Being Yourself

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse Wall
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Major Depression ◽  
Personal Identity ◽  
The Self ◽  
Cognitive Triad ◽  
Clinical Observations ◽  
Autonomous Decision ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Legal Test

This chapter discusses authentic decision-making as it relates to depression based on three parallel concepts found in philosophy, psychology, and the law. Since major depression is characterized (amongst other things) by ‘symptoms of sadness and diminished interest or pleasure’, ‘feelings of worthlessness/excessive/inappropriate guilt’ and a ‘cognitive triad of pessimism regarding the self, the world and the future’, the chapter explores whether an individual who has these symptoms can act on a judgment, thought, or belief in a way that lacks authenticity. It first explains, in philosophical terms, why autonomous decision-making presupposes a ‘personal identity’, before outlining a series of clinical observations suggesting that competence to make a decision requires an ‘appreciative ability’. It also considers whether the legal test for the capacity to make a decision has a component that is equivalent to ‘personal identity’ or an ‘appreciative ability’.

scholarly journals Is our perception of the spread of COVID-19 inherently inaccurate?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Maier
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Subjective Perception ◽  
Logarithmic Function ◽  
Original Formulation ◽  
Global Crisis ◽  
New Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Non Linear ◽  
The Future ◽  
Linear Nature

One of the most fundamental insights into the nature of our subjective perception of the world around us is that it is not veridical. In other words, we tend to not perceive information about the world around us accurately. Instead, our brains interpret new information through a host of innate and learned mechanisms that can introduce bias and distortions One of the best studied mechanisms that guide – and distort – our perception is the psychophysical Weber-Fechner law. According to this empirically derived, mathematically formulated law we tend to put more emphasis on smaller deviations in size while underestimating larger changes. The original formulation of the Weber-Fechner law takes the shape of a logarithmic function and is commonly applied to somatosensory perception such as the weight of an object. However, later work showed that the Weber-Fechner law can be generalized and describe a large variety of perceived changes in magnitude that even go beyond the sensory domain. Here we investigate the hypothesis that our perception of data associated with the spread of COVID-19 and similar pandemics is governed by the same psychophysical laws. Based on several recently published studies, we demonstrate that the Weber-Fechner law can be shown to directly affect the decision-making of officials in response to this global crisis as well as the greater public at large. We discuss how heightened awareness of the non-linear nature of subjective perception could help alleviate problematic judgements in similar situations in the future.

When the Absence of Reasoning Breeds Meaning

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carey K. Morewedge ◽  
Daniella M. Kupor
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
External Source ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Dream Interpretation ◽  
The Self ◽  
The World ◽  
Religious Thoughts ◽  
The Many ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Insight Into

Intuitions, attitudes, images, mind-wandering, dreams, and religious messages are just a few of the many kinds of uncontrolled thoughts that intrude on consciousness spontaneously without a clear reason. Logic suggests that people might thus interpret spontaneous thoughts as meaningless and be uninfluenced by them. By contrast, our survey of this literature indicates that the lack of an obvious external source or motive leads people to attribute considerable meaning and importance to spontaneous thoughts. Spontaneous thoughts are perceived to provide meaningful insight into the self, others, and the world. As a result of these metacognitive appraisals, spontaneous thoughts substantially affect the beliefs, attitudes, decisions, and behavior of the thinker. We present illustrative examples of the metacognitive appraisals by which people attribute meaning to spontaneous secular and religious thoughts, and the influence of these thoughts on judgment and decision-making, attitude formation and change, dream interpretation, and prayer discernment.

The Restoring of a Prophetic Community

Pneuma ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 460-476
Author(s):  
Jacqueline N. Grey
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Early Church ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
The World ◽  
Personal Empowerment ◽  
The Future ◽  
Prophetic Community

Abstract The article discusses the future of global pentecostalism, focusing on the context of Australia. It first explores the self-identification of pentecostalism as a prophetic community in continuity with the narrative of Luke-Acts. In particular, the implications of the Isaianic mission of Jesus and the early church are discussed. The socially transformative nature of this mission includes not only miracles and healing, but also concern for the poor and marginalized. From this foundation, the article secondly addresses issues within contemporary Australian pentecostalism of individualism and self-reliance that are incompatible with the Isaianic vision. It presents, thirdly, a vision for the Australian pentecostal community that moves beyond a preoccupation with personal empowerment of the Spirit to participate with God in bringing healing and justice to the world.

