scholarly journals Universales Morales: la ciencia de la naturaleza humana y el enfoque de la Ética cognitiva

Daímon ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 147
Author(s):  
Enrique Fernando Bocardo Crespo
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Cognitive Revolution ◽  
Moral Faculty ◽  
Considered Moral Judgments ◽  
Potential Infinite

<p><strong>Abstract</strong>: Recent trends in Cognitive Ethics have emphasized the conceptual debts with the development of the Science of Human Nature in the late 1600s and early 1700s. The paper deals mainly with two major theoretical approaches in the cognitive revolution, (1) that is possible to offer an explanation of the cognitive mechanisms involved in moral decision processes in terms of abstract principles allegedly embedded in human nature; and (2) that there might be substantive reasons to assume a moral faculty to account for the capacity to issue a potential infinite number of considered moral judgments.</p><p><strong>Keywords</strong>: Cognitive Ethics, Science of Human Nature, Universal Moral Grammar.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Resumen</strong>: Investigaciones recientes en la Ética Cognitiva han puesto de manifiesto algunas de la deudas teóricas con el desarrollo de la Ciencia de la Naturaleza Humana a finales del siglo XVII y a comienzos del siglo XVIII. El trabajo trata específicamente sobre dos asunciones teóricas específicas dentro de la revolución cognitiva, (1) que es posible ofrecer una explicación de las mecanismos cognitivos responsables de los procesos de decisión moral en términos de principios abstractos que supuestamente están incorporados en la naturaleza humana, y (2) podría ser razonable suponer que existe una cierta facultad moral humana que podría explicar la capacidad de emitir un número potencialmente infinito de juicios morales considerados.</p><p> </p>

Pragmatism in ethics

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.E. Tiles
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Moral Thinking ◽  
Moral Conflicts ◽  
Ethical Philosophy ◽  
Moral Problems ◽  
Classical Mode

Two components of the pragmatist outlook shape its ethical philosophy. It rejects certainty as a legitimate intellectual goal; this generates a nondogmatic attitude to moral precepts and principles. It holds, secondly, that thought (even that exercised in scientific inquiry) is essentially goal-directed in a way that makes the refinement of the control we exercise over how we act (for example, in drawing conclusions) integral to achieving any cognitive goal such as that of truth. This makes it possible to treat scientific inquiry as a model of how we might respond to moral problems and the reasonableness and impartiality required of a scientific inquirer as a paradigm of what may be expected in reaching moral judgments. This view of the nature of thought also inclines pragmatists to assess proposed solutions to moral conflicts in terms of consequences. But although human desires are taken as the raw material with which moral thinking must deal, it is not assumed that people’s desires (what they take pleasure in) are fixed and can be used as a standard by which to assess consequences. Pragmatism is thus free to revert to a classical mode of thought (such as Aristotelianism) in which claims about human nature function as norms – a use which is made, for example, of the claim that humans are essentially social creatures.

The Tension Between Human and Cyborg Ethics

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Anne Gerdes
Keyword(s):  
Moral Reasoning ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
John Rawls ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Regulatory Body ◽  
Ethical Values ◽  
Theory Of Justice ◽  
Human Costs

This article makes no argument against progress but stresses the importance of making it with foresight. The connection between biotechnology, treatment, and enhancement is discussed, stating the need for regulation. Next, the ideas of transhumanism are presented as a framework for an examination of our human condition and it is illustrated that cyborgs will possibly develop other values than Homo sapiens. Thus, the second part of the article discusses what it means to be an ethical being from the perspective of Francis Fukuyama’s ideas of the importance of human nature to our humanity, and further elaborated on by bringing attention to the significance of the vulnerability to moral reasoning. Furthermore, the article suggests a near connection between embodiment and morality. In the light of this assumption, one can ask about ethical values and democratic cohesion in a world with sub-cultures of cyborgs. Thus, John Rawls’ theory of justice is introduced as a framework for reflections about inter-human costs of a posthuman condition. It is concluded that science need democratic regulation, in order to avoid technocratic decision processes, and guidelines for a regulatory body is given.

