The relationship between teaching and argumentation is becoming a crucial issue in the field of education and, in particular, science education. Teaching has been analyzed as a dialogue aimed at persuading the interlocutors, introducing a conceptual change that needs to be grounded on the audience’s background knowledge. This paper addresses this issue from a perspective of argumentation studies. Our claim is that argumentation schemes, namely abstract patterns of argument, can be an instrument for reconstructing the tacit premises in students’ argumentative (...) reasoning and retrieving the background beliefs that are the basis of their arguments. On this perspective, the process of premise reconstruction is followed by a heuristic reasoning process aimed at discovering the students’ previous intuitions that can explain the premises and concepts that are left unexpressed in their arguments. The theoretical insights advanced in this paper are illustrated through selected examples taken from activities concerning predictive claims on scientific issues. (shrink)

Human rights defenders (HRDs) fight for various human rights and address concerns related to corruption, employment, the environment, and other issues. They also challenge powerful state and private stakeholders and seek justice for human rights abuses. Therefore, HRDs are increasingly becoming targets of violent attacks and abuse with the aim of silencing them. This article begins by providing a brief definition of HRDs and then proceeds to outline the risks associated with their work in defending human rights. It also identifies (...) the perpetrators responsible for these violations. The article categorises the types of abuses against HRDs into two main categories, with a particular focus on the widespread tactic of using the legal system to target and silence defenders in Europe, which is also emerging globally. It introduces a taxonomy of various types of violations through the legal system. By categorising the types of violations against HRDs and establishing a taxonomy to aid in identifying these tactics, the article seeks to deepen understanding and awareness of the varied abuses experienced by HRDs, as well as their deviation from human rights standards, providing a valuable resource for academics, practitioners, and defenders. (shrink)

Dog ownership is believed to benefit owner wellbeing but, contrary to popular belief, there is limited evidence to suggest that simply owning a dog is associated with improved mental health. This mixed-methods study investigates whether dog owners with stronger relationships with their dogs experience better mental health. Participants completed an online survey. Owners’ health was measured using the validated PROMIS questions regarding depression, anxiety, emotional support, and companionship. The dog–owner relationship was measured using the validated MDORS scale, which has three (...) subscales: interaction, emotional closeness, and perceived costs. Univariable and multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted, adjusting for confounding factors. Additionally, positive and negative impacts of dog ownership on mental wellbeing were coded from open questions using thematic analysis. A stronger dog–owner relationship was associated with greater feelings of emotional support and companionship but poorer mental health in terms of anxiety or depression. However, the perceived costs subscale was consistently associated with better mental health outcomes. Direction of causality cannot be inferred as people with poor mental health may acquire dogs to help relieve symptoms, which qualitative analysis supported. Key themes included positive impacts on owner wellbeing and happiness through providing purpose, companionship and self-acceptance, pleasure and distraction, as well as lessening emotional pain and suffering and reducing risk behaviors. However, negative impacts of a strong relationship include anticipatory grief over loss of the dog, and concerns regarding the burden of responsibility and ability to meet dog’s needs. Perceived ability to adequately meet dog’s needs promoted personal growth and positive relationships with others, whereas perceived inability led to feelings of guilt, or anger/frustration, and reduced autonomy and sense of environmental mastery. Dog ownership contributes to both hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing in multiple ways, including supporting owners through periods of poor mental health and providing purpose. However, the burden of responsibility and owner and dog characteristics can create challenges, and owners may benefit from support in caring for their dogs and reducing problematic behaviors. (shrink)

Can the psychodynamics of the mind be correlated with neurodynamic processes in the brain? The book revisits a question that scientists and psychoanalysts have been asking for more than a century. It brings together experts from Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Psychiatry and Neurology to consider this question.

3 In live performances seated audiences have restricted opportunities for response. Some 4 responses are obvious, such as applause and cheering, but there are also many apparently 5 incidental movements including posture shifts, fixing hair, scratching and adjusting glasses. 6 Do these movements provide clues to people’s level of engagement with a performance? Our 7 basic hypothesis is that audience responses are part of a bi-directional system of audience- 8 performer communication. This communication is part of what distinguishes live from (...) recorded 9 performance and underpins live performers’ moment-to-moment sense of how well a performance 10 is going. Here we investigate the range of visible real-time movements of audiences in four live 11 contemporary dance performances. Video recordings of performers and audiences were analysed 12 using computer vision techniques for extracting face, hand and body movement data. The 13 meaning of audience movements were analysed by comparing clips of the audience at moments 14 of maximum and minimum movement to expert and novice judges. The results show that audience 15 clips with the lowest overall movement are judged as displaying the highest engagement. In 16 addition, we found that while there is no systematic relationship between audience and dancers 17 movement, hands seem to play an especially significant role since they move significantly more 18 compared to the rest of the body. We draw on these findings to argue that collective stillness is 19 an especially salient signal of audience engagement. (shrink)

