Admiration and adoration have been considered as emotions with the power to change people, yet our knowledge of the specific nature and function of these emotions is quite limited. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we present a prototype approach to admiration and what has variously been labelled adoration, worship, or reverence. Both admiration and adoration contribute to the formation of personal and collective ideals, values, and identities, but their workings differ. We offer a detailed theoretical account of commonalities and differences in (...) the appraisal patterns and action tendencies associated with the two emotions. This analysis reveals that admiration motivates the internalisation and emulation of ideals embodied by an outstanding role model. Adoration motivates adherence to the teachings and expectations of a meaning maker and benefactor perceived as superhuman or sacred. Thus, the primary function of admiration is to promote individual learning and change, whereas adoration primarily serves to bind communities together. (shrink)

Contract cheating is currently one of the most serious academic integrity issues around the globe. Numerous studies have been conducted, mostly in English speaking countries. So far, no such research has been conducted in Czechia, and consequently there have been no specific data available on Czech students’ fraudulent behaviour. For this study, we created a questionnaire to obtain primary data on student usage of essay mills and their self-reported exposure to contract cheating. The questionnaire focused on students and graduates of (...) Czech universities and collected a total of 1016. Of that number, 8% of respondents admit having engaged in contract cheating. The questionnaire responses yielded useful information and insight into students’ attitudes regarding contract cheating and the extent of this phenomenon in Czechia. We now know more about their reasons for contract cheating and have insight into their thoughts regarding possible discovery. (shrink)

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) waiting list was designed as a just and equitable system through which the limited number of organs is allocated to the millions of Americans in need of a transplant. People have trusted the system because of the belief that everyone on the list has an equal opportunity to receive an organ and also that allocation is blind to matters of financial standing, celebrity or political power. Recent events have revealed that certain practices and (...) policies have the potential to be exploited. The policies addressed in this paper enable those on the list with the proper resources to gain an advantage over other less fortunate members, creating a system that benefits not the individual most in medical need, but the one with the best resources. These policies are not only unethical but threaten the balance and success of the entire UNOS system. This paper proposes one possible solution, which seeks to balance the concepts of justice and utility. (shrink)

This Element provides an introduction to the hiddenness argument, as presented by John Schellenberg, and its up-to-date discussion in a comprehensible way. It concludes with a brief assessment of where things stand, from the author's point of view, and why divine hiddenness should not reduce a reflective theist's confidence in theism.

An overview and assessment of the current state of research on individual consumption of Fair Trade (FT) products is given on the basis of 51 journal publications. Arranging this field of ethical consumption research according to key research objectives, theoretical approaches, methods, and study population, the review suggests that most studies apply social psychological approaches focusing mainly on consumer attitudes. Fewer studies draw on economic approaches focusing on consumers’ willingness to pay ethical premia for FT products or sociological approaches relying (...) on the concept of consumer identity. Experimental, qualitative and conventional survey methods are used approximately equally often. Almost all studies draw on convenience or purposive samples and most studies are conducted in the USA or the United Kingdom. Several problems in current research are identified: amongst others, studies’ rather narrow theoretical focus, potential hypothetical and social desirability bias of conventional survey data, and a lack of generalizability of empirical findings. In turn, we suggest that research would benefit from both a multiple-motives and a multiple-methods perspective. Considering competing theories can help to single out key behavioral determinants of individual FT consumption. The combination of different methods such as conventional surveys and field experiments contributes to uncovering respondents’ truthful answers and improves generalizability of results. Scholars in the field of ethical consumption research should use experiments to detect causal relations proposed by theories and conduct cross-country surveys to gather insights as to how differences in market structures, cultural traits, and other path dependencies affect patterns of individual FT consumption. (shrink)

The article is aimed at studying the use of philosophical practices in the educational process and everyday life. The author proceeds from the idea that ancient philosophy provides rich material for understanding a person’s lifestyle, on the basis of which anyone can create a set of spiritual exercises, philosophical practices for self-knowledge and selfdevelopment. In the research, the author describes the experience of role-playing, participating, in which students independently developed philosophical practices, based on the ideas and value principles of ancient (...) schools. The author conducts a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of using these practices for the processes of self-knowledge and self-development. (shrink)

The article is a description of Rimas Kociunas’ seminar “The picture of human life and the therapeutic process: the introduction of an existential psychotherapist”, held in Moscow from February 13 to 16, 2020. The seminar was devoted to the study of the basic philosophical principles of existential psychotherapy on which work with a client is based. A specificity of existential therapy is the lack of specific technical methods and methods of working with a client, therefore the content of therapeutic work (...) is determined by a particular vision of a person and his problems. From the point of view of existential therapists, the personality is in constant interaction with the world, the result of which is continuous formation; therefore, instead of studying the qualities and structures of the personality, one should study its life world and ways of building relationships with reality. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft Jahrgang: 24 Heft: 2 Seiten: 185-204.

