The Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition emerged within the context of Muslim political dominance in Bengal. As such, perceptions of Muslims embedded within Gauḍīya literature are part and parcel of their worldview. Muslims, however, have to construct perceptions of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas from the ground up, utilizing scriptural references emerging in a distinctively different milieu and putting them into conversation with scholarly methodologies for cross-cultural engagement. This paper articulates a contemporary method for Muslim engagement with Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavas that is rooted in a decolonial (...) solidarity of respect for the internal logics of religious traditions. (shrink)

This work is primarily concerned with Hume's arguments concerning the respective roles of reason and passion in moral decisions. Thus, the major part of the work deals with section I of Part I of Book III of the Treatise, where Hume argues that moral distinctions are not derived from reason. But in discussing this section, I have had to take into account most ofthe other sections of Book III, and some important ones from Book II of the Treatise and the (...) Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Omissions, however, are noticeable. While I have gone into great detail on Parts I and II ofthe Treatise of Morals, I have omitted any discussion of Part III. I have not discussed everything Hume has to say on ethics, or even everything in Book III of the Treatise. I have placed certain limits on myself in writing this work. I attempt to point out only what is central to Hume's ethics, and this I believe to be the first section of Book III, and to show how certain assumptions and conclusions of this section underlie the rest of Hume's considerations on ethics. Thus, I have tried to show that Hume's discussion of the artificial virtues necessarily follows from the assump tions and conclusions of section I. But I leave it to the reader, in his further study of Hume, to apply my points to other sections of Hume that I have not discussed. (shrink)

This article focuses on Bretherton’s treatment of Pentecostalism and Black Power and how they conceive and challenge notions of democracy, citizenship and capitalism. Recognising the ‘tensional’ relationship between democracy and Christianity, I explore his treatment of Pentecostalism and capitalism. I am sympathetic to Bretherton’s analysis of the socio-political transformation Pentecostalism offers, but point to regressive influences associated with the ‘prosperity gospel’. Relating his treatment of Black Power to the wider ‘Black radical tradition’, I conclude with reference to political activism in (...) the UK. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between involvement in three aspects of congregational life and spiritual growth. In addition, an effort is made to see if spiritual growth may, in turn, affect health. A latent variable model was developed to test the following hypotheses: individuals who attend worship services more often, attend Bible study and prayer group meetings more frequently, and individuals who receive more spiritual support from fellow church members will be more likely to report (...) they have experienced spiritual growth; people who experience more spiritual growth will be more likely to derive a deeper sense of meaning in life; and individuals who have developed a deeper sense of meaning in life will enjoy better health. Data from the U.S. Congregational Life Survey suggests that spiritual support has the stronger relationship with spiritual growth than either worship service attendance or involvement in formal church groups. The findings further reveal that greater spiritual growth is associated with a deeper sense of meaning in life and meaning, in turn, is associated with better health. (shrink)

"Biodiversity prospecting" has been touted as a mechanism for both discovering new pharmaceutical products and saving endangered ecosystems. It is unclear what values may arise from such activities, however. Evidence from transactions is incomplete and existing theoretical models are flawed. We calculate an upper bound on the value of the "marginal species." Even under favorable assumptions this bound is modest. Slightly modified assumptions lead to drastically lower estimates. We extend our findings to the value of the marginal hectare of habitat (...) and find that the incentives for habitat conservation generated by private pharmaceutical research are also, at best, very modest. (shrink)

Research indicates that positive relationships with fellow church members are associated with better mental health. However, far less research has focused on the relationship between negative interaction with fellow church members and mental health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between church-based negative interaction and depressive symptoms with data from a nationwide sample of older Mexican Americans. Statistically significant findings were found for the following core relationships in our study model: older Mexican Americans who encounter (...) negative interaction with fellow church members experience more doubts about their faith; older Mexican Americans who experience more doubts about their faith are more likely to expect transgressors to perform acts of contrition ; and older Mexican Americans who require transgressors to perform acts of contrition are more likely to experience symptoms of depression. Subsequent empirical analyses provide support for each of these relationships. (shrink)

A review‐article of Julius Stone, Legal System and Lawyers' Reasonings, Stanford, University Press Herbert Wechsler, Principles, Politics and Fundamental Law, Harvard University Press H. L. A. Hart, The Concept of Law, Oxford University Press Richard A. Wasserstrom, The Judicial Decision, Toward a Theory of Legal Justification, Stanford University Press Judith N. Shklar, Legalism, Harvard University Press.

