Pragmatic Interest Research Articles

Empathy and Self-Empathy in the Anthropological Dimension of Modernity

Purpose. In the article, the author questions rethinking the phenomena of empathy and self-empathy as modes of self-understanding of humanity and the inner intention to self-exploration of human spirituality. Theoretical basis. The research is based on the phenomenological dimension of modern anthropology and axiology. Originality. The change of the traditional intersubjective approach in the understanding of empathy to an introsubjective one and the affirmation of self-empathy as one of the defining existences in human beings, which is adjusted by the altruism-egoism value scale and forms the skills of unconditional empathic action towards the Other as a mode of self-exploration in the spiritual essence of a person are argued. Conclusions. The commonplace in a wide palette of research views on empathy is the construct for the Self – Other disposition and the intersubjective approach emphasizing the object of empathy. Transformation of the intention vector of empathic consciousness from the object to the subject of empathic action opens up deep possibilities of spiritual improvement as a way of self-awareness in the human essence. The transformation of the intention vector of empathic consciousness from intersubjective (I in the Other) to introsubjective (I through the Other) has the potential for spiritual development according to the altruism-egoism value scale. Empathy as an introsubjective position of self-exploration is inseparably connected with self-empathy, which in the mutual integration of its three main components – benevolence towards oneself, reflexivity towards one’s own experience and a tendency to understand one’s fate as common to all mankind – forms an important regulator of self-understanding of a person’s spiritual potential and the possibility of the practical extrapolation for these skills to an empathic way of communication at all levels of anthropo-being. Anthropological accentuation on the inner essence and meanings of human existence is carried out through intuition and self-altruism as the fading of pragmatic interest in the socially conditioned Self (Ego) and immersion in the essential Self – the bearer of the universal spiritual in a person. Self-empathy is considered in the context of the ideas of Stoicism as a deep self-immersion in the human essence and sensitivity to immediate emotional internal states, as a construct of emotional intelligence and a way of realizing individual uniqueness in the context of the metamodern concept of atopy. Self-empathy is defined as one of the key existences in human beings, which forms the skill of altruistic (unconditional) implementation of empathy.

Siberian Merchants in Mikhail M. Speransky’s Travel Diary and Letters (1819–1821)

Mikhail M. Speransky was one of the most outstanding statesman of the Russian Empire. He was the Siberian Governor-General in 1819–1821. His Siberian travel diary and correspondence cast light upon the interaction between state power and private capital during the economic and socio-cultural integration of the Eastern territories. The research objective was to reveal M. M. Speransky’s opinion about Siberian merchants, who were the most influential regional community. The analysis included M. M. Speransky’s brief diary entries and long letters to his daughter and friends, and as well as his business correspondence. M. M. Speransky believed that Siberian merchants were to play an important role in the development of regional economy and society. Numerous contacts with representatives of merchants from different Siberian cities allowed him to make observations about the moods spread in the merchant environment, the volume and features of commercial operations, their social role, etc. He also established good relations with the most prominent merchants. M. M. Speransky wrote about everyday life, culture, and economic relations of Siberian communities. He advocated the freedom of trade and despised the selfish attitude of the local administrations to the merchant class. He gathered information from different sources, including personal conversations with merchants, and developed an opinion on such important state issues as the activities of the Russian-American Company and the Russian-Chinese trade via Kyakhta. M. M. Speransky’s had a pragmatic interest in merchants and encouraged them to make charity donations for various needs.

A systematic review documenting reasons whether physicians should provide treatment to their family and friends.

