Abstract. We argue that all human beings have a special type of dignity which is the basis for (1) the obligation all of us have not to kill them, (2) the obligation to take their well-being into account when we act, and (3) even the obligation to treat them as we would have them treat us, and indeed, that all human beings are equal in fundamental dignity. We give reasons to oppose the position that only some human beings, because of (...) their possession of certain characteristics in addition to their humanity (for example, an immediately exercisable capacity for self-consciousness, or for rational deliberation), have full moral worth. What distinguishes human beings from other animals, what makes human beings persons rather than things, is their rational nature, and human beings are rational creatures by virtue of possessing natural capacities for conceptual thought, deliberation, and free choice, that is, the natural capacity to shape their own lives. (shrink)

Fodor and LePore's attack on conceptual role semantics relies on Quine's attack on the traditional analytic/synthetic and a priori/a posteriori distinctions, which in turn consists of four arguments: an attack on truth by convention; an appeal to revisability; a claim of confirmation holism; and a charge of explanatory vacuity. Once the different merits of these arguments are sorted out, their proper target can be seen to be not the Traditional Distinctions, but an implicit assumption about their superficial availability that we (...) have abundant reason to reject. Once we reject it, we can see how issues of the absorbtion of conventions, the revisability of belief, and confirmation holism are compatible with the Traditional Distinctions, and that Quine's discussion only serves to camouflage the question of whether some confirmation relations are constitutive of meaning and knowable a priori. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 4, May 2020, Page 51-53.

Avant-propos.--Saint Thomas d'Aquin, sa mission intellectuelle.--Saint Augustin, éducateur idéal.--La physionomie de Saint Français d'Assise.--Un grand coeur, Saint Albert le Grand.--Les thomistes et saint Augustin.

Recalling several profound disagreements about business ethics as it is currently discussed in Western societies, I emphasize the need for business ethics as an academic discipline that constitutes the “backbone” for both teaching business ethics and improving business practice (section 1). Then I outline a conceptual framework of business ethics that promotes a “bottom-up” approach (section 2). This “problem-and action-oriented” conception appears to be fruitful in terms of both practical relevance and theoretical understanding. Finally, I argue for (section 3) the (...) relevance of discussing goals at all levels of human action (i.e., individuals, organizations, systems) as well as the indispensability of human rights, and propose Amartya Sen's “goal-rights-system” approach as a normative-ethical framework for business ethics that integrates these two fundamental aspects. (shrink)

This anthology brings together many of the more significant contributions to Cartesian scholarship, some of which reach far back as the 1930s. Altogether, there are well over 100 detailed analyses and discussions of salient aspects of Descartes' Promethean legacy. Because Descartes intended his system to embrace not only philosophy but also a complete scientific corpus, this collection covers both philosophical issues and scientific views: Volume 1 is devoted to questions of Cartesian Method and epistemology; Volumes 2 and 3 concentrate on (...) his metaphysics; and Volume 4 discusses Descartes' scientific views and achievements. The lucidity and originality of the essays, a number of which are already classics of Cartesian scholarship, will ensure that this anthology becomes a standard in Cartesian philosophy. An invaluable resource, Rene;e Descartes provides a large variety of introductions, analyses, criticisms, and appraisals of the problems which preoccupied Descartes and the solutions he propounded. (shrink)

v. 1. La pensée française et le marxisme.

