The debate over whether free will and determinism are compatible is controversial, and produces wide scholarly discussion. This paper argues that recent studies in experimental philosophy suggest that people are in fact “natural compatibilists”. To support this claim, it surveys the experimental literature bearing directly or indirectly upon this issue, before pointing to three possible limitations of this claim. However, notwithstanding these limitations, the investigation concludes that the existing empirical evidence seems to support the view that most people have compatibilist (...) intuitions. (shrink)

This study aimed to: (1) develop and evaluate the Moral Distress Scale for Psychiatric nurses (MDS-P); (2) use the MDS-P to examine the moral distress experienced by Japanese psychiatric nurses; and (3) explore the correlation between moral distress and burnout. A questionnaire on the intensity and frequency of moral distress items (the MDS-P: 15 items grouped into three factors), a burnout scale (Maslach Burnout Inventory — General Survey) and demographic questions were administered to 391 Japanese psychiatric nurses in 2007—2008. These (...) nurses experienced relatively low levels of moral distress despite the fact that they were commonly confronted by morally distressing situations. All the circumstances in which the participants experienced moral distress were included in the ‘low staffing’ factor, which reflects the characteristics of Japanese psychiatric care. The frequency score of the low staffing factor was a significant predictor of burnout. (shrink)

The need for a reconsideration of human-nature relationships has been widely recognized in the Anthropocene. It is difficult to rethink, however, because there is a crisis of imagination that is deeply entrenched within the fundamental premises of modernity. This article explores how ‘critical animism’ developed by Miyazaki Hayao of Studio Ghibli can address this paucity of imagination by providing alternative ways of knowing and being. ‘Critical animism’ emerged from the fusion of a critique of modernity with informal cultural heritage (...) in Japan. It is a philosophy that perceives nature as a non-dualistic combination of the life-world and the spiritual-world, while also emphasizing the significance of place. Miyazaki’s critical animism challenges anthropocentrism, secularism, Eurocentrism, as well as dualism. It may be the ‘perfect story’ that could disrupt the existing paradigm, offering a promise to rethink human-nonhuman relationships and envisaging a new paradigm for the social sciences. (shrink)

The following is a transcript of the interview I (Yasuko Kitano) conducted with Neil Levy (The Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, CAPPE) on the 23rd in July 2009, while he was in Tokyo to give a series of lectures on neuroethics at The University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy. I edited his words for publication with his approval.

In a refrigerated warehouse, workers organize distribution and exchange of frozen seafood by the spatial and temporal arrangement of loads. Using videotapes of workers' activities and interviews, this paper investigates how workers organize space, time and artifacts in the activity of frozen seafood distribution and exchange, and how organized space, time and artifacts systematize workers' multiple courses of actions and give direction to them. Particular attention is paid to how the workers use artifacts such as various documents and computers as (...) part of their practices, because the activity of distribution and exchange in this workplace is regarded as the activity of organizing space and time with various artifacts in multiple contexts. Through the analysis of situated literacy of using artifacts, it was shown that the activity of using artifacts is always embedded in multiple contexts. At the same time, diverse artifacts organize multiple contexts of work. Thus, there is the reflexive interaction between the artifacts and the contexts. (shrink)

A challenge in human genome research is how to describe the populations being studied. The use of improper and/or imprecise terms has the potential to both generate and reinforce prejudices and to diminish the clinical value of the research. The issue of population descriptors has not attracted enough academic attention outside North America and Europe. In January 2012, we held a two-day workshop, the first of its kind in Japan, to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue between scholars in the humanities, social (...) sciences, medical sciences, and genetics to begin an ongoing discussion of the social and ethical issues associated with population descriptors. (shrink)

This paper seeks to bridge two aspects of Fronto's letters, erotics and rhetoric, by demonstrating that Fronto himself merges the two areas in his discourse with Marcus Aurelius about their relationship. Whereas some letters suggest an unequal relationship based on power, others encourage the identification of Fronto with Marcus. Fronto achieves this identification by structuring their relationship itself as a metaphor in which he and Marcus are equated and linked by epistolary bonds. I close by discussing why the epistolary genre (...) in particular is an apt site for the merger of metaphor and love. (shrink)

The potential for biased responses that occur when researchers interact with their study participants has long been of interest to both academicians and practitioners. Given the sensitive nature of the field, researcher interaction biases are of particular concern for business ethics researchers regardless of their preference for survey, experimental, or qualitative methodology. Whereas some ethics researchers may inadvertently bias data by misrecording or misinterpreting responses, other biases may occur when study participants' responses are systematically influenced by the mere introduction of (...) researchers into the participants' environment. Although substantial empirical research has been conducted on the general topic of researcher interaction biases, none has focused specifically on business ethics research. In order to remedy this lack of empirical substantiation in the field, we review the related literature on researcher interaction biases, present an empirical example of how such biases can influence research results in an experiment assessing reactions to insurance fraud, and discuss the implications for business ethics research. (shrink)

