Gender is one of the most researched and contentious topics in consumer ethics research. It is common for researchers of gender studies to presume that women are more ethical than men because of their reputation for having a selfless, sensitive nature. Nevertheless, we found evidence that women behaved less ethically than men in two field experiments testing a passive form of unethical behavior. Women benefited to a larger extent from a cashier miscalculating the bill in their favor than men. However, (...) in three follow-up studies, we found that women did not necessarily intend to benefit at the expense of someone else. Women are less prone to speak up to a cashier than men are, even when the mistake is made in their disfavor. These results reveal that gender differences in assertiveness affect differences in unethical behavior. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 66 Heft: 4 Seiten: 580-585.

During the late 1970s and early 1980s, population geneticists sought computational solutions to integrate greater numbers of genetic traits into their debates about the ancestral relationships of human groups. At the same time, geneticists’ longstanding assumptions about Jewish communities, especially Ashkenazim, were challenged by a series of social, political, and intellectual developments. In Israel, the entrenched cultural and political dominance of Ashkenazi Jews faced major social upheaval. Meanwhile, to counteract lingering anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States, Arthur Koestler’s The (...) Thirteenth Tribe and Raphael Patai and Jennifer Patai Wing’s The Myth of the Jewish Race argued that Jewish identity was not connected to biological ancestry from the ancient Israelites. Drawing on scientific publications and archived correspondence, this article reconstructs a transnational social history showing how geneticists responded to these shifting claims about Ashkenazi identity and ancestry. Many argued that these claims could be tested using new statistical models, which provided allegedly more “objective” estimates of ancestral gene frequencies and histories of population admixture. However, they simultaneously engaged in heated debates over the relative superiority of competing statistical approaches. These debates reveal how the transnational reverberations of Israeli ethnic politics and Euro-American anti-Semitism affected the development of new calculations for genetic admixture, permanently shifting the assumptions of population genetic research on Jewish populations as well as other human groups. (shrink)

The density of states of a rectangular billiard with an Aharonov–Bohm flux line in its center was calculated in the semiclassical approximation and was used for the calculation of the form factor in the diagonal approximation. The distribution of nearest level spacings and the form factor were calculated also numerically. For some values of the flux these were found to be close to the ones of the semi-Poisson statistics. The difference between the numerical results and the semiclassical ones were found (...) to be much larger than for chaotic and for integrable systems within similar approximations. Possible reasons for these discrepancies are discussed. (shrink)

This paper elaborates the hypothesis that the unique demography and sociology of Ashkenazim in medieval Europe selected for intelligence. Ashkenazi literacy, economic specialization, and closure to inward gene flow led to a social environment in which there was high fitness payoff to intelligence, specifically verbal and mathematical intelligence but not spatial ability. As with any regime of strong directional selection on a quantitative trait, genetic variants that were otherwise fitness reducing rose in frequency. In particular we propose that the well-known (...) clusters of Ashkenazi genetic diseases, the sphingolipid cluster and the DNA repair cluster in particular, increase intelligence in heterozygotes. Other Ashkenazi disorders are known to increase intelligence. Although these disorders have been attributed to a bottleneck in Ashkenazi history and consequent genetic drift, there is no evidence of any bottleneck. Gene frequencies at a large number of autosomal loci show that if there was a bottleneck then subsequent gene flow from Europeans must have been very large, obliterating the effects of any bottleneck. The clustering of the disorders in only a few pathways and the presence at elevated frequency of more than one deleterious allele at many of them could not have been produced by drift. Instead these are signatures of strong and recent natural selection. (shrink)

