Habits of Transformation

Hypatia ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Cuffari
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Habit Formation ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
The Self ◽  
Existential Phenomenology ◽  
Ethical Significance

This essay argues that according to feminist existential phenomenology, feminist pragmatism, and feminist genealogy, our embodied condition is an important starting place for ethical living due to the inevitable role that habits play in our conduct. In bodies, the phenomenon of habit uniquely holds together the ambiguities of freedom and determinism, transcendence and immanence, and stability and plasticity. Seeing habit formation as a matter of self-growth and social justice gives fresh opportunity for thinking of “assuming ambiguity” as a lifelong endeavor made up of many small projects and practices of situated resistance to stagnation. Transcendence, understood as ameliorative transformation, is found in cultivating habits of learning from our bodily living. I articulate this argument via a reading of Simone de Beauvoir's The Coming of Age, John Dewey's Human Nature and Conduct, and Ladelle McWhorter's Bodies and Pleasures. I discuss two domains wherein the ethical significance of habit formation appears: cognitive psychological research on neural plasticity, and certain projects of self-cultivation that risk turning into overdetermining “cult of the self” practices that close off possibilities for personal and collective transformation.

Wer täuscht wen?

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-100
Author(s):  
Daniel Strassberg
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
The Self ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Narrative Context ◽  
Everyday Knowledge

The insight that human beings are prone to deceive themselves is part of our everyday knowledge of human nature. Even so, if deceiving someone means to deliberately misrepresent something to him, it is difficult to understand how it is possible to deceive yourself. This paper tries to address this difficulty by means of a narrative approach. Self-deception is conceived as a change of the narrative context by means of which the same fact appears in a different light. On these grounds, depending on whether the self-deceiver adopts an ironic attitude to his self-deception or not, it is also possible to distinguish between a morally inexcusable self-deception and a morally indifferent one.

Neurotransplantation Therapy and Cerebellar Reserve

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Cendelin ◽  
Hiroshi Mitoma ◽  
Mario Manto
Keyword(s):  
Neural Plasticity ◽  
Clinical Evidence ◽  
The Self ◽  
Regenerative Processes ◽  
Recovery Capacity ◽  
Cerebellar Ataxias ◽  
Synaptic Formation ◽  
Target Recovery ◽  
Cerebellar Anatomy ◽  
Functional Circuitry

Background & Objective: Neurotransplantation has been recently the focus of interest as a promising therapy to substitute lost cerebellar neurons and improve cerebellar ataxias. However, since cell differentiation and synaptic formation are required to obtain a functional circuitry, highly integrated reproduction of cerebellar anatomy is not a simple process. Rather than a genuine replacement, recent studies have shown that grafted cells rescue surviving cells from neurodegeneration by exerting trophic effects, supporting mitochondrial function, modulating neuroinflammation, stimulating endogenous regenerative processes, and facilitating cerebellar compensatory properties thanks to neural plasticity. On the other hand, accumulating clinical evidence suggests that the self-recovery capacity is still preserved even if the cerebellum is affected by a diffuse and progressive pathology. We put forward the period with intact recovery capacity as “restorable stage” and the notion of reversal capacity as “cerebellar reserve”. Conclusion: The concept of cerebellar reserve is particularly relevant, both theoretically and practically, to target recovery of cerebellar deficits by neurotransplantation. Reinforcing the cerebellar reserve and prolonging the restorable stage can be envisioned as future endpoints of neurotransplantation.

