To Live Free or To Make Excuses: In Defense of Sartre’s (Revised) Concept of Radical Freedom

BackgroundHand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) caused by a variety of enteroviruses remains a major public health problem in China. Previous studies have found that social factors may contribute to the inconsistency of the relationship patterns between meteorological factors and HFMD, but the conclusions are inconsistent. The influence of social factors on the association between meteorology and HFMD is still less well understood. We aimed to analyze whether social factors affected the effect of meteorological factors on HFMD in Sichuan Province.MethodWe collected daily data on HFMD, meteorological factors and social factors in Sichuan Province from 2011 to 2017. First, we used a Bayesian spatiotemporal model combined with a distributed lag nonlinear model to evaluate the exposure-lag-response association between meteorological factors and HFMD. Second, by constructing the interaction of meteorological factors and social factors in the above model, the changes in the relative risk (RR) under different levels of social factors were evaluated.ResultsThe cumulative exposure curves for average temperature, relative humidity, and HFMD were shaped like an inverted “V” and a “U” shape. As the average temperature increased, the RR increased and peaked at 19 °C (RR 1.020 [95% confidence interval CI 1.004–1.050]). The urbanization rate, per capita gross domestic product (GDP), population density, birth rate, number of beds in health care centers and number of kindergartens interacted with relative humidity. With the increase in social factors, the correlation curve between relative humidity and HFMD changed from an “S” shape to a “U” shape.ConclusionsRelative humidity and average temperature increased the risk of HFMD within a certain range, and social factors enhanced the impact of high relative humidity. These results could provide insights into the combined role of environmental factors in HFMD and useful information for regional interventions.

First published in French in 1943, Jean-Paul Sartre’s L’Être et le Néant is one of the greatest philosophical works of the twentieth century. In it, Sartre offers nothing less than a brilliant and radical account of the human condition. The English philosopher and novelist Iris Murdoch wrote to a friend of "the excitement – I remember nothing like it since the days of discovering Keats and Shelley and Coleridge". This new translation, the first for over sixty years, makes this classic work of philosophy available to a new generation of readers. What gives our lives significance, Sartre argues in Being and Nothingness, is not pre-established for us by God or nature but is something for which we ourselves are responsible. At the heart of this view are Sartre’s radical conceptions of consciousness and freedom. Far from being an internal, passive container for our thoughts and experiences, human consciousness is constantly projecting itself into the outside world and imbuing it with meaning. Combining this with the unsettling view that human existence is characterized by radical freedom and the inescapability of choice, Sartre introduces us to a cast of ideas and characters that are part of philosophical legend: anguish; the "bad faith" of the memorable waiter in the café; sexual desire; and the "look" of the Other, brought to life by Sartre’s famous description of someone looking through a keyhole. Above all, by arguing that we alone create our values and that human relationships are characterized by hopeless conflict, Sartre paints a stark and controversial picture of our moral universe and one that resonates strongly today. This new translation includes a helpful Translator’s Introduction, a comprehensive Index and a Foreword by Richard Moran, Brian D. Young Professor of Philosophy, Harvard University, USA. Translated by Sarah Richmond, University College London, UK.

There are innumerable social and ethical factors which affect one's decision to become an informal caregiver for someone with chronic illness. The existential philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre provides unique insight into human motivation and choice. The purpose of this paper was to examine the social and ethical influences on the individual's decision to become a caregiver through the lens of Sartrean existentialism and discuss how this unique philosophy can advance nursing knowledge. The factors affecting one's choice to become a caregiver were considered using the Sartrean existential concepts of The Other, human freedom, choice, bad faith, shame and authenticity. When explored through the perspective of Sartrean existentialism, the choice to become a caregiver is strongly influenced by fear of judgement from The Other and the resulting sense of social obligation and shame. However, the interaction with The Other often results in the loss of authenticity through the pursuit of bad faith. To avert bad faith, potential caregivers must act authentically by exercising their freedom to choose and by choosing an action for its own sake and not for some extraneous purpose. The results of this philosophical inquiry contribute to nursing knowledge by providing a unique, alternative perspective by which nurses may understand the choices of potential caregivers and support them in making authentic decisions. This perspective may provide a foundation for theory development and promote further nursing knowledge which will improve caregiver health and well-being.

