Philosophical Roots Research Articles

Does Wilderness Matter in the Anthropocene? Resolving a Fundamental Dilemma About the Role of Wilderness in 21st Century Conservation

ABSTRACT Should wilderness be understood as primarily untrammeled or primarily natural? In this paper, we examine the conceptual and philosophical roots of untrammeled and natural in the context of the 1964 Wilderness Act and show how in some situations tension can arise between them, leading to a stewardship dilemma and subsequent debate over the future conservation role of wilderness. After showing that this debate is ultimately rooted in a false dichotomy, we offer a conceptual framework that presents managers with the tools necessary to shepherd the wilderness idea through the changing environmental realities of the Anthropocene, and continue to allow wilderness to be both a cornerstone and touchstone for conservation in the 21st century.

Psychological Well-being of Employees, its Precedents and Outcomes: A Literature Review and Proposed Framework

Is the psychological well-being (PWB) of employees essential to be considered by organizations? Does it have an impact on an organization in the long-run? This study attempts to provide a holistic view of literature on PWB and how it has become indispensable for employees and the organization. The study also proposes a framework consisting of precedents and outcomes of PWB of employees in organizations. A review of the literature of 142 studies was done using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework along with the main construct PWB and ten related organizational variables. PWB has been analysed from a eudaimonic perspective. Literature review reveals the scarcity of management literature on the eudaimonic sense of well-being of employees, and how well-being is not distinguished on the basis of its philosophical roots. Our research discusses the variables which have been studied comprehensively in juxtaposition with well-being, and also those variables which are yet to be explored with eudaimonia as the focus. The study is a novel attempt to systematize literature on the under-examined eudaimonic perspective of PWB of employees and its relationship with prominent organizational variables. The study intends to give practitioners and the managers value adding insights into the factors that affect the PWB of employees and also how these factors can be honed for better employee mental health leading to higher organizational returns.

China's foreign policy concept of 'strategic borders' and 'living space': foreign policy risks for Central Asia

The article examines the evolutionary stages of China's foreign policy concept and the features of the nature of international relations in the main geopolitical directions of China's foreign policy activity. The reasons that contribute to unification and successful cooperation between the countries and, on the contrary, the reasons that have a negative impact on mutual relations and serve as a source of discord are investigated. It outlines and describes key changes in China's foreign policy as it strengthens its comprehensive national power. The article also outlines the differences of Chinese school of geopolitics, which has its own historical, cultural and philosophical roots. It provides a brief overview of China's policy on " strategic boundaries" and "living space" and its possible implications for Kazakhstan and Central Asia as a whole.

On the political theology of apartheid: a philosophical investigation

ABSTRACT This article aims to discuss the relation between political theology and apartheid critically. The relation is traced by reconsidering Carl Schmitt’s notion of political theology and the accompanying friend-enemy distinction within the South African context in dialogue with Achille Mbembe. The political theology of apartheid is accordingly analysed as the creation of a racial figure of enmity intertwined with a religious myth. Within this heuristic framework, the philosophical roots of the racial concept of the “K”-figure – as a figure of enmity – are outlined by delineating its foundations in the metaphysics of modernity with specific reference to the writings of Immanuel Kant. This concept is further considered regarding its intertwinement with the creation of the religious myth of justify Afrikaner Nationalism Volk as a chosen people of God, used to justify the Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid ideology. Finally, the opening of a space is sketched where the task of rethinking the political ontologically within a post-apartheid world may take place. The task that attempts to avoid a reconstitution of the political theology of apartheid in new figures of enmity, both religious and racial, while opening the possibility for the reparation of the dignity of those it was stolen from.

Revisiting recognition in energy justice

Energy justice often distinguishes between different tenets, such as distributive, procedural and recognition justice. Recognition justice has a distinct status compared to the other two as its meaning seems the least tangible to grasp. In this article, a systematic literature study was conducted to the definitions and interpretations of recognition justice, showing that the concept currently refers to a large variety of phenomena. This diversity obscures what “recognition justice” actually measures. This paper aims to revisit the concept of recognition justice in energy justice by asking the following question: what does the tenet of recognition justice refer to, taking into account the philosophical roots of the concept? To do so, key texts from Axel Honneth and Nancy Fraser were studied in-depth, resulting in four main insights: (1) there are two approaches to recognition justice; (2) actors can be (mis)recognised in multiple ways; (3) two different yet complementary methods for identifying instances of misrecognition can be distinguished; and (4) recognition justice cannot be reduced to other tenets of justice. These findings cumulate in a revisited definition of recognition justice as concerned with the adequate recognition of all actors through love, law, and status order. This definition structures the large variety of understandings in the scholarship, and it has the potential to provide a more fine-grained explanation of energy controversies, which advances the ultimate aim of making energy systems and policies more just.

