Alternative Conception Research Articles

The Story of Romantic Love and Polyamory

ABSTRACTThis article explores the relationship between romantic love and polyamory. Our central question is whether traditional norms of monogamy can be excised from romantic love so as to harmonize with polyamory's ethical dimensions (as we construe them). How one answers this question bears on another: whether ‘polyamory’ should principally be understood in terms of romantic love or instead some alternative conception(s). Our efforts to address these questions begin by briefly motivating our favored approach to romantic love, a ‘narratival’ one inspired by 1930s cultural theorist Denis de Rougemont, wherein such love is exclusive, supernatural or promising transcendence, painful, impeded, and, ultimately, fatal. We maintain that, even once exclusivity is removed as an official component, tensions with polyamory's ethical dimensions remain: romantic love's other elements rationalize acting and feeling in ways that privilege a singular beloved above others. A tempting solution is to further revise romantic love. However, we are skeptical that this leaves space for distinctively romantic love. Our tentative proposal, then, is that polyamory's ethical dimensions favor rejecting romantic love as ultimately desirable.

Grundnorm and Grounding A modern Metaphysics for Hans Kelsen’s Pure Theory?

Abstract This article explores the possibility of reconstructing Hans Kelsen’s neo-Kantian theory of the basic norm (Grundnorm) with the help of the theory of (metaphysical) grounding. First, we outline Kelsen’s theory of the basic norm as an integral part of his neo-Kantian transcendental idealism and give a sketch of grounding theory; we then try to fit these theories together. As it turns out, grounding theory has some internal flaws. More importantly, several of the features of a metaphysical ground are not compatible with the roles which Kelsen ascribes to the basic norm – its roles as a keystone of the legal hierarchy and as a transcendental-logical condition of legal cognition. Finally, an alternative conception is examined, according to which the legal system is grounded not by the basic norm but by social facts, with the basic norm serving as a bridging principle. However, this alternative is flawed as well; its main problem seems to be that it violates the dualism of ‘Is’ and ‘Ought’. The argument is relevant for the concept of personhood, because Kelsen treats the term ‘person’ in law as a mere expression for the unity of a specific set of legal norms, so that the identity of persons is ultimately dependent on the identity and function of the basic norm of the legal system.

Accountability, reasons-responsiveness, and narcos’ moral responsibility

A prominent position about moral responsibility claims that a necessary condition on accountability blame is that, at the time of action, the agent must be sufficiently reasons-responsive so as to be capable of acting differently by following the pertinent moral reasons and thus avoid wrongdoing. Call this the Accountability with Avoidability view (or AWA). In this paper I aim to show that AWA is false by doing three things. First, I argue that it badly contradicts moral commonsense concerning the moral responsibility of a particularly egregious kind of wrongdoer. Second, I show that AWA’s three most prominent rationales—based on the notions of desert, demands, and excuses—all fail to support a robust reasons-responsiveness requirement on accountability. Finally, I sketch an alternative conception of accountability—accountability without avoidability—that dispenses with robust reasons-responsiveness and appeals instead to the capacity of agents to convey moral meaning through their conduct as the key element in the moral psychology of responsible agency.

Mental integrity, autonomy, and fundamental interests

Many technology ethicists hold that the time has come to articulate neurorights: our normative claims vis-à-vis our brains and minds. One such claim is the right to mental integrity (‘MI’)....

Sosa on scepticism and the background

AbstractSosa’s influential work on virtue epistemology includes an intriguing proposal about background commitments, which he in turn relates to the Wittgensteinian notion of a hinge commitment. A critique is offered of Sosa’s proposal, particularly with regard to how he aims to apply it to the problem of radical scepticism. In light of this critique, an alternative conception of hinge commitments is offered that enables them to play a very different role in our treatment of radical scepticism.

Meinen, Deuten, Verstehen

Abstract Meaning, Interpreting, Understanding In his Kritik der verstehenden Vernunft (2018), Vittorio Hösle attempts to develop a comprehensive foundation for the so-called Geisteswissenschaften (humanities). The basis for this foundational work is a conception of understanding that ties all understanding to the interpretative grasp of what we and others mean by the use of certain symbols or linguistic expressions. The present essay argues that this makes Hösle’s approach vulnerable to a particular form of skepticism, as it is expounded by Saul Kripke in his Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language (1982). The first part of the essay outlines this skeptical challenge and its implications for Hösle’s conception of understanding. The second part advances the argument that this conception's vulnerability to skepticism undermines its viability as a foundation for the humanities. Instead, it invites the kind of skepticism described in Kripke’s challenge, where understanding itself seems to be impossible. The essay concludes with some tentative suggestions for an alternative conception of understanding that not only avoids this skepticism altogether but also makes room for a way of thinking about the mental that is of independent interest.

