In this article I attempt to conceptualize myexistential and institutional experience as thedirector of the Kharkov Center for GenderStudies acquired in the course of introducinggender studies into the system of post-Soviethigher education. The main subject of thearticle concerns the logical ground of genderdiscourse and the complicated relations betweenthe notions of `gender studies', `women'sstudies', and, within the latter, `feminism' inthe former USSR, all in the framework ofconcepts from Western feminists theory.

The debates between various Buddhist and Hindu philosophical systems about the existence, definition and nature of self, occupy a central place in the history of Indian philosophy and religion.

As in science and philosophy, thought experiments in mathematics link a problem to new epistemic resources that are unavailable in a given practice, e.g., Euclidean geometry. Thought experiments invite us to perform an imaginary scenario involving counterfactual, deductive and sensory elements. This chapter aims to pinpoint the beneficial peculiarities of thought experiments in mathematics in comparison with inferences, diagrams and calculative procedures. Reflection about thought experiments assists us to realize both the limits and opportunities in mathematical thinking. Henceforth, the analysis (...) of examples suggests a broader understanding of mathematical, thought and experiment. (shrink)

Whereas historiography of the debates on “early man in America” isolates Florentino Ameghino's ideas on human evolution from his paleontological and geological work, this paper presents Ameghino's ideas on human ancestors in regard to the controversies over the origin and dispersion of mammals. Therefore, this paper analyzes the constitution of paleontology in Argentina at the end of nineteenth century by describing, firstly, the Ameghino brothers' organization of research. By tackling this aspect I want also to discuss the place of science (...) in late nineteenth-century Argentina. Secondly, I will sketch “Ameghino's ideas” about Patagonia as a center of distribution of mammals, the age of Patagonian strata, and the South American origin of humankind. The Ameghino brothers' logistics of fieldwork created not only the means for finding a remarkable fossil fauna but also a trap that undermined their scientific credibility. Therefore, I will focus on the problem of fieldwork in “distant” places and of scientific wandering in Patagonia. In the polemics presented here, language, transportation systems, visual representations, and technical devices were crucial elements for the creation of paleontological objects. -/- . (shrink)

We apply the “wisdom of the crowd” idea to human category learning, using a simple approach that combines people's categorization decisions by taking the majority decision. We first show that the aggregated crowd category learning behavior found by this method performs well, learning categories more quickly than most or all individuals for 28 previously collected datasets. We then extend the approach so that it does not require people to categorize every stimulus. We do this using a model‐based method that predicts (...) the categorization behavior people would produce for new stimuli, based on their behavior with observed stimuli, and uses the majority of these predicted decisions. We demonstrate and evaluate the model‐based approach in two case studies. In the first, we use the general recognition theory decision‐bound model of categorization (Ashby & Townsend, ) to infer each person's decision boundary for two categories of perceptual stimuli, and we use these inferences to make aggregated predictions about new stimuli. In the second, we use the generalized context model exemplar model of categorization (Nosofsky, ) to infer each person's selective attention for face stimuli, and we use these inferences to make aggregated predictions about withheld stimuli. In both case studies, we show that our method successfully predicts the category of unobserved stimuli, and we emphasize that the aggregated crowd decisions arise from psychologically interpretable processes and parameters. We conclude by discussing extensions and potential real‐world applications of the approach. (shrink)

Invertebrate animals are frequently lumped into a single category and denied welfare protections despite their considerable cognitive, behavioral, and evolutionary diversity. Some ethical and policy inroads have been made for cephalopod molluscs and crustaceans, but the vast majority of arthropods, including the insects, remain excluded from moral consideration. We argue that this exclusion is unwarranted given the existing evidence. Anachronistic readings of evolution, which view invertebrates as lower in the scala naturae, continue to influence public policy and common morality. The (...) assumption that small brains are unlikely to support cognition or sentience likewise persists, despite growing evidence that arthropods have converged on cognitive functions comparable to those found in vertebrates. The exclusion of invertebrates is also motivated by cognitive-affective biases that covertly influence moral judgment, as well as a flawed balancing of scientific uncertainty against moral risk. All these factors shape moral attitudes toward basal vertebrates too, but they are particularly acute in the arthropod context. Moral consistency dictates that the same standards of evidence and risk management that justify policy protections for vertebrates also support extending moral consideration to certain invertebrates. Moving beyond a vertebrate-centered conception of welfare can also clarify foundational moral concepts in their own right. (shrink)

