This research draws from three distinct lines of research on the link between emotions and intergroup bias as springboard to integrative, new hypotheses. Past research suggests that emotions extrinsic to the outgroup (or “incidental”), and intrinsic to the outgroup (or “integral”), produce valence-congruent effects on intergroup bias when relevant or “applicable” to the outgroup (e.g., incidental/integral anger and ethnic outgroups). These emotions produce valenceincongruent effects when irrelevant or “non-applicable” to the outgroup (e.g., incidental/integral sadness and happiness, and ethnic outgroups). Internally (...) valid and ecologically sound tests of these contrasting effects are missing; hence we examined them experimentally in meaningful settings of interethnic contact. To this end, we hybridized established research paradigms in mood and intergroup contact research; this approach enabled us to use same materials and induction methods to instigate incidental and integral emotions in a single research design. In Experiment 1, White Australian students (N= 93) inin vivoreal face-to-face contact with an ethnic tutor in their classroom displayed less interethnic bias when incidentally sad (vs. happy) or integrally happy (vs. sad). In Experiment 2, White American males' (N= 492) anti-Arab bias displayed divergent effects under incidental vs. integral (non-applicable) sadness/happiness and similar effects under incidental vs. integral (applicable) anger. The role of perceptions of agency in the emotion-inducing situation is also explored, tested, and explained drawing from mainstream emotion theory. As expected, integral and incidentalapplicableemotions caused valence congruent effects, at the opposite sides of the subjective agency spectrum, by encouraging the generalization of dislike from the outgroup contact partner to the outgroup as a whole. On the other hand, incidental-non-applicable emotions caused valence-incongruent effects on bias, under high agency conditions, by encouraging (non-partner-centered) heuristic processing. Because of the improved methodology, these effects can be regarded as genuine and not the byproduct of methodological artifacts. This theory-driven and empirically sound analysis of the interplay between emotion source, emotion applicability and subjective agency in intergroup contact can increase the precision of emotion-based bias reduction strategies by deepening understanding of the emotion conditions that lead to intergroup bias attenuation vs. exacerbation. (shrink)

According to the expertise defense, practitioners of the method of cases need not worry about findings that ordinary people’s philosophical intuitions depend on epistemically irrelevant factors. This is because, honed by years of training, the intuitions of professional philosophers likely surpass those of the folk. To investigate this, we conducted a controlled longitudinal study of a broad range of intuitions in undergraduate students of philosophy (n = 226), whose case judgments we sampled after each semester throughout their studies. Under the (...) assumption, made by proponents of the expertise defense, that formal training in philosophy gives rise to the kind of expertise that accounts for changes in the students’ responses to philosophically puzzling cases, our data suggest that the acquired cognitive skills only affect single case judgments at a time. There does not seem to exist either a general expertise that informs case judgments in all areas of philosophy, or an expertise specific to particular subfields. In fact, we argue that available evidence, including the results of cross-sectional research, is best explained in terms of differences in adopted beliefs about specific cases, rather than acquired cognitive skills. We also investigated whether individuals who choose to study philosophy have atypical intuitions compared to the general population and whether students whose intuitions are at odds with textbook consensus are more likely than others to drop out of the philosophy program. (shrink)

The focal point of my article is the work of biohackers: mainly Josiah Zayner, whose activism as a biohacker, as an artist and a public figure offers an interesting lens through which one can explore the contemporary genetic imaginary and our changing and varied approach to genetic engineering. The framework for this description is set by an analysis of cultural representations of contemporary science and technology, both in documentaries and in works of fiction. In the article, I trace and analyse (...) the ways in which biohackers’ activity is involved with the earlier ideas of cyberculture, most notably with the notion of biological life as information (possible to edit or ‘hack’) and to the image of a ‘hacker’. I recall the popular phrase of ‘playing god’, often quoted in relation to genetic imaginary, mainly as a warning against excessive interventions within nature. The phrase and the warning itself seem to have become insofar more important, as the scale of possible interventions had been raised by the advancement of genetic engineering. Finally, I discuss the relation of art and science in Zayner’s activity, within a broader context of relevant images of artists and scientists and their role within the changing realities of contemporary life. The article does not pretend to fully analyse or even describe the modalities and implication of biohackers’ activity. Its main goal is to shed more light on the current changes in collective imagination related to the rapid development of biotechnology and its cultural understanding. The public presence of biohackers, and especially Zayner’s activity, provides new visions of human agency in nature and of relation between art, science and social practice. (shrink)

Thinking in Āsana is an exploration of three popular lineages of modern postural yoga - Viniyoga, Iyengar Yoga, and Ashtanga Yoga.

