Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set an example of how people with severe learning difficulties could be more integrated into our society. Design/methodology/approach – The installation consists of puzzles in the form of a specially designed table with an integrated touch screen. As the visual templates for the puzzles serve pictures painted by a person with severe learning difficulties. The pieces of the puzzles are manipulated directly by the player on the touch screen presenting an intuitive (...) and easily learned user interface. Findings – The framework for the work was a creation of an interactive art installation in the form of a game where users assemble puzzles on a touch monitor, housed in a specially designed table. Paintings by a person with severe learning difficulty served as visual templates for the puzzles. The pieces of the puzzles can be manipulated directly by the user on a touch screen presenting an intuitive and easily learned user interface, which stimulates the learning of fine motor skills and encourages practice, thus making it suitable for persons with severe learning difficulties in an art therapy setting. Practical implications – As the work has the format of an interactive art installation, this enables it to gain publicity through exhibitions in art galleries. Social implications – The installation demonstrates how people with severe learning difficulties can be integrated into the broader society. At the same time, these people are encouraged to use modern computer information technology, which is becoming a necessity also for this group of users. Ethical issues regarding how this group of people can get involved in such work are also discussed. Originality/value – Combining the habituation of people with severe learning difficulties with computer technology in the form of a game, and framing the whole process as a fine art undertaking, to win the public recognition, is a novelty in addressing the needs of these people. (shrink)

It has recently been argued that a non-Bayesian probabilistic version of inference to the best explanation (IBE*) has a number of advantages over Bayesian conditionalization (Douven [2013]; Douven and Wenmackers [2017]). We investigate how IBE* could be generalized to uncertain evidential situations and formulate a novel updating rule IBE**. We then inspect how it performs in comparison to its Bayesian counterpart, Jeffrey conditionalization (JC), in a number of simulations where two agents, each updating by IBE** and JC, respectively, try to (...) detect the bias of a coin while they are only partially certain what side the coin landed on. We show that IBE** more often prescribes high probability to the actual bias than JC. We also show that this happens considerably faster, that IBE** passes higher thresholds for high probability, and that it in general leads to more accurate probability distributions than JC. (shrink)

Partial lying denotes the cases where we partially believe something to be false but nevertheless assert it with the intent to deceive the addressee. We investigate how the severity of partial lying may be determined and how partial lies can be classified. We also study how much epistemic damage an agent suffers depending on the level of trust that she invests in the liar and the severity of the lies she is told. Our analysis is based on the results from (...) exploratory computer simulations of an arguably rational Bayesian agent who is trying to determine how biased a coin is while observing the coin tosses and listening to a liar’s misleading predictions about the outcomes. Our results provide an interesting testable hypothesis at the intersection of epistemology and ethics, namely that in the longer term partial lies lead to more epistemic damage than outright lies. (shrink)

The aim of this article is not only to provide an overview of the state of recent discussion about the concept of social capital, it is also an attempt at critical reflection on theoretical and empirical research efforts. The question is whether the concept of social capital is a fashionable term proposed as a cure-all for the maladies affecting contemporary communities, organizations and societies as a whole or whether it has more long-term strategic - theoretical as well as applicable - (...) meaning for sociology and other social-science disciplines. Despite the deficiencies of the recent research findings, we argue that the latter is true. The concept represents a very important conceptual innovation which can facilitate the theoretical integration within sociology and the inter- and trans-disciplinary collaboration of sociology and other disciplines, especially economics. The article emphasizes the problems of reception, definition and operationalization, and the developmental role of social capital. (shrink)

The article draws from a personal clinical experience of two suicides, not far removed from each other in time. The first patient was a 33-year-old intellectual suffering from depression with narcissistic traits but no psychotic elements, while the second patient was a 21-year-old student with a manifest psychotic episode behind him and with characteristics of post-psychotic depression at the time of suicide. The two suicides had very different impacts on the therapist: the first left open some “space” for reflection, communication, (...) and working-through, while the second closed such a “space,” leaving only a tiny door to the existential roots of human beings and suffering. The therapist was able to find some “shelter” by talking to supervisors, colleagues, and friends in the first case; in the second, the only possible “shelter” was glimpsed in the philosophy of groundlessness (Ungrund) of the Russian existentialist Nicolai Berdyaev. The personal experiences of the therapist, along with some theoretical interpretations of the after-effects of both suicides, are presented using a psychodynamic and existential–phenomenological understanding of the therapeutic relationship with a psychotic and a non-psychotic patient. The main dilemmas exposed by a patient’s suicide, especially if the patient suffers from psychosis, are difficult to deal with in the usual clinical settings and call for resources beyond it. The authors propose that these can be found in philosophical and theological insights. (shrink)