Virtues, Inclinations, and Oneness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Ivanhoe
Keyword(s):  
Virtue Ethics ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
The Self ◽  
Virtuous Action

This chapter develops various implications of the oneness hypothesis when applied to theories of virtue, drawing on several claims that are closely related to the hypothesis. Many of the views introduced and defended are inspired by neo-Confucianism and so the chapter offers an example of constructive philosophy bridging cultures and traditions. It focuses on Foot’s theory, which holds that virtues correct excesses or deficiencies in human nature. The alternative maintains that vices often arise not from an excess or deficiency in motivation but from a mistaken conception of self, one that sees oneself as somehow more important than others. The chapter goes on to argue that such a view helps address the “self-centeredness objection” to virtue ethics and that the effortlessness, joy, and wholeheartedness that characterizes fully virtuous action are best conceived as a kind of spontaneity that affords a special feeling of happiness dubbed “metaphysical comfort.”

scholarly journals Stylizations of Being: Attention as an Existential Hub in Heidegger and Christian Mysticism

Open Theology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 206-220
Author(s):  
Bernardo Manzoni Palmeirim
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
Karl Rahner ◽  
Existential Phenomenology ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Christian Mysticism ◽  
Philosophy And Religion ◽  
Simone Weil ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Philosophical Framework

AbstractThe assimilation of phenomenology by theology (namely of Heidegger by Karl Rahner) exemplifies how a pre-existing philosophical framework can be imported into a theological system by being suffused with belief. Although one would imagine that the incommensurability between philosophy and religion would thus be overcome, the two disciplines risk to remain, given the sequels of the ‘French debate’, worlds apart, separated by a leap of faith. In this paper I attempt to uncover what grammatical similitudes afforded Rahner formal transference in the first place. Uncovering analogous uses of contemplative attention, namely between Heidegger and Simone Weil, I hope to demonstrate the filial relationship between existential phenomenology and Christian mysticism. I propose that attention is a key factor in both systems of thought. Furthermore, I propose that: 1) attention, the existential hub between subject and phenomena, provides a base for investigating methodologies, as opposed to causal relations, in philosophy and religion; 2) that the two attentional disciplines of meditation and contemplation, spiritual practices designed to shape the self, also constitute styles of thinking; and 3) the ‘turn’ in the later Heidegger’s philosophy is a strategic point to inquire into this confluence of styles of thinking, evincing the constantly dynamic and intrinsically tight relation between philosophy and theology.

A Study of the Relationship between a Personal Philosophy of Human Nature (Good or Evil) and Self-Esteem

1987 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 447-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Martin ◽  
Garland E. Blair ◽  
Robert M. Nevels ◽  
Mary M. Brant
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Personality Inventory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Female Undergraduate ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Personal Philosophy ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Age And Sex

The present study was undertaken to estimate the relationship between a personal philosophy of human nature (whether man is essentially good or evil) and an individual's self-esteem, as measured by the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory and the Self-esteem scale of the Jackson Personality Inventory. For 19 male and 21 female undergraduate students, correlations of age and sex with self-esteem were calculated. The multivariate analysis of variance indicated a nonsignificant relation between scores on philosophy of human nature of students and their scores on the two measures of self-esteem. Correlations of age and sex with self-esteem were also nonsignificant. The Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory scores and those on the Self-esteem scale of the Jackson Personality Inventory were significantly correlated at .59.

Conceptual Disruption

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara I. McClelland
Keyword(s):  
Survey Research ◽  
Sexual Satisfaction ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Report Data ◽  
Self Report Data ◽  
Cantril’S Ladder

In research using self-report measures, there is little attention paid to how participants interpret concepts; instead, researchers often assume definitions are shared, universal, or easily understood. I discuss the self-anchored ladder, adapted from Cantril’s ladder, which is a procedure that simultaneously collects a participant’s self-reported rating and their interpretation of that rating. Drawing from a study about sexual satisfaction that included a self-anchored ladder, four analyses are presented and discussed in relation to one another: (1) comparisons of sexual satisfaction scores, (2) variations of structures participants applied to the ladder, (3) frequency of terms used to describe sexual satisfaction, and (4) thematic analysis of “best” and “worst” sexual satisfaction. These analytic strategies offer researchers a model for how to incorporate self-anchored ladder items into research designs as a means to draw out layers of meaning in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods data. I argue that the ladder invites the potential for conceptual disruption by prioritizing skepticism in survey research and bringing greater attention to how social locations, histories, economic structures, and other factors shape self-report data. I also address issues related to the multiple epistemological positions that the ladder demands. Finally, I argue for the centrality of epistemological self-reflexivity in critical feminist psychological research. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684317725985

scholarly journals Communicating Returnable Packaging Through Product Labelling

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polina Ratnichkina
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Behaviour Change ◽  
Conventional Method ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
The Self ◽  
Product Labelling ◽  
Environmental Behaviour ◽  
Milk Bottle ◽  
Social Modelling ◽  
The Right

