Rankings have dramatically proliferated over the past several decades. An often-overlooked impact of this proliferation is that it has facilitated the institutionalization of an imaginary of the modern world as a stratified order, whose actors are imagined as continuously striving to perform better than others. To better understand this impact, we need to take a closer look at rankings’ premises and the way these resonate with the broader institutional environment of which rankings are a part.

This study examines how the match between personal and firm-level values regarding environmental responsibility affects employee job satisfaction and creativity and contributes to three literature streams [i.e., social corporate responsibility, creativity, and person–environment fit]. Building on the P–E fit literature, we propose and test environmental orientation fit versus nonfit effects on creativity, identifying job satisfaction as a mediating mechanism and regulatory pressure as a moderator. An empirical investigation indicates that the various environmental orientation fit conditions affect job satisfaction and creativity (...) differently. More specifically, environmental orientation fit produces greater job satisfaction and creativity when the employee and organization both demonstrate high concern for the environment than when both display congruent low concern for the environmental. Furthermore, for employees working in organizations that fit their personal environmental orientation, strong regulatory pressure to comply with environmental standards diminishes the positive fit effect on job satisfaction and creativity, while regulatory pressure does not affect the job satisfaction and creativity of employees whose personal environmental orientation is incongruent with that of the organization. (shrink)

Traditionally it is taken for granted that mental imagery is a mental representation of some kind or format. This yields that theory of MR can give an adequate and exhaustive explanation of MI. Such co-relation between the two is usually seen as unproblematic. But is it really so? This article aims at challenging the theoretical claim that the dominant ‘two-world’ account of MR can adequately explain MI. Contrary to the standard theory of MR, there are reasons to believe that: MI (...) has different cognitive architecture, the relations between elements of MI are dynamic, relations between elements of MI are context-dependent. Consequently, it follows that dominant account of MR neglects important characteristics of MI and, thus, fails to give a comprehensive explanation of the latter. Alternatively, I will argue that a sign-theoretic approach, proposed by C. S. Peirce, can suggest a promising explanation of MI and fully account for the divergent empirical data on the matter. (shrink)

This article attempts to give a plausible explanation to the long-debated question about the nature of mental imagery. The traditional approach to this question is based on the representational paradigm, which, I claim, is misguided. Instead of representational aspects of mental imagery, I emphasize the functions of mental imagery, the variety of properties that images exhibit in experimental studies, and the relations between different characteristics of images, their functions and the subject of imagery. That is, I propose to account for (...) mental imagery as a sign system, consisting of different types of signs. A mental image can contain important properties as parts of the complex sign. This approach to the explanation of the nature of MI is beneficial, since it suggests the phenomenon of mental imagery, which overcomes some long-standing controversies on the issue. (shrink)

A necessary first step in collaboration between hypnosis research and meditation research is clarification of key concepts. The authors propose that such clarification is best advanced by neurophenomenological investigations that integrate neuroscience methods with phenomenological models based on first-person reports of hypnotic versus meditative experiences. Focusing on absorption, the authors argue that previous treatments of hypnosis and meditation as equivalent are incorrect, but that they can be fruitfully compared when characteristic features of the states described by these concepts are examined. (...) To this end, the authors use the “phenomenological and neurocognitive matrix of mindfulness” (PNM), a multidimensional model recently proposed by Lutz and colleagues. The authors compare focused attention meditation and open monitoring meditation with hypnosis across the dimensions of the PNM, using it to interpret empirical research on hypnosis, and to shed light on debates about the role of meta-awareness in hypnosis and the role of suggestion in meditation. (shrink)

Jelena Ćeriman, Rebellious Parents: Parental Movements in Central-Eastern Europe and Russia, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2017).