Kritika anarhoprimitivizma

The main goal of this paper is a critical consideration of the extremely ecocentric current of anarchism, which is called anarcho-primitivism. We believe that anarcho-primitivism, as an ideology that advocates the complete abolition of civilizational achievements and return to the stages of hunter-gatherers, is one of the failed responses to the crisis of the Western left, which arose during the 1970s. In order to better critically analyze anarcho-primitivism, it is necessary, above all, to determine its basic postulates as well as the causes of its emergence. This will be followed by a detailed critique of his philosophical roots and the political and ideological solutions he provides. Anarcho-primitivist ahistoricism, which implies that all of humanity can easily return to pre-civilization levels, its irrational romanticism, extreme anti-technologal stances and simplification of basic leftist postulates are just ways for the frustrated left to escape from tackling the concrete problems of modernity. Therefore, anarcho-primitivism can also be defined as a fading form of postmodern thought, created through inconsistent eclecticism. Primitivists, therefore, do not represent a serious movement that could disrupt the current status quo, but only a handful of self-sufficient intellectuals and activists. In this paper, through a critical analysis of anarcho-primitivism, it will be shown how its weak political-practical action potential arises from its intellectual inconsistency, which is why anarcho-primitivism can be characterized as an extreme margin in the spectrum of anti-systemic thought.

Deliberate reflection and clinical reasoning: Founding ideas and empirical findings.

The idea that reflection improves reasoning and learning, since long present in other fields, emerged in the 90s in the medical education literature. Since then, the number of publications on reflection as a means to improve diagnostic learning and clinical problem-solving has increased steeply. Recently, concerns with diagnostic errors have raised further interest in reflection. Several approaches based on reflection have been proposed to reduce clinicians' errors during diagnostic reasoning. What reflection entails varies substantially, and most approaches still require empirical examination. The present essay aims to help clarify the role of deliberate reflection in diagnostic reasoning. Deliberate reflection is an approach whose effects on diagnostic reasoning and learning have been empirically studied over the past 15 years. The philosophical roots of the approach will be briefly examined, and the theory and practice of deliberate reflection, particularly its effectiveness, will be reviewed. Lessons learned and unresolved issues will be discussed. The deliberate reflection approach originated from a conceptualization of the nature of reflection practice in medicine informed by Dewey's and Schön's work. The approach guides physicians through systematically reviewing the grounds of their initial diagnosis and considering alternatives. Experimental evidence has supported the effectiveness of deliberate reflection in increasing physicians' diagnostic performance, particularly in nonstraightforward diagnostic tasks. Deliberate reflection has also proved helpful to improve students' diagnostic learning and to facilitate learning of new information. The mechanisms behind the effects of deliberate reflection remain unclear. Tentative explanations focus on the activation/reorganisation of prior knowledge induced by deliberate reflection. Its usefulness depends therefore on the difficulty of the problem relative to the clinician's knowledge. Further research should examine variations in instructions on how to reflect upon a case, the value of further guidance while learning from deliberate reflection, and its benefits in real practice.

Genevieve Stebbins and the philosophical roots of somatics

Today’s multiplicity of somatic modalities – therapeutic arts of bodily awareness – unite in their practitioners’ shared mission to provide a corrective for the mind–body severance lived out in western culture. Unfortunately, this severance often recapitulates itself in an anti-intellectual stance held by many champions of bodily wisdom. Yet, a look back at the origins of the somatics movement reveals a much more integral conception of the human being in the philosophical system of psycho-physical culture set forth by the performer, author, teacher and philosopher Genevieve Stebbins. A prominent influence in the world of physical culture at the dawn of the twentieth century, Stebbins’ work exemplifies the possibility of retrieving holistic conceptions of the human being from the history of western thought and creatively retranslating them in the light of modern consciousness Through such a view, the human body is revealed as visible spirit, instrument of living art.

The Value of Truth and Citizens’ Panels - from Philosophical Roots to Practical Consequences of the Governance Concept

In recent years, instruments of governance, including citizens’ panels (citizens’ assemblies) have gained interest all over the world, including Poland. The danger of its application stems from the fact that they assume the desire to allocate more and more political power to partners at the expense of legitimate authorities. Hence, the purpose of this article is to examine the axiological foundations of the instruments of governance, focusing on the value of truth. In the conclusion of the research, it was stated that the implementation of the citizens’ panels in Gdańsk leads to violations of the value of truth, one of the pillars of Latin civilization.

