The main goal of our study was to investigate the role of insight into one’s own biases in the process of hypothesis validation in accordance to the two fundamental social perception domains on the example of confirmation bias. The study was conducted on a group of 593 participants with the use of a confirmation bias procedure, a free recall procedure and the Metacognitive Self scale. We manipulated with the domain and the value of information given to the respondents. We suspected (...) that individuals with a high metacognitive self, in opposition to low metacognitive self ones, would not process the given information according to the two fundamental social perception domains. The results verified the existence of an interaction effect of the metacognitive self and the domain of the information given about a perceived person on the susceptibility to follow the confirmation bias. Contrary to the low metacognitive self individuals, who show a higher tendency for the confirmation bias within the competence than the community domain, persons with a high insight into their own biases express the same level of confirmation bias in no respect to the domain of the information. The value of the information has no significant influence. (shrink)

This article analyses how normative decision theory is understood by economists. The paradigmatic example of normative decision theory, discussed in the article, is the expected utility theory. It...

In this paper we have two main aims. First, we present an account of mood-congruent delusions in depression (hereafter, depressive delusions). We propose that depressive delusions constitute acknowledgements of self-related beliefs acquired as a result of a negatively biased learning process. Second, we argue that depressive delusions have the potential for psychological and epistemic benefits despite their obvious epistemic and psychological costs. We suggest that depressive delusions play an important role in preserving a person’s overall coherence and narrative identity at (...) a critical time, and thus can be regarded as epistemically innocent. (shrink)

ObjectiveThe coronavirus pandemic affects all areas of life. Performing arts and music studies have also experienced considerable changes, with university closures and a fluctuating return to normal and more limited operations. Prior studies detail the impact of the pandemic on college students, but we do not yet know what specific consequences it has for music students. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on music students’ health, practicing behavior, and everyday life.MethodsIn July 2020, (...) we conducted an online survey of 80 students enrolled in performance and music education programs at a German music university and compared these data with data from a survey of 75 students at the same music university carried out in summer 2019.ResultsThe survey revealed that the coronavirus pandemic led to a decrease in practicing hours and an increase of stressful thoughts and feelings. Students were mostly satisfied with Corona-measures taken by the university. Of analyzed determinants, only general fear of health problems was identified as a significant predictor of mental health status. Mental health status did not significantly differ between students surveyed in 2019 and 2020.ConclusionKnowledge about the specific challenges the pandemic poses for music students can help conservatories to better respond to the needs of their students. Specifically, this study will inform future measures supporting music students in coping with difficult situations like a pandemic. (shrink)

Among contemporary authors whose philosophical and social thought can be regarded as universalistic, Karol Wojtyła, who became the Pope John Paul II, seems to hold a particular place. An attempt to present the thought of Karol Wojtyła/John Paul II in universalistic categories has been recently made by thePolish philosopher and political scientist Arkadiusz Modrzejewski. The article discusses the advantages and drawbacks of his proposition.

Max Weber’s thesis on the decisive influence of Protestant ethic on the formation and development of modern capitalism has become one of the best-known and widely shared canonical claims in social sciences. Since its publication at the beginning of the 20th century, this thesis, supported by subsequent great works by the German classic, has rarely been the subject of major controversy. The work of correcting Weber’s thesis was undertaken in the late 20th century by Michael Novak. Novak’s correction is not (...) confrontational, but complementary. The American thinker abandons the research area of minority Protestant communities, which caught Weber’s attention, and undertakes an analysis of the broader religious tradition, developing both before and after the Reformation. In particular, the achievements of Pope John Paul II, interpreted by Novak in terms of the renewal of a liberty current of Catholic social thought, provide important corrective data. (shrink)

The aim of this article is a reconstruction and interpretation of Marsilio Ficino's thoughts presented in "De vita coelitus camparanda" that, having a hermetic tinge to it, concern an idea of human's religious tranformation. In the article I attempt to demonstrate that "De vita coelitus camparanda" is a treaty of religious character which, contrary to the author's intentions, is closer to pagan religiousness than the christian one. Natural-magical efforts oficially presented by Ficino and efforts of demonic and ceremonial character suggested (...) by him in some parts of the text constitute a complex of religious practices of hermetic origin that serve a purpose of human evolution. Methodology characteristic of magic — methodology that is subjectivistic but at the same time assumes that the human is a cosmos in micro scale, and a truly hermetic vision of reality indicate such a path of human’s rebirth that has no purely personal or local meaning but possesses a cosmic dimension. (shrink)

