Parental investment strategies are contingent on parental capacities and ecology. Parental embodied capital may be important in aspiration construction and investments in children’s human capital, which is especially important in urban environments where skills are directly tied to wage income. For Indo-Fijians, rural ecology strongly limits opportunities. Here this limitation is conceptualized as extrinsic risk and immune to reduction through enhanced parental investment. Urban migration is interpreted as a risk reduction strategy, given an expanded urban opportunity structure (lower (...) extrinsic risk). Qualitative and quantitative data from 678 Indo-Fijian children suggest that, contingent on parental capacities, parents migrate in response to their perceptions of decreased opportunities that manifest as high levels of extrinsic risk in rural environments. Parental investment in quality and quantity corresponds to parental perceptions of extrinsic risk, which in turn correspond to migration status, indicating that parental strategies do respond to perceived limits on investment payoffs. (shrink)

Whether intended or not, conceptions of informed consent are often rooted in archetypal notions of the researcher and prospective study participant. The former is assumed problematically to be a disinterested yet humanitarian individual who is well trained to conduct robust science. The latter is often characterized as being motivated by some altruistic notions about the contribution to science and society they are making even as they seek some personal benefit from the research. Cast in a dyad, the researcher has the (...) responsibility to inform the participant thoroughly about the purpose of the research, the risks and benefits of participation, and any alternatives to research available, as well as the .. (shrink)

The problem of gender equality among lawyers has been a subject of significant research, study and action across the globe. It is well known that despite women's entrance into law school in relatively equal numbers to men over the past few decades, they remain significantly under-represented in positions of leadership and power across sectors of the legal profession. Progress has come to a standstill, making this a particularly critical time to examine the ways we conceptualise the problem and rethink the (...) solutions. The legal profession, as a gatekeeper of equality and as an institution committed to the preservation of rights, should be emblematic of gender equality. Responsibility for addressing the problematic gender dynamics is something that lies with the entire profession and should be framed as a matter of ethics. To date, the conversation on this issue has been relatively insular and this essay argues for an expansion of this conversation to include the entire bar. Toward this end, this essay suggests that there are new ways to think about pathways to gender equality by expanding the boundaries that have defined the problem. First, it has been defined in a way that focuses almost exclusively on those already engaged in the practice of law, often at the highest echelons of practice to the exclusion of other sectors, especially legal education. Second, the existing movement has almost unilaterally focused on the structural impediments within the legal system or the characteristics of law practice itself that exist as roadblocks to women, ignoring significant barriers that are not necessarily unique to women lawyers but impede the progress of women generally. The movement also often fails to extend beyond geographic borders of a particular country, thereby eliminating the potential for a global conversation. In crafting solutions, there has been little acknowledgement of the role of legal education. (shrink)

We study Hilbert spaces expanded with a unitary operator with a countable spectrum. We show that the theory of such a structure is ω -stable and admits quantifier elimination.

Despite all the attention given to Kant’s universalizability tests, one crucial aspect of Kant’s thought is often overlooked. Attention to this issue, I will argue, helps us resolve two serious problems for Kant’s ethics. Put briefly, the first problem is this: Kant, despite his stated intent to the contrary, doesn’t seem to use universalization in arguing for duties to oneself, and, anyway, it is not at all clear why duties to oneself should be grounded on a procedure that envisions a (...) world in which everyone wills the contrary of those duties. The second, more global problem is that if we follow Barbara Herman in holding that Kantian ethics can provide a structure for moral deliberation, we need an interpretation of the universalization procedure that unproblematically allows it to generate something like prima facie duties to guide that deliberation; but it is not at all clear that we have such an interpretation. I argue here that if we expand our limited way of thinking about universalization, we can solve the first problem and work towards a solution to the second. We can begin by recalling that Kant’s ‘Law of Nature’ formulation (FLN) of the Categorical Imperative obligates us to ‘act as if the maxim of your action were to become by your will a universal law of nature’ (G, 421). (shrink)

Ernest Sosa has suggested that we distinguish between animal knowledge, on the one hand, and reflective knowledge, on the other. Animal knowledge is direct, immediate, and foundationally structured, while reflective knowledge involves a knower's higher‐order awareness of her own mental states, and is structured by relations of coherence. -/- Although Sosa's distinction is extremely appealing, it also faces serious problems. In particular, the sorts of processes that would be required for reflective knowledge, as Sosa understands it, are not processes that (...) are instantiated in human cognition. -/- I argue that the problems facing Sosa's notion of reflective knowledge stem from treating human cognitive processes individualistically. They stem from what I will term Sosa's perspective of methodologically individualistic noetic explanation—or MINE. -/- I suggest that these problems disappear if we expand the scope of what counts as cognitive processes to include socially distributed cognitive processes, if we adopt a framework of other‐derived united reflective self‐evaluation—or OURS. -/- In other words, I'll suggest that a solution to the problems facing the distinction between animal and reflective knowledge may be found in a shift of perspective from MINE to OURS. (shrink)

