At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multi-national data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from (...) social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution—individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar was found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-negligible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic. (shrink)

This article argues that various deviations from the basic principles of the scientific ethos – primarily the appearance of pseudoscience in scientific communities – can be formulated and explained using specific models of game theory, such as the prisoner’s dilemma and the iterated prisoner’s dilemma. The article indirectly tackles the deontology of scientific work as well, in which it is assumed that there is no room for moral skepticism, let alone moral anti-realism, in the ethics of scientific communities. Namely, on (...) the basis of the generally accepted dictum of scientific endeavor as the pursuit of knowledge exclusively for knowledge’s sake, scientifically »right« behavior is seen to be clearly defined and distinguishable from scientifically »wrong« behavior. After elucidating the basic principles of game theory, the article illustrates – by using imaginary and real cases, as well as some views from the philosophyof biology (the units of selection debate) – how this sort of reasoning could be applied in an analysis of the functioning of science. (shrink)

In his most significant work in the field of philosophy of education, Personhood and Education (1932), Vuk-Pavlović criticizes Schelerʼs claim that love cannot be an educational principle. According to Vuk-Pavlović, this claim is based on Schelerʼs two misconceptions: the first is related to Schelerʼs misunderstanding of education, and the second to his misunderstanding of love. In this text, we examine aspects of Vuk-Pavlovićʼs criticism and ask a broader question about the potentials and limits of love in education. When defining the (...) concept of love, Scheler indeed opposes it to education, which for him implies changing the object of education. In this sense, education is an attempt to change the person being raised. On the other hand, according to Scheler, love means accepting the loved one without trying to change him. Therefore, the purpose of love is not to transform the loved object. However, through a genuine act of love, Scheler claims, change can occur as the appearance of higher values. Schelerʼs criticism of education is based on the understanding of education in the negative sense of imposing external values, where the individuality and value potential of the one being educated is not recognized. With regard to the aforementioned conception of love, one could theorize about a different type of education, which implies love in the sense of the development of one’s self. (shrink)

The analysis of cognitive-ontological and especially ethical concepts in Nietzscheʼs philosophy shows deprivation as an important component that compromises their status. The emptiness, in the form of purity, inevitably appears during the decomposition of Nietzsche’s thought. Under the influence of perspectivism, epistemology, along with the question of truth, have undergone radical deconstruction. The results significantly affect the existence of morality, values and the notion of good in general. Deprivation appears in values, which leads to pessimism. Pessimistic values move away from (...) the intensity of life instinct. As a reflection of life, man strives and destroys the aspirations for life. The whole reality, on the other hand, is in opposition and thus, necessarily, in dialectic and conflict. Nietzsche, however, does not strive for reconciliation opposites, but requires their enduring, which is, at the same time, overcoming. Conflict between pessimistic and life valuesinevitably arises. Pessimism precedes nihilism, which alternates the notion of truth, meaning, and foundation. In the concluding analysis, it becomes clear how the value creator is placed in relation to the concept of eternal return and overcoming nihilism. Emptiness and lack of sense are replaced by a dynamic and conflicting conception of life, i.e. existence, where the dynamics of life must not be understood in an organic or other bio-morphological sense, but in relation to the individual and his creative potential only in the form of change and reestablishment of reality. This, in turn, means that, ultimately, the focus is on the subject, man as will and his existential acts. (shrink)

In this paper, we will try to present the problems of education as they were seen by the Croatian philosopher Gordana Bosanac (Varaždin, 1936 – Zagreb, 2019). Although these problems do not fall within the narrowest circle of her interests, the author has been intensively engaged with them throughout her life and has left a significant impact on thinking about the key aspects and scope of the issues we find in the philosophy of education. The central thesis of the article (...) is as follows: G. Bosanac’s thinking is still very relevant today from at least two perspectives. Firstly, as a chronology of various interventions in the education system, and secondly, as an expression of innovative thinking about education that focuses on the individual and his or her intellectual capacities rather than on any social or productive purpose or requirement. We will present some lines of thought of G. Bosanac together with the most important biographical data. First, we will discuss the general content of the subject of education, with particular reference to the relationship between the individual and the social in education. Then, following the thoughts of G. Bosanac, we will rethink the issue of labour, with a special effort to rethink the content of education as labour. In the third part, with significant consideration of the thoughts of G. Bosanac, we will deal with the question of ideology and its negative effects on the education system and especially on the actors of this system. Ultimately, or as the key task of the paper, we will try to answer the question of why education is a fundamental social activity. (shrink)

