This article suggests that institutional workshops of assay were significant experimental sites in early modern London. Master assayers at Goldsmiths’ Hall on Foster Lane, in the heart of the city, and at the Royal Mint, in the Tower, made trials to determine the precious-metal content of bullion, plate and coinage. The results of their metallurgical experiments directly impacted upon the reputations and livelihoods of London's goldsmiths and merchants, and the fineness of coin and bullion. Engaged in the separation and transformation (...) of matter, assayers and the affairs of their workshops were also a curiosity for those interested in the secrets of nature. Making use of a wide-ranging body of sources, including institutional court minutes, artisanal petitions, mercantile guidebooks, recipe books and natural-philosophical treatises, this article uncovers a complex culture of metropolitan expertise. We first examine the workshop spaces in which assayers undertook their professional activities, and their secretive corporate cultures. We turn next to the manuscript culture through which assayers codified and communicated knowledge, ‘secrets’ and techniques to broader urban audiences. Finally, we assess exchanges and tensions between assayers and the wider community of Londoners engaged in scientific knowledge production and dissemination. (shrink)

States commonly employ education policy to build a strong sense of citizenship within young people and to create types of citizens appropriate to the country. In Singapore the government created a policy to build citizenship through both policy statements and social studies in the school curriculum. In the context of a tightly controlled state regulating schooling through a highly controlled educational system, the government expected teachers to obey these policy documents, political statements and the prescribed curriculum. What do teachers understand (...) about citizenship in this context? In schools do teachers demonstrate independence of thought on citizenship education or do they acquiesce to government policy? This article reports on a small group of social studies teachers' understandings of citizenship and explores the nature of these understandings in the context of government policy. The study showed an unexpected diversity of conceptualization amongst Singaporean teachers with their understandings of citizenship located in four themes, namely a sense of identity, rights and responsibilities, participation, and national history. This response was unintended by government and reflects an independence of citizenship education landscape in schools, despite the tight policy and bureaucratic controls over teachers by the Singapore state. (shrink)

This feminist research explores how superstition is used by in-law's family to subordinate women business-owners in a highly patriarchal developing context. Whereas the exploration of gender subordination regarding women's entrepreneurship is almost exclusively confined to developed nations, little is known regarding the way women are subjugated in managing their small businesses in a patriarchal developing nation. This research generates data by conducting a case study on a woman's business in Bangladesh. This study yields unique insights by unfolding a specific (...) form of superstition that attempts to restrain a woman from continuing her small business. The paper reveals that the male relative caused a severe adverse impact on the personal life and business of the woman by employing superstition. With particular reference to superstition, this feminist study substantially extends the theoretical understanding of gender subordination within the context of small businesses of women in a highly patriarchal developing nation. The research strongly suggests policymakers to consider familial issues of women business-owners in designing programmes to empower them effectively. (shrink)

This research critically analyses patriarchal practices of male family members in terms of social relationships in businesses of women. The extant literature, which seeks to explore the negative influences of the family on women’s entrepreneurship, mostly revolves around the impact of patriarchal segregation of work on businesses. As such, it concentrates almost exclusively on the aspect of material gains through domestic responsibilities and childcare of women at the household sphere. This feminist study takes the debate forward with novel insights on (...) how menfolk of the family dominate, oppress and exploit women by directly getting involved in small businesses of women in a highly patriarchal developing nation, Bangladesh. From the interviews of the women business-owners, it is established that businesses of some women are adversely affected by male relatives’ social practices that are not tied to the domestic modes of production. Thus, the article significantly contributes to the understanding on gender subordination in women’s entrepreneurship from the narrow concentration on material gains of male family members to a more nuanced view of social practices. (shrink)

Coherence and correspondence are classical contenders as theories of truth. In this paper we examine them instead as interacting factors in the dynamics of belief across epistemic networks. We construct an agent-based model of network contact in which agents are characterized not in terms of single beliefs but in terms of internal belief suites. Individuals update elements of their belief suites on input from other agents in order both to maximize internal belief coherence and to incorporate ‘trickled in’ elements of (...) truth as correspondence. Results, though often intuitive, prove more complex than in simpler models (Hegselmann & Krause 2002, 2006; Grim, Singer, Reade & Fisher 2015). The optimistic finding is that pressures toward internal coherence can exploit and expand on small elements of truth as correspondence is introduced into epistemic networks. Less optimistic results show that pressures for coherence can also work directly against the incorporation of truth, particularly when coherence is established first and new data is introduced later. (shrink)

