scholarly journals Dispositional Pluralism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McKitrick
Keyword(s):  
Character Traits ◽  
Dispositional Property ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Do So ◽  
Dispositional Properties

Dispositional Pluralism is the view that dispositional properties are abundant and diverse. When something has a disposition, it is such that, if it were in a certain kind of circumstance, a certain kind of effect would occur. Dispositions include such varied properties as character traits like a hero’s courage, characteristics of physical objects like a wine glass’s fragility, and characteristics of microphysical entities like an electron’s charge. Some dispositions are natural while others are non-natural. Some dispositions called “powers” are ungrounded while non-fundamental dispositions are grounded in other properties. Some dispositions manifest constantly, some of them manifest spontaneously, while others manifest only when they are triggered to do so. Some dispositions manifest by causing another dispositional property to be instantiated, while others have manifestations that involve non-dispositional properties and relations. Some dispositions are intrinsic to their bearers while others are extrinsic. Some of them are causally relevant to their manifestations while others are not. Some dispositions manifest in some particular way in particular circumstances, while other dispositions manifest in various ways in various circumstances. What makes all of these diverse properties dispositions is their connection to a certain kind of counterfactual fact. Nevertheless, disposition ascriptions are not semantically reducible to counterfactual claims.

Politics as Morality Pageant

Grandstanding ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 139-166
Author(s):  
Justin Tosi ◽  
Brandon Warmke
Keyword(s):  
Social Problems ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
The People ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Do So

This chapter argues that grandstanding contributes to significant problems for politics in democracies. Politicians are notorious for grandstanding, likely because they have strong incentives to do so. Many voters choose candidates for their perceived character traits, so politicians grandstand to give the people what they want. Because people associate morality with taking unyielding stands, politicians who grandstand have strong incentives not to compromise with the opposing party. If they do, voters will treat them as flip-floppers. The same is true for activists, who risk being seen as having a weak commitment to the cause by other activists. Political grandstanders also tend to support expressive or symbolic policies, which seem to straightforwardly address a problem, but are actually ineffective. Finally, grandstanders sometimes have reason not to solve social problems at all, as doing so may eliminate opportunities to advance their interests.

FORESHADOWING AND FLASHBACK: CHILDHOOD ANECDOTES IN SUETONIUS’ CAESARS

2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 378-383
Author(s):  
Phoebe Garrett
Keyword(s):  
Character Traits ◽  
Childhood And Youth ◽  
Do So

Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars contain at least twenty discrete anecdotes about childhood (pueritia) and youth (iuuenta or adulescentia) spread across the Lives. Some characterize the Caesars by looking forwards (foreshadowing) and others do so by looking backwards (flashbacks). In both foreshadowing and flashback, the childhood anecdote shows continuity with the adult and creates the impression of lifelong consistency of character. The foreshadowing technique is also something other ancient biographers do; the flashback is something that appears to be unique to Suetonius. In this note I briefly consider the stories from childhood and youth that foreshadow character traits and themes of the rest of the Life, and then the flashbacks from the adulthood section of the Life that refer to childhood and youth in order to demonstrate vices of the grown adult. I show that the use of foreshadowing and flashbacks contributes to the appearance of a fully formed character in the child that will be consistent into adulthood, as well as facilitating the rubric system of arranging material by type rather than by time.

No God, No Powers

2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-426
Author(s):  
James Orr ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Nancy Cartwright ◽  
Modal Force ◽  
Metaphysical Naturalism ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Dispositional Properties

One common feature of debates about the best metaphysical analysis of putatively lawful phenomena is the suspicion that nomic realists who locate the modal force of such phenomena in quasi-causal necessitation relations between universals are working with a model of law that cannot convincingly erase its theological pedigree. Nancy Cartwright distills this criticism into slogan form: no God, no laws. Some have argued that a more plausible alternative for nomic realists who reject theism is to ground laws of nature in the fundamental dispositional properties or “pure powers” of physical objects. This article argues that for all its advantages over deflationary and rival realist accounts, a pandispositionalist account of law cuts against the commitment to metaphysical naturalism that its supporters almost always presuppose. It then examines and rejects a Platonic version of this account before elaborating and advancing a theistic alternative that is more theoretically powerful and more metatheoretically parsimonious. In slogan form: no God, no powers.

Singing and the body: body-focused and concept-focused vocal instruction

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatrice Szczepek Reed
Keyword(s):  
Musical Instrument ◽  
The Body ◽  
Learning Goals ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Musical Concepts ◽  
Vocal Instruction ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Physical Skills ◽  
Do So

Abstract The body is the singer’s musical instrument, and therefore it is impossible to teach singing without the instructor involving their own and the learner’s body in the process of instruction. The teacher’s challenge is to communicate physical skills but also artistic, musical and vocal concepts. The body is centrally involved in the performance of both; however, an analysis of vocal instruction shows that teachers differentiate between learning goals, or ‘learnables’, which they treat as primarily embodied (body-focused instruction) and learnables they treat as primarily conceptualised (concept-focused instruction). When teaching learnables as embodied skills, instructors foreground the body. They do so by referring to the body explicitly and using their own body for demonstrations. They also depict internal physical processes, manipulate the student’s body through touch, share the student’s embodied stance, make use of physical objects as tools for practicing skills and orient to the student’s body as visually assessable. In concept-focused instruction, teachers foreground mental engagement with concepts rather than the embodied aspects of their execution, even though embodied skills are required to perform the learnables in question. They do so by referencing concepts explicitly, demonstrating how the piece should be sung and physically depicting emotional states and musical concepts.

scholarly journals The Interactive Functions of Questions in Embodied Collaborative Work

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucas M. Bietti ◽  
Federico U. Bietti
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Study ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Food Preparation ◽  
Physical Objects ◽  
Collaborative Activities ◽  
Do So

Researchers have been interested in the investigation of the interactive functions of questions in conversational contexts. However, limited research has been conducted on the interactive functions of questions in embodied collaborative work, that is, work that involves the manipulation of physical objects. This study aimed to identify the interactive functions of questions in embodied collaborative work. To do so, we conducted a systematic qualitative analysis of a dataset of 1,751 question-answer sequences collected from an experimental study where pairs of participants (N = 67) completed a collaborative food preparation task. The qualitative analysis enabled us to identify three functions of questions: anticipation questions, exploration questions, and confirmation questions. We have discussed in this study how the types of questions identified are associated with: (i) the accomplishment of interactional goals and (ii) complementary temporalities in the collaborative activities.

