Recent theories have argued that emotions play a central role in moral decision-making and suggested that emotion regulation may be crucial in reducing emotion-linked biases. The present studies focused on the influence of emotional experience and individual differences in emotion regulation on moral choice in dilemmas that pit harming another person against social welfare. During these “harm to save” moral dilemmas, participants experienced mostly fear and sadness but also other emotions such as compassion, guilt, anger, disgust, regret and contempt (Study (...) 1). Fear and disgust were more frequently reported when participants made deontological choices, whereas regret was more frequently reported when participants made utilitarian choices. In addition, habitual reappraisal negatively predicted deontological choices, and this effect was significantly carried through emotional arousal (Study 2). Individual differences in the habitual use of other emotion regulation strategies (i.e., acceptance, rumination and catastrophising) did not influence moral choice. The results of the present studies indicate that negative emotions are commonly experienced during “harm to save” moral dilemmas, and they are associated with a deontological bias. By efficiently reducing emotional arousal, reappraisal can attenuate the emotion-linked deontological bias in moral choice. (shrink)

Walter Benjamin’s idiosyncratic theory of revolutionary messianism was at the very crux of his influence on Hannah Arendt and Gershom Scholem. This article argues that Arendt adopted important aspects of Benjamin’s idea of revolution, but rejected his messianism, while Scholem rejected Benjamin’s belief in revolution and accepted his emphasis on the power of messianism as a political idea, but in a historical rather than metaphysical sense. As a result, in Arendt’s and Scholem’s political thought both the category of revolution and (...) that of messianism as Benjamin understood them were radically transformed. This transformation attests to the wide-ranging impact of Benjamin’s political philosophy, as well as to the complex and hitherto misrecognized intellectual relationship between Arendt and Scholem. (shrink)

We present interpretation‐based processing—a theory of sentence processing that builds a syntactic and a semantic representation for a sentence and assigns an interpretation to the sentence as soon as possible. That interpretation can further participate in comprehension and in lexical processing and is vital for relating the sentence to the prior discourse. Our theory offers a unified account of the processing of literal sentences, metaphoric sentences, and sentences containing semantic illusions. It also explains how text can prime lexical access. We (...) show that word literality is a matter of degree and that the speed and quality of comprehension depend both on how similar words are to their antecedents in the preceding text and how salient the sentence is with respect to the preceding text. Interpretation‐based processing also reconciles superficially contradictory findings about the difference in processing times for metaphors and literals. The theory has been implemented in ACT‐R [Anderson and Lebiere, The Atomic Components of Thought, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, Mahwah, NJ, 1998]. (shrink)

The realm of discursivity is in truth heteroclite, submitted to metamor-phoses that testify the various correspondences between the axis of being and that of the existent is testified. Discursivity “pre-sentifies” in a manifested manner a referent that at the same time is not able to determine its existence without associating itself with a situation of knowledge, implicitly with a form of rendering and representation. Be-ing articulated as a conceptual hypostatisation of reason, or a form that creates significance, a textual and (...) socio-historical device, as a closing up of the circle of interpretations or as resignation in silence, discourse itself emerges as a reflection of conscience about things, that is, it acts, produces, searches for affirmation, thus and ultimately crafting out a possible world. (shrink)