This paper examines the work of Nāgārjuna as interpreted by later Madhyamaka tradition, including the Tibetan Buddhist Tsongkhapa (1357–1419). It situates Madhyamaka skepticism in the context of Buddhist philosophy, Indian philosophy more generally, and Western equivalents. Find it broadly akin to Pyrrhonism, it argues that Madhyamaka skepticism still differs from its Greek equivalents in fundamental methodologies. Focusing on key hermeneutical principles like the two truths and those motivating the Svātantrika/Prāsaṅgika schism (i.e., whether followers of Nāgārjuna should offer positive arguments or (...) should proceed on a purely “negative” basis), it argues that the Svātantrika commitment to mere conventional practice is robust and allows for a skepticism consistent with the scientific practices we must take seriously in the modern world. These findings are put forth as an illustration of what the Western tradition might gain by better understanding of non-Western philosophy. (shrink)

Shoemaker (1996) presenteda prioriarguments against the possibility of ‘self‐blindness’, or the inability of someone, otherwise intelligent and possessed of mental concepts, to introspect any of her concurrent attitude states. Ironically enough, this seems to be a position that Gopnik (1993) and Carruthers (2006, 2008, 2009a,b) have proposed as not only possible, but as the actual human condition generally! According to this ‘Objectivist’ view, supposed introspection of one's attitudes is not ‘direct’, but an ‘inference’ of precisely the sort we make about (...) the attitudes of others, an inference that has the advantage in our own case ofonlyour own sensory data and memories, our behavior, and of the context we are in; i.e. we are all substantially self‐ blind. After sorting out a number of methodological and verbal issues, I argue, first, that thea prioriarguments against Objectivism don't succeed, and that Gopnik and Carruthers are right to regard the issue as an empirical one. On the other hand, I think they seriously underestimate the difficulty of establishing Objectivism. It is unlikely there is an inferential procedure from the data of pure sensation, behavior and context to the relevant self‐attributions that would be as spectacularly reliable as people manifestly seem to be. Moreover, there is a simpler model: the mind very likely consists of a panoply of sub‐routines some of whose outputs are ‘tagged’ for their having been so processed, rather in the way that software ‘documents’ are on standard computers. Introspection plausibly consists in a person's simply attending to distinctive constellations of these tags, even though they may lack phenomenal feels. This draws attention to an important independent fact: that much of phenomenology (or ‘what it's like’ to be in a certain state) may be constituted by facts that are not phenomenal. (shrink)

A travers la métaphore du " Narcisse " du Caravage, l'auteur nous retrace les dérives de la culture visuelle et numérique contemporaine, en nous livrant les principales matrices philosophiques, sociales et métapolitiques de l'" occidentalo-scopie ", à savoir le mental scopique de l'Occident hypermoderne, dans lequel s'est opéré depuis la Renaissance jusqu'à nos jours une vaste mutation du "regardant" collectif et individuel. Selon l'auteur, il s'agit bien ici de la grimace du regard "occidental" contemporain, à savoir l'image spéculaire et déformante (...) qui a de la sorte aliéné et soumis l'ensemble de l'épistémè de la modernité occidentale à une pulsion scopique généralisée. (shrink)

Le seul fait qu'il surgisse après que tout a été révoqué en doute ne suffit pas à faire du cogito-plus précisément, de ego sum - un principe métaphysique, une vérité première: la chose doit être démontrée. Or cette démonstration est bien là, dans la II e Méditation. Elle se fait en deux temps: y participent (a) l'expérience du morceau de cire et (b) le bref recours à l'imagination (AT VII, 27-28; IX/1, 21-22) par lequel Descartes vise à déterminer s'il est (...) davantage qu'une res cogitans. Ainsi s'explique la rémanence dans le texte de cette tentative que Descartes qualifie d' «erreur», et qui aura pu paraître redondante à ses lecteurs. (shrink)

A commonly held view is that giving to the poor is superogatory i.e., that while it is a good thing to do, it is not morally wrong for us not to do so. This essay sets out to show that for the affluent in the world giving to the poor is not superogatory but is rather a moral obligation. The paper critiques Singer's famous argument in ‘Famine, Affluence and Morality’ and finds that although the argument is a cogent and powerful (...) one, Singer, when trying to apply the argument to how we should act, somewhat skews the argument's real implications. Furthermore, it is argued that a cosmopolitan concern for the global poor is the morally correct response to have, and the author defends this view by examining the proper effect that aspects like geographical distance, nationality, reciprocity, and the nature of the global economic system should have on our moral considerations. In conclusion, it is argued that since the way that each person utilises his/her resources is a reflection of what he/she values, then for many of us in positions of affluence, in order to be moral, much more should be done in order to help those experiencing dire, life-threatening poverty across the globe.1. (shrink)