Burnout among physicians, nurses, and students is a serious problem in U.S. healthcare that reflects inattentive management practices, outmoded images of the “good” provider as selflessly ignoring the care of the self, and an overarching rubric of Patient Centered Care that leaves professional self-care out of the equation. We ask herein if expanding PCC to Patient and Professional Centered Care would be a useful idea to make provider self-care an explicit part of mission statements, a major part of management strategies (...) and institutional goal setting, and of educational programs. We offer several practical suggestions for PPCC implementation, including structuring healthcare systems so as to nurture professional meaning, integrity, and inter-personal reflective emotional processing as a buffer against burnout and as a key to better patient care. It should not bring into question the primacy of practitioner commitment to the good of patients, nor should it be taken to suggest in any way a shift in focus away from patients’ values and respect for patient autonomy. PPCC asserts that the respect for patient’s values and autonomous choices properly remains the ethical benchmark of modern healthcare systems, along with altruistic professional commitment to the optimal care of patients. However, it enunciates an explicit commitment to structuring systems that allow for and actively encourage the professional well-being and wellness upon which good patient care depends. (shrink)

Modern psychology does not address the great variety of elements constituting subjective experience or the relations among them. This essay examines ideas on the fine structure of awareness and suggests a more precisely characterized set of variables, useful to all psychologists interested in awareness, whether their focus is on computer simulation, neuroscience, or clinical intervention. This view builds on William James' insight into the qualitative differences among the parts of subjective experience, a concept nearly forgotten until recently reinterpreted in (...) contemporary cognitive terms by Mangan. I review, revise, and expand these ideas, and suggest their application to self-monitoring in several domains, including metacognition, action, and emotion. Sharpening and extending the distinctions James drew among key descriptive aspects of awareness gives us a more differentiated vocabulary for research and theory. (shrink)

Structures of Subjectivity: Explorations in Psychoanalytic Phenomenology and Contextualism, is a revised and expanded second edition of a work first published in 1984, which was the first systematic presentation of the intersubjective viewpoint – what George Atwood and Robert Stolorow called psychoanalytic phenomenology – in psychoanalysis. This edition contains new chapters tracing the further development of their thinking over the ensuing decades and explores the personal origins of their most essential ideas. In this new edition, Atwood and Stolorow cover (...) the philosophical and theoretical assumptions of psychoanalysis and present a broad approach that they have designated phenomenological contextualism. This approach addresses personal subjective worlds in all their richness and idiosyncrasy and focuses on their relational contexts of origin and therapeutic transformation. Structures of Subjectivity covers the principles guiding the practice of psychoanalytic therapy from the authors' viewpoints and includes numerous detailed clinical case studies. The book will be essential reading for psychoanalysts, practitioners of psychotherapy, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and social workers. It will also be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in psychoanalytic theory and practice, and its philosophical premises. (shrink)

The multiple detections of gravitational waves by LIGO (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory), operated by Caltech and MIT, have been acclaimed as confirming Einstein's prediction, a century ago, that gravitational waves propagating as ripples in spacetime would be detected. Yunes and Pretorius (2009) investigate whether LIGO's template-based searches encode fundamental assumptions, especially the assumption that the background theory of general relativity is an accurate description of the phenomena detected in the search. They construct the parametrized post-Einsteinian (ppE) framework in response, (...) which broadens those assumptions and allows for wider testing under more flexible assumptions. Their methods are consistent with work on confirmation and testing found in Carnap (1936), Hempel (1969), and Stein (1992, 1994), with the following principles in common: that confirmation is distinct from testing, and that, counterintuitively, revising a theory's formal basis can make it more broadly empirically testable. These views encourage a method according to which theories can be made abstract, to define families of general structures for the purpose of testing. With the development of the ppE framework and related approaches, multi-messenger astronomy is a catalyst for deep reasoning about the limits and potential of the theoretical framework of general relativity. (shrink)

The ‘structural injustice’ framework is an increasingly influential way of thinking about historical injustice. Structural injustice theorists argue against reparations for historical injustice on the grounds that our focus should be on forward-looking responsibility for contemporary structural injustice. Through the use of a case study – the Caribbean Community 10-Point Plan for reparations from 2014 – I argue that this reasoning is flawed. Backward-looking reparations can be justified on the basis of state liability over time. The value of backward-looking reparations (...) is that they ensure that historical perpetrators do not evade their reparative obligations and that affected communities are taken seriously. However, I argue that this backward-looking approach should be supplemented by a forward-looking structural injustice approach and the ‘social connection model’ of responsibility, which can expand the scope of responsible agents and forms of injustice that warrant repair and explain how citizens living now can be expected to pay for crimes of the past. (shrink)

Seeking to expand on previous theories, this paper explores the AIR (Applying Intelligence to the Reflexes) approach to expert performance previously outlined by Geeves, Christensen, Sutton and McIlwain (2008). Data gathered from a semi-structured interview investigating the performance experience of Jeremy Kelshaw (JK), a professional musician, is explored. Although JK’s experience of music performance contains inherently uncertain elements, his phenomenological description of an ideal performance is tied to notions of vibe, connection and environment. The dynamic nature of music performance advocated (...) by the AIR approach is illustrated by the strategies that JK implements during performance. Through executing these strategies, JK attempts to increase the likelihood of vibe and connection by selectively exercising agency over performance variables within his control. In order to achieve this, JK must engage in ongoing monitoring of his performance, whereby the spotlight of his attention pans across a vast array of disparate performance processes (and levels within these processes) in order to ascertain how he can most effectively meet the specific demands of a given performance situation. It is hoped that future research compiling data from numerous interviews and sources as well as using different research methodologies will further unlock the potential that the AIR approach holds for understanding expert performance. (shrink)

