This article is based on a distinctive study that seeks to analyse the nascent role of teenagers’ activism and protests for climate change action. With the increasing realisation of children's rights to participation, the past few years have marked the rise of the new dispensation of climate activism and protests in which teenagers have occupied the centre stage. We pay specific reference to Greta Thunberg, a Swedish child climate activist, in as much as she can set a framework upon which (...) Africa can draw parallels, lessons and insights for climate activism and protests. Even though the context may be different, the paper attempts to inform vibrant climate action through activism by children and ultimately climate policies, laws and management for environmental sustainability in Africa. We engaged document review and thematic approaches, and it emerged that children climate activism and protests in Africa are not as vibrant as they should be given the prevalence of climate inaction across the continent. Therefore, there is much to learn from Thunberg by pushing national governments and regional organisations to increase the decision-making space of children in the fight against climate change. (shrink)

Untruthfulness is surprisingly common in the U.S. military even though members of the profession are loath to admit it. Further, much of the deception and dishonesty that occurs in the profession of arms is actually encouraged and sanctioned by the military institution. The end result is a profession whose members often hold and propagate a false sense of integrity that prevents the profession from addressing -- or even acknowledging -- the duplicity and deceit throughout the formation. It takes remarkable courage (...) and candor for leaders to admit the gritty shortcomings and embarrassing frailties of the military as an organization in order to better the military as a profession. Such a discussion, however, is both essential and necessary for the health of the military profession"--Publisher's web site. (shrink)

Philosophers have based arguments on the contention that we arc deceived in our dreams. I argue that we are not, and that this can be shown by considerations concerning the meaning? of the word ?deceive?. This kind of argument, common in recent philosophy, has been much criticized. In a methodological digression (sections 2?6), some aspects of the nature, the rationale, and the relevance of the appeal to ordinary language in philosophy are exposed and defended. The paper presents an analysis of (...) the meaning of the word ?deceive? by way of a list of necessary conditions for the semantically nondeviant occurrences of utterances containing it. It is shown that the philosophical uses in question do not satisfy these conditions. (shrink)

Evidence shows that changes in the architecture, design, and decor of health care facilities can improve patient care and in the long run reduce expenses. These essays detail the state of the research, look inside two hospitals that put some of these innovations into practice, and consider how design fits into the moral mission ofhealth care.

Writers on education have frequently contrasted knowledge and understanding as educational aims. I shall be prepared to defend the view that this contrast can mislead us in our thinking about education, and can direct our attention away from facts which are important to take into account in the evaluation of educational procedures.

I propose a model for the development of citizen rights based on the advance of political and social rights and apply it to contemporary claims regarding environmental rights. In terms of this “claims and attenuations” model, I sketch the roles of environmental philosophers and activists, the media and public opinion, and political insiders in the development of positive rights. I then predict a weakeningof environmental claims and a marginalization of environmental philosophies as environmental claims are secured as positive rights.

Prior to 1980, researchers rarely studied intuition in education. Those in the behaviorist tradition discounted studies of teacher thinking, and regarded all talk of intuition as mysterious nonsense. Since then, however, the cognitive revolution has triumphed. Studies of thinking are commonplace, and have contributed to our understanding of how novices and expert teachers perceive, understand, and act. The current consensus is that novices require explicit rules when carrying out the tasks of teaching, while experts, through years of experience and learning, (...) store an abundance of cases in long term memory, which they draw upon to perceive salient features of situations. This enables them to act intuitively in... (shrink)

This third supplemental volume in the series Research in Philosophy and Technology deals with technology schools and the challenge they pose to philosophy in this area of thought.

