이 글은 아렌트의 탄생철학을 바탕으로 인간 출생의 실천은 정치적 행위이며 따라서 인 간 출생은 정치적 행위에 의해서 이루어진 기적적인 사건임을 드러내고자 한다. 아렌트에 따르면 인간 출생이라는 것은 사적 영역인 가정에서 이루어지는 재생산의 문제에 국한된 것이 아니라 사회적 관계에서 발생하는 정치적 문제로 확장되어서 다루어져야 한다. 인간 출생의 사건은 인간들 사이의 상호 존중과 신뢰로부터 용서와 약속을 사회 속에서 실현하 는 정치적 행위이기 때문에 새로운 형태의 더 나은 방향으로의 인간 사회를 예고하는 정치 적 사건이다. 따라서 우리 사회의 초저출산 현상을 타개하기 위해서는 인간 출생의 (...) 실존적 의미인 탄생성, 즉 새로운 시작에서 출발하는 정치적 행위를 실천하도록 만드는 상호 존중 과 신뢰에 근간한 사회적 관계와 제도가 요구된다. (shrink)

Providing a decolonial, action-focused account of Yoga philosophy, this practical work from Dr. Shyam Ranganathan, pioneering scholar in the field of Indian moral philosophy, focuses on the South Asian tradition to explore what Yoga was like prior to colonization. It challenges teachers and trainees to reflect on the impact of Western colonialism on Yoga as well as understand Yoga as the original decolonial practice in a way that is accessible. -/- This book is accessible but thought provoking in (...) its approach, but it will also challenge the way you think. Each chapter takes the reader through a journey of sources and traditions, beginning with an investigation into the colonial -Platonic and Aristotelian- approaches to pedagogy in colonized yoga spaces, through contrary, ancient philosophies of South Asia, such as Jainism, Buddhism, Sankhya, and various forms of Vedanta, to sources of Yoga, including the Upanisads, Yoga Sutra, Bhagavad Gita and Hatha Yoga Pradipika. With discussions of the precolonial philosophy of Yoga, its relationship to social justice, and modern postural yoga's relationship with colonial trauma, this is a comprehensive guide for any yoga teacher or trainee to activate and synergize their practice. (shrink)

최근 국제적인 교육의 동향이 ‘민주시민을 양성하는 것’으로 변화되고 있다. 신세대와 기성 세대 간의 갈등, 빅데이터·AI의 발달로 인한 생활의 급변화, 지나친 개발로 인한 기 후 위기 문제, 국가 간의 전쟁으로 인한 영향 등 현대 사회는 과거와 달리 문명과 가치관 의 변화 속도가 빠르며, 세계화에 따라 한 나라의 문제가 전 세계적으로 연결되어 영향을 미친다. 따라서 미래 세대를 양성하는 교육에 있어서도 급변하는 현대 사회에 적응하고 미래 문제를 해결할 수 있는 역량을 길러주는 방향으로 핵심 목표를 정하게 되었다. 이러한 역량 교육의 목적은 개인을 넘어 전 (...) 세계적인 차원에서 미래의 문제에 대응하고 긍정적인 변화를 위한 행동을 추구한다는 점에서 민주시민으로서의 자질과 일맥상통한다. 민주시민 교육은 2015 개정 교육과정의 추구하는 인간상에서부터 교육의 목표로 강조하고 있으며 최근 발표된 2022 개정 교육과정에서도 여전히 교육의 중요한 목표로 자리 잡고 있다. 최근 우리 사회의 쟁점이 되는 환경 문제, 가치관 갈등 및 혐오 문제, 국제 분쟁 등에 대한 해답으로 민주시민성의 함양과 민주시민으로서의 주체적인 행동이 제시되지만, 현재 학교 현장에서는 민주시민성 개념에 대한 이해 부족, 특정 교과에 편중된 시민 교육, 지행 합일을 위한 방안 부족 등의 이유로 이러한 민주시민성을 제대로 실천하는 교육이 이루어 지지 못하고 있는 실정이다. 본 연구에서는 실질적인 시민교육의 방안을 IB PYP(국제바칼로레아) 교육과정 속 액션 (Action)을 통해 찾고자 한다. IB PYP 개념 기반 교육과정은 2022 개정 교육과정과 유사 하나 여섯 가지 초학문적 주제를 중심으로 교과 간 재구성을 통해 학습 내용을 조직한다는 점에서 전 교과에 걸친 민주시민성 함양에 더욱 효과적이다. 또한, IB PYP에서는 국제적 마인드(global mindeness)를 기본 전제로 하여 계획 단계에서부터 학생들이 전 지구적 차원의 문제에 관심을 두도록 하며, 세계적인 관점에서 문제를 해결하거나 예방하기 위한 구체적인 행동을 하도록 설정한다는 점에서 자율적인 실천을 통한 민주시민성 함양에도 적합하다. (shrink)

