We examine 575 randomly selected articles on Zimbabwean immigrants from the South African Media database to expose discourses of exclusion and the production of the psycho-social condition – moral panic. We use critical discourse analysis, notions of remediation and immediacy to scrutinize discourse structures and other discursive strategies designed to conceal mediation and authorial prejudices, and to make the reader ‘experience’ the actual content. In addition to making the anti-immigrant rhetoric appear legitimate, and the danger immediate and real, we argue (...) that the apparent seamless content is often biased by selection and structured in such a way as to deny voice to immigrants and their advocates. Among other things, we conclude that since the readers’ interpretations are filtered through lenses of subjectivities defined by communicative contexts characterized by job scarcity, poverty, crime and wanting healthcare, the news content heightens anxiety and miseducates more than it enlightens readers on migration issues. Hence there is a danger of SAM becoming unwitting conveyors of the same vices they preach against. (shrink)

Since the outbreak of the war in the Ukraine, realism has made a comeback in public discourses but it is not clear what realism actually means as it seems to stand for everything: from supporting the Ukraine against Russian aggression to the war is the West’s fault. This is the result of decades of not distinguishing between neorealism and classical realism and implicitly acknowledging neorealist storytelling of having systematized classical realist thought. The present paper is a further intervention to carefully (...) distinguish between both theoretical perspectives to uncover what they can add to current world political problems. It finishes by asking if neorealist scholars like John Mearsheimer have a point that it is the West’s fault and a diplomatic solution needs to be found. They often refer to Hans Morgenthau not least because he was one of the most outspoken critics of the Vietnam War. (shrink)

As donor trust legitimises research, trust is vital for research in the fields of biomedicine, genetics, translational medicine and personalised medicine. For parts of the donor community, the consent signature is a sign of trust in research. Many consent processes in biomedical research ask donors to provide their data for an unspecified future use, which introduces uncertainty of the unknown. This uncertainty can jeopardise donor trust or demand blind trust. But which donor wants to trust blindly? To reduce this uncertainty, (...) we explore first, which future-proof actors donors could trust when signing a consent form. Second, we discuss the question Can we know if donor trust expires? and what prevents donor trust from expiring. Finally, we present possible measures that can help to nurture trust in the far future. In this article, we draw on our previous research on trust in biomedical research, on trust in the broader healthcare system and Niklas Luhmann’s and Anthony Giddens’ trust theories. Our findings suggest that, in the far future, researchers will need to consider donor autonomy, as well as societal norms and values of the time period in which the data were donated. They will need to find mechanisms where possible to publicly announce the use of old data sets. However, foremost researchers will need to treat the data respectfully. It remains vital that professionals and the society continue to elaborate on the norms and values that shape the common understanding of what is morally right and wrong when researching data. (shrink)

In typical statistical learning studies, researchers define sequences in terms of the probability of the next item in the sequence given the current item (or items), and they show that high probability sequences are treated as more familiar than low probability sequences. Existing accounts of these phenomena all assume that participants represent statistical regularities more or less as they are defined by the experimenters—as sequential probabilities of symbols in a string. Here we offer an alternative, or possibly supplementary, hypothesis. Specifically, (...) rather than identifying or labeling individual stimuli discretely in order to predict the next item in a sequence, we need only assume that the participant is able to represent the stimuli as evincing particular similarity relations to one another, with sequences represented as trajectories through this similarity space. We present experiments in which this hypothesis makes sharply different predictions from hypotheses based on the assumption that sequences are learned over discrete, labeled stimuli. We also present a series of simulation models that encode stimuli as positions in a continuous two‐dimensional space, and predict the next location from the current location. Although no model captures all of the data presented here, the results of three critical experiments are more consistent with the view that participants represent trajectories through similarity space rather than sequences of discrete labels under particular conditions. (shrink)

This study synthesizes research on evolutionary psychology, emotional appeals, and viral advertising in order to develop a novel perspective on how sustainable luxury brands can be effectively promoted on social media. The results of two experiments show that the emotional appeals of pride and gratitude increase consumer intentions to spread electronic word-of-mouth about sustainable luxury brands via two discrete mechanisms. Study 1 establishes that featuring the pride appeal increases eWOM intentions by heightening the luxury dimension of sustainable luxury brands, whereas (...) featuring the gratitude appeal increases eWOM intentions by heightening the sustainability dimension of sustainable luxury brands. Study 2 shows that these discrete effects of emotional appeals influence consumers to adopt different types of eWOM behaviors toward sustainable luxury brands. Specifically, the pride appeal increases consumer intentions to broadcast eWOM via status attainment motives. In contrast, the gratitude appeal increases consumer intentions to narrowcast eWOM via affiliation seeking motives. The findings offer novel theoretical insights and provide managers with tools to promote sustainable luxury brands in a digital environment. (shrink)