Effect of Concept Based Cartoons as art integration on Alternative Concepts in Chemical Bonding

This study is carried out to investigate and analyze the effect of art integration in chemistry curriculum by concept-based cartoons integrated in the context based chemical concepts learning approach on class 9th students’ alternative concepts in chemical bonding. The study was conducted with 45 students of grade 9, within a non-equivalent pretest-posttest group design (NEGD). A chemical bonding concept test conducted to gather the data with 16 multiple choice question (MCQs), and to probe their conceptions, a clinical interview with 5 open ended questions was used. Interview questions and MCQs were based on the same alternative concepts. The study concluded with a positive effect of context-based approach on the remediation of chemical bonding alternative conception. Although concepts-based cartoons found powerful tools and most helpful in resolving alternative concepts in chemical bonding but the study suggest to use more than one intervention for the remediation of alternative conception in chemical education.

From Sadness to Joy: The Potentials of Transforming the Impact Agenda

This article seeks to envision a mode of university governance that takes us beyond a neoliberal audit culture and its affective organisation of academic life. It takes up this task by probing the potentials of transforming the ‘impact agenda’ (i.e., the trend towards audit systems and funding mechanisms that assess academics on the basis of their non-academic research impact). Grounded in an ethnography of a UK university, and informed by a Spinozist ethics of joy, the article draws attention to an alternative conception of subjectivity to that which the impact agenda propagates, one that is conceived in terms of collective creativity and which breaks with the neoliberal notion of the competitive individual. I argue this understanding of subjectivity points to a threshold where the impact agenda can become something else. More specifically, drawing inspiration from the idea of ‘collective joy’, I map an alternative that is centred on the goal of enhancing academics’ and non-academics’ capacity for collective creativity. What is at stake in making this conversion is moving from a mode of governance that is debilitating to one that is empowering.

Freeing the Will from Neurophilosophy: Voluntary Action in Thomas Aquinas and Libet-Style Experiments

This essay presents a substantive Thomist response to neurophilosophy’s main experimental challenge to free will: the Libet-style experiments on the neural antecedents of conscious voluntary actions. My response to this challenge will disclose that Thomists are rationally justified in rejecting both the conclusions of neurophilosophy skeptics of free will, and more fundamentally, the rival philosophical conceptions of voluntary action and free will that were chosen to be operationalized in these neuroscientific experiments. I show how the Thomists’ alternative conception of human action justifies a significantly different interpretation of Libet-style experiments, one which reveals the psychological phenomenon targeted by these experiments is miscategorized as a voluntary action.

A Dynamic Collapse Concept for Climate Change

Despite growing interest in risks of societal collapse due to anthropogenic climate change, there exists no consensus about how collapse should be understood. In this article, we critically examine existing definitions and argue that none adequately address the challenges for conceptualizing collapse that climate change presents. We therefore propose an alternative conception, which regards collapse as a reduction of collective capacity resulting in a pervasive and difficult-to-reverse loss of basic functionality. Our conception is dynamic in that it focuses on the interrelations of constituent subsystems. It also distinguishes collapse from transformations needed to address climate change and provides insight into the relationship between collapse and sustainability.

Taking on a new meaning of physics mathematization for teaching in teacher education processes

This is a documented reflection that seeks to characterize an alternative conception of the ‘mathematization of physics for teaching’. The reflection was made on the academic production of the research group ‘Teaching and learning of physics’. This group has posed a sequence of research questions has been raised to find out how physics teachers understand the relationship between physics and mathematics in the physics teaching process. In 2003 they studied the idea of ‘mathematical beauty’ in the early days of quantum mechanics, suggesting that there would be a difference between the way scientists assume the physical/mathematical relationship and the way physics is taught. In 2010, they wondered if there would be research in this field that would allow transformations in teaching focused on equations as the set of mathematical–physical relationships, finding that there are at least three trends. In 2019, they verified that despite the research in the literature, many students continue with the same reductionist idea about this relationship. In 2020, they made a proposal, showing a possibility of educating the teacher’s thinking for new understandings in this regard. The main conclusion is that it is possible to develop mathematization processes in the classroom from three specific phases that educate scientific thinking. The first phase tries to make the student aware of the existence of phenomenology and describe it. The second phase educates the study of nature in a systematic way, building the meaning of the organization of a physical system. The third phase promotes explanation and argument so that students achieve an explanatory model. These phases are configured as a criterion to guide the sequence of activities in a class, a set of classes or a complete course and have been worked on and tested in ‘physics didactics’ courses in a physics teacher training course.

