Source: Author: Liliya Ponomaryova, Elena Osadcha The problems of forming phonetic skills of the German language which is studied on the basis of the English language have been considered. The aim of this research is to make the comparative analysis of the phonetic aspects of the foreign languages that are taught one after another. There has been the attempt to analyze, generalize and systematize the material on the given topic which is presented in works in German, English, Ukrainian and (...) Russian on the main theoretical questions connected with the process of teaching the second foreign language. It was shown that while forming phonetic skills in German, it is necessary to give the characteristics to the phonetic, rhythmic and intonation peculiarities of both German and English; to point out the difficulties of mastering the pronunciation system of German, to develop the introductory course and the material for phonetic warming-up and to work out the algorithm of introducing a new sound. ]]>. (shrink)

Exploring a prevalent yet under-researched phenomenon in organizations, we examine the effect of multi-source negative gossip (i.e., gossip from coworkers and supervisors) on targets’ strategic behavioral responses. Drawing on appraisal theory of emotion, we propose that negative gossip from coworkers and supervisors interactively affect targets’ anger and shame. These discrete emotions, in turn, lead to distinct strategic behavioral responses of gossip targets: social undermining and exemplification, respectively. In Study 1, we tested our hypotheses with a three-wave, time-lagged survey among 500 (...) Chinese employees; in Study 2, we conducted a scenario experiment with 479 international employees. Supporting our theorizing, negative gossip from coworkers was associated with stronger feelings of anger when negative gossip from supervisors was lower (vs. higher), which led to social undermining of coworkers. Negative gossip from coworkers was associated with stronger feelings of shame when negative gossip from supervisors was higher (vs. lower), which led to exemplification of socially desirable behavior. Overall, investigating the phenomenon of multi-source gossip within organizations, we document emotional and behavioral responses of targets to multi-source negative gossip and discuss their theoretical and practical implications, as well as future avenues for research. (shrink)

Is there more that one "Curie's principle"? How far are different formulations legitimate? What are the aspects that make it so scientifically fruitful, independently of how it is formulated? The paper is devoted to exploring these questions. We start with illustrating Curie's original 1894 article and his focus. Then, we consider the way that the discussion of the principle took shape from early commentators to its modern form. We say why we think that the modern focus on the inter-state version (...) of the principle loses sight of some of the most interesting significant applications of the principle. Finally, we address criticism of the principle put forward by Norton and purported counterexamples due to Roberts. (shrink)

This paper presents an interpretation of the paradoxical decision of Abraham done by Søren A. Kierkegaard in his work Fear and Trembling as an ethics of silence. The main idea is to understand ethics not as moral standards or specific duties, but as the responsibility of becoming a single individual in time; singularity as the intimate and personal relationship with the calling of love. In such a way, that silence is the experience of the encounter with the paradox that being (...) human means to be singular in conditions that claim an universal and general transparent manifestation dependent of the dominant rational discourse.Then, silence becomes the fundamental ethical claim to become a human person, as spirit in time, where it becomes a time of trial and examination, a temporality, where the trial is the fidelity to love’s calling, the listening of the possibilities that are presented by the anxiety of the decision. These possibilities are not immanent to the world or to history, they call for a personal choice, always containing a space of revelation; therefore of listening to the interiority of the personal choice that for Kierkegaard is the passion of faith, communicated and lived in silence. Concluding that an ethics of silence by the image of Abraham implies to re-think the role of philosophy in relationship to faith, hope and love in time, as a silent thought. (shrink)

This is the first English translation of Ibn Sīnā's (Avicenna) Commentary on Chapters 6-10 of Aristotle's Metaphysics Λ. It is significant as it is one of only a small number of surviving commentaries by Ibn Sīnā and offers crucial insights into not only his attitudes towards his predecessors, but also his own philosophical positions — especially with regard to the human intellect's connections to God and the cosmos — and his attempt to develop a distinctive mode of commentary.

This essay looks at Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz to trace the film's transformation of a mechanistic scientific discourse into affective indeterminacy. Through patterns of repetition of a key event, the film considers its protagonist as a complex web of constantly shifting forces – a network of biological, social, political and semiotic flows coalescing in a body that exists in a state of perpetual oscillation between force and mutilation, ecstasy and pain. The role of physics and other materialist discourses in the film (...) is thus not to fixate subjectivity, but rather to provide a passage into its affective transformations and the intense desubjectification that results. (shrink)

This book is an excellent and accessible overview of the position that children learn the meanings of words by applying a variety of nonlinguistic cognitive tools to the problem. We take issue with Bloom's emphasis on Theory of Mind as an explanatory mechanism for language learning; and with his claim that only unitary objects are nameable.

