Paradoxical Nature Research Articles

The Paradox of Historical Fiction

In light of the fact/fiction divide, this paper delves into the literary genre of historical fiction for young adults and re-examines the disputed boundaries between fact and fiction. Exploring Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars, a work of historical fiction for young adults about life in Nazi-occupied Denmark, this discussion addresses the paradoxical nature of historical fiction: it is the fictional elements of historical fiction that play the crucial part in bringing historical facts closer to the young adult reader.

Heretical Views on the Deity and Humanity of Jesus Christ and the Evangelical Standpoint

This work aims to encourage Christians, teachers, and pastors to actively prepare themselves as apologists on Christ's deity and humanity. Defending the gospel's truth regarding Jesus' nature is crucial due to widespread perversions of this doctrine, which cause spiritual, theological, and moral issues within Christendom. Many professing Christians are unknowingly affected by the false teachings of growing cults, leading to confusion about Jesus being truly God and truly man— a fundamental Christian doctrine. Understanding this doctrine will aid Christians, pastors, new believers, and outsiders in appreciating Christ's plan and purpose. It will also encourage and strengthen theologians, pastors, and laypeople to study diligently and effectively propagate the true doctrine of Jesus Christ. As many are confused by perverted teachings, this work is necessary to clarify the true nature of Christ and reinforce commitment to His Lordship. Given the seemingly paradoxical nature of this doctrine, Christians, especially theologians, must face these challenges with God's power and strength to teach, preach, and expose the true doctrine of Jesus' deity and humanity. This effort will combat the age-old perversions introduced by Satan and propagated by cults.

The reality of authentic leadership: the rugby football league challenge

ABSTRACT Purpose/rationale The aim of this paper is to increase the understanding in the area of authentic leadership (AL) within executive leader practice in a UK commercial sport national governing body (NGB). Design/methodology/approach Ten interviews were conducted with members of the organisation’s management group. The interviews were utilised to gain new insights into the levels of executive leader AL within a commercial sport governance environment. Interviews were analysed using an interpretive approach, and a thematic structure relating to AL in the commercial NGB context. Findings Authentic elements within the executive leadership team’s practice were dependent on the organisational context and the impact of external factors on individuals and the NGB. Full engagement with the AL construct is curtailed by organisational structure and objectives. Practical implications The findings and related existing literature, notably the debate on the universal acceptance of the AL construct, are integrated into the paper to contribute to the discourse on the leadership construct in a sport governance environment. Research contribution The study contributes to the growing body of sport leadership within NGB literature and provides insights into the paradoxical nature of leadership and the executive leader ability to fully engage with all elements of the AL construct.

Impact of family financial pressure on voluntary work performances OCB & CWBs: Mediating role of family motivation and self-control

This study aims to highlight the determinants and pathways that trigger employee functional and detrimental voluntary work performances i.e. OCB & CWBs. It is unclear whether family financial pressure is functional or nonfunctional for generating voluntary work behaviors. This study spotlights the paradoxical nature of family financial pressure. We theorize that family financial pressure is a double-edged sword that can produce positive OCB and negative CWBs employee voluntary work behaviors. We have collected data from manufacturing and service sector employees working in different organizations in Pakistan. This study found that family financial pressure is the salient determinant that can generate both functional voluntary work performance OCB and counterproductive voluntary work performance CWBs through unique pathways i.e. family motivation, state self-control failure. Family motivation acts as a partial mediator between family financial pressure and OCB and state self-control failure also partially mediated the link between family financial pressure and CWBs. The practical and theoretical implications are also discussed in this study.

Alive but not real: Gestural lines and the ambiguous bodies of modern manga

Considering character drawings as images that can be addressed not only in terms of representation of reality but also in terms of vitality and life, this paper aims to place them in a broader visual studies context to debate over the following question: Why do we experience these pictorial devices, this collection of lines, as being something more than just that? In other words, how can we develop a framework to understand these experiences taking into account not only character drawing’s relation with meaning and reality but also concepts such as sentience and agency? Making a case for character drawings’ paradoxical placement within western modernity as pictures that reappropriate drawing, from an act of explanation and argumentation to one of creation, it will follow and his account of the drawing activity in order to comprehend how its affordances may fuel the particular type of reception fostered by character drawings and defined by E. H. Gombrich (1984) in terms of life. Then, as an example of a particular tradition of drawing that indulges in this paradoxical nature, the paper will look to early modern manga artists such as Osamu Tezuka and how they engage with this illusion of life by employing gestural lines, allowing characters to exist as what defines as bodies that are both iconic and mortal. Finally, this paper aims to contribute to the visual studies field by highlighting possible approaches to this non-indexical image within a visual media context.