This article presents an attempt to approach the dispute over Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians from a non-territorial perspective, with particular focus on the preservation of the Serbian cultural and religious heritage. First, we argue that the Kosovo issue is at present commonly understood as an either-or territorial dispute over sovereignty and recognition between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian politicians. However, we claim that a lasting resolution to the Kosovo issue actually needs to account for at least three separate aspects: 1) (...) status of Northern Kosovo which is ethnically Serbian and still maintains various ties with the Serbian state, 2) status of Serbian cultural and religious heritage, chiefly UNESCO world heritage Serbian medieval monasteries and churches and 3) the fact that the Serbian population in central Kosovo, i.e. south of the river Ibar, where most of the mentioned monasteries and churches are located, are located in small municipalities or enclaves of Serbs surrounded by vast Albanian populations. We examine the applicability of the non- territorial approach to the Kosovo issue by analyzing the normative framework directly regulating the Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo, its preservation and protection, particularly of Serbian Orthodox monasteries, churches and other historical and cultural sites, while comparing these regulations to the existing normative NTAs in Croatia and Montenegro. Arguably, since most Serbian monasteries and churches are not included in any sovereignty negotiations, we point to the potential to combine territorial and non-territorial approaches, regardless of the continued obstacles in implementation arising from continued contestation of Kosovo?s sovereign status. nema. (shrink)

It is frequently argued that to address structural injustice, individuals should participate in collective actions organized by civil society organizations (CSOs), but the role and the normative status of CSOs are rarely discussed. In this paper, we argue that CSOs semi-perfect our shared obligation to address structural injustice by defining shared goals as well as taking actions to further them. This assigns a special moral status to CSOs, which in turn gives rise to our duty to support them. Thus, we (...) do not have full discretion when deciding whether to join collective actions or not. Under certain conditions, we can even be forced by others to do our share. (shrink)

How much should we sacrifice for the sake of others? While some argue in favour of significant sacrifices, others contend that morality cannot demand too much from individuals. Recently, the debate has taken a new turn by focusing on moral demands under non-ideal conditions in which the essential interests of many people are set back. Under such conditions, in some views, moral theories must require extreme moral demands as anything less is incompatible with equal consideration of everyone’s interests. The insistence (...) on the extremeness of moral demands, however, presupposes a simplistic account of non-ideal conditions as characterized mainly by the non-compliance of many individuals. Non-ideal conditions are also characterized by institutional non-compliance, whereby institutions often do not do what they ought to do. Institutional non-compliance is significant as it increases the size of moral demands significantly, thereby exacerbating the conflict between these demands and the self-interest of individuals subjected to these institutions. I argue that individuals have a meta-interest in not experiencing such internal conflicts as these can undermine their affirmation of self-respect. Meta-interest can be advanced by adopting the promotion of just institutions as an ultimate aim, as such institutions lessen the conflict and, accordingly, enable us to live more harmonious lives. Moreover, the promotion of just institutions allows us to affirm our sense of self-respect under non-ideal conditions too. Because the promotion of just institutions is in our self-interest, this is not an extreme but a moderate moral demand. (shrink)

SummaryThis paper reports on the association between early marriage, age at first reproduction and height, as an indicator of childhood environment, and maternal health outcomes among traditional Roma women in Serbia. Demographic data, marital and reproductive histories, height, weight and self-rated health were collected from 414 Roma women living in rural settlements in Serbia in 2015–2017. Data analysis showed that higher age and weight were associated with a greater risk of poor health, greater height contributed to reduced risk of poor (...) health while reproductive variables were insignificant. The study provides evidence that the long-term effects of early childbearing may not always be associated with poorer health status. As indicated by the differences in height, it is likely that women who were capable of reproducing very early on and staying healthy in later life were probably very healthy to begin with. The results probably reflect both the biological and social differences of early childhood. Aside from height, the traditional Roma marriage pattern and social benefits may have an additional protective effect on the health of women. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to analyze, from a philosophical perspective, the scientific robustness of the construct of psychopathy as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist Revised that was developed by Robert Hare (1991; 2003). The scientific robustness and validity of classifications are topics of many debates in philosophy of science and philosophy of psychiatry more specifically. The main problem consists in establishing whether scientific classifications reflect natural kinds where the concept of a natural kind refers to the existence of (...) some objective divisions in nature that do not depend exclusively on subjective judgments of the classifier. The construct of psychopathy is especially interesting since the diagnosis of psychopathy has substantial social consequences. In the light of the recent debates regarding the problem of natural kinds in philosophy of psychiatry, we advocate the following distinction between two types of scientific classifications: natural and practical kinds. Natural kinds refer to those categories that are united by common causal mechanisms or properties. Practical kinds refer to categories that fulfill some practical classificatory goals such as prediction. We argue that the construct of psychopathy can fulfill the role of a practical kind. In addition, we contend that our current scientific knowledge about psychopathy does not allow us to conclude that this category is a natural kind. (shrink)