Introduction. At present, the issues of the Far East accelerated economic development remain in the focus of the state attention. Among the key mechanisms of state policy is the formation of advanced development territories (ADT). The article sets the task of studying the impact of the institutional measures taken on the welfare and the population’s life quality in the Far Eastern territories. Particular attention is paid to studying migration processes and analyzing the economic activity of the Far East population. The (...) purpose of the article is to study the effects of implementing mechanisms for accelerated economic growth, as well as assess their impact on the life quality in the Far East regions. Methods. The authors use the following methods: economic and mathematical modeling, computational and analytical methods, comparative and spatial analysis. Scientific novelty of the research. For a comprehensive assessment of the regional well-being, the authors propose to supplement the multiplicative model based on the A. Sen’s extended welfare function with a composite ecological index. It takes into account the ecological conditions of human life, which are an important aspect of well-being. The authors obtain ecologically adjusted indicators of well-being for the eastern regions of the Russian Federation and study their dynamics, as well as the relations with the data on the population’s migration activity during the formation of new institutions of advanced development in the East of the country. Results. The authors find out that most of the Far Eastern territories are still lagging behind the average Russian level in socio-economic development. The results of assessing the level of well-being of regions on the basis of a multiplicative model without taking into account the environmental factor show that the most prosperous areas are raw materials-based territories. It is shown that the role of environmental factors in the life quality in the Far Eastern territories of Russia is very significant - the ecologically adjusted level of well-being is noticeably lower than the indicator that does not take into account this aspect of well-being. The authors reveal that socio-economically disadvantaged regions with difficult natural and climatic living conditions have very high rates of migration outflow. Their coefficients of migration loss reflect the presence of a crisis in economic development, which has been increasing in recent years. An analysis of trends in economic activity shows a relationship between the dynamics of the number of employed and the implementation of ADT projects in the Far Eastern territories. Conclusions. The conclusion is that the measures taken by the state for the advanced economic development of the eastern territories of the country have not yet had a noticeable positive impact on the welfare and life quality in the Far East regions. (shrink)

Based on a dual process view of ethical judgment, we examine the role of empathic concern and perspective taking on the acceptability of lying to protect the company. We hypothesize that these traits will matter to a different extent under conditions of high and low perceived time hurriedness. Our research hypotheses are tested in a survey of 134 US workers. Results show that empathic concern reduces the acceptability of lying to protect the company for individuals who tend to do things (...) quickly and feel in a hurry at work. On the other hand, perspective taking reduces the acceptability of lying for individuals who experience low levels of time hurriedness. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. (shrink)

We suggest that understanding unethical behavior in organizations involves understanding how people view themselves and their relationships with others, a concept known as self-construal. Across multiple studies, employing both field and laboratory settings, we examine the impact of three dimensions of self-construal (independent, relational, and collective) on unethical behavior. Our results show that higher levels of relational self-construal relate negatively to unethical behavior. We also find that differences in levels of relational self for men and women mediate gender differences in (...) unethical behavior. We discuss both the theoretical and practical implications of these findings. (shrink)