Context and AimsAlthough some exercise-based interventions have been associated with lower levels of pain and performance-related musculoskeletal disorders among musicians, the evidence is still mixed. Furthermore, little is known about musicians’ general engagement in physical activity, their knowledge of PA guidelines, or the relevant training they receive on pain prevention and the sources of such training. Similarly, little is known about the relationship between PA and PRMDs and other risk factors for PRMDs.MethodsFollowing a cross-sectional correlational study design, both standardized andad (...) hocmeasurements were used to investigate self-reported PA [International Physical Activity Questionnaire – Short Form ], knowledge of PA guidelines, and barriers to engaging in PA [Centers for Disease Control ; Determinants of Physical Activity Questionnaire ]; sedentary behavior [Sedentary Behavior Questionnaire ]; pain [36-Item Short Form Survey Instrument ] and PRMDs ; reported physical exertion ; anxiety [Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale ]; practice behaviors ; and relevant training among conservatoire students in the United Kingdom. The entire set of questionnaires was administered both online and via hard copies between June 2017 and April 2018.ResultsDemographic information was obtained from 111 respondents, mostly undergraduate students from seven conservatoires. They reported high levels of engagement in PA, despite poor knowledge of PA guidelines. Teachers were the most frequently mentioned source of pain prevention information, and 62% agreed that they had received advice on why they should engage in cardio PA. Sedentary behavior was comparable to normative data. Levels of bodily pain and PRMDs were low, but 43% showed “abnormal” clinical anxiety and found playing their instruments “somewhat hard” on average. Bodily pain interfering with practice and performance was positively correlated with frequency and severity of PRMDs, anxiety, and RPE. Frequency and severity of PRMDs were also associated with sedentary behavior at the weekend. Anxiety was associated with RPE. No association was found between PA and PRMDs.ConclusionThe relationship between PA and PRMDs and pain remains unclear and needs further investigation. While health education needs to be improved, other pathways may need to be taken. Given the high levels of anxiety, the ideology of Western classical music itself may need to be challenged. (shrink)

Starting March 2020, Romania has been faced with a health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a crisis reflected in media communication. In such situations, media play a crucial role in making relevant information timely and accessible, to help people learn about and understand what this pandemic is and how it is assessed, how to protect themselves, and what measures are taken by the authorities. This study aims to analyse how Romanian students keep informed during this national and global crisis, (...) which also generates adjacent media phenomena such as an increase in misinformation, lack of transparency in communicating with the public or over-abundance of information. To this end, we applied a questionnaire which was answered by 426 students from a public university in Romania. The results show that students use many sources to get the information they consider important, believe that the types of messages that help them feel properly informed about the pandemic and its implications: data, figures, accurate facts, and the information received from authorities or experts and that they prefer multimedia digital content. Young people tend to be cautious concerning the transparency of official communication and continue to consume information transmitted by the mainstream media, perceived as being more credible than other news sites. (shrink)

Zygmunt Bauman, Wasted Lives. Modernity and Its Outcasts Polity Press, Cambridge, 2004.

Ciprian Mihali, Inventarea spatiului. Arhitecturi ale experientei cotidiene Editura Paideia, Bucureoti, 2001.

Jacob Neusner, Iudaismul în timpurile moderne Hasefer, Bucuresti, 2004.

Michel Foucault, Istoria nebuniei in epoca clasica Ed. Humanitas, Bucuresti, 1996.

Zygmunt Bauman, Globalizarea si efectele ei sociale Ed. Antet, Bucuresti, f.a.

Review of Delia Cristina Balaban, Advertising. From Strategic Planning to Media Implementation, (Iaşi: Polirom, 2009).

Review of Cristina Gavriluţă, Nicu Gavriluţă, Sociologia sportului. Toerii, metode, aplicaţii (Sports' Sociology. Theories, methods, applications) , (Iaşi: Polirom Publishing House, 2010).

Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Omul politic intre mit si ratiune - o analiza a imaginarului puterii Alfa Press, Cluj, 2000, traducere de Mihaela Calut, 170 p.

The phenomenon of Holocaust denial, once considered a fringe manifestation with very little impact, has, more or less, entered the mainstream of historiographical and academic debate in recent years. The main danger associated with the deniers’ discourse is that of forcing into the public conscience the awareness of the fact that there might be “more sides” to the Holocaust history than previously known based on written documents, testimonies of survivors and other types of proofs. The following paper is a review (...) of the emergence, development and extent of Holocaust denial, especially in the United States, as well as an attempt to summarise the deniers’ arguments, claims and motivations, following the line opened by Deborah Lipstadt and other historians. (shrink)

Review of Melissa Raphael, Judaism and the Visual Image. A Jewish Theology of Art, London and New York: Continuum, 2009, 229 pp.