Inflectional morphology has been taken as a paradigmatic example of rule-governed grammatical knowledge (Pinker, 1999). The plausibility of this claim may be related to the fact that it is mainly based on studies of English, which has a very simple inflectional system. We examined the representation of inflectional morphology in Serbian, which encodes number, gender, and case for nouns. Linguists standardly characterize this system as a complex set of rules, with disagreements about their exact form. We present analyses of a (...) large corpus of nouns which showed that, as in English, Serbian inflectional morphology is quasiregular: It exhibits numerous partial regularities creating neighborhoods that vary in size and consistency. We then asked whether a simple connectionist network could encode this statistical information in a manner that also supported generalization. A network trained on 3,244 Serbian nouns learned to produce correctly inflected phonological forms from a specification of a word's lemma, gender, number, and case, and generalized to untrained cases. The model's performance was sensitive to variables that also influence human performance, including surface and lemma frequency. It was also influenced by inflectional neighborhood size, a novel measure of the consistency of meaning to form mapping. A word-naming experiment with native Serbian speakers showed that this measure also affects human performance. The results suggest that, as in English, generating correctly inflected forms involves satisfying a small number of simultaneous probabilistic constraints relating form and meaning. Thus, common computational mechanisms may govern the representation and use of inflectional information across typologically diverse languages. (shrink)

Unchosen transformative experiences—transformative experiences that are imposed upon an agent by external circumstances—present a fundamental problem for agency: how does one act intentionally in circumstances that transform oneself as an agent, and that disrupt one’s core projects, cares, or goals? Drawing from William James’s analysis of conversion and Matthew Ratcliffe’s account of grief, I give a phenomenological analysis of transformative experiences as involving the restructuring of systems of practical meaning. On this analysis, an agent’s experience of the world is structured (...) by practically significant possibilities that form organized systems on the basis of the agent’s projects and relationships. Transformative experiences involve shifts to systems of possibility, that is, changes to habitual meanings and to how an agent’s projects are situated in relation to one another. I employ the enactivist notion of sense-making to analyze how an agent rebuilds the meaning structures disrupted by a transformative experience. In an unchosen transformative experience, an agent adjusts to a significant disruption through a process of sense-making in precarious conditions. By establishing new patterns of bodily and social interaction with the world, one alters the practical meanings of one’s surroundings, and thereby reconstitutes oneself as an intentional agent. (shrink)

Unchosen transformative experiences—transformative experiences that are imposed upon an agent by external circumstances—present a fundamental problem for agency: how does one act intentionally in circumstances that transform oneself as an agent, and that disrupt one’s core projects, cares, or goals? Drawing from William James’s analysis of conversion and Matthew Ratcliffe’s account of grief, I give a phenomenological analysis of transformative experiences as involving the restructuring of systems of practical meaning. On this analysis, an agent’s experience of the world is structured (...) by practically significant possibilities that form organized systems on the basis of the agent’s projects and relationships. Transformative experiences involve shifts to systems of possibility, that is, changes to habitual meanings and to how an agent’s projects are situated in relation to one another. I employ the enactivist notion of sense-making to analyze how an agent rebuilds the meaning structures disrupted by a transformative experience. In an unchosen transformative experience, an agent adjusts to a significant disruption through a process of sense-making in precarious conditions. By establishing new patterns of bodily and social interaction with the world, one alters the practical meanings of one’s surroundings, and thereby reconstitutes oneself as an intentional agent. (shrink)

The paper’s focus is on an age-long philosophical issue: man and power. It is analyzed in the frame of the basic philosophical paradigms: ontological, epistemological, axiological, anthropological and linguistic. From the analysis and comparison of the particular traits of each of these paradigms three approaches to human beings arise: essential, existential and interpretative. The power dominating over people or possessing them has various forms: universal law, God’s will, political order, the nature inside and outside us, etc., the most dangerous of (...) them being those we are unaware of. (shrink)

