The contemporary agonist thinker, Chantal Mouffe argues that conflicts are constitutive of politics. However, this position raises the question that concerns the survival of order and the proper types of conflicts in democracies. Although Mouffe is not consensus-oriented, consensus plays a role in her theory when the democratic order is at stake. This suggests that there is a theoretical terrain between the opposing poles of conflict and consensus. This can be discussed with the help of concepts and theories that seem (...) to be standing between the two, namely compromise, debate and the borders of democracy. I will argue that we can reveal this position with the theoretical analysis of compromise in the works of F. R. Ankersmit on the historical origin of representative democracy, and Amy Gutmann and Dennis Thompson on the role of compromise in divided communities. J. S. Mill’s view of colliding opinions offers a moderate agonistic understanding of politics, while the concept of debate plays a similar role for Márton Szabó, a contemporary Hungarian political theorist. Finally, Mouffe’s position stands at the conflictual end of this spectrum, although conflicts are delimited on the normative ground of democracy. (shrink)

The term āśraya is used in manifold ways in the Abhidharmakośa and its bhāṣya. This comes from the fact that its basic meaning, indicating anything on which something else depends or rests, is quite generic. Despite the plasticity of its usage, we can find some recurring and distinct technical applications of the term in the AK, which I explore in my paper. First, I look at its usage of characterising a member of various asymmetric dependence relationships on which the arising (...) and sometimes also the persistence of the other relatum depends. Through examining the nature of various āśraya-āśrita dependence relations the AK discusses, I show that āśraya stands for an entity that determines the fundamental nature of the thing it supports. In the second half of the paper, I move on to those occurrences of the term where āśraya has a specific referent. While āśraya can refer to the six sense faculties individually, it can also stand for them collectively pointing towards its widespread meaning as ‘psychophysical basis’. In this context, the focus often shifts either to the material or the mental elements that make up a sentient being. I will dedicate special attention to the discussion of the transformation of the basis, where, on my reading, it is more natural to interpret āśraya as referring primarily to the mind, with its bodily connotations being marginal. (shrink)

Two experiments investigated whether infants represent goal‐directed actions of others in a way that allows them to draw inferences to unobserved states of affairs (such as unseen goal states or occluded obstacles). We measured looking times to assess violation of infants' expectations upon perceiving either a change in the actions of computer‐animated figures or in the context of such actions. The first experiment tested whether infants would attribute a goal to an action that they had not seen completed. The second (...) experiment tested whether infants would infer from an observed action the presence of an occluded object that functions as an obstacle. The looking time patterns of 12‐month‐olds indicated that they were able to make both types of inferences, while 9‐month‐olds failed in both tasks. These results demonstrate that, by the end of the first year of life, infants use the principle of rational action not only for the interpretation and prediction of goal‐directed actions, but also for making productive inferences about unseen aspects of their context. We discuss the underlying mechanisms that may be involved in the developmental change from 9 to 12 months of age in the ability to infer hypothetical (unseen) states of affairs in teleological action representations. (shrink)

Un des objectifs des niveaux élémentaire et indépendant du Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues (CECRL) est d’amener l’apprenant — alors qu’il n’est pas encore un utilisateur autonome de la langue — à être capable d’interagir dans les situations authentiques de la vie quotidienne. Or, la plupart des matériaux pédagogiques consacrés à ces niveaux ne présentent qu’un échantillonnage partiel et souvent incomplet du langage authentique. Dans cet article, nous proposons une méthodologie dédiée, d’une part, à la construction de (...) corpus thématiques à des fins pédagogiques aux niveaux A1+ à B1 du CECRL et, d’autre part, à l’identification du vocabulaire-clé associé.Notre approche repose sur une sélection thématique de textes allemands selon les sujets définis par le CECRL afin de créer (1) un corpus ciblé et (2) de taille relativement faible, (3) regroupant des textes (quasi-)authentiques, adaptés aux niveaux des apprenants. En accord avec les résultats issus de la linguistique de corpus, soulignant la place centrale des unités multi-lexicales (UML) dans la construction du vocabulaire, le vocabulaire-clé tiré de cette collection consiste en UML plutôt qu’en mots individuels. Le procédé de sélection est illustré à travers l’exemple concret d’un sous-thème de la catégorie « Essen und Trinken » (Nourriture) du CECRL formé à partir d’un corpus de critiques de restaurants. Nous concluons par le constat que cette approche empirique peut mener à un changement dans la perception de la nature du vocabulaire-clé susceptible d’être présenté aux apprenants aux niveaux de compétences linguistiques inférieurs. (shrink)

In this article I discuss two early but highly influential sources in the long history of Buddhist-Hindu debates on theism and creation: the Yogācārabhūmi and the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. The paper is structured around the Yogācārabhūmi’s argumentation, often overlooked in scholarship, which attacks the existence of a supreme being who creates and rules the universe on four fronts. It argues that 1) God does not have the capacity to create the universe; 2) God cannot be either immanent or non-immanent in the created (...) world; 3) God cannot create with or without a purpose; 4) nor can God create with or without instrumental causes. Besides examining the Yogācārabhūmi's arguments, I consider how the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya complements them, for instance, by emphasising that the causal power of ordinary beings and objects, or the successive unfolding of events in the world, cannot be explained if we accept that God is the sole cause of the universe. (shrink)