Hume beyond Theism and Atheism

Abstract: This paper defends a rigorous reading of Hume’s critiques of arguments for the existence of God and of the belief in God against interpretations that endorse Humean theism, deism, and fideism. The latter include Donald Livingston’s theist reading, J. C. A. Gaskin’s “attenuated deism” reading, and Edward Kanterian’s “humble fideism” reading. I also examine whether Hume’s rejections of a positive theology commit him to agnosticism or atheism. My innovative challenge to such conclusions maintains that, while elements of both agnosticism and atheism are found in Hume, these denote, respectively, a methodology and an incidental implication of his philosophy. But neither sufficiently captures his constructive vision for a society, individual psychology, and system of knowledge guided by naturalist principles and aims. For this, an alternate conception is needed that describes Hume’s philosophy of religion beyond mere atheism.

Reassembling the ruins: revisiting Latour’s concept of translation in Modernity’s growing aftermath

ABSTRACT Bruno Latour’s concept of translation provides ways to both extend the ‘material turn’ in translation studies and conceptualise translation as process. This concept cannot be understood apart from Latour’s critique of Modern epistemology which requires an alternative conception of temporality and, in the context of the Anthropocene, provides a means to imagine futures and pasts beyond the tropes of growth vs contraction or progress vs regression. In this article, Latour’s concept of translation is read through Anna Tsing’s anthropological account of the matsutake mushroom trade, engaging this thick descriptive case-study to further develop translation as times of indeterminate encounters. This approach provides a means to conceptualise translation in terms of material agency, from which notions of translation-as-meaning, and linguistic translation can be more credibly theorised, contributing both within and beyond translation studies to discussions on new materialist philosophy and its implications, arguing for the importance of translational thinking.

Affective encounters in higher education

ABSTRACT In this article, we examine how thinking with affect theory offers fertility within higher education studies to see and do teaching and learning differently. For many educators in universities, the idea that teaching is a cognitive process of information transmission is still taken-for-granted. These beliefs are visible through the persistence of nomenclature such as ‘content’, predictable learning ‘outcomes’, and by the dominance of linear teaching aids (such as PowerPoint slides) across the sector internationally. An alternative conception of what teaching and learning is, and does, posits the classroom as a space of emergent relational connections in which learning is experienced as an affective force that constitutes being-in-the-world. To sketch shapes for understanding the affective encounters of teaching and learning, we think with the concept of inconvenience from the work of cultural theorist Lauren Berlant. We offer three illustrative examples of how teaching might be understood as an opportunity to surface, to welcome, and to problematise the inconvenience of others. Our argument is that an engagement with the affective in education can help us in understanding how power relations make themselves felt within the affective currents of educational encounters, as well as enabling educators to recraft their teaching in creative and meaningful ways. We conclude by contending that critical theories of affect can enhance educators’ work towards fostering social justice in the classroom, as well as in moving closer to an enriched understanding of the discomfort and challenge of what it means to teach and to learn.

Impartial Spectators and Legislators: Adam Smith and Religion

Abstract The eighteenth century is often thought of as an important era for the secularization of British philosophy. One dimension of this secularization involves philosophers developing theories that, while not explicitly rejecting God, are less reliant on claims about God for their intelligibility and plausibility. A comparison of Adam Smith with his teacher, Francis Hutcheson, reveals an underappreciated facet of this process. Hutcheson portrayed God as an impartial legislator and used this metaphor to clarify contested moral rules in a way that would make little sense if God did not exist. In contrast, Smith's impartial spectator does not require belief in a God who is the author of the moral law in order to determine the correct interpretation of contested moral principles. By pursuing this alternative conception of impartiality, Smith developed a theory that was, in this respect, less reliant on religious premises than Hutcheson's had been.

Legislative Intent and Agency: A Rational Unity Account

Abstract Realist theories of legislative intent can be divided between aggregative theories (on which legislative intent is what some proportion of legislators intend) and common intent theories (on which legislative intent is a unanimous intent among legislators). In this article, we advance and defend an alternative realist conception of legislative intent: the rational unity account. On this account, the legislature is an agent with a distinctive ‘rational point of view’—a concept we adopt from social ontology. The legislature’s rational point of view is shaped by its procedures and structures, in ways not determined by either a common intention held by legislators or an aggregation of the intentions of legislators. We explain how our view improves on existing accounts. We then apply it to three cases to demonstrate its implications for legal interpretation. Importantly, on the proposed account, legislative intent can depart from what individual legislators think or know.

How (not) to integrate scientific and moral realism

In this essay, I seek to clarify and defend a unified account of realism, i.e. a conception of realism that does not only apply to philosophy of science, but also acknowledges how realism is understood in other philosophical disciplines—particularly, how moral realism is treated in metaethics. I will argue that integrating scientific and moral realism is less straightforward than is commonly assumed, due to several substantial, but often unnoticed disanalogies that obtain between both views. As a consequence, scientific realists should consider modifying their traditional understanding and move towards an alternative conception of realism—one that is much more in line with the conception that moral realists usually adopt. Realism (about science or ethics) is, in the final analysis, best characterised as an alethic view which restricts itself to an idea about the objectivity of truth, rather than an epistemic view which underwrites more extensive theses concerning the accessibility of this truth for human knowledge.