Clinical Ethics Consultations are an important tool for physicians in solving difficult cases. They are extremely common in North America and to a lesser extent also present in Europe. However, there is little data on this practice in Poland. We present results of a survey of 521 physicians practising in Poland concerning their opinion on CECs and related practices. We analysed the data looking at such issues as CECs’ perceived availability, use of CECs, and perceived usefulness of such support. Physicians (...) in our study generally encounter hard ethics cases, even—surprisingly—those who do not work in hospitals. Most physicians have no CEC access, and those that do still do not employ CECs. However, physicians perceive this form of support as useful—even more so among actual users of CECs. We compared these findings with similar studies from other European countries and the North America. We point out peculiarities of our results as compared to those in other countries, with some possible explanations. We hope the results may encourage regulatory debate on the need to formally introduce CECs into the Polish healthcare system. (shrink)

According to the New Angle, any explanation of the Knobe effect must be gradable and asymmetric. It has been argued that only Hindriks’ approach meets both criteria. First, we argue that Holton’s hypothesis also meets the criteria. Second, we show that the authors are not justified in taking the criteria to be empirically justified. We have failed to replicate the asymmetry result in two experiments. Moreover, gradability can be objective or epistemic. We show that the New Angle presupposes objective gradability. (...) In our experiments, the patterns of responses to questions about epistemic and objective gradability are the same, irrespective of whether the feature is objectively gradable (e.g., blameworthiness) or not (e.g., intentionality). Our results thus question the extent to which the New Angle is empirically grounded. Moreover, they raise doubt whether the answers to questions about epistemic and objective gradability can be taken at face value at all. (shrink)

Beebe and Buckwalter made the surprising discovery that people are more inclined to attribute knowledge when norms are violated than when they are conformed to. The epistemic side-effect effect is the analogue of the Knobe effect. ESEE was replicated in a number of experiments. It was also studied under various conditions. We have carried out a meta-analysis of research on ESEE. The results suggest that ESEE is a robust finding but its magnitude is highly variable. Two study-level covariates influence its (...) size: the subject of the knowledge attribution and the type of norm that is violated or complied with. The effect size is not influenced, however, by the manipulation of chances, by whether the story is about a side effect or not, by language or by question phrasing. The impact of the Gettierization of the story is marginally significant. (shrink)

In this paper, we present two experimental studies on reference of complex demonstratives. The results of our experiments challenge the dominant view in philosophy of language, according to which demonstrative reference is determined by the speaker's intentions. The first experiment shows that in a context where there are two candidates for the referent—one determined by the speaker’s intention, the other by some “external” factors—people prefer to identify the referent of a demonstrative with the latter object. The external factors for which (...) this prediction has been confirmed include the speaker’s demonstration and the descriptive content of a demonstrative. The second experiment shows that while this preference can be explained in terms of the speakers’ having different sorts of referential intentions, the relevant kind of intentions are fully opaque to the subjects. At the end of our paper, we point to some alternative accounts of demonstrative reference, including a pluralistic and hybrid approach, which can accommodate our experimental results. (shrink)

Some nuclear‐encoded proteins are imported into higher plant plastids via the endomembrane (EM) system. Compared with multi‐protein Toc and Tic translocons required for most plastid protein import, the relatively uncomplicated nature of EM trafficking led to suggestions that it was the original transport mechanism for nuclear‐encoded endosymbiont proteins, and critical for the early stages of plastid evolution. Its apparent simplicity disappears, however, when EM transport is considered in light of selective constraints likely encountered during the conversion of stable endosymbionts into (...) fully integrated organelles. From this perspective it is more parsimonious to presume the early evolution of post‐translational protein import via simpler, ancestral forms of modern Toc and Tic plastid translocons, with EM trafficking arising later to accommodate glycosylation and/or protein targeting to multiple cellular locations. This hypothesis is supported by both empirical and comparative data, and is consistent with the relative paucity of EM‐based transport to modern primary plastids. (shrink)