Higher education is starting to embrace its role in promoting student wellbeing and life skills, especially given the concerning levels of poor mental health and uncertainties in the future job market. Yet, many of the published studies evaluating positive educational teaching methods thus far are limited to interventions delivered to small student cohorts and/or imbedded within elective wellbeing courses, and are focussed on developed Western countries. This study addressed this gap by investigating the effectiveness of an institution-wide compulsory course (...) informed by the principles of Seligman’s Wellbeing Theory. The course was delivered at a British university in a developing country in Southeast Asia. It purposefully sought to nurture growth-oriented outcomes and was taken by an entire cohort of year one undergraduate students. We tested the effectiveness of the curriculum content and staff coaching style in achieving life skills, and evaluated how these perceptions influenced students’ subjective wellbeing. A convergent mixed-methods design was used with 350 survey respondents and 11 interviewees. Perceived life skills scores showed a 2.5% improvement at the end of the course. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling tested the predicted relationships between variables. All relationships were statistically significant, but the influence of course design and educators’ style on life skills acquisition was moderate, while the effect on subjective happiness and life satisfaction was very weak. Qualitative data indicated that while quantifiable benefits to wellbeing might not be immediate, students did anticipate longer-term benefits for happiness and life satisfaction. This finding suggests that such a novel educational approach is well-received by Asian students and may sow the seeds for future benefit by positively impacting on their skills, behaviours, attitudes, and values. To achieve optimal flourishing at university, we recommend exploring teaching practises that combine positive education with coaching psychology practises. (shrink)

Mental health among students is one of the major concerns amidst the pandemic. Employing a correlational design, this study investigates the relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health among 152 senior high school students. Based on the statistical analysis, the r coefficient of 0.82 indicates a high positive correlation between the variables. The p-value of 0.00, which is less than 0.05, leads to the decision to reject the null hypothesis. Hence, a significant relationship exists between emotional intelligence and mental health (...) among senior high school. Implications were discussed in the study. (shrink)

Why is it more violating to grab a stranger’s thigh or stroke their face than it is to grab their forearm? Why is it worse to read someone’s dream journal without permission than it is to read their bird watching field notes? Why are gestation mandates so incredibly intrusive? Intimacy is key to understanding these cases, and to explaining many of our most stringent rights. -/- I present two ways of thinking about intimacy, Relationship-First Accounts and the Intimate Zones Account. (...) I argue that only the Intimate Zones Account lets us cohesively understand intimacy’s importance, and the scope of our intimate rights. I characterize our intimate zones as meeting the Hiddenness and Importance Conditions. A feature’s meeting these conditions makes it a locus of special vulnerability by which our persons can be fundamentally altered. This special vulnerability explains why our duties to respect the intimate boundaries of others are so strict. (shrink)

Nursing has evolved, yet media representation has arguably failed to keep up. This work explores why representation has been slow in accurately depicting nurses' responsibilities, impacts on public perceptions and professional identity. A critical realist review was employed as this method enables in-depth exploration into why something exists. A multidisciplinary approach was adopted, drawing from feminist, psychological and sociological theories to provide insightful understanding and recommendations. One main feminist lens has been implemented, using Laura Mulvey’s ‘Male-Gaze’ framework for content analysis (...) of three nurse-related advertisements to explore how the profession's female status influences representation, public perception and how this might impact nursing. Nurse representation has important real-world consequences. It is essential to improve unnecessary negative portrayals and contest ingrained stereotypes as there are costs to public opinion and nursing's self-identity. Nursing's female status has an impact within a male-dominated media industry, with a leisurely approach adopted toward changing representation. Media images become societally ingrained, this reiterates the significance of accurate/positive depictions. Social media is an instant method of communication with the public to combat stereotypes and maintain engagement to provide better understanding of what nurses do. (shrink)

The under-representation of women on boards is a heavily discussed topic—not only in Germany. Based on critical mass theory and with the help of a hand-collected panel dataset of 151 listed German firms for the years 2000–2005, we explore whether the link between gender diversity and firm performance follows a U-shape. Controlling for reversed causality, we find evidence for gender diversity to at first negatively affect firm performance and—only after a “critical mass” of about 30 % women has been reached—to (...) be associated with higher firm performance than completely male boards. Given our sample firms, the critical mass of 30 % women translates into an absolute number of about three women on the board and hence supports recent studies on a corresponding “magic number” of women in the boardroom. (shrink)

