In response to the impending spread of COVID-19, universities worldwide abruptly stopped face-to-face teaching and switched to technology-mediated teaching. As a result, the use of technology in the learning processes of students of different disciplines became essential and the only way to teach, communicate and collaborate for months. In this crisis context, we conducted a longitudinal study in four German universities, in which we collected a total of 875 responses from students of information systems and music and arts at four (...) points in time during the spring–summer 2020 semester. Our study focused on the students’ acceptance of technology-mediated learning, any change in this acceptance during the semester and the differences in acceptance between the two disciplines. We applied the Technology Acceptance Model and were able to validate it for the extreme situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. We extended the model with three new variables that influenced the construct of perceived usefulness. Furthermore, we detected differences between the disciplines and over time. In this paper, we present and discuss our study’s results and derive short- and long-term implications for science and practice. (shrink)

The present study traces and analyzes the ideas of linear time as depicted in some of the texts of the Ṛgveda, the Atharvaveda, the Kauṣītakibrāhmaṇa and the Mahābhārata, and as presented in the texts of early Buddhism. From the thread of fate, which is the path of man, narrative, identity, through the web woven by day and night or by the two goddesses of fate, through the web of sacrifice, to dependent origination in early Buddhism, all these images and ideas (...) are closely related with the notion of linear time. To go beyond this linear time, beyond the notion of LIFE IS A JOURNEY, is a penetration into the unspeakable, “into” the world beyond, “into” freedom. (shrink)

The proposed article focuses on the possible consequences for the human in the context of the biotechnology development. Major findings in this field are presented, which are problematized first of all from the point of view of the erosion of morality through the instrumentalization of man and his body, through the undermining of the principles of egalitarianism and reciprocity in modern Western societies and through the hypothesis that the enhancement of human corporeality will lead to unpredictable answers to the question (...) of the meaning of human existence and of the relation to the other. The existing national and supranational legal restrictions on genetic engineering and their corrosion under the pressure of the scientific communities and in general as a result of the progress in the field of biotechnology are examined. As a main methodological tool, the article uses the analyzes of Jürgen Habermas and Francis Fukuyama, developed in their classic works: “The Future of Human Nature” and “Our Posthuman Future”, but goes beyond their framework, problematizing the failure of both humanitarian discourses and of legal regulations to place limits on biotechnological research that affects not just the treatment of the human body but the future of human moral communities. (shrink)

En hommage à la longévité universitaire du sociologue et philosophe Jacques Leenhardt - professeur à l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales depuis 1966, fondateur des Archives de la critique d'art, créateur et directeur du Centre d'art contemporain de Crestet -, cet ouvrage réunit des contributions de sociologues, philosophes, artistes et écrivains qui retracent plusieurs débats marquants liés aux sciences humaines, à la littérature et aux arts, en France et aux Amériques à partir des années 1970. Le riche parcours du (...) chercheur français, né à Genève, se dessine à travers autant de rencontres intellectuelles et de sensibilités artistiques en partage--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

This book brings together classic and recent papers in the philosophical and linguistic analysis of fuzzy grammar, gradience in meaning, word classes, and syntax. Issues such as how many grains make a heap, when a puddle becomes a pond, and so forth, have occupied thinkers since Aristotle and over the last two decades been the subject of increasing interest among linguists as well as in fields such as artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. The work is designed to be of use (...) to students in all these fields. It has a substantial introduction, is divided into thematic parts, contains annotated sections of further reading, and is fully indexed. (shrink)

The theoretical formulations, analyzed in the study, and the proposed applied model for game technology in the implementation of the educational process in kindergarten, are presupposed by the concept of lifelong learning as a platform of modern educational environment and as a factor promoting the professional development of children’s teachers. Classical theories on the specifics of the psychosocial development of the child’s personality in preschool age are analytically discussed in view of the process of individual growth, and of the influence (...) of emotional and behavioural manifestations in 3–7-year-old children.Special emphasis is placed on the topic of the game mechanism as a form and means of educational policy in building key competencies in preschool children. The causal relationships between the child’s natural needs for self-realization, self- expression, and self-determination, as well as the game and cognitive educational space in the kindergarten stand out, caused by the ten psychological components characteristic of the game mechanism. (shrink)

Although there is consensus that authentic leaders act according to their true values, we have no empirical evidence of what specific values authentic leaders have. While traditional leadership approaches place power at the core of leadership, authentic leadership scholars would argue that benevolence is the value that is central to effective authentic leadership. To date, the questions about whether and when authentic leaders with high power values promote or hurt followers’ performance have not been investigated. Ostensibly, authentic leaders with high (...) power values seem to represent the dark side of authentic leadership. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model and empirically investigate the role that leaders’ power values play in the functioning of authentic leadership. We also test the assumption that authentic leaders with high benevolence values promote followers’ performance. Based on our multilevel analyses of 477 employees in 72 teams, we found that authentic leaders with prominent power values could foster followers’ performance, only when followers’ perceived value congruence was low. Authentic leaders with high benevolence values, however, cultivated followers’ performance unconditionally, regardless of perceived value congruence levels. (shrink)