Social focal points: Coordination and social knowledge

Two aspects of the problem of corruption are discussed in the article. The first one concerns the evaluation of the level of corruption. The method of measuring the size of business corruption market is described. The specifics of its estimation as well as its relation with the main macroeconomic indexes are discussed. The second aspect regards the strategies of corruption reduction. The importance of establishing external control over the bureaucracy is noted. The failure of institutions transplantation as the main method of economic transformations is pointed out. The gaps in social knowledge are discussed, which decrease effectiveness of institutional borrowings.

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Empathy choice in physicians and non-physicians

10.31234/osf.io/2vx4z ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Daryl Cameron ◽

Michael Inzlicht

Keyword(s):

Medical Care ◽

Potential Risk ◽

Behavioral Assessment ◽

Focal Points ◽

Costs And Benefits ◽

Patient Interactions ◽

Trait Empathy ◽

Physician Empathy ◽

Physician Patient

Empathy in medical care has been one of the focal points in the debate over the bright and dark sides of empathy. Whereas physician empathy is sometimes considered necessary for better physician-patient interactions, and is often desired by patients, it also has been described as a potential risk for exhaustion among physicians who must cope with their professional demands of confronting acute and chronic suffering. The present study compared physicians against demographically matched non-physicians on a novel behavioral assessment of empathy, in which they choose between empathizing or remaining detached from suffering targets over a series of trials. Results revealed no statistical differences between physicians and non-physicians in their empathy avoidance, though physicians were descriptively more likely to choose empathy. Additionally, both groups were likely to perceive empathy as cognitively challenging, and perceived cognitive costs of empathy associated with empathy avoidance. Across groups, there were also no statistically significant differences in self-reported trait empathy measures and empathy-related motivations and beliefs. Overall, these results suggest that physicians and non-physicians were more similar than different in terms of their empathic choices and in their assessments of the costs and benefits of empathy for others.

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Ibn Khaldun’s Theory of Social Change

American Journal of Islam and Society ◽

10.35632/ajis.v15i2.2196 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 15 (2) ◽

pp. 25-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Fida Mohammad

Keyword(s):

Industrial Revolution ◽

Natural World ◽

Social Knowledge ◽

Philosophical Tradition ◽

Historical Process ◽

Ibn Khaldun ◽

Historical Processes ◽

The Will ◽

The Individual ◽

Compare And Contrast

In this article I shall compare and contrast Ibn Khaldun’s ideas aboutsociohistorical change with those of Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim. I willdiscuss and elaborate Ibn Khaldun’s major ideas about historical andsocial change and compare them with three important figures of modemWestern sociology and philosophy.On reading Ibn Khaldun one should remember that he was living in thefourteenth century and did not have the privilege of witnessing the socialdislocation created by the industrial revolution. It is also very difficult tocategorize Ibn Khaldun within a single philosophical tradition. He is arationalist as well as an empiricist, a historicist as well as a believer inhuman agency in the historical process. One can see many “modem”themes in his thinking, although he lived a hundred years beforeMachiavelli.Lauer, who considers Ibn Khaldun the pioneer of modem sociologicalthought, has summarized the main points of his philosophy.’ In his interpretationof Ibn Khaldun, he notes that historical processes follow a regularpattern. However, whereas this pattern shows sufficient regularity, itis not as rigid as it is in the natural world. In this regard the position ofIbn Khaldun is radically different from those philosophies of history thatposit an immutable course of history determined by the will of divineprovidence or other forces. Ibn Khaldun believes that the individual isneither a completely passive recipient nor a full agent of the historicalprocess. Social laws can be discovered through observation and datagathering, and this empirical grounding of social knowledge represents adeparture from traditional rational and metaphysical thinking ...

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