Bioscience ethics facilitates free and accurate information transfer from applied science to applied bioethics. Its major elements are: increased understanding of biological systems, responsible use of technology, and attuning ethnocentric debates to new scientific insights. Pioneered by Irina Pollard in 1994, bioscience ethics has become an internationally recognized discipline, interfacing science and bioethics within professional perspectives such as medical, legal, bio-engineering, and economics. Written for students and professionals alike, the fundamental feature of this book is its breadth, important because (...) bioscience ethics interweaves many diverse subjects in the process of gathering specialist scientific knowledge for bioethical review. It contains chapters which embrace topics affecting human reproduction, end-of-life care and euthanasia, challenge human-dominated ecosystems, and review population growth, economic activity and warfare. A background section describes the evolution of ethical consciousness, explores the future, and proposes that the reworking of ethical boundaries can enhance mature decision-making in harmony with changing technology. (shrink)

In this paper, we aim at an exercise that is transdisciplinary, involving science and religion, and interdisciplinary, involving disciplines and theories which appeared in the second half of the 20th century. The latter required the reformulation of quantum mechanics theories starting with the beginning of the century, based on the substance-energy-information triangle. We focus on information and we also attempt a transdisciplinary approach to the imaginary from a psychological - physical - mathematical perspective, but the religious perspectives find their place (...) along with the philosophical or even philological vision. (shrink)

The question "Where do we come from?" has fascinated philosophers, scientists, and artists for generations. This book reorients the question of the matrix as a place where everything comes from (_chora_, womb, incubator) by recasting it in terms of acts of "matrixial/maternal hospitality" producing space and matter of and for the other. Irina Aristarkhova theorizes such hospitality with the potential to go beyond tolerance in understanding self/other relations. Building on and critically evaluating a wide range of historical and contemporary (...) scholarship, she applies this theoretical framework to the science, technology, and art of ectogenesis (artificial womb, neonatal incubators, and other types of generation outside of the maternal body) and proves the question "Can the machine nurse?" is critical when approaching and understanding the functional capacities and failures of incubating technologies, such as artificial placenta. Aristarkhova concludes with the science and art of male pregnancy, positioning the condition as a question of the hospitable man and newly defined fatherhood and its challenge to the conception of masculinity as unable to welcome the other. (shrink)

Cet article cherche à montrer comment la pratique mathématique, particulièrement celle admettant des représentations visuelles, peut conduire à de nouveaux résultats mathématiques. L'argumentation est basée sur l'étude du cas d'un domaine des mathématiques relativement récent et prometteur: la théorie géométrique des groupes. L'article discute comment la représentation des groupes par les graphes de Cayley rendit possible la découverte de nouvelles propriétés géométriques de groupes.

The question of whether object recognition is orientation-invariant or orientation-dependent was investigated using a repetition blindness (RB) paradigm. In RB, the second occurrence of a repeated stimulus is less likely to be reported, compared to the occurrence of a different stimulus, if it occurs within a short time of the first presentation. This failure is usually interpreted as a difficulty in assigning two separate episodic tokens to the same visual type. Thus, RB can provide useful information about which representations are (...) treated as the same by the visual system. Two experiments tested whether RB occurs for repeated objects that were either in identical orientations, or differed by 30, 60, 90, or 180°. Significant RB was found for all orientation differences, consistent with the existence of orientation-invariant object representations. However, under some circumstances, RB was reduced or even eliminated when the repeated object was rotated by 180°, suggesting easier individuation of the repeated objects in this case. A third experiment confirmed that the upside-down orientation is processed more easily than other rotated orientations. The results indicate that, although object identity can be determined independently of orientation, orientation plays an important role in establishing distinct episodic representations of a repeated object, thus enabling one to report them as separate events. (shrink)

A widespread assumption in experimental comparative cognition is that, barring compelling evidence to the contrary, the default hypothesis should postulate the simplest cognitive ontology consistent with the animal’s behavior. I call this assumption the principle of cognitive simplicity . In this essay, I show that PoCS is pervasive but unjustified: a blanket preference for the simplest cognitive ontology is not justified by any of the available arguments. Moreover, without a clear sense of how cognitive ontologies are to be carved up (...) at the joints—and which tools are appropriate for the job—PoCS rests on shaky conceptual ground. (shrink)

