Ethics consultation has become an integral part of the fabric of U.S. health care delivery. This article summarizes the second edition of the Core Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation report of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. The core knowledge and skills competencies identified in the first edition of Core Competencies have been adopted by various ethics consultation services and education programs, providing evidence of their endorsement as health care ethics consultation (HCEC) standards. This revised report was (...) prompted by thinking in the field that has evolved since the original report. Patients, family members, and health care providers who encounter ethical questions or concerns that ethics consultants could help address deserve access to efficient, effective, and accountable HCEC services. All individuals providing such services should be held to the standards of competence and quality described in the revised report. (shrink)

In the current study, the orthographic knowledge required for writing Chinese characters was assessed among participants with L1 Vietnamese background who learn Chinese as a foreign language. A total of 42 undergraduates were recruited. They were invited to participate in a delayed Chinese character copying task consisting of 32 characters. Their Chinese character reading abilities were also obtained using a character naming task. All the tests were conducted online during the pandemic in 2021. Results indicated that the (...) participants’ accuracy in the copying task was affected by the familiarity of the characters and the number of strokes of the characters. These effects minimized as reading performance increased. In the inter-stroke interval analysis, results indicated a significant boundary effect where ISIs between orthographic units were longer than ISIs within orthographic units, showing the participants’ tendency to chunk Chinese characters into functional units when they write. Only high achievers in the reading task demonstrated the use of both large and small grain-size units in writing, while the low achievers only used small grain-size units in their writing. We suggest that the delayed copying task incorporated with handwriting measures is an effective method to assess orthographic knowledge of L2 Chinese learners. (shrink)

The philosophy of science has traditionally assumed that knowledge should be organized in the form of theories. From theories propositions can be deduced that can be tested in experiments. Most propositions deduced from theories take the form of if-then statements. For example, if variable A increases, what happens to variable B, assuming that all other variables are held constant? However, an alternative way of organizing knowledge, in the form of producer-product relationships, was proposed by the philosopher E.A. Singer, (...) Jr. and advocated by two of his students, C. West Churchman and Russell L. Ackoff. Whether to structure knowledge in the form of theories or methods is related to the question of whether there is a fundamental difference between the natural and the social sciences. As opposed to Karl Popper’s doctrine of the unity of method, this paper argues that structuring knowledge in the form of methods is appropriate in applied fields, particularly in management where a large part of the task is to achieve agreement among a group of knowing subjects on an appropriate set of actions. (shrink)

Evaluating the trustworthiness of sources is important in today’s society. However, research has shown that students struggle when applying this skill. This study in history education aims to gain insight into students’ procedural knowledge about evaluating the trustworthiness of sources and into the value students attach to learning this skill. Grade 9 students (N = 132) performed tasks and filled out a questionnaire. Students applied more correct criteria of trustworthiness than they reported knowing. They considered this skill somewhat important (...) and useful, but less interesting. Procedural knowledge and task value were significant predictors of students’ task performance. Therefore, it is important to make students aware of the knowledge they implicitly possess and to make learning this skill more interesting for students. (shrink)

Necessary inferences (e.g., The jury was not able to deliver its verdict by 3 o'clock. The jury did not deliver its verdict by 3 o'clock.) depend on linguistic knowledge. Invited inferences, (e.g., The jury was able to deliver its verdict by 3 o'clock. The jury delivered its verdict by 3 o'clock) depend on knowledge about the world. Responses were faster to necessary than to invited inferences when subjects verified only one of the two inference types (Experiments 1 and (...) 3). When subjects verified both inference types there was no difference between invited and necessary inferences (Experiments 2 and 4). These data suggest that linguistic and world knowledge are psychologically distinct and that when factual knowledge is not needed in a task it is not processed. In Experiments 3 and 4 incongruent world knowledge slowed response times for both inference types. This suggests that linguistic and factual knowledge are both port of the initial representation of a sentence. (shrink)

