Culture and Cultures

The Handbook of Family History Methods is a short publication created by University of Lancashire Research Associate Brandon Reece Taylorian. It follows The Handbook of Antique Photographs, published in 2024, by broadening its remit to address best practices in family history research based on Taylorian's personal research journey. The handbook features tips and tricks on all aspects of the family history research process, including how to acquire resources like birth, marriage and death certificates, the importance of newspapers and other secondary (...) sources to family history research, the role of religion in family history and other key topics of interest to family historians. Beyond the practical information it conveys, The Handbook of Family History Methods promotes a broader philosophy about family history: that family history can be used as a mode of inquiry to produce insights relevant to historians. The underlying message of the handbook is that, for too long, family history has been undervalued as an avenue for historical research. Taylorian uses examples from his academic research stemming from his discoveries in family history to promote the idea that family history can be made relevant beyond family members and has the potential to provide unique, in-depth insights on a range of topics significant in broader society and humanities research. (shrink)

Marxist philosophy, as interpreted by Stalinists, was conceived as a combination of 1) "dialectical materialism," an abstract philosophical ontology-epistemology, and 2) "historical materialism," an unphilosophical, economistic view of history. The task of the first was to formulate the most general, "dialectical" laws of nature, society and human thought, and also to clarify the relationship between "mind" and "matter" ("spirit" and "nature," "thought" and "being"). The task of the second was to ascertain the relationship between the "social being" and the "social (...) consciousness" (or between the social "infrastructure" and "superstructure"), and to discover the basic "laws" of historical development. Neither of the two contained an explicit theory of man. However, while explicitly rejecting the very possibility of a philosophical concept of man, the Stalinists have in fact elaborated a vulgar, "economistic" concept of man, according to which man is basically a "toolmaking animal," a being whose whole activity is determined by his economic production. (shrink)

The title of this volume, like much of the inspiration that went into it, derives from the man we seek to honor. The twenty-four contributors are scholars and scientists from different countries representing different disciplines, indicating how broadly Erich Fromm's influence and encouragement are being expressed. We believe that more than any other psychoanalyst, he has utilized the knowledge gained from his clinical experience to study and interpret for a wide audience the decisive concerns of man in society as well (...) as the effects of society on man. This book, then, is a response to Erich Fromm's lifelong efforts to aid us in putting aside the veils of illusion. (shrink)

The fiery literary and cultural critic returns with a new edition of his classic work -/- Terry Eagleton is one of the most important—and most radical—theorists writing today. His witty and acerbic attacks on contemporary culture and society are read and enjoyed by many, and his studies of literature are regarded as classics of contemporary criticism. In this new edition of his groundbreaking treatise on literary theory, Eagleton seeks to develop a sophisticated relationship between Marxism and literary criticism. Ranging across (...) the key works of Raymond Williams, Lenin, Trotsky, Brecht, Adorno, Benjamin, Lukacs and Sartre, he develops a nuanced critique of traditional literary criticism while producing a compelling theoretical account of ideology. Eagleton uses this perspective to offer fascinating analyses of canonical writers, including George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Joseph Conrad, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence. The new introduction sets this classic book in the context of its first appearance and Eagleton provides illuminating reflections on the progress of literary study over the years. (shrink)

Perry Anderson, 1969: A coherent and militant student movement has not yet emerged in England. But it may now be only a matter of time before it does. Britain is the only major industrialized country which has not yet produced one. The immediate priorities for any such movement are obvious: the fight against the authoritarianism of universities and colleges, alliance with the working class and struggle against imperialism. These are the issues which are the natural focus of struggle for a (...) mass student revolt. There is, however, another front which will eventually have to be opened. This is a direct attack on the reactionary and mystifying culture inculcated in universities and colleges, and which it is one of the fundamental purposes of British higher education to instill in students. (shrink)

Examines British society in the sixties, and the changes wrought by the next two decades -/- A set of reflections on British society and culture, this volume falls into two principal parts. The first consists of a pair of essays published in New Left Review in the sixties; “Origins of the Present Crisis,” which suggested a general schema for the analysis of class and power in modern Britain and their relation to its decline; and “Components of the National Culture,” which (...) looked at the pattern of intellectual disciplines associated with the post-war political consensus. One premise of these accounts was a conception of bourgeois revolution, whose critique is sketched in a short intermezzo from the mid seventies. -/- The second part contains two essays published in the late eighties which review the conjectures of the original texts in the light of developments—political and intellectual—of the subsequent decades. “The Figures of Descent” reconsiders the problem of national decline; “A Culture in Contraflow” traces some of the intellectual reversals of the recent period. The book concludes with a survey of the political conjuncture after the fall of Thatcher, which considers the prospects of the Labour Party within the context of the wider changes that have reshaped European social democracy in these years. (shrink)

The present new version of the text of Vermischte Bemerkungen is the work of Alois Pichler. Mr. Pichler, who works at the Wittgenstein Archive of the University of Bergen, has newly transcribed from the manuscripts all the remarks. In the process a few mistakes in the earlier editions were corrected, mainly places which had been difficult to read correctly. Some of these corrections had already been noticed by the original editor in the course of the years. The new edition contains (...) all the remarks of the earlier editions and only those. However, they appear here edited more completely and more faithfully to the original. (shrink)