Since the mid-20th century, there has been a noticeable shift of interest in topics related to disability, illness, old age and the discourse of exclusion, both in practice and theory. Numerous artists, who often employed diverse strategies and aesthetics in their works, would confront similar themes, engaging in activities aimed at counteracting various forms and manifestations of social ostracism. This article describes and analyzes selected projects by Polish representatives of critical art and independent theatre which address these issues. The primary (...) aim of this text is not to catalogue as many artistic undertakings as possible but to highlight a certain trend and demonstrate the significance and purpose of art that boldly explores disability, illness, and deteriorating, ageing and dying bodies. Such themes are often taboo in consumer culture, while the task of art is to expose the mechanisms of exclusion and stigmatization and to draw public attention—often in a highly debatable manner—to topics that are omitted in the official discourse. The artistic projects discussed in the text demonstrate that persons with disabilities can be successful artists, dancers, performers, and actors. (shrink)

The purpose of this work is to explain how, with the proposition "cogito ergo sum", Descartes contradicts the A axiom from the Theory of knowledge of Leonardo Polo, by accepting the pasivenness of the knowledge and denying it as an operation of knowing an object, in wich the cognizant and the cognizance are one in act.

(2001). Two weeks in the Latin American press: An analysis from the newsmaking sociology perspective. World Futures: Vol. 57, Future Trends in Communications Strategies, pp. 453-479.

Researchers and companies are paying increasing attention to corporate social responsibility programs and the reaction to them by consumers. Despite such corporate efforts and an expanding literature exploring consumers’ response to CSR, it remains unclear how consumers perceive CSR and which “Gestalt” consumers have in mind when considering CSR. Academics and managers lack a tool for measuring consumers’ perceptions of CSR. This research explores CPCSR and develops a measurement model. Based on qualitative data from interviews with managers and consumers, the (...) authors develop a conceptualization of CPCSR. Subsequently, model testing and validating occurs on three large quantitative data sets. The conceptualization and the measurement scale can assist companies to assess CPCSR relative to their performance. They also enable managers in identifying shortcomings in CSR engagement and/or communication. Finally, the paper discusses implications for marketing practice and future research. (shrink)

This paper presents a dialogue system called Lorenzen–Hamblin Natural Dialogue (LHND), in which participants can commit formal fallacies and have a method of both identifying and withdrawing formal fallacies. It therefore provides a tool for the dialectical evaluation of force of argument when players advance reasons which are deductively incorrect. The system is inspired by Hamblin’s formal dialectic and Lorenzen’s dialogical logic. It offers uniform protocols for Hamblin’s and Lorenzen’s dialogues and adds a protocol for embedding them. This unification required (...) a reformulation of the original description of Lorenzen’s system to distinguish “between different stances that a person might take in the discussion”, as suggested by Hodges. The LHND system is compared to Walton and Krabbe’s Complex Persuasion Dialogue using an example of a dialogue. (shrink)

According to general relativity, we live in a four-dimensional curved universe. Since the human mind cannot visualize those four dimensions, a popular analogy compares the universe to a two-dimensional rubber sheet distorted by massive objects. This analogy is often used when teaching GR to upper secondary and undergraduate physics students. However, physicists and physics educators criticize the analogy for being inaccurate and for introducing conceptual conflicts. Addressing these criticisms, we analyze the rubber sheet analogy through systematic metaphor analysis of textbooks (...) and research literature, and present an empirical analysis of upper secondary school students’ use and understanding of the analogy. Taking a theoretical perspective of embodied cognition allows us to account for the relationship between the experiential and sensory aspects of the metaphor in relation to the abstract nature of spacetime. We employ methods of metaphor and thematic analysis to study written accounts of small groups of 97 students who worked with a collaborative online learning environment as part of their regular physics lessons in five classes in Norway. Students generated conceptual metaphors found in the literature as well as novel ones that led to different conceptions of gravity than those held by experts in the field. Even though most students showed awareness of some limitations of the analogy, we observed a conflict between students’ embodied understanding of gravity and the abstract description of GR. This conflict might add to the common perception of GR being counterintuitive. In making explicit strengths and weaknesses of the rubber sheet analogy and learners’ conceptual difficulties, our results offer guidance for teaching GR. More generally, these findings contribute to the epistemological implications of employing specific scientific metaphors in classrooms. (shrink)