In the world of rapid general-social development, due to the emergence of questions about new holders of legal rights and the emergence of new forms of legal rights in general, the discussion about moral and legal rights has always been, is and will be an increasingly topical issue. It is not, however, disputed that law per se, in enabling a wide range of legal rights, has always been centred around the issue of human life and health in the first place. (...) The achievement of human welfare is undoubtedly predicated upon good health, and fostered by a unique “mechanism” – the right to health. Although we live in an era of great glorification of the cult and value of health (healthism), the current epoch raises a series of human-health-focused questions and controversies. However, the primary and very crucial question we can ask ourselves is – what would health even be? Precisely because of the great questionability of the above question, the protection of human health and the exercise of the right to health may represent one of the most challenging matters of law itself. The right to health, as a legal and inclusive right, epitomizes not only the rights asserted by human beings as such, but also environmental and nature protection as an inseparable denominator of the status of human health. Although prominent legal/political philosophers and theorists were pessimist about the realisation and enforcement of the right to (the highest attainable standard of) health, this paper elaborates on the possibility of its realisation, which largely depends on the way in which the concept of health is understood. Health should be understood exclusively as an idea-value category to be aspired to, as a should (sollen), by no means as a pure and categorical reflection of reality (sein). Given the inclusiveness specific to the legal right to health, which undoubtedly contains certain problematic elements, this paper aims to grasp and consider the right to health in its conceptual and normative entirety premised upon the following question: how does law protect human health and its constitutive elements? The same question invokes interesting interdisciplinary (legal and philosophical) points of view. (shrink)

The goal of the research was to question the efficiency of one-time educational programs for high school and college students in positive effects of dealing with ailment/disability. Before and after the educational programs we have gathered data from 11 high school students and 16 college students with semantic differential and measures for perceiving the stage of the handicap, disability and dependence as well as a possibility for a person with chronic illness/disability to lead a happy and fulfilled life. The data (...) have been analyzed by a one sided Sign Test and a one sided Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. In the final measurements we have determined more positive average descriptions of people with a chronic disease/disability by 7 high school and 13 college students. The biggest change in attitude has been recorded in a decreased number of high school students who perceive the challenged as unhappy and weak and in a decreased number of college students who perceive the challenged as unhappy and discouraged. A significant change in attitudes has also been recorded in a decreased number of participants who consider the challenged as weak, sad, passive and resigned and in an increased number of participants who perceive the challenged as productive. There hasn’t been a change in dominantly negative attitudes towards the challenged as people with handicaps, unattractive, disabled and dependent. After the educational programs more than 4/5 of high school and college students declared that due to the acquired knowledge they have a more positive attitude towards the ailment and the challenged and that this will help them improve the relationship towards the challenged and in coping with ailments in their life. In the final measurements the determined positive attitudes of participants towards ailments/disability and the challenged suggest that the educational programs have been relatively efficient and we recommend they are implemented further. (shrink)

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to improve road traffic safety and save human lives. It is also expected that some AVs will encounter so-called dilemmatic situations, like choosing between saving two passengers by sacrificing one pedestrian or choosing between saving three pedestrians by sacrificing one passenger. These expectations fuel the extensive debate over the ethics settings of AVs: the way AVs should be programmed to act in dilemmatic situations and who should decide about the nature of this programming in the (...) first place. In the article, the ethics settings problem is analyzed as a trilemma between AVs with personal ethics setting (PES), AVs with mandatory ethics setting (MES) and AVs with no ethics settings (NES). It is argued that both PES and MES, by being programmed to choose one human life over the other, are bound to cause serious moral damage resulting from the violation of several principles central to deontology and utilitarianism. NES is defended as the only plausible solution to this trilemma, that is, as the solution that sufficiently minimizes the number of traffic fatalities without causing any comparable moral damage. (shrink)

