Nietzsche’s Epiphenomenalism about RConsciousness

2021 ◽  
pp. 126-164
Author(s):  
Mattia Riccardi
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Conscious State ◽  
Proper Function ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Reflective Consciousness ◽  
Social Coordination

This chapter argues for an epiphenomenal reading of Nietzsche’s view of reflective consciousness. The position ascribed to Nietzsche is that no reflectively conscious state is among the causally efficacious antecedents of token actions. This reading is defended by showing it is compellingly supported by textual evidence. The chapter also argues that reflective consciousness’s proper function is in the realm of social coordination. More precisely, Rconscious states play a crucial role in the acquisition of social norms. That role, however, is not sufficient for the relevant norm to become behaviourally efficacious and, thus, cause our actions. For only internalized norms are behaviourally efficacious in that sense. In turn, though Rconscious states are often the channel through which we are presented with social norms, it depends on the arrangement of our drives and affects whether we internalize them or not. The chapter ends by surveying and rebutting a range of objections to epiphenomenal readings of Nietzsche.

The Bhāgavata Speaks of Woman

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-136
Author(s):  
Gopal K. Gupta
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Indian Society ◽  
Subaltern Studies ◽  
Gender Discourse ◽  
Positive Light

Indic texts have played a crucial role in constructing, and greatly influencing, gender roles and social norms in Indian society. Scholarship on these texts has identified problems of identity and hegemony that are thoroughly discussed in such fields as subaltern studies, gender studies, cultural studies, and the like. Because of cultural practices such as satῑ‎ and religious laws for widows, Hinduism and some of its associated texts tend to have a reputation for patriarchal misogyny. In her Encyclopedia of Feminism, Lisa Tuttle advises scholars to ask “new questions of old texts;” following her lead, this chapter intends to examine the gender discourse contained in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, focusing on the text’s characterization of women as māyā, which we have here defined as God’s deluding or covering potency. The analysis should make it plain that while the Bhāgavata does support patriarchal institutions and practices, on a deeper level it portrays women in a far more positive light, holding them in a more esteemed position than one may assume.

scholarly journals Internalizing cooperative norms in group-structured populations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erol Akçay ◽  
Jeremy Van Cleve
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Structured Populations ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Intrinsic Motivations ◽  
Preference Evolution

AbstractSocial norms play a crucial role in human behavior, especially in maintaining cooperation within human social groups. Social norms might be self-enforcing or be enforced by the threat of punishment. In many cases, however, social norms are internalized and individuals have intrinsic motivations to observe norms. Here, we present a model for how intrinsic preferences to adhere to cooperative norms can evolve with and without external enforcement of compliance. Using the methodology of preference evolution, we model how cooperative norms coevolve with the intrinsic motivations to follow them. We model intrinsic motivations as being provided by guilt, a kind of internal “punishment” that individuals feel for falling short of cooperative norms, and show that the shape of this internal punishment function plays a crucial role in determining whether and how much internalization can evolve. We find that internal punishment functions that eventually level off with the deviation from the norm can support internalization without external punishment. In contrast, internal punishment functions that keep escalating with the deviation from the norm require external punishment, but yield stronger norms and more cooperation when external punishment is present. By showing how different preference mechanisms can enhance or limit norms that stabilize cooperation, these results provide insights into how our species might have evolved the norm psychology that helps us maintain such complex social and cultural institutions.

Variations in Nucleosome Structure and Organization among Eukaryotes

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 171-178
Author(s):  
Shruti Sinha ◽  
K.V. Chaitanya
Keyword(s):  
Posttranslational Modifications ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Chromatin Assembly ◽  
Proper Function ◽  
Histone Binding ◽  
Histone Fold ◽  
Nucleosome Structure ◽  
Nucleosome Organization ◽  
Eukaryotic Dna ◽  
Structure And Functions

Folding eukaryotic DNA by chromatin is a vital process necessary for the proper function of DNA. This is achieved by the fundamental unit of chromatin, known as a nucleosome. The position of a nucleosome and its interaction with DNA plays a crucial role in regulating the vital processes involved in DNA function. Factors such as variations in nucleosome and its core structure and histone fold variations will help to understand nucleosome functions and their role in DNA replication, transcription, translation, posttranslational modifications, re-combinations and repair. The present review focuses on recent findings in understanding the variations in the structure and functions of nucleosomes across eukaryotes. Variations in the nucleosome organization and its assembly have also been discussed by stating the contribution of histone binding factors and chromatin assembly factors.

scholarly journals Be Yourself: The Relative Importance of Personal and Social Norms for Adolescents’ Self-Presentation on Instagram

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 205630512110338
Author(s):  
Arne Freya Zillich ◽  
Claudia Riesmeyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Reference Groups ◽  
Injunctive Norms ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Authentic Self

This article examines the relative importance of personal, descriptive, and injunctive norms for adolescents’ self-presentation on Instagram and analyzes the role of proximal and distal reference groups in norm negotiation. Based on 27 semi-structured interviews with German Instagram users between 14 and 19 years old, we identified four types of adolescents’ self-presentation that differ in terms of norms and referent others: authentic, self-confident, self-staged, and audience-oriented self-presentation. In addition, our study demonstrates that adolescents engage in reflective norm breaches when coping with conflicting self-presentation norms. These results highlight the crucial role of both adolescents themselves and their proximal and distal reference groups for norm negotiation.

scholarly journals U-18 Narrations of the Wives of The Rasool (PBUH) and research review of some Jurisprudential issues related to Zakat

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-275
Author(s):  
Hina Naz ◽  
Syed Izfar Haider
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
General Public ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
Research Review ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Credible Source