This paper makes a contribution to debates in recognition theory by expanding the taxonomy of (mis-)recognition in the economic sphere. We argue that doing justice to the variety of ways in which recognition is engaged in economic relationships requires: (1) to take into consideration not just the recognition principle of esteem, but also (various aspects of) need and respect; (2) to distinguish a productive from a consumptive dimension with regards to each principle of recognition (need, esteem and respect); (3) and (...) to identify the specific economic relationship at stake (e.g. between consumers and producers, or between employers and employees). In this way, we can account for the diversity of demands for recognition made in the economic sphere, explain what underpins them, and bring structure into these diverse phenomena. What is more, our expanded taxonomy is a useful tool for social pathology theorists. They have to appreciate the full range of variants of misrecognition when diagnosing pathologies of misrecognition in the economic sphere. (shrink)

Moral agency is limited, imperfect, and structurally constrained. This is evident in the many ways we all unwittingly participate in widespread injustice through our everyday actions, which I call ‘structural wrongs’. To do justice to these facts, I argue that we should distinguish between summative and formative moral criticism. While summative criticism functions to conclusively assess an agent's performance relative to some benchmark, formative criticism aims only to improve performance in an ongoing way. I show that the negative sanctions associated (...) with summative responses are only justifiably imposed under certain conditions when persons exercise their agency wrongly — conditions that do not always hold for structural wrongs. Yet even in such cases we can still use formative responses, which are warranted whenever agents fall short of moral ideals. Expanding our repertoire of moral criticism to include both summative and formative responses enables us to better appreciate both the powers and limitations of our agency, and the complexity of moral life. (shrink)

A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were—and still are. _The Structure of Scientific Revolutions _is that kind of book. When it was first published in 1962, it was a landmark event in the history and philosophy of science. (...) Fifty years later, it still has many lessons to teach. With _The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, _Kuhn challenged long-standing linear notions of scientific progress, arguing that transformative ideas don’t arise from the day-to-day, gradual process of experimentation and data accumulation but that the revolutions in science, those breakthrough moments that disrupt accepted thinking and offer unanticipated ideas, occur outside of “normal science,” as he called it. Though Kuhn was writing when physics ruled the sciences, his ideas on how scientific revolutions bring order to the anomalies that amass over time in research experiments are still instructive in our biotech age. This new edition of Kuhn’s essential work in the history of science includes an insightful introduction by Ian Hacking, which clarifies terms popularized by Kuhn, including paradigm and incommensurability, and applies Kuhn’s ideas to the science of today. Usefully keyed to the separate sections of the book, Hacking’s introduction provides important background information as well as a contemporary context. Newly designed, with an expanded index, this edition will be eagerly welcomed by the next generation of readers seeking to understand the history of our perspectives on science. (shrink)

This paper advances further an ongoing project to understand the history of stellar structure modelling and its inferential practice. It does so by taking a harder look at the data: how it is collected, analysed statistically, and represented in HR diagrams and stellar structure models alike. The focus is ultimately on the sorts of strong observational constraints revealed in the last two decades within the new and expanding field of asteroseismology. It is argued that the typical inferential practices (...) in asteroseismology, while richly loaded with modelling assumptions of their own, do not raise any circularity worries that may compromise the quality or value of the data. (shrink)

In this work we expand the foundational perspective of category theory on quantum event structures by showing the existence of an object of truth values in the category of quantum event algebras, characterized as subobject classifier. This object plays the corresponking role that the two-valued Boolean truth values object plays in a classical event structure. We construct the object of quantum truth values explicitly and argue that it constitutes the appropriate choice for the valuation of propositions describing the behavior (...) of quantum systems. (shrink)

Using a case vignette as an illustration, an expanded framework for examining ethical issues in human service practice is proposed. The article argues that the helping relationship is multiply constructed through discursive fields, rather than being a given, and that the lens of ethics must be widened to understand both the highly contradictory nature of practice, with its accompanying paradoxes, and the broader structures that constrain and influence practitioners. The article draws on the centrality of the concept of ethical (...) trespass to recognize the inevitability of some level of harm in the application of human service work, despite intention or skill. At the same time, investigating workers' uses of resistance to the dominant discourses is suggested as a means to edge toward the reduction of trespass. (shrink)

The demonstration of opioid receptors by radioligand binding and the discovery of their endogenous peptide ligands has provided a new class of compounds that can be used for the development of novel opioids. The number of potential receptor targets for such opioids has been expanded by the identification of multiple opioid receptor types The development of highly selective opioid peptides using the principles of conformational restriction permits the analysis of the structure‐activity requirements of each receptor type, and is (...) facilitating the elucidation of the functional properties of the different opioid receptors. (shrink)

We describe the structure, operation, and experience of the Massachusetts General Hospital ethics committee, formally called the Edwin H. Cassem Optimum Care Committee, from January 2007 through December 2013. Founded in 1974 as one of the nation’s first hospital ethics committees, this committee has primarily focused on the optimum use of life-sustaining treatments. We outline specific sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of consult patients during this period, demographic differences between the adult inpatient population and patients for whom the ethics committee (...) was consulted, and salient features of the consults themselves. We include three case studies that illustrate important consult themes during this period. Our findings expand knowledge about the structure and workings of hospital ethics committees and illustrate how one ethics committee has developed and utilized policies on end-of-life care. More generally, we model a sociological approach to the study of clinical ethics consultation that could be utilized to contextualize institutional practices over time. (shrink)