Our research focuses on the perception of difference in the evaluations of positive and negative options. The literature provides evidence for two opposite effects: on the one hand, negative objects are said to be more differentiated, on the other, people are shown to see greater differences between positive options. In our study, we investigated the perception of difference between fictitious political candidates, hypothesizing greater differences among the evaluations of favorable candidates. Additionally, we analyzed how positive and negative information affect candidate (...) evaluation, predicting further asymmetries. In three experiments, participants evaluated various candidate profiles presented in a numeric and narrative manner. The evaluation tasks were designed as individual or joint assessments. In all three studies, we found more differentiation between positive than negative options. Our research suggests that after exceeding a certain, relatively small level of negativity, people do not see any further increase in negativity. The increase in positivity, on the other hand, is more gradual, with greater differentiation among positive options. Our findings are discussed in light of cognitive-experiential self-theory and density hypothesis. (shrink)

Truth conditions of sentences ascribing non-doxastic propositional attitudes seem to depend on the information structure of the embedded clause. In this paper, we argue that this kind of sensitivity is a semantic phenomenon rather than a pragmatic one. We report four questionnaire studies which explore the impact of the information structure on the truth conditions of non-doxastic attitude ascriptions from different perspectives. The results of the first two studies show that the acceptability of those ascriptions can be affected by some (...) structural modifications of the embedded clause, in particular, when we replace a simple form by an equivalent complex _conjunctional_ form (‘_p_ and _q_’). However, it is possible that different evaluations of such ascriptions have a pragmatic source, namely, the ascriptions with embedded conjunction _imply_ that the agent’s attitude transfers to both conjuncts. In the second pair of studies, we further investigate the nature of this implication which can be classified as ‘Conjunction Elimination’ (CE) in the scope of an attitude verb. The results show that CE-inferences in the context of non-factive non-doxastic attitude ascriptions are not easily cancellable and hence of a semantic rather than pragmatic nature. The results are not conclusive when it comes to the factive non-doxastic attitudes. We conclude our findings by some considerations about a potential source of the observed difference between non-factive and factive attitude verbs and the significance of our general findings to the semantic theory of non-doxastic attitude ascriptions. (shrink)

Several experimental studies on moral judgment and moral decision-making show that in virtual reality people tend to make more “characteristically utilitarian” decisions than when responding to standard questionnaires. An explanation of this phenomenon that has been considered by many authors states that the feature of VR studies that is responsible for this effect is the visual salience of the harmful consequences of “deontological” decisions. The present paper makes three points, the first of which is theoretical: we argue that this explanation, (...) which draws from Cushman’s dual-process account of moral judgment, is in fact not coherent with this account’s predictions with respect to behavior in VR. The second point is that this explanation does not sufficiently explain the existing empirical findings concerning the footbridge dilemma because these studies differ in important aspects of experimental design from studies on the switch dilemma. The third point is empirical: we present two original VR studies that were designed to check the robustness of the increased “utilitarian” tendency and directly test the explanation that is based on the visual salience of harmful consequences. The results of the experiments provide evidence that the effect is quite robust but the proposed explanation is inadequate. (shrink)

Surveys are the most widely used research tool in experimental philosophy. In this paper, I analyze two types of criticism of the questionnaire method put forward in the literature. The first type is metaphilosophical. It asserts that the surveys used by experimental philosophers are based on a flawed and unproductive method of cases. The second type is methodological. It argues that currently used questionnaires are unfit to measure philosophically relevant phenomena. I show that these objections can be met by a) (...) improving questionnaires used in research practice and b) expanding the methodological repertoire of experimental philosophy. (shrink)

