In this paper, I outline a general framework for cultural analysis consistent with an “analytic” approach to explanation in social science. The proposed approach provides coherent solutions to thorny problems in cultural theory. These include providing a coherent definition of culture (and the “cultural”), specifying the nature of cultural units (both simple and complex), and outlining the processes making possible episodes of cultural genesis, transformation, and reproduction within bounded units characterized as cultural causal systems.

Education in ethics among practising professionals should provide a systematic procedure for resolving moral problems. A method for such decision-making is outlined using the two classical orientations in moral philosophy, teleology and deontology. Teleological views such as utilitarianism resolve moral dilemmas by calculating the excess of good over harm expected to be produced by each feasible alternative for action. The deontological view focuses on rights, duties, and principles of justice. Both methods are used to resolve the 1971 Johns Hopkins case (...) of a baby born with Down's syndrome and duodenal atresia. (shrink)

In recent years some scholars have sought to apply the techniques of modern analytic philosophy to Plato’s writings. This has involved recasting portions of the dialogues as concisely stated deductive arguments, exploring questions relating to validity as well as to truth, exposing contradictions and equivocations, and making explicit all essential assumptions. The rationale behind this approach, as Gregory Vlastos has explained, is that ‘By means of these techniques we may now better understand some of the problems Plato attempted to (...) solve and we are, therefore, better equipped to assess the merits of his solutions.’ Even in Plato’s more literary dialogues it has proven useful to consider what views may have been established through the use of argument. The clearest instance is the Symposium where attention to details of setting and characterization combines with the presentation of philosophical arguments to produce an extraordinary account of love and its relation to beauty. -/- . (shrink)

The book deals with post-analytical philosophy of law, which departs from the traditional view which considers philosophical cognition as a sense-making and optimizing activity. It seeks to deconstruct the analytical, both philosophical and legal, narrative to expose it as a collection of schemes which oversimplify the legal and political reality.

The structures of protein and DNA were discovered primarily by means of synthesizing component-level information about bond types, lengths, and angles, rather than analyzing X-ray diffraction photographs of these molecules. In this paper, I consider the synthetic and analytic approaches to exemplify alternative heuristics for approaching mid-twentieth-century macromolecular structure determination. I argue that the former was, all else being equal, likeliest to generate the correct structure in the shortest period of time. I begin by characterizing problem solving in these cases (...) as proceeding via the elimination of candidate structures through the successive application of component-level information and interpretations of X-ray diffraction photographs, each of which serves as a kind of constraint on structure. Then, I argue that although each kind of constraint enables the elimination of a considerable proportion of candidate structures, component-level constraints are significantly more likely to do so correctly. Thus, considering them before X-ray diffraction photographs is a better heuristic than one that reverses this order. Because the synthetic approach that resulted in the determination of the protein and DNA structures exemplifies such a heuristic, its use can help account for these discoveries. (shrink)

Diskurso analitinis požiūris propagandos tyrime gali padėti ne tik ištirti propagandos turinį, žodyną, bet ir jo kūrimo kontekstą, kurio analizė tampa vis svarbesnė, plėtojantis sunkiau atpažįstamoms propagandos formoms. Šiame straipsnyje, taikant pusiau sisteminę literatūros apžvalgą ir dedukcinę teminę analizę, nagrinėjama, kaip jungiant propagandos ir diskurso terminus suvokiama propaganda bei kokiose tyrimų tematikose, interpretaciniuose kontekstuose ir kokius metodus pasitelkiant naudojama tokia jungtis. Į apžvalgą įtraukti anglų kalba 2012–2021 m. publikuoti mokslo darbai, kurių pavadinimuose minimi propagandos, diskurso ar propagandinio diskurso terminai. Tyrimo (...) rezultatai rodo, kad propagandos analizei pasitelkdami diskurso analitinį požiūrį, tyrėjai propagandą daugeliu atveju suvokia kaip neigiamą reiškinį, todėl jos analizei dažniausiai pasitelkia kritinę diskurso analizę. Propagandos ir diskurso terminų jungtis moksliniuose tyrimuose naudojama vis dažniau ir yra ypač būdinga visuomenę poliarizuojančių propagandinių pranešimų analizei. Tačiau moksliniuose darbuose propagandos ir diskurso terminų jungtis ne visada išplėtojama tinkamai. (shrink)