Do pharmaceutical companies have a moral obligation to expand access to investigational drugs to patients outside the clinical trial? One reason for thinking they do not is that expanded access programs might negatively affect the clinical trial process. This potential impact creates dilemmas for practitioners who nevertheless acknowledge some moral reason for expanding access. Bioethicists have explained these reasons in terms of beneficence, compassion, or a principle of rescue, but their arguments have been limited to questions of moral permissibility, (...) leaving for future research the question of whether expanded access is morally obligatory. We take up this further question and argue that pharmaceutical companies have a moral obligation to expand access. Our defense is not based on beneficence, compassion, or rescue, but instead on a reciprocal moral expectation resulting from existing social commitments that help ensure a robust pharmaceutical practice within the broader healthcare system. Our aim is to give this obligation, along with several others, a coherent and plausible structure within the wider clinical trial process so that one might better explain the sources of the dilemmas and their possible resolutions. (shrink)

We prove that each ∀1 free amalgamation class K over a finite relational language L admits a countable generic structure M isometrically embedding all countable structuresin K relative to a fixed metric. We expand L by infinitely many binary predicates expressingdistance, and prove that the resulting expansion of K has a model companion axiomatizedby the first-order theory of M. The model companion is non-finitely axiomatizable, evenover a strong form of the axiom scheme of infinity.

We study the relative computational power of structures related to the ordered field of reals, specifically using the notion of generic Muchnik reducibility. We show that any expansion of the reals by a continuous function has no more computing power than the reals, answering a question of Igusa, Knight, and Schweber [7]. On the other hand, we show that there is a certain Borel expansion of the reals that is strictly more powerful than the reals and such that any Borel (...) quotient of the reals reduces to it. (shrink)

Poland has produced two of the greatest economists of the past century, namely Michal Kalecki and Oskar Lange. Both worked with a wide and penetrating view of the economy and society, more typical of the great classical economists than of those of their own time. During the post-World War II 'Golden Age of Growth', while Keynes was the patron saint of economic theory and policy in the industrialised capitalist countries, Kalecki and Lange had a similar influence and role among the (...) developing nations and – perhaps to a lesser extent – in socialist countries. Kalecki's 'The problem of financing of economic development' (Kalecki, 1954), and Lange's 'Some observations on input-output analysis' (Lange, 1957), in particular,deeply influenced the approach to economic and social development of a whole strand of structural economics, both in terms of economic analysis and practical policy. With the end of the Golden Age and the momentous neoliberal reaction then started, they became almost forgotten. The economics of Kalecki, however, has inspired in the last few decades the renaissance of a genuine – albeit still marginal(ised) – form of Keynesianism, the so called 'post-Keynesianism' ('bastard Keynesianism', as Joan Robinson called it, being the dominant, mainstream form of Keynesianism). Oskar Lange, on the other hand, does not yet seem to have been re-discovered to inspire a similar renaissance of advanced analysis and planning of policies for modern structural change and development. This paper proposes such a re-discovery. The main concern of Lange's 'Observations' is the appropriate intersectoral allocation of investment for efficient output growth. While output growth is still one of the main objectives in most societies, the growth of human capabilities should be an increasingly relevant concern, both in its own right, and in view of the existing ecological constraints. Buzaglo (2014a; b) postulated the existence of an  (aleph) matrix, describing the proportions of the different capabilities necessary for the achievement of every particular capability. The present paper is about introducing capabilities within Lange's framework of analysis. A Lange-inspired analysis investigates the appropriate structures and properties of capability-enhancing growth paths. (shrink)

DNA glycosylases remove aberrant DNA nucleobases as the first enzymatic step of the base excision repair (BER) pathway. The alkyl‐DNA glycosylases AlkC and AlkD adopt a unique structure based on α‐helical HEAT repeats. Both enzymes identify and excise their substrates without a base‐flipping mechanism used by other glycosylases and nucleic acid processing proteins to access nucleobases that are otherwise stacked inside the double‐helix. Consequently, these glycosylases act on a variety of cationic nucleobase modifications, including bulky adducts, not previously associated (...) with BER. The related non‐enzymatic HEAT‐like repeat (HLR) proteins, AlkD2, and AlkF, have unique nucleic acid binding properties that expand the functions of this relatively new protein superfamily beyond DNA repair. Here, we review the phylogeny, biochemistry, and structures of the HLR proteins, which have helped broaden our understanding of the mechanisms by which DNA glycosylases locate and excise chemically modified DNA nucleobases. (shrink)

If Sam empathizes with Maria, then it is true of Sam that (1) Sam is aware of Maria's emotion, and (2) Sam ‘feels in tune’ with Maria. On what I call the transparency conception of how they interact when instantiated, I argue that these two conditions are collectively necessary and sufficient for empathy. I first clarify the ‘awareness’ and ‘feeling in tune’ conditions, and go on to examine different candidate models that explain the manner in which these two conditions might (...) come to be concomitantly instantiated in a subject. I dismiss what I call the parallel and oscillation models for not satisfying the transparency condition, i.e. for failing to capture that, if Sam empathizes with Maria, then Sam's own emotional experience towards the object of Maria's emotion has to be mediated by Maria's own emotional experience. I conclude in favour the fusion model as the only model capable of satisfying the transparency condition, and I argue that the suggested proposal illuminates the difference between it and other ways in which we understand the emotions of others. Finally, I expand and clarify the conception of empathy as transparency through responses to obvious objections that the view raises. Key Words: empathy • emotion • philosophy • psychology • simulation. (shrink)