Ethics committees in Catholic health care are responsible for con­sultation, education, and policy development and review. Historically, ethics committees were reactive and had no articulated goals. This article argues that the essential goals of Catholic ethics committees are (1) to promote the human dignity of patients and staff; (2) to promote the common good; (3) to promote institutional identity, integrity, and ethical climate; and (4) to improve quality of care. These goals are most effectively met when ethics committees are proactive (...) and integrated in the institution, embrace systems thinking, and utilize professional ethicists locally or regionally. (shrink)

Przedstawiciele dwóch głównych podejść do badania rozumowania w odmienny sposób opisują poznawczy mechanizm wyciągania poprawnych i błędnych wniosków. Przedstawiciele teorii reguł zakładają, że rozumowanie ma charakter syntaktyczny i polega na uruchamianiu reguł podobnych do tych z logiki klasycznej. Przedstawiciele drugiej teorii — teorii modeli umysłowych opisują rozumowanie jako proces semantyczny polegający na tworzeniu modeli umysłowych, które odzwierciedlają strukturę relacji pomiędzy elementami opisanymi w przesłankach. Zgodnie z tak zwaną zasadą prawdziwości każda możliwa sytuacja jest reprezentowana przez odrębny model umysłowy, który odzwierciedla (...) jedynie te elementy, które rzeczywiście występują w danej sytuacji. Zasada ta jest wykorzystywana w teorii modeli do opisywania mechanizmu zarówno poprawnych, jak i błędnych rozumowań. Innymi źródłami błędów w rozumowaniu mogą być: zbyt duża liczba modeli, zbyt wiele relacji między elementami nazwanymi w modelach, zbyt wiele elementów, które należy zintegrować w jednym modelu. W artykule przedstawione są szczegółowo różne typy błędów wynikające z tych czterech powodów. (shrink)

Über sein Verhältnis zu Friedrich Nietzsche sagte Leszek Kolakowski: „ ich habe ihn nie studiert, im wahren Sinne des Wortes, habe auch niemals über ihn geschrieben, außer daß ich ihn hier und da kurz erwähnte." Diese Erklärung könnte im allgemeinen stimmen, obwohl Leszek Kołakowski eine Abhandlung, die den Ansichten Nietzsches gewidmet ist, geschrieben hat. Es handelt sich um den Kommentar zum Heideggers Kommentar des vermutlichen Kommentars Nietzsches zum Hegels Kommentar über das Erfordernis der Negativität. Das Ziel meiner Ausführungen besteht darin, (...) nachzuweisen, daß Kołakowski unter beachtlichem Einfluß der Nietzscheanischen Philosophie steht. Den Beweis dafür liefern nicht nur die gelegentlichen Berufungen auf Schriften des deutschen Philosophen, sondern auch die Art und Weise, wie er theoretische Probleme stellt und wie er sie löst, in weiterer Folge sein Stil des Schreibens und schließlich sein entschieden kritischer, oft spottender Abstand von der heutigen Kultur. Diese Abhängigkeit darzustellen - bei bescheidener Berufung Kolakowskis auf Nietzsches Werke - ist weder eine leichte, noch eine dankbare Aufgabe, da man ihr immer eine willkürliche Manipulation der Interpretation vorwerfen kann. Die Errungenschaften des großen Philosophen der Vergangenheit bilden das allgemeine Gut, und jeder hat das Recht, sich auf sie zu berufen, ohne seine Gedanken unbedingt zu beschreiben, die auf diese oder andere Weise in der Kultur verwurzelt sind. (shrink)