the purpose of this study is to determine the influence of cultural, social, personal and psychological factors on consumer decision to buy consumer goods products on mini market in Medan City. The results of research conducted known that cultural factors affect the buying decision. Social factors affect the buying decision. Personal factors affect buying decisions While psychological factors have no effect on buying decisions. Looking at the partial test, it is known that the influence of social factors is stronger in influencing buying decision than other factors. In the F test known that cultural, social, personal and psychological factors affect the buying decision. While the ability of cultural, social, personal and psychological factors able to explain the buying decision of 0.598 or 59.8%. The remaining 40.2% is explained by other factors not included in this research model. As a basis that can be stated, among others, should pay more attention to social and personal cultural variables because the three are variables that affect the decision to buy.

Although the value of urban ecological infrastructure (UEI) is widely recognized, insufficient research has investigated how people perceive the wide variety of UEI. To address this gap, we investigated residents' perceptions of the coupled value of aesthetic and biological qualities as related to diverse UEI and other environmental and social factors (including personal beliefs and demographics), collectively referred to as bio-cultural services and disservices. We evaluated whether people positively view their neighborhood environments as natural-looking while providing diverse plants and wildlife habitat (services), in contrast to negatively perceived disservices that we evaluated as messy-looking with weeds and pests (disservices). We analyzed survey data from residents (n = 495) in metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona, United States, coupled with environmental variables (UEI and vegetative cover) compiled from diverse sources. We ran three regression models to compare the relative influence of social and environmental factors independently and combined on the perception of biocultural services and disservices. Our results demonstrate the influence of social factors, particularly place identity, neighborhood cohesion, and income, on both biocultural services and disservices. Additionally, environmental factors such as vegetation cover increased perceptions of bio-cultural services while decreasing perceived disservices. The effects of proximity to UEI were more varied. While proximity to cropland increased perceived bio-cultural disservices, proximity to desert parks reduced disservices. Although UEI can promote biodiversity and human well-being, all UEI are not perceived the same. Our results underscore the added value of considering both the form of UEI and perceptions among people who live nearby when designing and implementing infrastructure to promote bio-cultural services that are both ecologically and socially valued.

Streaming Video-on-demand (SVOD) services are getting increasingly popular. Current research, however, lacks knowledge about consumers’ content decision processes and their respective influencing factors. Thus, the work reported on in this paper explores socio-technical interrelations of factors impacting content choices in SVOD, examining the social factors WOM, eWOM and peer mediation, as well as the technological influence of recommender systems. A research model based on the Theory of Reasoned Action and the Technology Acceptance Model was created and tested by an n = 186 study sample. Results show that the quality of a recommender system and not the social mapping functionality is the strongest influencing factor on its perceived usefulness. The influence of the recommender system and the influence of the social factors on the behavioral intention to watch certain content is nearly the same. The strongest social influencing factor was found to be peer mediation.

By applying Sartrean existentialism to Catullus’ poetry, points of emotional conflict that the speaker experiences are clarified. When Lesbia acts unfaithfully, the speaker claims to leave her behind. This displays the speaker following Roman societal norms. By doing what one ought do with no other reasoning, the speaker is making an inauthentic choice. Eventually the speaker comes to realize the difficulty of his decision and notices he may not be ready to stop loving her. Yet he continues to claim that he will definitely leave her in “bad faith”. The speaker then realizes that he does, in fact, want to continue loving Lesbia. By restoring his views that were corrupted by Roman societal standards back to his inherent capacity to love, the speaker is making an authentic choice. The speaker must deal with the radical freedom that his authentic choice provides him with. The radical freedom coerces him into asking questions that cause inescapable feelings of anxiety and dread. Therefore, by disregarding social norms and making an authentic choice to continue loving Lesbia, the speaker subjects himself to feelings of dread and anxiety.