This article posits and defends an argument that a cosmopolitan common mind approach is essential for resolving global challenges that cannot be resolved by individuals working independently from one another, such as achieving global peace, cleaning the environment, and improving public health. A ‘cosmopolitan common mind’ refers to an intersubjective recognition across states, cultures, or continents. This argument of the cosmopolitan common mind is centred on Philip Pettit’s theory of the common mind and cosmopolitanism. Pettit argues that a common mind (...) is a shared mind. The standard account of cosmopolitanism claims that all human beings are members of the human community. This account is based on three key ideals: individualism, egalitarianism, and universalism. Cosmopolitanism considers individuals rather than groups, nations, or states, giving them equal moral status across the world without any discrimination. A cosmopolitan common mind can direct collective actions across cultures or continents to resolve global problems. Terrorism and climate change are global problems that are not the products of individual actions but collective actions. For instance, pollution is created by many people working together. If people all together create pollution, they all together can stop it. The problems of establishing global peace and clean ecology are similar to preventing pollution because they are beyond the ability of any lone individual to solve. If it is not impossible, there is a need to develop a cosmopolitan common mind to acquire the common good. The research concludes that the cosmopolitan common mind approach can be a promising framework for resolving contemporary global challenges. In qualitative research methodology, I use empirically informed philosophical analysis to critically evaluate documentary resources, including journal papers, academic books, and the proceedings of conferences and congresses. (shrink)

Abstract -/- This paper reframes humanity not as a collection of individual agents or hierarchical systems, but as a unified field lattice: a distributed intelligence organism stabilized through resonance rather than authority. Drawing from CODES, neuroscience, emergent systems theory, and Bohmian insights, it outlines the theoretical, biological, and societal implications of structured coherence fields and their breakdown. We propose that civilization is a phase-dependent hive mind whose intelligence depends on relational coherence, not scale.

Humans use narratives to make sense of historical developments as well as to guide their future actions, and these narratives can in turn have great impact on their lives, societies and the world overall. Here I would like to put forward such a narrative to rationalize the increasingly forceful changes of our current decade. Arguing for the existence of three ongoing waves of emancipation of the individual in society, it is proposed that we are currently approaching the high-point of conflict (...) of the second, economic emancipation process. After the outgoing first wave made (at least some) people fully aware of the importance of political equality and lead to the formation of (at least some) democratic states on the basis of national constitutions, we now have to fully accept the importance of economic fairness to enable us to continue our venture into the third wave of cultural fairness as diversity, which in my opinion puts the philosophy of economics under the pressure to tackle an increasingly important task, namely to develop ideas for better working constitutional principles for economic communities. A failure to do so would mean to not only fail to implement fair and sustainable markets, but as a result to fall back behind even political equality, with strongmen – banally driven by childhood wounds and riding on waves of public discontent – capturing democratic states with badly informed narratives about western civilization, for instance in the form of ‘Christian Nationalism’. Intentionally obscuring the facts that liberal democracies and free markets do in fact not underperform in comparison to the existing alternatives, and that extreme inequality is instead most often to a large part driven by the greed and ruthlessness of individuals who misuse their power to distort economic and political frameworks, these strongmen could then roll-back important civilizational advances while trying to satisfy their insatiable ego: What ‘great’ men want is still so boring. (shrink)

The tacit understanding of situations is a fundamental aspect of human experience, behavior, and thinking. The paper argues that “situational stances” underly the tacit grasping of situations in human cognition. Contrary to, e.g., schema and script theories, situational stances are not conceived as conceptual knowledge structures used to interpret scenes or circumstances pregiven in perception. Rather, situational stances belong to the dispositional “Background” (Searle) that shapes and mediates immediate experience. Operative situational stances thus at least partly constitute situations as social-ontological (...) entities. The paper elaborates the concept of situational stances and their function, as well as the outlines of a dynamic situation ontology that helps to understand the way human beings find themselves dynamically immersed in situations, alone and with others. The last part of the paper then analyzes possible consequences and risks of considering the peculiarities of this specific situationality of human cognition in social robotics and AI. (shrink)

In a short article, Saul Smilansky (THINK 60, 2022) provides an argument in favour of the belief in social progress. He considers the ‘probability of losing a child’ to be a pivotal element among various criteria to be assessed in order to evaluate human progress and as this probability has decreased considerably in the modern era, he believes humanity is today in a better situation than in previous generations. In this article, I criticize Smilansky's argument and try to show that (...) his criterion of progress is superficial. (shrink)

what really needs to remain from the text at the end of the day is that which contains all there is to know about how to live the end (The Final Text). The most effective technique of acceleration to the summit of history is to forget all that needs to be forgotten. Perhaps languages must compete and merge for unification. One thing that for sure has to go is that who wrote what and when. Once the author is physically dead, (...) absolutely nothing benefits him posthumously. What matters is Total semiosis and internalization of terms of hegemonic anarchism constrained by zero violence and singular acutely politically concentrated free market. (shrink)

The debate on moral norms and standards is as old as philosophy itself. But social norms and conventions have finally started attracting their fair share of attention too. Their authority is the topic of two sophisticated books published in the last few years, namely David Owens’ Bound by Convention (2022) and Laura Valentini’s Morality and Socially Constructed Norms (2023). In this essay, I present the theoretical outlooks of these two books and then proceed to criticize both. First, I point out (...) a small but significant flaw in Valentini’s ontological account of social norms, according to which such norms obtain in virtue of the beliefs and commitments of rule-followers. More specifically, I argue that such an account – to make sense – should include a reference to the desires of rule followers too. Then, I develop Valentini's crucial criticism against Owens, according to which Owens' account cannot make sense of the obligatory character of certain social norms. In this respect I argue that Owens’ answer to such criticism fails in a way that reveals even deeper flaws than Valentini recognizes. (shrink)