Adapting Mussar to Develop Management Students’ Character

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra R. Comer ◽  
Michael Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Character Trait ◽  
Spiritual Practice ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Instructional Resources ◽  
Designed Materials ◽  
Management Students ◽  
Continuous Character ◽  
Do So

Management educators have been advised to cultivate their students’ character. Yet they lack the instructional resources they need to do so. We were inspired by the principles and techniques of the Jewish spiritual practice of Mussar to put students on a personalized path of continuous character improvement. According to Mussar, everyone has some measure of a given character trait and needs to calibrate it to fill in a deficiency or tone down an excess. Although correcting character deficiencies and excesses requires a commitment of effort, we can, and should, become better versions of ourselves by applying that effort—that is, engaging in reflection, setting goals, monitoring our progress, and making adjustments—to move each of our character traits ever closer to its respective virtuous mean. We have designed materials to increase students’ awareness of character and its importance in organizations, give them a vocabulary of character traits, help them identify the character traits they would like to address, and provide them with a sustainable process for self-enhancement. In this article, we introduce these materials and provide evidence of their effectiveness.

scholarly journals The springs of didactogeny. the inadequate chacacter of the teacher

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihail Sleahtitchi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
School Success ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Learning Situation ◽  
Emotional Instability ◽  
School Problems ◽  
Moral Qualities ◽  
Conservative Beliefs ◽  
Do So

Didactogenies, as they appear daily – as states that exert unwanted effects on students (psychologically, medically and / or pedagogically) – are directly related to those fundamental moral qualities of the teacher that form its inadequacy. It has been found that teachers who have conservative beliefs, anti-democratic ideas and feelings, are rigid and resistant to change or have a tendency to avoid dialogue, are less concerned with understanding how students perceive the learning situation and solve in an appropriate manner various school problems. Such a teacher can only be disliked and rejected in his attempt to collaborate with students. We can say, therefore, that the educational process can be productive only if the teacher applies in practice character traits compatible with the basic requirements of this process. School success cannot be registered where the teacher shows egocentrism, cowardice, hypocrisy, indifference, unjustified pride, emotional instability, insufficient self-control, injustice in appreciation and / or hatred towards work. Such a teacher has chosen the wrong job and must leave it voluntarily or be determined to do so.

THE DISPOSITIONS OF CRITICAL THINKERS

Think ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (48) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerry Dunne
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Thinking Dispositions ◽  
Intellectual Character ◽  
Critical Thinking Dispositions ◽  
Murder Trial ◽  
Do So

Most theorists agree that the ability to think critically is distinct from the disposition to do so. Many of us may have the ability to be critical thinkers, but unless we are consistently and internally motivated to think and reason this way, these abilities are effectively redundant. Such dispositions are both intellectual character traits, and dispositions to behave in certain ways. As such, the first step to understanding critical thinking requires us to develop an operationalized taxonomy of critical thinking dispositions. To avoid explicating these dispositions in abstracto, this article draws upon a murder trial in order to demonstrate the central role dispositions play in critical thinking.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer McKitrick
Keyword(s):  
Gender Identity ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Dispositional Property ◽  
Wide Applicability ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
Dispositional Account

Dispositional Pluralism is more consistent with our dispositions talk than more monolithic views. Our evidence for extrinsic, ungrounded, and non-natural dispositions is comparable to that of intrinsic, grounded, and natural ones. Dispositional Pluralism has wide applicability to various philosophical issues. Secondary qualities, such as colors, can be given a dispositional account. Thinking of character traits as dispositions sheds light on the debate over Dispositionalism Situationism in moral psychology. One can give an account of gender identity as a cluster of behavioral dispositions. Finally, the potentiality of an embryo or a patient is best understood as an extrinsic dispositional property.

Vices of the Mind

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quassim Cassam
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Wishful Thinking ◽  
Character Trait ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Traumatic Experiences ◽  
Improvement Strategies ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Do So ◽  
The Way

This book defends the view that epistemic vices are blameworthy or otherwise reprehensible character traits, attitudes, or ways of thinking that systematically obstruct the gaining, keeping, or sharing of knowledge. An account is given of specific epistemic vices and of the particular ways in which they get in the way of knowledge. Closed-mindedness is an example of a character vice, an epistemic vice that is a character trait. Epistemic insouciance and epistemic malevolence are examples of attitude vices. An example of an epistemic vice that is a way of thinking is wishful thinking. Only epistemic vices that we have the ability to control or modify are strictly blameworthy but all epistemic vices are intellectual failings that reflect badly on the person whose vices they are. Epistemic vices merit criticism if not blame. Many epistemic vices are stealthy, in the sense that they block their own detection by active critical reflection or other means. In these cases, traumatic experiences can sometimes open one’s eyes to one’s own failings but are not guaranteed to do so. Although significant obstacles stand in the way of self-improvement in respect of our epistemic vices, and some epistemic vices are resistant to self-improvement strategies, self-improvement is nevertheless possible in some cases.

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