Previous research has repeatedly demonstrated that providing learners with self-control over their feedback schedules enhances motor skill learning. Increased information processing under self-control conditions has been shown to contribute to these benefits. However, the timing of critical information processing for self-control participants during the acquisition of continuous tasks is unknown. The present study was designed to enhance clarity related to this issue. Participants learned a continuous tracing task under self-control (SC) or yoked (YK) conditions. Groups of participants also completed (...) a secondary cognitive load task either during or after the execution of each primary task trial. Results showed enhanced learning for SC compared to YK participants who did not complete the cognitive load task. However, this benefit was eliminated for SC participants who completed the cognitive load task either during or after the primary task. These findings suggest that effective information processing both during and after continuous task execution is critical for reaping the benefits of self-controlled practice. Further interpretations and implications of these findings as well as suggestions for future research are discussed. (shrink)

At a time of transformation, a threshold of a new civilization based on fundamentally new principles, the wisdom of Kabbalah serves as a means to arrive at a new era of individual and collective consciousness. These will be discussed in relation to the way by which Kabbalah, as a method of internal change, can be disseminated, and the implications of its worldwide spreading. While work in Kabbalah is toward personal change, the significance of coming to know this wisdom is paramount (...) to a vitally new social direction, achievement of a corrected civilization, and peaceful life in congruence with nature's laws. (shrink)

In this book, controversial and world-renowned theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, tackles the issue of theology being sidelined as a necessary discipline in the modern university. It is an attempt to reclaim the knowledge of God as just that – knowledge. Questions why theology is no longer considered a necessary subject in the modern university, and explores the role it should play in the development of our “knowledge” Considers how theology is often excluded from the knowledges of the modern (...) university because these are constituted by an understanding of time necessary to make economic and state realities seem inevitable Argues that it is precisely this difference that makes Christian theology an essential resource for the university to achieve its task - that is, to form people who are able to imagine a different world through critical and disciplined reflection Challenges the domesticated character of much recent theology by suggesting how prayer and the love of the poor are essential practices that should shape the theological task Converses with figures as diverse as Luigi Giussani, David Burrell, Stanley Fish, Wendell Berry, Jeff Stout, Rowan Williams and Sheldon Wolin Published in the new and prestigious Illuminations series. (shrink)

Neuroscience can relate to ethics and normative issues via the brain’s cognitive control network. This network accomplishes several executive processes, such as planning, task-switching, monitoring, and inhibiting. These processes allow us to increase the accuracy of our perceptions and our memory recall. They also allow us to plan much farther into the future, and with much more detail than any of our fellow mammals. These abilities also make us fitting subjects for responsibility claims. Their activity, or lack thereof, is (...) at the heart of culpability. For instance, planning to kill someone is strong evidence of what the law calls mens rea—a guilty mind. Claims about norms, or ethical “should” claims, express two-level propositions, directed at the behaving person at one level, and at that person’s mind and cognitive control network at another level. Thus, “People should stop themselves from hurting others,” is a claim about how people should behave and also a claim about how their cognitive control networks should behave—i.e., they should inhibit harmful behavior, or the intentions leading up to it. Planning is both an ability of the full person, and of that person’s mind. Neuroscience affirms the common notion, seen both in law and folk psychology, that what makes us guilty or culpable are certain events and states that exist in our minds. Overt behavior, including speech, is fallible evidence of these states and processes. Cases of negligence still involve the executive processes, but “negatively,” in that negligence results when certain types of executive activity fail to take place. (shrink)

I argue that the denial of speakers' knowledge of language rules is based on conceptual confusion and in particular on a misanalysis of what it is to know a rule. I shall turn to the task of establishing this point after first providing the background for this issue: the difficulty of conceptualizing verbal behavior both under the hypothesis that speakers do, and under the hypothesis that speakers do not know the rules of grammar. I shall argue that this (...) difficulty and the dispute it has engendered are based on overly simple and inadequate views of rule knowledge. Our ordinary concept of knowing a rule has been radically ignored by theorists who have written on this issue. In consequence, they have operated with conceptual schemes too impoverished to allow for the knowledge that speakers do have. A more adequate analysis or account of rule knowledge will thus be the main concern of this paper with the problem of speakers’ knowledge of grammar being the motivation to attempt such an analysis. (shrink)