Letterforms are an inseparable part of a civilized literary landscape. At some distant point in history, letters started as representations of things in the world. Then, gradually, through a complex evolutionary process, they came to be defined as the closed shapes of a writing system. This photo-typographic essay is a meditation on this remarkable transition. Exploring the relationship between typography and the visual world around us, the essay looks at the twenty-six letters of the English version of the Roman alphabet (...) in four manners: as the world presenting itself in the shape of a letter, as an intended letter in space, as a flat letter on paper, and finally as a pure geometric form embodied in a typeface. Familiar letterforms are presented in fresh, surprising ways, forming an homage to the beauty of type and a reflection on its ubiquity in our visual understanding of the world around us. Alongside the fascinating images, Ornan Rotem's text offers an overview and a detailed discussion of each letter. In this unusual book, text and image coalesce to create a modern day primer on letters: a typographic abecedarium. (shrink)

1;Band 1;4 1.1;Inhalt;6 1.2;Einfuhrung in das Gesamtprojekt;8 1.3;Einfuhrung in den Band 1;26 1.4;Medienpolitik im Zeichen von Demokratisierung, Kontrolle und Teilautonomie;42 1.4.1;Tagespresse im Saargebiet 1918 1945;44 1.4.2;Demokratisierung im inneren Widerspruch;68 1.4.2.1;Franzosische und saarlandische Printmedienpolitik 1945 1955;68 1.4.3;Kirchen, Medien, Offentlichkeiten;108 1.4.3.1;Eine medienpolitische Kirchengeschichte der Saarautonomie 1945 1959;108 1.5;Rundfunk und Fernsehen;134 1.5.1;Die Saarlandmacher;136 1.5.1.1;Der Aufbau des Saarlandischen Rundfunks und die Autonomie des Landes 1946 1955;136 1.5.2;Musik als Anker politischer und medialer Attraktivitat;200 1.5.2.1;Umfang und Grenzen der franzosischen Impulse in der musikalischen Programmgestaltung des Rundfunks (...) an der Saar 1945 1957;200 1.5.3;Horspiel bei Radio Saarbrucken von 1946 bis 1955;224 1.5.4;Die Anfange des kommerziellen Rundfunks im Saarland;248 1.5.4.1;Die Geschichte der Saarlandischen Fernseh AG ;248 1.6;Zeitungslandschaft;316 1.6.1;Die Saarbrucker Zeitung in der saarlandischen Zeitungslandschaft 1945 1955;318 1.6.2;Die Saarproblematik in der Berichterstattung der Saarbrucker Zeitung 1947 1955;352 1.6.2.1;Eine qualitativ-quantitative Analyse von Inhalten und Sparten;352 1.6.3;Parteipresse und Presselandschaft in der Autonomiezeit 1945 1955;380 1.6.4;Die saarlandische Sportpresse im Spannungsfeld von Politik, Identitat und Selbstbehauptung 1945 1960;416 1.6.5;Ja oder Nein?;438 1.6.5.1;Die saarlandischen Zeitungen im Abstimmungskampf 1955;438 1.6.6;Resumee;458 1.7;Abkurzungsverzeichnis;466 1.8;Abbildungsnachweis;470 1.9;Personen- und Medienregister;472 1.10;Detailliertes Inhaltsverzeichnis;484 1.11;ubersicht uber das Gesamtwerk;490 2;Band 2;496 2.1;Inhalt;500 2.2;Einfuhrung in den Band 2;502 2.3;Grundzuge und Strukturen;512 2.3.1;Entscheidungssituationen saarlandischer Medienpolitik;514 2.3.2;Die Struktur der saarlandischen Horfunk-und Fernsehinstitutionen;544 2.3.3;Die Entwicklung der Zeitungslandschaft;572 2.3.4;Monopole, Marktverstopfer, Mitbewerber;612 2.3.4.1;Die Landschaft der Zeitschriften und Anzeigenblatter;612 2.4;Organisations- und Kommunikationsprozesse;644 2.4.1;Binnen- und AuSSenkommunikation beim Saarlandischen Rundfunk;646 2.4.2;Binnen- und AuSSenkommunikation bei der Saarbrucker Zeitung;684 2.4.3;Offentlichkeitsarbeit und offentliche Aktionen;722 2.4.3.1;Saarlandischer Rundfunk, Radio Salu und Saarbrucker Zeitung seit den 1970er Jahren;722 2.4.4;Horerforschung beim Saarlandischen Rundfunk;752 2.5;Berufsorganisation und Berufsbilder;776 2.5.1;Die Entwicklung der Berufsbilder im Horfunk;778 2.5.1.1;Der Saarlandische Rundfunk;778 2.5.2;Die Entwicklung der Berufsbilder im Fernsehjournalismus;822 2.5.2.1;Der Saarlandische Rundfunk;822 2.5.3;Die Veranderungen der Berufsbilder in der Printpresse;864 2.5.3.1;Die Saarbrucker Zeitung;864 2.5.4;Soziale Kommunikation und politische Organisation im saarlandischen Journalismus 1947 2008;892 2.5.5;Resumee;938 2.6;Abkurzungsverzeichnis;946 2.7;Abbildungsnachweis;950 2.8;Personen- und Medienregister;952 2.9;Detailliertes Inhaltsverzeichnis;962 2.10;ubersicht uber das Gesamtwerk;968 3;Band 3;974 3.1;Inhalt;978 3.2;Einfuhrung in den Band 3;980 3.3;Programme und Angebote im Rundfunk;990 3.3.1;Mehr Programm, weniger Inhalt?;992 3.3.1.1;Zur Programmgeschichte der Horfunksparte des Saarlandischen Rundfunks;992 3.3.2;Ein Land ein Sender;1098 3.3.2.1;50 Jahre Programmgeschichte des saarlandischen Fernsehens;1098 3.3.3;Der Aktuelle Bericht im Fernsehen des Saarlandischen Rundfunks 1994 2006;1136 3.4;Inhalte und Angebote in der Printpresse;1158 3.4.1;Die Berichterstattung der Saarbrucker Zeitung im Wandel;1160 3.4.2;Visualisierungsstrategien in der Printpresse;1200 3.4.2.1;Eine quantitative Analyse des Bildmaterials der Saarbrucker Zeitung;1200 3.4.3;Die Wah. (shrink)