Faced with the ongoing tragedy of poverty, ethicists call for effective measures of global justice to set up just institutional structures. Their arguments for a transnational obligation to help however remain contested, one of the main reasons for that being the lack of motivational support for trans-national visions of global justice. This articles suggests that the debate will gain new and helpful insights if it studies the motivational mechanisms at work in the dominant religious and cultural traditions, asking: How do (...) these particular traditions conceive of social justice; how do they motivate their adherents to extend solidarity? And how can the similarities surfacing in their motivational strategies be informative for the quest to devise a motivationally saturated account of global justice? The article demonstrates the potential of such an concrete-universal discourse in an exemplary manner by staging a dialogue between public Christian Social Ethics and African Ubuntu Ethics. (shrink)

A rapidly growing body of scholarship shows that we can gain new insights into theories and policies by understanding and increasing their systemic structure. This paper will present an overview of this expanding field and discuss how concepts of structure are being applied in a variety of contexts to support collaboration, decision making, learning, prediction, and results. Next, it will delve into the underlying structures of logic that may be found within those theories and policies. Here, we will (...) go beyond Toulmin’s logics of claim and proof that have not proven useful for advancing the social sciences and focus on five structures of “causal logic.” The results suggest a useful and more comprehensive approach to developing deeper understanding of our conceptual systems such as theory and policy. (shrink)

No word in English is shorter than the word I.' And yet no word is more important in philosophy. When Descartes said I think therefore I am' he produced something that was both about himself and a universal formula. The word I' is called an indexical' because its meaning always depends on who says it. Other examples of indexicals are you,' here,' this' and now.' John Perry discusses how these kinds of words work, and why they express important philosophical thoughts. (...) He shows that indexicals pose a challenge to traditional assumptions about language and thought. Over the years a number of these papers, now included in this book, have sparked lively debates and have been influential in philosophy, linguistics and other areas of cognitive science. With seven new papers, including the previously unpublished What Are Indexicals?,' the present volume expands on an earlier version of this book published in the early nineties. Also included are the well-known papers Frege on Demonstratives,' Cognitive Significance and New Theories of Reference,' Evading the Slingshot,' The Prince and the Phone booth', Fodor on Psychological Explanations', and related papers on situation semantics, direct reference, and the structure of belief. This book also includes afterwords written by the author that discuss responses to his work by Gareth Evans, Robert Stalnaker, Barbara Partee, Howard Wettstein and others. (shrink)

§1. Introduction. LetMbe a totally ordered set. A (Dedekind) cutpofMis a couple (pL,pR) of subsetspL,pRofMsuch thatpL⋃pR=MandpL Z} andZ−for the cutqwithqL= {a∈M∣a

Logic and Philosophy of Logic

Model Theory in Logic and Philosophy of Logic

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A theoretical interpretation of the observed periodicity of large-scale (∼128 Mpc) correlations of galaxies is proposed as due to eigenvibrations of the closed expanding universe. Eigensolutions of the equations of motion for a scalar field in an inflationary model allow one to compute the energy density, interpreted as matter density. Isotropic eigensolution give rise to a matter density distribution having a periodic structure centered at the north pole of the closed Robertson-Walker universe represented by S3/Z2. It is able to (...) reproduce well the striking periodicity of the observational data, in the galactic north-south directions. The dipole and quadrupole eigensolutions and the location of the co-moving observer in a point of S3/Z2 different from the center of the vibrational structure would imply, in a theoretically well predictable way, a decrease of the observed periodicity in some other directions. (shrink)

This article presents an approach for structured reflection by a designer through journal writing. The journal writing situates the agency of the designer, using a range of internal conversations as a way to expand horizons and perspectives. Through a structured approach using journal entries, experiences of the design process are introduced as reflective internal talkback. In the approach that is described, decision points and perspectives are negotiated and potentially contested through a series of voices of self as I, Me, You, (...) and We. These voices are intertwined within the journal narrative and are proposed as a useful framework for negotiating and effectively engaging with design complexity. The article introduces the conceptual backgrounds with reference to conversation as a process of learning. The specific dynamics of the journal writing approach are explained and then illustrated in a case study. The case study describes how the approach is applied for a specific design project. (shrink)

This paper concerns the attempt to formulate an empirical version of the problem of evil, and the attempt to counter this version by what is known as ‘sceptical theism’. My concern is to assess what is actually achieved in these attempts. To this end I consider the debate between them against the backdrop of William Rowe's distinction between expanded standard theism and restricted standard theism (which I label E and R respectively). My claim is that the empirical version significantly (...) fails to challenge E in the way that a workable logical version would; and that sceptical theism significantly fails to defend R in the way that a workable theodicy would. My conclusion is that sceptical theism and the empirical argument play a significantly more limited role in the debate over evil than the arguments they are supposed to replace. (Published Online August 11 2004). (shrink)

