Evidence for this thesis is abundantly available throughout Leibniz’s mature work and here are some prominent instances.

This article critically examines Donald Davidson's argument against social scientific laws. Set within the context of his larger thesis of anomalous monism, this piece identifies three main flaws in Davidson's alleged refutation of the possibility of psychological laws, and suggests a collateral flaw within his account of anomalous monism as well.

The article states that the Knower paradox exposes the circularity of the conceptualization of knowledge. The article provides an explanation of the Knower paradox for the purpose of demonstrating how the paradox arises. A modification to the concept of knowledge is presented to solve the paradox and structure knowledge.

이 논문은 데이빗 루이스의 시간적 부분 이론(temporal part theory)과 물질적 구성(material consitution)에 대한 반 인와겐의 입장에 대한 논의를 출발점으로 삼는다. 먼저 필자는 루이스의 시간적 부분이론을 반박한다. 루이스의 이론의 핵심적인 내용을 똑같이 반영(mirror)하면서도 그 이론과 상충하는 이론을 구성하고 이 두 이론 중 어느 한 쪽을 선택하는 것은 결국은 임의적인(arbitrary) 결정을 하는 것인데 이 사실은 이 두 이론 모두를 매력적이지 않게 만든다고 주장한다. 이 두 이론을 모두 거부한다면 우리는 사물을 (특별히 문제되는 사물이 ‘자아’라면 더더욱) 어디에 위치시켜야 하는지 새로운 가능성을 탐색해 보게 된다. (...) 다음으로 이 논문은 떨어지지 않은 임의적인 부분(arbitrary undetached part)에 대한 반 인와 겐의 논증을 살펴보고 그 논증을 준거점으로 삼아 물질적 구성(material consitution)에 대한 여러 논문들에 등장한 이론적 가능성을 일별한다. 필자는 이 여러 입장들 뒤에 근본적인 전제로 기능하고 있는 철학적 원자론(philosophical atomism)과 그 이론이 내포하는 환원주의적 접근이 자아가 존재하고 시간 속에 지속한다(endure through time)는 근본적인 믿음을 포함하는 ‘자아의 선차성’ 논제를 위협한다는 것을 지적하고 루이스의 이론에 대한 논의에서 얻은 결론과 결합하여, 상당히 이상해보이지만 고려해볼만한 이론적 가능성으로 자아가 시간 속에 지속하는 영차원의(zero-dimensional) 존재라는 가능성을 제기한다. (shrink)

Han Feizi’s criticisms of Confucian and Mohist political recommendations are often thought to involve materialist or historicist arguments, independently of their epistemological features. Drawing largely on Amia Srinivasan’s recent taxonomy of genealogical arguments, this paper proposes a genealogical reading of passages in “The Five Vermin [五蠹 wudu]” and “Eminence in Learning [顯學 xianxue].” This reveals Han Feizi’s arguments to be more comprehensively appreciated as problematizing Confucian and Mohist political judgments as arising from undermining contingencies, rendering them irrelevant, if not detrimental, (...) to any lasting excellence of a state. In doing this, it is also suggested that there is a ‘master argument’ underlying Han Feizi’s criticisms, according to which the epistemology of the Confucians and Mohists are fundamentally unreliable. (shrink)

Complex tensions define us, and that is why rational evaluative analysis and the deliberate application of principles to cases can, at best, claim to account for only a limited register in the full compass of ethical voice. Close analysis of brief texts from the "Mencius" and Dante's "Inferno" discloses in both an approach to ethical reflection that aims to expand the capacity for virtue, the ethical skillfulness exercised in response and evaluation, through affective engagement of the reader. This approach, a (...) kind of "re- flexive tropology," may involve us in a Han-tan walk. Nevertheless, if virtue and models of the self are interconnected, then right self-understanding is where the foundations of virtue are laid. Because the religious orientation calls into question the false fixities that inform ordinary activities and ordi- nary models of the self, it is crucial to the work of distinguishing among true and false forms of virtue. (shrink)

Shun Kwong-loi argues that the distinction between first- and third-person points of view does not play as explanatory a role in our moral psychology as has been supposed by contemporary philosophical discussions. He draws insightfully from the Confucian tradition to better elucidate our everyday experiences of moral emotions, arguing that it offers an alternative and more faithful perspective on our experiences of anger and compassion. However, unlike the distinction between first- and third-person points of view, Shun’s descriptions of anger and (...) compassion leave unarticulated what would be necessary to differentiate these responses from non-moral responses. Here, I make a friendly suggestion on how this explanatory gap might be filled, providing complementary grounding for Shun’s observations by way of K. C. Bhattacharyya’s phenomenological analysis of feeling. It fills the gap by means of a gradation in the possible depth of emotional responses found in the a priori structure of a feeling experience for any subject. The payoff of such a comparison between Shun’s explication of Confucian moral psychology and Bhattacharyya’s explication of rasa theory is not only a possible phenomenological grounding for the former but also a potential way to articulate a missing ethics in Bhattacharyya’s thought. (shrink)

