_“Brains before bullets” – ancient and modern wisdom for “mechanics and motorcycle enthusiasts”_ Essential reading for fans of the show, this book takes readers deeper into the Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, the Teller-Morrow family, and the ethics that surround their lives and activities. Provides fascinating moral insights into _Sons of Anarchy_, its key characters, plot lines and ideas Investigates compelling philosophical issues centering on loyalty, duty, the ethics of war, authority, religion and whether the ends justify the (...) means Teaches complex philosophical ideas in a way that’s accessible to the general interest reader in order to inspire them to further reading of the great philosophers Authors use their deep knowledge of the show to illuminate themes that are not always apparent even to die-hard fans. (shrink)

The women of Sons of Anarchy have pivotal, powerful roles in the drama, despite not being official members of the MC. Here we have three images of motherhood: the bad mother (few things are considered worse in our society) who endangers her child, the powerful matriarch who comes to the child's rescue, and the mothering healer who is responsible for keeping Abel alive. While the Mothers of Anarchy, on the surface, have no control, in reality they use (...) their power in the private sphere to influence the public sphere and effect great change, albeit with little public recognition for their efforts. While the traditional masculine and feminine spheres are firmly in place within SAMCRO, with the men making all the decisions about the club's future behind the closed chapel doors, the power this mother (Gemma) wields is monumental. (shrink)

The past is, indeed, so essential to the club that they might just as well be called the Sons of History. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel argues that history follows a rational course of development that begins with civilization's earliest and crudest forms of thinking but culminates in modern science and philosophy. Thinking develops and matures through a process Hegel calls “dialectic.” A dialectical process has often been described as one in which an initial “thesis” is set against an opposing (...) “antithesis,” with the opposition between the two provoking a process that “sublates” or “uplifts” them into a hybrid or unified “synthesis.” This dialectical hybrid preserves what is good and right in those originally one‐sided positions, forging them into something higher. (shrink)

The solemnity, sacrifice, and concern for the state of the soul portrayed at Opie's funeral seems out of place among anarchists on motorcycles. The chapter analyzes if Opie's wake should be regarded as a religious rite as Sons of Anarchy are not a Christian sect, nor do they belong to any religious body that Americans commonly embrace. The chapter touches upon gender inequality in religious rites, and male bonding that becomes a primary good and maybe even something like (...) a religious duty. German classicist Walter Burkert terms such a group is a Männerbund (or MB), literally an “all‐male society.” The chapter explains the significance of ubiquitous symbol for the Sons of Anarchy MC – the Grim Reaper logo. Like the image of Santa Muerte, the Reaper logo is what scholars of religion call a hierophany. Finally, the chapter talks about the tragic flaws in the faith of SAMCRO. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to diagnose and analyze the gap between philosophy of technology and engineering ethics and to suggest bridging them in a constructive way. In the first section, I will analyze why philosophy of technology and engineering ethics have taken separate paths so far. The following section will deal with the so-called macro-approach in engineering ethics. While appreciating the initiative, I will argue that there are still certain aspects in this approach that can be improved. In (...) the third, fourth, and fifth sections, I will point out three shortcomings of engineering ethics in terms of its macro-level discourse and argue that a number of certain insights taken from the study of philosophy of technology could be employed in overcoming those problems. In the concluding section, a final recommendation is made that topics of philosophy of technology be included in the curriculum of engineering ethics. (shrink)

The 1981 Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA) established the validity of both cardio-respiratory and neurological criteria of death. However, many religious traditions including most forms of Haredi Judaism (ultra-orthodox) and many varieties of Buddhism strongly disagree with death by neurological criteria (DNC). Only one state in the U.S., New Jersey, allows for both religious exemptions to DNC and provides continuation of health insurance coverage when an exception is invoked in its 1991 Declaration of Death Act (NJDDA). There is yet (...) no quantitative or qualitative data on the frequencies of religious exemptions in New Jersey. This study gathered information about the frequency of religious exemptions and policy in New Jersey that was created out of respect for religious beliefs. Literature and internet searches on topics related to religious objections to DNC were conducted. Fifty-three chaplains and heads of bioethics committees in New Jersey hospitals were contacted by phone or email requesting a research interview. Respondents answered a set of questions about religious exemptions to DNC at the hospital where they worked that explored the frequency of such religious exemptions in the past five years, the religious tradition indicated, and whether any request for a religious exemption had been denied. This study was approved by the Northeastern University Institutional Review Board (IRB #: 16–03-15). Eighteen chaplains and bioethics committee members participated in a full research interview. Of these, five reported instances of religious exemptions to DNC occurring at the hospital at which they worked for a total of approximately 30–36 known exemptions in the past five years. Families sought religious exemptions because of faith in an Orthodox Judaism tradition and nonreligious reasons. No failed attempts to obtain an exemption were reported. Religious exemptions to DNC in New Jersey do occur, although very infrequently. Prior to this study, there was no information on their frequency. Considering religious exemptions do occur, there is a need for national or state policies that addresses both religious objections to DNC and hospital resources. More information is needed to better understand the impact of granting religious exemptions before new policy can be established. (shrink)