Some researchers maintain that one of the primary functions of religion is to help individuals develop a strong sense of connectedness with other people. However, there is little research on how a sense of connectedness arises. The purpose of this study is to examine this issue. A conceptual model is developed to test the following key hypotheses: blacks are more likely than whites to affiliate with Conservative Christian denominations; Conservative Christians attend worship services more often than individuals in other faith (...) traditions; people who go to church more often are more likely to receive informal spiritual support ; individuals who receive more spiritual support are more likely to read religious literature and watch or listen to religious programs; and people who engage in these private religious practices are more likely to feel a close sense of religiously based connectedness with others. Data from a nationwide longitudinal survey provides support for each hypothesis. (shrink)

Philosophers have long debated whether, if determinism is true, we should hold people morally responsible for their actions since in a deterministic universe, people are arguably not the ultimate source of their actions nor could they have done otherwise if initial conditions and the laws of nature are held fixed. To reveal how non-philosophers ordinarily reason about the conditions for free will, we conducted a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic survey (N = 5,268) spanning twenty countries and sixteen languages. Overall, participants tended (...) to ascribe moral responsibility whether the perpetrator lacked sourcehood or alternate possibilities. However, for American, European, and Middle Eastern participants, being the ultimate source of one’s actions promoted perceptions of free will and control as well as ascriptions of blame and punishment. By contrast, being the source of one’s actions was not particularly salient to Asian participants. Finally, across cultures, participants exhibiting greater cognitive reflection were more likely to view free will as incompatible with causal determinism. We discuss these findings in light of documented cultural differences in the tendency toward dispositional versus situational attributions. (shrink)

We report the results of two studies that examine folk metaethical judgments about the objectivity of morality. We found that participants attributed almost as much objectivity to ethical statements as they did to statements of physical fact and significantly more objectivity to ethical statements than to statements about preferences or tastes. In both studies, younger participants attributed less objectivity to ethical statements than older participants. Females were observed to attribute slightly less objectivity to ethical statements than males, and we found (...) important interactions between attributions of objectivity and other factors, such as how strong participants’ moral opinions were and how much disagreement about the issue they perceived to exist within society. We believe our results have significant implications for debates about the nature of folk morality and about the nature of morality in general. (shrink)

This article presents seven principles that have guided our thinking about emotional intelligence, some of them new. We have reformulated our original ability model here guided by these principles, clarified earlier statements of the model that were unclear, and revised portions of it in response to current research. In this revision, we also positioned emotional intelligence amidst other hot intelligences including personal and social intelligences, and examined the implications of the changes to the model. We discuss the present and future (...) of the concept of emotional intelligence as a mental ability. (shrink)

Article retraction in research is rising, yet retracted articles continue to be cited at a disturbing rate. This paper presents an analysis of recent retraction patterns, with a unique emphasis on the role author self-cites play, to assist the scientific community in creating counter-strategies. This was accomplished by examining the following: A categorization of retracted articles more complete than previously published work. The relationship between citation counts and after-retraction self-cites from the authors of the work, and the distribution of self-cites (...) across our retraction categories. The distribution of retractions written by both the author and the editor across our retraction categories. The trends for seven of our nine defined retraction categories over a 6-year period. The average journal impact factor by category, and the relationship between impact factor, author self-cites, and overall citations. Our findings indicate new reasons for retractions have emerged in recent years, and more editors are penning retractions. The rates of increase for retraction varies by category, and there is statistically significant difference of average impact factor between many categories. 18 % of authors self-cite retracted work post retraction with only 10 % of those authors also citing the retraction notice. Further, there is a positive correlation between self-cites and after retraction citations. (shrink)

Menschen überschätzen ihre Rationalität erheblich. Psychologische Informiertheit kann die Ethik davor bewahren, diese Selbstüberschätzung unhinterfragt aufzugreifen. Wir Menschen halten zumindest uns selbst im Grossen und Ganzen für rational. Wir glauben zu wissen, warum wir uns auf eine bestimmte Weise verhalten, und wir können auf Nachfrage viele Gründe für unsere Einstellungen und Handlungen angeben. Die psychologische Forschung zeigt jedoch die Unzulänglichkeit dieses rationalistischen Selbstverständnisses auf. Gerade in Bezug auf tiefsitzende Einstellungen und wertebezogene Handlungen sind Selbsttäuschungen eher der Regelfall als die Ausnahme. (...) Eine psychologisch informierte Ethik versucht, diese beschränkte menschliche Selbsttransparenz umfassend zu berücksichtigen. Dadurch kann sie nicht nur philosophisch-psychologische Grenzfragen beantworten, sie überzeugt vor allem durch ein realitätsnahes Menschenbild."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