In this text, Bataille clarifies his idea of the ‘excluded part’, i.e. that which is left behind by science. Bataille seeks to create an approach that would challenge the abstracted method of science, which presents the world as idealized and homogeneous. The aim of Bataille’s ‘science of the heterogeneous’ is to shed light on the unproductive expenditure of life, which moves between the sacred and the unclean. In pursuing this, he debunks the common idea that what is profane is already (...) impure and vice versa. This text is notable for the new vocabulary that Bataille introduces in order to define heterology. Terms like heterodoxy, agiology and scatology rehabilitate the ideas of the unclean and the profane by structuring them in a new discourse, in which the excluded part is taken as the foundation for the new science of the impossible. Finally, the text shows how Bataille articulates this new science through providing examples largely from the study of religion and psychoanalysis. (shrink)

The present article articulates the strategy of much of my work to date, which has been concerned to understand how we can possibly come to have any objective understanding of the mind. Generally, I align myself with those who think the best prospect of such an understanding lies in a causal/computational/representational theory of thought (CRTT). However, there is a tendency in recent developments of this and related philosophical views to burden the crucial property of intentionality with what I call Strong (...) Externalism, a state’s intentional content being determined by some real external phenomenon to which the state is causally related. I argue against this tendency, drawing attention to the crucial role in cognitive scientific explanations of empty concepts, such as [angel], and the “intentional inexistents” that such concepts “represent.” This obliges me to take a brief excursion into what I hope is a minimal metaphysics, defending a methodology I call the “LEXX” strategy that treats phenomena as real only insofar as they are needed in genuine explanations. After a brief discussion of the need for greater patience generally regarding a theory of intentionality, I deploy this strategy with regard to many phenomena that are the purported objects of mental states, e.g. triangles, cones, words, sentences, colors, mental images and qualia. I argue that these phenomena do not actually exist: they are mere intentional inexistents, unreal projections of the intentional content of various mental states, and not themselves needed in any genuine explanations. In a concluding section, I summarize my suggestions about how a CRTT can explain the various illusions we have in this regard, particularly those concerning consciousness and qualia. (shrink)

Lorsqu'il aborde les vérités de mathématiques dans la «I re Méditation», Descartes ne dit pas si la perception qu'il en a est claire et distincte ou non. Certains, dont H. G. Frankfurt, persuadés que Descartes tient pour impossible la révocation en doute du clair et distinct, estiment que cette perception est nécessairement obscure et confuse. S'appuyant sur divers textes, Frankfurt verrait d'ailleurs en lui à ce moment-là un empiriste naïf. Nous tentons ici l'hypothèse contraire en attribuant le silence de Descartes (...) aux contraintes que l'ordre des raisons impose au langage même dont il se sert: en effet, clarté et distinction sont pour Descartes des termes techniques dont il ne peut s'autoriser l'emploi qu'à partir de la «III e Méditation». Cette perception serait donc, selon nous, matériellement claire et distincte; elle serait néanmoins révoquée en doute, sans quoi la validation de la raison que tente Descartes ne saurait s'accomplir. (shrink)

The article examines the state of research on Michael of Ephesus as a probable author of the Commentaries on Metaphysics E–N, mainly the works of Leonardo Tarán and Concetta Luna. In spite of their opposed views, they both agree on the mediocrity of the Byzantine author. The article questions the criteria for this negative appraisal and offers some material for reconsidering Michael of Ephesus’ idea of philo­sophical culture.