Science, health and the military dictatorship in Brazil: the Integrated Endemic Disease Program (PIDE) of CNPq (1973-1987)

This article analyzes the Integrated Endemic Disease Program (PIDE), which was established in 1973 by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development CNPq, financed by the Brazilian Funding Authority for Studies and Projects FINEP. The program was established to finance research on diseases considered strategic to the economic development plans of the military regime (1964-1985). Acknowledged to be a landmark program in the history of Brazilian parasitology, PIDE was set up during a period when the dictatorship was both violently repressing scholars and investing heavily in science and technology (S&T). The article examines the context in which the program was implemented and analyzes what it signified for planners in the S&T field and for the scientists who coordinated it. The contention is that PIDE was an example of how the scientific community managed to use financial and institutional resources available under the S&T policy in the 1970s to advance research on parasitic diseases and update its agenda. This analysis contributes to recent historiography that, based on specific historical cases, reflects on the paradoxical nature of a regime that, in its authoritarian modernization project, simultaneously persecuted scientists and supported science.

In between the writerly and the readerly: Utopia and metafiction in Abe Kazushige’s Individual Projection

Elaborating on Barthes’ famous distinction, this article examines the relationship between the writerly and the readerly in Abe Kazushige’s novel Individual Projection (Indivijuaru purojekushon). The ‘writerly’ (scriptible) designates an open-ended, playful narrative, giving free rein to the interpretation of the reader who thus becomes a co-writer of the text. The readerly (lisible), by contrast, implies authority and redundancy: it imposes a meaning or message, thus turning the reader into a consumer rather than producer of the text. I argue that Abe’s novel is built upon an internal tension between the openness of the writerly and the more assertive and ethical message of the readerly. The first two parts of this essay focus on the writerly side of the text. Individual Projection could be first described as a parody (1. Political Utopia and Genre fiction as Parody in Individual Projection): through its unreliable narrator, the novel toys with stereotypes associated with political utopia and genre fiction. Such distancing with clichés destabilises the text and opens a free space of interpretation for the reader (2. Metafiction as Writerly Text: When the Reader Writes). Yet, the novel ends with a final metatextual reversal which reshapes our understanding of the story and redefines the reader’s own relationship to the text (3. Metafiction: Revenge of the Author?). This end illustrates the paradoxical nature of metafiction in its relationship to the reader: its apparent semantic openness can also be a means to assert the author’s authority over the text to convey a theoretical or philosophical message. Here, my own understanding of Individual Projection challenges Azuma Hiroki’s interpretation of Abe’s novel. Azuma saw in the openness of Individual Projection another illustration of his own theory both describing and advocating a free consumption of fiction, relying much more on the logic of recycling and recombination than on the linear path of the plot. If Azuma’s interpretation sheds interesting light on the agency devoted to the reader in Individual Projection, it yet fails to apprehend the potentially critical message of the text: Abe’s novel also suggests a pessimistic view of contemporary’s hyperreality which seems quite antithetical to Azuma’s own eulogy of postmodernity.

Compassion in higher education: fashion or future for relational pedagogies?

ABSTRACT This comment paper offers critical reflections on compassion as a core concern in contemporary higher education, positioned in the context of hybrid and relational pedagogies. The pernicious effects of neoliberal ideology and policy upon academic teaching practices and students’ learning experiences have been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper problematises the concept and role of compassion in higher education to highlight the risk of it becoming a ‘buzzword’ or fashionable ‘flavour of the month’ solution that fails to adequately address underlying systemic problems. It challenges the discourse of compassion and associated language of suffering when applied to students and reveals the ‘underside of compassion’ as a mode of power. Conversely, from the perspective of academic staff, this paper draws attention to research undertaken during the COVID-19 pandemic which shows that staff suffering needs to be acknowledged, voiced and heard. It advocates against overly simplistic and uncritically positive approaches to addressing the paradoxical nature of compassion in higher education. This paper concludes by arguing that cultivating critically compassionate learning cultures and campuses will: (a) enable relational pedagogies to thrive and (b) support the development of a more diverse, equitable and inclusive future for higher education.