We present a preliminary study on disambiguation of symbolic expressions in mathematical documents. We propose to use the natural language within which the expressions are embedded to resolve their semantics. The approach is based on establishing a similarity between the expression’s discourse context and a set of terms from Term Clusters based on OpenMath Content Dictionaries. The Term Clusters are semi-automatically constructed terminological resources which classify related mathematical concepts into groups. Each group is labelled with a term which represents the (...) common denominator between the concepts. (shrink)

In this article we argue that a widespread adoption of nudging can alter legal and political institutions. Debates on nudges thus far have largely revolved around a set of philosophical theories that we call individualistic approaches. Our analysis concerns the ways in which adherents of nudging make use of the newest findings in the behavioral sciences for the purposes of policy-making. We emphasize the fact that most nudges proposed so far are not a part of the legal system and are (...) also non-normative. We propose two ideal types: “law-as-normative” and “law-as-instrumental”, that allow us to understand and evaluate the relation of nudges and the law. We stress the importance of law as a safeguard for the possible negative consequences of nudges and conclude with proposals that could complement nudging policies. (shrink)

This article concerns the problem of assessing selected body compo- sition parameters after completion of antitumor therapy and comparing them with the same parameters of healthy children. A high percentage of overweight and obesity, as well as abnormal fat distribution in convalescents with cancer shows a significant adverse effect of therapy on body composition and suggests the need for early intervention in terms of diet and exercise, which would help patients to quickly achieve the proper parameters of body composition. Two (...) main problems will be mentioned during the presented data analysis. Firstly, in each group there was a small number of observations. Because of this, the real differences between examined subgroups may have been omitted. Secondarily, many variables are correlated and are not normally distributed. Therefore, be- side the standard statistical tests to compare two groups, principal component analysis was applied to reduce the dimensions of the attribute space and to attempt to classify two groups of patients. (shrink)

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie – z perspektywy filozoficznej – pewnej interpretacji pism Lina Yutanga (1895–1976), chińskiego pisarza, myśliciela, tłumacza, lingwisty i wynalazcy. Lin Yutang był przede wszystkim dwujęzycznym autorem i myślicielem, wychowanym i wykształconym w dwóch obszarach kulturowych, a mianowicie w kręgu tradycji chińskiej oraz w chrześcijańskim obszarze świata anglojęzycznego. Jego wielka erudycja i talenty intelektualne sprawiły, że mógł on stać się – w sensie metaforycznym i tym zupełnie dosłownym – pośrednikiem między tradycją chińską oraz dwudziestowieczną cywilizacją Zachodu. W (...) ciągu swojego długiego życia Lin opublikował ponad sześćdziesiąt książek. Czterdzieści z nich ukazało się w przekładach angielskich – i tylko sześć stanowiły powieści. Lista niebeletrystycznych prac Lina jest znacznie dłuższa i obejmuje m.in. krótkie i długie eseje, monografie poświęcone chińskim mędrcom takim jak Konfucjusz, Laozi czy Zhuangazi, a także przekłady i antologie z tłumaczeniami ich dzieł. Szczególną popularność przyniosło Linowi kilka książek beletrystycznych, niezwykle wysoko ocenionych przez krytykę, popularność zyskał Lin również dzięki swym próbom częściowego przeszczepienia kultury chińskiej na grunt zachodni. Po opublikowaniu _My Country My People _(1935) oraz _The Importance of Living _(1937) Lin osiągnął wielką sławę jako „filozof chiński”, jednak jego własna myśl filozoficzna, rozproszona w wielu tekstach, rzadko bywała przedmiotem zainteresowania uczonych. (shrink)