Overcoming misrecognition: the subtle ways of benevolence in international relations

Some realists refer to benevolence in diplomacy as an artificial mask for achieving political aims. In another perspective, liberal theories of hegemonic stability aim at describing the different conditions that shape an international order based on benevolent leadership. From duplicity or Samaritan conduct that could be transformed into a paternalism reflex, benevolence does not entail a thick recognition of others. However, not only the Scottish tradition of moral sense but also other references in political theory propose an alternative conception that opens alternative paths for handling international relations. By coming back to the concepts and tools developed by these perspectives, this article proposes to explore some interactions in the international relations realm that shed light on ways to go beyond the misrecognition of alterity. This benevolent conduct is a source of social agency by taking into account the affective component of respect towards others.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ВСПОМОГАТЕЛЬНОЙ РЕПРОДУКЦИИ НА САМОСОХРАНИТЕЛЬНОЕ ПОВЕДЕНИЕ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ

Significance. The introduction of assisted reproductive technologies based on in vitro fertilization into public health practice eliminates the direct impact of reproductive pathologies on individual childbearing, yet raises questions about which elements of reproductive health have the greatest impact on decision-making about giving birth to a child and how their role in self-preservation behavior is changing. The purpose of the study is to identify the main directions of the influence of modern methods of assisted reproduction on self-preservation behavior of the population. Material and methods. Based on open data from official and sectoral Russian and foreign statistics, as well as materials from Russian and English-language scientific publications, the analysis of the main indicators characterizing changes in self-preservation behavior under the influence of assisted reproductive technologies was carried out. The use of secondary sociological information and certain results of the current author's survey of medical university students made it possible to determine the prospects of assisted reproduction as an external factor of reproductive health. Results. A generalizing characteristic of reproductive health disorders is infertility, while assisted reproduction based on in vitro fertilization has been the most effective method of correction for almost half a century. Continuous improvement of assisted reproductive technology programs has made them a modern factor of self-preservation behavior, creating opportunities for the birth of healthy children not only in case of infertility, but also in case of subfertility against the background of chronic non-communicable diseases, as well as in case of inhibition of reproductive function after cancer treatment. As the availability of assisted reproduction programs expands, they began to be used as an alternative conception and have even indirectly influenced contraceptive behavior, leading to the choice in favor of comfortable, yet previously considered irreversible, sterilization. This determines the social and medical prospects of assisted reproductive technologies, however, an obstacle to their practical implementation may be the cost, which in Russia far exceeds the financial standards of in vitro fertilization under compulsory health insurance. Conclusion. The study showed the main current trends and extended scope of the impact of assisted reproduction on self-preservation behavior. Due to decrease in the number and health deterioration of the health of the population of reproductive age, a decrease in the birth rate becomes an urgent national challenge, which increases the importance of births that are impossible without the use of assisted reproductive technologies. This is especially important against the background of the increase in non-communicable diseases, leading to subfertility, and “social infertility” without reproductive pathologies, which are successfully corrected with in vitro fertilization. However, the commercialization and information popularization of assisted reproductive technology programs create inflated expectations among a certain segment of the population who expect to become parents at any age, regardless of health status. There are new requirements for official justification of indications and contraindications to in vitro fertilization, on the one hand, and for a more accurate account of individual reproductive capabilities of self-preservation behavior, on the other.

Sovereign Exceptions and Sexual Autonomy in Heinrich von Kleist’s Betrothal in San Domingo

This article investigates how the concept of a state of exception and its dialectic relationship with the norm are negotiated in the German author Heinrich von Kleist’s Betrothal in San Domingo (1811), the story of two doomed lovers – a Swiss visitor named Gustav and a “mestiza” woman named Toni – set against the backdrop of the Haitian revolution. Drawing primarily upon Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben’s political thoughts as well as Alexander Weheliye’s critique of Agamben which, the former claims, has little “to say about racism, colonialism, and the world beyond fortress Europe” (64), I argue that the novella critically engages with the concept of exception and calls attention to its limitations but simultaneously offers an alternative conception to what political action may look like during a moment of intense conflict. The novella scrutinizes bio(necro)political theory’s placement of death at the center of our political thought, emphasizing instead the inadequacy of the universalization of the concept of “life,” particularly outside its Eurowestern perimeters. Through Weheliye, my analysis further suggests that Betrothal in San Domingo establishes Toni as an active, sovereign subject who, through actions of friendship and love, poses a significant challenge to the systems of exception and its underlying violent potentialities.