기후변화가 지구촌의 화두로 떠오르면서 국가 차원의 능동적인 대응책이 절실하다. 이 대응책에는 국민의 여론이 충분히 반영돼야 하고 이를 위해서는 사회적 논의와 토론이 활발히 이뤄져야 한다. 하지만 한국이 여론 형성을 위한 바람직한 담론 구조를 가지고 있는지 회의적이다. 미국 등 서구사회에서는 기후변화 옹호론자와 회의론자들이 활발한 논쟁을 벌이고 있지만 우리는 그렇지 못하다. 기후게이트 같은 기후변화 역사에서 가장 큰 회의론적 논란이 발생했을 때 우리 언론은 이런 이슈를 국내에 거의 소개조차 하지 않았다. 이런 편향적이고 다양성 없는 정보로 인해 한국 국민들은 기후변화의 전체적인 모습을 균형있게 인식할 수 (...) 있었다고 보기 어렵다. 더구나 정부는 녹색정책을 추진해 기후변화 논란이 발디 딜 틈을 주지 않았다. 본 논문은 이런 한국 사회의 기후변화 담론의 편향성이 뉴스 보도의 편향성에 기인한다는 가설을 세웠다. 언론의 침묵과 동시에 전문가 집단인 과학자들도 자신의 생각을 얘기하기를 꺼렸다. 최소한 기후변화와 관련해 침묵의 나선이 우리 사회에 점령했었다고 보아도 과언은 아니다. 이 논문은 최대의 논쟁적 이슈였던 기후게이트 발생 시점인 지난 2009년 11월을 전후해 2년간의 한국과 미국신문 통해 뉴스 프레임의 국제 비교를 통해 가설을 입증해 봤다. 하버마스의 의사소통행위이론을 통해 한국 언론의 문제점도 되짚어보는 계기를 제공했다. (shrink)

Emotion-Focused Counselling (or Therapy) is one of the newer therapies that emerged in the 1980's. It uses a Person-Centred framework but integrates elements of other therapies, mainly Gestalt, attachment thoery and principles of emotion theory. It is mainly short-term. It is therefore a slightly more directive, skills based therapy than Person-Centred. Significantly it also has a robust evidence base to it, which gives it a weight and credibility that perhaps other recently emerged therapies have lacked. Robert Elliott and Les (...) Greenberg developed Emotion Focused Therapy and their names are synonymous with the approach. This book is simple, practice-focused and takes a textbook approach. (shrink)

Combines phenomenology with the "enactivist" approach to consciousness theory and recent emotion research to explore the way self-motivated action plans shape selective attention, exploration, and ultimately the mind's interpretation of reality - in philosophy, psychology, cultural awareness, and our personal lives.

The U.S. military is developing augmented reality (AR) capabilities for use on the battlefield as a means of achieving greater situational awareness. The superimposition of digital data—designed to expand surveillance, enhance geospatial understanding, and facilitate target identification—onto a live view of the battlefield has important implications for virtuous conduct in war: Can the soldier exercise practical wisdom while integrated into a system of militarized legibility? Adopting a virtue ethics perspective, I argue that AR disrupts the soldier’s immersion in the scene (...) such that he is blinded to features beyond those identified in advance by the military’s system of cybernetic judgment. I turn to Michael Walzer’s classic account of the “naked soldier” dilemma to illustrate how AR capabilities radically shrink the bounds within which the soldier can cultivate the capacity for right conduct. By transforming the ambiguous ethical matter of killing an enemy combatant into the straightforward application of a rule, AR hollows out the soldier’s potential for virtuous action. The “smart battlefield” leaves no space for deliberative judgments that transcend the technical and legal determinations already written into the soldier’s view of the scene. (shrink)

Historically the focus of moral decision-making in games has been narrow, mostly confined to challenges of moral judgement (deciding right and wrong). In this paper, we look to moral psychology to get a broader view of the skills involved in ethical behaviour and how these skills can be employed in games. Following the Four Component Model of Rest and colleagues, we identify four “lenses” – perspectives for considering moral gameplay in terms of focus, sensitivity, judgement and action – and (...) describe the design problems raised by each. To conclude, we analyse two recent games, The Walking Dead and Papers, Please, and show how the lenses give us insight into important design differences between these games. (shrink)

The aim was to synthesize the findings of empirical research about the unmet nursing care needs of older people, mainly from their point of view, from all settings, focusing on (1) methodological approaches, (2) relevant concepts and terminology and (3) type, nature and ethical issues raised in the investigations. A scoping review after Arksey and O’Malley. Two electronic databases, MEDLINE/PubMed and CINAHL (from earliest to December 2019) were used. Systematic search protocol was developed using several terms for unmet care needs (...) and missed care. Using a three-step retrieval process, peer-reviewed, empirical studies concerning the unmet care needs of older people in care settings, published in English were included. An inductive content analysis was used to analyse the results of the included studies (n = 53). The most frequently used investigation method was the questionnaire survey seeking the opinions of older people, informal caregivers or healthcare professionals. The unmet care needs identified using the World Health Organization classification were categorized as physical, psychosocial and spiritual, and mostly described individuals’ experiences, though some discussed unmet care needs at an organizational level. The ethical issues raised related to the clinical prioritization of tasks associated with failing to carry out nursing care activities needed. The unmet care needs highlighted in this review are related to poor patient outcomes. The needs of institutionalized older patients remain under-diagnosed and thus, untreated. Negative care outcomes generate a range of serious practical issues for older people in care institutions, which, in turn, raises ethical issues that need to be addressed. Unmet care needs may lead to marginalization, discrimination and inequality in care and service delivery. Further studies are required about patients’ expectations when they are admitted to hospital settings, or training of nurses in terms of understanding the complex needs of older persons. (shrink)

Based on a comparative case study of six cross-sector partnerships (CSPs) in global health, we illustrate how a CSP’s aim to address a social issue on the basis of products influences the governance of collective action within the partnership and beyond, at the field level. We show how such product focus, through specialization, influences a CSP’s structures and interaction culture and, as a reflection of the partners’ underlying logics, generates different CSP-field effects. Specifically, if conceived as self-contained and without (...) considering the implications for other field players and programs, a product focus may expedite collective action within the CSP, but spur fragmentation and disruption at the field level. Conversely, if designed to strengthen field capacity and integration at the product-field interlinkages, a product focus may take longer to form but helps avoid the above field effects. On this basis, we advance theory on CSPs’ product focus as a multilevel coordination mechanism and elaborate on the implications for designing product-based CSPs. (shrink)