Life goals or aspirations can be distinguished as intrinsic or extrinsic, with different implications for well-being. In this study we used network analysis to reexamine this intrinsic-extrinsic distinction, illustrating how novel candidate aspirations can be mapped along this dimension using innovative methods. We identify four previously unexamined life aspirations, predicting that aspiring for power and social adherence would group with extrinsic goals, whereas aspiring for self-expression and mastery would group with intrinsic goals. In two samples (n = 196; n = (...) 346) we analyze both the original life-goal variables and these novel aspirations using factor analysis, multidimensional scaling, circumplex modeling, and a network analysis using a graphical least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (glasso) to estimate the network structure of aspirations using EBIC. Replicating past intrinsic-extrinsic distinctions, all four methods further classified power and social adherence as extrinsic goals, and self-expression and mastery as intrinsic goals. The intrinsic-extrinsic distinction was also clearly visible in the network analysis. Finally, consistent with hypotheses, power and social adherence were unrelated to wellness indicators, whereas self-expression and mastery correlated positively with well-being indicators and negatively with ill-being indicators, supporting their hypothesized nature as extrinsic and intrinsic, respectively. (shrink)

Stephen Jay Gould’s monumental The Structure of Evolutionary Theory ‘‘attempts to expand and alter the premises of Darwinism, in order to build an enlarged and distinctive evolutionary theory . . . while remaining within the tradition, and under the logic, of Darwinian argument.’’ The three branches or ‘‘fundamental principles of Darwinian logic’’ are, according to Gould: agency (natural selection acting on individual organisms), efficacy (producing new species adapted to their environments), and scope (accumulation of changes that through geological time (...) yield the living world’s panoply of diversity and morphological complexity). Gould’s efforts to contribute something important to each of these three fundamental components of Darwinian Theory are far from successful. (shrink)

This essay serves as both a response and embellishment of Marilyn Frye's now classic essay " Oppression." It is meant to pick up where this essay left off and to make connections between oppression, as Frye defines it, and the privileges that result from institutional structures. This essay tries to clarify one meaning of privilege that is lost in philosophical discussions of injustice. I develop a distinction between unearned privileges and earned advantages. Clarifying the meaning of privilege as unearned structural (...) advantage makes visible the role white privilege plays in maintaining complex systems of domination such as racism, sexism, heterosexism and classism. Using a critical reading of both Frye and Young's accounts of oppression as a springboard, I develop a definition of privilege as a particular class of unearned advantages. -/- I distinguish my account of privilege from standard legal and philosophical definitions of privilege. The general distinction I make between privileges and advantages rests on three interrelated claims: that benefits granted by privilege are always unearned and conferred systemically to members of dominant social groups; that privileges granted to members of dominant groups solely on the basis of their membership in these groups is never justifiable; and, that privileges have an unconditional value that can be explained not only in terms of immunities, but also in terms of additional benefits. (shrink)

Trust has a great potential for furthering our understanding of organizational change and learning. This potential however remains largely untapped. It is argued that two reasons as for why this potential remains unrealized are: (i) A narrow conceptualization of change as implementation and (ii) an emphasis on direct and aggregated effects of individual trust to the exclusion of other effects. It is further suggested that our understanding of the effects of trust on organizational change, should benefit from including effects of (...) trust on the formulation stage. It should also benefit from exploring the structuring effects of trust in organizations. Throughout this chapter, ways to extend current research on trust in organizations are suggested. The chapter also provides examples of relevant contributions where available. In order to capture organizational effects of trust, it is suggested that trust should be studied over longer time intervals, and include several referents of trust, spanning both horizontal and vertical relationships in the organization. (shrink)

Sometimes structures or theories are formulated with different sets of primitives and yet are definitionally equivalent. In a sense, the transformations between such equivalent formulations are rather like basis transformations in linear algebra or co-ordinate transformations in geometry. Here an analogous idea is investigated. Let a relational signature \ be given. For a set \ of \-formulas, we introduce a corresponding set \ of new relation symbols and a set of explicit definitions of the \ in terms of the \. (...) This is called a definition system, denoted \. A definition system \ determines a translation function\. Any \-structure A can be uniquely definitionally expanded to a model \, called \. The reduct \ to the Q-symbols is called the definitional image\ of A. Likewise, a theory T in \ may be extended a definitional extension \; the restriction of this extension \ to \ is called the definitional image\ of T. If \ and \ are in disjoint signatures and \, we say that \ and \ are definitionally equivalent and \). Some results relating these notions are given, culminating in two characterization theorems for the definitional equivalence of structures and theories. (shrink)

A weakly o-minimal structure image expanding an ordered group is called nonvaluational iff for every cut left angle bracketC,Dright-pointing angle bracket of definable in image, we have that inf{y−x:xset membership, variantC,yset membership, variantD}=0. The study of nonvaluational weakly o-minimal expansions of real closed fields carried out in [D. Macpherson, D. Marker, C. Steinhorn,Weakly o-minimal structures and real closed fields, Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 352 5435–5483. MR1781273 (2001i:03079] suggests that this class is very close to the class of o-minimal expansions (...) of real closed fields. Here we further develop this analogy. We establish an o-minimal style cell decomposition for weakly o-minimal non-valuational expansions of ordered groups. For structures enjoying such a strong cell decomposition we construct a canonical o-minimal extension. Finally, we make attempts towards generalizing the o-minimal Euler characteristic to the class of sets definable in weakly o-minimal structures with the strong cell decomposition property. (shrink)

Bourdieu is an important thinker within the sociological tradition and has a philosophically sophisticated approach to theoretical knowledge and research practice. In this paper, we examine the implication of his work for nursing and the health sciences more broadly. We argue that his work is best described as a reflexive realist who provides a space for a nonpositivist approach to knowledge that does not fall into the trap of idealism or relativism. We emphasize that Bourdieu was not an abstract theorist, (...) but only utilized theories to understand and explain the social world in all its empirical complexity. Theory is emphasized over method without denying the importance of method. We then provide a brief overview of some of his key concepts: habitus, field and capital. His work is a scientifically astute practice that has an emancipatory purpose, with particular resonance to the problems of nursing as a social practice. Some have criticized Bourdieu for undermining agency and we briefly address this issue, but argue that his conceptual framework helps us to understand what endures in social practice and why change is often problematic. In short, this paper argues that Bourdieu's work is a fruitful resource for critiquing existing nursing approaches that are preoccupied with agency over structure. (shrink)