Cosmopolitans typically argue that the realization of cosmopolitan ideals requires the creation of global political institutions of some kind. While the precise nature of the necessary institutions is widely discussed, the problem of the transition to such an order has received less attention. In this paper, we address what we take to be a crucial aspect of the problem of transition: we argue that it involves a moral coordination problem because there are several morally equivalent paths to reform the existing (...) order, but suitably placed and properly motivated political agents need to converge on a single route for the transition to be successful. It is, however, unclear how such a convergence can take place since the duty to create global institutions does not single out any coordination point. We draw on the so-called theory of hegemonic stability to address this problem and conceptualize what we call the hegemonic transition. From an explanatory point of view, we rely on the theory’s insights to explain how a hegemon may contribute to the creation of a rules-based international order by providing salient coordination points and accordingly, enabling coordination among states. From the normative point of view, we identify necessary conditions for the hegemonic transition to be morally permissible. To the extent that these conditions obtain, other states have pro tanto moral reasons to follow the salient coordination point provided by the leading state. (shrink)

This paper describes student‐level findings of the first large‐scale comprehensive school effectiveness study of the primary education in Serbia. Twenty‐five student‐level variables were examined in a three‐level HLM model using a study sample of almost 5000 students, over 250 classrooms and over 100 schools. Differences between the students were in large part responsible for differences in achievement scores in mathematics and Serbian language. Parental education, Roma minority status, developmental or family problems, gender, student motivation, parental involvement in student work and (...) homework were some of the factors associated with student achievement. Serbian policy‐makers are alerted to possible actions in order to improve mathematics and Serbian language achievement. (shrink)

The current coronavirus pandemic has presented many scientific disciplines, including philosophy, with various theoretical and practical challenges. In this paper, we deal with three philosophical issues related to the pandemic and specific approaches to them. The first part of the article is dedicated to the analysis of the term?expert,? whose significance was highlighted at the outbreak of the pandemic. By examining Plato?s ancient and Goldman?s modern understanding of this concept, we will try to emphasize the importance of expert opinion in (...) crisis circumstances. In the second part of the paper, we will deal with the issue of public mistrust of scientific authorities as well as the problem of the flourishing of so-called conspiracy theories. Goldenberg?s and Cassam?s approach to this topic will help us see where the source of these problems might lie and what potentially harmful consequences they can produce. In the third part of the text, we list some of the main moral dilemmas we have faced since the beginning of the pandemic. Special attention is paid to Kant?s moral philosophy in which we find advice on how an individual should act in times of crisis. (shrink)

Twenty years since the onset of the traumatic wars of Yugoslav secession, the countries of the Western Balkans continue to nurture narratives of the past that are mutually exclusive, contradictory, and irreconcilable. The troubling ways in which states in the region remember their pasts provide continuing obstacles in the search for acknowledgment and justice. In this essay, I develop an argument for understanding the relationship between justice and remembrance of the past. To illustrate this relationship, I explore ways in which (...) education and memorialization projects contribute to justice efforts. I critically analyze a few ongoing education and memory projects in the region, and then present alternative ideas on mechanisms of public memory that would be more conducive to building the foundational blocks of justice based on trust, respect, and dignity. (shrink)

This paper seeks to explore the limits of individualizing parenthood in Serbia, gleaned from the example of gender socialization of children. The main thesis is that the noted limits to individualization of parenthood in contemporary society have a particular Serbian manifestation due to the country’s familism. The study traces the ideology of familism through normative aspects of gender structures within contemporary Serbian society, that is, by analyzing the presence and forms of expression of the patriarchal matrix in upbringing practices of (...) parents, the most significant element of which is the ethics of good parenthood. The analysis shows that individualization of parenthood and more egalitarian patterns of gender socialization occur above all due to the dynamic within the marital relationship, one which abandons the concept of sacrificial parenthood. The analysis presented here is based on data collected in empirical research of upbringing practices in contemporary Serbia. (shrink)