This work is a report of the research on clinical work performance developed from October 2022 to August 2023, in three Quintana Roo organizations, one of private initiative, another of a parastatal nature and the third was a public institution. It is based on the problem that represents the low level of results, despite the strategies of administrative enrichment implemented, where a good amount of financial resources are invested, and that according to managers it is largely the human factor that (...) determines that the results do not occur as expected. The objective was to identify the style of action of the employees during their working hours. The models of Organizational Development, Management by Objectives, Strategic Planning and Total Warmth were analyzed to identify their essence; finding important invariants in them, for their implementation. Epistemology was interpretive with an ethnographic paradigm. As a result, four particular prototypes of value attitudes were identified, corresponding to four particular types of people, which were called by the authors of the study as: Type I. Circumstantial worker; Type II. Tormented worker; Type III. Resentful worker; Type IV. Passionate worker; distributed equally within the three organizations investigated. Concluding that value attitudes have greater influence the higher the level of authority that a person has within the administrative structure, recommending that, in order to make real changes within organizations, it is necessary to start from the eradication of institutional vices. (shrink)

Ethics in Action is an experientially based seminar series designed to foster ethics skills in undergraduate students. After the conclusion of one year, data was analyzed to assess students’ overall level of satisfaction of Ethics in Action as an educational experience. Specifically, the study compared students’ satisfaction regarding presentations that focused on research versus traditional ethics committee topics as well as presentations with a strong experiential-learning component versus those that were identified as having a weak experiential-learning component. (...) This article discusses the design and implementation of the first year of the Ethics in Action program and analyzes the student’s overall satisfaction from a qualitative and a quantitative perspective. While no statistically significant difference in student satisfaction was observed in either pair of comparator groups — research versus traditional or strong versus weak experiential content — all sessions were scored positively by undergraduate participants. This finding suggests desire to be educated about bioethics and a strong benefit to introducing bioethics to undergraduates early in their study of health-related fields. (shrink)

Dynamic stability of the knee and weakness of the extensor muscles are considered to be the most important functional limitations after anterior cruciate ligament injury, probably due to changes at the central level of motor control rather than at the peripheral level. Despite general technological advances, fewer contraindicative surgical procedures, and extensive postoperative rehabilitation, up to 65% of patients fail to return to their preinjury level of sports, and only half were able to return to competitive sport. Later, it becomes (...) clear that current rehabilitation after knee surgery is not sufficient to address the functional limitations after ACL reconstruction even years after surgery. Therefore, new therapeutic tools targeting the central neural system, i.e., the higher centers of motor control, should be investigated and integrated into current rehabilitation practice. To improve motor performance when overt movement cannot be fully performed, several techniques have been developed to increase physical and mental activation without the need to perform overt movements. Among the most popular cognitive techniques used to increase physical performance are motor imagery and action observation practices. This review, which examines the available evidence, presents the underlying mechanisms of the efficacy of cognitive interventions and provides guidelines for their use at home. (shrink)

Concepts in Action focuses on what to do with theoretical concepts, rather than providing conveyed definitions. The book covers a variety of examples what to do, how to think, in order to develop and use concepts in the social sciences.

Action research is increasingly used as a means for teachers to improve their instruction, yet for many the idea of doing "research" can be somewhat intimidating. _Using Action Research to Improve Instruction_ offers a comprehensive, easy-to-understand approach to action research in classroom settings. This engaging and accessible guide is grounded in sources of data readily available to teachers, such as classroom observations, student writing, surveys, interviews, and tests. Organized to mirror the action research process, the highly (...) interactive format prompts readers to discover a focus, create research questions, address design and methodology, collect information, conduct data analysis, communicate the results, and to generate evidence-based teaching strategies. Engaging in these decision-making processes builds the skills essential to action research and promotes a deeper understanding of teaching practice. Special Features Include: -An Interactive Text -Reflection Questions and Activity Prompts -A Sample Action Research Report -Numerous Examples and Practice Examples -Numbered Sections for Cross Referencing This original text is a must-read for teachers interested in how they can use their current knowledge of instruction and assessment to meaningfully engage in action research. (shrink)

The Action Chrétienne en Orient was founded in 1922 in order to bring relief among displaced Christians, especially Armenians, in Syria. It also supported the displaced Protestant communities in their ecclesiastical, educational and medical work. In structure the ACO resembled other Protestant missionary societies, but it had some unique features such as its trans-European character. At the time of the decolonization, the work of the ACO changed as the local Protestant churches took charge and the ACO devolved its responsibilities. (...) In the postcolonial period the ACO gradually embraced a missiology that was focused on partnership. This led to the formation of the ACO Fellowship, a communion of churches and mission agencies. (shrink)

By focusing on the idea that agency involves causal sensitivity to reasons, Rowland Stout shows how agency is one of the most useful ways into the philosophy of mind: if one can understand what it is to be a free and rational agent, then one can understand what it is to be a conscious subject of experience. Some of the questions considered include: Is all action intentional action? Is intentional action characterized by its relation with possible justification? (...) Do beliefs motivate actions or do facts? What is the nature of the causal process of acting? Are intentions independent components in the explanation of action? (shrink)