The Byzantine philosopher Michael Psellos wrote a brief treatise entitled An Explanation of the Drive of the Soul Chariot and the Army of Gods According to Plato in the Phaedrus. The treatise consists of a compilation of excerpts from Hermias’ commentary on the Phae­drus. Psellos does not mention Hermias’ name but rather traces the origins of the treatise back to some “Greek theologians”. Psellos’ text presents a great interpretative challenge: the order of the myths about the charioteer and the parade (...) of gods is reversed so that the former explicates the latter in such a way that the whole Platonic argument is dismissed as “absurd”. The Phaedrus in the Neo ‑Platonic tradition is considered to be a strictly theological dialogue. Yet, Psellos’ arrangement shows that he was not interested in the mythographical or allegorical dimension of the excerpts. He rath­er focused on the epistemic problem, i.e., a reduction of the trichotomy of the soul into a duality of principles. Thus, he followed certain Aristo­telian commentators. Psellos suggests a reduction that is subjectivist or individualist in its nature and he refuses to identify individual intellect with any particular piety. (shrink)

The present thesis, compatible with Darwinian theory, endeavours to provide original answers to the question of why the evolution of species leads to beings more complex than those existing before. It is based on the repetition of two main principles alleged to play a role in evolution towards complexity, i.e. "juxtaposition" and "integration". Juxtaposition is the addition of identical entities. Integration is the modification, or specialisation, of these entities, leading to entities on a higher level, which use the previous entities (...) as units. Several concrete examples of the process are given, at the genetic level (introns), at the anatomical level and at the social level. Structures where integration at one level leaves the units at a lower level in a state of relative autonomy can be describedusing the metaphor of the "mosaic", and the description can also be applied to the human brain and functioning of thought, where essential functions such as language or memory have a mosaic structure. (shrink)

The present article constitutes an attempt to analyse the historical causes of the present crisis affecting the Arab world and the failure to build modern states in this region. It has to be noticed that from the three main ethnic groups constituting the pillars of the Middle East, i.e. the Persians, the Arabs and the Turks, the Arab failure and the generalization of violence in Arab societies and between Arab states is to be adequately analysed in order to be able (...) to contribute to peace, reform and a dignified life for Arab citizens. Different historical factors are identified in the article, some of them internal to Arab societies, but inextricably linked to massive foreign interferences in the region. The last of these interferences are linked to the instrumentalization of religion in the last period of the cold war in order to stop the extension of Soviet and communist influence in the Arab and Muslim world. Since then, this use of religion for political purpose in the conflicts about supremacy in the region has destroyed ethics and citizenship and given rise to generalized violence and acts of terrorism, in addition to other economic and social factors that are identified in the article. (shrink)

t. 1. Codes et comités d'éthique -- t. 2. L'expérience québécoise.

t. 1. Présentation de l'univers politique. v. 1. Société, politique et droit. --t. 3. La dynamique politique. v. 1. Les forces politiques. v. 2. La dialectique de l'ordre et du mouvement.--t. 4. Le statut du pouvoir dans l'Etat.--t. 5. Les régimes politiques.--t. 6. L'Etat libéral et les techniques politiques de la démocratie gouvernée. --t. 10. La révolte des colonisés.

* This update features fifty fast and impressive digital photo techniques-eighty percent of which are new since the previous edition * The CD-ROM includes a bonus e-book of the entire first edition-giving readers two books for the price of one * Developed by professional photographer and eDigital Photo contributing writer Gregory Georges, the techniques are valuable to both pros and hobbyists alike * Uses the latest version of Adobe Photoshop Elements in the examples, but the techniques are readily adaptable (...) to most image-editing programs * Includes techniques for traditional photo effects, combining photos, artistic effects, animations, digital photo blends, and much more * Step-by-step details, in-depth instructions, and plenty of illustrations-including a full color insert-make it easy for people to apply the techniques to their own photos. (shrink)