Should a scientist rely on methodological triangulation? Heesen et al. (Synthese 196(8):3067–3081, 2019) recently provided a convincing affirmative answer. However, their approach requires belief gambles if the evidence is discordant. We instead propose epistemically modest triangulation (EMT), according to which one should withhold judgement in such cases. We show that for a scientist in a methodologically diffident situation the expected utility of EMT is greater than that of Heesen et al.’s (2019) triangulation or that of using a single method. We (...) also show that EMT is more appropriate for increasing epistemic trust in science. In short: triangulate, but do not gamble with evidence. (shrink)

Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 0, 1–25. Published 14 March 2018.

This doctoral dissertation investigates what influence indicative conditionals have on belief updating and how learning from conditionals may be modelled in a probabilistic framework. Because the problem is related to the interpretation of conditionals, we first assess different semantics of indicative conditionals. We propose that conditionals should be taken as primary concepts. This allows us to defend a claim that learning a conditional is equivalent to learning that the relevant conditional probability is 1. This implies that learning a conditional can (...) be modelled as learning a material conditional. We then turn to a few competing approaches to the problem of learning from a conditional -- an approach that models these situations with regards to changes in the explanatory status of the antecedent, as minimising probability distances between the prior and posterior probability distributions, and, particularly, an approach based on epistemic entrenchment. It is argued that although all approaches are important for their pioneering contributions, none of them ultimately provides a fully satisfactory solution. We then formulate a proposal according to which learning a conditional may be modelled as learning a material conditional in conjunction with other contextually inferred or observed information. We show that the view has an intuitive appeal on the grounds of pragmatics and empirical research in psychology of reasoning. We also show that the proposed approach successfully resolves all standard cases from the literature. The proposal is then extended to left-nested conditionals. To do so, we first inspect some preliminary empirical data about actual reasoning with nested conditionals and then show that the proposed approach also successfully models these cases. We then investigate how the approach may be extended to the so-called imperative conditionals. We introduce a tripartite typology of imperative conditionals and argue that although imperatives cannot be probabilistically modelled in any straight-forward way, at least some general insights of the proposed method help us understand the influence that the three different types of imperative conditionals have on listeners’ beliefs. We conclude with a summary and some open questions that should be addressed in future work (e.g. the influence of counterfactuals on belief updating). (shrink)

It has been argued that if the rigidity condition is satisfied, a rational agent operating with uncertain evidence should update her subjective probabilities by Jeffrey conditionalization or else a series of bets resulting in a sure loss could be made against her. We show, however, that even if the rigidity condition is satisfied, it is not always safe to update probability distributions by JC because there exist such sequences of non-misleading uncertain observations where it may be foreseen that an agent (...) who updates her subjective probabilities by JC will end up nearly certain that a false hypothesis is true. We analyze the features of JC that lead to this problem, specify the conditions in which it arises and respond to potential objections. (shrink)

Characters in Richard II utter a number of neglected, yet philosophically interesting imperative conditionals. Based on a close reading of these examples, I provide a tripartite typology of imperative conditionals. The type 1 constitute the class of standard imperative conditionals; the type 2 implicate that the antecedent is false; and the type 3 implicate that the command in the consequent is to be complied with. I show how the type 2 and type 3 conditionals can be identified, and explain when (...) and why the speakers utter them. (shrink)

Some of the information that we learn comes to us in a conditional form. This has proven to be a problem for philosophers, who try to explain how probabilistic beliefs change when one learns from conditional sentences. The problem is that a straight-forward solution is not possible: the partial belief in the antecedent and the partial belief in the consequent either increase, decrease, or remain the same. Two existing approaches to learning from indicative conditionals are considered: an explanatory one, and (...) another that builds on relative information minimizing with regard to the causal structure. A novel method based on epistemic entrenchment is proposed to overcome the drawbacks of the competing approaches. The method solves all the standard examples and some other examples for which existing approaches have failed to provide adequate solutions. (shrink)