묵자에 대한 통상적 견해에 따르면, 묵자의 인간은 철저히 손익계산에 따라서만 움직이는 이기적 존재로 이해된다. 하지만 『묵자』의 여러 곳에서 우리는 인간의 이기적 욕구와는 구분되는 도덕적 행위의 동기들, 예컨대 겸애(兼愛)나 비공(非攻)을 그 자체로 훌륭하고 좋은 것으로 여기는 도덕적 태도나 믿음, 타인의 은덕에 대한 감사의 태도 또는 보은을 해야 한다는 생각, 자신을 이롭게 하기 위해 남을 해치면 안 된다거나 특정 행위의 불인(不仁)함과 죄의 정도가 심할수록 그 행위의 불의(不義)함도 심해진다는 도덕적 믿음 등이 중요하게 다루어지고 있음을 볼 수 있다. 이는 묵자의 인간을 철저히 이기적 존재로만 (...) 바라보는 기존 학계의 통념과 배치될 뿐 아니라, 이러한 자기 이익과는 무관한 도덕적 행위의 동기들이 묵자철학에서 수행하는 이론적 역할은 무엇인가 하는 문제를 제기한다. 본고에서는 이 문제를 이익의 기반이 상대적으로 확고하여 이익에 대한 호소가 잘 먹혀들지 않았던 당시의 지배층을 설득하기 위한 특별한 논변의 필요성, 그리고 개인의 이익보다 사회 전체의 이익을 앞세우는 묵가의 공리주의적 도덕을 사회구성원들로 하여금 어떻게 내면화하고 실천하도록 할 것인가 하는 물음과 관련하여 설명한다. (shrink)

Information exchange can be viewed as a process of asking questions and answering them. While dynamic epistemic logic traditionally focuses on statements, recent developments have been concerned with ways of incorporating questions. One approach, based on the framework of inquisitive semantics, is inquisitive dynamic epistemic logic ). In this system, agents are represented with issues as well as information. On the dynamic level, it can model actions that raise new issues. Compared to other approaches, a limitation of \ is that (...) it can only encode public announcements. \ can be refined to encode private questions, by merging its static basis, inquisitive epistemic logic ), with action model logic ). This can be done in two ways, namely by enriching action models with questions as possible actions or with issues concerning which action takes place. This paper describes the corresponding dynamic logics, which are conservative extensions of both \ and \, and a sound and complete axiomatization is given for both. (shrink)

Action is a means of acquiring perceptual information about the environment. Turning around, for example, alters your spatial relations to surrounding objects and, hence, which of their properties you visually perceive. Moving your hand over an object’s surface enables you to feel its shape, temperature, and texture. Sniffing and walking around a room enables you to track down the source of an unpleasant smell. Active or passive movements of the body can also generate useful sources of perceptual information (Gibson (...) 1966, 1979). The pattern of optic flow in the retinal image produced by forward locomotion, for example, contains information about the direction in which you are heading, while motion parallax is a “cue” used by the visual system to estimate the relative distances of objects in your field of view. In these uncontroversial ways and others, perception is instrumentally dependent on action. According to an explanatory framework that Susan Hurley (1998) dubs the “Input-Output Picture”, the dependence of perception on action is purely instrumental: "Movement can alter sensory inputs and so result in different perceptions… changes in output are merely a means to changes in input, on which perception depends directly" (1998: 342). -/- The action-based theories of perception, reviewed in this entry, challenge the Input-Output Picture. They maintain that perception can also depend in a noninstrumental or constitutive way on action (or, more generally, on capacities for object-directed motor control). This position has taken many different forms in the history of philosophy and psychology. Most action-based theories of perception in the last 300 years, however, have looked to action in order to explain how vision, in particular, acquires either all or some of its spatial representational content. Accordingly, these are the theories on which we shall focus here. -/- We begin in Section 1 by discussing George Berkeley’s Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), the historical locus classicus of action-based theories of perception, and one of the most influential texts on vision ever written. Berkeley argues that the basic or “proper” deliverance of vision is not an arrangement of voluminous objects in three-dimensional space, but rather a two-dimensional manifold of light and color. We then turn to a discussion of Lotze, Helmholtz, and the local sign doctrine. The “local signs” were felt cues for the mind to know what sort of spatial content to imbue visual experience with. For Lotze, these cues were “inflowing” kinaesthetic feelings that result from actually moving the eyes, while, for Helmholtz, they were “outflowing” motor commands sent to move the eyes. -/- In Section 2, we discuss sensorimotor contingency theories, which became prominent in the 20thcentury. These views maintain that an ability to predict the sensory consequences of self-initiated actions is necessary for perception. Among the motivations for this family of theories is the problem of visual direction constancy—why do objects appear to be stationary even though the locations on the retina to which they reflect light change with every eye movement?—as well as experiments on adaptation to optical rearrangement devices (ORDs) and sensory substitution. -/- Section 3 examines two other important 20th century theories. According to what we shall call the motor component theory, efference copies generated in the oculomotor system and/or proprioceptive feedback from eye-movements are used together with incoming sensory inputs to determine the spatial attributes of perceived objects. Efferent readiness theories, by contrast, look to the particular ways in which perceptual states prepare the observer to move and act in relation to the environment. The modest readiness theory, as we shall call it, claims that the way an object’s spatial attributes are represented in visual experience can be modulated by one or another form of covert action planning. The bold readiness theory argues for the stronger claim that perception just is covert readiness for action. -/- In Section 4, we move to the disposition theory, most influentially articulated by Gareth Evans (1982, 1985), but more recently defended by Rick Grush (2000, 2007). Evans’ theory is, at its core, very similar to the bold efferent readiness theory. There are some notable differences, though. Evans’ account is more finely articulated in some philosophical respects. It also does not posit a reduction of perception to behavioral dispositions, but rather posits that certain complicated relations between perceptual input and behavioral provide spatial content. Grush proposes a very specific theory that is like Evans’ in that it does not posit a reduction, but unlike Evans’ view, does not put behavioral dispositions and sensory input on an undifferentiated footing. (shrink)