Islam is complete code of life. Zakah as one of the five pillars of Islam. It is a religious duty for all Muslims who meet the necessary criteria of wealth.Zakah is playing a crucial role in the maintainance of financial and social norms. Each and every social aspect of todays’ society is incomplete without financial assistance. The liqvification of resources is eminent in the present time and zakah is the only authentic and credible source of this task. In the present study zakah is discussed in the light of contemporary issues such as rented property, modgage property and money, loan money, jewls in the dresses and in body organs and many others, which were generated absent in past. The authenticity of zakah issues are resolved in the light of references from umhat-ul-Mominine. This study will help to eradicate the ambiguities faced by general public. So in this way, this article is very useful for solving of fiqi problem in Zakah.

scholarly journals The Internal Senses in Nemesius, Plotinus and Galen: the Beginning of an Idea

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Umar Faruque
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sense Perception ◽  
Sense Organs ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Localization Theory ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Different Parts ◽  
The Way

This study traces the notion of the internal senses in three ancient authors, namely Nemesius, Plotinus and Galen. It begins with Nemesius, and then by going backward ends with Galen. The textual evidence investigated in this study shows clearly that Galen, after acknowledging the Platonic tripartite soul, locates the various dunameis of the soul in the brain. The “localization” theory of Galen plays a crucial role in paving the way for the foundation of the internal senses, which both Plotinus and Nemesius adapted. Just as with the external senses one can locate various sense-organs in different parts of the body, viz., touch, smell, sight etc., so too with the internal senses, thanks to Galen, one is able to locate them in various organs of the body. Thus philosophers are able to explain the role of all these different (internal) senses in their account of sense-perception.

scholarly journals The Function of Assertion and Social Norms

2019 ◽  
pp. 725-748
Author(s):  
Peter J. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Proper Function ◽  
Truth Telling ◽  
Feedback Mechanisms ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Proper Functions

A proper function of an entity is a beneficial effect that helps explain the persistence of the entity. Proper functions thereby arise through feedback mechanisms with beneficial effects as inputs and persistence as outputs. We continue to make assertions because they benefit speakers by benefiting speakers. Hearers benefit from true information. Speakers benefit by influencing hearer belief. If hearers do not benefit, they will not form beliefs in response to assertions. Speakers can then only maintain influence by providing true information, often enough. The function of assertion is then inducing true hearer belief. When interests conflict, however, some mechanism must ensure that speakers provide true information often enough, instead of deceiving, or providing information regardless of quality. In humans, a core mechanism stabilizing true assertion involves social norms for truth telling. We tell the truth partly because we prescribe and enforce telling the truth.

scholarly journals Coercion and the Prima Facie Duty to Obey the Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-29
Author(s):  
Jhonatan Crowe
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Moral Hazard ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Prima Facie ◽  
Moral Obligations ◽  
Positive Law ◽  
Social Coordination ◽  
Prima Facie Duty

This article examines the role of coercion in grounding a prima facie duty to obey the positive law. I argue that there is at least a weak prima facie duty to obey the positive law in a minimally effective and just legal system. The fact that a norm holds positive legal status within a minimally effective and just legal system gives people presumptive reason to believe that the norm is a salient and reasonable means of social coordination and therefore that they have pro tanto reason to follow it. Coercive sanctions may bolster the salience of social norms by giving people incentive to follow them. They also make it more likely that an agent’s decision to follow a particular norm will be reasonable, by creating the prospect that the reasons supplied by the sanctions will override any deficits in the salience or reasonableness of the norm itself. A legal system with strong coercive enforcement is therefore more likely than a less coercive system (other things being equal) to present its subjects with both prima facie and pro tanto moral obligations. This reliance on coercion, however, carries a significant moral hazard, since it may bootstrap inefficient or unreasonable norms into a position of epistemological and moral weight.

scholarly journals Intermediaries in Trust: Indirect Reciprocity, Incentives, and Norms

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giangiacomo Bravo ◽  
Flaminio Squazzoni ◽  
Károly Takács
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Crucial Role ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
The Other ◽  
Monetary Incentives ◽  
Indirect Reciprocity ◽  
Incentive Schemes ◽  
Investment Game ◽  
The One ◽  
Positive Effect

Any trust situation involves a certain amount of risk for trustors that trustees could abuse. In some cases, intermediaries exist who play a crucial role in the exchange by providing reputational information. To examine under what conditions intermediary opinion could have a positive impact on cooperation, we designed two experiments based on a modified version of the investment game where intermediaries rated the behaviour of trustees under various incentive schemes and different role structures. We found that intermediaries can increase trust if there is room for indirect reciprocity between the involved parties. We also found that the effect of monetary incentives and social norms cannot be clearly separable in these situations. If properly designed, monetary incentives for intermediaries can have a positive effect. On the one hand, when intermediary rewards are aligned with the trustor’s interest, investments and returns tend to increase. On the other hand, fixed monetary incentives perform less than any other incentive schemes and endogenous social norms in ensuring trust and fairness. These findings should make us reconsider the mantra of incentivization of social and public conventional policy.

Cooperation and obligation in early parent-child relationships

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross A. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Social Agency ◽  
Infant Survival ◽  
Peer Experiences ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Early Parent ◽  
Collaborative Skills ◽  
Parent Child Relationships

Abstract Tomasello's moral psychology of obligation would be developmentally deepened by greater attention to early experiences of cooperation and shared social agency between parents and infants, evolved to promote infant survival. They provide a foundation for developing understanding of the mutual obligations of close relationships that contribute (alongside peer experiences) to growing collaborative skills, fairness expectations, and fidelity to social norms.

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