Studies on students' perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have been growing in western scholarship. For students in African countries, such as Nigeria, there is little that is known about how and whether gender, level of study, and being enrolled in business education courses impact their perception of and disposition towards CSR. This study explores the significance of gender, academic status or level of study, and exposure to business ethics education (BEE) on Nigerian students' perception of CSR as a veritable (...) business ethic. Specifically, the effects of these factors on students' perception of CSR are examined using analysis of variance. The results show a significant effect of exposure to BEE and gender on CSR‐sensitivity, and a mild, but significant effect of academic status. This implies that male students and female students had different perspectives on CSR issues. Students who took ethics courses and those who did not would run businesses differently. However, age and experience on campus did not influence students' perception or position on CSR. The study recommends that more behavioral models be estimated with the inclusion of more demographic and socioeconomic variables to elicit more robust results. (shrink)

Appropriate as a textbook for graduate courses, _The Evolution and Function of Cognition_ provides a systematic and progressively inclusive integration of the facts and principles of cognitive psychology. It includes contributions of information processing and reaction, and emphasizes historical continuity. In addition, the book shows how evolutionary psychology fits in with the mainstream of thought in psychological theory. _The Evolution and Function of Cognition_ will benefit scholars and researchers interested in the general topics of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science.

Contra el “Yo soy” de la Modernidad, explicitado y hasta ejecutado como “Yo soy uno de tantos”, Heidegger realza con Kierkegaard el instante ejemplar de la “repetición”. Es ella la que llama a Heidegger desde Aristóteles, “repetido” desde las nociones de pólis y philía, con centro cordial en el eû zên. Ello implica una mutación de la idea religiosa de “culpa” en el rasgo existentivo de la “deuda” de estar-siendo-sidos: cada uno de nosotros somos deudores de la existencia del otro, (...) en cuanto héteros, en el mundo compartido; tal la mutación concomitante de la procura sustitutoria por aquella que, brotando de antemano, va hacia el poder-ser del otro. Ésta sería la “ética” originaria de Heidegger, si dejamos resonar en ella el êthos en que se forja comunidad. (shrink)

Carl Schmitt hat in seiner Schrift 'Völkerrechtliche Großraumordnung mit Interventionsverbot für raumfremde Mächte' von 1939 versucht, dem Reichsbegriff zu einer völkerrechtlichen Renaissance zu verhelfen. 'Reich' ist bei ihm gedacht als Kern einer europäischen Hegemonialordnung. Die Präsentation dieser Konzeption hat im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland sofort eine lebhafte Debatte ausgelöst. Der Verfasser versucht, sie nachzuzeichnen, wobei auf bisher unveröffentlichte Dokumente aus dem umfangreichen Nachlass Carl Schmitts zurückgegriffen wird. Der Autor weist auch auf die Parallelen zwischen Schmitts Konzeption vom 'totalen Staat' und jene vom (...) Reich hin. Ähnlich wie Jüngers berühmte Wendung von der 'totalen Mobilmachung' hat sie Anfang der dreißiger Jahre großes Aufsehen erregt. Das 'Reich' hat immer einen über das Verfassungs- und Völkerrecht hinausweisenden Beiklang - oder genauer: einen engen Bezug zur Politischen Theologie. Einigermaßen überraschend ist, dass der katholische Politische Theologe Carl Schmitt Begriffe benutzt, die eher aus dem Repertoire der protestantischen Theologie stammen. Auch für die Deutung dieses Zusammenhangs wurden unveröffentlichte Briefe aus dem Nachlass Schmitts herangezogen. Das 'Reich' als politische Konzeption ist nach 1945 fast spurlos in der Versenkung verschwunden, und dennoch beweist Schmitts Schrift zur 'Großraumordnung mit Interventionsverbot für raumfremde Mächte' Aktualität durch ihre antiuniversalische Stoßrichtung: 'Die notwendige Konsequenz des Universalismus ist Imperialismus'. So lautet nicht etwa ein Satz aus Schmitts Oevre, sondern er steht in dem Buch 'Kampf der Kulturen' des Harvard Professors Samuel P. Huntington. (shrink)