We investigate the moderating effects of self-regulatory foci (Higgins, 1996a) on the impact of anticipated emotions in decision making. We hypothesise that regulatory focus moderates the relationships between anticipated emotions of success and failure of performing an act and evaluations of the act. A promotion focus should highlight the role of dissatisfaction-satisfaction emotions in predicting evaluations, whereas a prevention focus should emphasise the impact of relaxation-agitation emotions. Hypotheses were investigated in two studies. In the first, chronic self-regulatory orientations were assessed; (...) in the second, self-regulatory concerns were manipulated. Results support the moderating effects of regulatory foci on the impact of negative anticipated emotions: Anticipated agitation induces more favourable action evaluations under a prevention focus; and anticipated dejection leads to more favourable action evaluations under a promotion focus. No interaction was detected involving positive emotions, suggesting that an asymmetry may exist in motivational regulation of emotional information. (shrink)

The present article discusses Dietrich von Hildebrand’s theory of action as presented in his Die Idee der sittlichen Handlung, and focuses on the moral relevance Hildebrand assigns to diff erent kinds of motivations. The act of will which leads to a moral action, Hildebrand claims, can be “founded” or “motivated” in different ways and, in particular, it can be motivated by an act of cognizing or by an act of value-taking. The act of cognizing grasps the state of (...) aff airs that the action strives to bring about as a deontic state of aff airs, i.e., as a state of aff airs that ought to be. By contrast, the act of value-taking is primarily directed towards the values inhering in this state of aff airs. Although both kinds of motivations are morally sound, Hildebrand argues that the latter is preferable due to its vicinity to values and to its immediacy in the way in which it grasps values. In what follows, Hildebrand’s view is reconstructed, assessed and evaluated against the background of Adolf Reinach’s theory of intentionality. More specifically, two elements of Reinach’s thought are highlighted as being central for Hildebrand’s understanding of the notion of an action. First, it is argued that Hildebrand’s idea of the act of willing as a stance that can be founded either by an act of cognizing or by an act of presentation is developed in strict symmetry with Reinach’s view that conviction is a stance that can be founded by means of an identical mechanism. Secondly, it will be shown that Hildebrand adopts the notion of a state of affairs from Reinach. (shrink)

Ideomotor theory of human action control proposes that activation of a motor representation can occur either through internally-intended or externally-perceived actions. Critically, sometimes these alternatives of eliciting a motor response may be conflicting, for example, when intending one action and perceiving another, necessitating the recruitment of enhanced action-control to avoid motor mimicry. Based on previous neuroimaging evidence, suggesting that reduced mimicry is associated with self-related processing, we aimed to experimentally enhance these action-control mechanisms during motor contagion (...) by inducing self-focus. In two within-subjects experiments, participants had to enforce their action intention against an external motor contagion tendency under heightened and normal self-focus. During high self-focus participants showed reduced motor mimicry, induced either by mirror self-observation or self-referential judgments. This indicates that a self-focus provoking situation can enhance online action-control mechanisms, needed to resist unintentional motor contagion tendencies and thereby enables a modulation of automatic mirroring responses. (shrink)

Moral realism as we know it has been primarily if not exclusively arguing for the objectivity of the moral properties of rightness and wrongness of action. This is understandable because the normative ethics, upon which moral realism as a metaethical theory reflects, has been dominated by consequentialism and deontology, both of which are primarily if not exclusively concerned about the rightness and wrongness of actions. In the last few decades, however, virtue ethics, which is primarily concerned with the goodness (...) and badness of human persons, has become a strong rival to consequentialism and deontology but has so far not received its deserved attention from metaethicists. In this paper, as a metaethical reflection on one of the most fundamental issues of virtue ethics as a normative theory, I shall develop an agent-focused moral realism, arguing for the objectivity of the moral properties of the goodness and badness of human persons. In the process, I shall also argue how such a moral realism can relatively easily respond to a number of representative criticisms that moral anti-realists have lodged to the action-focused moral realism. (shrink)

Whereas present theories of transformative learning tend to focus on the rational and reflective actor, in this article it is suggested that spontaneous action may play a decisive role in transformative learning too. In the spontaneity of action, novelty finds its way into life, gains momentum, is respected by others and reflected by the actor. Such transformation processes are investigated both with the means of theoretical reflection and of empirical inquiry. Based on nine narrative interviews typical phases of (...) transformative learning processes are identified. Owing to the comparative nature of the study, it was also possible to develop an age‐related typology that overlaps certain phases of the transformation process. These empirical findings constitute the background against which the nexus of spontaneous action and transformative learning is reflected theoretically. Theories drawn upon include John Dewey's Pragmatism and George Herbert Mead's Social Pragmatism. Both scholars provide rich theoretical concepts for reflecting on the nature of that what so often eludes from the control of both educators and learners: the spontaneity of the beginning. (shrink)

The study of mediated action focuses on how humans use cultural tools, or mediational means (terms used interchangeably), when engaging in various forms of action. The cultural tools involved may range from simple mnemonic devices, such as marks on a stone, to natural language and computers, and the kind of action involved may be socially distributed or carried out by individuals.