Physicians are likely to be asked to provide medical care to relatives or friends. Evidence suggests that most physicians treat loved ones during their active years. However, in the academic literature, critical approaches to the matter are dominating. Ethical guidelines often discourage physicians from treating family members and friends outside of exceptional circumstances. This systematic review aims to identify reasons for and against treating family and friends as portrayed in the literature published. A search string designed for the database "PubMed," snowball sampling, and hand searching was used to identify possibly eligible publications. Seventy-six publications were screened for all reasons presented in favour of and against physicians treating loved ones. Qualitative content analysis was used for data extraction. Combining a deductive and inductive approach, a coding system was developed. Many publications analysed represent articles portraying personal experiences; fewer show original research. Reasons against and in favour of treating family and friends were identified. Several publications specify conditions under which the treatment of loved ones may be legitimate. The reasons identified can be assigned to a micro or macro level of human interaction. This systematic review shows that the discourse of physicians treating loved ones is held predominantly in the context of personal experiences. The majority of authors seem to have a rather pragmatic interest in the topic, and systematic or analytic approaches are rare. While most authors mention various codes of ethics, several publications criticize these or consider them insufficient.

Работа советской адвокатуры по оказанию бесплатной юридической помощи гражданам России и пропаганде правовых знаний в 1918–1940 гг. (на материалах Курского края)

At present, not only theoretical, but also pragmatic interest in the historical experience of the Soviet state is growing. Not infrequently, this experience is passed off as short stories in modern reality. One of these misconceptions is the provision of free legal assistance to Russian citizens. The purpose of this work is to analyze the process of formation and activities of the lawyer community in Soviet Russia, where the main task is to study the identification of the reasons for the provision of free legal assistance to the population. The conclusion about the regulatory function of the state in providing comprehensive legal assistance to the population is substantiated. The methodological approach is based on the historical method, the formal legal method, and the dialectical method. It is established that the Soviet state administratively determined the rates for legal services provided, depending on the social status of a citizen and his income. The processes of growth of categories of persons receiving legal assistance free of charge are revealed. The role of the advocacy in the promotion of Soviet normative legal acts, primarily in the peasant environment, its public work as a whole is shown. Reasons and methods of liquidation of private practicing lawyers are substantiated. The identified documents allow you to re-evaluate a number of aspects in the activities of the Bar in the specified chronological framework.

Assembling covalent organic framework membranes via phase switching for ultrafast molecular transport

Fabrication of covalent organic framework (COF) membranes for molecular transport has excited highly pragmatic interest as a low energy and cost-effective route for molecular separations. However, currently, most COF membranes are assembled via a one-step procedure in liquid phase(s) by concurrent polymerization and crystallization, which are often accompanied by a loosely packed and less ordered structure. Herein, we propose a two-step procedure via a phase switching strategy, which decouples the polymerization process and the crystallization process to assemble compact and highly crystalline COF membranes. In the pre-assembly step, the mixed monomer solution is casted into a pristine membrane in the liquid phase, along with the completion of polymerization process. In the assembly step, the pristine membrane is transformed into a COF membrane in the vapour phase of solvent and catalyst, along with the completion of crystallization process. Owing to the compact and highly crystalline structure, the resultant COF membranes exhibit an unprecedented permeance (water ≈ 403 L m−2 bar−1 h−1 and acetonitrile ≈ 519 L m−2 bar−1 h−1). Our two-step procedure via phase switching strategy can open up a new avenue to the fabrication of advanced organic crystalline microporous membranes.

The Local Political Policies: The Dynamics of the Political Party Coalition in the Election Contestation of the Governor West Nusa Tenggara Province Indonesia

This paper analyzed political party coalitions in the 2018 West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Governor election. Research methods included in-depth interviews, observations, and review of documents. Analysis of data and information identified choice of political party coalition originated from distribution of political office positions and potential victory of political parties as two major factors in decision making. Analysis revealed in regional election contests consideration in choosing a political party coalition partner prioritizes pragmatic interest rather than the similarity of political party ideology.

Discussion on a null hypothesis for a bibliometric study

In a bibliometric study [1] we located around 100 high-potency studies, each of which scrutinized an earlier study. An expert round was set to discuss whether it was justified to use the null hypothesis that no difference would be found between the respective test and control groups.
 