The article explicates the main fields of hermeneutic research activity of Alicja Kuczyńska in which Neoplatonic inspirations, Renaissance models of life, and the values and traditional paradigms for understanding aesthetic categories that are dominant within them—such as image, creation, fiction, and mimesis—are viewed against the background of the phenomena, transformations, and problems that are unique to our own times, thereby providing old frameworks with new forms of philosophical relevance. Kuczyńska’s research topics, i.e. beauty, love, the anthropological dimension of creativity, the (...) role of imagination, and deification of creative personality gain revised interpretations, in which the accent is placed on creative activity and its value-creating dimension consisting in the transcendence of everyday reality. Characteristic of her research attitude is the tendency to consider philosophy and art in the context of transcending the finite dimension of being and undertaking anew and in different ways the effort to reach what is infinite, unconditioned, lost, truly existent in the Platonic sense. Kuczyńska’s research of this tendency takes on the dimension of positive valorisation of the state of “being in between” and exploration of artistic figures of “ascending.”. (shrink)

While social research has documented the prevalence and ill effects of hepatitis C related stigma, there has been little analysis of the ways in which this stigma is constituted. This article addresses this gap in the literature by providing a phenomenologically informed account of the ways in which societal attitudes and regulations draw from and feed back into corporeal processes and experiences of embodiment in the creation of hepatitis C related stigma. The case is made that three components are central (...) to hepatitis C stigma: associations with illicit drug injecting, infectiousness and societal aversion to chronic illness. The article draws upon qualitative interviews with 40 people living with chronic hepatitis C in New Zealand and Australia, as well as the researcher’s embodied experience of living with the virus. The works of Julia Kristeva and Mary Douglas are utilized to provide an analysis that moves beyond acknowledgement of societal reinforcers of stigma, such as prohibitory drug laws, to address underlying notions of boundary crossing in the production of stigma and exclusionary practices. (shrink)

This article describes experiences of long-term ethnographic fieldwork on disobedience, disloyalty and dissensus among women in public space in selected (post-)Yugoslav cities. I focus on the opportunities and pitfalls of feminist ethnography and methodology in the context of positionality, engagement and solidarity as essential elements of research into activist networks. In order to problematize the emerging field positionalities and solidarities, I examine the “militant ethnography” methodological approach (Jeffrey Juris), which seeks to move beyond the divide between research practice and politically (...) engaged participation. It is about being among and within the activist network and adopting many identities and roles by constantly shifting between reflective solidarity and analysis. In trying to shed light on the critical self-reflective research process of embodied understandings and experiences, I focus on ethnographic practices embedded in transnational “crowded fields” that encompass the dynamics of relationships and dependencies between knowledge producers. (shrink)

Changes that occurred in Poland between 2015 and 2019 have not spared the civil society, here understood broadly as NGOs, activist groups, independent academic organisations and minority communities. This paper is an attempt at reconstructing key ideological arguments that took place within it during that time, as well as their significance and effects on particular organisations both internally and in relation with other participants in the civil society. Also investigated are divisions that arose and their potential consequences in the future. (...) The analysis is based on research by Magdalena Arczewska and Magdalena Dudkiewicz and published as Strategie czy przystosowanie? Sytuacja organizacji pozarządowych w Polsce po 2015 [Strategies or Adaptation? The Situation of Non-governmental Organizations in Poland after 2015]. (shrink)

This paper refutes the widespread view that disjunctions of imperatives invariably grant free choice between the actions named by their disjuncts. Like other disjunctions they can also express a correlation with some factual distinction, but as with modalized declaratives used for non-assertive speech acts this needs to be indicated explicitly. A compositional analysis of one such indicator, depending on, constitutes the point of departure for a uniform analysis of disjunctions across clause types. Disjunctions are analyzed as sets of propositional alternatives (...) that correlate with a partition that the speaker may or may not be able to indicate explicitly. Free choice arises as the specific case where the partition is induced by the preferences of the addressee. (shrink)