The Evolutionary Challenge to Knowing Moral Reasons

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Cuneo
Keyword(s):  
Moral Knowledge ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Evolutionary Forces ◽  
Moral Faculty ◽  
Strong Claim

The “debunker’s puzzle” asks how it could be that (i) moral non-naturalism is true, (ii) we have moral knowledge, and (iii) evolutionary forces have heavily shaped the workings of our moral faculty. This chapter begins by exploring a prominent attempt to dissolve the puzzle, so-called third-factor views, arguing that they are subject to a variety of objections. This discussion highlights a pivotal claim in the dialectic between debunkers and non-naturalists: the debunker’s puzzle has force against moral non-naturalism only if it incorporates an ambitious claim about how far evolutionary forces have operated on the workings of the moral faculty. Non-naturalists can plausibly reject such a strong claim. Still, debunkers can rightly reply that non-naturalists nonetheless lack an explanation regarding how our moral judgments are linked to normative reality. The chapter argues that, by appealing to constitutive explanations, non-naturalists have helpful things to say about what the link might be.

The Neolithic of Southeast Europe: Recent Trends

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-140
Author(s):  
John Chapman ◽  
Stella Souvatzi
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Materials Science ◽  
Carpathian Basin ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Infrastructure Projects ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Significant Challenge ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Major Development ◽  
Recent Trends

The prehistory of the Aegean, Balkans, and Carpathian Basin has changed dramatically in the last two decades. This review covers five aspects of these changes: ( a) the development of theoretical approaches, in which diversification from cultural archaeology has seen the spread of processual, postprocessual and later approaches; ( b) the acquisition of data, with the key major development being the proliferation of large-scale infrastructure projects; ( c) the synthesis of data, the most significant challenge being to make sense of the massive increase in paleo-environmental research, materials science, regional surveys, and site monographs; ( d) thematic questions, whose very diversity underscores the discipline's growth in these regions; and ( e) emergent trends, such as the creation of new forms of synthesis at the local, regional, and interregional scales, the theorizing and differentiation of new ways of relating people, places, plants, and animals and objects, and continuing diversification in the application of scientific techniques.

The Leviathan’s Conscience: Hobbesian Human Nature and Moral Judgment

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 778-789 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Branstetter
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
The State ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
Practical Judgment ◽  
Moral Thought ◽  
Moral Improvement ◽  
Individual Judgment

Hannah Arendt claims that Thomas Hobbes was responsible for constituting modern people as apolitical subjects who can no longer make independent moral judgments. The refusal to think that Hobbes allegedly engendered was a major factor in twentieth-century totalitarianism’s worst crimes. In her view, Hobbes’s Leviathan established the architecture of the totalitarian state and initiated the cultivation of people so incapable of exercising moral judgment that they stood idly by and let such a state commit horrors in their name. I argue that Hobbes rejected the proto-totalitarian form of domination Arendt attributes to him and expressed hope about the human capacities for practical judgment and moral improvement. Instead of creating thoughtless subjects which authorize any crime the state might commit, he suggests that the Leviathan should cultivate the public’s capacity for reason and judgment to make violence unnecessary. Considering Hobbes’s accounts of reason and science in light of his materialism shows that the Leviathan requires the exercise of individual moral thought and judgment to function properly. I suggest that the primary duty of the Hobbesian sovereign might be understood primarily in terms of the cultivation of individual judgment and reason rather than its suppression.

Reid's Response to Hume's Moral Critique of Religion

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Esther Engels Kroeker
Keyword(s):  
New Species ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
Moral Faculty ◽  
Moral Critique ◽  
Sense Of Justice ◽  
Critique Of Religion

My aim in this paper is to present Reid's answer to Hume's claim that religion is contrary to natural human moral passions. Religion, according to Hume, weakens natural human inclinations toward virtue and invents new species of merit. Reid would respond, first, that morality is indeed tied to human nature, and that Hume fails to recognize that a sense of justice is natural as well. Since justice does not arise within human social conventions, Reid would conclude that justice is not a virtue that is limited to the human domain. Second, Reid would argue that the concordance between natural moral human motives and natural non-moral motives is a sign of design. And third, Reid would argue that uncorrupted religion is one that is faithful to morality and human nature, and that does not distort natural motives. Overall, Reid holds that the moral faculty is a natural human faculty that gives rise to natural inclinations and beliefs, but that these are concordant with religious beliefs and practices prescribed by Scripture.

scholarly journals A Chamisso-díj után, a Chamisso-irodalmon túl

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (3-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eszter Pabis
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Literary History ◽  
German Literature ◽  
German Language ◽  
Migrant Literature ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Recent Trends