There are few moral principles less controversial than “don’t touch people’s private parts without consent.” Though the principle doesn’t make explicit that there are exceptions, there clearly are some. Parents must wipe their infants. If an unconscious patient is admitted to the emergency room with a profusely bleeding laceration on their genitals, a doctor must give them stitches. The researchers who proposed the study in question, which would look for a connection between burn patients’ microbiomes and their clinical outcomes, presumably (...) believed they had identified an additional exception to the aforementioned principle. I argue that they did not. Rather, because of their tremendous inherent risks, we ought only to perform intimate procedures on those who can’t consent when the procedure is for their own good. -/- Intimate violations have been overlooked in both philosophy and medicine. Because of this, we have lacked an adequate conceptual framework for identifying certain kinds of harms research can inflict. When we understand these special risks, we see that the IRB was right to deny a waiver of consent. (shrink)

Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) provide the majority of direct care to nursing home residents in the United States and, therefore, are keys to ensuring optimal health outcomes for this frail older adult population. These diverse direct care workers, however, are often not recognized for their important contributions to older adult care and are subjected to poor working conditions. It is probable that social‐based discrimination lies at the core of poor treatment toward CNAs. This review uses perspectives from critical social theory (...) to explore the phenomenon of social‐based discrimination toward CNAs that may originate from social order, power, and culture. Understanding manifestations of social‐based discrimination in nursing homes is critical to creating solutions for severe disparity problems among perceived lower‐class workers and subsequently improving resident care delivery. (shrink)

Introduction: Burnout, inertia, meltdown, and shutdown have been identified as important parts of some autistic people’s lives. This study builds on our previous work that offered early academic descriptions of these phenomena, based on the perspectives of autistic adults.Objectives: This study aimed to explore the unique knowledge and insights of eight autistic children and youth to extend and refine our earlier description of burnout, inertia, and meltdown, with additional exploration of shutdown. We also aimed to explore how these youth cope (...) with these phenomena and what others around them do that make things better or worse, with a hope to glean knowledge to design better supports.Methods: One-to-one interviews were conducted with eight children and youth, who shared their experience with BIMS. To match individual communication strengths of children and youth, we took a flexible approach to interviews, allowing for augmentative communication systems and use of visual images to support verbal interviews, as needed. We conducted a reflexive, inductive thematic analysis, using an iterative process of coding, collating, reviewing, and mapping themes.Findings: Our analysis has identified that these youth describe BIMS as a multi-faceted experience involving emotional, cognitive and physical components. Moreover, these multifaceted experiences are often misunderstood by neurotypical adults, which contributes to inadequate support in managing BIMS. Of the four experiences, these youth identified meltdowns as most common.Conclusion: By gaining first-hand perspectives, we have identified novel insights into BIMS and developed a more holistic understanding of these phenomena. These youths’ descriptions of supportive strategies for BIMS stress the importance of compassion and collaboration from trusted adults. This new knowledge will provide a foundation for how to better support autistic children and youth. Further research is required to develop an understanding of BIMS, especially with respect to how it is experienced by children and youth. Future research should leverage the insights and experiential knowledge of autistic children and youth to co-design support tool for BIMS. (shrink)

I give an argument for veganism by drawing parallels between a) bestiality and animal fighting, and b) animal product consumption. Attempts to draw principled distinctions between the practices fail. The wrong-making features of bestiality and animal fighting are also found in animal product consumption. These parallels give us new insight into why popular objections to veganism, such as the Inefficacy Argument, are inadequate. Because it is often difficult to enact significant life changes, I hope that seeing the parallels between animal (...) product consumption and acts we are already so strongly motivated to avoid can help us abstain from animal products. (shrink)

Western media coverage of female genital modifications in Africa has been hyperbolic and one-sided, presenting them uniformly as mutilation and ignoring the cultural complexities that underlie these practices. Even if we ultimately decide that female genital modifications should be abandoned, the debate around them should be grounded in a better account of the facts.