Inhalt "Rund um Sokrates" Thomas Alexander Szlezak: Platon und die Pythagoreer: Das Zeugnis des Aristoteles Eva-Maria Kaufmann: Reconsidered: Gigons Abschied von Sokrates. Das Buch "Sokrates. Sein Bild in Dichtung und Geschichte" Detlef Thiel: Sokrates der Idiot." Friedlaender/Mynonas Rehabilitation Ulrich Kuhn: Das Liebesverhaltnis zwischen Alkibiades und Sokrates. Der platonische Bericht Heinz-Gerd Schmitz: Alkibiades, die Athener und die politische Torheit "Wissen und Skepsis" Rebecca Paimann: Beim Wissen ist jeder der erste. Zur Stellung der Individualitat in der spaten Wissenschaftslehre Fichtes Jurgen-Eckardt Pleines: Philosophieren (...) oder eine letzte Wahrheit. Das anhaltende Problem eines Neuplatonismus Klaus Neugebauer: Dasein und ewiges Sein. Wie Edith Stein Martin Heidegger liest Jurgen Grosse: Radikalskepsis und Philosophiekritik. Zum 100. Geburtstag von E. M. Cioran Jutta Georg: Traumlose Zeiten. Das Unbewusste im Kernspin "Gluck und Erfullung" Edgar Fruchtel: Gluck allein macht nicht glucklich. Was fuhrt zu einem erfullten Leben? Tim Gollasch: Adieu Welt"? Die vermeintliche Abkehr vom Diesseits in der Barocklyrik Georges Goedert: Vom zweifelhaften Gluck der Utilitaristen. Eine kritische Untersuchung utilitaristischen Denkens "Buchbesprechung" Harald Seubert: Vom Geist - die Wiederkehr des vergessenen Grundes der Philosophie. Aus Anlass eines bedeutenden Sammelwerke. (shrink)

El momento donde los humanos caen en el estado de "bestioni" ("grandes bestias") es pensado claramente por G. B. Vico como el de una segunda caída: una caída en lo anterior a todos los vínculos, ya sea entre aquellos que existen entre los humanos mismos o entre aquellos con la divinidad. El Diritto universale y la Scienza Nuova se dan entonces como tarea el pensar las modalidades (simbólicas, poéticas, políticas…) del porvenir del humano, bajo el fondo de una reactivación de (...) la fuerza de lo verdadero ("vis veri") y de una relación con la divinidad. Así se ve aparecer el espacio familiar, luego el espacio político con sus diversas disposiciones sucesivas, sin que por eso desaparezca la dimensión animal del humano. The moment when humans fall into a state of "bestioni" ("big beasts") is clearly envisioned by G. B. Vico as a second fall: a fall into something previous to all bonding, be it among humans themselves or with the divinity. The Diritto universale and the Scienza Nuova assume then the thinking of new forms (symbolic, poetic, political…) of human's future, under the reactivation of truth as a force ("vis veri") and a relationship with the divinity. Thus emerges the family space, then the politics space with its successive and diverse dispositions, but always keeping the human's animal dimension. (shrink)

Cet article a pour but d’offrir un bilan clair des connaissances archéologiques actuelles sur l’aménagement intérieur du temple d’Apollon à Delphes, où se déroulait la consultation de l’oracle. Trois temples (au moins) se sont succédé à Delphes. Le premier fut détruit en 548 av. n.è. Le second, achevé avant l’an 500, fut détruit dans les années 370. Le troisième, terminé vers 330, vécut jusqu’à l’Antiquité tardive. On ne possède aucune donnée archéologique sur l’aménagement intérieur des deux premiers. Le troisième est (...) un peu moins mal connu, grâce aux travaux récents de P. Amandry et E. Hansen. La cella était divisée en deux parties inégales par une barrière ou une cloison dont on ne sait si elle était assez haute pour arrêter la vue. La seconde partie de la cella, où devait se trouver l’adyton, n’était que partiellement dallée : il faut imaginer un sol en terre battue, mais au même niveau que les dallages, sans local souterrain. (shrink)