Necessary Conditions and Theory-Method Compatibility in Quantitative Entrepreneurship Research

All-or-nothing necessary conditions are critical for the unfolding of subsequent entrepreneurial outcomes. A condition is necessary when an entrepreneurial outcome emerges only in the presence or absence of that condition. While a necessary condition does not guarantee the outcome, it makes the outcome possible by virtue of its theoretical necessity. We discuss the philosophical roots and importance of necessary conditions in entrepreneurship. We offer an empirical illustration of necessary condition analysis using founder’s experience, a critical concept in entrepreneurship. We argue that theory-method compatibility in entrepreneurship research can be enhanced by explicitly accounting for necessary conditions.

‘All Things Are Lawful’: Adiaphora, Permissive Natural Law, Christian Freedom, and Defending the English Reformation

Abstract Adiaphora (‘indifferent matters’) and permissive natural law both conceptually pointed towards an arena of liberty in which the individual remained free to take up (or not) particular courses of action. In the Reformation debates over the external regulation of Christian freedom for the maintenance of peace and order, these two concepts became freighted with political significance; but they also in turn shaped attitudes over when and where obedience was due in relation to the civic regulation of liberty. Tudor apologetics deployed both ideas in order to defend the English Reformation, especially the claim of the royal supremacy to have due authority to regulate ecclesiastical affairs in indifferent matters, limiting Christian freedom and requiring obedience. By situating these debates within the context of the conceptual development of adiaphora and permissive natural law from their original philosophical roots through to the Reformation, this article establishes the genealogy of claims that defined such apologetics. After surveying the seemingly intractable dilemmas in the thought of Thomas Starkey and John Whitgift over why obedience to lay ecclesiastical supremacy was due, this article considers the radical return to the permissive natural law traditions of the medieval period in the Elizabethan conformist thought of Richard Hooker. In this return, Hooker supplanted divine permissions and scriptural principles as the guide for the proper regulation of indifferent matters with an appeal to the light of reason as the divine instrument through which binding human laws are made to govern society and limit freedom for the public good, even in the life of the national church.

If philosophers went on a leadership course: A (serious) farce in three Acts

Leadership development is big business, with business schools and private providers offering leadership development programmes claimed to help turn managers into wise, good and able leaders. Leadership development originated in philosophy and, in the Western tradition, dates back at least as far as Socrates. This article asks: how would philosophers qua wisdom-lovers [philo-sophes] respond to contemporary programmes? We use the dramatic licence offered by theatre to imagine Foucault, Butler, Kant, Hume and others participating in a leadership training course. As our play opens, we find them critiquing a 360-degree psychometric assessment instrument they have been asked to complete. Our highly select group argue it solicits docile, servile supplicants to the interests of neoliberal capitalism. They offer an alternative containing key questions putative leaders should explore. The script includes other dramatis personnae and a Chorus (the authors of this paper). Speeches and programme notes provide the necessary bones of an academic paper, such as literature reviews and philosophical contexts. We ask colleagues to join with us in reconnecting leadership development to its philosophical roots in an effort to foster wiser and more ethical leadership.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ISLAMIC EDUCATION

The title of this research is Theoretical Debate over the Philosophical Roots of Contemporary Education and Its Implications for the Development of Islamic Education. The purpose is to disentangle, to explore and to discuss the foundations of theoretical roots of educational philosophy and its relational consequences with Islamic education. The issues raised are: 1). how is the philosophical foundation of education and its relationship to philosophy and education? 2). what are the Philosophical Roots of Educational Theory and Its Implications for Curriculum, Teaching and Learning? 3). what are the implications for the development of Islamic education? The type of research is Library Research which uses philosophical and pedagogical approach, with descriptive method. The findings of this study are: a) the study of the key philosophical ideas that influence thought and development of education are aspects of metaphysics, epistemology and axiology. Without these three philosophical foundations, science and its various disciplines will fail; b) the relationship between philosophy and education are like two sides of one coin that cannot be separated, both give and take in the context of mutualism. So the existence of philosophy in education is a necessity; c) The theoretical debate over the roots of the philosophy of education requires the development of Islamic education.

Impact of Sleep Deprivation on Job Performance of Working Mothers: Mediating Effect of Workplace Deviance.