Treatise on the theory of Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

ABSTRACT This article explores the discursive configuration of paid work by Greek employees, shedding light to the symbolic pores they mobilize in order to craft its meaning as well as to the micro- and macrosocial implications of their argumentation strategies. Building upon a social constructionist epistemology, 22 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using tools and techniques provided by critical approaches to discourse analysis. The ‘school’, the ‘journey’, and the ‘slavery’ repertoires, as I named them, were the three discursive (...) patterns identified, each one grounded in different assumptions about the social universe and thus legitimizing or challenging the hegemonic fixations of the meaning of work. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article explores the discursive configuration of paid work by Greek employees, shedding light to the symbolic pores they mobilize in order to craft its meaning as well as to the micro- and macrosocial implications of their argumentation strategies. Building upon a social constructionist epistemology, 22 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using tools and techniques provided by critical approaches to discourse analysis. The ‘school’, the ‘journey’, and the ‘slavery’ repertoires, as I named them, were the three discursive (...) patterns identified, each one grounded in different assumptions about the social universe and thus legitimizing or challenging the hegemonic fixations of the meaning of work. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to map the medicalisation of learning difficulties in the remote and mountainous areas in Chania Prefecture, Crete, when pupils are referred to Diagnostic Institutes to be assessed and possibly receive a learning difficulty diagnosis. It provides evidence on the fact that the learning difficulties identification procedure tends to be individually oriented and to neglect contextual dimensions, as well as the interactions between them, particularly in light of the consequences of the socioeconomic crisis in Greece. (...) The remote and mountainous areas in Chania Prefecture, Crete, serve as a case study. Educational documents, archives, newspapers, and laws are examined, and six semi-structured interviews are conducted and analysed. The analysis yields two core themes: a. Exaggerated diagnoses: a compensatory tool and b. The emergence of the environment of the contexts: the impacts of the socioeconomic crisis. As an outcome of the analysis, it occurs that the medicalisation of learning difficulties appears to impose an obstacle to the detection of the deeper systemic, social, and political causes of these difficulties. It may also fail to sufficiently address the needs of the involved parts, namely pupils, parents, and schools. Given the implications arising from the study that indicate the systemic nature and influences of learning difficulties, the necessity for a transition towards a bioecological approach is discussed. (shrink)

Although reasoning has been characterized as the essence of our being, it is often prone to cognitive biases. Decades of research in the reasoning and decision making fields have shown that when fa...

The relationship between teaching and argumentation is becoming a crucial issue in the field of education and, in particular, science education. Teaching has been analyzed as a dialogue aimed at persuading the interlocutors, introducing a conceptual change that needs to be grounded on the audience’s background knowledge. This paper addresses this issue from a perspective of argumentation studies. Our claim is that argumentation schemes, namely abstract patterns of argument, can be an instrument for reconstructing the tacit premises in students’ argumentative (...) reasoning and retrieving the background beliefs that are the basis of their arguments. On this perspective, the process of premise reconstruction is followed by a heuristic reasoning process aimed at discovering the students’ previous intuitions that can explain the premises and concepts that are left unexpressed in their arguments. The theoretical insights advanced in this paper are illustrated through selected examples taken from activities concerning predictive claims on scientific issues. (shrink)

ObjectiveCaring for patients with Alzheimer’s disease is a stressful situation and an overwhelming task for family caregivers. Therefore, these caregivers need to have their hardiness empowered to provide proper and appropriate care to these older adults. From the introduction of the concept of hardiness, few studies have been conducted to assess the hardiness of caregivers of patients with AD. Presumably, one reason for this knowledge gap is the lack of a proper scale to evaluate hardiness in this group. This study (...) was conducted to develop a reliable and valid Family Caregivers’ Hardiness Scale to measure this concept accurately among Iranian family caregivers sample.MethodsThis study is a cross-sectional study with a sequential-exploratory mixed-method approach. The concept of family caregivers’ hardiness was clarified using deductive content analysis, and item pools were generated. In the psychometric step, the samples were 435 family caregivers with a mean age of 50.26, and the data were gathered via an online form questionnaire. In this step, the items of the FCHS were evaluated using face and content validity. Then, the factor structure was determined and confirmed using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis followed by convergent and divergent validity, respectively. Finally, scale reliability, including stability, and internal consistency were evaluated.ResultsThe finding revealed that FCHS consists of five factors, namely, “Religious Coping”, “Self-Management”, “Empathic Communication”, “Family Affective Commitment”, and “Purposeful Interaction” that explained 58.72% of the total variance. The results of CFA showed a good model fit. Reliability showed acceptable internal consistency and stability.ConclusionBased on the results of the psychometric evaluation of the FCHS, turned out that the concept of hardiness in Iranian family caregivers is a multidimensional concept that is most focused on individual-cultural values, emotional family relationships, and social relationships. The designed scale also has acceptable validity and reliability features that can be used in future studies to measure this concept in family caregivers. (shrink)