This book is an introduction to aesthetics, from the perspective of analytic philosophy. It traces aesthetics from its ancient beginnings through the changes it underwent in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and the first half of the twentieth century. The responses in the 1960s of the cultural theories to these earlier developments are discussed in detail. Five traditional art evaluational theories, Beardsley's and Goodman's evaluational theories, and the author's own evaluational theory are presented. Four miscellaneous topics are discussed - internationalist criticism, symbolism, (...) metaphor, and expression. (shrink)

Adam Smith said that ‘the propensity to truck, barter and exchange one thing for another is common to all men, and to be found in no other race of animals.’ Smith addressed the mark of the man economical, and there is no denying that this is the peculiar way he acts: clearly, to truck, barter and exchange is to act in a certain way. Austrian economics adopts this way of looking at the realm of economics. It prides itself as a (...) theory of human action. This claim seems ill-founded as long as so important a contribution as Ludwig von Mises’s praxeology remains insufficiently understood. In this paper, I address Barry Smith’s charge that in praxeology ‘other core notions, in addition to the concept of action, have been smuggled into and the theory is therefore not purely analytic’. I offer logical proofs of two cornerstone theorems of praxeology, the uneasiness theorem and the scarcity theorem, and thus provide vindication. Also, the findings support Mises’s controversial claim that economics is a priori founded in action theory. Thus, Carl Menger’s dream to lay foundations to economics and the other social sciences may have come true in the guise of praxeology. (shrink)

Pricing drives three of the most important elements of firm success: revenue and profits, customer behavior and firm image. This book provides an introduction to the basic principles for thinking clearly about pricing. Unlike other marketing books on pricing, the authors use a more analytic approach and relate ideas to the basic principles of microeconomics. Rakesh Vohra and Lakshman Krishnamurthi also cover three areas in greater depth and provide more insight than may be gleaned from existing books: 1) the (...) use of auctions, 2) price discrimination and 3) pricing in a competitive environment. (shrink)

Critiques -- Methodology -- Moral epistemology -- Aesthetics.

The author aims to synthesize the content and principal results of four decisive stages in the development of research around borders. He redefines the concepts, methods and areas of application of those parts of the research. He stresses particularly the contemporary period, highlighting discussion of postmodern approaches. The first group of these approaches emphasizes the evolution of territorial identities and relations betweent centre and periphery, the main factors in establishing borders and their functions. The second group stresses the importance of (...) geopolitical factors, including cultural differences between neighbouring territories. To a huge extent security considerations preoccupy this group, which tries to explain changes in border regimes. The third group is concerned with the influence of perceptions of the contemporary world's diversity on political elites and public opinion. Finally other approaches analyse borders starting from a combination of political and institutional factors as well as perceptions of cross-border networks at several territorial levels. (shrink)

In the field of geographical limology, the new science of international borders, it is possible to distinguish several consecutive theoretical approaches that can be seen as either traditional or postmodern. At each consecutive stage new approaches have been applied together with, not in place of, the traditional, in order to continue to perfect the discipline (see, for instance, Minghi, 1963; Rumley and Minghi, 1991). Traditional approaches, such as historical mapping, the typological, the functional and the political, have been described in (...) previous theoretical works (e.g. Kolossov and O'Loughlin, 1998; Kolossov and Turovsky, 1998; Kolossov and Mironenko, 2001). Here we are concerned with the postmodern approaches, which have been emerging mostly during the 1990s and the present decade. (shrink)

The present paper deals with a free boundary problem modeling the growth process of necrotic multi-layer tumors. We prove the existence of flat stationary solutions and determine the linearization of our model at such an equilibrium. Finally, we compute the solutions of the stationary linearized problem and comment on bifurcation.