The objective of this article was to review existing research to assess the evidence for predictive processing in sign language, the conditions under which it occurs, and the effects of language mastery on the neural bases of PP. This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework. We searched peer-reviewed electronic databases and gray literature. We also searched the reference lists of records selected for the review and forward citations to identify all relevant publications. We searched (...) for records based on five criteria. To reduce the risk of bias, the remaining two authors with expertise in sign language processing and a variety of research methods reviewed the results. Disagreements were resolved through extensive discussion. In the final review, 7 records were included, of which 5 were published articles and 2 were dissertations. The reviewed records provide evidence for PP in signing populations, although the underlying mechanism in the visual modality is not clear. The reviewed studies addressed the motor simulation proposals, neural basis of PP, as well as the development of PP. All studies used dynamic sign stimuli. Most of the studies focused on semantic prediction. The question of the mechanism for the interaction between one’s sign language competence and PP in the manual-visual modality remains unclear, primarily due to the scarcity of participants with varying degrees of language dominance. There is a paucity of evidence for PP in sign languages, especially for frequency-based, phonetic, and syntactic prediction. However, studies published to date indicate that Deaf native/native-like L1 signers predict linguistic information during sign language processing, suggesting that PP is an amodal property of language processing.Systematic Review Registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021238911], identifier [CRD42021238911]. (shrink)

Many experimental brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are currently being medically tested in paralyzed patients. While the new generations of implantable BCIs move rapidly ahead at trying to increase the patients’ well-being, ethical concerns about their potential effects on patients’ psychological dimensions (e.g. sense of agency and control) are growing. An important ethical concern to explore is how BCIs may introduce unprecedented vulnerabilities to implanted individuals.Our chapter shows that, on the one hand, BCIs can empower the sense of self and control, which (...) contribute to well-being. On the other hand, they can introduce unprecedented vulnerabilities, for example, by inducing radical distress, feelings of loss of control, and a rupture of patient identity, which decrease one’s well-being. To investigate a possible solution to this problem we propose to understand the implementation of a BCI system in one’s body through the capability approach. This calls for a careful ethical examination of new morally salient issues prior to seeing an increase in BCI-related psychological effects in an open market. (shrink)

Is it possible to speak about the unspeakable as it is represented in music, lyric poetry, and tragedy? The answer is yes, if we adopt a purely aesthetic perspective. The answer is no, if we adopt the perspective of the transcendental subject as the metaphysical source of music, lyric poetry, and tragedy. In this paper, I conceptualize the nondiscursivity of music, lyric poetry, and Attic tragedy in the philosophical aesthetics of Kant, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. I also make a few incidental (...) remarks to Plato's Socrates and Aristotle as well as the Theban plays by Sophocles. (shrink)

Sex reassignment surgery is a therapy for gender dysphoria standardly provided only upon a psychiatric authorization. Transgender scholars criticize this practice as unjustified medicalization and stigmatization of transsexual people. By demanding that sex reassignment surgery is not classified as therapy, they imply it should be classified as some kind of a biomedical enhancement. It is argued in this article that this reclassification is empirically and morally implausible because sex reassignment surgery is incompatible with two major views of enhancement. It is (...) incompatible with the nontherapeutic view because it does not improve or augment, above average, any physical or mental trait or function. It is incompatible with the welfarist view because this view, contrary to the transgender scholars’s demands, is compelled to retain the standard practice of providing sex reassignment surgery in order to ensure the optimal balance between its availability, beneficence, and possible harmfulness. (shrink)

A genesis of media didactics was deconstructed through a theoretical-comparative and historical methodological approach, with the aim of gaining insight into its history and characteristics, defining the discipline, and recent development trends. The study elaborates the role of media in education, schooling, teaching, and learning. The anatomy of the social circumstances of the emergence of certain curriculum innovations and their consequences for global education as well as the development of media didactics is systematically explained. A synthesis of the facts obtained (...) from the analysed concept makes it evident that the development of media didactics was influenced by the concept of instructional technology transferred from the USA, as well as several social and technological factors. Theoretical and practical essence of media didactics is established in the application of various media with the purpose of arranging individualized, i.e., student-centred teaching. Over time, the characteristics and role of media in teaching have changed in accordance with the dominant didactic theories. A crucial challenge for media didactics is foreseen in the form of the application of artificial intelligence in education and schooling. (shrink)