Traditional accounts of the fair play principle suggest that, under appropriate conditions, those who benefit from the cooperative labor of others acquire an obligation of repayment. However, these accounts have had little to say about the nature of such obligations within morally or legally problematic cooperative schemes, taking the matter to be either straightforward or unimportant. It is neither. The question of what sorts of fair play obligations obtain for those who benefit from illicit cooperative activity is a matter of (...) great complexity and consequence with implications for, inter alia, global economic justice. In this essay, I explore the nature of this obligation within illicit cooperative schemes, specifically those with so-called negative externalities, or deleterious effects on non-members of the scheme. I conclude that the willing beneficiaries of such schemes acquire a fair-play obligation to recognize and respond to their culpability. This reconceptualization of the fair play principle opens up new avenues for exploring the obligations of those who benefit from acts of collective wrongdoing. (shrink)

Cet article cherche à montrer comment la pratique mathématique, particulièrement celle admettant des représentations visuelles, peut conduire à de nouveaux résultats mathématiques. L'argumentation est basée sur l'étude du cas d'un domaine des mathématiques relativement récent et prometteur: la théorie géométrique des groupes. L'article discute comment la représentation des groupes par les graphes de Cayley rendit possible la découverte de nouvelles propriétés géométriques de groupes.

Parallels between cancer and ecological systems have been increasingly recognized and extensively reviewed. However, a more unified framework of understanding cancer as an evolving dynamical system that undergoes a sequence of interconnected changes over time, from a dormant microtumor to disseminated metastatic disease, still needs to be developed. Here, we focus on several examples of such mechanisms, namely, how in cancer niche construction a metabolic adaptation and consequent change to the tumor microenvironment becomes an important factor in evasion of the (...) predator, facilitating disease progression; how tumor establishment and propagation is driven by the tumor’s own keystone species, the cancer stem cells; and how the succession of stages of metastatic dissemination can be informed by ergodic theory and forest ecology. (shrink)

Already in his earlier works Levinas proposes a distinct phenomenological project which takes into consideration the radicality of the other and otherness by questioning intentionality and the validity of intersubjectivity within intentional consciousness. His move “towards Heidegger and against Husserl” was due primarily to Heidegger’s Dasein analysis, understanding of Being and being-with. However, in his major work, Totality and Infinity, Levinas proposes a new perspective on reading intersubjective relations with the Other which strongly contrasts with the Heideggerian concept of intersubjectivity. (...) This paper addresses the question of the Other, intersubjectivity and ethics in the writings of Levinas and Heidegger respectively. It considers Levinas’s critique of intersubjectivity as provoked and developed by Heidegger’s analytic of Dasein, and concentrates on Levinas’s specific understanding of intentionality in his account of metaphysics, metaphysical desire and the Other. It also takes up the question of temporality as a necessary condition for intersubjective relation and explores its implication for the self and the Other in Levinas’s and Heidegger’s respective philosophies. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, Volume 10, Edition 2, October 2010: 23-32. (shrink)

Behavioural flexibility is often treated as the gold standard of evidence for more sophisticated or complex forms of animal cognition, such as planning, metacognition and mindreading. However, the evidential link between behavioural flexibility and complex cognition has not been explicitly or systematically defended. Such a defence is particularly pressing because observed flexible behaviours can frequently be explained by putatively simpler cognitive mechanisms. This leaves complex cognition hypotheses open to ‘deflationary’ challenges that are accorded greater evidential weight precisely because they offer (...) putatively simpler explanations of equal explanatory power. This paper challenges the blanket preference for simpler explanations, and shows that once this preference is dispensed with, and the full spectrum of evidence—including evolutionary, ecological and phylogenetic data—is accorded its proper weight, an argument in support of the prevailing assumption that behavioural flexibility can serve as evidence for complex cognitive mechanisms may begin to take shape. An adaptive model of cognitive-behavioural evolution is proposed, according to which the existence of convergent trait–environment clusters in phylogenetically disparate lineages may serve as evidence for the same trait–environment clusters in other lineages. This, in turn, could permit inferences of cognitive complexity in cases of experimental underdetermination, thereby placing the common view that behavioural flexibility can serve as evidence for complex cognition on firmer grounds. (shrink)