The Adelbert von Chamisso Prize was (up to 2017) awarded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung to honour German-language authors whose works are shaped by a change of culture and an unusual way of using the language. The present article explores the development of the “Chamisso literature” (into which “migrant literature” evolved), its place in literary history and the recent trends it reflects. It also intends to provide an overview of theoretical approaches to the connection between literature, migration and German memory cultures, with special emphasis on the so called “eastern turn” in German literature.

scholarly journals Preprint: Submitted 4/21/2018

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bob McMurray ◽  
Jamie Klein-Packard ◽  
J. Bruce Tomblin
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Oral Language ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Real Time Processing ◽  
Ripple Effects ◽  
Clinical Disorder ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Competition Process

Eight to 11% of children have a clinical disorder in oral language (Developmental Language Disorder, DLD), with pervasive deficits in all levels of language that persist through adulthood. Word-level processing may be critical as words link phonology, orthography, syntax and semantics. Thus, a lexical deficit could cascade throughout language. Cognitively, word recognition is a competition process: as the input (e.g., lizard) unfolds, multiple candidates (liver, wizard) compete for recognition. Children with DLD do not fully resolve this competition, but it is unclear what cognitive mechanisms underlie this. We examined lexical inhibition, the ability of more active words to suppress competitors in 79 adolescents with and without DLD. Participants heard words (e.g. net) in which the onset was manipulated to briefly favor a competitor (neck). This was predicted to inhibit the target, slowing recognition. Word recognition was measured using a task in which participants heard the stimulus, and clicked on a picture of the item from an array of competitors, while eye-movement were monitored as a measure of how strongly the participant was committed to that interpretation over time. TD listeners showed evidence of inhibition with greater interference for stimuli that briefly activated a competitor word. DLD listeners did not. This suggests deficits in DLD may stem from a failure to engage lexical inhibition. This in turn could have ripple effects throughout the language system. This supports theoretical approaches to DLD that emphasize lexical-level deficits; and deficits in real-time processing.

scholarly journals Recent Trends in Journalism Research and Political Power in the Afro-Asian Countries

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Hosny Mohammed Nasr
Keyword(s):  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
The Press ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Recent Trends ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Journalism Research ◽  
The Relationship

This study aims to analyze the new trends in research on the relationship between the press and political authorities in Africa and Asia. It derives its significance from the recent developments in both media and politics in these countries. The study shows that the main shifts in this area of research include:- Search for new theoretical approaches to explain the relation between the press and political authorities.- Disregard of the four theories of communication model which was putting the press systems in Africa and Asia in very narrow frames (Authoritarian and Communist).- Search for genuine African and Asian values of the press derived from actual experience.- Study of new topics such as independent press and the positive role of the press in supporting the national identity and social solidarity. In light of the objectives of this study, it can be concluded that the relationship between press and the political authorities in the two continents has been affected by political, economic and technological changes.  

Hindsight Bias in Political Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rüdiger F. Pohl ◽  
Edgar Erdfelder
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Hindsight Bias ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Important Conclusion ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Actual Outcome ◽  
Outcome Knowledge ◽  
Political Decision Making

Hindsight bias describes the tendency of persons—after the outcome of an event is known—to overestimate their foresight. For example, following a political election, persons tend to retrospectively adjust their predictions to the actual outcome. These judgment distortions are very robust and have been observed in a variety of domains and tasks. About 50 years of research on hindsight bias have meanwhile brought a wealth of findings and insights. Core research questions are (1) how to explain hindsight bias in terms of underlying processes, (2) whether there are individual differences in susceptibility, (3) how the bias possibly impedes decision-making in applied contexts, such as political decision-making, and (4) how possibly to overcome it. Theoretical approaches suggest that there are distinct components of hindsight bias, and that several, mainly cognitive, mechanisms are responsible for them. Using stochastic models of hindsight bias allows us to estimate the relative proportions of these mechanisms. Depending on the task, motivational factors may also exert their influence. In addition, the strength of hindsight bias appears to be related to some personality traits and also to age. For example, some authors found that hindsight bias tends to increase with the tendency toward favorable self-presentation and to decrease with intelligence. Moreover, lifespan studies have shown that children and older adults show larger hindsight bias than young adults. Hindsight bias has been found in political decision-making (as well as in other applied domains). Surprisingly, attempts to overcome hindsight bias have mainly failed, whereas only a few debiasing techniques show promising results. In sum, one important conclusion is to be continuously aware of the potentially distorting influence of outcome knowledge on the evaluation of our own (or other’s) prior knowledge state.

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