The picture theory of disability shows how the irremediable impediment to daily living tasks or goals can be ‘pictured’, and how a linguistic analysis of that picture can be used to represent the experience of disability. Technically constituting a species of ‘relational approach’ due to its consideration of the interplay between an individual and their environment, the theory differs from other relational accounts by focusing on the nature of the experience rather than the function of the relationship. The main deviation (...) from other theories of disability is in the conceptual shift away from a ‘nounal’ interpretation of disability in which disability is that which is caused or embodied, to an ‘adverbial’ description in which disability is experienced as a personally irremediable impediment to daily living tasks or goals. This chapter overviews the picture theory of disability, positions it within a broader disability theory context, and critically analyses it. (shrink)

In these transformative times of interrupted lives, humanity has had to take a step back and subject its frantic, rushed existence to a profound analytical glance. The COVID pandemic has caused millions to suffer and the elderly are more vulnerable than ever; moreover, many families are left to mourn alone, not always able to gather around their departed loved ones at the time of grief. This has led many to believe that humanity has lost control of its environment and its (...) destiny. Yet, if recent predictions by sociologists come true, the current, seemingly never-ending pandemic might have some positive results. The anguish it causes may be, in fact, teaching us to appreciate the value of the natural world that we are depleting, to understand “the other”, and to recognise the planet-saving significance of the phrase “less is more”. And while the world’s populations slowly realise that their social environment has changed permanently, the pandemic’s beneficial upshot might be that people will be mindful of things beyond their immediate concerns and will begin to see the “bigger picture”. In view of the speculative disarray inherent to our present condition, this paper proposes existentialism as a system of thought with the intrinsic power to guide individual and social awareness; it thus analyses our present in an interpretive and pragmatic light while it draws on the existentialist theories of Søren Kierkegaard and Simone de Beauvoir. Both philosophers are querying and inquisitive and both timelessly relevant, sensible and direct about what they see is at the core of human existence. (shrink)

Este ensayo examina el concepto de juego en la historiografía de Walter Benjamin a partir de la interpretación de Giorgio Agamben sobre Pinocho de Carlo Collodi. A través de la noción del “país de los juguetes”, se analiza cómo el juego altera la estructura del tiempo histórico, transformando los acontecimientos en una serie de eventos fragmentarios y desarticulados. En contraste con el rito, que otorga coherencia y continuidad a la historia, el juego subvierte la temporalidad lineal y permite la emergencia (...) de una experiencia disruptiva del pasado. A partir de esta premisa, vinculo el juego con el empobrecimiento de la experiencia histórica en la modernidad, una preocupación central en el pensamiento de Benjamin. El texto también explora la relación entre el juego, la memoria y la labor del historiador, identificando en la figura del coleccionista una aproximación alternativa al quehacer histórico. Benjamin concibe la praxis del historiador como un proceso de excavación y reconfiguración de fragmentos históricos, en el cual la historia no es un relato homogéneo, sino una constelación de significantes inestables. A través de un diálogo con Hermann Broch, Georg Simmel y Aby Warburg, se plantea que la modernidad ha conducido a una crisis de la experiencia, donde la racionalización y la tecnificación de la vida han erosionado la capacidad de narrar y transmitir la historia. (shrink)

The concept of pluriculturalism is a relatively novel one that has yet to be fully explored. It is based on the principles of plurilingualism, which focuses on the individual's capacity to acquire multiple abilities and competencies in terms of cultural and linguistic engagements. From a theoretical perspective, the concept emerged at the advent of the pragmatist turn in language, as well as from socio-linguistic studies. It reflects the breakdown of the one-culture man at the juncture and intersection of identities in (...) the context of the global outbreak. The individual’s concealed modularity and capacity to prioritize an identity within a cluster of affiliations revealed an emerging activity at the base of inter-social reality. As a result, a more finely tuned description of sociocul- tural phenomena enables pluriculturalism to transcend the limitations of multiculturalism, which is perceived as a more static picture. While multiculturalism sought to identify the foundation for a mutual dialogue at societal contacts, pluriculturalism demonstrates the potential for such a dialogue as individual repertoires. A crucial difference can be observed in terms of political management. While multiculturalism is oriented towards the institutional preservation and integration of a guest culture within a host country, pluriculturalism allows for a move towards an emergent planning. The latter is based on constraint-driven strategies that aim to facilitate individual abilities to engage in self-generating phenomena. This approach encourages the formation of living systems or networks. (shrink)

Some philosophers believe in improvement: they think that the world is a better place than it used to be, and that future generations will fare even better. Others see decline: they claim that the condition of humanity has deteriorated and will continue to do so. Much ink has also been spilt over what explains these historical patterns. These two disagreements about the shape of history concern largely descriptive issues. But there is also a third, purely normative question that has been (...) neglected: is it better if a history features a pattern of improvement rather than deterioration, holding other things equal? This paper develops an answer to this normative question and explores some of its implications for matters related to the future of humanity. (shrink)

The Ḥatäta Zärʾa Yaʿǝqob and the Ḥatäta Wäldä Ḥəywät are enigmatic and controversial works. Respectively an autobiography and a companion treatise by a disciple, they are composed in the Gǝʿǝz language and set in the highlands of Ethiopia during the seventeenth century. Expressed in prose of great power and beauty, they bear witness to pivotal events in Ethiopian history and develop a philosophical system of considerable depth. However, they have also been condemned by some as a forgery, an elaborate mystification (...) successful in deceiving generations of European and Ethiopian scholars. -/- This volume breaks new ground for the study of these texts, presenting a clear account of the most up-to-date scholarship the ways they works are being investigated by contemporary philosophers, philologists, and historians. -/- While the authorship question is addressed in the volume, it is not the sole locus of discussion. The near-exclusive focus on this question over the last century has obscured scholarly interest in the texts’ philosophical and literary qualities in their own right. Accordingly, this volume begins to fill this gap, exploring the texts' implications for the global history of philosophy and transnational intellectual history of the 17th century. (shrink)