ABSTRACT E. M. Curley has said that Descartes’ cogito, ergo sum “is as obscure on examination as it is compelling at first glance.” Why should that be? Maybe because the cogito raises so many textual and interpretive questions. Is it an argument or an intuition? If it is an argument, does it require an additional premise? Is it best interpreted as a “performance?” Is it best seen as the discovery that any reason proposed for doubting its success entails the meditator’s (...) existence? And so on. But all these questions typically arise in the wake of worries about the cogency of the cogito when it is treated as an argument and worded in its canonical form, “I think, therefore I exist.” In this essay, I focus on what I take to be the most fundamental reason for questioning the cogito’s cogency when it is so treated—namely that the “I” in its premise is question-begging. I distinguish that reason from other reasons that are sometimes conflated with it, and I argue that it is not a good reason. I then comment on some of the questions mentioned above in light of my defense of the cogito seen in that traditional way. (shrink)

Cet article vise à mettre en lumière et contextualiser le regain d’intérêt international pour le socialiste allemand Eduard Bernstein, considéré comme le père du « réformisme » et de la révision du marxisme. Tout d’abord, il offre un rappel général du parcours de Bernstein, resté dans l’histoire politique pour le rôle qu’il tint dans la « querelle révisionniste » face à Kautsky et Rosa Luxembourg. Ensuite, l’article aborde les conditions historiques de résurgence de cette figure du socialisme, passant d’une méprise (...) originelle, entretenue par la polarisation politique du xx e siècle, à une redécouverte et une réhabilitation progressive. En un troisième temps, l’article explique la démarche de Bernstein face aux transformations économiques de la fin du xix e siècle et à l’attentisme de son parti, le SPD. Contre « l’attentisme révolutionnaire », Bernstein propose la voie d’un « socialisme démocratique », consistant en une démocratisation générale de la société, passant par des « réformes systématiques ». Ce « socialisme démocratique », « réformisme révolutionnaire », se conçoit comme une politique ambitieuse, fidèle à Marx, et n’abandonnant pas la volonté de dépassement du capitalisme. Enfin, l’article présente les publications les plus récentes à ce sujet (2018-2021). (shrink)

Mitchell et al. contend that there is no need to posit a contribution based on the formation of associative links to human learning. In order to sustain this argument, they have ignored evidence which is difficult to explain with propositional accounts; and they have mischaracterised the evidence they do cite by neglecting features of these experiments that contradict a propositional account.

George Karamanolis breaks new ground in the study of later ancient philosophy by examining the interplay of the two main schools of thought, Platonism and Aristotelianism, from the first century BC to the third century AD. Arguing against prevailing scholarly assumption, he argues that the Platonists turned to Aristotle only in order to elucidate Plato's doctrines and to reconstruct Plato's philosophy, and that they did not hesitate to criticize Aristotle when judging him to be at odds with Plato. Karamanolis offers (...) much food for thought to ancient philosophers and classicists. (shrink)

The following abbreviations are used to reference Berkeley’s works: PC “Philosophical Commentaries‘ Works 1:9--104 NTV An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision Works 1:171--239 PHK Of the Principles of Human Knowledge: Part 1 Works 2:41--113 3D Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous Works 2:163--263 DM De Motu, or The Principle and Nature of Motion and the Cause of the Communication of Motions, trans. A.A. Luce Works 4:31--52.