The book is an analysis of Kant’s uses and definitions of the three concepts ‘transcendental philosophy’, ‘ontology’ and ‘logic’. It first focuses on Kant’s definitions of ‘transcendental’ in the Critique of Pure Reason, where the term is used for the very first time with a programmatic meaning, as the qualification of Kant’s specific philosophical standpoint. Secondly, it reconstructs Kant’s position towards metaphysics and ontology in his pre-critical and critical writings, as well as its premises in the Leibnizian and Wolffian metaphysics. (...) It last examines the meaning of the concept of logic in Kant's philosophy. All this shows that a new conception of metaphysics emerges from Kant’s critique and within the critical period. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Phenomenology of Superstition or a Phenomenological Superstition?Elena Ibáñez-Guerra (bio)KeywordsBehaviorism, constructionism, intentionality, operant behaviorWhen the editors of Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology asked me to make some brief comments on two articles for the special issue edited by Pérez-Álvarez and Sass, I was delighted to accept, thinking that the task would be a straightforward one, and that I could easily meet the agreed deadline. But nothing could be further (...) from the truth. The articles were of such density and their content of such profundity that it took months of interpretation and study, and of bringing my own knowledge up to date, before I was in a position to understand the concepts, adjust my beliefs, and make some comments. I could certainly have delivered some kind of eulogy about the brilliance of their content; I might have countered with my own article. However, what seemed most coherent to me was to meet their arguments head on and deal with what I consider to be their principal weaknesses, leaving the bouquets for the end.The articles set out, as I understand them and within the clinical context, to relate phenomenology, in its most traditional form, with the most current form of Skinnerian behaviorism, situating themselves in a contextualism that is, at the same time, close to and removed from the most radical type of social constructionism.But let us begin by looking more closely at “Phenomenology and Behaviorism.” It is novel for me, though Professor Pérez-Álvarez had already proposed it several years ago (Pérez-Álvarez 1992), to view operant behavior as intentionality, or at least as involving final causality according to the Aristotelian classification. It is a surprising contention, not least because, as I recall, Skinner lived in a time and a context (historical reason) in which the basic goal of psychology was to convert itself into a natural science, comparable in all respects to physics, which it took as a model, focusing therefore on efficient causality (also according to Aristotle’s terminology), so that behavior was considered as the immediate consequence of a stimulus, and the stimulus–response association became the cornerstone of the discipline. It is true that the operant behavior concept refers to the functional relationship between behavior and reinforcement, but it is no less true that Skinner’s definition of reinforcement is totally empirical—“all that which increases or decreases the probability”—meaning that reinforcement can be considered neither as a motive nor as a reason for behavior, unless it be in the eyes of the observer. [End Page 251]Furthermore, even though Yela (1987) refers to Ortega y Gasset’s formula “I am myself and my circumstances” as a Skinnerian approach, the truth is that Yela himself argues that it is precisely the self that constitutes personality, such that I have a personality because I am me, and not vice versa, as Skinner would appear to argue. In this regard, Ortega’s celebrated formula has generally been interpreted, from the most personalist perspectives, as “the circumstances are myself”—to highlight the denial of the psychological subject by radical behaviorism (Mischel’s [1968] criticism of the concept of personality is relevant here). On top of this, Skinner’s rejection of all that was not directly observable, or at least, that could not be operationalized, calls into question the admissibility of anything called final cause or intentionality of behavior. In his philosophy, all the indications are that contingencies are what determine behavior; and that there would be no room for a structural causality, as Althusser would argue, or of a reciprocal determinism, in Bandura’s terms, or even of an interaction between subject and environment, as modern interactionists would maintain. “I am myself and my circumstances” seems in Skinner to become “the circumstances are me”, and indeed, the reinforcement history – which in the article in question is considered as something akin to the Sartrian idea of “life project” – is for Skinner nothing more than a continuous association of events. In my view, Ortega’s perspectivism would perhaps be closer to the sociology of the American action theorists, Merton, Parsons, etc., than to Skinnerian behaviorism, since “action”—as the action theorists... (shrink)

The present article provides an overview of the key subjects of scholarly research in the areas of epistemology and the philosophy of science and technology conducted in Russia between the 1980s and the present. These disciplines are shown to be deeply rooted in Soviet philosophy and still developed by contemporary Russian philosophers, with both the historical experience of the Russian philosophical thought and foreign conceptions and schools, classical as well as modern, drawn upon. The corollary is that epistemology and the (...) philosophy of science have been the most widely studied philosophical disciplines in Russia over the last couple of decades and retain this status to date. (shrink)

This is the final draft of Chapter 4 of the Volume 'The Birth of String Theory' edited by A. Cappelli, E. Castellani, F. Colomo, and P. Di Vecchia, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.