In this article I analyze how journalistic codes of ethics in the United States wrestle with the matter of leaks. After assessing how leaks-particularly from government sources-can compromise journalistic independence, I discuss strengths and weakness of ethics codes. Four research questions are explored via a systematic analysis of 47 codes. Although leaks are never explicitly addressed in these codes, the treatment of confidential sources and the need to maintain journalistic independence are addressed.

Patients with serious illnesses or injuries may decide to quit their medical treatment if they think paying the fees will put their families into destitution. Without treatment, it is likely that fatal outcomes will soon follow. We call this phenomenon “near-suicide”. This study attempted to explore this phenomenon by examining how the seriousness of the patient’s illness or injury and the subjective evaluation of the patient’s and family’s financial situation after paying treatment fees affect the final decision on the treatment (...) process. Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics were employed to analyze a dataset of 1042 Vietnamese patients. We found that the more serious the illnesses or injuries of patients were, the more likely they were to choose to quit treatment if they perceived that paying the treatment fees heavily affected their families’ financial status. Particularly, only one in four patients with the most serious health issues who thought that continuing the treatment would push themselves and their families into destitution would decide to continue the treatment. Considering the information-filtering mechanism using subjective cost–benefit judgments, these patients likely chose the financial well-being and future of their family members over their individual suffering and inevitable death. Our study also demonstrates that mindsponge-based reasoning and BMF analytics can be effective in designing and processing health data for studying extreme psychosocial phenomena. Moreover, we suggest that policymakers implement and adjust their policies (e.g., health insurance) following scientific evidence to mitigate patients’ likelihood of making “near-suicide” decisions and improve social equality in the healthcare system. (shrink)

Patients with serious illnesses or injuries may decide to quit their medical treatment if they think paying the fees will put their families into destitution. Without treatment, it is likely that fatal outcomes will soon follow. We call this phenomenon “near-suicide”. This study attempted to explore this phenomenon by examining how the seriousness of the patient’s illness or injury and the subjective evaluation of the patient’s and family’s financial situation after paying treatment fees affect the final decision on the treatment (...) process. Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) analytics were employed to analyze a dataset of 1042 Vietnamese patients. We found that the more serious the illnesses or injuries of patients were, the more likely they were to choose to quit treatment if they perceived that paying the treatment fees heavily affected their families’ financial status. Particularly, only one in four patients with the most serious health issues who thought that continuing the treatment would push themselves and their families into destitution would decide to continue the treatment. Considering the information-filtering mechanism using subjective cost–benefit judgments, these patients likely chose the financial well-being and future of their family members over their individual suffering and inevitable death. Our study also demonstrates that mindsponge-based reasoning and BMF analytics can be effective in designing and processing health data for studying extreme psychosocial phenomena. Moreover, we suggest that policymakers implement and adjust their policies (e.g., health insurance) following scientific evidence to mitigate patients’ likelihood of making “near-suicide” decisions and improve social equality in the healthcare system. (shrink)

Why hasn’t democracy been promoted by nor ICT been controlled by democratic governance? To answer this question, this research begins its investigation by comparing knowledge acquisition systems throughout history: orality, literacy, hyperlink, and hyperlead. “Hyperlead” is a newly coined concept to emphasize the passivity of people when achieving knowledge and information via algorithmic recommendation technologies. Subsequently, the four systems are compared in terms of their epistemological characteristics and political implications. It is argued that, while literacy and hyperlink contributed to the (...) furthering of democracy, hyperlead poses a fundamental challenge to it, undermining human autonomy to make decisions and aggravating vertical and lateral polarizations. In addition, the similarity between orality and hyperlead is addressed. Finally, suggestions to improve or to advert the current trend are provided. What happened during the transition period from orality to literacy and subsequently to hyperlink could be a reference for an alternative to hyperlead. Some technical adjustments and appropriate regulations requiring more transparency in algorithmic recommendation systems would help us to overcome hyperlead and preserve human autonomy. (shrink)