This book focuses on the connection between action and verbal communication, exploring topics such as the mechanisms of language processing, action processing, voluntary and involuntary actions, knowledge of language and assertion. Communication modelling and aspects of communicative actions are considered, along with cognitive requirements for nonverbal and verbal communicative action. Contributions from expert authors are organised into three parts in this book, focussing on language in communication, action and bodily awareness, and sensorimotor interaction and language acquisition. (...) Readers will discover various methods that have been employed in investigations presented here, including neurological experiment, computational modeling, and logical and philosophical analysis. These diverse expert perspectives shed light on the extent to which a mechanism for processing actions also facilitates the processing of language, and the authors' work prompts further interdisciplinary investigation of the relationship between language and action. This book is written for readers from different academic backgrounds; from graduate students to established academics in disciplines ranging from neuroscience to psychology, philosophy, linguistics and beyond. Earlier versions of the selected essays in this book were presented at the 2013 IEAS Conference on Language and Action, held in Taipei, Taiwan. (shrink)

The objective of this article is to contribute to the epistemological, theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical debates concerning the relationship between research activities, training activities, and work activities. Its main focus is on new forms of engineering, thought of as cooperative and transformative. After situating the issues of the reciprocal triadic relationships between the three poles, the article presents two practical cases of transformative cooperative engineering. The authors then return to their epistemological position, which is socio-constructivist, complex, interactionist, and critical. They (...) sketch out the first elements of an elaborate system of intelligibility (multi-referential and transdisciplinary) aimed at supporting the hypothesis of an engineering process of joint transformation (trades, actors, organizations, training provision). The article also presents the research methodology (training-action-research) developed. A discussion of the issues and conditions of possibility of cooperative and transformative engineering concludes the article. (shrink)

How management philosophy is conceived depends on if pragmatism is acknowledged or not! After having been under the main domination of management science both research and education has until recently widened its scope from a decision-making to an action-perspective. It seems to be a recent reconnection to pragmatism that makes the 2011 Carnegie report propose to rethink management in liberal arts terms, whilst the vastly influential 1959 Carnegie Pierson report distanced itself from American pragmatism thus focusing on decisions and (...) forgetting actions. Actions may contain decisions and choices but contain more than that. A decision-perspective explains by causal inference modelling choices as calculated or programmed. The action-perspectives strive at understanding intentions of agents by philosophical interpretations of action stories. It is less limited to finding the logics for constructing worlds, to paraphrase Herbert Simon’s favorite philosopher Rudolf Carnap, than embarking on plausible, although not certain, reconstructions of intentions giving meaning to action stories. This can be illustrated by turning to Elizabeth Anscombe’s Wittgensteinian investigation of intentions as Aristotelian syllogistic reasoning. Her constant analytical care to defend a philosophy of action against metaphysical assumptions and taken-for-granted “psychologisms” shows that an action-perspective is as analytic as ever one of decision-making. What differs is that the latter seems constantly attracted by programming inquiry by “scientific methodology” whilst the latter is charmed by philosophical approaches to action welcoming fascinating conundrums, enigmas and human goofs in the reality of managerial practice. Management science wants to reduce management to logics, programs and models for formal decision making whereas management philosophy is closer to spotting the artfully entrepreneurial in actions. The latter points in the direction of engineering tools, the former to appreciate the toys of management as artwork. Finally the argument of Georg Henrik von Wright helps us see that the two are philosophically compatible; for in a pragmatically inspired management philosophy actions may well contain decisions. (shrink)

Action research has been extensively used world-wide for decision making related to policy due to its nature of involving the researcher and decision maker in the process. Following independence in India, one of the major revolutions was brought about in the dairy sector with regard to complete management systems. Most innovations and changes occurred in the line function while the staff function was more often neglected in the overall change. The authors undertook an action research study focusing on (...) staff function and relayed improvements that can influence policy related to decision making. The authors have also developed the MPS model for staff function which can help a company or industry in appraising their own staff and functions which can thereby aid in utilising their potential. (shrink)

The Article presents a study of opportunities and problems related to the procedural actions taken by bailiffs electronically. In the opinion of the authors, the digitalisation of the enforcement procedure seeks to ensure the maximum use of electronic documents: enforcement and procedural documents should function only in the electronic format and thereby should create an effective, transparent and easily accessible information system of electronic enforcement files, which will not only increase the effectiveness of performance of bailiffs and save costs, but (...) will also ensure the protection of the rights of claimants and debtors in enforcement proceedings through reliable and prompt service of procedural documents by electronic means, access to information about the course of the enforcement proceedings by using information technologies, and transfer of certain procedural actions taken by bailiffs into the electronic environment. Section one of the Article discusses the EU regulation in the area of unification and digitalisation of the enforcement procedure. Section two deals with the possibilities of issuing electronic enforcement orders, issuance of an enforcement order, technical measures to enable bailiffs access the information systems of the institutions issuing enforcement orders by safe electronic channels and thereby electronic enforcement orders would be transferred from the issuing institution to bailiffs electronically, without using any hard copy enforcement orders. In the opinion of the authors, considering that the majority of enforcement orders are issued by courts, it would be expedient, first of all, to take advantage of the existing information system LITEKO, making it possible to keep not only court judgments but also enforcement orders there as well as providing bailiffs with technical possibilities of access to the LITEKO system and acceptance of the electronic enforcement orders from the system. A similar principle should be followed for designing integrated information systems of bailiffs and other institutions that issue enforcement orders. Section three focuses on the main procedural documents – arrangements given by bailiffs and property attachment deeds – and on their electronic service on the participants involved in the enforcement procedure. The last section of the Article offers a study of the measures to secure the rights of participants of the enforcement procedure, namely access of the participants of the enforcement procedure to the enforcement file, possibilities for courts to obtain electronic enforcement files promptly, etc. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Basic Actions Action Individuation References Further reading.