The research presented in this article aims to contribute both quantitatively and qualitatively to the discussion on family versus non-family businesses' differences in ethical core values, culture and ethical climate. The purpose of our article is to better understand the association between the degree of involvement of a family in an enterprise and its influence on the enterprise's core values, culture and ethical climate as the constitutional elements of enterprise ethical behaviour. The research indicates that family as well as non-family (...) enterprises maintain positive attitudes towards the core values with ethical content. Regarding the type and strength of culture as well as the type of ethical climate, our research results indicate significant differences between family and non-family enterprises. (shrink)

This paper introduces a novel method for the creation of ideas for disruptive innovations. It provides an application of innovation management techniques to specifics of disruptive technologies, which stand behind the Industry 4.0 changes that are taking place at present. Centered around the Ordo ab Chao technique, the paper presents how contemporary disruptive technologies can attain reflections in the complex creative process that has to lead to disruptive ideas and innovations. Quite some innovative thinking techniques already exist. However, they fail (...) to place emphasis on creation of ideas that are tied to emerging disruptive technologies so as to further deploy them in a focused, yet innovative manner. Hence, this paper presents an effective technique that facilitates creation of disruptive ideas with a focused potential for real-life implementations. Practical application of the method related to challenges in higher education processes amid the COVID-19 pandemic is also demonstrated. Based on the understanding of existing disruptive technologies, the technique is used for the adaptation and improvements of distance-learning processes to further add value for students and our society in general. In brief, the Ordo ab Chao technique is a promising tool for systematic development of disruptive solutions, representing a creative synergy between cutting-edge technologies and innovation management approaches. (shrink)

Im Beitrag wird der Frage nachgegangen, ob sich in den Geistestheorien der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts die Gründe aufspüren lassen, die dazu führten, dass wir in der so genannten Postmoderne vom Ende des Geistes, des Menschen und des Ethischen sprechen können bzw. ob in diesen Konzepten womöglich etwas übersehen wurde, wovon wir heute, vor allem im ethischen Sinne, Gebrauch machen könnten. Im ersten und zweiten Teil des Beitrags wird unser Interesse in erster Linie der Cassirer’schen Geistestheorie gewidmet sein, um (...) mit Hilfe dieses repräsentativen Denkers und seiner Kritik womöglich ein besseres Verständnis davon gewinnen zu können, wo die eigentlichen Gründe für den ,Tod des Geistes’ zu suchen sind. Der postmoderne Diskurs selbst gibt keine und kann auch keine Antwort auf die bereits schon mehr als hundert Jahre andauernde Krise geben, weil er eben auch selbst nur ein Symptom derselben ist. Aufgrund der Tripelaspektivität der Dialektik des Geistes , seiner extremen Ungewissheit und Fragilität, wird im dritten Teil des Beitrags die Möglichkeit des Ethischen eingeführt. Durch die spezifische Behandlung dieses Problems glaube ich besser gerüstet der Frage nachgehen zu können: Wie ist die Rede vom Ethischen heute noch möglich, und worin könnte sein möglicher Sinn liegen? (shrink)

U ovom se članku razmatra pitanje da li se u teorijama duha u prvoj polovici 20. stoljeća mogu pronaći razlozi koji bi nas naveli na to da u takozvanoj postmoderni govorimo o kraju duha, čovjeka i etičkoga, odnosno da li se bilo gdje u ovim konceptima previdjelo nešto što bismo mi danas mogli iskoristiti, prvenstveno u etičkom smislu. U prvom i drugom dijelu članka posvećujemo se u prvom redu Cassirerovoj teoriji duha, kako bismo uz pomoć ovog reprezentativnog mislitelja i njegove (...) kritike mogli bolje razumjeti gdje bi se trebali tražiti pravi razlozi za »smrt duha«. Sam postmoderni diskurs ne pruža nikakve razloge i ne može dati odgovor na krizu koja traje već više od stotinu godina, jer je i on sam simptom te krize. Na temelju trostruke aspektivnosti dijalektike duha , njegove neizvjesnosti i fragilnosti, u trećem dijelu ovog teksta se uvodi mogućnost etičkoga. Vjerujem da se kroz specifičnu obradu ovog problema može istražiti pitanje: kako je danas uopće još moguće govoriti o etičkome i u čemu bi se mogao sastojati njegov mogući smisao? (shrink)