Was meinen wir, wenn wir sagen, dass etwas ist oder existiert? Und in welchem Sinn lässt sich von Gott sagen, dass er sei, existiere oder wirklich sei? Die Frage nach der Wirklichkeit Gottes wird in der aktuellen Debatte tendenziell verdeckt durch die in der Nähe liegende, aber doch auch mit ihr nicht identische Frage nach der erkenntnistheoretischen Zugänglichkeit der Wirklichkeit Gottes. Beiträge aus verschiedenen Fächern und theoretischen Zugängen innerhalb der Theologie und der Philosophie leuchten dieses Forschungsfeld aus und machen es (...) unter anderem fruchtbar für die aktuelle Diskussion um das Gott-Welt-Verhältnis, für die die Frage nach dem Wirklichkeitsverständnis von erheblicher Bedeutung ist. (shrink)

"Eriugenas Bedeutung für die negative Theologie ist unumstritten. Auf der Suche nach einer Sprache für das Unaussprechliche entwickelt er in Anlehnung an Ps.-Dionysius Areopagita das Konzept einer negativ-positiven Theologie. Die vorliegende Studie analysiert diese 'Hypertheologie' und liefert zudem eine Neuübersetzung zentraler Textpassagen aus Periphyseon. Sie richtet sich damit gleichermaßen an Philosophen, Theologen und Philologen."--Cover.

Cognitive control processes are advantageous when routines would not lead to the desired outcome, but this can be ill-advised when automated behavior is advantageous. The aim of this study was to identify neural dynamics related to the ability to adapt to different cognitive control demands – a process that has been referred to as ‘metacontrol.’ A sample of N = 227 healthy subjects that was split in a ‘high’ and ‘low adaptability’ group based on the behavioral performance in a task (...) with varying control demands. To examine the neurophysiological mechanisms, we combined event-related potential (ERP) recordings with source localization and machine learning approaches. The results show that individuals who are better at strategically adapting to different cognitive control demands benefit from automatizing their response processes in situations where little cognitive control is needed. On a neurophysiological level, neither perceptual/attentional selection processes nor conflict monitoring processes paralleled the behavioral data, although the latter showed a descriptive trend. Behavioral differences in metacontrol abilities were only significantly mirrored by the modulation of response-locked P3 amplitudes, which were accompanied by activation differences in insula (BA13) and middle frontal gyrus (BA9). The machine learning result corroborated this by identifying a predictive/classification feature near the peak of the response-locked P3, which arose from the anterior cingulate cortex (BA24; BA33). In short, we found that metacontrol is associated to the ability to manage response selection processes, especially the ability to effectively downregulate cognitive control under low cognitive control requirements, rather than the ability to upregulate cognitive control. (shrink)

Balancing speed and quality during crises pose challenges for ensuring the value and utility of data in social science research. The COVID-19 pandemic in particular underscores the need for high-quality data and rapid dissemination. Given the importance of behavioural measures and compliance with measures to contain the pandemic, social science research has played a key role in policymaking during this global crisis. This study addresses two key research questions: How FAIR ( findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) are social science data (...) on the COVID-19 pandemic? Which study features are related to the level of FAIRness scores of datasets? We assess the FAIRness of n = 1131 articles, retrieved through a keyword search in the Web of Science database, employing both automated and manual coding methods. Our study inclusion criteria encompass empirical studies on the COVID-19 pandemic published between 2019 and 2023 with a social science focus and explicit reference to the underlying dataset(s). Our analysis of n = 45 datasets reveals substantial differences in FAIRness for different types of research on the COVID-19 pandemic. The overall FAIRness of data is acceptable, although particularly Reusability scores fall short, in both the manual and the automatic assessment. Further, articles explicitly linked to the Social Science concept in the OpenAlex database exhibit a higher mean overall FAIRness value. Based on these results, we derive recommendations for balancing ethical obligations and the potential tradeoff between speed and data (sharing) quality in social-scientific crisis research. (shrink)

In this comment we critically review an argument against the existence of objective physical outcomes, recently proposed by Healey [1]. We show that his gedankenexperiment, based on a combination of “Wigner’s friend” scenarios and Bell’s inequalities, suffers from the main criticism, that the computed correlation functions entering the Bell’s inequality are in principle experimentally inaccessible, and hence the author’s claim is in principle not testable. We discuss perspectives for fixing that by adapting the proposed protocol and show that this, however, (...) makes Healey’s argument virtually equivalent to other previous, similar proposals that he explicitly criticises. (shrink)

Images are at the heart of strategies of persuasion. They render certain aspects visible and leave others unrepresented; and they may shape processes of scientific reasoning and imagination. By tracing diagrammatic images in the anthropological sciences throughout the 20th century, the contributions to this special issue highlight some dominant pictorial traditions for rendering human evolution and diversity visible. This article aims to provide an overview of and an introduction to the special issue ‘Visibility Matters’.

