The paper offers a theoretical investigation into the sources of normativity in practical argumentation. The chief question is: Do we need objectively-minded, unbiased arguers or can we count on “good” argumentative processes in which individual biases cancel each other out? I address this question by analysing a detailed structure of practical argument and its varieties, and by discussing the tenets of a comparative approach to practical reason. I argue that given the comparative structure proposed, reasoned advocacy in argumentative activity upholds (...) reasonableness whenever that activity is adequately designed. I propose some basic rules for such a design of practical argumentation. (shrink)
This article addresses the question whether skiing as a nature sport enables practitioners to develop a rapport with nature, or rather estranges and insulates them from their mountainous ambiance. To address this question, I analyse a recent skiing movie from a psychoanalytical perspective and from a neuro-scientific perspective. I conclude that Jean-Paul Sartre’s classical but egocentric account of his skiing experiences disavows the technicity involved in contemporary skiing as a sportive practice for the affluent masses, which actually represents an urbanisation (...) of the sublime, symptomatic for the current era. (shrink)
La respuesta a la pregunta del título se ofrece en tres niveles. A veces las diferencias se deben a las limitaciones del equipo empleado, deficiencias en el muestreo o preferencias en la interpretación de los datos. Otras veces se deben a que los investigadores operan en base a paradigmas diferentes..
The philosophical argument between Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus can be summarised in their conflicting accounts of skiing and swimming. For Sartre skiing exemplifies the struggle of existence and the angst of the alienated ego. For Camus, swimming represents some glimmering of collective harmony, the possibility of transcendence. Sartre's thinking is inflected by quantum theory and the 'steady state', whereas Camus is more of a wave theorist, with a lingering nostalgia for the 'primeval atom' and a fondness for peak experiences. (...) Put together their separate ways of analysing consciousness suggest a two-phase account of cognition. (shrink)
In this text the author draws on two contemporary accounts of power—by Michel Foucault and Ernesto Laclau—and, on the basis of thorough analysis and comparison, he argues for “the discursive account of power” (DAP) as a new concept reflecting the novel approach to the theory of power developed by these two philosophers. He opens with a broad methodological outline of contemporary concepts of power, distinguishing between the “classical” and the “modern” approaches. Basing his findings on Laclau’s and Foucault’s work, he (...) then presents DAP as a theory characterized by decentralizing, non-normative, and conflict-based tendencies that does not exhibit many of the limitations that usually characterize both classical and modern concepts of power. In the second part of the article the author presents a detailed methodological analysis of Foucault’s and Laclau’s concepts of power, focusing on three axes: power, discourse, and the subject. The author dedicates the last section to a comparison of both approaches, concluding that DAP is an inspiring project that exceeds the limits of traditional liberal theories of power and politics. (shrink)
The value of up-hill skiing is double, it is first a sport and artistic expression, second it incorporates functional dependencies related to the natural obstacles which the individual aims to overcome. On the artistic side, M. Dufrenne shows the importance of living movement in dance, and we can compare puppets with dancers in order to grasp the lack of intentional spiritual qualities in the former. The expressivity of dance, as for, Chi Gong, ice skating or ski mountaineering is a particular (...) innocence and lightness which is called grace. It is life without the burden of worries. Grace, in slow progression uphill on snow, is as dance for Dufrenne, it has the most central and specific aesthetical quality of life. Others compared dance to a landscape, a landscape is for the sight, what dance is for life, a symbolical space, different from a usual space, where utility and dependency are present. A mountain can be a space of experience of natural beauty. Aesthetical qualities can be closely related to function related qualities as when a climber needs to adjust his movements to the natural convex inclination of the rocks, and avoid slippery forms of inclination, present on the other side of the mountain. The natural object, the quality of the snow or the rock differ from the aesthetical quality of the style of ascent by the absence of neutralization of the object, in case of a purely instrumental approach. On the contrary, grace in the rhythm of the progression of ski climbers needs a difference of attitude, which is not only proper to the playing, and delimited by the conditions of that play, but as a contingency driven attitude, without signification as radical alterity, without any finality. First ascent of the Matterhorn succeeded from the Swiss side, and not from the Italian side because of the different inclination of the rock on both sides. Grace in dance as in martial art or mountaineering is allowing to perceive an autonomy of the expression, as the truth of the perceived object, it puts away a cognitive and practical orientation and replaces it by a new meaning as movement in the whole set of movements done by the climber. This replacement of the functional expression resembles that operated by the painter who chooses a color in the whole set of colors in a painting, or a shape in the whole set of possible existing shapes. -/- Ref. Dufrenne, Mikel, (1989): The Phenomenology of Aesthetic Experience. Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, trans. by Edward S. Casey, 1st publ. in 1953, Evanston: Northwestern University Press. (shrink)