 The following two viewpoints were juxtaposed: 
 
 1) The classical null hypothesis states that the results from a test group and its respective control will not differ. If difference is found, the null hypothesis must be rejected. In this case, whether the values found in the test group were higher or lower than the ones of the control group is irrelevant. However, in some instances lack of difference between the test and the control groups is not helpful to make an informed decision. In the case of the analyzed bibliometric study, the research question is as follows: is the number of replication studies which produced a result of the same kind as the original study greater than the number of replication studies which produced a result of the opposite kind?
 
 2) Often there is a pragmatic interest in a one-sided difference or in a deviation in one specific direction. A null hypothesis to this end will state, for example, that the result of the test group will not be better than that of the control group. If difference in favor of the test group is found, the null hypothesis must then be rejected. If, conversely, no difference is found or the result of the control group is better, the null hypothesis can be maintained. For the analyzed bibliometric study the question is: is the number of replication studies which yielded a result of the same kind as the original study greater than the number of all other replication studies?
 
 From viewpoint (1) the outcome was that 70% of replication studies yielded the same result as the original study, 10% per cent the opposite result, and in 20% no difference was found between test and control. From this view point the standing is 70 positive, 10 negative and 20 undecided results. Broken down further, the outcome for laboratory-internal replication was 83 and 5 (12 undecided results) while the outcome for multicenter replication was 75 and 11 (14) and that for external replication was 48 and 14 (38).
 
 From viewpoint (2) the outcome was that 70% of replication studies yielded the same result as the original study, and that 30% (= 10% + 20%) either resulted in no difference between the test and the control group or a result opposite to the one of the original study. From this viewpoint the standing is 70 ‘for reproducibility’ versus 30 ‘not for reproducibility.’ Broken down further, the outcome for laboratory-internal replication was 83 and 17 (= 5 + 12), while that for multicenter replication 75 and 25 (= 11 + 14) and the one for external replication 48 and 52 (= 14 + 38).
 
 We conclude that the 2 two viewpoints should be treated as equally valid when discussing the outcome of the analyzed bibliometric study
 
 Keywords: high dilution, experiment repetition, null hypothesis 
 
 
 References 
 [1] Endler PC, Bellavite P, Bonamin L, Jäger T. Mazon S. Replications of fundamental research models in ultra high dilutions, 1994 and 2015: an update on a bibliometric study. Homeopathy 2015;104:235-245

The wanderlust of German words and their pragmatic adaptation in English

This article explores pragmatic aspects of lexical borrowing, based on examples of borrowing from German into British English. While borrowing from English is widely studied, the focus on German sheds light on a more unlikely source language. A cross-linguistic, corpus-based comparative analysis focuses on contrasts in the use of post-1900 loans in the German source language and the British English recipient language. Contrasts in the uses of a number of these loans as well as a detailed analysis of the borrowed prefix uber-/über-in English and German show that a recipient language may adopt specific uses that are marginal in the source language and that it can also put the loan to different uses than evident in the source language. Such contrasts are discussed as a result of pragmatic adaptation of the loan into the recipient language. The loan is de-contextualized from its use in the source language and becomes re-contextualised into different uses in the recipient language which reflect the communicative needs and hence the pragmatic interest in the loan from within the recipient language, partly or even entirely irrespective of its uses in the source language.