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death of women in the United States, yet cardiovascular research is disproportionately conducted using male human subjects and male animal models. This article deploys Katrina Hutchison’s (2019) analysis of gender disparity in clinical trials as a moral aggregation problem to address the problem of underrepresentation of women in cardiovascular research. I identify cost concerns, convenience, pregnancy, and negligence as potential reasons for the underrepresentation of women in CVD research. Finally, I suggest that multilevel (...) strategies will be needed to eliminate sex disparity in CVD research and improve patient care. (shrink)

This chapter examines Padme's portrayal in Revenge of the Sith (ROTS) through feminist philosophy, looking into the ways her character changed over the prequel trilogy. It explores how Padme's pregnancy influenced her storyline, and employs feminist theories that study motherhood in regard to both the pregnant individual and social structures. The chapter explains the abusive nature of Padme's relationship with Anakin, discussing how his anger and jealously contributed to her death. Padme's story in ROTS's theatrical cut is marked primarily by (...) her abusive relationship with Anakin, whose anger is often directed against her. When she becomes pregnant, the story focuses more on her stereotypical role as a mother‐to‐be and less on her heroic deeds that contribute to the creation of the Rebel Alliance. Nowadays, the #MeToo movement stresses the need for inclusive representation in the film industry, and the Star Wars saga is no exception. (shrink)

El presente artículo indaga por la posibilidad del perdón teniendo como telón de fondo el daño extremo, en el cual la víctima ha sido violentada en suintegridad física y psicológica sin razón aparente. Para allanar el problema abordamos la perspectiva de Jankélévitch, donde el perdón no es unívoco ni universal, más bien es un asunto personal. En este sentido, el artículo muestra que el perdón puede proceder de i) un acto de amor, completamente desinteresado, en el que la víctima en (...) un acto de desprendimiento y de humildad dona el perdón sin esperar nada a cambio y ii) del diálogo que se establece entre víctima y verdugo, donde el segundo reconoce la falta y, en consecuencia, establece comunicación con la víctima. No obstante, y dado los límites humanos, el reconocimiento de la falta no implica, necesariamente, el acontecimiento del perdón. (shrink)

This essay challenges dominant interpretations of Foucault’s lectures on parrhesia as affirming an ethical, non-political conception of truth-telling. I read the lectures instead as depicting truth-telling as an always political predicament: of having to appear distant from power, while also having to partake in some sense of political power. Read in this way, Foucault’s lectures help us to understand and address the disputed politicality of truth-telling – over who counts as a truth-teller, and what counts as the truth – that (...) his ethical interpreters tend to neglect. Yet the essay also shows that Foucault’s depiction of the predicament of truth-tellers is problematically gendered: focused on the masculine problem of moving in and out of the public sphere, rather than on the experience of the dispossessed, who are excluded from political power altogether. The essay mobilizes an alternative reading of one of Foucault’s key texts – Euripides’ Ion – to draw out an alternative, more democratic model of the predicament of truth-telling: of having to constitute power that can lend significant to truth-telling, while speaking from a position of powerlessness. (shrink)

In our essay we try to define the main lines of the Socratic thought and activity that offer subjects for reflection, in order to make a better choice of what could help us lead a better life in the contemporary world, such as, for example, modesty and intellectual honesty, detachment from unlimited material enrichment, liberty and ethical responsibility, respect of all differences, critical dialogue and cooperation, active participation by everyone in political well-being, and courageous but non-violent denunciation of every injustice.

In this paper we define the hyper operations ⊗, ∨ and ∧ on a hyper MV -algebra and we obtain some related results. After that by considering the notions ofhyper MV -ideals and weak hyper MV -ideals, we prove some theorems. Then we determine relationships between hyper MV -ideals in a hyper MV -algebra and hyper K -ideals in a hyper K -algebra . Finally we give a characterization of hyper MV -algebras of order 3 or 4 based on the (...) hyper MV -ideals. (shrink)

This essay argues for reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a work of love that calls for an environmental politics of desire rather than self-preservation narrowly construed. I make this argument by reading Silent Spring in conjunction with the extant love letters of Carson and Dorothy Freeman, where they depict their love as a wondrous multispecies achievement constituted through encounters with birds. I argue that their example reveals that love need be neither worldless nor heteronormative, but may be a world-disclosing (...) practice that leads individuals to live, and desire to live, differently. Reading Silent Spring through the lens of these letters, I argue that it calls us to see the threat insecticides pose not only to “mere life” but also to pleasurable lives of wonder and love. I build on Silent Spring to argue for an alternative politics of survival in the face of climate change: one that foregrounds the connections between inter-human affects and a vibrant multispecies world, between intimate and public feelings, and calls for preservation of a multispecies world through and on behalf of human pleasure. (shrink)