Über sein Verhältnis zu Friedrich Nietzsche sagte Leszek Kolakowski: „ ich habe ihn nie studiert, im wahren Sinne des Wortes, habe auch niemals über ihn geschrieben, außer daß ich ihn hier und da kurz erwähnte." Diese Erklärung könnte im allgemeinen stimmen, obwohl Leszek Kołakowski eine Abhandlung, die den Ansichten Nietzsches gewidmet ist, geschrieben hat. Es handelt sich um den Kommentar zum Heideggers Kommentar des vermutlichen Kommentars Nietzsches zum Hegels Kommentar über das Erfordernis der Negativität. Das Ziel meiner Ausführungen besteht darin, (...) nachzuweisen, daß Kołakowski unter beachtlichem Einfluß der Nietzscheanischen Philosophie steht. Den Beweis dafür liefern nicht nur die gelegentlichen Berufungen auf Schriften des deutschen Philosophen, sondern auch die Art und Weise, wie er theoretische Probleme stellt und wie er sie löst, in weiterer Folge sein Stil des Schreibens und schließlich sein entschieden kritischer, oft spottender Abstand von der heutigen Kultur. Diese Abhängigkeit darzustellen - bei bescheidener Berufung Kolakowskis auf Nietzsches Werke - ist weder eine leichte, noch eine dankbare Aufgabe, da man ihr immer eine willkürliche Manipulation der Interpretation vorwerfen kann. Die Errungenschaften des großen Philosophen der Vergangenheit bilden das allgemeine Gut, und jeder hat das Recht, sich auf sie zu berufen, ohne seine Gedanken unbedingt zu beschreiben, die auf diese oder andere Weise in der Kultur verwurzelt sind. (shrink)

The paper sets out to prove that Leszek Kołakowski remained under a considerable influence of Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas, which is evidenced by the way he poses and solves theoretical problems as well as his critical and often ironical detachment from the modern culture. He devoted a great deal of attention to nihilism, and searched for mythical conditioning of the thinking of the man of today; from the late 1950s, he was a follower of the philosophy of freedom and opposed philosophical (...) and historical determinism. He rejected systemic thinking and any fundamentalism in science. (shrink)

Über sein Verhältnis zu Friedrich Nietzsche sagte Leszek Kolakowski: „ ich habe ihn nie studiert, im wahren Sinne des Wortes, habe auch niemals über ihn geschrieben, außer daß ich ihn hier und da kurz erwähnte." Diese Erklärung könnte im allgemeinen stimmen, obwohl Leszek Kołakowski eine Abhandlung, die den Ansichten Nietzsches gewidmet ist, geschrieben hat. Es handelt sich um den Kommentar zum Heideggers Kommentar des vermutlichen Kommentars Nietzsches zum Hegels Kommentar über das Erfordernis der Negativität. Das Ziel meiner Ausführungen besteht darin, (...) nachzuweisen, daß Kołakowski unter beachtlichem Einfluß der Nietzscheanischen Philosophie steht. Den Beweis dafür liefern nicht nur die gelegentlichen Berufungen auf Schriften des deutschen Philosophen, sondern auch die Art und Weise, wie er theoretische Probleme stellt und wie er sie löst, in weiterer Folge sein Stil des Schreibens und schließlich sein entschieden kritischer, oft spottender Abstand von der heutigen Kultur. Diese Abhängigkeit darzustellen - bei bescheidener Berufung Kolakowskis auf Nietzsches Werke - ist weder eine leichte, noch eine dankbare Aufgabe, da man ihr immer eine willkürliche Manipulation der Interpretation vorwerfen kann. Die Errungenschaften des großen Philosophen der Vergangenheit bilden das allgemeine Gut, und jeder hat das Recht, sich auf sie zu berufen, ohne seine Gedanken unbedingt zu beschreiben, die auf diese oder andere Weise in der Kultur verwurzelt sind. (shrink)

The chapter discusses potential benefits of corpus analysis in philosophical investigations, in particular in experimental philosophy. Philosophers often assume that what happens in language is crucial for the analysis of concepts of philosophical interest. In doing so, they commonly appeal to their own linguistic intuitions, which has been claimed to be methodologically dubious (Bluhm 2013, 2016). Bluhm’s own model of philosophical research has a place for corpus analysis. However, the model has some limitations. I present an alternative model for the (...) use of corpus analysis in philosophical research that can be especially useful for experimental philosophy. As an example, I examine Shepard and Wolf (2013) study on the causal structure of Knobe scenarios. Corpus analysis can be used to show that the verb “cause” used in their scenarios has a negative aura. I discuss the implications of this fact for the design of further studies. (shrink)

Barcz and Zaręba (2021) argue that depending on the shape and the size of the asymmetry in attributions of intentional actions one can distinguish various interpretations of the Knobe effect. Their classification of these interpretations can be used to compare judgments of intentional action across different languages and cultures. Our study in three languages (Polish, English and Italian) indicates that there is some cross-cultural variation both in the ascription of intentionality to an action and in the ascription of actions to (...) the agent. (shrink)