EVOLUTION FROM THE CONCEPT “ZERO PROBLEMS WITH NEIGHBORS” TO THE PRACTICE “ZERO NEIGHBORS WITHOUT PROBLEMS”: THE ROLE OF NEO-OTTOMANISM

The peculiarities of Turkey’s foreign policy in the Middle East in 2002-2020 are studied. Turkey’s intentions to establish itself as an influential Eurasian state, which claims leadership in the Middle East, as well as in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia, were noted. The authors indicate the concept and foreign policy doctrine of “Zero Problems with Neighbors” as the ideological basis for Turkey’s transition from a peripheral to a central role in international politics. It is emphasized that the doctrine of “Zero problems with neighbors” has become a revision of traditional Kemalist values in Turkey’s foreign policy. The authors of the article evaluate the practical implementation of the doctrine as an unsuccessful attempt to become a regional leader in the Middle East. It was emphasized that at the beginning of the implementation of the concept of “Zero problems with neighbors” the only goal of the Turkish government was really to establish good neighborly relations, but after the beginning of the “Arab Spring” foreign policy strategy was revised. It was noted that in the last decade the Turkish government has reoriented to a more pragmatic foreign policy direction; it is determined by the main purpose of protecting its national interests; the result was partial Turkey isolation. The article expresses author’s vision that Turkey in its foreign policy has obviously moved from the concept of “Zero problems with neighbors” to the practice of “zero friends”. It is proved that: 1) Turkey’s relations with the Middle East (except Qatar) are quite tense; 2) although there is a partnership with many countries in the Middle East, it is often based on pragmatic mutual interest of countries, and cooperation often does not go beyond trade and economic relations.

Arctic military security: geopolitical interaction in “the United States-Russia-Norway” triangle

It is common knowledge that during the Cold War the Arctic was a region for the global confrontation between the USSR and the U.S. Over the past decades the situation has changed dramatically. Nowadays there are no serious hard security threats to the Arctic states in the region and the soft security agenda is much more important. The article examines an emerging military security system in the Arctic. Special attention is paid to the analysis of threat perceptions, security policies and regional military strategies of the U.S., Russia and Norway as well as to the peculiarities of their geopolitical interaction in the region. The research is based on a number of methods, the most important of which are document analysis and expert opinion methods. Summarizing everything the authors stress that it is crucial to calm tensions between the U.S., Russia and Norway so the animosity does not lead to dangerous military incidents in the Arctic as it may threaten global security in general. Thus, it is clear that in order to stabilize the system of the military security in the Arctic, the US, Russia and Norway should establish a tripartite dialogue based on trust and pragmatic interest.

Dimensi Religiusitas Agensi Pendidikan Politik Partai NasDem Jawa Timur

Religious discourse in political praxis always attracts the attention of many experts. Some of them consider that the use of religion represents more pragmatic interest of political parties for stimulating voters in general elections. This study argues that the use of religion in political praxis is not merely for the pragmatic purposes of the party, but also for the party’s idealistic goals. This is the reason that makes the implementation of political education important for integrating religious dimensions. NasDem Party of East Java is known for its concern in promoting its ideal image as a nationalist-religious party. In order to realize its image and political vision, NasDem carries religion-based politics in its political education. This article aims to study issues such as how religious dimensions are contained in political education and how the orientasions of the agency of political party are. This article found an important finding that there were two dimensions in the implementation of political education, namely the ritual-symbolic and substantive religious dimensions. The orientation of symbolic religious dimension is to strengthen the faith and the creation of nationality- religious intergated understanding, while the substantive dimension is oriented to shape a humanist-religious consciousness and God’s mandate in the political role.

An unknown soldier: Philosophical apology of war and its origins

«Вестник Санкт-Петербургского университета. Философия и конфликтология» — научно-теоретический рецензируемый журнал, обобщающий результаты исследований ученых всего мира в области традиционных философских дисциплин — онтологии, теории познания, логики, этики, социальной философии, эстетики, истории философии, философии культуры и философии религии, а также актуальные разработки в конфликтологии, философии политики и права.

