Beyond Bad Beliefs

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Nathan Robert Howard
Keyword(s):  
Moral Worth ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Moral Encroachment

Abstract Philosophers have recently come to focus on explaining the phenomenon of bad beliefs, beliefs that are apparently true and well-evidenced but nevertheless objectionable. Despite this recent focus, a consensus is already forming around a particular explanation of these beliefs’ badness called moral encroachment, according to which, roughly, the moral stakes engendered by bad beliefs make them particularly difficult to justify. This paper advances an alternative account not just of bad beliefs but of bad attitudes more generally according to which bad beliefs’ badness originates not in a failure of sufficient evidence but in a failure to respond adequately to reasons. I motivate this alternative account through an analogy to recent discussions of moral worth centered on the well-known grocer case from Kant’s Groundwork, and by showing that this analogy permits the proposed account to generalize to bad attitudes beyond belief. The paper concludes by contrasting the implications of moral encroachment and of the proposed account for bad attitudes’ blameworthiness.

Treating Velopharyngeal Inadequacy Using Bilateral Buccal Flap Revision Palatoplasty

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 878-892
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Napoli ◽  
Linda D. Vallino
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Obstructive Sleep Apnea ◽  
Sleep Apnea ◽  
Cleft Lip ◽  
Cleft Lip And Palate ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Obstructive Sleep ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Buccal Flap

Purpose The 2 most commonly used operations to treat velopharyngeal inadequacy (VPI) are superiorly based pharyngeal flap and sphincter pharyngoplasty, both of which may result in hyponasal speech and airway obstruction. The purpose of this article is to (a) describe the bilateral buccal flap revision palatoplasty (BBFRP) as an alternative technique to manage VPI while minimizing these risks and (b) conduct a systematic review of the evidence of BBFRP on speech and other clinical outcomes. A report comparing the speech of a child with hypernasality before and after BBFRP is presented. Method A review of databases was conducted for studies of buccal flaps to treat VPI. Using the principles of a systematic review, the articles were read, and data were abstracted for study characteristics that were developed a priori. With respect to the case report, speech and instrumental data from a child with repaired cleft lip and palate and hypernasal speech were collected and analyzed before and after surgery. Results Eight articles were included in the analysis. The results were positive, and the evidence is in favor of BBFRP in improving velopharyngeal function, while minimizing the risk of hyponasal speech and obstructive sleep apnea. Before surgery, the child's speech was characterized by moderate hypernasality, and after surgery, it was judged to be within normal limits. Conclusion Based on clinical experience and results from the systematic review, there is sufficient evidence that the buccal flap is effective in improving resonance and minimizing obstructive sleep apnea. We recommend BBFRP as another approach in selected patients to manage VPI. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9919352

Frustrating Absences

Disputatio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (53) ◽  
pp. 45-62
Author(s):  
André J. Abath
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
The World

Abstract Experiences of absence are common in everyday life, but have received little philosophical attention until recently, when two positions regarding the nature of such experiences surfaced in the literature. According to the Perceptual View, experiences of absence are perceptual in nature. This is denied by the Surprise-Based View, according to which experiences of absence belong together with cases of surprise. In this paper, I show that there is a kind of experience of absence—which I call frustrating absences—that has been overlooked by the Perceptual View and by the Surprise Based-View and that cannot be adequately explained by them. I offer an alternative account to deal with frustrating absences, one according to which experiencing frustrating absences is a matter of subjects having desires for something to be present frustrated by the world. Finally, I argue that there may well be different kinds of experiences of absence.

Introduction to the cognitive abilities account for the reminiscence bump in the temporal distribution of autobiographical memory

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve M. J. Janssen
Keyword(s):  
Autobiographical Memory ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Reminiscence Bump ◽  
Significant Events ◽  
Cue Words

People tend to recall more specific personal events from adolescence and early adulthood than from other lifetime periods, a finding known as the reminiscence bump. Several explanations have suggested that events from the reminiscence bump are especially emotional, important, or positive, but studies using cue words have not found support for these claims. An alternative account postulates that cognitive abilities function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, which may cause more memories to be stored in those lifetime periods. Although other studies have previously discussed the cognitive abilities account as a possible explanation for the reminiscence bump, it was only recently shown that cognitive abilities are indeed related to autobiographical memory performance. When this recent finding is combined with previous findings that cognitive abilities as well as autobiographical memory function optimally in adolescence and early adulthood, they suggest that the cognitive abilities account is a promising explanation for the reminiscence bump in the temporal distribution of word-cued memories. However, because the account does not aim to explain the reminiscence bump in the distribution of highly significant events, it should be regarded as complementary to the existing accounts.