In this article I analyse prominent textbooks, encyclopedias and journals in the field of women’s and gender studies and ask where the authors and concepts presented in these texts and sites of publication come from in terms of geographic location. This is inspired by the question: to what extent can gender studies be described as a ‘multi-centered’ field (Connell, 2011) and can gender studies take into account feminist concepts of knowledge production which favour the involvement of the greatest possible diversity (...) of authors (Longino, 1990; Harding, 1991)? The analyses presented here show that being located at a North American or Western European institution still seems to be a crucial factor in authors being published and referred to – both in Western academic centres and in other regions. It seems that there is still a long way to go before various local gender studies communities can communicate on a more egalitarian footing. (shrink)

Протягом кількох останніх десятиліть у англомовному академічному середовищі активно розробляють феміністичні дослідження, пов’язані з історіографією філософії, передусім західної. Ці розробки зумовили істотне переосмислення історико-філософського канону, сприяли випрацюванню низки методологічних рефлексій та відкриттю імен філософинь минулого. Паралельно з феміністичними активізуються й антиколоніальні студії, покликані протистояти передсуду, що філософія є західним феноменом. Водночас український історико-філософський канон лишається майже суто чоловічим, а антиколоніальну перспективу не застосовують до історії філософії, хоча значну частину своєї історії Україна не була самостійною, а її землі впродовж кількох століть (...) входили до складу імперій. Для подолання андроцентризму історіографії української філософії потрібно поєднувати феміністичну перспективу з антиколоніальною, оскільки йдеться про жінок, які належали до колонізованої нації і зазнавали впливу цього статусу. Однак у методологічному сенсі феміністичний і антиколоніальний підходи лишаються здебільшого ізольованими, що зумовлює потребу в дослідженні стану їхнього розроблення та перспектив їхнього поєднання. Таку мету й реалізовує ця стаття, розглядаючи не лише зміст феміністичного та антиколоніального підходів до історіографії філософії, а й методологічні засади та практичні приклади їхнього поєднання. (shrink)

Wasted Chances? The Current Political Debate on DNA Phenotyping and Biogeographical Ancestry Analysis in Criminal Investigation in Germany. This paper discusses diverse understandings of ‘responsible science’ in heated political debates. It takes a current public debate around a German law amendment draft concerning the use of novel forensic genetic techniques, namely DNA‐phenotyping and biogeographical ancestry analysis, as an example. A distinction is being made between an understanding that emphasizes scientific debate and precision, and another one that focuses on political agency. (...) The paper also addresses the question whether and how science studies scholars, given their depth of expertise in the analysis of complex problems spanning disciplinary boundaries, should contribute to national debates in policy fields where no such dialogue exists yet. (shrink)

Vitalism has been given different definitions and diverse figures have been labelled as vitalists throughout the history of ideas. Concentrating on the seventeenth century, we find that scholars identify as vitalists authors who endorse notions that are in diametrical opposition with each other. I briefly present the ideas of dualist vitalists and monist vitalists and the philosophical and theological considerations informing their thought. In all these varied forms of vitalism the identifiable common motives are the essential irreducibility of life and (...) the universality of life. (shrink)

From a religious-historical perspective this work investigates the message and theology of the so-called Book of the Watchers as a separate book of early Judaism of the third century BC. Starting with the literary profile of the text, the study goes on to illuminate its importance in the context of the Ptolemaic supremacy over Palestine. From this perspective the Book of the Watchers appears as a powerful appeal addressed to a broad Jewish audience to recognize the relevance of its religion (...) and of the traditional way of life. (shrink)

Focusing on Giorgio Agamben’s early writings this paper investigates the peculiar status of aesthetics that is disclosed by these texts, highlighting particularly the shift that emerges therein from aesthetic to ethical concerns. Agamben’s idea of a ‘destruction of aesthetics’ will bring attention to the question of the destination of aesthetics. The claim that only ruins can outline the original structure of works of art, providing a possible basis for creative criticism, will also be examined in the conclusion.

Studie s příznačným názvem "O Planckově víře, nejen v soulad vědy s náboženstvím" se zabývá především otázkou, zda je reálně možné bezesporné fungování vědy a náboženství. Max Planck tomuto problému věnoval celou přednášku, jež se stala zdrojem této studie, jejímž cílem je kriticky posoudit Planckovy jednoznačně vyznívající závěry, totiž že vzájemné fungování vědy s náboženstvím není ani nemůže být ničím narušeno. Stručně je nastíněno i historické pozadí, jež provázelo Planckův život, neboť i to se jistě podílelo na Planckově postoji ke (...) kontroverzní otázce "náboženství a věda". (shrink)