The current study takes its philosophical roots from organizational behavior and psychology domains to investigate the impact of sleep deprivation on the job performance of mothers working in primary, secondary, and higher education institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan. It also examines the mediating role of workplace deviance in the relationship between sleep deprivation and the job performance of working mothers. The authors followed the non-probability convenience sampling technique to study the relationship between sleep deprivation, workplace deviance, and job performance. The structural analyses indicated that sleep deprivation has a significant negative impact on the job performance of working mothers and sleep-deprived individuals often tend to perform poorly at the workplace. Such workers are also more likely to engage in workplace deviant behaviors. Moreover, workplace deviance is also found to act as a mediating variable in the relationship between sleep deprivation and job performance. The present research bridges the literature gap on the rarely investigated factors, namely sleep deprivation and workplace deviance, and provide a detailed understanding of how these factors can influence the performance of working mothers, specifically in Pakistan.

The Roots of Ambivalence: Makiguchi Tsunesaburō’s Heterodox Discourse and Praxis of “Religion”

In the post-World War II era, Sōka Gakkai has deployed the terminology and concept of “religion” (shūkyō 宗教) in a variety of contexts and to a variety of ends. Do these positions simply reflect a post-war strategic stance? Do they have deeper historical and philosophical roots? A careful reading of key texts by founding president Makiguchi Tsunesaburō 牧口常三郎 (1871–1944) suggests that, from its inception as the Value-Creating Education Society (Sōka Kyōiku Gakkai 創価教育学会) in the 1930s, the movement has occupied an ambiguous space, relative to the conceptualization and practice of “religion”, as these were imported at the start of the Meiji Era (1868–1912), adopted and indigenized to respond to the cultural, social and political exigencies of modernizing Japan. Examples of Makiguchi’s heterodoxy, relative to the established understanding of “religion” and its role, include: the rejection of specific ideas of “religion”, in relation to education and science, as represented in the writings of such intellectuals as Inoue Tetsujirō 井上哲次郎 and Ishiwara Atsushi 石原純; refusal to accept the official definition of Shintō as non-religion; positing an essential continuity between faith/trust among human subjects and faith directed at ideas and objects typically considered “religious”; promoting the idea of worldly benefit, as a result of faith in and practice of “religion”. A careful reading of Makiguchi’s complex, and often heterodox, discourse, relative to the conceptual category of “religion”, can frame a more nuanced interpretation of his ultimate heterodoxy—his rejection of the Ise Shrine amulet, an act for which he was arrested and confined to prison in July 1943. It can also clarify the basis for the Sōka Gakkai’s post-war deployments of the concept of religion, and create a more flexible and expansive interpretative space for considering the organization’s discourse and praxis in the post-war era.

Efficiency in sequential testing: Comparing the sequential probability ratio test and the sequential Bayes factor test

In a sequential hypothesis test, the analyst checks at multiple steps during data collection whether sufficient evidence has accrued to make a decision about the tested hypotheses. As soon as sufficient information has been obtained, data collection is terminated. Here, we compare two sequential hypothesis testing procedures that have recently been proposed for use in psychological research: Sequential Probability Ratio Test (SPRT; Psychological Methods, 25(2), 206–226, 2020) and the Sequential Bayes Factor Test (SBFT; Psychological Methods, 22(2), 322–339, 2017). We show that although the two methods have different philosophical roots, they share many similarities and can even be mathematically regarded as two instances of an overarching hypothesis testing framework. We demonstrate that the two methods use the same mechanisms for evidence monitoring and error control, and that differences in efficiency between the methods depend on the exact specification of the statistical models involved, as well as on the population truth. Our simulations indicate that when deciding on a sequential design within a unified sequential testing framework, researchers need to balance the needs of test efficiency, robustness against model misspecification, and appropriate uncertainty quantification. We provide guidance for navigating these design decisions based on individual preferences and simulation-based design analyses.

The Fertility of a Concept: A Bibliometric Review of Human Flourishing.

Human flourishing is a thriving concept, whose use has greatly increased among academic researchers from a variety of fields, from the arts and humanities and psychology to the social and environmental sciences and economics. To better understand the concept’s success, this work proposes a bibliometric review, in which statistical methods and data mining were used to analyze 1829 documents, chosen from the Scopus database by searching the term “human flourishing”. Through cluster and network analyses, the study shows the concept’s evolution and composition, as well as its current tensions and trends, in which the predominantly psychological approach is being compensated with social concerns and the search for justice. Furthermore, the concept’s strong philosophical roots provide it with abstract richness and great fertility, which can be seen in keywords, such as virtue or eudaimonia. This bibliometric review proved to be useful for this type of study, despite the limitations imposed by the characteristics of the Scopus database itself.