A student's future as a knowledge worker (one who "thinks for a living" with the task of problem solving) is the starting point of this book. With this in mind, the book combines a review of philosophical positions and problems with practical examples and perspectives gained from everyday challenges faced by knowledge workers in their businesses and organizations. Through the use of summative chapters, highlighted key concepts, questions for reflection, and illustrative examples on how to work with (...) the theories presented, the book provides a clear and accessible introduction to this challenging subject. Philosophy of Science primarily addresses students studying language, communication, marketing, economics, and management. However, the survey of the theoretical schools of thought - as well as the discussions on research ethics and the role of research in society - will be equally relevant for other students in the humanities and the natural and social sciences. (shrink)

Geometrical intuitions spontaneously drive visuo-spatial reasoning in human adults, children and animals. Is their emergence intrinsically linked to visual experience, or does it reflect a core property of cognition shared across sensory modalities? To address this question, we tested the sensitivity of blind-from-birth adults to geometrical-invariants using a haptic deviant-figure detection task. Blind participants spontaneously used many geometric concepts such as parallelism, right angles and geometrical shapes to detect intruders in haptic displays, but experienced difficulties with symmetry and complex (...) spatial transformations. Across items, their performance was highly correlated with that of sighted adults performing the same task in touch (blindfolded) and in vision, as well as with the performances of uneducated preschoolers and Amazonian adults. Our results support the existence of an amodal core-system of geometry that arises independently of visual experience. However, performance at selecting geometric intruders was generally higher in the visual compared to the haptic modality, suggesting that sensory-specific spatial experience may play a role in refining the properties of this core-system of geometry. (shrink)

Our knowledge of each others’ mental features is sometimes epistemically basic or non-inferential. The alternative to this claim is Inferentialism, the view that such knowledge is always epistemically inferential. Here, I argue that Inferentialism is not plausible. My argument takes the form of an inference to the best explanation. Given the nature of the task involved in recognizing what mental features others have on particular occasions, and our capacity to perform that task, we should not expect (...) always to find good inferential explanations of our knowledge. This conclusion is an epistemological one. The motivation for it is independent of metaphysical concerns about functionalism or about the best way to model the cognitive architecture which produces our knowledge of others’ minds. Given this it is compatible both with the truth of functionalism and theory–theory construed as a cognitive model. (shrink)

We tested the hypothesis that our ability to detect fine kinematics variations is tuned to reveal more subtle differences when the motion pattern belongs to the observer compared to another individual. To this purpose, we analyzed the responses of 15 subjects in a same-different task on pairs of movements, which could belong to one or two different subjects. Self vs. Other comparisons were obtained by presenting both the observer’s and another participant’s kinematics. Subjects responded faster and more accurately when (...) they observed their own gestures compared to movements of another participant. In the latter case, slight kinematic differences were more likely to remain undetected. These findings are discussed within an ecological framework: in observing others, we are more concerned with detection of goals and intentions, i.e., outstanding variations in motion patterns. Conversely, in self-observation detection of more subtle differences is required to facilitate learning and optimization of motor acts. (shrink)

In this first of two articles, I look at the project for the “Encyclopedia of Artistic Terminology” in connection with the idea of a synthesis of the “artistic sciences” as the principal task of the State Academy of Artistic Sciences (GAKhN, 1921–1930) in Moscow. The most important feature of the Academy was the unity of its epistemological conception (the system of artistic sciences) and the institutional structure of the Academy (its “departments,” “sections,” and “laboratories”), which embodied the interdisciplinary intention (...) of uniting the philosophy of art, the artistic sciences, and artistic experimentation. I analyze the connection of the project with the task of “concept formation” in the artistic sciences, which was recognized in European philosophy at the beginning of the twentieth century as the main criterion for scientificity in the human sciences. I also investigate how the Encyclopedia project, developed by Gustav Shpet, took into account previous attempts to systematize aesthetic terminology (in nineteenth-century dictionaries). I show that the project of the “Encyclopedia of Artistic Terminology” was not the sole attempt to create a new dictionary of aesthetic concepts and of the cultural sciences. Similar projects were being developed in the 1920s and 30s in Germany (Erich Rothacker planned to produce Handwörterbuch der gesamten gemeingeisteswissenschaftlichen und kulturphilosophischen Grundbegriffe) and in France (Étienne Souriau published Vocabulaire d’esthétique; see Souriau 2010). (shrink)