This paper conducts a philosophical inquiry into past empirical research that reveals emotional coupling and category confusion between the human and the social robot. It examines whether emotional coupling and category confusion would increase or diminish the reification of human emotion and the human milieu by examining whether they fulfill the ideal of openness in technology. The important theories of openness, from the respective proposals of open industrial machines by Gérard-Joseph Christian and Karl Marx, to Umberto Eco’s critique of open (...) art and Gilbert Simondon’s philosophy of open technology, are in agreement that openness is the condition for realizing the potentiality for transcending the existing aesthetic, technical, or social structure, and that the realization of potentiality would diminish the reification of the human milieu. The therapeutic effect of emotional coupling with social robots seems to fulfill this ideal of open technology, whereas category confusion seems to increase rather than diminish reification. If people confuse the robot with the human, they risk losing sight of the unpredictability of other human beings that is essential to human development. This paper concludes that it is possible to avoid category confusion by building social robots without giving them a human-like appearance. (shrink)

Formulating a metaphysical definition of human play faces three main difficulties. First, for many years the very possibility, or need, for such a definition has been questioned. Second, very often...

What is salvific community for Ignatius of Loyola? It is communion with Christ, a dynamic for which Ignatius used the expression ‹societies Jesu›. This wording has a revealing intertextuality. ‹Societas› is the Vulgate’s rendering of Pauline and Johannine koinōnia: «sharing in (Christ)». The NT overtones of the Ignatian experience of communion can be explored regarding a theology of relationship (person), of action (history) and of the Church (representation). Being a person is understood as being friend and servant, history as the (...) salvific kairos of Christ’s activity, and the Church as the communion representing him—each time a typically Christian conception deciding always for that option that cannot be generalised through abstraction. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar as características do modelo sócio-formativo para a construção e o desenvolvimento de sociedades sustentáveis no ensino universitário. O artigo aponta que as universidades da América Latina precisam de redesenhar os seus currículos, incluindo a abordagem socio-formativa, para formar indivíduos capazes de resolver problemas emergentes como os danos ambientais e a perda da ética. A socioformação promove o aperfeiçoamento integral do aluno, a resolução de problemas contextuais e o pensamento crítico. Além disso, permite a articulação (...) de diferentes áreas de conhecimento para abordar problemas interdisciplinares; enfatiza as competências emocionais e sociais, a reflexão e a participação do aluno na sua aprendizagem; e promove a identificação e resolução colaborativa de problemas reais através de projectos formativos. A análise conclui que a socioformação gera resultados em estudantes e professores, reforça o funcionamento da universidade e forma indivíduos que aplicam os seus conhecimentos para resolver problemas de forma ética. (shrink)

The article analyses the problems and possibilities in saying that Judaism, Christianity and Islam ‹have the same God›.

Two of Sophocles' surviving tragedies contain scenes that portray the main character in excruciating pain for a sustained period of time: Philoctetes and Trachiniae. This article discusses three important stages in the reception history of these pain scenes: (1) Hercules Oetaeus, attributed to Seneca, (2) Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's Laocoon treatise, and (3) recent European adaptations. In each case, it analyzes how the later playwrights, directors, and theorists responded to certain complexities inherent in Sophocles' representation of pain. The conclusion considers this (...) reception history overall. (shrink)

RESUMEN Esta investigación aborda la validez del espacio público como auspiciador de la participación política, centrándose en las diversas formas de apropiación del espacio que pueden fomentar dicha participación. El objetivo principal consiste en demostrar las posibilidades de acción política de las y los ciudadanos al expresar su desacuerdo a través de distintos procesos de apropiación del espacio público: la apropiación por dominación, por rebelión, la apropiación vandálica y artística. Se sostiene que la legitimidad de un sistema de gobierno puede (...) cuestionarse o debilitarse según la actuación pública del cuerpo ciudadano contra el Estado o la entidad que ejerce la soberanía sobre el espacio. El análisis se llevará a cabo desde la filosofía política de la vertiente disociativa y el realismo político a través de los conceptos de conflicto, soberanía y desacuerdo. ABSTRACT This research addresses the validity of public space as a promoter of political participation, focusing on the various forms of appropriation of space that can foster said participation. The main objective is to demonstrate the possibilities of political action of citizens by expressing their disagreement through different processes of appropriation of public space: appropriation by domination, appropriation by rebellion, vandalic, and artistic appropriation. It will be argued that the legitimacy of a government system can be questioned or weakened depending on the public actions of the citizen body against the State or the entity that exercises sovereignty over space. The analysis will be carried out from the political philosophy of the dissociative aspect and political realism, through the concepts of conflict, sovereignty, and disagreement. (shrink)

