Electronic initiatives as a tool for e-democracy: the experience of Ukraine and Latvia

The article is devoted to a comparative legal analysis of the experience of Ukraine and Latvia in the implementation of the institution of electronic initiative as an important tool of direct e-democracy. The practical question of why in some countries e-initiatives are a real leverage, while in others it is more likely just a marker that signals certain problems of concern to society, prompts a thorough study of legal regulation and information technology support of e-initiatives. For a comparative analysis of the regulation of the procedure for submitting and considering an electronic initiative, the experience of Latvia as a state that has demonstrated real successful results of the work of the online platform ManaBalss.lv as a tool for presenting, registering, discussing, considering an electronic initiative and solving issues in it was selected. In addition, the experience of this country shows that an increase in the level of participation of citizens in the management of public affairs is possible provided they are provided with an effective and convenient mechanism of influence. The article focuses on the shortcomings of the legal regulation of the institution of electronic petitions in Ukraine as the main factor in the ineffectiveness of this tool of e-democracy, including the absence of a special legislative act on electronic petitions, a legislative guarantee for resolving the issue that is raised in the petition, failure to take into account public opinion, expressed in a petition that received fewer votes than is required by law, etc. The necessity of introducing a mechanism for preliminary verification of the content of electronic petitions for constructiveness, reliability and reality is indicated. It is noted that for the proper implementation of the goal of direct e-democracy, levers of influence on the government must be created, which will make it listen to the problems of public concern.

ASSESSMENT OF RESEARCH SKILLS AND SKILLS OF MATHEMATICAL PROCESSING OF DATA OF STUDENTS OF I-III LEVELS OF HIGHER EDUCATION SPECIALTY “PSYCHOLOGY”

The article is devoted to the topical problem of researching the level of development of research skills and abilities of mathematical data processing in future psychologists studying at different levels of higher education. The study involved three levels of higher education and five doctors ofpsychology as experts. Respondents (n = 75) were asked to perform a practical task aimed at demonstrating their ability to transform a simple practical question into a research model that would take into account all the necessary steps and methods of mathematical data processing. The analysis of the results indicates the presence of statistically significant differences and levels of development of research skills and abilities of mathematical data processing. It was determined that the highest rate is for applicants for the third, and the lowest - for the second level of higher education.

Australian Directors' Duties: What Does It Mean to Say They are Public Duties?

This article pursues the meaning and effect of what are (in Australia, at least )long-standing public duties of directors. It argues that there has been and continues to be, a slow evolution from an exclusively private character, to a hybrid public and private content in Australian directors’ duties. That duties may be both public and private, does not deny the truth of either of those characters. Instead, using the statutory duty of care in s 180(1) of the Corporations Act, this article analyses the juristic features and public elements that animate the duty and its enforcement sanctions. The cardinal legal and practical question of to whom the public directors’ duties are owed, both to no one in particular and to all the world, rather than only to the company, is also considered.

Real-world walking economy: can laboratory equations predict field energy expenditure?

We addressed a practical question that remains largely unanswered after more than a century of active investigation: can equations developed in the laboratory accurately predict the energy expended under free-walking conditions in the field? Seven subjects walked a field course of 6415 meters that varied in gradient (-3.0 to +5.0%) and terrain (asphalt, grass) under unloaded (body weight only, Wb) and balanced, torso-loaded (1.30 x Wb) conditions at self-selected speeds while wearing portable calorimeter and GPS units. Portable calorimeter measures were corrected for a consistent measurement-range offset (+13.8±1.8%, mean±sd) vs. a well-validated laboratory system (Parvomedics TrueOne). Predicted energy expenditure totals (mls O2/kg) from four literature equations: ACSM, Looney, Minimum Mechanics and Pandolf, were generated using the speeds and gradients measured throughout each trial in conjunction with empirically determined terrain/treadmill factors (asphalt=1.0, grass=1.08). The mean energy expenditure total measured for the unloaded field trials (981±91 mls O2/kg) was over-predicted by +4%, +13%, +17% and +20% by the Minimum Mechanics, ACSM, Pandolf, and Looney equations, respectively (corresponding predicted totals: 1018±19, 1108±26, 1145±37, and 1176±24 mls O2/kg). The measured loaded-trial total (1310±153 mls O2/kg) was slightly under-predicted by the Minimum Mechanics equation (-2%, 1289±22 mls O2/kg) and over-predicted by the Pandolf equation (+13%, 1463±32 mls O2/kg). Computational comparisons for hypothetical trials at different constant speeds (range: 0.6-1.8 m/s) on variable-gradient loop courses revealed between-equation prediction differences from 0 to 37%. We conclude that treadmill-based predictions of free-walking field energy expenditure are equation-dependent but can be highly accurate with rigorous implementation.

The Value and Risks of Hope

This chapter considers the value and risks of hope. It defends the priority of first-personal assessments of the value of hope, suggesting that it is often hopeful people themselves who are best positioned to understand the value of their hopes. But since hope can lead us astray, an evaluative framework for hope is needed. While most philosophers who theorize hope’s value tend to focus on assessments of epistemic and prudential rationality, this chapter argues that hope can also be evaluated as fitting and morally appropriate. Recognizing the full range of evaluative dimensions of hope is important for answering the all-things-considered practical question of whether and for what one should hope. This chapter defends Victoria McGeer’s framework for what it means to hope well to capture how the evaluative measures for hope work in practice, while orienting the rationality-of-hope question as a social and political question about the value of hope in community with others.