The paper introduces a semantics for the language of classical first order logic supplemented with the additional operators and . This semantics understands formulas as tasks. An agent , working as a slave for its master , can carry out the task αβ if it can carry out any one of the two tasks α, β, depending on which of them was requested by the master; similarly, it can carry out xα if it can carry out α for any (...) particular value for x selected by the master; an agent can carry out α→β if it can carry out β as long as it has, as a slave , an agent who carries out α; finally, carrying out P, where P is an atomic formula, simply means making P true; in particular, is a task that no agent can carry out. When restricted to the language of classical logic, the meaning of formulas is isomorphic to their classical meaning, which makes our semantics a conservative extension of classical semantics.This semantics can claim to be a formalization of the resource philosophy associated with linear logic, if resources are understood as agents carrying out tasks. The classical operators of our language correspond to the multiplicative operators of linear logic, while and correspond to the additive conjunction and universal quantifier, respectively.Our formalism may also have a potential to be used in AI as an alternative logic of planning and action. Its main appeal is that it is immune to the frame problem and the knowledge preconditions problem.The paper axiomatically defines a logic L in the above language and proves its soundness and completeness with respect to the task semantics in the following intuitive sense: L α iff α can be carried out by an agent who has nothing but its intelligence for carrying out tasks. This logic is shown to be semidecidable in the full language and decidable when the classical quantifier is forbidden in it. (shrink)

This paper maintains that empathy with fictional characters, aka fictional empathy, is morally valuable insofar as it can provide the empathizer with knowledge of values. More precisely, the paper argues that fictional empathy enables the empathizer to become imaginatively acquainted with the other’s values, even if these values are very different from one’s own. After motivating the topic in the introduction (section 1), the paper presents some thoughts about the epistemology of value and empathy, establishing a distinction between direct (...) and imaginative acquaintance with values (section 2). Next, it argues that empathy can lead the empathizer to co-experience the other’s values and, in so doing, make her directly or imaginatively acquainted with them (section 3). The paper discusses a possible challenge concerning the epistemic function of the imagination and explores different ways in which we can become imaginatively acquainted with values (section 4). It then examines features of fiction that explain why fictional empathy might be better suited than empathy for real others in pursuing this task (section 5). The paper closes by providing some reasons why we should regard the imaginative acquaintance with value attained through fictional empathy as morally valuable (section 6). (shrink)

Aging is accompanied by a decline in associative memory, whereas item memory remains relatively stable compared to young adults. This age-related associative deficit is well replicated, but its mechanisms and influencing factors during learning are still largely unclear. In the present study, we examined mediators of the age-related associative deficit, including encoding intentionality, strategy instructions, the timing of the memory test and the material being learned in a within-subject design. Older and younger adults performed seven encoding tasks on word pairs (...) and picture pairs on two consecutive days, followed by item and associative recognition tests. The associative deficit was evident after all encoding tasks. We found no evidence for a difference in the magnitude of the associative deficit between incidental vs. intentional learning conditions. However, there was some evidence for a larger associative memory deficit with pictures versus words when the encoding task was held equal. Sentence generation and interactive imagery instructions in which participants generated their own mediators reduced the magnitude of the associative deficit. However, increased encoding guidance through the provision of mediators did not lead to an alleviation of the deficit, potentially because the specified mediators were implausible or difficult for the older adults to reconcile with prior knowledge. Finally, we found some evidence for a reduced age-related associative deficit with a test delay of 24 h. These results contribute to a better understanding of the factors affecting the relative difficulty of older adults with encoding and retrieving novel associations. (shrink)