Even though many people have been looking for the origin of human beings, we still don’t know how human beings came into existence. So far, there are two major theories to explain human beings’ starting point – creationism and the theory of evolution. These theories are so abstract that it is hard to accept either one.This essay presents a new theory which explains how human beings and all beings come into existence and carries implications bearing on human conduct. The theory (...) is called “The Principle of Human Essence,” and it was first proposed by Hungduk Bokyoung Son. He points out everything in the world was created by human beings, for nothing can be mentioned or described without them. Then he asks what the human being is, and defines it as a living thing which thinksand speaks. Next, he tries to determine where human consciousness came from, and shows that language is the source of consciousness. Finally, he explains that language can exist only where it is formed between at least two people, and that consciousness is the ability to discern words. Through his unique concept, summed up in the maxim “Words and Earth are simultaneous existence,” Hungduk shows that two living things become human beings through communication, that mind and body exist simultaneously, and that human beings and space exist at the same time. If words are the origin of thoughts, and none of us can possess language without communication with other people, it follows that no one can be a human being by himself or herself. For this reason, Hungduk claimseach person is the cause of each other’s being, so people exist as mutual causations at the same time. I think that, through his metaphysical principle, he offers clear reasons why we must trust each other, solve conflicts between people, and make a world where people live well together, so I hope to introduce his philosophy to other philosophers around the world. (shrink)

The notion of optimality is often invoked informally in the literature on metacognitive control. We provide a precise formulation of the optimization problem and show that optimal time allocation strategies depend critically on certain characteristics of the learning environment, such as the extent of time pressure, and the nature of the uptake function. When the learning curve is concave, optimality requires that items at lower levels of initial competence be allocated greater time. On the other hand, with logistic learning curves, (...) optimal allocations vary with time availability in complex and surprising ways. Hence there are conditions under which optimal strategies will be relatively easy to uncover, and others in which suboptimal time allocation might be expected. The model can therefore be used to address the question of whether and when learners should be able to exercise good metacognitive control in practice. (shrink)

The cultural activities of human being are to be mediated by physical elements. These are, as a matter of fact, the natural things. There is allowed no other way for human being to realize his mental work but than in and through the nature. So, generally speaking, culture in ordinary sense consists in the human mind "objectified" in the natural reality. It remains within the boundary of human activities, which themselves cannot transcend the nature.

In his recent essay, Mark Wenman highlighted parallels between Connolly’s theory of pluralism and earlier iterations of pluralism in the postwar period and the early twentieth century. Focusing on his account of postwar pluralism and especially his interpretation of Dahl, I argue that Dahl’s vision of democracy as polyarchy is fundamentally at odds with Connolly’s. A close reading of Dahl’s text and a consideration of the historical context suggest that Dahl’s theory effectively creates a depoliticized world where citizens are unresponsive (...) to claims about alternative possibilities of democratic life. (shrink)

In her recent essay, Jessica Whyte has challenged the tendency to repurpose Friedrich Hayek’s thought for a progressive and participatory politics. Objecting to such thinkers as Michel Foucault and William Connolly who find inspiration in Hayek’s critique of the monolithic political sovereign and his defense of spontaneous order, Whyte contends that his neoliberalism is actually predicated on the cultivation of politically submissive subjectivity and the curtailment of democratic politics. While agreeing with her substantive conclusions, I suggest that her conceptual frame (...) centered on the themes of invisibility and providentialism is limited in explaining Hayek’s ideas and, more generally, the operation of neoliberalism. Pace Whyte, I argue that Hayek’s neoliberalism does not simply stave off political challenges by obfuscation, but wages an active and highly visible campaign to recruit and interpellate individuals as market subjects. (shrink)

For Pyun, Minjung theology is a "religion-neglect" and indigenization theology or han philosophy is "politics-neglect." However, he conceded that ...

This article is a critical review of The Technological Bluff, the last book on technology by Jacques Ellul. Although this work has attracted little attention, the concept oftechno-logical bluff1 provides a new perspective to understand contemporary technological society. After presenting Ellul’s exposition of the concept of techno-logical bluff, its original contribution to technology studies is emphasized. It is also examined how the analysis of techno-logical bluff is connected with other major Ellulian notions such as autonomous technique and the efficiency principle. (...) This is followed by a suggestion that the analysis of techno-logical bluff could function as a basis for a constructive dialectic relationship between classical and more recent discourses on technology. The last section is devoted to the Ellulian solution for the technological society suggested in this work, namely, the paradox of nonfreedom. (shrink)

The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of the role of abstraction and idealization in Galileo’s scientific inquiries about the law of inertia, which occupies an important position in the history of science. We argue that although the terms “abstraction” and “idealization” are variously described in the recent literature, the concepts must be adopted to highlight important epistemological problems. In particular, we illustrate the importance of abstraction and idealization for the formation of the law of inertia (...) by establishing a distinction between two types of entities: quasi-ideal entities and idealized entities. These theoretical laws should therefore be justified, using deduction and induction, through quasi-idealized entities based on data from the everyday world. (shrink)