This paper presents a novel approach to teaching critical thinking. The approach centers around developing the student’s ability to engage in analytic reasoning. By “analytic” in the previous sentence I mean reasoning about analyticity, i.e., coming to know truths about analytic propositions as opposed to synthetic propositions. I consider the ability to engage in this kind of reasoning to be what some philosophers call “conceptual competence”. I argue that focusing on conceptual competence in critical thinking courses benefits philosophy departments in (...) two ways. First, focusing on conceptual competence distinguishes the content of a critical thinking course from, say, courses on logic or probability/statistics. Second, conceptual competence is a skill that is unique to philosophy. I argue that it is also a fundamentally important skill for all students. Thus, teaching critical thinking as conceptual competence can situate philosophy at the center of any school’s general education plan. (shrink)

False consciousness requires a general explanation for why, and how, oppressed individuals believe propositions against, as opposed to aligned with, their own well-being in virtue of their oppressed status. This involves four explanatory desiderata: belief acquisition, content prevalence, limitation, and systematicity. A social constructionist approach satisfies these by understanding the concept of false consciousness as regulating social research rather than as determining the exact mechanisms for all instances: the concept attunes us to a complex of mechanisms conducing oppressed individuals to (...) mistake social understandings of themselves as natural self-understandings—the limits lie where these overlap (sometimes), or are entirely absent. (shrink)

Coverage of conflicts of interests for elected officials, political candidates, and political appointees is receiving increasing media attention. Based on an informal content analysis of the ethics codes of several professions, this article outlines current definitions of conflict of interest and links those concepts to philiosophical thinking about professional obligation. An extended definition of conflict of interest is provided, which is particularly appropriate to politicians, and a typology of how to think through and cover potential conflict-of-interest stories is suggested.

I reflect herein on the diverse commentaries for my feature article, ‘Towards an ethics of pronatalism in South Korea (and beyond),’1 taking up each commentary in turn. Shandilya and Murphy claim that the state is “entitled to take measures to ensure economic and demographic sustainability,”2 contrary to my characterisation of state viewpoint neutrality. Pronatalist policies are, after all, one of many tools that the state might deploy to protect long-term economic and social stability. I don’t object to the view that (...) the state may be entitled, in general, to take certain kinds of action on behalf of their citizens. However, childbirth is a special case in which the risks that would have to be imposed on a certain group (the childcarers and would-be gestators) to achieve this ‘greater good’ are rather high, especially if there are not so many citizens who are individually willing (or able) to undergo this process for the sake of that greater good. Promoting childbirth in a populace that is already hesitant about procreation (for whatever reason) would have negative implications for the negative rights of those citizens (to not be harmed). We have already witnessed the moral costs of such negative rights violations in the case of anti-natalist policies undertaken against a population (or certain groups of people) who do want children. Hence, I would maintain that efforts to address population dynamics, as a matter of imperfect duty, should rather focus on wider solutions that would improve the lives of everyone, rather than on fertility rates per se. Räsänen and Smajdor challenge my assumption that coercive pronatalism must obviously …. (shrink)

To overcome certain challenges with surrogate decision-making traditionally understood, technological support tools have been proposed. One such proposal, as presented by Earp et al, is the development of a ‘Personalised Patient Preference Predictor’ (P4).1 This system would leverage patient-specific data to train a personalised large language model which could then—hopefully—accurately predict that patient’s treatment preferences. Using P4 would be compatible with respect for patient autonomy, at least on the substituted judgement standard, in which making the decision the incompetent person would (...) have made if competent is a priority.2 Annoni, however, doubts that P4 can respect the autonomy of incapacitated patients. This is because ‘the satisfaction of individual treatment preferences is questionable whenever such preferences are not actual, explicit and specific.’2 His view is that merely satisfying a patient’s hypothetical preference is not sufficient to respect their autonomy. Instead, fulfilling respect for autonomy requires ‘explicit, first-person, actual and specific consent.’2 This is clearly not possible if the patient in question no longer has capacity. Thus, arguing for the use of P4 in such cases on the basis of respect for patient autonomy is moot; rather, Annoni claims, P4 can be justified on other grounds, such as the ‘honouring of a patient’s unique identity.’2 In my own view, there are two issues with Annoni’s argument. The first is his rationale that respect for autonomy requires the actual consent of the patient, against the possibility of generating hypothetical consent using tools like P4. While he is correct to point out the various …. (shrink)

The misunderstanding of philosopher Immanuel Kant's principle of morality - the categorical imperative - by journalism professionals, professors, and students comes in many forms. To better understand Kant's ethical theory, however, one must go beyond Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals and study his Doctrine of Virtue: Part 2 of The Metaphysics of Morals; to apply the categorical imperative, one must also understand the importance Kant placed on moral education.

Pencak Silat is a martial art, performance practice and system of body cultivation prevalent throughout much of Indonesia and the Malay-speaking world. This article compares different modalities of the practice and pedagogy of Sundanese Pencak Silat in West Java with more recent attempts to standardize practice at a national level under the auspices of the Indonesian Pencak Silat Association. Drawing on David Sudnow’s seminal account of learning how to play jazz piano, it is suggested that learning how to improvise is (...) a highly structured process that proceeds from the mastery of certain generic principles from which are generated potentially unbounded repertoires of habitual response. In the institutionalized instruction that is propagated by IPSI generative potential is subjugated to the desire to achieve homogeneity in practice. Aspects of Pencak Silat as it is taught nationally under the auspices of IPSI are examined in relation to the notion of spectacle. In conclusion, it is argued that the limits of the Nationalist project become self-evident as the dynamic potential of the body in Sundanese Pencak Silat is subsumed in an attempt to achieve fixity of the symbolic order. (shrink)