Pas moins de 81 divinités et groupes de divinités traditionnelles constellent les dialogues de Platon où elles font l'objet de près de 1 200 mentions. Ace jour, aucune recherche sur la pensée religieuse toujours très controversée du philosophe n'a pris en considération l'ensemble de ces données. Ce n'est que récemment que des platonisants ont accordé une attention particulière à quelques-unes de ces divinités, mais souvent de façon partielle. Le présent ouvrage s'efforce de combler cette lacune. La référence que fait le (...) titre au célèbre mot attribué à Thalès, que cite Platon lui-même, est une manière de souligner l'omniprésence des divinités, non seulement dans l'univers, mais aussi dans la pensée du philosophe. Aussi la structure de l'enquête s'ordonne-t-elle autour du triptyque phusis, polis, psyché. Dans l'ensemble inextricable de composants rationnels et non rationnels que présente cette parole philosophique, une grande partie relève du domaine des dieux. Cette étude montre donc l'importance des divinités traditionnelles, trop longtemps négligées ou sous-estimées, et clarifie la place qu'elles occupent dans la construction de la pensée philosophique de Platon. (shrink)

The Philosopher's Banquet is the first sustained study of Plutarch's Table Talk, a Greek prose text which is a combination of philosophical dialogue (in the ...

Cet article examine l’attitude de Socrate tel qu’il se présente dans les dialogues platoniciens, face à la religion officielle d’Athènes. Ensuite, nous présentons les positions adoptées par Platon dans ses cités idéales concernant les citoyens qui s’écartent des attitudes religieuses établies par la loi. Enfin, nous mettons en évidence les similitudes et les différences entre Socrate et Platon sur les rapports entre la religion publique et les croyances personnelles. Contrairement aux avis courants, nous défendons l’idée que Platon est resté fidèle (...) du début jusqu’à la fin de son oeuvre aux principes socratiques concernant le divin. En fait, dans ses cités idéales, Platon « renverse » les rôles : les croyances de Socrate, définies dialectiquement par le logos, deviennent le fondement de la législation et sont les seules acceptées officiellement.Public Religion and personal beliefs. Plato against Socrates? The present paper examines first Socrates’ attitude towards the official religion of Athens, as it appears in the Platonic dialogues. We then analyse Plato’s position concerning the citizens who diverged from the religious representations established by law in the ideal cities. Finally, we formulate what we consider to be the similarities and differences between Socrates and Plato himself concerning the relations between public religion and personal beliefs. Against the current interpretations, we defend the idea that Plato conserved from the beginning till the end of his work his devotion to Socratic principles concerning divinity. In fact, in the ideal cities Plato “reverses” the roles: the intimate convictions of Socrates regarding the gods, defined dialectically by the logos, become the foundation of legislation and are the only ones officially accepted. (shrink)

There are certain moments, such as the American founding or the Civil Rights Movement, that we revisit again and again as instances of democratic triumph, and there are other moments that haunt us as instances of democratic failure. How should we view moments of democratic failure, when both the law and citizens forsake justice? Do such moments reveal a wholesale failure of democracy or a more contested failing, pointing to what could have been, and still might be? Public Trials reveals (...) the considerable stakes of how we understand democratic failure. Maxwell argues against a tendency in the thinking of Plato, Rousseau and contemporary theorists to view moments of democratic failure as indicative of the failure of democracy, insomuch as such thinking leads to a deference to authority that unintentionally encourages complicity in elite and legal failures to assure justice. In contrast, what Maxwell calls "lost cause narratives" of democratic failure reveal the contingency of democratic failure by showing that things "could have been" otherwise-and, with public action and response, might yet be. A politics of lost causes calls for democratic responsiveness to failure via practices of resistance, theatrical claims-making, and re-narration. Maxwell makes a powerful case for the politics of lost causes by examining public controversies over trials. She focuses on the dilemmas and diagnoses of democratic failure in four instances: Edmund Burke's speeches and writings on the Warren Hastings trial in late 18th century Britain, Emile Zola's writings on the Dreyfus Affair in late 19th century France, Hannah Arendt's writings on the Eichmann trial in 1960's Israel, and Kathryn Bigelow's recent narration of (the lack of) trials of alleged terrorist detainees in Zero Dark Thirty. Maxwell marshals her subtle, historically grounded readings of these texts to show the dangers of despairing of democracy altogether, as well as the necessity of re-narrating instances of democratic failure so as to cultivate public responsiveness to such failures in the future. (shrink)