Neuroscience can relate to ethics and normative issues via the brain’s cognitive control network. This network accomplishes several executive processes, such as planning, task-switching, monitoring, and inhibiting. These processes allow us to increase the accuracy of our perceptions and our memory recall. They also allow us to plan much farther into the future, and with much more detail than any of our fellow mammals. These abilities also make us fitting subjects for responsibility claims. Their activity, or lack thereof, is (...) at the heart of culpability. For instance, planning to kill someone is strong evidence of what the law calls mens rea—a guilty mind. Claims about norms, or ethical “should” claims, express two-level propositions, directed at the behaving person at one level, and at that person’s mind and cognitive control network at another level. Thus, “People should stop themselves from hurting others,” is a claim about how people should behave and also a claim about how their cognitive control networks should behave—i.e., they should inhibit harmful behavior, or the intentions leading up to it. Planning is both an ability of the full person, and of that person’s mind. Neuroscience affirms the common notion, seen both in law and folk psychology, that what makes us guilty or culpable are certain events and states that exist in our minds. Overt behavior, including speech, is fallible evidence of these states and processes. Cases of negligence still involve the executive processes, but “negatively,” in that negligence results when certain types of executive activity fail to take place. (shrink)

Dans la Généalogie de la morale, Nietzsche assortit son projet d’une « critique des valeurs morales », de l’exigence d’une « autocritique de la connaissance ». Cet article tente de montrer que ce projet implique l’admission d’un lien intime entre la connaissance de soi et la morale, ce qui prête à la Préface son caractère autobiographique et le légitime à la fois.

The need to study the documents of the Second Vatican Council on the preservation of the environment is conditioned by concrete changes in modern society, manifested in the escalation of conflicts in relations between man and nature, the transition to the post-industrial stage of development of society, globalization. Along with the positive effects and benefits of civilization, there are also dangers, including environmental ones. In modern Ukraine, the processes associated with the transition to a market economy, the adoption of the (...) values ​​of Western society, which require transformation in all spheres of social life. These changes should be based on the existing spiritual and intellectual traditions of society and provide for the resolution of environmental problems as a priority task for the further development of society. (shrink)

Children, in their everyday lives, encounter several types of humanoid robots. The purpose of this study was to investigate children’s folk knowledge of robots using the card-choice task. In the task, both adults and five- and six-year-old children were given nine questions concerning the biological and psychological properties of robots. They were asked to choose the appropriate stimuli from among five objects including living things, nonliving things, and a robot. The results revealed that the children tended to (...) attribute certain biological properties to the robot. These results accorded with previous results. However, in our study, contrary to previous such studies, even older children showed such a tendency. Moreover, the children were unable to choose all the cards in the same way as the adults. Thus, it can be concluded that children’s knowledge of robots is incomplete. And the children’s knowledge is changed by method. (shrink)

It is encouraging that, in their commentaries, Sarah Carr and Timothy Kelly do not bring the discussion back to the conventional treatment of personal narratives in psychiatry and mental health, but rather take the ideas presented in my paper forward. We seem to agree about the need to disrupt the ultimate interpretative authority of the researcher. This is the point from which both commentaries depart, taking off in their own directions through the thorny questions of how—and indeed whether—any of this (...) can be achieved. This sense that we share at least a point of departure complicates the task of writing a reply, because I would much prefer to engage in a conversation about some of the key issues... (shrink)

BackgroundDisorders in different levels of body representation are present in hemiplegic cerebral palsy. However, it remains unclear whether the body image develops from aspects of body schema and body structural description, and how this occurs in children with HCP.Objective and methodsIn a cross-sectional study, we investigated 53 children with HCP and 204 typically developing control children to qualitatively evaluate whether and how body schema and body structural description affect the development of children’s body image and whether this development is delayed (...) through HCP. Graph analysis was used to create a lexical-semantic map of body representation from data of a semantic word fluency task.ResultsResults indicated a similar qualitative pattern of influences of sensorimotor and visuospatial experiences on lexical-semantic knowledge of body parts, with a delayed developmental course in children with HCP compared to TD children.ConclusionThese findings suggest that children’s body image seemed to be influenced by body schema and body structural descriptions as indicated by poorer lexical-semantic knowledge of body parts in children with HCP due to missing physical experiences of the affected body parts. This might imply that “body talk” may beneficially complement physical therapy for children with HCP to promote body image development. (shrink)