We discuss two philosophical explanations of the epistemic side-effect effect: the doxastic heuristic account (Alfano et al. The Monist 95 (2): 264–289, 2012) and the consequence account (Paprzycka-Hausman Synthese 197: 5457–5490, 2020). We argue that the doxastic heuristic account has problems with explaining knowledge attributions in cases where the probability that the side effect will occur is low and where the side effect does not ultimately occur. It can explain why there is a difference between the harm and the help (...) cases but it cannot explain why people are willing to attribute knowledge in the harm cases. Such attributions can be explained on the consequence account, which takes knowledge attributions in norm-violation cases to be due to the increased salience of a consequence-awareness claim (knowledge that a possible consequence of the chairman’s action is that the environment would be harmed). We report the results of a new study that tests the predictions of both accounts. In some conditions, people attribute knowledge of the side effect even in cases where the chairman does not have the relevant belief. This result directly contradicts the central tenet of the doxastic heuristic account. Linear regression models of knowledge attribution that correspond to the two accounts were compared. The addition of different justification options significantly contributes to the predictive power of the statistical model. The consequence account can explain the pattern of justifications better than the doxastic heuristic account. Our findings support the consequence account and pose a challenge to the proponents of the doxastic heuristic account. (shrink)

The paper reports results of the very first survey-based study on the prevalence, frequency and nature of ethical or other non-medical difficulties faced by Polish physicians in their everyday clinical practice. The study involved 521 physicians of various medical specialties, practicing mainly in inpatient healthcare. The study showed that the majority of Polish physicians encounter ethical and other non-medical difficulties in making clinical decisions. However, they confront such difficulties less frequently than their foreign peers. Moreover, Polish doctors indicate different circumstances (...) as a source of the experienced problems. The difficulties most often reported relate to (i) patients (or their proxies) requests for medically non-indicated interventions; (ii) problems with communication with patients (or their proxies) due to the patients’ negative attitude, unwillingness to cooperate, or aggression; and (iii) various difficulties with obtaining informed consent. Polish physicians report difficulties associated with disagreements among care givers or scarcity of resources less frequently than doctors from other countries. The study’s findings provide support for the thesis that a significant portion of Polish physicians still follow a traditional, paternalistic, and hierarchical model of healthcare practice. Instead of promoting patient’s empowerment, engagement, and rights, they often consider these ideas as a threat to physicians’ professional authority and autonomy. The study leads to the conclusion that due to insufficient training in medical ethics, communication skills, and medical law, many Polish physicians lack the knowledge and competence necessary to adequately respond to challenges posed by modern healthcare practice. (shrink)

Die Philosophie bringt Ideen hervor. Nur von ihnen - von ihrer theoretischen Tragkraft und Neuigkeit hängt die Stellung eines Denkers in einer Kultur ab; ausschließlich von seinem Werk. Sie ist jedoch mit bloßem Auge und auf den ersten Blick nicht zu erkennen. Die Mühlsteine der Geschichte mahlen grob, erst nach Jahrhunderten klären sich die Leistungshierarchien auf. Die Inkubationszeit in einer Kultur dauert lange. Man bedenke nur, dass fünf Jahrhunderte nach Aristoteles dieser neben Plato größte griechische Denker nur einer von 80 (...) Philosophen im Werke von Diogenes Laertios war. Letzterer widmete Aristoteles gerade mal drei Prozent seines Manuskripts. Heute bezweifelt keiner die herausragende Stellung dieses Philosophen. Vor dem Hintergrund zufälliger Geschichtsfaktoren geraten besonders diejenigen menschlichen Erzeugnisse schnell ins Vergessen, um die man sich wenig kümmerte. Aber das ist kein Zufall. Es überdauern nicht diejenigen, die zu Lebzeiten große Scharen von Anhängern hatten, sondern jene, die durch die Jahrtausende hindurch in jeder Generation wenigstens einen vernünftigen Vertreter haben. (shrink)