In psychologists' attempts to explain the nature of language and thought, all pretense of building an axiomatic system was laid aside. The severely limited success of formal axiomatic systems in psychology eliminated most of the desire to even attempt such a project shortly after Hull's work was completed. Whatever axiomatic qualities psychological theories possess, they are rarely expressed as such. We have seen that Dollard and Miller translated some Freudian principles into those of Hull, and although they demonstrated the similarities (...) that existed between the two theories, this never induced Freudians to change their vocabulary or their theoretical concepts to those of Hull. Freudian theory was so extensively interpretative and so restructured in a formal, or even semi-formal, axiomatic manner. However, as we have seen, since Skinner developed a system that lent itself to axiomatic arrangement, a successful attempt to account for the functional aspects of language and thought through the principles of behavior analysis would constitute a major advance in psychological theory. (shrink)

The widely accepted two-dimensional circumplex model of emotions posits that most instances of human emotional experience can be understood within the two general dimensions of valence and activation. Currently, this model is facing some criticism, because complex emotions in particular are hard to define within only these two general dimensions. The present theory-driven study introduces an innovative analytical approach working in a way other than the conventional, two-dimensional paradigm. The main goal was to map and project semantic emotion (...) space in terms of mutual positions of various emotion prototypical categories. Participants (N = 187; 54.5% females) judged 16 discrete emotions in terms of valence, intensity, controllability and utility. The results revealed that these four dimensional input measures were uncorrelated. This implies that valence, intensity, controllability and utility represented clearly different qualities of discrete emotions in the judgments of the participants. Based on this data, we constructed a 3D hypercube-projection and compared it with various two-dimensional projections. This contrasting enabled us to detect several sources of bias when working with the traditional, two-dimensional analytical approach. Contrasting two-dimensional and three-dimensional projections revealed that the 2D models provided biased insights about how emotions are conceptually related to one another along multiple dimensions. The results of the present study point out the reductionist nature of the two-dimensional paradigm in the psychological theory of emotions and challenge the widely accepted circumplex model. (shrink)

BackgroundHIV molecular epidemiology is increasingly recognized as a vital source of information for understanding HIV transmission dynamics. Despite extensive use of these data-intensive techniques in both research and public health settings, the ethical issues associated with this science have received minimal attention. As the discipline evolves, there is reasonable concern that existing ethical and legal frameworks and standards might lag behind the rapid methodological developments in this field. This is a follow-up on our earlier work that applied a predetermined (...) class='Hi'>analytical framework to examine the perspectives of a sample of scientists from the fields of epidemiology, public health, virology and bioethics on key ethical issues associated with HIV molecular epidemiology in HIV network research.MethodsFourteen in-depth interviews were conducted with scientists from the fields of molecular epidemiology, public health, virology and bioethics. Inductive analytical approaches were applied to identify key themes that emerged from the data.ResultsOur interviewees acknowledged the potential positive impact of molecular epidemiology in the fight against HIV. However, they were concerned that HIV phylogenetics research messages may be incorrectly interpreted if not presented at the appropriate level. There was consensus that HIV phylogenetics research presents a potential risk to privacy, but the probability and magnitude of this risk was less obvious. Although participants acknowledged the social value that could be realized from the analysis of HIV genetic sequences, there was a perceived fear that the boundaries for use of HIV sequence data were not clearly defined.ConclusionsOur findings highlight distinct ethical issues arising from HIV molecular epidemiology. As the discipline evolves and HIV sequence data become increasingly available, it is critical to ensure that ethical standards keep pace with biomedical advancements. We argue that the ethical issues raised in this study, whether real or perceived, require further conceptual and empirical examination. (shrink)

What, if anything, distinguishes works of fiction such as Hamlet and Madame Bovary from biographies, news reports, or office bulletins? Is there a "right" way to interpret fiction? Should we link interpretation to the author's intention? Ought our moral unease with works that betray sadistic, sexist, or racist elements lower our judgments of their aesthetic worth? And what, when it comes down to it, is literature? The readings in this collection bring together some of the most important recent work in (...) the philosophy of literature by philosophers such as Martha Nussbaum, John Searle, and David Lewis. The readings explore philosophical issues such as the nature of fiction, the status of the author, the act of interpretation, the role of the emotions in the act of reading, the aesthetic and moral value of literary works, and other topics central to the philosophy of literature. (shrink)

Global governance, central to international rule-making, is rapidly evolving; thus, there is a need for a way to evaluate whether institutions have the capacity to address the problems of the contemporary era. Current methods of evaluating the democratic quality of contemporary governance are closely linked to legitimacy, about which there are competing definitional theories. This article uses a theoretical approach based around “new“ governance and the environmental policy arena to argue that contemporary governance is best understood as social-political interaction (...) built on “participation as structure“ and “deliberation as process“, with the level of interaction ultimately determining legitimacy. It presents a new arrangement of the accepted attributes of “good“ governance using a set of principles, criteria and indicators, and relates these to the structures and processes of governance. The implications and application of the analytical framework are also discussed. (shrink)