This paper attempts to philosophically articulate empirical evidence on the positive effects of illness within the wider context of a discussion of the positive aspects of vulnerability. The conventional understanding holds that to be vulnerable is to be open to harms and wrongs; it is to be fragile, defenseless, and of compromised autonomy. In this paper, we challenge the assumption that vulnerability consists of nothing but powerlessness and dependence on others. This paper attempts to: (1) outline the theoretical conceptualisation of (...) the positive aspects of coping with illness, while simultaneously showing how these findings provide empirical support for some classical philosophical ideas; (2) influence a change in the manners in which the ill are usually perceived (as weak, dependent, robbed of a good life) and (3) point to the importance of modernising the prevalent biomedical conception of illness with the subjective dimension of health. Biomedical understanding of illness focuses on the vulnerable experience of the sufferer, suggesting the importance of philosophical additions. (shrink)

Not the least noticeable is the fact that the ancient Greek compound euthanasia, formed by Francis Bacon, has retained its original terminological form since it was first used in the 17th century. Among all other controversial ethical issues, however, the conceptual notion of euthanasia categorically evokes rather important controversies. The questions that arise in this context are whether there is a definition, or at least a determination, of the term euthanasia and whether we are aware of its use in scientific (...) discourse, what exactly is euthanasia. The paper offers a terminological elaboration of the term euthanasia in a linguistic, but mainly legal and medical-procedural context, in order to examine the coherence in defining the term between these categories and, consequently, to determine the key determinants of euthanasia according to categorical sections. The key facts stated are the primary determination or the possible definition of the term for any further scientific study of euthanasia as one of the most controversial issues within bioethical doctrine. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAnxious individuals report disproportionately negative expectations concerning the future, termed the negative expectancy bias. In contrast, ageing is associated with an inflated expectancy for positive future events. A recent study [Steinman, S. A., Smyth, F. L., Bucks, R. S., MacLeod, C., & Teachman, B. A.. Anxiety-linked expectancy bias across the adult lifespan. Cognition and Emotion, 27, 345–355. doi:10.1080/02699931.2012.711743] found using an interpretation bias task, a negative expectancy bias in young adults and positive expectancy bias in older adults with high trait (...) anxiety. Extending this, the current study examined expectancy bias for positive, negative and ambiguously emotionally toned information in younger and older adults with clinical levels of depression and anxiety to community control groups, thus allowing examination of both disorder status and age on biases. Clinical participants reported a pervasive tendency to expect negative events relative to positive regardless o... (shrink)

Unter der Annahme, dass der Orientalismus und Balkanismus nicht einmal rudimentär die reichhaltigen interkulturellen Beziehungen zwischen Europa und dem Mittelmeer erfasst, argumentiert die vorliegende Forschungsarbeit, dass es nötig ist, einen weiteren Diskurs in Ermangelung einer besseren Bezeichnung unter dem Namen Mediterranismus einzubeziehen. Darunter sind kulturelle Imaginationen des Mittelmeeres als philosophische und poetische Denkfigur der europäischen Schriftkultur zu verstehen. Die Hauptaufgabe ist dabei auf der Grundlage der Begriffsgeschichte in Fragmenten und der Deduktion der heuristischen theoretischen Hypothesen eine Rekonstruktion und kontrastive und (...) komplementäre Komparation dieser drei Diskursformationen durchzuführen, unter der Einsicht, dass sie unter den Bedingungen der Moderne bei der europäischen Selbstbesinnung zugleich entgegengesetzt und miteinander verwoben sind. Daher enthalten sie eine ganze Reihe von perzeptiven, affektiven und kognitiven Gegensätzen und Widersprüchen, die gesondert in weiteren Forschungsarbeiten zu untersuchen sind. (shrink)

Dieser Essay versucht nicht nur die Vieldeutigkeiten zu entwirren, die sich um die phänomenologischen Begriffe ,Lebenswelt’ und ,Apriori der Lebenswelt’ ranken, sondern auch eine Phänomenologie der Lebenswelt in Beziehung zu vorwissenschaftlichem Alltagsleben und sinnlicher Wahrnehmung, den mathematischen und geometrischen Naturwissenschaften sowie der eidetischen und phänomenologischen Reduktion der reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie zu umreißen.