In this dissertation we explore projective Fraïssé theory and its applications, as well as limitations, to the study of compact metrizable spaces. The goal of projective Fraïssé theory is to approximate spaces via classes of finite structures and glean topological or dynamical properties of a space by relating them to combinatorial features of the associated class of structures. Using the framework of compact metrixable structures, we establish general results which expand and help contextualize previous works in the field. Many proofs (...) in the domain of projective Fraïssé theory are carried out in a context dependent fashion and have thus far eluded clean generalizations. A reason is to be found in the lack of a clear understanding of which spaces are amenable to be studied via projective Fraïssé limits. We give both positive and negative results in this direction. We isolate a combinatorial condition which entails a correspondence between finite structures and regular quasi-partitions of compact metrizable spaces. This correspondence greatly aids the combinatorial-toplogical translation. We apply this machinery to study a class of one-dimensional compact metrizable spaces, which we call smooth fences. To this end, we isolate a class of finite structures—finite partial orders whose Hasse diagram is a forest—whose projective Fraïssé limit approximates a distinctive smooth fence with remarkable properties. We call it the Fraïssé fence and characterize it topologically by carefully exploiting the bridge between the combinatorial and topological worlds. We explore homogeneity and universality features of the Fraïssé fence and the properties of its spaces and endpoints, and provide some results on the dynamics of its group of homeomorphisms. The dissertation is partially based on [1, 2]. (shrink)

The One-Child Policy dramatically changed the Chinese family structure, and the literature indicates that only children may have an advantage in terms of family resource dilution. Moreover, as Chinese families traditionally prioritize investing in sons, only daughters are found to have been empowered by the policy because they did not need to compete with their brothers for parental investment. However, the literature is limited to only teenage children when they were still living in their parents' homes. It is unclear (...) whether—when the generation of only children grew up and married—their family structure differed from that of children with siblings and whether married only daughters retained more family resources from their parents. Based on the data analysis of a 2016 survey, “Study of Youths in 12 Cities of Mainland China,” including a sample of 1,007 fathers and 2,168 mothers born between 1975 and 1985, this study explores the empowerment of married only daughters, employing the theory of family resource dilution in expanded Chinese families. Using educational investment in children as an example, and with random intercept models, this study presents empirical evidence that the dilution of family resources in Chinese expanded families still benefits males and patrilineal practices. Thus, this study demonstrates that Chinese families still tend to sacrifice the interests of married daughters to ensure support for their adult sons. However, it also illustrates that married only daughters could still connect to their parents' resources, giving them a relatively dominant position for decision-making regarding the family's educational expenditure on her own children. Thus, this study extends our understanding of the family resource dilution theory to Chinese expanded families, underscoring the need for further research on Chinese only children after they marry and form families of their own. (shrink)

Treating physicians have key roles to play in expanded access to investigational drugs, by identifying investigational treatment options, assessing the balance of risks and potential benefits, informing their patients, and applying to the regulatory authorities. This study is the first to explore physicians’ experiences and moral views, with the aim of understanding the conditions under which doctors decide to pursue expanded access for their patients and the obstacles and facilitators they encounter in the Netherlands. In this mixed-methods study, (...) semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire were conducted with medical specialists across the country and analysed thematically. Typically, our respondents pursue expanded access in “back against the wall” situations and broadly support its classic requirements. They indicate practical hurdles related to reimbursement, the amount of time and effort required for the application, and unfamiliarity with the regulatory process. Some physicians are morally opposed to expanded access, with an appeal to safety risks, lack of evidence, and “false hope.” Some of these moral concerns and practical obstacles may be essential targets for change, if expanded access to unapproved drugs is to become available for wider groups of patients for whom standard treatment options are not—or no longer—available, on a more consistent and equal basis. (shrink)

Neutrosophic theory and its applications have been expanding in all directions at an astonishing rate especially after of the introduction the journal entitled “Neutrosophic Sets and Systems”. New theories, techniques, algorithms have been rapidly developed. One of the most striking trends in the neutrosophic theory is the hybridization of neutrosophic set with other potential sets such as rough set, bipolar set, soft set, hesitant fuzzy set, etc. The different hybrid structures such as rough neutrosophic set, single valued neutrosophic rough set, (...) bipolar neutrosophic set, single valued neutrosophic hesitant fuzzy set, etc. are proposed in the literature in a short period of time. Neutrosophic set has been an important tool in the application of various areas such as data mining, decision making, e-learning, engineering, law, medicine, social science, and some more. -/- This book explores the emerging field of Neutrosophic Algebraic Structures, focusing on both their theoretical foundations and practical applications. We apply innovative algorithmic methods to investigate the complex interactions of neutrosophic elements, such as neutrosophic numbers, sets, and functions, within algebraic systems. Our goal is to show how neutrosophic structures challenge and expand traditional algebraic approaches, offering solutions to problems across diverse fields like computer science, engineering, artificial intelligence, and decision-making. (shrink)