Justifying Contract in Europe

This book explores the normative foundations of European contract law. It addresses fundamental political questions on contract law in Europe from the perspective of leading contemporary political theories. Does the law of contract need a democratic basis? To what extent should it be Europeanized? What justifies the binding force of contract and the main remedies for breach? When should weaker parties be protected? Should market transactions be held legally void when they are immoral? Which rules of contract law should the parties be free to opt out of? Adopting a critical lens, the book interrogates utilitarian, liberal-egalitarian, libertarian, communitarian, civic republican, and discourse-theoretical political philosophies and analyses the answers they provide to these questions. It also situates these theoretical debates within the context of the political landscape of European contract law and the divergent views expressed by law makers, legal academics, and other stakeholders. The book moves beyond the acquis positivism, market reductionism, and private law essentialism that tend to dominate these conversations, and foregrounds normative complexity. It explores the principles and values behind various arguments used in the debates on European contract law and its future to highlight the normative stakes involved in the practical question of what we, as a society, should do about contract law in Europe. In so doing, it opens up democratic space for the consideration of alternative futures for contract law in the European Union, and for better justifications for those parts of the EU contract law acquis we wish to retain.

Edgework: Viewing curiosity as fundamentally relational

Most theories of curiosity emphasize the acquisition of information. Such conceptualizations focus on the actions of the knower in seeking units of knowledge. Each unit is valued as an unknown and appropriated in becoming known. Yet, recent advances across a range of disciplines from philosophy to cognitive science suggest that it may be time to complement the acquisitional theory of curiosity with a connectional theory of curiosity. This alternative perspective focuses on the actions of the knower in seeking relations among informational units, laying down lines of intersection, and thereby building a scaffold or network of knowledge. Intuitively, curiosity becomes edgework. In this chapter, we dwell on the notion of edgework, wrestle with its relation to prior accounts, and exercise its unique features to craft alternative reasons for curiosity's value to humanity. To begin, we engage in a philosophical discussion of the evidence for connectional curiosity across the last two millennia in the Western intellectual tradition. We then move to a contemporary operationalization of connectional curiosity in the mathematical language of network science. To make our discussion more concrete, we walk through a case study of humans browsing Wikipedia. The groundwork laid, we turn to the practical question of how (if at all) the paradigm of curiosity as edgework manifests in the contemporary lives of humans today. Does such a conceptualization help us to better understand the relations between curiosity and mental health? Might the edgework paradigm explain the drive to build specific structures of knowledge? Would the account help us to encode, test, and validate existing theories of curiosity, or propose new ones? Could it clarify why and how our culture values curiosity, in its multiple manifestations, plethora of practices, and kindred kinds in many bodies? In considering interdisciplinary answers to these questions, we find that the notion of edgework offers a fresh, flexible, and explanatory account of curiosity. More broadly, it uncovers new opportunities to use the lens of science to examine, probe, and interrogate this important dimension of the human experience.

A pragmatic approach to the ontology of models

What are scientific models? Philosophers of science have been trying to answer this question during the last three decades by putting forward a number of different proposals. Some say that models are best understood as abstract Platonic objects or fictional entities akin to Sherlock Holmes, while others focus on their mathematical nature and see them as set theoretical structures. Although each account has its own strengths in offering various insights on the nature of models, several objections have been raised against these views which still remain unanswered, making the debate on the ontology of models seem unresolvable. The primary aim of this paper is to show that a large part of these difficulties stems from an inappropriate reading of the main question on the ontology of models as a purely metaphysical question. Building on Carnap, it is argued that the question of the ontology of scientific models is either (i) an internal theoretical question within an already accepted linguistic framework or (ii) an external practical question regarding the choice of the most appropriate form of language in order to describe and explain the practice of scientific modelling. The main implication of this view is that the question of the ontology of models becomes a means of probing other related questions regarding the overall practice of scientific modelling, such as questions on the capacity of models to provide knowledge and the relation of models with background theories.

Human Enhancement in the EU

Many academics in the Western world favour Human Enhancement (HE) with the motto: “if we can, we should.” It is hard to deny the appeal of the idea of sparing or ridding human beings of some of our “weaknesses.” This idea is instinctively appealing, but once certain factors are considered, the morality of such an approach becomes less convincing. This article analyses the political dimension of HE, defining whether or not the European Union (EU) has a common stance on the issue. If HE is morally condemned at a theoretical level, the practical question arises of whether the EU shares a moral stance on the issue. A positive answer to this question will help reinforce a European identity, whereas a negative one will push us to question its appropriateness and will help to provide the necessary tools to change the current state of affairs.

A Theology of Analytic Reason

Part III calls for a more theological analytic theology and defends analytic theology from some common theological objections. Chapter 6 argues that the Christian doctrine of creation furnishes a warrant for analytic theology. The doctrine of creation gives us good reason to value theology as such, traditionally understood as faith seeking understanding. So the only real question is whether analytic theology counts as a legitimate way for those with faith to seek understanding. This question resolves into the practical question of whether analytic theology really can help us distinguish theological truth from theological falsehood. The answer to this question is: sometimes, but not always.