Trypophobia refers to the extreme negative reaction when viewing clusters of circular objects. Two major evolutionary frameworks have been proposed to account for trypophobic visual discomfort. The skin disease-avoidance (SD) framework proposes that trypophobia is an over-generalised response to stimuli resembling pathogen-related skin diseases. The dangerous animal (DA) framework posits that some dangerous organisms and trypophobic stimuli share similar visual characteristics. Here, we performed the first experimental manipulations which directly compare these two frameworks by superimposing trypophobic imagery onto multiple image (...) categories to evaluate changes in comfort. Participants from two countries (United States and Croatia) were evaluated on several measures, including general trypophobia levels, perceived vulnerability to disease, and generalised anxiety. Several analyses showed stronger changes in comfort in the human skin condition (hand, feet, and chest images) compared to the dangerous animal condition (snake and spider images). Furthermore, participants with higher levels of trypophobia showed significantly stronger changes in comfort in the skin condition than the dangerous animal condition, with comparable effects obtained across nationalities. Several variables entered as covariates failed to significantly account for this effect. The present work is the first to experimentally test both evolutionary frameworks of trypophobia, with results supporting the skin disease-avoidance framework. (shrink)

Electronic communication raises challenges to our understanding of the ethics of interpersonal relationship. This paper examines one area of electronic communication, the practice of journal blogging, and its correlation to one form of interpersonal relationship, intimacy. Analyzing intimacy in terms of knowledge, esteem, and assimilation, the paper argues that while journal blogging would seem to enhance and facilitate these relational elements, the practice in fact and in principle undermines them.

Electronic communication raises challenges to our understanding of the ethics of interpersonal relationship. This paper examines one area of electronic communication, the practice of journal blogging, and its correlation to one form of interpersonal relationship, intimacy. Analyzing intimacy in terms of knowledge, esteem, and assimilation, the paper argues that while journal blogging would seem to enhance and facilitate these relational elements, the practice in fact and in principle undermines them.

Many postsecondary institutions now require an ethics course for graduation, typically one in applied ethics. This paper considers the justification for such a requirement from the institution’s perspective, on the one hand, and what might be a justification from a philosophical perspective, on the other; it then argues that teaching applied ethics courses in accordance with the philosophical justification satisfies the institutional justification as well. Moreover, the philosophical perspective, which aims to introduce compulsory ethics students to an understanding, appreciation and (...) even love of philosophy as a holistic discipline, contributes to the purpose of perpetuating the profession. In illustration, the paper describes an actual required course in business ethics put in broader philosophical context, one that has shown some success in fostering philosophical interest beyond the final exam. (shrink)

A persistent worry in the ethical literature on care and empathy is that the agent is prone to self-sacrifice by the requisite state of engrossment in or engagement of the other. Addressing this worry particularly as expressed in feminist philosophy, I argue that the standard conceptions of self-sacrifice conflate four distinct relations of the self to its autonomous will: self-immolation (destroying one’s own autonomy), self-abnegation (disowning one’s autonomy), self-effacement (devaluing one’s autonomy) and self-donation (dedicating one’s autonomy). The latter, far from (...) being vicious, is from an ethical standpoint the highest realization of autonomy; this claim finds echoes in Robin Dillon’s work on self-respect as well as the personalist philosophy of John Paul II. Self-immolation, self-abnegation, and self-effacement, on the other hand, are characterized by detachment from responsibility, corruption of the boundaries between self and other, and suppression of self-understanding. (shrink)

A persistent worry in the ethical literature on care and empathy is that the agent is prone to self-sacrifice by the requisite state of engrossment in or engagement of the other. Addressing this worry particularly as expressed in feminist philosophy, I argue that the standard conceptions of self-sacrifice conflate four distinct relations of the self to its autonomous will: self-immolation (destroying one’s own autonomy), self-abnegation (disowning one’s autonomy), self-effacement (devaluing one’s autonomy) and self-donation (dedicating one’s autonomy). The latter, far from (...) being vicious, is from an ethical standpoint the highest realization of autonomy; this claim finds echoes in Robin Dillon’s work on self-respect as well as the personalist philosophy of John Paul II. Self-immolation, self-abnegation, and self-effacement, on the other hand, are characterized by detachment from responsibility, corruption of the boundaries between self and other, and suppression of self-understanding. (shrink)

Many postsecondary institutions now require an ethics course for graduation, typically one in applied ethics. This paper considers the justification for such a requirement from the institution’s perspective, on the one hand, and what might be a justification from a philosophical perspective, on the other; it then argues that teaching applied ethics courses in accordance with the philosophical justification satisfies the institutional justification as well. Moreover, the philosophical perspective, which aims to introduce compulsory ethics students to an understanding, appreciation and (...) even love of philosophy as a holistic discipline, contributes to the purpose of perpetuating the profession. In illustration, the paper describes an actual required course in business ethics put in broader philosophical context, one that has shown some success in fostering philosophical interest beyond the final exam. (shrink)