The classification of sense objects, especially visible objects, is a controversial issue in Abhidharma philosophy, with a significant part of the debate revolving around the nature and reality of shape ( saṃsthāna ). The purpose of this article is to expose the dynamics of the Abhidharmic debates over shape and unpack the laconic arguments we find in various works attributed to Vasubandhu and his commentators Yaśomitra and Sthiramati. Studying these arguments is essential not only to gain a better understanding of (...) Abhidharma metaphysics. They also illuminate important aspects of the Abhidharmic theories of perception, such as their views on common sensibles or the relationship between perception and inference. Furthermore, as I point out at the end of the essay, appreciating the Abhidharmic debate over the reality of shape also sheds more light on the cryptic arguments Vasubandhu puts forward in verse 15 of the Viṃśikā. (shrink)

It has been shown that, when observing an action, infants can rely on either outcome selection information (i.e., actions that express a choice between potential outcomes) or means selection information (i.e., actions that are causally efficient toward the outcome) in their goal attribution. However, no research has investigated the relationship between these two types of information when they are present simultaneously. In an experiment that addressed this question directly, we found that when outcome selection information could disambiguate the goal of (...) the action (e.g., the action is directed toward one of two potential targets), but means selection information could not (i.e., the action is not efficiently adjusted to the situational constraints), 7- and 9-month-old infants did not attribute a goal to an observed action. This finding suggests that means selection information takes primacy over outcome selection information. The early presence of this bias sheds light on the nature of the notion of goal in action understanding. (shrink)

La participation accrue des personnes handicapées au marché du travail reste une priorité politique pour les gouvernements européens. Cette étude visait donc à examiner les facteurs favorisant l’intégration sur le marché du travail des demandeurs de prestations d’assurance-invalidité (PAI) et des personnes ayant droit à des mesures d’intégration et d’occupation en Suisse. Un ensemble de données inédit a été créé via la mise en relation de l’Enquête suisse sur la population active 2018 avec les données des registres administratifs (2000-2017). La (...) régression logistique multiple a été utilisée pour analyser les associations entre l’activité économique et les caractéristiques démographiques, socioéconomiques, de santé et régionales chez les demandeurs de PAI en âge de travailler (N=9,309) et les personnes ayant droit à des mesures d’intégration et d’occupation (N=5,753). Il en ressort que le fait d’être un homme, jeune, de vivre avec un partenaire ayant un emploi, d’avoir fait des études secondaires supérieures ou tertiaires, d’avoir réalisé l’entretien dans la langue de la région linguistique, de ne pas déclarer de limitations d’activité liées à la santé à long terme ou de morbidité chronique, est associé à une probabilité plus élevée d’activité économique. Les demandeurs résidant dans la région lémanique et au Tessin étaient moins susceptibles d’être économiquement actifs que leurs homologues vivant dans l’Espace Mittelland. Plus important encore, les résultats impliquent que l’éducation au-delà du niveau secondaire inférieur ainsi que la maîtrise de la langue sont essentielles pour l’activité économique des demandeurs de RAI et de ceux qui ont droit à des mesures d’intégration et d’occupation. (shrink)

Business Ethics, the Environment &Responsibility, Volume 33, Issue 2, Page 157-169, April 2024.

Background Respect for patient autonomy, the principle that patients are capable to make informed decisions about medical interventions, is fundamental in present-day medicine. However, if a patient’s request is medically not indicated, the practitioner faces an ethical dilemma represented by the conflict of the principles of patient autonomy, beneficence, and maleficence. Adjacent to topics such as medical assistance in dying and healthy limb amputation, this ethical dilemma also manifests in the care of the maxillofacial region (the oral cavity and its (...) surroundings), an area crucial to esthetic appearance, but also to everyday functions including mastication, speech, and facial expression, all of which are related to well-being. Our aim was to explore the manifestations and resolutions of the conflict between oral health and patient autonomy in relevant literature in order to contribute to the discourse of ethical challenges concerning patient autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. Methods We screened all journal articles discussing the researched ethical dilemma obtained from three databases. Two researchers developed a hierarchical coding scheme, where the parent and grandparent codes were designated deductively as: Case (situations involving the researched ethical dilemma), Judgement (decisions made in the ethical dilemma), and Principle (ideas, rules, propositions explaining the judgements); child codes were developed inductively. After coding the sources, we utilized thematic analysis to construct code constellations. Results Most themes identified in our sources advocated for the practitioner to choose the alternative that benefits the patient from a medical perspective, although no theme excluded the consideration of patient autonomy. Instances where respect for patient autonomy was encouraged concerned oral preventive care or when the requested intervention was expected to have an insignificant impact on oral health. Conclusions Ethical conflicts concerning patient autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence have a marked presence in oral care. These conflicts arise through the issue of body modification, evident in cosmetic dentistry and requests for tooth extraction. Our sources generally support the argumentation for beneficence, despite the rise of cosmetic procedures in dentistry. (shrink)