The question of how democracy can deal with cultural diversity has become more central than ever. The increasing flow of people to many Western democratic countries indicates that our societies will become more and more multicultural. But what is the best way for democracy to deal with cultural diversity? It has been argued that, given its communicative core, the Habermasian model of deliberative democracy provides a platform where cultural groups can concur on peaceful agreements. In this paper, I show the (...) limits of this model of democracy in relation to diverse cultural traditions to public interactions. I will discuss the case of societies and ethnic groups of a Confucian heritage and show that Habermas’ account of public deliberation is not a neutral method for facilitating political decision making, but is culturally biased. (shrink)

We offer a syntax–semantics interface for a previously undiscussed type of event-external pluractional operator. While earlier literature discusses overt cases of such operators that act as derivational affixes and attach at the V-level, we here report evidence for a covert operator, which behaves like an inflectional affix at the level of Aspect. This analysis enriches our understanding of pluractional operators as markers of verbal plurality in languages where verbs are lexically cumulative and pluractionality as accounted for previously would appear to (...) be superfluous, at least at first sight. We formulate our claims on the basis of the Romanian supine, whose nominal form has previously been argued to carry a pluractional operator. (shrink)

Straipsnyje apžvelgiamos filosofijos ir sociologijos perspektyvos skaitmeninių medijų akivaizdoje, atskleidžiama, kaip skaitmeninių medijų raida prisideda prie naujųjų disciplinų atsiradimo, sėkmingai jungiančių tiek filosofines, tiek sociologines prieigas. Remiantis garsaus medijų filosofo Michaelio Heimo tyrimais, nagrinėjamos sąsajos tarp kibernetinės erdvės ir technologijų raidos, išryškinamas jų poveikis transformacijoms, vykstančioms kibernetinės erdvės „žemėlapiavime“. Svarstant filosofijos ir sociologijos perspektyvas medijuotoje kultūroje pristatomi Franko Hartmanno tyrimai, skirti mediologijos problematikai, parodoma, kaip mediologijos rėmuose „žemėlapiuojama“ virtualioji tikrovė. Galiausiai, taikant mediologijos metodinę prieigą, nagrinėjami konk­retūs virtualios (augmentuotos) tikrovės pavyzdžiai. (...) Argumentuojama, kad aug­mentuotos erdvės projekcijos yra gana jauna, itin dinamiška ir sparčiai kintanti medijų meno sritis, o jos sąsajos su technologijomis yra itin glaudžios, todėl mediologija yra itin paranki jos analizei. (shrink)

The place occupied by Kant’s philosophical ideas in the reflections of the Russian philosopher, Nikolay Strakhov, needs further study. The material for a historical-philosophical reconstruction of Strakhov’s reception of Kant’s philosophy is the Russian thinker’s home library catalogue, his correspondence and his own philosophical works. Among Strakhov’s interlocutors were not only philosophers and natural scientists, but also writers, including Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Afanasy Fet, who in many ways determined the cultural and intellectual horizon of the epoch. The many (...) years of correspondence with the last two writers went a long way to shape and develop Strakhov’s perception of Kant as a thinker. Indeed, without a virtual dialogue with Kant no modern philosophical system can be built. Strakhov’s reflections on the Kantian style of thinking, adoption of Kantian criticism as the model of epistemic analysis in many ways determined the features of his own philosophical work and became a catalyst of renewed interest in Russia in the Kantian philosophy in the last third of the nineteenth century. (shrink)

_ This scholarly article delves into the intricate web of power dynamics and influence within social hierarchies. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the paper explores the psychological, sociological, and anthropological aspects that shape and define these dynamics. The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of how power operates, is acquired, and influences individuals and groups within diverse social structures._.

This article discusses deontic modality in the context of legal documents and its divergence from the natural, conventional, interpretation. This work demonstrates that the meaning of the performative verb is not purely linguistic. A number of non-linguistic factors cause the variation of meanings of performatives, in this case, when expressing prohibition, permission, recommendation, advice, proposal or request. These factors include: status of the addressee, type of the relationship between the author and the addressee, type of the document, possibility of control (...) and subsequent punishment for the breach of a norm, methodology of legal drafting, traditions of the Russian document processes. There is no direct association between the type of the legal norm and the meaning of the performative. To express its will, a regional law-maker, to a varying degree, uses orders, prohibition and permissions. These are dictated by the type of the document. (shrink)

Inspired by French philosopher Michel de Certeau’s model of a "second, poetic geography" in which the walker—the everyday practitioner—invents the space observed by the voyeur, this book takes the reader on a tour of spaces of ...

The roles of educators in adult education are constantly changing. Educators are increasingly called mentors, counselors, motivators, and evaluators: roles for which it is inevitable to have a wide range of generic and specific competencies. Given the scarce number of studies on the competencies of educators in Croatia, a survey was conducted to examine and analyze the attitudes of employees of adult education institutions on key competencies needed to work with adults and to determine attitudes about the importance of certain (...) groups of competencies. The total number of participants in the research was 91. The data was collected through an online survey. The results of the research suggest that employees of adult education institutions believe that working with adults requires social and counseling competencies, competencies for designing and understanding learning, teaching, and evaluation, competencies for developing educational programs, using new technologies and continuous professional development. In addition, they understand the importance of competencies for the adult education process. (shrink)