The Binding and Viscometric Studies of Ni+2, Co+2 and Mn+2 Ions with Protein by Spectrometric and pH Metric Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-162
Author(s):  
Shveta Acharya ◽  
Arun Kumar Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Metal Ions ◽  
Metal Ion ◽  
Protein Molecule ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Structural Requirement ◽  
Nickel Ions ◽  
Cobalt Ions ◽  
Lower Temperature ◽  
Specific Oxidation

Background: The metal ions play a vital role in a large number of widely differing biological processes. Some of these processes are quite specific in their metal ion requirements. In that only certain metal ions, in specific oxidation states, can full fill the necessary catalytic or structural requirement, while other processes are much less specific. Objective: In this paper we report the binding of Mn (II), Ni (II) and Co (II) with albumin are reported employing spectrophotometric and pH metric method. In order to distinguish between ionic and colloidal linking, the binding of metal by using pH metric and viscometric methods and the result are discussed in terms of electrovalent and coordinate bonding. Methods: The binding of Ni+2, Co+2 and Mn+2 ions have been studied with egg protein at different pH values and temperatures by the spectrometric technique. Results: The binding data were found to be pH and temperature dependent. The intrinsic association constants (k) and the number of binding sites (n) were calculated from Scatchard plots and found to be at the maximum at lower pH and at lower temperatures. Therefore, a lower temperature and lower pH offered more sites in the protein molecule for interaction with these metal ions. Statistical effects seem to be more significant at lower Ni+2, Co+2 and Mn+2 ions concentrations, while at higher concentrations electrostatic effects and heterogeneity of sites are more significant. Conclusion: The pH metric as well as viscometric data provided sufficient evidence about the linking of cobalt, nickel and manganese ions with the nitrogen groups of albumin. From the nature and height of curves in the three cases it may be concluded that nickel ions bound strongly while the cobalt ions bound weakly.

The Circulation of Life’s Resources

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Social Body ◽  
Resource Flows ◽  
Recursive Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Egalitarian Ethos

To conclude the book’ s alternative account of the Athenian politeia, the chapter offers a recursive analysis of the resource flows which made this way of life possible. The result is very different from a conventional modern secular economic analysis. Instead, it treats resource transactions as the lifeblood of a cosmic ecology that united gods, land, and people in a condition of symbiotic interdependency. The most important of all these transactions were those between gods and humans, whereby the latter received secure conditions of existence in exchange for temples, sacrifices, votive treasures, and other often costly ritual offerings. The most important of the resource transactions between humans were marriages, whereby the managerial and reproductive capacities of females were transferred from one household to another, thereby perpetuating the life of the social body. Contrary to the “egalitarian” ethos which moderns believe animated “democratic Athens,” demokratia would also have been unsustainable without the innumerable contributions of resources, material and otherwise, that were made by a relatively small number of super-wealthy Athenian households. And in a polis where members typically worked only for themselves, the existence of these ecologically essential super-wealthy households would have been unsustainable without the routine exploitation of slaves.

Moral Perception and Its Rivals

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Moral Knowledge ◽  
Moral Perception ◽  
Attractive Alternative ◽  
Alternative Account ◽  
Perceptual Knowledge ◽  
Relevant Class

Proponents of moral perception hold that some of our moral knowledge is perceptual knowledge. Discussions of whether moral perception is possible often seem to assume that there is some attractive alternative account of how we arrive at moral knowledge in those cases that are regarded as among the best candidates for cases of full-fledged moral perception. This chapter challenges that assumption by critically examining some alternative accounts of how we arrive at knowledge in the relevant class of cases, arguing that the more closely one examines these alternative accounts, the more implausible they seem as accounts of how we actually manage to arrive at moral knowledge. A modest version of moral perception is sketched, one that does not suffer from any similarly implausible commitments. There are some concluding reflections on why it matters whether some of our moral knowledge is perceptual.