The Mengerian-Misesian tradition in economics is also known as the causal-realist approach – in other words, it studies the causal structure of economic phenomena conceived of as outgrowths of real human actions. Thus, it finds verbal descriptions and declarations economically meaningful only insofar as they can be linked with demonstrated preferences and their causal interactions. In this paper, I shall investigate how the approach in question bears on topics such as the economic calculation debate, deliberative democracy, and the provision of (...) public goods. In particular, in the context of discussing the above topics I shall focus on market entrepreneurship understood as a crucial instance of “practicing what one preaches” in the ambit of large-scale social cooperation. In sum, I shall attempt to demonstrate that the Mengerian-Misesian tradition offers unique insights into the logic of communicative rationality by emphasizing and exploring its indispensable associations with the logic of action. (shrink)

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the experimental philosophy of action, focusing on the various different accounts of the Knobe Effect.

_ Source: _Page Count 13 The article starts with the theses that it is the very concept of action that is at stake in many debates between philosophers and historians. Whereas in philosophy actions are conceptualized by reference to their beginning, namely their motives or intentions, in historiography the consequences of actions are much more in the focus of interest. Especially the debate about the dualism of structure and agency is characterized by different concepts of action. In the (...) article it is argued that this dualism can be overcome by stressing the intentionality of collective actions. First, a concept of action is developed against the background of a theory of intentionality. Second, intentional collective action is distinguished from individual and social actions and an analysis of a collective we-intention is proposed. Third, it is argued that the development of social structures has to be understood by reference to intentional collective actions. (shrink)

The traditional focus of debate in philosophy of action has been the causal theory of action and metaphysical questions about the nature of actions as events. In this lucid and lively introduction to philosophy of action, Rowland Stout shows how these issues are subsidiary to more central ones that concern the freedom of the will, practical rationality and moral psychology. When seen in these terms, agency becomes one of the most exciting areas in philosophy and one of (...) the most useful ways into the philosophy of mind. If one can understand what it is to be a free and rational agent, then one is some way to understanding what it is to be a conscious subject of experience. Although the book places the traditional Davidsonian agenda centre stage, it locates it historically by considering in particular Aristotle and Kant. It also takes the debate beyond Davidson by considering one of the most recent issues of interest in the philosophy of action, externalism. By focusing on the central issues of freedom and rationality as well as on the ontological structure of human action, Stout is able to offer readers a fresh and engaging treatment. (shrink)

In this paper I analyze the nature of groups and collective actions, focusing primarily upon those groups that do not possess either a formal organizational structure or formalized decision procedures. I argue that the unity relation for all groups is a common interest and that the existence of this common interest makes even informal groups specific and enduring entities which can act and be acted upon.In light of this discussion, I proceed to examíne the issue of affirmative action programs (...) and policies of preferential treatment. I argue that by utilizing my theory of groups the most serious objections to such policies --- viz., that they unjustly discriminate against innocent and arbitrarily selected white males in favor of undeserving and arbitrarily selected African Americans and women --- are shown not to be applicable. These objections depend upon reducing groups to their constituent individuals whereas I maintain that some groups ought to be treated as entities themselves. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Julia Annas ACTION AND CHARACTER IN DOSTOYEVSKY'S NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND Notes from Underground was written with a specific purpose in mind: to answer Chernyshevsky's novel What Is to Be Done?1 And many features of Dostoyevsky's work can only be understood when we bear in mind its specifically Russian setting. The narrator is a romantic idealist of the forties transformed into something rather different by 1864, and no doubt (...) we lose much if we do not bear in mind that Dostoyevsky is looking back across the gulf of imprisonment and suffering at his own idealistic youth.2 But the intense and radically peculiar nature of Dostoyevsky's writing takes us to a level of the work which is accessible to those without knowledge of the local conditions of the work's production. As Mochulsky says, "the author steadily emerges beyond the confines of the Russian intellectual... the underground man's paradoxes are not the whims of some half-mad eccentric, but a new revelation of man about man." The book is "the philosophical preface to the cycle of the great novels" (p. 245). Even though Dostoyevsky's passionate and extreme temperament made him quite incapable of constructing a piece of precise philosophical argument, there is much of genuine philosophical interest in part I. It is not just a particular moral and political theory, like Chernyshevsky's, which is to be discredited, but something deeper, the presuppositions of a whole type of moral theory. In this article I shall examine the implications of what Dostoyevsky says for the philosophy of action and thence for ethics. I shall argue that he challenges a very basic model of human action, which is both intuitively plausible and basic to many moral theories. I shall also argue that as the work stands, there is a lack of continuity between parts I and II on the philosophical as well as on the literary level. In concentrating on the consequences for moral theory, I shall be ignoring the social and political aspects of the work. It may well be urged that such a division of the moral from the political is unrealistic in treating 257 258Philosophy and Literature a Russian writer. In defense I can only say that this narrowing of focus brings out in a sharper and more tractable way the philosophical issue which is my main concern. I Tell me, who was it who first declared, proclaiming it to the whole world, that a man does evil only because he does not know his real interests, and if he is enlightened and has his eyes opened to his own best and normal interests, man will cease to do evil and at once become virtuous and noble, because when he is enlightened and understands what will really benefit him he will see his own best interest in virtue, and since it is well known that no man can knowingly act against his best interests, consequently he will inevitably, so to speak, begin to do good. Oh, what a baby! Oh, what a pure innocent child! (part I section 7; all quotations are from the translation by Jessie Coulson [London: Penguin, 1972]). What exactly is the target here of the Underground Man?3 Every moral theory presupposes some theory of human action, although this may not be explicit; since moral philosophy is concerned with human actions, it must presuppose some account of what it is for a human action to be performed. One very influential tradition thinks of the paradigm of action as essentially aimed at some good: "Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good" is the opening sentence of Aristotle's Ethics.4 What is it for every action to aim at some good? We have the assumption here that every action is purposive and rational; purposive in that there is some goal which the agent sees as a good and rational in that performing the action is believed by the agent to be an appropriate means or way of bringing about the desired goal. This model of action is developed very fully in Aristotle, but it is not conceptually linked to... (shrink)