Dans son séminaire "Hostilité/hospitalité" donné en 1995-1996 et 1996-1997, Jacques Derrida a multiplié les analyses de ce concept énigmatique. Se déplaçant de l'hospitalité universelle promue par Kant et les Lumières à l'Antiquité grecque, il s'est ensuite penché sur l'hospitalité abrahamique. Son analyse de la Genèse l'a conduit à relire la pensée de Levinas, pour proposer ensuite un nouveau déplacement : allant à la rencontre de l'hospitalité islamique, il engage un dialogue avec la pensée de Louis Massignon, qu'il relit à travers (...) celle de Levinas. C'est au cœur de cette rencontre que Derrida associe, de manière essentielle, l'hospitalité et la substitution, dont Massignon avait fait le cœur de son approche de "l'hospitalité sacrée". L'héritage abrahamique de l'islam se trouve ainsi rapproché de la tradition juive et chrétienne. Ce n'est pas le moindre mérite de cet important séminaire que de rappeler la haute figure de Massignon et de restituer pour le présent un idéal d'hospitalité inconditionnelle que Derrida n'a jamais cessé de promouvoir."--Publisher's description. (shrink)

We argue that Recanati burdens his otherwise salutary “Mental File” account of singular thought with an “Actualist” assumption that he has inherited from the discussion of singular thought since at least Evans, according to which singular thoughts can only be about actual objects: apparent singular thoughts involving “empty” terms lack truth-valuable content. This assumption flies in the face of manifestly singular thoughts involving not only fictional and mistakenly postulated entities, such as Zeus and the planet Vulcan, but also “perceptual inexistents,” (...) e.g., Kanizsa figures, rainbows, words and phonemes, as well as hosts of at best metaphysically problematic “objects,” such as properties, numbers, ceremonies, contracts, symphonies, “the sky,” “the rain.” Indeed, reflection on what seems to be the boundless diversity of “things” about which we seem to be able to have singular thoughts strongly suggests that there may be no general metaphysics of objects, much less “acquaintance” and “epistemically rewarding” relations that would distinguish singular from non-singular thought. We recommend that Recanati and other mental file theorists confine the theory to a metaphysically neutral account of singular thought as specific kind of internally “focused” computational state, and not seek any general account of the relation of thought to reality. (shrink)

Identity Economics provides an important and compelling new way to understand human behavior, revealing how our identities--and not just economic incentives--influence our decisions. In 1995, economist Rachel Kranton wrote future Nobel Prize-winner George Akerlof a letter insisting that his most recent paper was wrong. Identity, she argued, was the missing element that would help to explain why people--facing the same economic circumstances--would make different choices. This was the beginning of a fourteen-year collaboration--and of Identity Economics. The authors explain how our (...) conception of who we are and who we want to be may shape our economic lives more than any other factor, affecting how hard we work, and how we learn, spend, and save. Identity economics is a new way to understand people's decisions--at work, at school, and at home. With it, we can better appreciate why incentives like stock options work or don't; why some schools succeed and others don't; why some cities and towns don't invest in their futures--and much, much more. Identity Economics bridges a critical gap in the social sciences. It brings identity and norms to economics. People's notions of what is proper, and what is forbidden, and for whom, are fundamental to how hard they work, and how they learn, spend, and save. Thus people's identity--their conception of who they are, and of who they choose to be--may be the most important factor affecting their economic lives. And the limits placed by society on people's identity can also be crucial determinants of their economic well-being. (shrink)

Past research has identified a number of asymmetries based on moral judgments. Beliefs about what a person values, whether a person is happy, whether a person has shown weakness of will, and whether a person deserves praise or blame seem to depend critically on whether participants themselves find the agent's behavior to be morally good or bad. To date, however, the origins of these asymmetries remain unknown. The present studies examine whether beliefs about an agent's “true self” explain these observed (...) asymmetries based on moral judgment. Using the identical materials from previous studies in this area, a series of five experiments indicate that people show a general tendency to conclude that deep inside every individual there is a “true self” calling him or her to behave in ways that are morally virtuous. In turn, this belief causes people to hold different intuitions about what the agent values, whether the agent is happy, whether he or she has shown weakness of will, and whether he or she deserves praise or blame. These results not only help to answer important questions about how people attribute various mental states to others; they also contribute to important theoretical debates regarding how moral values may shape our beliefs about phenomena that, on the surface, appear to be decidedly non-moral in nature. (shrink)