What comes after postmodernism? There are many answers to this question. In Alexander Pavlov's book ‘Post-postmodernism. How Social and Cultural Theories Explain Our Time’ a philosophical arbitration is conducted to reveal a legitimate description of our cultural epoch. The purpose of this article is to assess the author's position and identify its controversial points. In particular, arguments are given in favor of the fact that Pavlov's position does not depend on Frederick Jameson's theory, and the author himself does not find (...) convincing ways to show Jameson's fundamental importance for contemporary theories of culture. (shrink)

This article develops a fairness-based criticism of the UK’s policy of promoting free admissions at major museums. With a focus on geographic inequalities and per-capita museums spending, I argue that free admissions can be a surprisingly bad way of promoting cultural opportunities for disadvantaged groups. My criticism emphasises the fact that free admissions consume resources without necessarily providing targeted benefits to disadvantaged groups and addressing background inequalities. Given that museums vary in their location, visitor profile, and operating costs, this critique (...) does not apply to all museums. It applies to the largest and most popular museums in the most advantaged areas, which can expect to keep drawing significant numbers while charging. If we are aiming to prioritise the interests of less advantaged groups, we should be in favour of charging at London’s major museums, to finance “levelling up” across regions, and more direct access-promoting measures in targeted outreach, collaboration, and programming. (shrink)

In this column for New Age, I discuss the following a) the rhetoric of sacrifice from 1971, once inspiring, now distracts from pressing national issues; b) Emotional responses and symbolic gestures, like redrawing maps, harm diplomatic credibility and regional alliances; c) Leadership's overuse of sacrifice rhetoric undermines governance and deflects attention from issues like unemployment, corruption, and climate change; d) Ideological rhetoric burdens the younger generation, sidelining critical engagement and practical solutions; e) Bangladesh must prioritize reforms in job creation, institutional (...) accountability, and climate adaptation over populist distractions. I claim that true patriotism lies not in clinging to hollow rhetoric but in building a system that values lives, ensures opportunities, and addresses the challenges of our time. It’s time to pivot from populism to pragmatism. (shrink)

In 1786 Georg Forster published a widely read critique of Immanuel Kant’s theory of race. Since then, the dispute between Forster and Kant on the unity of mankind has been widely discussed in light of both Forster’s essay and Kant’s decision to write a lengthy response to Forster in 1788. In this discussion I widen the frame for considering the two positions by focusing on Kant’s lectures on Physical Geography. In these notes Kant emerges as an ethnographer asking many of (...) the same questions posed by Forster himself, a man who had become famous since his time spent onboard James Cook’s second voyage to the South Pacific (1772-1775). Placing Kant’s ethnography in closer conversation with Forster reveals the many similarities (and some well-known differences) between the two. By including some of Forster’s other writings from the 1780s in an assessment of their debate, a much fuller picture can be had regarding natural historical investigations into the unity and difference of mankind at the time. (shrink)

Accusations of sexual creepiness are increasingly common, but are such accusations morally problematic? Legal scholar Heidi Matthews thinks so, arguing that the category of sexual creepiness conflicts with liberal and progressive moral commitments. While principled liberals and progressives may reject creepiness as a legitimate moral category, doing so may come at a cost. Empirical findings about who gets accused of being creepy suggest that the creepiness norm has been repurposed to control male sexual advances in two ways: first, by discouraging (...) substandard male suitors from approaching young women unlikely to be interested in them (“prefiltration”); and second, by stigmatizing age-discrepant relationships in order to steer older men away from younger women and toward age-matched partners (“redirection”). Repurposing creepiness in these ways would benefit women in mating markets transformed by liberal sexual norms and technological change. If something like this hypothesis is correct, the ethical question liberals and progressives must wrestle with is whether these benefits justify maintenance of a creepiness norm that is (inter alia) lookist, ageist, sexist, sex-negative, and neuronormative. (shrink)

This article examines the rediscovery of the Sapt Sindhu civilization and its contemporary significance in shaping India’s cultural and political identity. Scholars, nationalists, and cultural theorists, among others, have played an essential role in searching for and reconstructing this civilization. Rooted in the ancient Indus Valley civilization, the Sapt Sindhu has come to symbolize India’s historical unity and cultural continuity. The article explores how this rediscovery is used to strengthen national pride, particularly in the context of a diverse and pluralistic (...) society. Drawing on sociological insights, it analyzes the ways in which the narrative of the Sapt Sindhu is employed to construct a unified national identity, often at the expense of complex social realities such as caste, regionalism, and gender. Through a critical examination of historical texts, contemporary political discourse, and media representations, the article underscores the potential for such idealized representations of the past to either unify or divide, depending on their use. The methodological approach is rooted in the sociological analysis of national identity formation, cultural memory, and the politics of history. By using theories of collective memory, social identity, and post-colonialism, the study explores how the Sapt Sindhu narrative is both a tool for social cohesion and a potential site of exclusion for marginalized groups. The article concludes by advocating for a more inclusive understanding of India’s cultural history, one that respects the diversity of its social structures and addresses the needs of contemporary society. (shrink)