Purpose: The paper aims at examining whether George Herbert Mead's theory of language is an appropriate candidate for developing a non-dualistic conception of experience and empirical research. Problem: Josef Mitterer has limited his theory of a non-dualizing way of speaking to criticizing dualistic positions in philosophy and sciences but has not developed a non-dualistic conception of empirical research. To do this, the task is to forego the notion "description" as a remainder category of dualism to develop a new understanding of (...) language. Findings: Mead's communication and action theory contains a non-dualistic nucleus. His gesture theory of communication allows us to distinguish action and speech and connect them in a non-dualizing way. Further research should especially focus on the relation between immediate and reflective experience in Mead's work. (shrink)

This study explores Kant's accounts of acting from inclination and pursuing happiness. It culminates in two findings. First, Kant fails in his attempt to prove a central tenet of his ethics, namely that there can be no practical law of happiness. Second, Kant's critics have unfairly condemned his account of the role pleasure plays in acting from inclination. Chapter I, devoted to Kant's theory of agency, offers readings of his notions of willing, acting, and acting on a maxim. The chapter (...) rejects the orthodox interpretation of the will as the capacity for choice, arguing that Willkur is actually the capacity to act-on-choice. Chapter II focuses on Kant's account of the role pleasure plays in actions performed from inclination. According to the traditional interpretation, defended by T. H. Green and others, Kant holds that whenever an agent acts from inclination, she has pleasure as her only ultimate end. The chapter offers an alternative to this radically hedonistic reading, arguing that, with equal plausibility but more charity, we may interpret Kant to hold the following: whenever an agent acts from inclination, she has pleasure or the avoidance of displeasure as an ultimate end, but not necessarily as her only one. Chapter III offers a reading of Kant's views on happiness. It argues that his two main conceptions, i.e., his hedonistic and his inclination-based one, are not equivalent. Chapter IV shows that not one of Kant's six arguments for the claim that there can be no practical law of happiness succeeds. Chapter V also begins on a critical note, questioning the plausibility of Kant's conceptions of happiness. It ends by arguing that Kant's account of the role pleasure plays in acting from inclination stands up well to criticisms, including those advanced by Bernard Williams and Phillips Griffiths. With the help of this account, Kant is able to rebut the serious charge that his practical philosophy does not allow for the possibility of genuine friendship. (shrink)

The majority of the studies on attentional focus have shown that participants who were instructed to focus externally performed better than those who were taught to focus internally. However, in most of these studies the participants performed complex motor tasks. Due to the scarcity of data on the effects of attentional focus specifically on simple motor tasks, our purpose in the current study was to examine these effects on two simple reaction time tasks. The study was conducted on a cloud-based (...) experimental software. Participants were allocated to three experimental groups: an external focus group, an internal focus group, and a control group. The participants performed two tasks: a choice-RT task and a Simon task. Participants in all three groups practiced eight blocks of 20 trials from each task in a counterbalanced order – a total of 180 trials for each task. The sole difference between the three groups was the administered attentional focus instructions. The findings suggest that attentional focus instructions do not affect the performance of a choice-RT task or a Simon-task in a computerized online study. It is possible that the simple RT-based tasks in the current study were not sensitive to the attentional focus manipulation, since in such simple tasks there are not many actions that internal focus can disrupt. Although we asked the participants to what extent they followed the instructions, we cannot say whether their responses represent their actual attentional focus when performing the tasks. (shrink)

A longstanding question at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology is how God might act, or not, when governing the universe. Many believe that determinism would prevent God from acting at all, since to do so would require violating the laws of nature. However, when a robust view of these laws is coupled with the kind of determinism now used in dynamics, a new model of divine action emerges. This book presents a new approach to divine action (...) beyond the current focus on quantum mechanics and esoteric gaps in the causal order. It bases this approach on two general points. First, that there are laws of nature is not merely a metaphor. Second, laws and physical determinism are now understood in mathematically precise ways that have important implications for metaphysics. The explication of these two claims shows not only that nonviolationist divine action is possible, but there is considerably more freedom available for God to act than current models allow. By bringing a philosophical perspective to an issue often dominated by theologians and scientists, this text redresses an imbalance in the discussion around divine action. It will, therefore, be of keen interest to scholars of Philosophy and Religion, the Philosophy of Science, and Theology. (shrink)