This article considers the question whether in theories of the spirit, from the first half of the 20th century, we can find reasons that would lead us to discuss about the ending of the spirit, mankind and the ethical in the so-called postmodernism, or whether it has been left unnoticed, anywhere in these concepts, something we might make use of, above all, in ethical sense. In the first and the second part of this article we turn to Cassirer’s theory of (...) the spirit as to be able to, through this representative philosopher’s works and his critics, better perceive where to search for the reasons of “the death of the spirit”. Postmodernistic discourse itself does not give any reason and cannot give any answer to the crisis lasting for more than a hundred years, because it is in itself a symptom of that very crisis. On grounds of a three-fold aspectuality of dialectics of the spirit , its uncertainty and fragility, in the third part of this discourse we introduce the possibility of the ethical. My believe is that through specific treatment of the issue the question can be explored: how the ethical is still possible to talk about and what would its possible meaning be? (shrink)

Im ersten Teil des Beitrags wird das Problem der Weltanschauung innerhalb von Schweitzers Ethik der Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben dargestellt, im zweiten Teil werden die Grenzen seines Konzeptes sichtbar gemacht und anschließend die möglichen weltanschaulichen Perspektiven für die Zukunft behandelt. Aufgrund der Philosophiekritik und ihrer Untauglichkeit, eine allgemein praktizierbare Ethik zu erstellen, versucht Schweitzer die traditionelle Philosophie zu einer Weltanschauung zu transformieren, um somit den Prozess einer ethischen Renaissance der Kultur in Bewegung zu setzen. Der Großteil seiner ethischen Bemühungen dient (...) dem Projekt der Begründung und zugleich der möglichen Verwirklichung einer tätigen und bejahenden ethischen Beziehung zur Welt und zum Leben, die nicht nur auf einzelne, hochsensible, oder gar erleuchtete Individuen setzt, sondern womöglich die ganze Gesellschaft zu mobilisieren fähig wäre. Schweitzer versucht die Weltanschauung, nicht wie üblich, aus der Gesellschaft heraus zu begründen, sondern aus einer unmittelbaren Anschauung des Lebens und seiner erkenntnistheoretischen Unergründlichkeit , um damit den gesellschaftlichen Raum für eine unmittelbare, optimistische, alle Lebensformen bejahende Handlungsorientierung zu eröffnen. Das Bemühen um den enthusiastischen Charakter der moralischen Handlungen, der aus dem denkenden Erleben des Willens zum Leben zur ethischen Weltanschauung aufsteigen sollte, war das große Novum Schweitzers.In the first part of this paper we present the problem of worldview within Schweitzer’s ethics of reverence for life, in the second we delineate the limits of his concept, followed by the discussion on possible worldview perspectives for the future. Based on the critique of philosophy and its inability to create a universally practicable ethics, Schweitzer tried to transform the traditional philosophy into a worldview, thus trying to initiate a process of ethical renaissance of culture. Most of his ethical efforts serve for the project of grounding and simultaneously possible realising an active and affirmative ethical relationship toward world and life which focuses not only on particular, highly sensible or even enlightened individuals, but which could also be capable for mobilising the entire society. Schweitzer tried to justify the worldview not according to the society, as it is usual, but from a direct view of life and its epistemological inscrutability , thereby opening the social space for a direct, optimistic action orientation which accepts all forms of life. The effort for the enthusiastic character of moral actions, the character that should rise from the thinking experience of the will to live to the level of ethical worldview, was Schweitzer’s great novum. (shrink)