Jean-Paul Sartre's surprising biographies of Tintoretto, Calder, Giacometti, Baudelaire, Gide, Camus, and Genet mirror his own autobiography, The Words . The structures of these still-life portraits express Sartre's primary philosophical preoccupations: bad faith and the flight from time, radical freedom and the sense of one's own emptiness, and embodiment and identification with the look of the Other. Although these biographies are told as narratives of choice and creativity, the formative agents in these lives are Time and Chance.

The definition of authenticity is still debated among philosophers and remains mainly obscure in the views of the majority of people. Our culture, for example, has believed for generations that one should “be oneself,” an imperative known as authenticity. The term ‘authenticity’ refers to an agreement between how something appears and what it actually is in all its applications. It implies something true and permanent. Furthermore, the ideal of “being oneself” necessitates the possibility of being “not oneself,” which makes it difficult to imagine how any individual could be anything other than who they are. Jean-Paul Sartre describes authenticity as an ideal ontological state. It is an approach to the predicament and absurdity of human existence as political, social, and metaphysical beings. At the core of Sartre’s conception of freedom is the notion of ‘radical freedom,’ which holds that humans have the capacity to choose whatever life they wish to live, but such a choice is equally forcefully and tied to responsibility. Humans must be able to bear the consequences of their choices in order to be authentically free. Sartre finds such freedom both liberating and frightening. This freedom places upon us the value of introspection, personal choices and the potentially transformative power of accepting the right to live as we choose. This study analyses the ethical relevance of Sartre’s concept of authenticity. We argue that, for authenticity in people’s lives, freedom in their daily endeavors and solidarity in their social and personal lives are indispensable. We pursue this inquiry by distinguishing between authenticity and concepts such as bad faith. We maintain that authenticity must account for personal liberation from the entanglement of societal norms and conventions that may sometimes limit our human potential and creativity. Accordingly, we contend that we can be ourselves by acting in accordance with our necessary dispositions in a given context.

Freedom and Agency in <i>The Second Sex</i>

The theory of financial behavior of the population has become very popular in recent years and set a new trend in financial science that explores why individuals make irrational financial decisions and how their psychology, namely stereotypical thinking, emotions, cognitive biases, and personal char-acteristics affect personal financial resources.Irrational behavior is especially pronounced in situations of uncertainty and risk, which are cur-rently affecting all domestic economic, investment, and financial activities due to the full-scale war.Studying the financial behavior of households, including in times of war, is a topical issue of financial science, as it helps to understand how rising risks affect the financial stability of the population, how house-holds adapt to new economic challenges, and how to improve their financial situation in times of crisis. The purpose of the article is to study the financial behavior of households in the context of the development of the theory of behavioral finance and the influence of emotional, psychological, social and cognitive factors on it.The article discusses the peculiarities of financial behavior of households in the context of the development of behavioral finance in the face of risk and uncertainty. The concept of personal financial behavior is clarified and approaches to defining its essence are generalized. The influence of emotions and personal characteristics of people, such as financial literacy, optimism, risk-taking, self-control on their likely behavior in the financial sphere is investigated. A number of cognitive biases and psycho-logical factors affecting the financial behavior of individuals in the face of risks are identified and the influence of social factors on it is analyzed. It is proved that the knowledge and competencies of a fi-nancially literate person increase the likelihood of making rational financial decisions and minimize the influence of psychological, social and other factors