Previous studies have primarily used variable-centered approaches to explore correlations between English-as-a-foreign-language teachers’ emotional labor and outcome variables. A fundamental but unresolved question is whether teachers employ multiple emotional labor strategies in the workplace. This study used the latent profile analysis to explore the profiles of EFL teachers’ emotional labor and the relationship between the profiles and job satisfaction based on a questionnaire survey of 365 high school EFL teachers in China. The results indicated the existence of three emotional labor (...) profiles—agreeable, neutral and emotional—that were characterized by different combinations of surface acting, deep acting, and expression of naturally felt emotion. The profiles of EFL teachers who predominantly relied on ENFE and DA had the most adaptive patterns of job satisfaction, whereas the profiles of teachers who reported higher levels of SA, regardless the level of ENFE and DA, experienced lower levels of job satisfaction. These findings provide a person-centered methodological data support for exploring the relationship between emotional labor and EFL teachers’ job satisfaction. (shrink)

A revision of the author's thesis, University of Michigan, 1969. Bibliography: p. [154]-161. Includes index.

In this article I review significant contributions to the subfield of Embodied Cognition that formulate an inclusive account of the body's role in cognitive processes. I argue that a reconceptualization of the mind–body problem must take into account some notion of the self as a nonlocalized, transient phenomenon that emerges through day-to-day interaction. Drawing on literature from epistemology, phenomenology, and Conversation Analysis, I aim to revise contributions that rely on essentialized notions of the self and speaker, in terms of an (...) enactive and Conversation Analytic approach to selfhood and cognition. (shrink)

It is a widely held view that lying is defined in the traditional tripartite model as the conjunction of a statement, the false belief, and the intended deception. Much of the criticisms have been levelled at the third condition—intended deception—with contemporary counterexamples. My main criticism of the traditional and contemporary model of lying centres on that philosophers discard the social existence of the hearer. Schutz‘s phenomenological sociology gives a sheer inspiration to redefine the third condition by taking the hearer as (...) a consciously social being into account. Lying should be an intersubjective action for the Other from the perspective of the liar; it might be, thus, reasonable to assume that there should be commonsense awareness between the speaker and the hearer. This paper, by focusing on this commonsenseness and its typifications, introduces a new approach to the third condition: S must intend that H be induced to believe that p, where p is false. In this regard, once you lie, by being subjected to the taken-for-granted commonsenseness in our daily life, you must try as hard as possible to succeed in deceiving the hearer by stating that p. You, as a typical person, tell a typical lie in typical contexts for typical Others. The focus of attention, therefore, is on the hearer and it is the key to understanding that mere intent to deceive is too broad and unpragmatic for a social human being who always intends to flee the negative consequences of the context in which she has to lie. Making the extension narrower necessitates a new term, anti-social bullshit generally being replied rhetorically as "how can you expect me to believe that?" comprises the excluded cases. (shrink)

Volume 2, Issue 4, December 2018, Page 355-364.

Gaining momentum during the last third of the twentieth century, the philosophy of biology is now a distinct field with its own debates, journals, audiences, and professional societies. This professionalization came along with the forging of an intellectual identity based on the existence of disciplinary frontiers that demarcated philosophy of biology from neighboring disciplines such as philosophy of medicine, history of biology, or general philosophy of science. Here, I argue that the identity of this emerging philosophy of biology also excluded (...) Continental traditions often called “biological philosophy” or “historical epistemology of the life sciences”. Going back to the 60s and 70s, I explore the emergence of the philosophy of biology at a time when its identity was still in flux and its analytic orientation debated. To do so, I focus primarily on the works of David Hull and Marjorie Grene, and I draw on their unpublished correspondence. Although Grene’s intellectual contribution to the philosophy of biology has been widely acknowledged, her coming from a different philosophical universe created tensions with the identity Hull and others sought to establish. Overall, this chapter raises a question about the historical conditions that make fields such as the philosophy of biology possible, and calls attention to the exclusions that permeated the philosophy of biology from its inception and what this involves in terms of the proper relation between philosophy and science, especially biology. (shrink)