A central claim of Jones & Love's (J&L's) article is that Bayesian Fundamentalism is empirically unconstrained. Unless constraints are placed on prior beliefs, likelihood, and utility functions, all behaviour is consistent with Bayesian rationality. Although such claims are commonplace, their basis is rarely justified. We fill this gap by sketching a proof, and we discuss possible solutions that would make Bayesian approaches empirically interesting.

Business managers regularly employ metaphorical violent rhetoric as a means of motivating their employees to action. While it might be effective to this end, research on violent media suggests that violent rhetoric might have other, less desirable consequences. This study examines how the use of metaphorical violent rhetoric by business managers impacts the ethical decision making of employees. We develop and test a model that explains how the use of violent rhetoric impacts employees’ willingness to break ethical standards, depending on (...) the source of the rhetoric. The results of two experiments suggest that the use of violent rhetoric by a CEO at a competing company increases employees’ willingness to engage in ethical violations while the use of violent rhetoric by employees’ own CEO decreases their willingness to engage in unethical behavior. Furthermore, we find that participants who made less ethical decisions motivated by violent rhetoric used by a competitor’s CEO did not view their decisions as less ethical than the other participants in the experiments. The results of these studies highlight potentially harmful unintended consequences of the use of violent rhetoric, providing knowledge that should be useful to managers and academics who want to increase employee motivation without increasing a willingness to engage in unethical behavior. (shrink)

Kat Williams and Scott R. Stroud’s essay is about televised debates, but it is also about the value of television in a democracy. In Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman argues that television is devoid of serious content, that it is superficial. But while the debates contain superficialities, they also reveal substantive issues about the candidates, the electorate, and the state of our democracy.

Since the fall of communism in 1989 Southeast Europe has been a site of far-reaching societal transformation, much of it marked by political crisis, economic upheaval, ethnic tension, and bitter war. The book comprises articles investigating the history and development of civil society in post-communist Southeast Europe. How is civil society to be grasped, what are the historical factors shaping the civil societies of the region?, what is the function of civil society in the transition to democracy and a market-economy?, (...) and what are the prospects for the future development of the civil societies of the region in an age of globalization?, –these are just a few of the major questions addressed in this collection of articles. Many of the authors are social scientists, philosophers, and activists from the region, offering first-hand critical analysis of the state of civil society in Southeast Europe and suggesting theoretical and practical strategies for the future course of its development. The aim is to provide the reader with insight into the complex challenges that face the civil societies of the region. (shrink)

t is now well accepted that defined architectural compartments within the cell nucleus can regulate the transcriptional activity of chromosomal domains within their vicinity. However, it is generally unclear how these compartments are formed. The nuclear periphery has received a great deal of attention as a repressive compartment that is implicated in many cellular functions during development and disease. The inner nuclear membrane, the nuclear lamina, and associated proteins compose the nuclear periphery and together they interact with proximal chromatin creating (...) a repressive environment. A new study by Harr et al. identifies specific protein–DNA interactions and epigenetic states necessary to re‐position chromatin to the nuclear periphery in a cell‐type specific manner. Here, we review concepts in gene positioning within the nucleus and current accepted models of dynamic gene repositioning within the nucleus during differentiation. This study highlights that myriad pathways lead to nuclear organization. (shrink)

This book is concerned with how we should think and act in our work, leisure activities, and time utilization in order to achieve flourishing lives. The scope papers range from general theoretical considerations of the value, e.g. 'What is a balanced life?', to specific types of considerations, e.g. 'How should we cope with the effects of work on moral decision-making?'.

As such, this volume establishes a renewed sense of aesthetic discourse and its usefulness as a tool for understanding culture.

Our “Principles and Updates” article in this issue discussed the nature of emotional intelligence and its place in the overall intelligence pantheon. We welcome the comments by Schlegel and by Legree, Mullins, and Psotka, who describe their current research in the area and how it further informs our understanding of ability-based emotional intelligence.