This article starts with a critical reflection on John Westlake’s reading of the history of empire and the English/British East India Company – for him, essentially, the proper concern of ‘constitutional history’ rather than international law. For Westlake, approaching this history through the prism of nineteenth-century positivist doctrine, the Company’s exercise of war powers could only result from state delegation. Against his warnings to international lawyers not to stray from the proper boundaries of international legal inquiry, the article proceeds to (...) recover Hugo Grotius’s theory of corporate belligerency in his early treatise De iure praedae. For Grotius, corporations could wage public war on behalf of the state yet, at the same time, were in law capable of waging private war in their own right. The article proceeds to reflect on the practice of corporate belligerency in the centuries separating Westlake and Grotius; it concludes with observations on the implications of Grotius’s theory of corporate belligerency today. (shrink)

Gender is one of the most researched and contentious topics in consumer ethics research. It is common for researchers of gender studies to presume that women are more ethical than men because of their reputation for having a selfless, sensitive nature. Nevertheless, we found evidence that women behaved less ethically than men in two field experiments testing a passive form of unethical behavior. Women benefited to a larger extent from a cashier miscalculating the bill in their favor than men. However, (...) in three follow-up studies, we found that women did not necessarily intend to benefit at the expense of someone else. Women are less prone to speak up to a cashier than men are, even when the mistake is made in their disfavor. These results reveal that gender differences in assertiveness affect differences in unethical behavior. (shrink)

