Aristotle considered moral beauty to be the telos of the human virtues. Displays of moral beauty have been shown to elicit the moral emotion of elevation and cause a desire to become a better person and to engage in prosocial behavior. Study 1 (N = 5380) shows engagement with moral beauty is related to several psychological constructs relevant to moral education, and structural models reveal that the story of engagement with moral beauty may be considered a story of love and (...) connectedness; it is uniquely predictive of caring for, being empathic of, loving, and valuing benevolence toward others. Study 2 (N = 542) demonstrates that the personality trait of engaging with moral beauty moderates susceptibility to elevation. These studies suggest that encouraging students to engage with moral beauty might increase their desire to become better persons and to do good. Convergent with other research showing that moral emotions motivate moral behavior, we suggest that moral education programs increase their focus on developing engagement with moral beauty. (shrink)

Arthur Danto has written:I came to view that in writing about beauty as a philosopher, I was addressing the deepest kind of issue there is. Beauty is but one of an immense range of aesthetic qualities, and philosophical aesthetics has been paralyzed by focusing as narrowly on beauty as it has. But beauty is the only one of the aesthetic qualities that is also a virtue, like truth and goodness. It is not simply among the values we live by, but (...) one of the values that defines what a fully human life means.1Because beauty is so important to being human, it is worthwhile to study how people understand their experiences of beauty across the lifespan. How do children frame what beauty is? How do adolescents? How do... (shrink)

Beginning in the late 1990s we became convinced that our undergraduate psychology students needed classroom experiences that set the conditions for them to become more engaged with beauty. We recognized the intrinsic importance of beauty to human psychological development, beyond any utilitarian concerns.1 But we also believed that there were important psychological benefits to be gained by becoming increasingly engaged with beauty. In this paper we briefly describe some of those benefits that have been documented in the psychological research literature (...) in the last decade. This paper primarily outlines a curricular recipe for infusing beauty into an Introduction to Psychology course at the undergraduate .. (shrink)

This article conceptualizes the evolution of the German political economy as the codevelopment of technological and institutional change. The notion of skill-biased liberalization is introduced to capture this process and contrasted with the two dominant theoretical frameworks employed in contemporary comparative political economy scholarship—dualization and liberalization. Integrating theories from labor economics, the article argues that the increasing centrality of high skills complementary in production to information and communications technology has weakened the traditional complementarity among specific skills, regulated industrial relations, and (...) generous social protection in core sectors. The liberalization of industrial relations and social protection is shown in fact to be instrumental for high-end exporting firms to concentrate wages and benefits on increasingly important high-skilled workers. Strong evidence based on descriptive statistics, union and industry documents, and twenty-one elite interviews is found in support of the article’s alternative perspective. (shrink)

Den Zusammenhang der Arbeit stellt die Dreigliedrigkeit Realität- Sprache-Denken dar; das Fehlen dieses Zusammenhangs bei Chomsky und Skinner wird aufgedeckt und damit der Mythos einer fetischisierten Sprache. Das geschieht primär durch die Analyse theoretischer Prämis- sen, die die Richtung der Arbeitsresultate festschreiben und relevante Fragestellungen aussparen. Die Arbeit zeigt, wie das konstruiert wurde und welche Konsequenzen das theoretisch und z.T. auch praktisch hat. Damit stehen nicht nur die theoretischen Interessen der beiden Autoren, sondern die der Linguistik zur Debatte, zumal als (...) einer Disziplin, die nicht autark ist, sondern Wissen über Welt voraussetzt und selbst ideologisch produziert. (shrink)

Long description: Nach der Dekonstruktion der Vorstellungen von Echtheit, Eigentlichkeit und Ursprünglichkeit unter dem Vorzeichen des Cultural Turn erfährt Authentizität eine neue Konjunktur - sowohl in der theoretischen Auseinandersetzung als auch in der kulturellen Praxis. Der Band widmet sich dieser neuen Sehnsucht nach dem Ursprünglichen und begreift sie als Herausforderung für die Kulturwissenschaften. Die Beiträge eröffnen den Dialog zwischen unterschiedlichen Authentizitäts-Konzepten und verbinden theoretische Positionsbestimmungen mit konkreten Anwendungsbereichen.

Besonnenes Denken und Handeln erweist sich heute als dringlicher denn je. Bennent-Vahle akzentuiert und entfaltet diese These nicht zuletzt mit Blick auf aktuelle Tendenzen politischer Radikalisierung und gesellschaftlicher Verrohung. Erlautert wird, wie bedeutsam Perspektiven umsichtiger Personlichkeitsbildung fur das Gelingen demokratischer Prozesse sind. Vor allem kommt es darauf an, der menschlichen Emotionalitat gerecht zu werden und eine Kultivierung der Mitgefuhle anzuregen. Hier bietet die philosophische Tradition wertvolle Anknupfungspunkte, die es auf der Basis vertiefter wissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse zum menschlichen Gefuhlsleben zeitgemass auszutarieren und (...) praxisbezogen zu erkunden gilt. (shrink)

Besonnenes Denken und Handeln erweist sich heute als dringlicher denn je. Bennent-Vahle akzentuiert und entfaltet diese These nicht zuletzt mit Blick auf aktuelle Tendenzen politischer Radikalisierung und gesellschaftlicher Verrohung. Erläutert wird, wie bedeutsam Perspektiven umsichtiger Persönlichkeitsbildung für das Gelingen demokratischer Prozesse sind. Vor allem kommt es darauf an, der menschlichen Emotionalität gerecht zu werden und eine Kultivierung der Mitgefühle anzuregen. Hier bietet die philosophische Tradition wertvolle Anknüpfungspunkte, die es auf der Basis vertiefter wissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse zum menschlichen Gefühlsleben zeitgemäß auszutarieren und (...) praxisbezogen zu erkunden gilt. (shrink)

BackgroundBiobanking biospecimens and consent are common practice in paediatric research. We need to explore children and young people’s (CYP) knowledge and perspectives around the use of and consent to biobanking. This will ensure meaningful informed consent can be obtained and improve current consent procedures.MethodsWe designed a survey, in co-production with CYP, collecting demographic data, views on biobanking, and consent using three scenarios: 1) prospective consent, 2) deferred consent, and 3) reconsent and assent at age of capacity. The survey was disseminated (...) via the Young Person’s Advisory Group North England (YPAGne) and participating CYP’s secondary schools. Data were analysed using a qualitative thematic approach by three independent reviewers (including CYP) to identify common themes. Data triangulation occurred independently by a fourth reviewer.ResultsOne hundred two CYP completed the survey. Most were between 16–18 years (63.7%, N = 65) and female (66.7%, N = 68). 72.3% had no prior knowledge of biobanking (N = 73).Acceptability of prospective consent for biobanking was high (91.2%, N = 93) with common themes: ‘altruism’, ‘potential benefits outweigh individual risk’, 'frugality', and ‘(in)convenience’.Deferred consent was also deemed acceptable in the large majority (84.3%, N = 86), with common themes: ‘altruism’, ‘body integrity’ and ‘sample frugality’. 76.5% preferred to reconsent when cognitively mature enough to give assent (N = 78), even if parental consent was previously in place. 79.2% wanted to be informed if their biobanked biospecimen is reused (N = 80).ConclusionProspective and deferred consent acceptability for biobanking is high among CYP in the UK. Altruism, frugality, body integrity, and privacy are the most important themes. Clear communication and justification are paramount to obtain consent. Any CYP with capacity should be part of the consenting procedure, if possible. (shrink)