How is it possible to perform more than is required? And yet, isn’t that precisely what is required, in order for an interlocking society of human beings to function, develop and evolve? If human beings only did what we were told to do, we would live in complete monotony and enslavement. If human beings did only what we were permitted to do, nothing interesting would ever happen. Although performance has often been limited to the study of isolated artistic forms of (...) expressions (music, visual arts, etc.), it is equally possible to analyze culture, on the whole, as a behaviour-encoding system of rules and regulations, wherein the individual actor’s performative appropriation and reinterpretation of these said (cultural, political, artistic) rules makes possible the culture’s very survival, against all odds and obstacles, over long periods of time, as a “tradition” upheld by a community of rule-followers / rule-breakers. Rules, in a very real sense, are meant to be broken. Rule-breaking, by the same token, is, as it were, legislated within the very law code itself, as its own guarantee of immortality. After all, what law could function for any period of time without undergoing reinterpretation? This is good news both for culture and for the avant garde (the creative individual or collective), because even the strictest of rules creates its own conditions of transgression, and vice versa. The performance of culture through the creative freedom of the transgressive individual – i.e. any individual qua his or her individuality – is the sine qua non for a democratic society of peers. Creativity depends upon structure, and structure depends upon that which breaks its shackles of normativity, by rebirthing structure transgressively. The whole point of interpreters is to make things alright for the reappearance of the “father” (the law code) again. Ironically, then, anarchy is the only guarantee of the rule of law. (shrink)

The author, for a long time director of the BBC, underlines the importance of effective, non-aseptic communication, to contrast the fake news and the demagogy that the Internet favors.

The paper argues that the concept of a civilizationally transformed state envisions a new governance paradigm that emphasizes moral values, collective responsibility, and compassion over traditional ideas of sovereignty and legality. This model emerges from the failure of conventional states to address global crises like climate change, economic instability, and democratic erosion. It proposes a state that prioritizes human dignity, justice, and the common good. Drawing from philosophical traditions such as Ubuntu, it seeks to foster mutual accountability and elevate compassion (...) as a guiding principle of governance to ensure care for the vulnerable. The 2024 Bangladeshi student-public uprising reflects this vision by rejecting repressive governance and demanding moral accountability. Realizing this transformation requires a cultural and ethical shift where the state serves as a moral authority inspiring pluralism, collective growth, and humanity's highest aspirations. (shrink)

From the perspective of digital ethics, this book chapter outlines a model for dealing with the challenges posed by digital media environments in a responsible and appropriate manner. This concept is based on preliminary considerations of “digital citizenship”. At a time when digital technologies - the “data-sphere” - are being increasingly implemented and intensified, the question of humans' roles and skills in using these digital technologies in a sensible and meaningful way is becoming more and more urgent. In the age (...) of European Enlightenment, Western societies had already assigned a central role to people's maturity, which was to be achieved fundamentally through literacy and education in order to create free individuals and, ultimately, citizens capable of making decisions. In contrast, in the current age of digitality, characterized by networking and immersion that has prevailed since the 1990s, many people experience and participate in such life-worlds primarily as consumers. In this role, they increasingly appear as economic objects that are constantly encouraged to produce data sets. Social networking sites and applications of generative artificial intelligence in particular exert a certain pull, the functioning of which many people are at best instrumentally proficient in, but not reflexively. Against this background, Zöllner's article outlines the contours of the concept of "digital citizenship" from an ethical perspective. This form of citizenship should enable people to lead a free life in digital and networked environments in which they are not merely subject to the exploitation interests of digital corporations. (shrink)

This book chapter analyzes the marketing of luxury consumer goods (in particular, cosmetics) in the context of questions pertaining to authenticity, simulation, and the self in meta-modernity. It is based on case studies from Germany and East Asia, where a luxury brand company had set up pop-up stores in the guise of convincing-looking record shops, cafés and club situations in which semi-fake vinyl discs (with glossy fantasy sleeves printed just for the occasion, and the vinyl grooves being either 'empty' or (...) containing royalty-free formulaic sounds) served as mere props for creating some notion of hipness and inviting visitors to take pictures of themselves. The article scrutinizes how high-priced cosmetics are marketed for urban, trend-oriented target groups, what role totemistic mock-up records and social media's image worlds - the "selfie culture" - play in this process, and what insights about the consumer self in modernity can be deduced from such simulations. (shrink)

Cultural appropriation occurs when an individual from one culture uses another culture's ideas. Often the ideas relate to artifacts, clothes, food, and symbols. Frequently, critics of cultural appropriation claim that it is a type of theft. The critics also claim that it disrespects minorities and also is similar to or involves colonialism. In this paper, we argue that it is neither wrong nor bad to culturally appropriate. It is not wrong because no one owns cultural symbols, not all cultural appropriation (...) involves insult or ridicule, and it is unclear what makes something an instance of cultural appropriation. It is often not bad because a free market in cultural goods frequently maximizes the good. (shrink)