Este documento provee un panorama de las posibilidades, pero también de la problemática de la colaboración inter y transdisciplinaria. La principal característica de la sustentabilidad es la complejidad y el entrelazamiento, por lo que el trabajo de adaptación en este ámbito es complejo y variado. Para las resoluciones de los problemas del contexto de un desarrollo sustentable no son suficientes simples causas–mecanismos de acción–descripciones. Son necesarios procedimientos que satisfagan la complejidad, que le den uso cotidiano, y que además no corran (...) peligro de ser simplificados. En la primera sección, se presentan en primer lugar la inter y la transdisciplinariedad como principios adecuados, con cuya ayuda es posible elaborar amplias soluciones para problemáticas complejas. Para solucionar integralmente los complejos problemas sustentables, se han desarrollado en los últimos años distintos métodos (de investigación), los cuales en este momento se aplican en la investigación y enseñanza. Se trata en este caso de enfoques, los cuales no pertenecen a una disciplina particular de investigación, sino que las entrecruzan. Con la meta de lograr datos para las soluciones de problemáticas complejas en la práctica, se presentan en la segunda sección los enfoques inter- y transdisciplinarios en este momento más discutidos y aplicados. La última sección presenta un resumen de los distintos métodos mencionados. (shrink)

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and many more social networking sites are becoming mainstream in the lives of numerous individuals in the United States and around the globe. How these sites could potentially impact one's perception of community, as well as the ability to enhance strong social bonding, is an area of concern for many sociologists and criminologists. Current literature is discussed and framed through the lenses of social disorganization and social control theories as they relate to an individual's propensity to commit (...) crime/indiscretions and then post comments relating to those activities on social networking sites. The result is gained insight into the communal attributes of social networking and a contribution to the discussion of the relationship among the social components of the internet, criminal activity, and one's sense of community. Implications and areas of future research are also addressed. (shrink)

Following Peter Elbow’s work on ‘resonant voice’ or ‘presence’, this essay examines the seldom-explored resonance between a text and its writer in the moment of its creation. The essay asks what the boundaries and content of this space might look like, and how this knowledge might positively affect the creative product. It challenges the popular search for a writer’s ‘voice’, instead positing that each writer has a perpetually shifting internal plurality of voices, which unifies the constructivist and social constructionist views (...) of the self. By arguing that the resonance between writer and writing is the experience of this plurality coming to harmony, the essay posits that to create such a resonance involves a balance of simultaneously relinquishing control to the internal choir and learning how to better conduct it. (shrink)

In this article, I theorize the soundscape of Dene “myth”—stories and songs that are both philosophically and literally true—by defining an interpretive template for listening actively to these ecologically and spiritually powerful expressions. I offer two central and interlinked concepts for figuring the soundscape: (1) narrative revitalization and (2) animal grammar. Together these concepts describe the power of animal stories to live: and to enable life. As a key premise of my analysis, I accept Dene “myth” as true.

Recordar: To remember; from the Latin re-cordis, to pass back through the heart.Forgetting is not secondary; it is not an improvised failing of what has first been constituted as memory. Forgetfulness is a practice.In his search for a community that does not rely upon the false unities of subjectivity or identity, Maurice Blanchot looks to literature and writing. To achieve the common in community, Blanchot argues for the development of unworking writing practices aimed at the silence anterior to language—a silence (...) that constitutes authentic communication. Instead of abiding by the rules of grammar, Blanchot encourages writers to produce fragments, which constitutes one method of unworking writing. This... (shrink)

Past research reveals a tension between children's preferences for egalitarianism and ingroup favoritism when distributing resources to others. Here we investigate how children's evaluations and expectations of others' behaviors compare. Four- to 10-year-old children viewed events where individuals from two different groups distributed resources to their own group, to the other group, or equally across groups. Groups were described within a context of intergroup competition over scarce resources. In the Evaluation condition, children were asked to evaluate which resource distribution actions (...) were nicer. In the Expectation condition, children were asked to predict which events were more likely to occur. With age, children's evaluations and expectations of others' actions diverged: Children evaluated egalitarian actions as nicer yet expected others to behave in ways that benefit their own group. Thus, children's evaluations about the way human social actors should behave do not mirror their expectations concerning those individuals' actions. (shrink)

Incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity are non‐Mendelian phenomena resulting in the lack of correlation between genotype and phenotype. Not withstanding the diversity in mechanisms, differential expression of homologous alleles within cells manifests as variations in penetrance and expressivity of mutations between individuals of the same genotype. These phenomena are seen most often in dominantly inherited diseases, implying that they are sensitive to concentration of the gene product. In this framework and the advances in understanding the role of microRNA (miRNA) in (...) fine‐tuning gene expression at translational level, we propose miRNA‐mediated regulation as a mechanism for incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity. The presence of miRNA binding sites at 3′ UTR, co‐expression of target gene–miRNA pairs for genes showing incomplete penetrance and variable expressivity derived from available data lend support to our hypothesis. Single nucleotide polymorphisms in the miRNA target site facilitate the implied differential targeting of the transcripts from homologous alleles. (shrink)

Alinder provides calibrated readings of the photographs from this period, including works by Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Manzanar camp inmate Toyo Miyatake (who constructed his own camera to document the complicated realities of camp life) ...

