Drawing from cognitive learning theories we hypothesize that exposure to nationalistic appeals that suggest consumers should shun foreign brands for moral reasons increases the general belief in consumers that buying foreign brands is morally wrong. In parallel, drawing from the theory of psychological reactance we posit that such appeals may, against their communication goal, increase the reputation of foreign luxury brands. We term the juxtaposition of these apparently contradictory effects the “Ambivalence Hypothesis.” Further, drawing from prior research on source-similarity effects (...) we posit that foreign luxury brands that communicate cultural proximity to target consumers (i.e., a local brand positioning) reinforce psychological reactance (“Clean Conscience Hypothesis”). We test these hypotheses experimentally in the context of luxury car brand advertising in China, a market that is heavily dominated by foreign brands, and therefore provides a breeding ground for ambivalent consumer reactions. Results show that exposure to nationalistic appeals enhances consumers’ national identity dispositions (patriotism, local identity), which results in higher levels of consumer ethnocentrism. Further, nationalistic appeals enhance the social responsibility associations that consumers hold for foreign luxury brands and their countries of origin, which results in a higher brand reputation. Finally, effects of nationalistic appeals on foreign luxury brand reputation are positively stronger for brands using a local vs. a foreign or a global positioning. These findings suggest that nationalistic appeals are a double-edged sword with important implications for ethics in political communication and luxury brand marketing. (shrink)

Erstmalig in der abendländischen Denkgeschichte wird hier, nach der traditionellen, griechisch-mittelalterlichen Seinsphilosophie (Es-Philosophie) und der neuzeitlichen Ich-Philosophie, eine Wir-Philosophie vorgelegt, die vom Sprachgeschehen 'wir' und einer Analyse seiner Implikationen ausgeht und aufweist, dass das Im-Wir-sein allem menschlichen Denken und Handeln immer schon vorgegeben ist und es das menschliche Dasein insgesamt und als solches apriori und alternativlos bestimmt. Diese Wir-Bestimmtheit wird im Einzelnen thematisiert. Es werden wirgemäße Denkweisen eingeübt und wirgemäße Handlungsorientierungen aufgezeigt.

Wenn die Therapie an eine Grenze kommt und keine Aussicht auf Heilung besteht, wenn Leiden und Schmerz ubermachtig werden, stellt sich haufig die Frage: "Wie mochte ich sterben?" Dann wird fur immer mehr Menschen der Suizid zum Ausdruck eines selbstbestimmten Sterbens. Hierzu ist in Politik und Gesellschaft eine heftige Debatte entbrannt, besonders um die Frage, ob ein assistierter Suizid vom arztlichen Ethos gedeckt und somit straffrei sein kann. In dieser Publikation diskutieren Politiker, Juristen, Mediziner, Theologen und Ethiker diese Fragen kontrovers (...) und bieten vielfaltige Ansatze fur eine kritische gesellschaftliche Debatte wie auch fur die personliche Urteilsbildung. Ein wichtiger Beitrag zu einem aktuellen Thema - fur Fachleute, Interessierte und Betroffene. (shrink)

In the middle of the eighteenth century, Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner attempted to realize the old idea of deciphering the alphabet of the world, which Francis Bacon had raised as a general postulate of science. This article describes these attempts and their interrelations. Linné used the model of the alphabet to classify plants according to the characters of this fruiting body. Gatterer, one of the leading German historians during the Enlightenment, adopted the botanical method (...) of classification by genus and species to classify the history of scripts. He used the forms of the alphabetic characters to measure the age of manuscripts and to map the process of history as a genealogy of culture. Gatterer collaborated closely with Büttner, the first Göttingen professor of natural history. Büttner constructed a general alphabet of languages which connected the phonetics of language with the historically known alphabets. Early on, diplomatics and ethnography combined the natural order of natural history and the cultural order of the alphabet with the attempt to register development and to document development by the evolution of forms. Based on the shared model of the alphabet and on the common necessity to classify their empirical material, natural history and the description of culture were related attempts in the middle of the eighteenth century to comprehend the alphabetically organized nature and a naturally ordered culture. (shrink)

Self-management interventions are a heterogeneous group of interventions that are regarded as important tools for the management of chronic diseases. They consist of a broad range of techniques and are available for a large variety of chronic organic as well as mental conditions or illnesses, which are by definition generally chronic. These interventions aim that the individual concerned takes substantial responsibility for managing the symptoms, treatment, and physical and psychosocial consequences associated with having a chronic medical condition, disability or disease. (...) Alternate terms used in this context, among others, are self-care... (shrink)

By the standard of popular approval, the South African state has no legitimacy, since only whites are enfranchised and blacks are being denationalized. This institutionalized politicization of ethnicity increasingly erodes the efficiency of private and state institutions alike. Enforced ethnic identities without representative leadership undermine proposed liberal arrangements of negotiated power-sharing as well as the government policy of cooptation. In the absence of political democracy, politicized labor relations substitute for restricted mobilization elsewhere. There are three basic responses to this legitimation (...) crisis of the South African state: 1) the radical left response of revolutionary reversal of power 2) the reformist business response of co-optation and 3) the technocratic government response of further political separation with increased economic collaboration. (shrink)