The fact that ethics, as understood and practiced in our Western culture, has definitively come to a dead end, is overlooked only by those academic philosophers for whom it is still an esoteric and self-sufficient matter of proper reasoning regarding morality. Both religiously and secularly conceived theories have failed; it is especially evident in the fact that we have never thought about ethics as much and acted according to moral principles as rarely as today. Ethical reflection and moral conduct have (...) long ago become incompatible worlds, and relate to each other in an inversely proportional relationship. On this background an eternal question is raised once again: Can the difference between ethical thought and moral action on one side, and secular and religious approaches on the other, be overcome within a single ethical-moral concept? This paper presents an investigation of a postsecular ethics together with examining its basis and possibilities of bringing action motivated beliefs together with critical, responsible thinking based on personal autonomy in a consistently experienced and, at the same time, reflexive constellation. (shrink)

Le fait que l’éthique, telle qu’elle est conçue et pratiquée dans notre culture occidentale, soit incontestablement dans l’impasse, n’est plus ignoré que par des philosophes universitaires pour qui elle continue d’être une question ésotérique et auto-suffisante de raisonnement correct en matière de moralité. Les théories éthiques, qu’elles soient conçues du point de vue religieux ou laïque, ont échoué. Cela est particulièrement évident dans le fait que nous n’avons jamais autant réfléchi sur l’éthique qu’aujourd’hui, alors qu’en même temps nous agissons rarement (...) en accord avec des principes moraux. La réflexion éthique et la conduite morale sont depuis longtemps devenues des mondes opposés et existent dans un rapport inversement proportionnel. Dans ce contexte, une question éternelle se pose à nouveau : peut-on, à l’intérieur d’un schéma éthico-moral, surmonter les différences entre, d’une part, la pensée éthique et l’action morale, et d’autre part, entre les approches laïques et religieuses ? Cet article tente d’examiner l’éthique post-laïque ainsi que les causes et les possibilités de réunir les convictions motivant l’action avec une pensée critique et responsable, fondée sur une autonomie personnelle dans le cadre d’une constellation à la fois réflexive et vécue de manière consistante. (shrink)

Dass die Ethik, wie sie in unserer westlichen Kultur verstanden und praktiziert wird, endgültig in die Sackgasse geraten ist, verkennen nur noch diejenigen akademischen Philosophen, für die die Ethik nach wie vor eine esoterische und selbstgenügsame Angelegenheit des richtigen Argumentierens in Sachen der Moralität geblieben ist. Sowohl religiös als auch säkular konzipierte Ethiktheorien haben versagt; das wird nicht zuletzt auch daran deutlich, dass wir noch nie so viel über Ethik nachgedacht haben und zugleich so wenig moralisch gehandelt haben wie heute. (...) Ethische Reflexion und moralisches Handeln sind schon längst zu unvereinbaren Welten geworden, und stehen zueinander in einem umgekehrt proportionalen Verhältnis. Auf diesem Hintergrund wird erneut die ewige Frage aktuell, ob sich die Differenz zwischen dem ethischen Denken und moralischen Tun einerseits und den säkularen und religiösen Ansätzen andererseits innerhalb eines einheitlichen ethischmoralischen Konzeptes überwinden lässt? Im Beitrag wird der Versuch einer postsäkularen Ethik unternommen, in dem nach Gründen und Möglichkeiten gefragt wird, Handlungsmotivierende Überzeugungen mit dem auf persönlicher Autonomie basierenden kritischen und verantwortlichen Denken in eine widerspruchsfreie erlebte und zugleich reflexive Konstellation zu bringen. (shrink)

Da je etika – kakvom je poimaju i prakticiraju u našoj zapadnjačkoj kulturi – neopozivo zašla u slijepu ulicu, previđaju samo još oni akademski filozofi za koje je ona i nadalje ezoterična i samodostatna stvar valjanog argumentiranja po pitanju moralnosti. Zakazale su kako religiozno, tako i sekularno koncipirane teorije etike. To je osobito razvidno u okolnosti da o etici nikada nismo toliko umovali kao danas, a istodobno se tako rijetko povodili za moralnim načelima. Etička refleksija i moralno postupanje već su (...) poodavno postali oprečni svjetovi i egzistiraju u međusobno obrnuto proporcionalnom odnosu. Uz takvu se pozadinu iznova aktualizira vječito pitanje: Mogu li se unutar jedinstvene etičko-moralne sheme prebroditi neslaganja između etičkog mišljenja i moralnog djelovanja s jedne strane te sekularnih i religioznih polazišta s druge strane? U članku će se pokušati istražiti postsekularna etika te uzroci i mogućnosti grupiranja poticajnih uvjerenja s kritičkim, odgovornim i na osobnoj autonomiji zasnovanim mišljenjem u okviru neproturječne, iskušane i paralelno refleksivne konstelacije. (shrink)