ANALOGY has not just to do with the abstruse details and niceties of metaphysics but rather underlies the structure of all metaphysical thought. It is the heart of metaphysics. No system of metaphysics can discard it, without prejudice to the richness and variety of being. Without analogy there is elimination and over-simplification. Metaphysics is far from being a straightforward science; it is highly complex and its method and style of argument are not easy to master. Its field of inquiry is (...) wide. It is the task of the metaphysician to reduce the world of things to an intelligible unity. (shrink)

The current paper examines whether knowledge of an ethical principle influences moral awareness and ethical decision making. Using hypothetical scenarios and a behavioral task, three experiments examine the effects of deepening people’s knowledge of ethical principles. In each study, an analogical encoding learning intervention led to greater knowledge of an ethical principle, which in turn resulted in a greater likelihood of moral awareness and making ethical decisions. These findings suggest that moral awareness is partly a matter (...) of the depth of individuals’ knowledge of ethical principles. The findings provide further reasons to link work on ethics with work on expertise and knowledge transfer as well as indicate new approaches to ethics training. (shrink)

This study explores how the variability of the work environment shapes the impact of educational level diversity on team creativity. By adopting an integrative framework—“status characteristics–information elaboration” model as a theoretical lens, we propose and examine the moderating roles of task and personnel variability in educational level diversity–team creativity relationship. Utilizing multiple survey data collected from 90 knowledge work teams, the empirical results indicate that educational level diversity is more conducive to team creativity when teams are confronted with (...) more variable tasks and when teams experience less frequent personnel changes. The findings of this study provide valuable insight on the conditions under which team diversity’s information potential is more likely to realize and contribute to a more context-based understanding of the relationship between diversity and creativity. (shrink)

Philosophizing and the True Knowledge of Human Being -/- The article presents the principles and method of classical philosophy. This kind of philosophy, developed mainly in ancient and medieval times, is still viable and interesting today. What is more important, it can be used as grounds for academic philosophy. Doing so provides a philosopher with resources for autonomy in her philosophical inquiry as well as the usefulness and application of its results for various cultural, social, and political tasks. The (...) last part of the article explains the manner in which the principles of philosophy may be connected with different ways of classical philosopher’s concern the with knowledge of the human being understood as a special, unique being, with her transcendence behind her biological nature and human society. In the conclusion, several tasks for philosophical reflection are given. In all its parts, the article emphasizes the importance of the concept of philosophizing person for the understanding of philosophy. (shrink)

The study of human cognition and the study of artificial intelligence (AI) have a symbiotic relationship, with advancements in one field often informing or creating new work in the other. Human cognition has many capabilities modern AI systems cannot compete with. One such capability is the detection, identification, and resolution of knowledge gaps (KGs). Using these capabilities as inspiration, we examine how to incorporate detection, identification, and resolution of KGs in artificial agents. We present a paradigm that enables research (...) on the understanding of KGs for visual-linguistic communication. We leverage and enhance and existing KG taxonomy to identify possible KGs that can occur for visual question answer (VQA) tasks and use these findings to develop a classifier to identify questions that could be engineered to contain specific KG types for other VQA datasets. Additionally, we examine the performance of different VQA models through the lens of KGs. (shrink)

The study of human cognition and the study of artificial intelligence (AI) have a symbiotic relationship, with advancements in one field often informing or creating new work in the other. Human cognition has many capabilities modern AI systems cannot compete with. One such capability is the detection, identification, and resolution of knowledge gaps (KGs). Using these capabilities as inspiration, we examine how to incorporate detection, identification, and resolution of KGs in artificial agents. We present a paradigm that enables research (...) on the understanding of KGs for visual-linguistic communication. We leverage and enhance and existing KG taxonomy to identify possible KGs that can occur for visual question answer (VQA) tasks and use these findings to develop a classifier to identify questions that could be engineered to contain specific KG types for other VQA datasets. Additionally, we examine the performance of different VQA models through the lens of KGs. (shrink)

Systematically analyzes the nature of metaphysics.