The first “test-tube baby” in Japan was born in March, 1983 at Tohoku University Hospital. Since then ten years have passed. Table 1 indicares the clinical results of in vitro fertilization in this country. As it shows, more than 145 institutions perform IVF, and more than 3,000 babies have now been born using this procedure.According to the recommendations issued in October, 1983 by the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, IVF is defined as a medical practice for treating infertility, and (...) this procedure is performed only on married couples de jure. Eggs and embryos are not donated for IVF in Japan, nor does any “lending” or “leasing” of wombs take place. However, inFebruary, 1988 the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology issued new recommendations which allow clinical use of frozen embryos and eggs. The first baby from a frozen embryo was born in 1989, and 60 babies have been born to date. (shrink)

The first “test-tube baby” in Japan was born in March, 1983 at Tohoku University Hospital. Since then ten years have passed. Table 1 indicares the clinical results of in vitro fertilization in this country. As it shows, more than 145 institutions perform IVF, and more than 3,000 babies have now been born using this procedure.According to the recommendations issued in October, 1983 by the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, IVF is defined as a medical practice for treating infertility, and (...) this procedure is performed only on married couples de jure. Eggs and embryos are not donated for IVF in Japan, nor does any “lending” or “leasing” of wombs take place. However, inFebruary, 1988 the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology issued new recommendations which allow clinical use of frozen embryos and eggs. The first baby from a frozen embryo was born in 1989, and 60 babies have been born to date. (shrink)

Insurance claim fraud costs insurance companies, policymakers, and taxpayers billions of dollars every year and has been described as the second largest white collar crime. The most common insurance fraud activity and one that contributes a significant portion of dollar losses is the practice of padding claim amounts in the event of a loss. One of the largest issues insurance companies face is that policyholders often do not perceive insurance claim padding as an unethical behavior. However, very little research has (...) examined the factors that contribute to such perceptions. Considering how consumers often attempt to justify fraudulent behavior from a fairness perspective, the present work examines how the amount of the deductible in an insurance claim situation can influence feelings of fairness and ethicality. The results of an experimental study show that higher deductible amounts result in stronger perceptions that insurance claim padding is fair to the insurance company, weaker perceptions that the behavior is unethical, and higher proposed claim award amounts. The study also shows, however, that the deductible amount effects are attenuated for consumers who display higher ethical standards as reflected by their scores on the consumer ethics scale. Implications are discussed with respect to the insurance industry, deviant consumer behavior, and general business ethics theory. (shrink)

It is shown that there is a Kripke incomplete logic in NExt(KTB ⊕ □2 p → □3 p). Furthermore, it is also shown that there exists a continuum of Kripke incomplete logics in NExt(KTB ⊕ □5 p → □6 p).

In this paper, we present three main results on orthologics. Firstly, we give a sufficient condition for an orthologic to have variable separation property and show that the orthomodular logic has this property. Secondly, we show that the class of modular orthologics has an infinite descending chain. Finally we show that there exists a continuum of orthologics.

Commissioned by the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University to create an artwork reflecting on the importance of freshwater, Milwaukee-based photographer Kevin J. Miyazaki embarked on a two-week, 1,800-mile drive around Lake Michigan. He traveled its perimeter, through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan, to produce what he calls “a contemporary portrait of Lake Michigan.” Miyazaki set up his portable studio on beaches, in parks, on boat docks, and in backyards, photographing those he met along the way. From (...) residents, environmental scientists, and artists to a Native American water rights advocate, surfers, and commercial fishermen, Lake Michigan holds a powerful place in the life of each. Many shared their thoughts with him on why this body of water is important to all. Miyazaki also photographed the water as he went, creating waterscapes of the ever-changing lake affected by weather and time. Perimeter gathers these images together, creating a diverse portrait of both people and a place, encapsulating Lake Michigan’s significance to those who are drawn to it. (shrink)

We consider the family of logics from NExt which are determined by linear frames with reflexive and symmetric relation of accessibility. The condition of linearity in such frames was first defined in the paper [9]. We prove that the cardinality of the logics under consideration is uncountably infinite.

It is shown that the normal modal logic of two reflexive points jointed with a symmetric binary relation splits the lattice of normal extensions of the logic KTB. By this fact, it is easily seen that there exists the third largest logic in the class of all normal extensions of KTB.

This essay is one of three responses to Casper Bruun Jensen's article “Experiments in Good Faith and Hopefulness: Toward a Postcritical Social Science,” published in the Spring 2014 issue of Common Knowledge. Jensen suggested that the postcritical mode of knowledge production should focus on a continuous and persistent analytical effort to resist despair by “insisting properly.” This commentary, by one of three authors on whom the original article focused, contrasts Jensen's emphasis on insistence with the idea of ethnography as response. (...) The reconceptualization of ethnographic work as response can have various and divergent consequences, some of which are explored here with reference to the author's own ethnographic research on indigenous Fijian gift-giving and Japanese financial trading. While his immediate interest here is to expose differences in the kinds of openness that insistence and response afford, he concludes that willingness to respond is more basic to anthropology than the ethnographer's cultivation of the internal strength required to keep anthropology going as an enterprise. (shrink)