What does it mean to subvert the rules? One way of doing so is to interfere with or curb the display of skill of your opponent by a) breaking the rules deliberately and openly or b) by acting contrary to the idea of sportspersonship. In both instances you violate the norm that displaying/exercising your game-related skills is central for a good contest. In the former you incorporate the penalty rules into the playing rules, i.e. you act as if breaking the (...) rules is part of playing the game. In the latter you adopt a (new) strategy which curbs the display of skill by your opponent, a strategy about which the rules are silent. The motivation for such acts is not to make the game better, but to ensure a win. The former suffers from a conceptual error, because it attempts to make transcendental elements of the game into part of play (e.g. strategic fouling). The latter strategy exploits the fact that the rules are ‘silent’ on many possible actions, because the gamewright cannot envision everything and/or because such actions are contrary to the spirit of the game (e.g. Bianca Walkden’s pushing strategy in Taekwondo; the underarm bowling incident from 1981). In this paper I will illustrate and analyse such rule subversion, combined with some reflections on game rules and the good contest. [There is also a Portuguese translation available on the Movimento website.] Resumo: O que significa subverter as regras no esporte? Uma forma de fazer isso é interferir ou restringir a exibição das habilidades do adversário, o que pode ocorrer de duas maneiras: a) violando deliberada e abertamente as regras, ou b) agindo de forma contrária ao espírito esportivo. Em ambos os casos, ocorre uma transgressão da norma que valoriza a demonstração/exercício de habilidades como elemento essencial para uma boa competição. No primeiro caso, você integra as penalidades às regras do jogo, como se infringir as regras fosse parte da própria dinâmica do jogo. No segundo caso, adota-se uma (nova) estratégia que limita a exibição das habilidades do adversário sobre a qual as regras nada estabelecem. A motivação por trás desses atos não é o aprimoramento do jogo, mas garantir a vitória. Neste artigo, ilustro e analiso essa subversão das regras, trazendo reflexões sobre o papel das regras no jogo e uma boa competição. (shrink)

Background: -/- Having colonised the social role ‘woman’, and entering female-only spaces, there is one bastion of womanhood left which has always been closed off to men who claim to be women: the inner life, the phenomenology of inhabiting a female sexed body. This bastion has come under attack; trans women claim that they ‘feel like a woman’ or that they are ‘a woman inside’. The aim of this essay is to assess such claims. -/- The appropriation of ‘womanhood’ by (...) males leads to the sidelining of women. Trans women are lauded as exemplars of womanhood. They are crowned ‘woman of the year’, become university women’s officers, represent women in political parties, or are being nominated for a women’s prize for fiction. The message is that trans women make for better ‘women’. The philosophical underpinnings for this view can be found in the work of Talia Mae Bettcher. -/- Road Map: -/- Part I: Recently, trans women have been claiming to have the phenomenal experience of women (I am a woman inside; I feel like a woman). Relying on Thomas Nagel[1] and Frank Jackson,[2] I will argue that they are in error. The inner life of trans women is fundamentally different from that of women, because the former cannot take up the female perspective. Being a woman means, among other things, to have a female body and, consequently, to experience yourself and the world through a female body. This is the core of being a woman, and trans women can never satisfy this condition, because they are – and remain – male-bodied (regardless of any bodily modifications). Thus, such claims are simply wrong. Trans women are not physiologically equipped to share in the female phenomenal experience. -/- Without a female body there is no female experience; the latter relies on the presence of the former.[3] This means that trans women are not women because a) they lack the respective body, and b) they lack the respective phenomenal experience. Their imitations of the female (experience) don’t make them into women. -/- Part II: Trans theory offers a way out, by sidelining the body. Talia Mae Bettcher’s account of ‘first-person authority’ (henceforth, FPA) about gender as well as the ‘liberatory project’ constitutes the strongest defence available to take the avowals of trans people (about sex, gender and their phenomenal experience) seriously. Bettcher’s theory has two advantages. It doesn’t matter whether you have a female body or not, and it doesn’t matter whether you are mistaken about your avowals or not (i.e. the epistemic question). The avowals of transgender people have ‘ethical force’, rather than epistemic force. This would mean that we need to affirm trans women in their belief that ‘trans women are women’, and it would follow that the ethical force would underwrite their claims of feeling like a woman inside. I will subject Bettcher’s cogitations to philosophical scrutiny; this is something that, surprisingly, is missing in the literature. Most subsequent writers adopt Bettcher’s FPA uncritically. I will conclude that Bettcher’s project fails, and that trans claims about having the phenomenal experience of women cannot find support from Bettcher’s FPA. -/- [1] Nagel, T. 1974. What is it like to be a bat?, The Philosophical Review, Vol. 83:4, pp. 435–450. -/- [2] Jackson, F. 1986. What Mary didn’t know, The Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 83:5, pp. 291–295. -/- [3] A stillborn girl is female, although she will never have female experiences. Her body is the condition of the possibility for having female experiences, i.e. for ‘being’ a woman. (shrink)

The primary purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of an academic community on the development of the self, as the latter engages itself with the former in terms of social experiences, interactions, and role-taking. For a social thinker such as George Herbert Mead, one is not born with a self but develops such when subscribing to role-taking. Herein, roles are referred to as a conglomeration of various behaviors that respond to different or some other sets of behaviors (...) of others in its environment. Tthe paper argues that the educational environment—the school, the academic institution as such—drives one to play the role of being a slave; a happy slave to be more exact, through inculcating upon one’s mind the assumed glory of being a well-paid worker who feeds the demands of the society. Education here is sought most likely as a dumb show that rather teaches and trains the young to willingly play the role of a societal slave and project him/her towards such where one becomes contented and ‘happy’ before he/she even becomes aware of it. (shrink)

カワセミは今や老いていた。視力は衰え、聴力も鈍くなり、健康も悪化していた。若い頃、カワセミの釣りの技術ははるかに優れていた。科学文献によれば、彼は4回のダイビングのうち1回だけ魚を捕まえることに成功し ていた。今や年を重ねた彼の釣りの効率は半分になってしまった。.