Emotional competence has an important influence on development in school. We hypothesized that reading and discussing children’s books with emotional content increases children’s emotional competence. To examine this assumption, we developed a literature-based intervention, named READING and FEELING, and tested it on 104 second and third graders in their after-school care center. Children who attended the same care center but did not participate in the emotion-centered literary program formed the control group ( n = 104). Our goal was to promote (...) emotional competence and to evaluate the effectiveness of the READING and FEELING program. Emotional competence variables were measured prior to the intervention and 9 weeks later, at the end of the program. Results revealed significant improvements in the emotional vocabulary, explicit emotional knowledge, and recognition of masked feelings. Regarding the treatment effect for detecting masked feelings, we found that boys benefited significantly more than girls. These findings underscore the assumption that children’s literature is an appropriate vehicle to support the development of emotional competence in middle childhood. (shrink)

People often justify their moral opinions by referring to larger moral concerns. Is there a general agreement about what concerns apply to different moral opinions? We used surveys in the United States and the United Kingdom to measure the perceived applicability of eight concerns to a wide range of moral opinions. Within countries, argument applicability scores were largely similar whether they were calculated among women or men, among young or old, among liberals or conservatives, or among people with or without (...) higher education. Thus, the applicability of a given moral concern to a specific opinion can be viewed as an objective quality of the opinion, largely independent of the population in which it is measured. Finally, we used similar surveys in Israel and Brazil to establish that this independence of populations also extended to populations in different countries. However, the extent to which this holds across cultures beyond those included in the current study is still an open question. (shrink)

In guarding against inferential mistakes, experimental comparative cognition errs on the side of underattributing sophisticated cognition to animals, or what I refer to as the underattribution bias. I propose eliminating this bias by altering the method of choosing the default, or null, hypothesis. Rather than choosing the most parsimonious null hypothesis, as is current practice, I argue for choosing the best-evidenced hypothesis. Doing so at once preserves the risk-controlling structure of the current statistical paradigm and introduces a sensitivity to probability-conferring (...) empirical and theoretical information. This analysis illustrates how values like parsimony can covertly shape statistical-experimental design and inference. (shrink)

Self-generation of knowledge can activate deeper cognitive processing and improve long-term retention compared to the passive reception of information. It plays a distinctive role within the concept of inquiry-based learning, which is an activity-oriented, student-centered collaborative learning approach in which students become actively involved in knowledge construction. This approach allows students to not only acquire content knowledge, but also an understanding of investigative procedures/inquiry skills – in particular the control-of-variables strategy (CVS). From the perspective of cognitive load theory, generating answers (...) and solutions during inquiry-based learning is inefficient as it imposes an intrinsic and extraneous load on learners. Previous research on self-generation of content knowledge in inquiry-based learning has demonstrated that (1) a high cognitive load impairs retention of the generated information, (2) feedback is a fundamental requirement for self-generation of complex content knowledge, (3) self-generation success is key to long-term retention and (4) generating and rereading place different demands on learners. However, there is still no research on the self-generation of scientific reasoning skills and the interaction between the retention of these skills with prior knowledge, feedback and self-generation success. That is why this experiment was conducted. The focus of this research is to analyze the distinctive role of self-generation of scientific reasoning skills within the concept of inquiry-based learning and to identify the influence of prior knowledge and self-generation success on short-term and long-term retention. For this purpose, an experiment involving 133 6th and 7th graders was conducted. An inquiry activity that included the self-generation of scientific reasoning skills was compared to an inquiry task that had students simply read information about the experimental design. We used both an immediate and a delayed test to examine which treatment better developed a deeper understanding of CVS and an ability to apply this knowledge to novel problems (transfer). Direct instruction was clearly superior to self-generation in facilitating students’ acquisition of CVS immediately after the inquiry task. However, after a period of one week had elapsed, both treatment conditions turned out to be equally effective. A generation effect was only found among students with high self-generation success after a 1-week delay. (shrink)

Dealing with errors in psychotherapy is challenging, both ethically and practically. There is almost no empirical research on this topic. We aimed (1) to explore psychotherapists’ self-reported ways of dealing with an error made by themselves or by colleagues, and (2) to reconstruct their reasoning according to the two principle-based ethical approaches that are dominant in the ethics discourse of psychotherapy, Beauchamp & Childress (B&C) and Lindsay et al. (L).