The truth in the NKJV Holy Bible that validates black spirituality and therefore , faithful and true and the lord of hosts.

Background: Short latency afferent inhibition provides a method to investigate mechanisms of sensorimotor integration. Cholinergic involvement in the SAI phenomena suggests that SAI may provide a marker of cognitive influence over implicit sensorimotor processes. Consistent with this hypothesis, we previously demonstrated that visual attention load suppresses SAI circuits preferentially recruited by anterior-to-posterior -, but not posterior-to-anterior -current induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation. However, cerebellar modulation can also modulate these same AP-sensitive SAI circuits. Yet, the consequences of concurrent cognitive and implicit (...) cerebellar influences over these AP circuits are unknown.Objective: We used cerebellar intermittent theta-burst stimulation to determine whether the cerebellar modulation of sensory to motor projections interacts with the attentional modulation of sensory to motor circuits probed by SAI.Methods: We assessed AP-SAI and PA-SAI during a concurrent visual detection task of varying attention load before and after cerebellar iTBS.Results: Before cerebellar iTBS, a higher visual attention load suppressed AP-SAI, but not PA-SAI, compared to a lower visual attention load. Post-cerebellar iTBS, the pattern of AP-SAI in response to visual attention load, was reversed; a higher visual attention load enhanced AP-SAI compared to a lower visual attention load. Cerebellar iTBS did not affect PA-SAI regardless of visual attention load.Conclusion: These findings suggest that attention and cerebellar networks converge on overlapping AP-sensitive circuitry to influence motor output by controlling the strength of the afferent projections to the motor cortex. This interaction has important implications for understanding the mechanisms of motor performance and learning. (shrink)

Den Belangen der menschlichen Seele hat sich Ludwig Wittgenstein nahezu in seinem gesamten philosophischen Schaffen gewidmet – doch v.a. in seinen letzten Schriften verdichten sich seine Bemerkungen zu Problemen des Fremdseelischen, die sich in der Frage ausdrücken lassen, wie – und ob! – wir vom Seelenleben Anderer wissen können, wie wir also wissen können, was – und dass – Andere fühlen, empfinden und denken. In diesem Buch wird Wittgensteins grammatischen Untersuchungen zum Fremdseelischen nachgespürt, d.h. der Art und Weise, wie wir (...) über das Seelenleben Anderer sprechen. Anders als in der traditionellen Philosophie nähert sich Wittgenstein dem Problem des Fremdseelischen nicht nur als einem erkenntnistheoretischen, sondern auch als einem praktischen Problem, das uns im Alltag begegnet, wenn Andere lügen oder sich verstellen oder wir sie nicht verstehen, weil sie uns aufgrund soziokultureller Umstände fremd sind. Die Betrachtung solch alltagspraktischer Fälle zeigt, dass das Problem des Fremdseelischen für Wittgenstein weniger ein Problem über Andere, als vielmehr ein Problem mit Anderen darstellt. (shrink)

Commentary on "What Justifies the Allocation of Health Care Resources to Patients with Disorders of Consciousness?", Peterson, Aas and Wasserman.

A groundbreaking endeavor that explores human spirituality using the evolving technology of artificial intelligence.

Félix Guattari, a French philosopher and psychotherapist often recognized for his collaboration with Gilles Deleuze, also published important work of his own. The way he conceptualizes subjectivity and schizoanalysis (later developed into institutional analysis) can incite us to interpret our social contexts differently and to help frame an emancipatory path in nursing. At La Borde, a psychiatric clinic, subjectivity was seen as the real power that lies within the institutions; invisible and flowing through all levels of the hierarchal structure—like waves—each (...) of them unique but still part of the same ocean. Even with its elusive character, this concept can be wielded through psychotherapeutic techniques of analysis which aim to reduce hierarchies, encourage collaborations, decentralize levers of power and promote initiatives that arise from the base. These concepts deserve further exploration when it comes to modern institutional issues like the ones present in Quebec's (Canada) healthcare system. Therefore, this article borrows theorizations elaborated through psychotherapy and applies them to the hospital institution which is seen as an organized, stable structure (the molar line), while paying attention to fluid, changing processes and the multiplicity of desires for transformation (the molecular line), to promote nursing movements that escape and abolish these structures, creating new possibilities and new forms of thinking (the line of flight). (shrink)