Collection and Remanufacturing of Waste Products under Patent Protection and Government Regulation

There is increasing academic and pragmatic interest in leveraging patent rights to invigorate remanufacturing for waste products under governmental interventions via regulations and reward–penalty instruments. In practice, many original manufacturers that are possessed with intellectual property rights allow third-party remanufacturers to implement reproducing operations through authorization and charging licensing fees. The general purpose of this paper is to explore favorable strategies for a closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) system of waste product collection and remanufacturing, in the context of either manufacturer-remanufacturing or remanufacturer-remanufacturing. To achieve such an objective, game theory is adopted to establish models of three collection and remanufacturing modes among channel members involving a manufacturer, a seller, and a remanufacturer. In so doing, the results show that a government’s allocations of elementary remanufacturing ratio and the unit amount of reward–penalty count significantly in CLSC operations, especially for the manufacturer, who acts as the leader in the system and makes mode selections.

The particularity of the universal: critical reflections on Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic power and the state

A critical review of Bourdieu’s theory of the state is developed here against the backdrop of both his wider theoretical project and empirical studies. Elaborating the concepts of symbolic capital, symbolic violence, and symbolic domination, the centrality that Bourdieu accords to symbolic forms is compared to benchmark Weberian accounts that start with the state monopoly of violence. Reviewing also some of the burgeoning secondary literature discussing his theory of the state, Bourdieu’s writings, which encompass various antinomies, are shown to vacillate between two distinct perspectives—a strong and a weak theory of the state. His rejection of the “physicalist” approaches of Marx, Elias, and Tilly is elaborated and subject to a counter-critique, particularly in relation to the notion of symbolic “violence.” Bourdieu’s account of the state is shown to be as much a political as theoretical intervention. His antagonism towards Marxist accounts in particular is shown to be rooted in a pragmatic interest in the role of the “left hand of the state” in progressive reform; and this perspective is traced back to the twin influences of Durkheim and Hegel, French republicanism, and in particular the potential of the state to express a universal interest. At the same time, compared with sophisticated Marxist and Weberian accounts and the work of Norbert Elias and Gramsci, Bourdieu’s theory is shown to be severely lacking in the way that he deals with violence and coercion. His “expanded materialism,” particularly with the “strong theory,” bends the stick too far and overplays the symbolic basis of consent. Nevertheless, Bourdieu’s insights with regard to the pervasive influences of state practices of classification, taxonomy, delegation, and naming are shown to have real utility with regard to focused empirical investigations of the state in modern societies.

Digital Resource Sharing and Library Consortia in Italy

Interlibrary cooperation in Italy is a fairly recent and not very widespread practice. Attention to the topic was aroused in the eighties with the Italian library network project. More recently, under the impetus toward technological innovation, there has been renewed (and more pragmatic) interest in cooperation in all library sectors. Sharing electronic resources is the theme of greatest interest today in university libraries, where various initiatives are aimed at setting up consortia to purchase licenses and run digital products. A number of projects in hand are described, and emerging trends analyzed.

A Structural Analysis of topic ontologies

DMOZ is the largest human-edited topic ontology available on the Web. This article studies the structural properties of the DMOZ graph. A number of global and local properties of this graph and the subgraphs resulting from isolating edges of different types are examined by means of metrics commonly used in complex network analysis. In particular, we investigate the presence of various features that characterize small-world networks. This analysis is complemented by examining other characteristics of the graphs such as connectivity and centrality measures. The connectivity and centrality patterns are further studied by means of visualizations of the graphs’ k-core decomposition and a selection of strongly connected components. Several non-trivial regularities that are also encountered in other artificial and natural complex networks provide a general picture of this large human-edited topic ontology. This analysis is of major pragmatic interest as it allows a better understanding of notions such as navigability among topics, hierarchical structure and topic cohesiveness, which are of great importance in the design of topic ontologies.