Dans cette dissertation, nous tenterons de répondre à deux questions liées. Premièrement, si nous acceptons le principe de Nietzsche sur « l’agrandissement de la vie » comme valeur principale, la vérité et l’expression de la vérité auraient-elles une signification grande, moyenne ou nulle? Dans quel sens Nietzsche soutient-il que la « fausseté d’une estimation n’est pas nécessairement son reproche »? Dans le but de donner une réponse satisfaisante à ces deux questions, il faut d’abord montrer comment Nietzsche, à partir de (...) l’analyse et de la critique d’une théorie habituelle de la vérité , construit sa propre théorie du multiperspectivisme. Dans l’essai intitulé « Vérité et mensonge dans un sens extramoral », nous trouvons le germe de cette théorie que Nietzsche a encore développé dans le recueil d’aphorismes intitulé Par-delà le bien et le mal. Après que nous aurons reconstruit les recherches de Nietzsche sur la théorie habituelle de la vérité et sur sa propre théorie du multiperspectivisme, nous pourrons donner une réponse casuistique aux deux questions citées ci-avant. (shrink)

In diesem Essay werde ich versuchen, zwei miteinander verknüpfte Fragen zu beantworten. Nimmt man Nietzsches Prinzip der Lebenssteigerung als Grundwert an, würde Wahrheit und die Wahrheit zu sagen einen hohen, mittleren oder keinen Stellenwert haben? In welchem Sinne meint Nietzsche, dass „die Falschheit eines Urteils noch kein Einwand gegen ein Urteil“ ist? Um eine ausreichende Antwort auf diese beiden Fragen zu geben, werde ich darstellen, wie sich auf der Grundlage der Analyse und Kritik der herkömmlichen philosophischen Wahrheitstheorie in seinem Essay (...) unter dem Titel „Über Wahrheit und Lüge im außermoralischen Sinne“ in der Aphorismensammlung Jenseits von Gut und Böse eine vollwertige Theorie des Multiperspektivismus entwickelt. Nachdem Nietzsches Untersuchung des herkömmlichen philosophischen Wahrheitsbegriffs rekonstruiert worden ist, werde ich imstande sein, eine kasuistische Antwort auf die oben erwähnten Fragen zu geben. (shrink)

In this essay, I will try to answer two related questions. Adopting Nietzsche’s principle of the “enhancement of life” as a kind of basic value, would truth and truth-telling have high, medial, or no significance at all? In what sense does Nietzsche think that “the falsehood of a judgment is […] not necessarily an objection to it”?1 In order to give a satisfactory answer to these two questions, I will first illustrate how, from his essay entitled “On Truth and Lies (...) in an Non Moral Sense” to the collection of aphorisms entitled Beyond Good and Evil, Nietzsche develops his analysis and critique of the conventional philosophical theory of truth into a full-fledged theory of multiperspectivism. Having reconstructed Nietzsche’s inquiry of the conventional concept of truth and his theory of perspectivism, I will be able to give a casuistic answer to the two abovementioned questions. (shrink)

Ovaj članak pokušava ne samo pojasniti višeznačnosti vezane uz fenomenološke pojmove ‘životni svijet’ i ‘a priori svijeta života’ , nego isto ocrtati fenomenologiju svijeta života u odnosu prema predznanstvenom životu i svakdanje percepcije, matematičkim i geometrijskim prirodoslovnim znanostima te eidetičkoj i fenomenološkoj redukciji čiste fenomenologije i fenomenološke filozofije.

This essay attempts to clarify the ambiguities attached to the term ‘the life-world’ and ‘a priori of the life-world’ in the phenomenological sense. It sketches the phenomenology of the life-world with respect to everyday pre-scientific life and perception, the mathematical and geometrical sciences of the natural world, and the eidetic and phenomenological reductions of pure phenomenology and phenomenological philosophy.

In contemporary debates about the nature of bioethics there is a widespread view that bioethical decision making should involve certain knowledge of and respect for cultural diversity of persons to be affected. The aim of this article is to show that this view is untenable and misleading. It is argued that introducing the idea of respect for cultural diversity into bioethics encounters a series of conceptual and empirical constraints. While acknowledging that cultural diversity is something that decision makers in bioethical (...) contexts should try to understand and, when possible, respect, it is argued that this cultural turn ignores the typically normative role of bioethics and thus threatens to undermine its very foundations. (shrink)

In this paper it is exactly proved that the standard transformations of the three-dimensional (3D) vectors of the electric and magnetic fields E and B are not relativistically correct transformations. Thence the 3D vectors E and B are not well-defined quantities in the 4D space-time and, contrary to the general belief, the usual Maxwell equations with the 3D E and B are not in agreement with the special relativity. The 4-vectors E a and B a , as well-defined 4D quantities, (...) are introduced instead of ill-defined 3D E and B. The proof is given in the tensor and the Clifford algebra formalisms. (shrink)