The DNA hypomethylating agents (HMA) azacitidine (AZA) and decitabine (DAC) improve survival and transfusion independence in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and enable a low intensity cytotoxic treatment for aged AML patients unsuitable for intensive chemotherapy, particularly in combination with novel agents. The proposed mechanism of AZA and DAC relies on active DNA replication and therefore patient responses are only observed after multiple cycles of treatment. Although extended dosing may provide the optimal scheduling, the reliance of injectable formulation of the drug limits (...) it to intermittent treatment. Recently, an oral formulation of AZA demonstrated significantly improved patient relapse free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) when used as maintenance after chemotherapy for AML. In addition, both DAC and AZA were found to be highly effective to improve survival in elderly patients with AML through combination with other drugs. These recent exciting results have changed the therapeutic paradigm for elderly patients with AML. In light of this, we review current knowledge on HMA mechanism of action, clinical trials exploring dosing and scheduling, and recent HMA combination therapies to enhance efficacy. (shrink)

The conventional wisdom that influences university policy on what is considered valid sexual consent has undergone radical change over the past twenty years. Valid consent being the criteria that makes subsequent sexual behavior morally justified because the consent is morally transformative in the way that matters. Affirmative consent policies are now being used increasingly at universities across the country, as well as forming the basis for legislation in some U.S. states. University policies that define affirmative consent are varied, but policies (...) generally require the consent to be voluntary, conscious, unambiguous, and ongoing. The consent can be communicated verbally or behaviorally as long as it is clear and continues throughout the sexual encounter. I will argue against both the unambiguous and ongoing requirements of sexual consent. I contend that we should reject the affirmative model of sexual consent because of the problems with these requirements and I then offer some reasons in favor of returning to a lack of dissent model of sexual consent. (shrink)

My dissertation develops a defense of a right to self-defense against the state. I set aside anarchist theories and grant for the sake of argument that the state has legitimate political authority. My goal is to convince non-anarchists that the right to self-defense extends to individuals against the state and the state’s agents. I argue that the right to self-defense is a fundamental, negative, claim right. The right to self-defense has these characteristics: (1) it is fundamental, meaning that it is (...) not derivative of any other right—it doesn’t appeal to any other right for its justification (2) it is negative, meaning that it simply requires others to refrain from certain action, and (3) it is a claim right, rather than a permission right, which means that it logically entails correlative duties on others. I also challenge some basic tenets of the orthodox account of justified defensive force, including the imminence, necessity, and proportionality conditions. My argument is a controversial one; many will resist the idea that an individual could be justified in self-defense against the state for a variety of reasons, ranging from thinking the idea is absurd or dangerous, to thinking that even if it is morally permissible, it is impractical. I aim to rebut these objections and to provide strong moral reasons to show why individuals do in fact have this right. -/- This research explores the relationship between one of our most basic rights—the right to self-defense—with our most basic political relationship—the relationship between the individual and the state. Part of my aim is to convince non-anarchist readers of philosophical claims that are usually only supported by anarchists. The reason this is important, beyond being academically interesting, is that if I am successful, it could allow a great majority of individuals to rethink their relationship with the state; not just at a basic level, but also in other applied areas such as gun rights, drug laws, and issues surrounding punishment and imprisonment. (shrink)

We argue for a reconsideration of the claim that Spinoza’s perfectionist conception of education was ushering in a form of radical humanism distinctly favorable to democratic ideals. With the rise of democratic societies and the corresponding need to constitute educational institutions within those societies, a more thoroughgoing commitment to democratic social ideals arose, first and foremost in American educational thought. This commitment can be seen especially in Dewey’s philosophy of education. Specifically, Dewey and Spinoza had strikingly distinct conceptions of the (...) overall aims of schooling. While Spinoza takes the aim of education to be the perfection of a student’s original nature, Dewey takes education to involve the collective acquisition of an additional nature, reflecting the norms and expectations of one’s specific community. In this paper, we juxtapose these two distinct conceptions of education alongside one another, with an eye towards illuminating the limitations of a perfectionist theory of education for the individual, as we find it in Spinoza, within a democratic society. (shrink)