Снятие идеологического пресса советской идеологии не привело к спонтанному возрождению в России традиций политической мысли. Однако заметны признаки появления новой школы политической философии, обретающей свою идентичность в диалоге с родственными дисциплинами . В этом можно видеть поворот к феноменологической философии, хотя гуссерлевский, по сути, интерес к феноменам сознания преобразуется здесь в изучение морали как «процесса». Отнесение политической морали к сфере компетенции консеквенциальной этики задает поле новой теории с новыми понятиями . Все это показано на примере работ Б.Г.Капустина. La disparition de (...) la pression idéologique soviétique n’a pas suffi pour que renaissent en Russie de façon spontanée les traditions de pensée politique. Mais on peut entrevoir des signes avant-coureurs d’une nouvelle école de philosophie politique qui se forge une identité en dialoguant avec les disciplines apparentées . C’est là un virage en philosophie phénoménologique, même si, à l’intérêt husserlien pour les phénomènes de conscience , se substitue l’étude des « processus » de la morale. Le transfert de la morale politique vers la sphère de compétence de l’éthique conséquentielle dessine le champ d’une nouvelle théorie où l’on trouve de nouvelles notions . Tout cela est bien illustré par l’œuvre de Kapoustine. The disappearance of Soviet ideological pressure was not enough for a Russian rebirth of spontaneous traditions of political thought. But we can feel signs of the appearance of a new school of political philosophy that builds its identity through a dialogue with cognate disciplines . One might regard this transformation as a tum towards a phenomenological approach, though Husserl’s interest in the phenomena of consciousness is replaced here by the study of the “process” of morality. The transfer of political morality towards the jurisdiction of consequential ethics creates a new theory which relies on new concepts . All this is weil illustrated by the work of Kapustin. (shrink)

This article explores the kinds of response John Dewey(1859-;1952) received in Russia between 1900 and1930, and the impact he had on the educational debatethere. The study's main findings are: Both before andafter the Socialist October Revolution of 1917, Deweyhad a significant impact on the development of theRussian school system. The ultimate rejection ofDewey's pedagogy towards the end of the 20s was notdue to educational but to political and ideologicalreasons.

The author discusses the three main approaches taken by contemporary Russian psychologists to the problem of moral reference points and finds them all unsuited to life in a multicultural world.

The inequality as a social problem was in focus of attention of social philosophers since the early years of modern history when a person has ceased to perceive the social hierarchy as pre-established one and has understood the opportunity of its re-determination. Investigators studied in detail different aspects of the problem but their discussions were centered on the question about foundation of inequality. I argue that if we allow the possibility of change of the social positions as the main characteristic (...) of contemporary society the primary attention should be directed on what criteria this or that society is ranged of its members and how is it possible for a person or a group/community to change its own position. The object of my paper is to drown the possible strategies of work on inequality and to explore of what might be used to overcome of inequality. I consider it is possible to distinguish three groups of strategies in use to work through a problem of inequality: (1) The strategies of overcoming of inequality; (2) The strategies of maintenance of inequality; (3) The strategies of justification of inequality. These strategies are examined about how they could be applied and what outcomes of them would be followed with. Special attention is given to the ideas formulatedby P. Bourdien, F. Fukuyama, F. Parkin of those ways thanks to which equality/inequality are balanced. In conclusion I raise the question of the overcoming of inequality in light of the stable development of human society. (shrink)