In this paper, we review the history of quasicrystals from their sensational discovery in 1982, initially “forbidden” by the rules of classical crystallography, to 2011 when Dan Shechtman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. We then discuss the discovery of quasicrystals in philosophical terms of anomalies behavior that led to a paradigm shift as offered by philosopher and historian of science Thomas Kuhn in ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’. This discovery, which found expression in the redefinition of the concept (...) crystal from being periodically arranged to producing sharp peaks in the Bragg diffraction pattern, is analyzed according to the Kuhn Cycle. We relate the quasicrystal revolution to the non-Euclidean geometry revolution and argues that since “great minds think alike” there is a diffusion of ideas between scientific revolutions, or a resonance between different disciplines at different times. The story behind quasicrystals is an excellent example of a paradigm shift, demonstrating the nature of scientific discoveries and breakthroughs. (shrink)

ABSTRACTCurrent theoretical approaches suggest that mathematical anxiety manifests itself as a weakness in quantity manipulations. This study is the first to examine automatic versus intentional processing of numerical information using the numerical Stroop paradigm in participants with high MA. To manipulate anxiety levels, we combined the numerical Stroop task with an affective priming paradigm. We took a group of college students with high MA and compared their performance to a group of participants with low MA. Under low anxiety conditions, participants (...) with high MA showed relatively intact number processing abilities. However, under high anxiety conditions, participants with high MA showed higher processing of the non-numerical irrelevant information, which aligns with the theoretical view regarding deficits in selective attention in anxiety and an abnormal numerical distance effect. These results demonstrate that abnormal, basic numerical process... (shrink)

Abstract According to idealism the world, as we perceive it, is in effect a creation of the mind. There are many different forms of idealism and this paper investigates one form of idealism that was advocated by the 4th century Buddhist Yog?c?rin Vasubandhu and one not unfamiliar in the west, especially in the works of George Berkeley. This paper suggests that when idealism, as a metaphysical theory, is set within a soteriological framework, as is the case with Vasubandhu, it serves (...) to bridge the philosophical endeavour with the religious quest as outlined in Buddhist thought. Idealism is a theory about the borders between mind and matter, and specifically about the demolition of matter. This demolition, in the hands of Vasubandhu, manages to redefine the framework of speculation by incorporating the soteriological within it and thus constructing a viable bridge between philosophy and religion. (shrink)

In this book, Shlomo Biderman examines the views, outlooks, and attitudes of two distinct cultures: the West and classical India. He turns to a rich and varied collection of primary sources: the _Rg Veda_, the Upanishads, and texts by the Buddhist philosophers Någårjuna and Vasubandhu, among others. In studying the West, Biderman considers the Bible and its commentaries, the writings of such philosophers as Plato, Descartes, Berkeley, Kant, and Derrida, and the literature of Kafka, Melville, and Orwell. Additional sources are (...) Mozart's _Don Giovanni_ and seminal films like Ingmar Bergman's _Persona_. Biderman uses concrete examples from religion and literature to illustrate the formal aspects of the philosophical problems of transcendence, language, selfhood, and the external world and then demonstrates their plausibility in actual situations. Though his method of analysis is comparative, Biderman does not adopt the disinterested stance of an "ideal" spectator. Rather, Biderman approaches ancient Indian thought and culture from a Western philosophical standpoint to uncover cultural presuppositions that can be difficult to expose from within the culture in question. The result is a fascinating landmark in the study of Indian and Western thought. Through his comparative prism, Biderman explores the most basic ideas underlying human culture, and his investigation not only sheds light on India's philosophical traditions but also facilitates a deeper understanding of our own. (shrink)

This essay reads Hannah Arendt’s Rahel Varnhagen alongside Sigmund Freud’s case history of paranoia, The Schreber Case, two texts about 18th- and 19th-century personalities caught up in the gender and ethnic politics of their times. Noting affinities between the fantasies documented in Varnhagen’s and Schreber’s memoirs, I compare Seyla Benhabib’s and Eric Santner’s readings of these two texts as political, not psychological, documents. I propose a reading of paranoia positioned between Benhabib’s too optimistic dismissal of paranoia and Santner’s too tragic (...) approach. The result is a new reading of Varnhagen’s story and an approach to paranoia as a potentially promising political affect. Might paranoia stand not just for world-withdrawal but also for world-building? If so, this would be in keeping with Arendt’s own treatment of her subject’s persecution fantasies not only as a “verdict against the world” but also as a desire for a world. (shrink)