The Dreyfus skill model has a wide range of applications to various domains, including sport, nursing, engineering, flying, and so forth. In this article, the authors discuss the skill model in connection with two different research projects concerning ski instruction and treating anorexia nervosa. The latter project has been published but not in relation to the skill model. The skill model may very well be applied to these areas, and the authors conclude that in doing so, it also brings about (...) new ways of understanding the different domains. (shrink)
The coronavirus outbreak around the world has caused public health concerns and changes in peoples’ behaviors and psychological distress. The pandemic impacts on human behavior, emotions, and cognition, leading to diverse reactions in relation to awareness of the disease. However, there is little understanding around the psychological impacts of the pandemic and strategies to overcome this impact. This study aimed to examine individuals’ reactions toward the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to their psychological hardiness, their degree of awareness toward the pandemic, (...) and precautionary measures taken. Individuals living in Saudi Arabia were invited to complete an online questionnaire which included demographic items, psychological responses to the pandemic, awareness of COVID-19, and measures of psychological hardiness. A total of 1272 individuals were recruited into the study, with the majority being female. Results indicated that the average psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the study sample were 75.85%. This indicates that the sample generally has a high level of positive psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The awareness of COVID-19 among Saudi was 91.50%. This indicates a high level of awareness among the study sample. (shrink)
G.E.M. Anscombe znalazła w Etyce nikomachejskiej Arystotelesa pewną niekonsekwencję: Arystoteles zdaje się twierdzić, że cokolwiek wynika z namysłu, jest wyborem, i że słaby wolą może się skutecznie namyślać, ale i że — z drugiej strony — on nie wybiera. Anscombe znajduje rozwiązanie tej sprzeczności: Arystoteles powinien był, jej zdaniem, zaznaczyć, że by z namysłu wynikał wybór, to, ze względu na co się namyślamy, musiałby sam być przedmiotem uprzedniego wyboru. Badam to rozwiązanie i znajduję jego słabe strony, jak niebezpieczeństwo nieskończonego regresu, (...) trudność prześledzenia genealogii wyborów i nieosiągalność pierwotnego celu. Pomimo to próbuję je ulepszyć, poddając pod dyskusję, czy tego rodzaju pierwotne wybory, jakich wymaga rozwiązanie Anscombe, nie są jednak czasem naprawdę podejmowane i czy ich cele nie są rozkładalne na takie, które można realistycznie mieć nadzieję osiągnąć. (shrink)
In this paper, I criticize Mika Hämäläinen’s recent argument for compensated sex-integrated individual competitions in ski jumping. I argue that Hämäläinen’s argument is problematic at least in four different ways. Two of my criticisms are intended to show that Hämäläinen ignores some important considerations which he should have discussed. On the other hand, I also argue that Hämäläinen’s argument is inherently flawed in two respects.
The influence of externally focused organizational capabilities on the generation of proactive environmental strategies was examined under contingenteffects of uncertainty in the general business environment in 134 North American and European ski resorts. Capabilities of strategic proactivity and continuous innovation were found to be associated with proactive environmental strategies. Managerial perceptions of uncertainty in the general business environment were found to moderate the deployment of the capability of continuous innovation at all levels of uncertainty and stakeholder engagement at low and (...) average levels of uncertainty. The study contributes to the resource-based view by illuminating an important contingency under which these capabilities are likely to be deployed to generate such a strategy. (shrink)
Yüzyıllardır tartışılagelen zihin-beden sorunu, günümüzde bilinç ve beyin arasındaki etkileşim problemi olarak ele alınmaktadır. Ortaya konan nörolojik verilerden hareketle, tamamen maddi bir organ olan beyin ile fiziksel özellikler taşımayan bilinç arasında, nasıl bir ilişki olduğunu açıklamak için felsefi kuramlar ileri sürülmektedir. Bu kuramlardan bazıları, bilinç ile beynin birbirinden tamamen bağımsız olduğunu iddia eden düalist kuramlardır. Bazıları ise, bu bağımsızlığı reddederek ikisinden birini diğerine indirgeme yolu ile çözüme ulaşmaya çalışan monist kuramlardır. Bu çalışmada, beyin-bilinç ilişkisini açıklamaya çalışan çağdaş felsefi kuramlar ele (...) alınacaktır. (shrink)