La métaphysique est aujourd'hui contestée de toutes parts comme étant soit dénuée de sens soit inaccessible à l'esprit humain. Et pourtant, qu'il le veuille ou non, l'homme fait constamment de la métaphysique parce qu'il est un animal métaphysique. Après une introduction consacrée au sens et à l'enjeu de la métaphysique, le présent ouvrage tente, dans un premier temps, de poser la question de la métaphysique en revisitant, de manière à la fois bienveillante et critique, quatre grandes figures qui se sont (...) débattues avec la pensée métaphysique : Thomas d'Aquin, Kant, Hegel et Heidegger. De ce parcours se dégagent des pistes pour une approche contemporaine de l'interrogation métaphysique. Elles pointent en direction d'une pensée métaphysique de l'être dont le réalisme intègre la subjectivité transcendantale moderne sans que la totalité ainsi obtenue se dialectise dans un système de la négativité absolue ni que l'existence humaine y soit placée devant la positivité énigmatique d'un être hypostasié et indifférencié. La seconde partie est consacrée, à partir de cette perspective, au déploiement organique d'une pensée métaphysique de l'être. On y part de l'être comme fondement de la pensée et de son interrogation, comme fondement de l'esprit tant pratique que théorique, pour s'élever ensuite, par l'abstraction métaphysique correctement comprise, à la saisie de l'être en lui-même en sa positivité et sa plénitude originaires. Dans un ultime effort, la pensée se laisse entraîner, au fil de la triple différence entre le Je et le Tu, entre les étants et l'être, et enfin entre les étants, l'être et Dieu, jusqu'à la pensée métaphysique de Dieu et de la création. L'être apparaît ainsi comme similitude de la pensée divine, ce qui ouvre le champ d'une pensée positive de l'analogie et de l'exemplarité. L'ouvrage se termine par une méditation du rapport entre métaphysique de l'être et révélation chrétienne. Tout en cherchant à traiter les questions substantiellement, l'ouvrage cherche, sur le plan pédagogique, à ne pas être réservé aux spécialistes et se veut largement accessible aux esprits cultivés et aux étudiants en philosophie. (shrink)

The renormalization group is used to analyze the behavior of certain gravitationally significant renormalized coupling constants under a scaling of the spacetime curvature. After discussing a simple example, the results are summarized for a class of grand unified theories.

of democratizing social inquiry by actively engaging the subject in the design and conduct of research. Drawing on four examples of PAR-based social science and a democratic reconstruction of "epistemic privilege," this article argues that philosophers need to take seriously PAR's notion that democratic norms should guide social inquiry. But it does not advocate replacing mainstream or expert-directed social science by PAR. Instead, it maintains that it is both possible and sensible for PAR practitioners to collaborate with conventional research. Indeed, (...) certain forms of nonparticipatory social science seem indispensable for any extensive application of the PAR framework. The article concludes by drawing out its (controversial) implications for two central issues in the philosophy of social science: first, that the methods of social inquiry are distinct from those in the natural sciences and, second, that there is a sense in which social research can and should be "value neutral.". (shrink)

The STS education movement is identified and related to the critique of technology of the 1960s–1970s. The critics of technology included the system of education in their critiques. There is a practical tension or contradiction in attempting to develop their insights within the curriculum routines of the schools and colleges. This tension is explored under six categories: reductive knowledge, socialization of technical modes of thinking, technicalized processes of learning, the loss of meaning, radical monopoly over learning, and the socialization of (...) secular values. (shrink)

The four papers in this symposium were selected from thirty submissions for the Past President’s Panel at the 2014 annual meeting of the John Dewey Society in Philadelphia. Taken collectively, they demonstrate the continuing power of Dewey’s philosophy to inspire, clarify, and critique contemporary educational ideas and practices. I will have a few words to say about these papers below, but first I want to put them in context. The John Dewey Society, in its current form, has three operational missions: (...) to encourage, and contribute to, critical inquiry into pressing contemporary issues in culture, society, and education in the spirit of John Dewey; to foster and provide venues for new educational.. (shrink)

John Dewey's Democracy and Education is the touchstone for a great deal of modern educational theory. It covers a wide range of themes and issues relating to education, including teaching, learning, educational environments, subject matter, values, and the nature of work and play. This Handbook is designed to help experts and non-experts to navigate Dewey's text. The authors are specialists in the fields of philosophy and education; their chapters offer readers expert insight into areas of Dewey work that they know (...) well and have returned to time and time again throughout their careers. The Handbook is divided into two parts. Part I features short companion chapters corresponding to each of Dewey's chapters in Democracy and Education. These serve to guide readers through the complex arguments developed in the book. Part II features general articles placing the book into historical, philosophical and practical contexts and highlighting its relevance today. (shrink)