This study examines the potential of fake news to produce effects on social media engagement as well as the moderating role of education and government approval. We report on a 2x2x2 online experiment conducted in Romania (N=813), in which we manipulated the level of facticity of a news story, its valence, and intention to deceive. Results show that ideologically driven news with a negative valence (rather than fabricated news or other genres, such as satire and parody) have a greater virality (...) potential. However, neither the level of education nor government approval moderate this effect. Additionally, both positive and negative ideologically driven news stories enhance the probability that people will sign a document to support the government (i. e., potential for political engagement on social media). These latter effects are moderated by government approval: Lower levels of government approval lead to less support for the government on social media, as a consequence of fake news exposure. (shrink)

For most of nineteenth-century socialists, whose writings are examined in the scope of this paper, women’s equality with men was understood mainly in terms of their equal participation in the working collective. However, this concept of equality left unexamined the sexual division of labor by which men are central to production and women are central to reproduction. In the process of change towards a new socialist society, women were given the additional role of workers, but the bases of the unequal (...) gender order were never contested. (shrink)

Organizations such as multinational corporations are the most important form of business globally. The defining role on the world economy could be seen at the onset of the financial crisis of 2008, but also in the recent events related to the Covid-19 pandemic, when corporations transformed their production lines to respond to the need for protective equipment for the frontline workers in the health system, but also for the broader population. Through Foreign Direct Investment, multinational corporations make a positive impact (...) on economies around the world. In addition to contributing to the local development of areas where they setup subsidiaries, multinational corporations are a form of integration of a local economy into the global economy. In the Romanian economy, multinational corporations play a decisive role, representing the companies with the highest turnover, but also the most desired employers for those looking for a job. (shrink)

Employee motivation is very important for a successful organization, so any company should focus on motivating human resources if they want to stay competitive on the market and to avoid issues, such as employee retention problems that will adversely affect the business. Thus, effective motivational techniques should be implemented in any company that wants to be successful. Following the implementation of motivation methods adapted to the organization's environment and its type of employees, the satisfaction of workers will increase, and they (...) will feel more motivated to perform at the highest standards. Studies have shown that motivating factors, such as success at work, recognition, diversification of responsibilities and career advancement, play an important role in motivating employees at work. It is important to strike a fragile balance between the level of challenges that the job brings and the resources made available to the employee. Packages that combine financial and non-monetary motivation, with coaching and mentoring activities, investing in employee development, as well as the flexibility of the work schedule, are major components of stimulating work motivation. (shrink)

Our relationship with technology has become co-dependent and somehow a personal and an intimate one. Generally speaking, we tend to think that we experience the world around us as it is, but that is not what we really do. In a lifetime, we learn and store knowledge, but we only use from it what we think and feel it will help us to realize the most important projects in our lives. Therefore, we invent things that have the purpose to make (...) our lives easier, just to have time to manage and work on the other part of life – the non-material part of it -, that concerns the personal development of human. First of all, that is or that should be the idea for developing technology, but on second thoughts, we somehow fail to adapt to it, and from that it deceives us – transforming itself in an insecurity, like high-tech products that are too hard to use, or too unreliable to be counted on, the lack of necessary knowledge in order to use it, the costs. Even if we have these technologies as available, we manage to lose ourselves, by becoming more into it than into us and those around us. We like to think we possess knowledge, that we are experts in some areas, we hold and keep lectures on ethics, moral values, efficient communication, but all become a strategic action – from ones that have the power to others that need guidance and confirmation for looking good for others, to win over, convince or convert new adepts to the proposed ideas of ones that have the power, to court those in power, to please everyone, except yourself. But all of that leads to failure – a self-failure, an inner weakness – and we are becoming our own adversaries, which are silent ones. But if technology is so worthy, why we do not manage so well on moral and ethical aspects? (shrink)

v. 1. De la Renaștere la epoca "Luminilor".