Absorbed in deceit: modeling intention-driven self-deception with agential layering

ABSTRACT The paradoxical nature of intentional self-deception has led many philosophers to view self-deception as predominantly non-intentional. I propose that approaching self-deception from an agency-theoretic perspective allows us to rescue the idea that self-deception can at least be driven by intention. By modeling the ‘acting as if’ method of self-deception with agential layering, developed by Nguyen [2020. Games: Agency as Art. New York: Oxford University Press], I argue that intention-driven self-deception is no more mysterious than other activities that involve self-effacing ends: ends we must pursue indirectly. That is, self-deception can occur when agents pursue the self-effacing end of forming what they take to be an epistemically unjustified belief by submerging themselves in a layer of agency in which they can act as if they already hold that belief. By intentionally adopting this pretense and shaping their agency around it, they forget that their agency is layered at all, and may thereby form a full-fledged belief. This model avoids objections to views that treat self-deception itself as intentional and does so while appealing only to resources already used to explain our everyday activities. I then apply my model to a core case of bad faith from Sartre to show that intention-driven self-deception can clarify how we are responsible for inauthenticity.

Ways to Form a Literary Reputation: F.G. Klopstock in Russia in the 19th Century

The given article is devoted to the reconstruction of the apologetic literary reputation of F.G. Klopstock. Klopstock is a canonical author in the history of literature; his work has not received due attention in Russia. Literary reputation is a multidimensional phenomenon. It develops under the influence of various factors and can be the result of random circumstances. Klopstock is a great sentimentalist and epicist; his work is included in the curriculum of educational institutions of the 19th century. But there are almost no translations into Russian. Serious studies of the works of the German poet in Russia were created only in the 20th century. This article is based on the fundamental works of N.I. Rozanov and I.A. Reitblat and analyzes the paradoxical nature of Klopstock’s literary reputation. The image of the poet, discreetly outlined by N.M. Karamzin acquires the features of a saint under the pen of subsequent critics. A review of translated critical reviews of Klopstock shows ways of distorting the original. Klopstock is deliberately described as an ideal pious poet. The article describes the beginning of the formation of Klopstock's literary reputation: the most important stage that influenced the German poet's entry into the reading circle of a cultured person in Russia in the 19th century. Consistent attempts to place Klopstock within the convenient framework of great epics lead to peculiar results: Klopstock enters the circle of compulsory educational reading and at the same time disappears from the field of view of literary scholars. Until the mid-twentieth century, Klopstock remained a canonical literary name without due attention from researchers.

A Phenomenology of Authenticity in Prison Life: Kierkegaard and the Paradox of Freedom

This paper examines the lived experiences of selected inmates, some of whom have been released from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, Philippines, focusing on how incarceration has transformed their lives. Confronted with significant mental and emotional challenges, the inmates embraced a new life of faith amid the harsh realities of prison life. The researchers used the phenomenological method to collect narratives from these inmates and employ thematic analysis. The paper identifies underlying themes emerging from these narratives and, in its final section, reflects on them through the theoretical framework of existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard's concepts of the paradoxical nature of despair and the three stages of life—the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious—provide a lens for understanding the inmates' spiritual transformation through religious participation. By integrating these philosophical insights, the authors deepened the understanding of how prison experiences influence spiritual change. The inmates' journeys from despair to spiritual awakening illuminate the existential dynamics of human freedom, authenticity, and community, as articulated by Kierkegaard. Their narratives provide compelling evidence that even in a setting where freedom is ostensibly curtailed, individuals can achieve a profound sense of liberation by embracing their despair and taking a leap of faith.

Phenotypic Variation in Staphylococcus aureus during Colonisation Involves Antibiotic-Tolerant Cell Types.

Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial species that is commonly found colonising healthy individuals but that presents a paradoxical nature: simultaneously, it can migrate within the body and cause a range of diseases. Many of these become chronic by resisting immune responses, antimicrobial treatment, and medical intervention. In part, this ability to persist can be attributed to the adoption of multiple cell types within a single cellular population. These dynamics in the S. aureus cell population could be the result of its interplay with host cells or other co-colonising bacteria-often coagulase-negative Staphylococcal (CoNS) species. Further understanding of the unique traits of S. aureus alternative cell types, the drivers for their selection or formation during disease, as well as their presence even during non-pathological colonisation could advance the development of diagnostic tools and drugs tailored to target specific cells that are eventually responsible for chronic infections.

The paradoxical nature of greening transportation: an analysis of tensions in buyer–supplier dyads

PurposeContradictory sustainability priorities and perspectives among supply chain actors in greening transportation can be challenging. Several of these contradictions can be described as paradoxes (i.e. interests that are logical in themselves, but become irrational when perceived together). The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of paradoxical tensions hampering the greening of transportation in transport buyer–supplier dyads.Design/methodology/approachA case study method targeting greening transportation in two transport buyer–supplier dyads was applied, followed by an analysis with a point-of-departure in paradox theory.FindingsTensions related to performing, belonging, learning and organizing paradoxes in greening transportation were identified. These tensions arise as a consequence of actions, perspectives and other tensions, within three identified loci in individual companies and in dyads.Research limitations/implicationsBy identifying examples of tensions through the lens of paradoxes in a particular setting, this study provides an increased understanding of why the transition toward green transportation goes slow, despite the high ambitions of involved actors. The suggested framework provides a novel contribution to the literature that further increases the understanding of tensions, by providing additional insights into where tensions arise and how actions, perspectives and tensions in one place of a locus spectrum can disseminate along that spectrum.Originality/valueThis study is original because it applies paradox theory and the four categories of performing, belonging, learning and organizing within the field of greening transportation, and in particular as a lens to study interactions between different actors.

Crafting alternative work organisations: Paradoxes of workplace democracy and emancipation in worker-buyout cooperatives

Drawing on an interpretative study primarily based on two waves of interviews, the authors traced two cooperativisation experiences over 10 years from an actor-centred approach. The shift to worker ownership did not automatically lead to workplace democratisation and workers’ emancipation. Indeed, the early development of the cooperativisation experiences was marked by internal conflict and worker-owners’ dissatisfaction. Over time, a paradoxical alternative workplace was consolidated, in which worker-owners’ emancipation was ultimately sustained through the exploitation of non-member employees. The study makes a twofold contribution to the cooperativisation literature. First, it moves beyond utopian or sceptical perspectives to provide a more nuanced view of worker-buyout co-ops, emphasising the paradoxical nature of their emancipatory potential. Second, the study’s longitudinal analysis of co-ops formed out of financially sound firms, rather than bankrupted ones, advances knowledge of the diversity of cooperativisation experiences and the mechanisms that contribute to the longevity and sustainability of worker-buyout co-ops.

Immunodysregulation in immunodeficiency.

The primary immunodeficiency diseases are often accompanied by autoimmunity, autoinflammatory, or aberrant lymphoproliferation. The paradoxical nature of this association can be explained by the multiple cells and molecules involved in immune networks that interact with each other in synergistic, redundant, antagonistic, and parallel arrangements. Because progressively more immunodeficiencies are found to have a genetic etiology, in many cases, a monogenic pathology, an understanding of why immunodeficiency is really an immune dysfunction becomes evident. Understanding the role of specific genes allows us to better understand the complete nature of the inborn error of immunity (IEI); the latter is a term generally used when a clear genetic etiology can be discerned. Autoimmune cytopenias, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune thyroiditis, and autoimmune liver diseases as well as lymphomas and cancers frequently accompany primary immunodeficiencies, and it is important that the practitioner be aware of this association and to expect that this is more common than not. The treatment of autoimmune or immunodysregulation in primary immunodeficiencies often involves further immunosuppression, which places the patient at even greater risk of infection. Mitigating measures to prevent such an infection should be considered as part of the treatment regimen. Treatment of immunodysregulation should be mechanism based, as much as we understand the pathways that lead to the dysfunction. Focusing on abnormalities in specific cells or molecules, e.g., cytokines, will become increasingly used to provide a targeted approach to therapy, a prelude to the success of personalized medicine in the treatment of IEIs.