This research seeks to find effective ways to communicate returnable packaging campaigns to consumers through product labelling. This is an important line of inquiry as more and more countries are rolling out regulations that penalize companies for their wasteful practices. Knowing how to encourage people to engage with returnable packaging campaigns will be of great interest to future marketers and sustainability practitioners. This research uses experimental approach with the use of online questionnaires showcasing different label messages. Results show that the conventional method of tapping into the altruistic side of human nature with guilt-inducing messages is ineffective for the population at large. Embracing the self-enhancing, gain-seeking, pain-eliminating side of human nature results in a bigger pro-environmental behaviour change. Making the process of “doing the right thing” easier resulted in the higher willingness to return an empty milk bottle among participants when compared to financial rewards, social modelling, and justification.

Reconsidering Ontology’s Relevance

2021 ◽  
pp. 24-42
Author(s):  
Thaddeus Metz
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
General Principle ◽  
Moral Theory ◽  
The Self ◽  
Right Action ◽  
Kwame Nkrumah ◽  
Moral Claims

This chapter and the next are methodological, focused on how to justify a moral theory. Many African philosophers believe that ethical claims follow immediately from ‘external’, metaphysical ones about human nature that must be established first. For example, Kwame Nkrumah maintains that an egalitarian ethic follows directly from a prior physicalist ontology, and Kwame Gyekye contends that his ‘moderate communitarian’ morality is derived from a certain conception of the self. Chapter 2 shows how these and similar rationales fail to clear the ‘is/ought gap’, as it is known in Western meta-ethics, and also how strategies one might use to bridge the gap do not work. It concludes that a more suitable way to defend a moral theory is to argue ‘internally’ to morality by appealing to intuitions, i.e., by determining which comparatively more controversial general principle of right action easily entails and best explains less controversial particular moral claims.

Relationality in the Thought of Mary Midgley

2020 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 235-248
Author(s):  
Gregory S. McElwain
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
The Self ◽  
Mary Midgley ◽  
Over 40 Years

AbstractFor over 40 years, Mary Midgley has been celebrated for the sensibility with which she approached some of the most challenging and pressing issues in philosophy. Her expansive corpus addresses such diverse topics as human nature, morality, animals and the environment, gender, science, and religion. While there are many threads that tie together this impressive plurality of topics, the thread of relationality unites much of Midgley's thought on human nature and morality. This paper explores Midgley's pursuit of a relational notion of the self and our connections to others, including animals and the natural world.

On the Web, on Reclaiming “Spirituality,” “Authenticity,” and “Revolution”: An Argument for Leadership-With

2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 686-707
Author(s):  
Glenn M. Hudak
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
21St Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Self Help ◽  
The Web

It is argued that the Web is transforming schooling in the 21st century, and as such altering the terrain of what leadership “means.” Theorizing our submersion in the Internet, we discover that the Web enhances a leadership-for paradigm, while at the same time it militates against what is defined as a leadership-with paradigm. For the power of the Web is its capacity to transform our desire for meaningful interconnectedness: transforming “spirituality” and “authenticity” into products for the self-help industry, and leadership into something not intended—disembodied leadership. In our postmodern culture, revoultionary leadership can act to counter disembodiment in its demand for an embodied, “incarnate” leadership. With embodied leadership comes our solidarity with one another: our passionate sense of commitment for social justice and where one acts with such intensity as to stretch the boundary we normally consider as being “professional” into being “revolutionary.” As such, revolutionary leadership is moral, spiritual, and authentic in that one is released from one's professional identity.

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