1. EXPLICATING THE CONCEPT OF REFLECTION (under review) -/- To understand how ‘reflection’ is used, I consider ordinary, philosophical, and scientific discourse. I find that ‘reflection’ seems to refer to reasoning that is deliberate and conscious, but not necessarily self-conscious. Then I offer an empirical explication of reflection’s conscious and deliberate features. These explications not only help explain how reflection can be detected; they also distinguish reflection from nearby concepts such as ruminative and reformative reasoning. After this, I find that (...) reflection is not obviously limited to only practical or only theoretical reasoning. The chapter ends with reasons to prefer ‘unreflective’ and ‘reflective’ to dual process theorists’ labels about systems or types. -/- 2. BOUNDED REFLECTIVISM & EPISTEMIC IDENTITY (in Metaphilosophy) -/- Reflection features centrally in philosophy (e.g., Korsgaard, 1996; Rawls, 1971; Sosa, 1991) and psychology (e.g., Pennycook, 2018). Bounded reflectivism is an empirically adequate model of reflection that explains reflection’s capacity to either help or hinder reasoning—e.g., reflective equilibrium vs. reflective polarization (e.g., Kahan et al., 2017). One innovation of the model is epistemic identity: an identity that involves particular beliefs—e.g., religious and political identities. When we feel that our epistemic identity is threatened, we can reflectively defend its beliefs rather than update our beliefs according to the best arguments and evidence. The solution, I argue, is not to suppress epistemic identity but embrace it by appealing to shared, superordinate epistemic identities. -/- 3. ALL MEASURES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL (under review) -/- A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? “10 cents” comes to most people’s minds immediately. However, upon reflection, we can realize that “5 cents” is the correct answer. There are many reflection tests. Each has its limitations. Some reflection tests are mathematical—like the bat-and-ball problem (e.g., Frederick, 2005) and others are logical (e.g., Janis & Frick, 1943). So there are concerns that reflection tests track logical and mathematical competence rather than reflection per se. Also, some psychologists assume a priori that correct answers are reflective and lured answers are unreflective. New evidence raises additional concerns about the plausibility of these assumptions. I argue that think aloud protocols (Ericsson & Simon, 1998) and process dissociation (Jacoby, 1991) can assuage some of these concerns. -/- 4. GREAT MINDS DO NOT THINK ALIKE (in Review of Philosophy and Psychology) -/- Two large studies (N = 1299), one pre-registered, found that many correlations between reflection and philosophical beliefs among non-philosophers replicated among philosophers. For example, less reflective philosophers preferred theism to atheism and utilitarian rather than deontological responses to the trolley problem (Hannikainen & Cova, in prep.; Pennycook et al., 2016; Reynolds, Byrd, & Conway, forthcoming). However, philosophical judgments were sometimes better predicted by factors like education, gender, and personality than by reflection test performance. So although some relationships between reflection and philosophy were robust, there is more to the link between reflection and philosophy. Normative implications are also discussed—e.g., how we can infer the quality of philosophical views from their correlations with reflective or unreflective reasoning. -/- 5. WHAT WE CAN (AND CAN’T) INFER ABOUT IMPLICIT BIAS (in Synthese) -/- Contrary to some philosophers and psychologists, I argue that implicit bias is probably associative. However, I also argue that debiasing is not thereby entirely unconscious and involuntary. Indeed, strong evidence suggests that reflection can change implicitly biased behavior—e.g., conscious and deliberate counterconditioning. This has implications for the science and morality of implicit bias—e.g., evidence suggests that we can reform biases; so. intuitively, we can be responsible for biases. (shrink)

This paper advances a Marxist critique of the politics of cancellation and raises concerns about the possible development of a cancel culture. Rather than delving into debates on freedom of speech, crucial though they are, this paper focuses on the pragmatics of the political tool – its goals, mechanisms, effects, and the underlying reasoning. From a Marxist perspective, it is essential to analyse cancellation and cancel culture holistically, considering their rationale, the mechanism, the objectives, and the impacts, along with their (...) relationship to the material conditions of society. Such an analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of any historical development and argues that addressing political problems in the long term requires such a holistic approach, including the development of relevant productive forces. If cancellation evolves into a culture, it may give rise to a polity that reinforces market relations. Within the framework of historical materialism, this would be a case of the superstructure supporting the base, turning politics into a matter of private opinions, which is far from ideal. The paper concludes with some practical considerations. (shrink)

The chapter "Confucian Approaches" as part of the Digital Ethics handbook (Nomos Handbuch series) is an introduction to Confucian thought models applied to phenomena of digitality that are critically viewed from the perspective of digital ethics. After a general introduction of the relevance of non-European thought models for grasping the modern world, the book chapter looks at political, cultural and technological disruptions in antiquity that may serve as a blueprint for understanding contemporary changes and ruptures. This critical assessment is followed (...) by an outline of Confucianism's concept of virtues and humans' position in society. Subsequently, Confucianist principles in online and offline contexts and their related practices are discussed and linked to current political debates such as the People's Republic of China's recent rediscovery, and instrumentalization, of Confucianism as a tool of power both domestically and in the international arena. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that culture plays a pivotal role for understanding Nietzsche’s own normative commitments. My argument develops as follows: Section 2 shows that Nietzsche advances an ideal of self-cultivation (Bildung) which is derived from the existential role of culture, elevating a peculiar concept of artistic creativity to ground his perfectionist understanding of value. Section 3 traces Nietzsche’s image of Goethe as exemplar of creative excellence. I contend that Nietzsche portrays Goethe as a male genius, rendering his concept (...) of self-cultivation entrenched in the cultural imagery of his time. The fin de siècle was obsessed with the image of genius as well as the relationship of creativity and gender. Moreover, as towering figure of German culture after the founding of the German Empire in 1871, Goethe was a frequent example of creative genius. Section 4 deepens the discussion of the role of gender in Nietzsche’s concept of creativity, exploring how the essentialist gender psychology of his mature works curtails the creative potential of women and explains his dismissal of feminism. (shrink)