Gender composition at work and women's career satisfaction: An international study of 35 societies

AbstractDrawing from status characteristics theory, we develop a multilevel model to explain the relationships between gender composition (e.g., female‐female supervisor‐subordinate dyads, a female majority at the next higher level, and a female majority at the same job level) in the workplace and women's career satisfaction. We hypothesise that working with a female supervisor and a female majority at the same level will be negatively related to women's career satisfaction, while a female majority at the next higher level will be positively related to women's career satisfaction. Moreover, we propose that formal societal (gender‐equality) institutions and informal cultural (gender‐egalitarian) values, each has a moderating effect on the impact of gender compositions on women's career satisfaction. Our results from a multilevel analysis of 2291 women across 35 societies support the three hypothesised main effects. Whereas institutions that support gender equality weaken the positive effect of working with a female majority at the next higher level, they amplify the negative effect of a female majority at the same hierarchical level. Our findings highlight the complex and paradoxical nature of gender composition effects on women's career satisfaction. We discuss the theoretical contributions of our findings and their implications for the diversity management practices of multinational enterprises.

Wu 無 under the possible worlds theory

ABSTRACT This article explores four crucial problems regarding wu 無 (nothingness or nonexistence), a central concept in Chinese philosophy: (1) What is wu, and how does it relate to you 有 (somethingness or existence)? (2) Does ‘you arise from wu’ (you sheng yu wu 有生於無), and if so, how does this ‘arising’ occur? (3) Which takes precedence in Chinese philosophy, wu or you? (4) Does pursuing wu risk leading to nihilism? Drawing on Saul Kripke’s interpretation of possible worlds, I propose that wu represents a realm of potential possibilities. I align with Kripke’s view that possible worlds lack actual existence but are anchored in the actual world. This view clarifies the seemingly paradoxical nature of Chinese philosophy: it is rooted in the mundane world while embracing a transcendental wu. Moreover, it helps avoid the nihilism that might arise from interpreting wu as a groundless void.

Thai creative labour solidarity, (post)-pandemic precarity, and directions of production studies in the Global South

This paper offers an overview of the creative labour solidarity that took place in Thailand during the pandemic by young film graduates and political-conscious workers. A dialogic reflection with research on creative labour studies largely based in the Global North is discussed. In addition to tracing the development of this local ‘turn to labour,’ the paper offers a closer look at the lives of below-the-line film crews based on ‘solidarity dialogues’ during and post-pandemic. The paper explores precarity gaps based on the type of production, age, family, and social relation, as well as micro-practices adopted by workers to navigate different shades of precarity. Adopting ‘South-South citations’ and a feminist approach to production studies, aspects of local class systems, the paradoxical nature of workers’ solidarity, and the persistent structural inequality between large-scale international productions and local film sets are examined with reflections on other countries in the Global South.

Attack in the Form of Defense? Populist Anti-media Tactics to Avoid Being Blamed

This article explores the relationship between blame and populism by analyzing the defensive communication strategies employed by right-wing populist leaders in their attacks on the media. The study focuses on Jair Bolsonaro and concludes that he used various strategies to avoid taking responsibility for adverse outcomes while blaming the media as one of his favorite targets. The explorative study draws on qualitative discourse analysis of the presidential narratives to shed light on the paradoxical nature of these defensive strategies. Bolsonaro’s political style involved preemptively neutralizing the media’s critical performance and reacting negatively to any critical coverage that contradicted his version of events and undermined his authority.

Scientific traditions as a mechanism for forming continuity in the development of psychological cognition. Part 1. Status and difficulties in studying

The relevance of the problem of scientific traditions and continuity of psychological knowledge as an important issue in the methodology of modern psychology is considered and substantiated. An analysis of the definitions and understanding of the term “tradition” in the developments of psychologists and related specialists is given, the main difficulties in deployment of research in this area and their problem field are outlined. The paradoxical nature in the study of traditions is indicated — the recognition of its relevance and importance for understanding the dynamics of psychological knowledge, as well as fixation of the need for development and, at the same time, a small number of modern special publications on this topic. Often publications that use the term “tradition” in their titles characterize it only indirectly and rather generally, and sometimes imply a completely different phenomenon under study. It is concluded that the problems of traditions in Russian psychology mostly have the character of unexpressed, unreflected knowledge.