Modal dependence logic was introduced recently by Väänänen. It enhances the basic modal language by an operator = (). For propositional variables p 1, . . . , p n , = (p 1, . . . , p n-1, p n ) intuitively states that the value of p n is determined by those of p 1, . . . , p n-1. Sevenster (J. Logic and Computation, 2009) showed that satisfiability for modal dependence logic is complete for nondeterministic (...) exponential time.In this paper we consider fragments of modal dependence logic obtained by restricting the set of allowed propositional connectives. We show that satisfiability for poor man’s dependence logic, the language consisting of formulas built from literals and dependence atoms using ${\wedge, \square, \lozenge}$ (i. e., disallowing disjunction), remains NEXPTIME-complete. If we only allow monotone formulas (without negation, but with disjunction), the complexity drops to PSPACE-completeness.We also extend Väänänen’s language by allowing classical disjunction besides dependence disjunction and show that the satisfiability problem remains NEXPTIME-complete. If we then disallow both negation and dependence disjunction, satisfiability is complete for the second level of the polynomial hierarchy. Additionally we consider the restriction of modal dependence logic where the length of each single dependence atom is bounded by a number that is fixed for the whole logic. We show that the satisfiability problem for this bounded arity dependence logic is PSPACE-complete and that the complexity drops to the third level of the polynomial hierarchy if we then disallow disjunction.In this way we completely classify the computational complexity of the satisfiability problem for all restrictions of propositional and dependence operators considered by Väänänen and Sevenster. (shrink)

The introduction of Artificial Intelligence systems has demonstrated impeccable potential and benefits to enhance the decision-making processes in our society. However, despite the successful performance of AI systems to date, skepticism and concern remain regarding whether AI systems could form a trusting relationship with human users. Developing trusted AI systems requires careful consideration and evaluation of its reproducibility, interpretability, and fairness, which in in turn, poses increased expectations and responsibilities for data scientists. Therefore, the current study focused on understanding Canadian (...) data scientists’ self-confidence in creating trusted AI systems, while relying on their current AI system development practices. (shrink)

Worum geht es? Um eine Aufgabe, die —wie sollte es anders sein?— aus der Gegenwart der Philosophie erwachsen ist. Nicht in dem ebenso üblichen wie ungefáhren Sinn, nach dem sich dies von selbst versteht, sondern wie sie stets ein Reich von wohlunterschiedenen Vernunft-Aufgaben gewesen ist. Das hier geübte Unterscheiden ihrer Gegenwart kennt da einmal ihre anarchischen Ausprágungen, sodann ihre strukturalen, schliefilich ihre analytischen. Diese Dimensionen bilden im ganzen die Spháre des Heute, welche wir als die «Submoderne» bezeichnen; ist dock eine (...) jede darauf angelegt, Grundstellungen der Moderne abzuarbeiten, wie sie sich in den Besinnungs-Gestalten von hermeneutischer, apokalyptischer und funktionaler Prágung entfaltet hatten. (shrink)

(I) V orbestimmung des Themas Der Titel der folgenden Untersuchungen nennt 'Grund' und 'Gegen­ wart' als die maBgeblichen Blickpunkte, auf die hin die friihgriechische Philosophie - ob ausgesprochen oder nicht - sich bei der Entfaltung ihres Gegenstandes und ihrer selbst sammelt. Dadurch wird das Eigen­ tiimliche dieser Philosophie allerdings nicht hinsichtlich ihres Unter­ schieds zu, sondern nur hinsichtlich ihrer Zusammengehorigkeit mit der spateren Philo sophie bezeichnet. Erst aufgrund dieser Zusammen­ gehOrigkeit sowohl der Sache als auch dem Vorgehen nach kann die (...) friihgriechische Philosophie zugleich als die anfangliche begriffen werden. Eben darin aber hat sie im Verhaltnis zu der spateren ihre Auszeichnung; denn sie vollbringt die weitreichendste Bestimmung dessen, was als philosophische Erfahrung und Erkenntnis gelten kann. (2) Die fruhgriechische Philosophie als anfiingliche Aber ist denn die friihgriechische Philosophie so gemeinhin auch die anfangliche? 1m Falle des indischen und chinesischen Denkens gilt dies offenbar nicht. Hier konnte man einwenden, daB dieses Denken zu 1 Unrecht 'Philosophie' genannt wird. Auch abgesehen von grundsatz­ 2 lichen Erwagungen zum 'richtigen' Gebrauch von Namen, notigt jedoch weder die Sagekraft dieses Namens noch sein Gebrauch in der griechischen Sprache zur Einschrankung seiner Anwendung auf abend­ landisch-europaisches Denken. (shrink)

Let us begin—as is fitting—with what is familiar. Now, familiar is by no means what ‘totalizing thinking’ is, but rather what ‘totalitarian’ means. Today this word rings in everyone’s ears, is common in public life—not so much as a descriptive, but more as a defamatory epithet. It brands political systems of our time which not only gave rise to horrifying consequences, but what is more spread terror through their form of domination. Now, rule by means of terror is in fact (...) no recent discovery; new here is rather the technique of the complete penetration of every expression of social life. Were the latter perhaps susceptible in a special way to such penetration? (shrink)