PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report on and evaluate focus groups and privacy diary/interview methods used in a qualitative study of on‐line privacy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is a discursive evaluation of two methods employed to study on‐line privacy, informed by and situated in interpretive and constructivist approaches to knowledge.FindingsThe paper argues for the value of qualitative research methods in study of on‐line privacy. It confronts the positivist paradigm that informs much of the work in the field by foregrounding the need (...) for methodological plurality in the study of privacy as relational, situated, dynamic and contextual. It deals with the notion of “sensitivity” as well as introducing often neglected issue of logistical challenges in qualitative research.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the existing debates about the value of employment of qualitative research methods broadly, as well as in the study of on‐line privacy more specifically. It demonstrates a range of advantages and challenges in use of the two methods, providing recommendations of how to supplement them. It opens up the discussion of process of sensitizing of the participants and thus the “co‐construction” of knowledge. (shrink)

INTRODUCTION Building upon the "preliminary conception of Phenomenology" introduced by Heidegger in Section II of the Introduction to Sein und Zeit,1 one ...

This book examines the nexus between the corporeal, emotional, spiritual and intellectual aspects of human life as represented in the writing of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Authors from different fields examine not only the question of the body and soul (or body and mind) but also how this question fits into a broader framework in the medieval and early modern period. Concepts such as gender and society, morality, sexuality, theological precepts and medical knowledge are a part of this (...) broader framework. This discussion of ideas draws from over two thousand years of Western thought: from Plato in the fifth century BC and the fourth century Byzantine dialogues on the soul, to the philosophical and medical writings of the early 1700s. There are four sections to this book: each section is based on where the authors have found a conjunction between the body and mind/soul. The work begins with a section on text and self-perception, which focuses on creative output from the period. The second conjunction is human emotions which are described in their social contexts. The third is sex, where the human body and mind are traditionally believed to meet. The fourth section, Material Souls, engages with bodies and other material aspects of existence perceived, studied or utilised as material signs of emotional and spiritual activity. (shrink)

How can we ever judge about the truth of a scientific theory? Ostensibly it seems to be no problems concerning such a judgement. Each scientific theory is expressed by a set of statements, formulated in a definite language; and we know, in principle, to ascertain whether a sentence is true or false, If we take any formula, say in the first order predicate calculus, no matter how complex, and if we know its interpretation, i.e. the appropriate finite domain of individuals, (...) functions, and truth values of the atoms entering the formula, then we immediately come to know whether our formula is true or false. It is admitted by analogy, that if we come to know the truth values of the basic theory statements, then we can judge if a given theory is true or false. It can be shown, however, that there exists no similar reliable prescription [1]. Let me comment on this in some more detail. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to contribute to the understanding of the concept of satisfaction with life by determining the relationship between personality traits and the subjective experience of satisfaction with life in students—recreational athletes. This research is based on the biological theory of personality by Hans Eysenck and it attempts to offer explanations of a possible change in satisfaction with life in the period of great social deprivation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The sample of subjects consisted of (...) 120 undergraduate students of all years and both sexes, 55 males and 65 females, at the Faculty of Sport and Physical Education, the University of Nis. The average age of the subjects was 23.63 years. Eysenck's personality questionnaire was used for the operationalization of personality structure. The SWLS scale was used for estimating satisfaction with life. A significant regression model, which explains 11% of variance in the subjective experience of satisfaction with life in recreational athletes, was obtained. In the model, extraversion stands out as a significant predictor from the group of personality traits. Neuroticism and psychoticism did not prove to be significant predictors of satisfaction with life in the structural model regardless of there being a significant negative correlation between neuroticism and satisfaction with life. The more extraverted participants had a keener subjective sense of satisfaction with life. (shrink)

My aims here are, firstly, to suggest a minor amendment to R. I. G. Hughes’ DDI account of modeling, so that it could be viewed as a plausible epistemological “model” of how scientific models represent and secondly, to distinguish between two epistemological kinds of models that I call “descriptive” and “constitutive”. This aim is achieved by criticizing Michael Weisberg’s distinction between models and abstract direct representations and by following, at the same time, his own methodological approach for such a distinction.

Multiple perspectives are applied in approaching the subject of psychological role the media plays in the processes of indoctrination of political and corporate ideologies in western socie ties. This paper provides a review of critical theory on the media, examining the way in which postmodern propaganda contributes to the formation of ‘the public’ and the institution of public relations. It is found that consumerist imperative, insisting on the negation of individuality, reproduces certain types of personalities, thus a modern day individual (...) appears to be deper sonalised and highly depended upon media, politicians, advertisers and relatively recent agents – influencers – for the construction of their reality. The paper examines how collective enti ties, made up from heterogeneous pluralist institutions, can become the core of social ‘pathos’. Paper attempts to deconstruct some aspects of the existing relationships between the economy, politics and media, and investigate the way in which propagandistic rhetoric can influence the psyche of individuals and communities. (shrink)

The paper contains a conceptual proposal, its key idea being that the successful functioning of a rule embedding artifact designed to regulate a practice (not pertaining to its use) produces the same result as the successful performance of the rule-invoking non-communicative actions belonging to the practice in case.

Abstract. The strong similarity between the use of ostension and that of a simple demonstrative to predicate something of an object seems to conflict with equally strong intuitions according to which, while “this” does usually refer to an object, the gesture of holding an object in your hand and showing it to an audience does not refer to the demonstrated object. This paper argues that the problem is authentic and provides a solution to it. In doing so, a more general (...) thought is given support by the approach used. Namely, the thought that our abilities to directly refer to things require some basic referential abilities exhibited in ostension and the use of demonstratives which, in their turn, rest upon our abilities to cooperate in performing non-communicative actions on our environment. Several concepts introduced in order to solve the initial problem can be used to articulate this thought in more detail. (shrink)

Wittgenstein’s Private Language Argument was received within the Pittsburgh School of Philosophy as raising new and interesting difficulties for the traditional empiricist model of knowledge justification. While McDowell’s attempt to solve the difficulties in question is still debated, I claim that a different solution to the same difficulties might have been suggested by Wittgenstein himself in On Certainty.

This is an anthology. Each contributor discusses an aspect of Wittgenstein's philosophy considered still relevant in the context of current philosophy.

The focus of this study is alternative spiritual groups among the urban population in Slovakia. Those who participate in them may be characterized as “spiritual, but not religious” —people who are not affiliated to a traditional church, and may even have negative opinions on the Church, but who seek a different kind of spiritual experience. As Willard and Norenzayan pointed out the “spiritual, but not religious” have “an experiential relationship to the supernatural, and see themselves as more connected to the (...) universe as a whole”. The authors studied spiritual gatherings containing elements of rituals, dance and narrative sharing and that were charged with different kinds of emotions. We are interested in people’s motivation to seek out alternative spirituality and in their preferences for group experiences. Based on theories of collective rituals and shared emotions, we assume that these gatherings may have a positive impact on general well-being and be a form of social and emotional resilience. (shrink)