MANAGEMENT OF PREGNANCY AND DELIVERY IN MULTIPLE PREGNANCY

The problem of multiple pregnancy management is of scientific and pragmatic interest, because in the last years, there is an increase of numbers of multiple pregnancies, especially due to wider use of assisted reproductive technologies. As a female organism has been evolutionally adapted to carriage of a single fetus, the multiple pregnancy is a classic model of fetoplacental insufficiency. Multiple pregnancy is a high risk pregnancy, with a high percentage of preterm deliveries, high perinatal mortality and infant morbidity. In pregnancy with two and more fetuses a certain observational algorithm is necessary that would allow timely performing of diagnostic and treatment activities, as well as taking adequante strategic decisions to ensure prolongation of pregnancy. The review deals with literature data summarizing a many years’ international experience of management of women with multiple pregnancies, as well as the results of the author’s own studies.

An Emigrant Teachers’ Excursion in the World of Digital Native Students

This paper does not aim to reflect an enquiry based on a cognitive or theoretical interest, but rather a pragmatic interest, the interest taken by two “digital immigrant” teachers in the world of “digital native” students with the declared aim to use e- learning to develop new educational activities in order to improve the quality of the students’ learning experiences. We developed an empirical inquiry based on a questionnaire applied to students from University of Bucharest. Its main objectives were: identifying students’ perceptions regarding e-learning; identifying some of the e-learning practices used by students in different learning contexts; identifying some digital technologies that are currently employed in higher education.

On the Emergence of the Subject

The paper retraces the elaboration of a model that accounts for the emergence of subjectivity-the possibility to distance self from others and oneself-if we consider people as always taken in social and cultural streams of meaning and tensions. It builds a model considering first, human experience as possible when a person takes distance from the here-and-now. Second, it suggests considering two general semiotic streams that feed in, or support, that distancing-social and cultural discourses, and personal experience. Third, a knitting model suggests the constant creation of personal patters out of these two streams. Fourth, a dynamic, star-like model is proposed to account for the actual and constant emergence of subjectivity out of such social and cultural configurations. The model is constituted by a 2, 3 or N-number of eight-shaped crossing loops, resulting in a star-like model situated in a 3 dimensional space. The proposition is to analyze a person in a specific situation: the attractors enabling these loops, or end-points of the star, are the relevant social and cultural elements: others with whom he or she interacts, specific bodies of shared knowledge, social representations, cultural elements and tools, and so on. In each situation, the relative strength of these elements, or the tension they generate, are negotiated by the person; the unique ways of dealing with that situation and inviting solutions can thus be seen as the emergent subjectivity. The model is explored to account for developmental dynamics at various scales in the lifecourse. Finally, the pragmatic interest of a model emphasizing complex configurations, not simple causalities, is recalled.

RM3 A Comparison Between Markov Chains and System Dynamics Modeling for the Estimation of Metabolic Syndrome Costs in a Public Health Care Delivery Organization in MÉxico

The objective of this study was to compare life-time costs for a population obtained through Markov chain (MC) and system dynamics (SD) methodologies. While both methodologies are based on the concepts of state and transition, the meanings of each differ. The importance of this study lies in the fact that in some cases information is available for one type of model or the other, and the possibility of using either tool for modeling a situation is of pragmatic interest. Models of increasing degrees of complexity were developed. At each level of complexity, a MC model and a SD model were developed and the differences in results obtained were compared. SD models were simulated with Vensim software and MC models with TreeAge Pro software. Data were drawn from an institutional survey and from literature. An important issue in this comparison is that Markov models are based on transition probabilities while system dynamic models rely on material flows. Also, simulation techniques differ in that Montecarlo methods move a patient trough the model until it exits before including another patient, while SD models treat all patients in the cohort simultaneously. Thus, transformations for the set of mathematical expressions in each modeling methodology may lead to similar numerical results while not being conceptually equivalent. The simplest models led to equivalent aggregate numerical results. In these cases, the probability of leaving state Sn (MC) is numerically equivalent to inverse residence time (SD). More complex models required adapting the structure of one to be equivalent to the other. Applications of each methodology overlap at a certain aggregation level. When a long period is studied and not much detail is required in each state, SD seems an appropriate tool. When more precision is needed for individual patients, MC analysis seems a better choice.