This paper looks at the way in which scholars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries conceptualized the relationship between sacred history and pagan mythology through the lens of their approach to the ancient Greek writer Euhemerus. It argues that the popular contemporary tendency to equate Euhemerism with the historical interpretation of pagan mythology is the product of early eighteenth century French mythography, during which time scholars divested the study of pagan myth from the study of biblical history and thereby sought (...) for new, non-Christian, hermeneutical traditions through which to analyze the origins of pagan mythology more generally. (shrink)

Signal transduction pathways are largely conserved throughout the animal kingdom. The repertoire of pathways is limited and each pathway is used in different intercellular signaling events during the development of a given animal. For example, Wnt signaling is recruited, sometimes redundantly with other molecular pathways, in four cell specification events during Caenorhabditis elegans vulva development, including the activation of vulval differentiation. Strikingly,a recent study finds that Wnts act to repress vulval differentiation in the nematode Pristionchus pacificus,1 demonstrating evolutionary flexibility in (...) the use of intercellular signaling pathways. BioEssays 27:765–769, 2005. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The debate on climate change needs normative visions and principles to provide orientation and to line up normative requirements. This may enable to provide a comprehensive view on energy and climate topics. This contribution, while dealing with justice, gives a perspective from ethics respectively from a (re-)interpretation of national constitutions, the EU Charter of fundamental rights and the European convention on human rights in the light of sustainability. It takes us to human rights as the basic norm of any liberal (...) democratic constitution (on national and transnational level), but criticizes the academic international law debate (unlike the practice of international law) which seems to be focused on the idea of even absolute, i.e. not subject to any balancing, environmental fundamental rights. Overall, it turns out that an interpretation of fundamental rights which is more multipolar and considers the conditions for freedom more heavily – as well as the freedom of future generations and of people in other parts of the world – develops a greater commitment to climate protection. Regarding the theory of balancing, for the purpose of a clear balance of powers the usual principle of proportionality also proves specifiable. (shrink)

en el presente artículo abordamos la cuestión de la naturaleza del símbolo en la filosofía de Jámblico a través del análisis del pasaje de De Mysteriis 2.11.20-41. este pasaje ha servido de apoyo a la exégesis que ve en el símbolo un elemento apartado del intelecto. Según esta lectura, el símbolo habría sido introducido por Jámblico para salvar la debilidad del alma humana ante lo divino. éste habría dejado de confiar en las capacidades del hombre, abriéndose al ámbito de la (...) teúrgia. éste marco de interpretación adolece, sin embargo, de importantes carencias a la hora de ofrecer una comprensión profunda y coherente del papel del símbolo en la filosofía de Jámblico. A partir del estudio de este pasaje, nos acercaremos a la naturaleza de lo simbólico, buscando abrir una vía de comprensión de su papel en el proceso epistémico que perfila Jámblico. la relación que guarda esta noción con el término νοερός será determinante para nuestro estudio. (shrink)

Una mirada sobre el lenguaje se convierte en el lenguaje de la mirada misma: una mirada completamente penetrada por formas de transposición y aun de sustitución de la supuesta realidad sensible. El origen cercano, como en tantas otras cosas, lo encontramos en las prodigiosas dos primeras décadas del pasado siglo cuando pintores como Franz Marc o Jean Arp mostraron verdadera obsesión por destruir simbólicamente la naturaleza, y ello no sólo en el arte, sino a través de la sacralización de la (...) Gran Guerra, como purificación por el fuego sobre una sociedad burguesa y corrompida. La naturaleza es impura, contamina, no se deja sujetar al lenguaje humano, pictórico. (shrink)

Incompatability in marriage.- The spirital attitude towards old age.- Woman's spiritual influence in marriage.- The revolt against conventional morality.- The ethical attitude towards enemies.- The strain between the older generation and the younger.- The ethical attitude towards the departed.