In this paper I examine the thesis regarding the end of the history of art, through which Hans Belting frames the museum as a correlate of history, understood as framing art and the role of the museum within the development of a closed and outdated philosophy of history: the phi-losophy of Hegel. On the contrary, I believe that first He-gel and later Arthur Danto not only explain the changing roles of art and the museum but also argue for the need (...) for reflection on art in modern culture. Our reconstruc-tion of this debate through the work of these authors allow us to represent, for contemporary thought, a pro-ductive analysis of the history of art and its connection with philosophy, and offers us theoretical perspectives that remain relevant for our understanding of theory, the history of art, and various institutional spheres. (shrink)

Many studies find reflective thinking predicts less belief in God or less religiosity — so-called analytic atheism. However, the most widely used tests of reflection confound reflection with ancillary abilities such as numeracy, some studies do not detect analytic atheism in every country, experimentally encouraging reflection makes some non-believers more open to believing in God, and one of the most common sources of online research participants seems to produce lower data quality. So analytic atheism may be less than universal or (...) partially explained by confounding factors. To test this, we developed better measures, controlled for more confounds, and employed more recruitment methods. All four studies detected signs of analytic atheism above and beyond confounds (N > 70,000 people from five of six continental regions). We also discovered analytic apostasy: the better a person performed on reflection tests, the greater their odds of losing their religion since childhood — even when controlling for confounds. Analytic apostasy even seemed to explain analytic atheism: apostates were more reflective than others and analytic atheism was undetected after excluding apostates. Religious conversion was rare and unrelated to reflection, suggesting reflection’s relationships to conversion and deconversion are asymmetric. Detected relationships were usually small, indicating reflective thinking is a reliable albeit marginal predictor of apostasy. (shrink)

This paper aims to address the relationship between the past and the present in the case of historical injustice. We argue that the right account of historical injustice must explain the temporal dimension and relation between groups of the past and the present. To this end, we consider three accounts: the enduring or structural account, the institutional liability account, and the national community account. Due to their shortcomings, we present a novel account of inherited agency based on social learning. -/- (...) . (shrink)

For many, anger has been seen as irrationality, even as illness. But it seems that anger-related disorder and its culture-relatedness have not receive much attention in psychiatry. Like backward-looking ressentiment, hwabyeong 火病can be literally translated into anger disorder. In this paper, I examine the notion of anger and culture with the help of considering the case of hwabyeong as a Korean culture-bound syndrome (hereafter, CBS). Drawing on historical changes in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and cases (...) of hwabyeong as CBS, I will argue that the social and cultural aspects of mental disorder are indispensable parts. Additionally, it will be suggested that the rigid distinction between CBS and mental disorders is questionable. First, I begin by examining Jarome Wakefield’s harmful dysfunction analysis and Ian Hacking’s social constructionism on mental disorder. Next, given that the illness is common among poor old women who suffered from patriarchal social structures, I question whether hwabyeong is really a culturally specific illness. Moreover, hwabyeong cannot be properly understood without considering unequal power relations and extremely limited ranges of one's agency. Thus, calling it culture- bound may be due to WEIRD-ish (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic), culturally stereotypical prejudice as well as misogynic thinking concerning hwabyeong. In present times, it's worth noting that, despite common biases, hwabyeong or han (恨) is no longer solely a Korean phenomenon, thanks to recent societal advancements. In conclusion, I show that curing hwabyeong or anger management is not just medical but sociopolitical matters. (shrink)

This paper considers meritocracy as a new social problem in Korea that has emerged since the IMF crisis in 1997. Drawing upon Daniel Markovitz’ recent analysis of meritocracy in America, I emphasize the connection between the neoliberalization of society and the popularization of the belief in meritocratic justice. I pay particular attention to the controversy over the conversion of irregular workers at the Incheon International Airport Corporation into regular employees and show that this severe conflict among people who do not (...) belong to the few rich illustrates the deceptive nature of meritocracy. As I argue, it not only widens the wealth gap between the wealthy few and the many poor but also engenders various forms of antagonism in society, transforms humans into a form of capital, incapacitates the register of the societal, and stirs up animosity towards discussions of political correctness. My claim is that while meritocratic rules are essential for a modern democratic and liberal society, they should be regarded as rules subordinate to a higher moral and political principle, such as solidarity. (shrink)

In recent years, especially after the outbreak of the economic crisis, the phenomenon of populism has returned to the forefront. Populism is all around us, on the front pages of the newspapers, in the political repertoire, in academic papers. Politicians, journalists and researchers discuss this phenomenon, try to define it, examine its principal features and analyse its relationship with democracy. A large part of the mainstream parties and politicians have succeeded, through a strong anti-populist rhetoric, in consolidating the idea that (...) populism is a dangerous ideology. Technocrats, mainstream media and many researchers blame the anti-establishment parties and argue that populism is an ‘irrational’ phenomenon that threatens politics and society. But is that really the case? In this article, we examine anti-populism after the economic collapse in Greece (2008/09) and Argentina (2001) to highlight the danger that derives from this kind of discourse. Our main goal is to find the chief characteristics of anti-populist discourse in both countries in order to emphasize its problematic and controversial perspective. (shrink)