The current paper reviews the literature on the influence of social and non-social factors on the destabilization and reconsolidation of negative memory. The non-social influences: neuropharmacological (beta-adrenergic receptor antagonists, glutamatergic NMDA receptor antagonists and GABAergic receptor agonists) and behavioral interventions are described. The latter are associated with the inclusion in the process of reactivation of aversive memory, extinction, a new environment, stress, positive information, etc. The molecular-cellular mechanisms associated with the processes of destabilization and reconsolidation of memory, describing a behavioral tagging and the role of reinforcement prediction errors in these processes is also considered. The influence of social factors on memory reactivation/reconsolidation is shown. The mechanisms of transmission of the conditioned fear reaction, mitigation (fear buffering) and generalization of negative memory under the influence of a social partner are described. And finally, depending on the different nature of social interaction between learned animals, the degree of their freezing (fear) in the phase of reactivation and generalization of memory is given, with consideration of possible structural and functional mechanisms (using methods of optogenetics and early gene expression) of the observed behavioral changes.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) is one of the best-known philosophers of the twentieth century. He was also a novelist, literary critic, playwright, essayist, biographer, autobiographer, journalist, and political theorist. Because Sartre’s philosophy was fundamentally about the nature of human existence, it inflects all his writing. Although Sartre is often described as a major existentialist philosopher, this label should be treated with caution, as the term ‘existentialist’ only came to be associated with Sartre after the publication of his major philosophical work, Being and Nothingness (hereafter BN) in 1943. Sartre’s early philosophy was highly influenced by Husserl’s phenomenology; his first philosophical publication, The Transcendence of the Ego (hereafter TE), engaged in scholarly detail with Husserl’s commitment to a pure Ego, arguing that even by Husserl’s own lights this was a mistake. Other early philosophical writings by Sartre include an account of the emotions, and two short books about the imagination. Heidegger was another major influence, to whom Sartre’s conception of nothingness in BN was indebted but with whom, in the same text, Sartre radically disagrees about our relations with others and the significance of death. The central postulate of BN is human freedom, which Sartre seeks to establish both ontologically and phenomenologically. This freedom, incompatible both with determinism and naturalism, is a source of anguish and it is in order to escape this anguish that people commonly live their lives in an attitude akin to denial or self-deception, which Sartre labels ‘bad faith’. Sartre’s account of freedom in BN is subtle, and has sometimes been caricatured. It drew criticisms from traditionalists, who saw it as a threat to (Christian) moral orthodoxy; in fact Sartre intended to say more, in a subsequent work, about the ethical dimension of his philosophy but, although he left hundreds of pages of preparatory notes (Sartre, 1992), that promised work was never completed. From the other end of the political spectrum, many socialists attacked BN for its alleged (bourgeois) individualism. From the 1950s onwards Sartre was increasingly politically engaged; several essays from that period seek to formulate his position in relation to the French Communist Party and the USSR. Correlatively with these activities, Sartre’s later philosophy argues that existentialist philosophy provides a necessary complement to Marxist thought, by supplying a framework within which the individual’s relationship to her historical situation and the class struggle can be adequately theorised. The first volume of Sartre’s ambitious Critique of Dialectical Reason (hereafter CDR) develops a series of original concepts designed to capture the ‘mediations’, or structural relationships, between individuals and their historical world. See also: Western Marxism §2. This project was to be continued in CDR’s second volume, which Sartre did not complete, whose focus was to be the problem of comprehending within a single historical outlook, people’s multiple and opposing individual actions. The Family Idiot, Sartre’s monumental study of Flaubert, applied Sartre’s recently developed methodology to the case of this nineteenth-century French novelist; Sartre’s guiding question was ‘What, at this point in time, can we know about a man?’ Sartre died in 1980, leaving several manuscripts for abandoned or uncompleted projects, many of which have since been posthumously published.

Immunization status of children and the influence of social factors: A hospital based study in western Uttar Pradesh

This study aims to analyze the influence of demographic, psychographic, social, and environmental factors on the level of community participation in social activities in Bandung City. The research method used is a quantitative approach with a survey technique, involving 100 respondents selected using a stratified random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using multiple regression to identify the dominant factors influencing participation. The results showed that demographic factors, such as age and education level, had a significant effect on the level of social involvement. In addition, psychographic aspects, including personal values ​​and motivation, also contributed to encouraging participation. Social factors, such as family and community support, and physical environmental conditions, such as the availability of social facilities, also strengthened the tendency of people to actively participate. This study concludes that a multidimensional approach is needed to increase social participation in urban communities. The practical implications of this study are the importance of policies that are oriented towards increasing social awareness, strengthening communities, and providing facilities that support community social activities. These findings are expected to be a reference for local governments and social institutions in designing more effective and inclusive programs.