In 1903 Rabbi Philipp Bloch, of Posen, published a unique Ashkenazic sixteenth-century polemical pamphlet which attested, so it seemed, to a heated controversy in yeshivah circles in the larger cities of the Ashkenazi cultural sphere in the late 1550s. Revolving around the place of philosophy in Judaism, the dispute reached one of its peaks in Prague some time before April 1559, probably in a public debate before a yeshivah audience, basically similar to the Disputationes then popular in European universities. The (...) disputants were two young scholars, one of whom, the writer of the pamphlet, enthusiastically supported the teaching of classical philosophical texts in Ashkenazi yeshivot, while the other fiercely opposed what he called “philosophy.” He accused Maimonides of heresy and unbelief, as he did anything that he associated with either “philosophy” or Maimonides. The resolution adopted by the yeshivah audience — at least, so we read in the pamphlet, our only source for the event — was unequivocal: the opponent of Maimonides and philosophy was forbidden, from that time on, to broadcast his views. (shrink)

Background:Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation is the default procedure during cardio-pulmonary arrest. If a patient does not want cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, then a do not attempt resuscitation order must be documented. Often, this order is not given; even if thought to be appropriate. This situation can lead to a slow code, defined as an ineffective resuscitation, where all resuscitation procedures are not performed or done slowly.Research objectives:To describe the perceptions of nurses working on internal medicine wards of slow codes, including the factors associated with (...) its implementation.Research design:This was a cross-sectional, descriptive study. Participants completed a personal characteristics questionnaire and the Perceptions and Factors of Slow Codes questionnaire designed for this study.Participants and research context:The sample was a convenience sample of nurses working on internal medicine wards in two Israeli hospitals.Ethical considerations:The study received ethical approval from both institutions, where data were collected and stored according to institutional policy.Findings:Most reported that resuscitations were conducted according to protocol. Some took their time calling the code, or waited by the bedside and did not perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. Factors most associated with slow codes were poor patient prognosis and a low chance of patient survival. Two-thirds reported that slow codes were done on their unit and the majority perceived slow codes as ethical.Discussion:This study confirms that slow codes are part of medical care on internal medicine wards, where most nurses perceive them as an ethical alternative. These perceptions are in contrast to most legal and ethical opinions expressed in the literature.Conclusion:Nurses should be educated about the legal and ethical implications of slow codes, and qualitative and quantitative studies should be conducted that further investigate its implementation. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to clarify the relation between genealogy and history and to suggest a methodological reading of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. I try to determine genealogy's specific range of objects, specific mode of explication, and specific textual form. Genealogies in general can be thought of as drastic narratives of the emergence and transformations of forms of subjectivity related to power, told with the intention to induce doubt and self-reflection in exactly those readers whose (collective) history is (...) narrated. The main interest in understanding the concept of genealogy and revisiting Nietzsche's introduction of it into philosophy lies in understanding how a certain way of writing and a certain textual practice function that successfully call into question current judgments, institutions and practices. Nietzsche's example, I argue, can provide a paradigm for a critical practice that accounts for historical processes of subject formation in terms of power and turns them against given forms of subjectivity. (shrink)

We demonstrate by use of a simple one-dimensional model of a square barrier imbedded in an infinite potential well that decoherence is enhanced by chaotic-like behavior. We, moreover, show that the transition h→0 is singular. Finally it is argued that the time scale on which decoherence occurs depends, on the degree of complexity of the underlying quantum mechanical system, i.e., more complex systems decohere relatively faster than less complex ones.

A collection of essays in which philosophers of widely different interests grapple with the problem of the relative and the absolute in philosophy and religion.

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 62 Heft: 2 Seiten: 341-348.