Contemporary biology education is rich with important content for human society, such as concepts related to pollination and pollinators. Comparative analysis of the knowledge about concepts of pollination and bee pollinators between elementary school students from Serbia and Russia was performed. This research aimed to determine which aspects of pollination students know and how do they understand the role of bees in this process. It also assessed students’ knowledge about the pollinators’ decline factors by using a questionnaire. Most students knew (...) the definition of pollination and that bees are the most effective insect pollinators. Russian students had a greater scope of knowledge about the concepts of pollination and bee pollinators than did Serbian students. Students did not recognize that modern agriculture and climate change are causes of pollinator declines. Concepts of ecosystem services, bee diversity, and pollinator decline need to be added to the curriculum. (shrink)

This article presents an attempt to approach the dispute over Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians from a non-territorial perspective, with particular focus on the preservation of the Serbian cultural and religious heritage. First, we argue that the Kosovo issue is at present commonly understood as an either-or territorial dispute over sovereignty and recognition between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian politicians. However, we claim that a lasting resolution to the Kosovo issue actually needs to account for at least three separate aspects: 1) (...) status of Northern Kosovo which is ethnically Serbian and still maintains various ties with the Serbian state, 2) status of Serbian cultural and religious heritage, chiefly UNESCO world heritage Serbian medieval monasteries and churches and 3) the fact that the Serbian population in central Kosovo, i.e. south of the river Ibar, where most of the mentioned monasteries and churches are located, are located in small municipalities or enclaves of Serbs surrounded by vast Albanian populations. We examine the applicability of the non– territorial approach to the Kosovo issue by analyzing the normative framework directly regulating the Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo, its preservation and protection, particularly of Serbian Orthodox monasteries, churches and other historical and cultural sites, while comparing these regulations to the existing normative NTAs in Croatia and Montenegro. Arguably, since most Serbian monasteries and churches are not included in any sovereignty negotiations, we point to the potential to combine territorial and non–territorial approaches, regardless of the continued obstacles in implementation arising from continued contestation of Kosovo’s sovereign status. This article presents an attempt to approach the dispute over Kosovo between Serbs and Albanians from a non-territorial perspective, with particular focus on the preservation of the Serbian cultural and religious heritage. First, we argue that the Kosovo issue is at present commonly understood as an either-or territorial dispute over sovereignty and recognition between Serbian and Kosovo Albanian politicians. However, we claim that a lasting resolution to the Kosovo issue actually needs to account for at least three separate aspects: 1) status of Northern Kosovo which is ethnically Serbian and still maintains various ties with the Serbian state, 2) status of Serbian cultural and religious heritage, chiefly UNESCO world heritage Serbian medieval monasteries and churches and 3) the fact that the Serbian population in central Kosovo, i.e. south of the river Ibar, where most of the mentioned monasteries and churches are located, are located in small municipalities or enclaves of Serbs surrounded by vast Albanian populations. We examine the applicability of the non– territorial approach to the Kosovo issue by analyzing the normative framework directly regulating the Serbian cultural and religious heritage in Kosovo, its preservation and protection, particularly of Serbian Orthodox monasteries, churches and other historical and cultural sites, while comparing these regulations to the existing normative NTAs in Croatia and Montenegro. Arguably, since most Serbian monasteries and churches are not included in any sovereignty negotiations, we point to the potential to combine territorial and non–territorial approaches, regardless of the continued obstacles in implementation arising from continued contestation of Kosovo’s sovereign status. (shrink)

Feministicka epistemologija je pristup u teoriji saznanja koji u srediste postavlja feministicke probleme. U radu se razmatra savremeni poduhvat u oblasti feministicke epistemologije: feministicki empirizam. Za razliku od drugih feministkinja koje se bave epistemologijom, njihov cilj je da zadrze osnovne pojmove analiticke tradicije, koje posmatraju u svetlu feministickih interesa. Polazeci od Kvajnove naturalisticke epistemologije, feministicke empiristkinje iznose razlicite koncepcije znanja i prirode saznajnog subjekta, stvarajuci nove poglede na odnos sociopolitickih vrednosti i naucnog istrazivanja. Svoje preimucstvo u odnosu na pristupe feministickoj (...) epistemologiji izvan analitickog okvira, empiristkinje pronalaze upravo u prihvatanju naturalistickog i empiristickog pristupa rodnim pristrasnostima. Cilj rada je da proceni koliko su one uspesne u ostvarivanju svojih zamisli i da li je jedan takav pristup prihvatljiv. (shrink)