The Emergence of Democracy: Forces and Counter-forces

2015 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Berg-Schlosser
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Future Prospects ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Broad Overview

Capitalism and democracy have transformed the world, but not in a harmonious way. This article provides a broad overview of the major driving forces of democracy, its relationship with ongoing socioeconomic developments and some of the countervailing factors. It points to the inherently conflictive nature of democratic procedures and decision-making, but also emphasizes the potentially universal implications of basic democratic values. Against this background, the future prospects of democracy and possible alternatives in the age of globalization are assessed. All this is based, as far as space permits, on the huge body of available theoretical and empirical literature, but also on the author’s long-term preoccupation with this topic and some of his personal views and experiences.

scholarly journals CoVID-19 prediction for India from the existing data and SIR(D) model study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditya Rajesh ◽  
Haidas Pai ◽  
Victor Roy ◽  
Subhasis Samanta ◽  
Sabyasachi Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Model ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Strategic Decision Making ◽  
Model Study ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
D Model ◽  
Existing Data

CoVID-19 is spreading throughout the world at an alarming rate. So far it has spread over 200 countries in the whole world. Mathematical modelling of an epidemic like CoVID-19 is always useful for strategic decision making, especially it is very useful to gain some understanding of the future of the epidemic in densely populous countries like India. We use a simple yet effective mathematical model SIR(D) to predict the future of the epidemic in India by using the existing data. We also estimate the effect of lock-down/social isolation via a time-dependent coefficient of the model. The model study with realistic parameters set shows that the epidemic will be at its peak around the end of June or the first week of July with almost 108 Indians most likely being infected if the lock-down relaxed after May 3, 2020. However, the total number of infected population will become one-third of what predicted here if we consider that people only in the red zones (approximately one-third of India's population) are susceptible to the infection. Even in a very optimistic scenario we expect that at least the infected numbers of people will be of the order of 107.

Opportunities and Challenges of Visualization and Open Data in Food Security Analysis

2019 ◽  
pp. 748-772
Author(s):  
Thida Chaw Hlaing ◽  
Julian Prior
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Security Analysis ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Statistical Literacy ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Statistical literacy presents many aspects about food security in the world. It highlights weaknesses, it creates awareness of threats in current situations, helps overcome challenges and creates opportunities for the future. Statistical data analysis enables existing food security interventions and programs to be reviewed and revised, and this better understanding of current situations enables more authoritative and relevant decision-making processes for the future. Statistical literacy involves skills and expertise in data description and interpretation (in words as well as in numbers) to name, explore and amend beliefs, opinions and suggestions. It helps decision-making processes about food security in a sub-nation, nation and region, as well as the world. This chapter will demonstrate the importance of open data and visualization, including its challenges and opportunities, in the food security context at national and global level to make decision-makers aware of the need to enhance their capacity for and investment in statistical literacy.

Monitoring in Federated and Self-Manageable Clouds

2012 ◽  
pp. 117-133
Author(s):  
Stefanos Koutsoutos ◽  
Spyridon V. Gogouvitis ◽  
Dimosthenis Kyriazis ◽  
Theodora Varvarigou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Future Internet ◽  
Minimum Time ◽  
The Self ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The Future

The emergence of Service Clouds and the Future Internet has lead to a lot of research taking place in the area of Cloud frameworks and solutions. The complexity of these systems has proven to be a challenge for the design of a successful platform that will be capable of meeting all possible needs and require the minimum time and effort put to its management. Current trends in the field move away from models of human managed networks and towards the self-manageable, cooperating Clouds. This goal is synonymous to building software that is able to make decisions required to reconfigure itself in a way that it resists failures and, at the same time, makes optimal use of the resources available to it. The heart of each decision making mechanism is always the data that is fed to it, which assigns a very central role to Monitoring mechanisms in federated and self-manageable Clouds.

The Future of the Carter Policy Toward Southern Africa

1977 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Edgar Lockwood
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Puerto Rico ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Carter Administration ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Casual Observer

Judging by public tone, style, and ideological emphasis alone, the casual observer of U.S. foreign policy is impressed by the novelty of the Carter Administration’s approach toward Southern Africa. Kissinger had stressed America’s tangible interests, sought alliances with ideological “enemies” to advance or at least to protect those interests, and operated a clever, manipulative and secretive diplomacy with calculated ambiguity. The Carter Administration now seems to espouse once more American ideals and principles, open diplomacy for announced clearly-stated objectives, and decision-making by consent. But what is really involved is a reversion to the active use of ideology and salesmanship to manage its political and economic interests. It is of a piece with “helping our little brown brothers” in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, making the world “safe for democracy” and saving Vietnam from Communism.

‘Dying to Live’: Remembering and Forgetting May Sinclair

May Sinclair ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Raitt
Keyword(s):  
Mystical Experience ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Unconscious ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
May Sinclair

For Sinclair, the past was a wound. She feared being unable to escape it, and she feared in turn her own persistence in a form that she could not control. Mystic ecstasy – what she called the “new mysticism” – was a way of entering a timeless realm in which there was no longer any past to damage her. But she was also fascinated by what could never be left behind – hence her interest in heredity, the unconscious, and the supernatural. However, the immanence of the future can also emancipate us from the past, in Sinclair’s view, and this is the key to why mystical experience was so immensely appealing to her. Mystical experience could take the self out of the body and thus out of past traumas and into the future. False dying – like that which creates ghosts – traps the psyche in its own pain and forces it to re-experience the suffering of its life; real dying – mystical dying – involves forgetting the self and the world.

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