Duhovnost i fizičko vežbanje - preventiva za epi(pan)demiju COVID-19

It is an undeniable truth that in one period of today's people's lives, the COVID19 epi(pan)demic was weaved. It is a period marked by suffering, pain and illness, as well as a significant disharmony of spirit, soul and body, which consequently influenced the fear of bared life and survival. The age of the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to the objective presence of a virus that has taken many lives, warns us that the world is facing infodemia, manipulative media propaganda, polarized profession, loss of basic human rights and other global plans diametrically opposed to the spiritual approach and whose primary goal is to spread fear among people. Such a situation has created a ground for positive and/or negative thinking of people regarding epi(pan)demics. The scientific approach to the concept of spirituality, although it has its roots in philosophy and psychology, is present in religion, and today we can say in quantum medicine, bioethics and other sciences. However, no matter how different the paths of spirituality may be, they have in common finding the hidden laws of nature and selflessly using their discoveries to improve the lives of others. The complexity and diversity of the concept of spirituality leads to the choice of the spiritual path and the development of each person individually. In an effort to better understand his inner life, an individual must go through a processes of introspection and self-knowledge in order to reach the virtues that enable him to have a wiser relationship with himself, the environment, the world. The aim of this paper is to consider some situations that may represent the foundation of a new (beneficial) path to human salvation, possible life in new circumstances. The complexity of the topic raises the question - how to achieve active work with results that will be beneficial for people in the new conditions of the pandemic? The results of the research indicate that the syncretism of spirituality and physical exercise creates conditions for meaningful reasoning, reflection, cognition and awareness of the understanding that this is a very important path to healing.

Historical-philosophical Strategy roots as a Fundamental Science

Motives of human behavior in socio-economic environment took up minds of the greatest philosophers and scientists during the entirety of the human history. Scientific-philosophical paradigm of artificial societies, based on methodological problems of cognition of real society functioning mechanisms, namely specific agents, exactly assumes studying human behavior in socio-economic environment, that is their different strategies. Strategy as a relatively new science, expects forecasting and strategizing of various kinds of strategizing objects, in fact – various kinds of agents and their activity. Such agent-based approach, based on using intellectual (rational) agents, implies using intelligence as a calculating part (planning) of ability to reach set goals, which is a strategizing in a strategy science. Social sciences, including strategy as a science, gradually become closer to natural sciences both in tools and methodology principles, relying on interdisciplinary of researches and defining necessity of creating artificial societies and virtual worlds as research models of real society and economy. New research terminology and tools that need conceptual elaboration appear. Practical orientation of strategy as a relatively new science is not doubted and is proved by series of historical and economical events. In this case, however, proof of its fundamentality is needed. In a cycle out of two articles, an attempt to substantiate strategy as a fundamental science, defining agents behavior as central units of modeling artificial societies, based on research of its philosophical roots is made, which is a goal of this research. The first work is presented.

Strategy as a fundamental science: theoretical-methodological justification

Modern society and era are characterized by a series of systemic transformations in changing status of science, which leads to changing organization principles of the whole society. Development of modern methods of investigating the behavior of big socio-economic systems is based on creating their artificial analogues and imitational models of processes taking place in it, for example, with the usage of agent-based approach. Social sciences, including strategy as a science are not an exception here, gradually becoming closer to natural sciences both in tools and methodology principles, relying on interdisciplinary of researches and defining necessity of creating artificial societies and virtual worlds (metauniverses) as research models of real society and economy. Strategy as a relatively new science is not an exception in a sphere of creating new terminology and using research tools that need conceptual elaboration of independent agents’ behavior models that have a set of individual properties, as well as existing conditions of these agents (environment factors) and behavior rules, to which the agents obey. With certitude of practical orientation of strategy as a science, proved by series of historical and economical events, its fundamentality needs to be substantiated. In a cycle out of two articles, an attempt to substantiate strategy as a fundamental science, defining agents behavior as central units of artificial societies modelling, based on research of its philosophical roots and theoretical-methodological is made, which is a goal of this research. The second work is presented. As results of this second article, strategy is researched from a fundamentality position, for substantiation of this such key theoretical-methodological characteristics as: (1) content of “science” definition and its structural elements – scientific problem, facts, hypothesis, study, law; (2) distinctive features of science – purposefulness, evidentiary, versatility, consistency, objectivity, presence of a special terminology, methodology, observability of objects and phenomena, presence of paradigm, results, social and practical significance; (3) presence of terminology – general and specific (strategy, formal strategy, strategizing, strategist, object of strategizing, strategical management, strategical plan, artificial societies, agent-based approach).