Formal Independence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Kosch
Keyword(s):  
Moral Evil ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Material Condition

Chapter 4 explains Fichte’s conception of formal independence or conscientiousness, which has two aspects (a ‘formal’ and a ‘material’ aspect, the latter not to be confused with material independence). Fichte’s account is compared with Kant’s, and the two are shown to be in more agreement than has previously been thought. The independence of the material condition on moral worth from this formal one is shown to be entailed by Fichte’s account of the role of conscience (rather than, as is often thought, being inconsistent with it). Finally, Fichte’s account of moral evil is explained and its consistency with his account of conscience examined.

Classical Representations and Uses of the Presocratics

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Presocratic Philosophy

Anyone interested in the influence of Presocratic thought may be tempted to begin with Plato and Aristotle. There is, however, sufficient evidence of Presocratic influence among the sophists to make it clear that this temptation should be resisted. Some traces of this earlier influence may be found in Plato and Aristotle themselves, and this fact should serve as a reminder that their own involvement with Presocratic philosophy did not take place in a vacuum but will have been conditioned or mediated by previous developments. This article deals with classical thinkers (including Plato and Aristotle) who interpreted, wrote about, and preserved the Presocratics, pointing out that just as one must read the Presocratics through the filters of Plato and Aristotle and their successors and commentators, Plato and Aristotle were influenced by the already burgeoning tradition of historiography that developed in the late fifth and fourth centuries.

ConsequentIalizing

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-45
Author(s):  
Paul Hurley
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Alternative Account

The strategy of consequentializing features that are intuitively relevant to the deontic evaluation of actions by building them into the telic evaluation of outcomes is almost as old as consequentialism itself. But the recent rejection by many consequentialists of the traditional commitment to an agent-neutral constraint on the relevant evaluation of outcomes has ushered in new consequentializing arguments for consequentialism and new consequentialist arguments for consequentializing. While the former fail, the latter ground the case for consequentializing in deeply entrenched and widely held commitments. These commitments to outcome-centered accounts of reasons, actions, and attitudes dictate that any plausible alternative account of what agents rationally and morally ought to do must be a form of consequentialism and hence must have a consequentialized form. Such outcome-centered commitments, however, all run afoul of common sense in similar ways, and a pervasive strategy for mitigating this counter-intuitiveness trades upon a conflation of two distinct senses in which we speak of actions as bringing about outcomes.

Plato on Education as the Development of Reason

1998 ◽  
pp. 255-260
Author(s):  
Samuel Scolnicov
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Moral Luck ◽  
Educational Innovation ◽  
Moral Worth ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
Whole Person ◽  
Real Objects

Socrates' great educational innovation was in ascribing moral worth to the intellectual activity reflectively directed at one's own life. His concept of eudaimonia was so different from the ordinary that talking about it took on sometimes a paradoxical air, as in Apology 30b3. For him, reason is not a tool for attaining goals independently thought worthwhile; rather, rationality itself, expressed in the giving of reasons and the avoidance of contradictions, confers value to goals and opinions. Persons are reasonable, but obviously not the empirical human being. But education is aimed at the empirical man or woman and inevitably employs psychological means. How then is it possible that the result of education should grow out of the depths of each individual and be nevertheless valid for all individuals? In the Symposium, Plato gives Aristophanes the crucial move. Each of us is only half the whole person and we are moved by our desire for what we lack. In this context, to claim that the soul is immortal is to claim-at least-that the soul has a non-empirical dimension, that its real objects are not the objects of desire as such, and that a person's sensible life is not the true basis for the evaluation of his or her eudaimonia. However, in the soul which is not free from contradictions there is no advantage to right but unexamined options. There is in the life of the naïve just an insecurity which is not merely pragmatic. Even if a person never falters to the end of life, this is no more than moral luck. One is still guilty on the level of the logos, and liable to blame and punishment not for what one does, but for what one could have done.

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