L’article se penche sur la question de savoir si les théories de l’esprit de la première moitié du XXème siècle comportent des motifs qui pourraient nous permettre d’évoquer la fin de l’esprit, de l’homme et de l’éthique en cette période qu’on appelle postmoderne, ou plutôt de savoir si quelque chose de susceptible de nous servir aujourd’hui, surtout dans le sens éthique, aurait été omis. La théorie de l’esprit de Cassirer, penseur représentatif dont la critique nous permet de mieux comprendre où (...) chercher les vraies raisons de « la mort de l’esprit », est largement évoquée dans la première et la deuxième partie de l’article. Le discours postmoderne en soi n’offre aucune raison et ne peut donner aucune réponse à la crise qui dure depuis plus de cent ans car lui-même est symptomatique de cette crise. Dans la troisième partie du texte, les trois aspects de la dialectique de l’esprit , avec leurs incertitudes et leurs fragilités, introduisent la possibilité de l’éthique. Je considère qu’à travers une étude spécifique de ce problème, il est possible d’examiner la question suivante : comment est-il encore possible aujourd’hui de parler de ce qui est éthique et en quoi pourrait consister son sens ? (shrink)

The proposed hesitant fuzzy linguistic set is a powerful tool for expressing fuzziness and uncertainty in multiattribute group decision-making. This paper aims to propose novel aggregation operators to fuse hesitant fuzzy linguistic information. First, we briefly recall the notion of HFLS and propose new operations for hesitant fuzzy linguistic elements. Second, considering the Muirhead mean is a useful aggregation technology that can consider the interrelationship among all aggregated arguments, we extend it to hesitant fuzzy linguistic environment and propose new hesitant (...) fuzzy linguistic aggregation operators, such as the hesitant fuzzy linguistic Muirhead mean operator, the hesitant fuzzy linguistic dual Muirhead mean operator, the hesitant fuzzy linguistic weighted Muirhead mean operator, and the hesitant fuzzy linguistic weighted dual Muirhead mean operator. These operators can reflect the correlations among all HFLEs. Several desirable properties and special cases of the proposed operators are also studied. Furthermore, we propose a novel approach to MAGDM in a hesitant fuzzy linguistic context based on the proposed operators. Finally, we conduct a numerical experiment to demonstrate the validity of our method. Additionally, we compare our method with others to illustrate its merits and superiorities. (shrink)

This paper outlines several of the challenges that are inherent in any attempt to communicate subjective experience to others, particularly in the context of a clinical interview. It presents the phenomenological interview as a way of effectively responding to these challenges, which may be especially important when attempting to understand the profound experiential transformations that take place in schizophrenia. Features of language experience in schizophrenia—including changes in interpersonal orientation, a sense of the arbitrariness of language, and a desire for faithful (...) communication of experience —are described, together with discussion of their relevance for the interview context. Furthermore, the interview presents a unique context in which both intersubjective and interpersonal aspects of experience will be described as well as evoked. It is proposed that phenomenological interviewers should not only be familiar with these and other experiences that can occur in schizophrenia, but also capable of applying the techniques of phenomenological and hermeneutic methods in order to understand the descriptions of interviewees with sensitivity and accuracy. (shrink)

We analyse the reception of Niklas Luhmanns social metatheory in Slovenian social. The first part outlines the intellectual climate that prevailed in the decade before the post-socialist transition. The decline of the previously dominant Marxist ideology created space for other social theories. Luhmanns ideas were the most prominent among social macro theories in the initial phase. The second part describes variations in the reception of his ideas. The initial affirmative approach was upgraded by a number of more selective and critical (...) approaches. The third part shows that, although his ideas are no longer quite so prominent, his work is both well recognized and firmly embedded in Slovenian social thought. (shrink)