Culture is a concept that is claimed these days as the last authority for appeal in most discussions on human affairs and as the ultimate cause of important differences among people: “[C]ulture is the sole source of the validity of a moral right or rule”1 Only culture seems to be conclusive for almost all of what men are and what they do. Culture is what we collectively create but, at the same time, what we are determined by; we are our (...) own masters and at the same time slaves of our own creations. The culture that is so decisive today, however, is not a universal culture common to everyone but the concrete culture of each society2 here and now. Thus the culture that is concretely relevant to us today is plural. Pluralism in the present understanding may not necessarily trouble Christians, but the relativism that accompanies it does. More alarming, however, is cultural determinism that seriously discourages Christian efforts for evangelism and, especially, foreign mission. (shrink)

It is questions that children need to do higher-order thinking in a community of inquiry. There, more fundamental questions should be asked with some efforts to understand clearly and analyze the given texts. The initial questions should be elaborated into more fundamental ones through dialogues and discussions, and the process may be changed by the given conditions and contexts. In this paper, I show by some real cases how teachers can help children make more fundamental questions in a community of (...) inquiry. (shrink)

셸링의『인간자유의 본질에 관한 철학적 탐구』는 자유에 대한 혁신적인 규정을 통해 인간행위의 본성에 대한 연구에서 획기적 전기를 마련했고, 악을 선 못지않게 적극적인 것으로 규정함으로써 악에 대한 새로운 성찰의 가능성을 제공하였다. 셸링은 신이 자신의 본질을 구분하여 세계를 생성하는 과정을 역동적으로 그려내며 지성과 근거의 두 원리가 다양한 피조물을 형성하는 원리를 밝혀냈고 이러한 신의 자기계시는 인간에게서 그 정점에 달하는데, 정신으로서의 인간은 이 두 원리를 구분하여 분리할 수 있는 독특한 능력을 부여받은 것으로 묘사된다. 인간의 자유는 개별의지와 보편의지로 표현되는 두 원리 사이의 위계질서를 조정하는 능력으로 이해된다. (...) 본래적 질서는 근거의 개별의지가 지성의 보편의지 아래에 놓여있는 것인 반면, 인간은 자신의 개별의지를 보편의지보다 상위에 두는 ‘악’을 감행할 수 있는 유일한 존재가 된다. 이를 통해 계시의 존재론적 구조는 이러한 악이 가능하도록 돼 있고, 그런 의미에서 악은 신의 자기계시에 필연적이라는 이해가 가능하다. 하지만 악을 허용하는 것을 넘어서서 계시에 필요한 것으로 만드는 것은 신의 정당성과 완전함을 훼손하는 일이라는 비판이 있어왔다. 이에 본 논문은 셸링의 이론이 이러한 비판을 효과적으로 반박하고 악의 주체는 어디까지나 인간이라는 점을 밝히고자 한다. 하지만 악을 선택하고, 또한 극복하는 진정한 원인에 관한 물음에서는 셸링의 답변이 부족함을 또한 지적할 것이다. 이를 통해 윤리적 관점에서 악의 주체를 밝히는 작업의 성공적인 결과와는 달리 악에 대한 최종 결정과 해방에 있어서는 무기력하고 신에게 기대야 하는 인간의 모습을 그리는 셸링 이론의 한계가 드러날 것이다. (shrink)

U.S. immigration policies history in the early 20th century has mostly been thought through the linear growing power of restrictionists versus liberals, resulting in 1917 Burnett law - containing the literacy test - and then 1921 and 1924 Quota laws. The latter has been described by scholars as the product of direct infuence of Eugenist activists or of Eugenists mixed with Racists . Yet, the thorough study of the policy process permit to trace the origin of the quota laws in (...) the mind of a key civil servant: William Walter Husband and in the activism of Sydney L. Gulick, a theology professor who spent his whole life searching for quelling American-Japanese relations. The latter conceived an immigration quotas plan whose aim was to give equal treatment to all ‘races’ and peoples. The Immigration Restriction League, had no other choice than to recognize Gulick's large success in loobying his plan. Yet, in a last move, the IRL succeeded to maintain the exclusion of Asians in what became the Emergency Quota Act of 1921. Far from Eugenist influence, this Act is the product of a battle between non racist and racist restrictionists upon the means and goals of immigration control. During years, they were permanently engaged into fierce political battles whose outcome had a significant impact on immigration restriction policies. (shrink)