The notion of a ‘financial subjectivity’ is fast becoming an important way of understanding how people rationalize the need to take risks in daily life as crucial to personal success. This paper therefore traces the structural changes and institutional fixes – that is, the institutional stabilization of crisis tendencies in capitalism – to understand how individual strategies for making ends meet have been shaped by finance. In particular, I look at regulation theory’s depictions of the ‘ideology of shareholder value’ as (...) partially responsible for the flourishing business sector in which competition and the threat of takeover led to the prioritization of corporate performance over job security and workers’ benefits. However, it is also necessary to understand the particular mechanisms that enable independence from the welfare state at the level of the household, in the form of expanded borrowing and financial services, which I explore further in this paper. (shrink)

We propose a pluralist account of content for predictive processing systems. Our pluralism combines Millikan's teleosemantics with existing structural resemblance accounts. The paper has two goals. First, we outline how a teleosemantic treatment of signal passing in predictive processing systems would work, and how it integrates with structural resemblance accounts. We show that the core explanatory motivations and conceptual machinery of teleosemantics and predictive processing mesh together well. Second, we argue this pluralist approach expands the range of empirical cases to (...) which the predictive processing framework might be successfully applied. This is because our pluralism is practice-oriented. A range of different notions of content are used in the cognitive sciences to explain behaviour, and some of these cases look to employ teleosemantic notions. As a result, our pluralism gives predictive processing the scope to cover these cases. (shrink)

Mathematics, and mechanics conceived as a formal science, have their own proper subject matters, their own proper unities, which ground the characteristic way of constituting problems and solutions in each domain, the discoveries that expand and integrate domains with each other, and so in particular allow them, in the end, to be connected in a partial way with empirical fact. Criticizing both empiricist and structuralist accounts of mathematics, I argue that only an account of the formal sciences which attributes to (...) them objects as well as structure, proper semantics as well as syntax, can do justice to their intelligibility, heuristic force and explanatory power. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Both Interpersonal and Structural Efforts Are Necessary for Healthcare Professionals to Avoid Committing MicroaggressionsChidiogo Anyigbo (bio)I commend Lauren Freeman and Heather Stewart for acknowledging that the final chapter of Microaggressions and Medicine (2024), chapter 7, which provides practical guide for healthcare workers to avoid committing microaggressions, is a work in progress. The authors primarily focus on "strategies that can be implemented on the interpersonal and environmental levels because this (...) is where we can all immediately make the most impact to reduce microaggressions and their harmful consequences" (189). Presumably, readers of Microaggression and Medicine will by and large be healthcare workers: physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals working in direct patient care settings, and presumably these individuals pick up a book like Microaggression in Medicine to apply it to their own practice. Therefore, it may seem logical to act at the level that is closest to us as readers.The authors highlight seven strategies for reducing microaggressions in the healthcare space:• diversify employees• hire local health advocates, activists, and consultants to offer feedback on clinic design and practices• incorporate micro-cues into medical practices• foster medical humility• practice ethical listening• collaborate with patients as epistemic peers• increase awareness and education for colleagues and staffSome of these strategies occur at a systems level, like diversifying employees, hiring local health advocates, and creating staff educational awareness. Others are intended as steps for individuals to take during patient encounters. All of [End Page 152] these points, however, show how structural and systemic changes are important to address concurrently with taking individual steps. For example, if one makes interpersonal efforts to reduce or avoid microaggressions but is at the same time still operating within systems and structures that reinforce microaggressions, not only will harm continue to be done, but there is also a risk of burnout for the individual trying to make strides despite these harmful systems (as Hambrick and Tang Girdwood [2024] discuss). This may lead individuals to view their interpersonal and environmental efforts as futile because they do not lead to widespread reduction in microaggressions.For example, these structural and systemic strategies can start with institutional and organizational policies, for example, regarding how to respond to patients who harass healthcare professionals or expectations patients can have regarding the care they receive. Not only do patients experience microaggressions from healthcare workers, which is the focus of Freeman and Stewart's book, but healthcare workers can also experience microaggressions from patients (as Hambrick and Tang Girdwood elaborate). Hiring a diverse staff at all levels can certainly help foster a more inclusive environment, but it is not sufficient, and it also can lead to healthcare workers from historically underrepresented groups being the target of microaggressions from patients, their surrogate decision-makers, or their families. Institutional approaches to diversifying the healthcare workforce also need to consider how to best support a diverse healthcare workforce.The authors rightly point out that people of marginalized backgrounds often face a "minority tax" and that they are often the ones expected to do the uncompensated work of calling attention to and leading efforts to address microaggressions in their organization by educating colleagues and staff. As this happens, these more diverse staff may not feel the psychological safety or support needed to stay in the organization. The efforts to develop and maintain psychological safety are led by structural and systemic action, not solely individual herculean efforts. Education is not sufficient if there are no systems and policies in place to support and reinforce the desired behaviors.The concept of choice architecture is often used in business and behavioral economics to describe how to influence the conditions in which people make decisions to reduce bias, oftentimes creating default options that improve well being for many (Meder, Fleischhut, and Osman 2018). For example, this concept has been applied to improving healthy eating behaviors in workplaces (Rantala et al. 2024). There may be similar opportunities to explore how such efforts can be applied to create default action that does not rely on individual action and vigilance to address microaggressions. Choice architecture strategies for addressing microaggressions could perhaps expand the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) framework used for systems-based efforts to be... (shrink)