Rebooting discourse ethics

2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 829-866 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Heath

In this article I argue that the conception of discourse ethics that Jürgen Habermas advances in his seminar paper, ‘Discourse Ethics: Notes on a Program of Philosophical Justification’, is subject to significant revision in later work. The central difference has to do with the status of the universalization principle and its relationship to the ‘rightness’ validity claim. The earlier view is structured by a desire to provide a weak-transcendental defense of the universalization principle. The later revision, however, essentially undercuts the basis of this argument, because it severs the conception of practical discourse from the analysis of speech acts. As a way of responding to the difficulties this creates, I propose a ‘reboot’ of the discourse ethics program. This involves reverting to the earlier, more Durkheimian and less Kantian, formulation of the theory. The result is a program that is no longer encumbered by sterile debates about the correct formulation of the universalization principle, but can plausibly claim to provide insight into the role that language-dependence plays in the development and entrenchment of increasingly pro-social behavior patterns within our institutions.

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Winters ◽  
J. P. Hume ◽  
M. Leenstra

In 1887 Dutch archivist A. J. Servaas van Rooijen published a transcript of a hand-written copy of an anonymous missive or letter, dated 1631, about a horrific famine and epidemic in Surat, India, and also an important description of the fauna of Mauritius. The missive may have been written by a lawyer acting on behalf of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). It not only gives details about the famine, but also provides a unique insight into the status of endemic and introduced Mauritius species, at a time when the island was mostly uninhabited and used only as a replenishment station by visiting ships. Reports from this period are very rare. Unfortunately, Servaas van Rooijen failed to mention the location of the missive, so its whereabouts remained unknown; as a result, it has only been available as a secondary source. Our recent rediscovery of the original hand-written copy provides details about the events that took place in Surat and Mauritius in 1631–1632. A full English translation of the missive is appended.


Author(s):  
Manju Dhariwal ◽  

Written almost half a century apart, Rajmohan’s Wife (1864) and The Home and the World (1916) can be read as women centric texts written in colonial India. The plot of both the texts is set in Bengal, the cultural and political centre of colonial India. Rajmohan’s Wife, arguably the first Indian English novel, is one of the first novels to realistically represent ‘Woman’ in the nineteenth century. Set in a newly emerging society of India, it provides an insight into the status of women, their susceptibility and dependence on men. The Home and the World, written at the height of Swadeshi movement in Bengal, presents its woman protagonist in a much progressive space. The paper closely examines these two texts and argues that women enact their agency in relational spaces which leads to the process of their ‘becoming’. The paper analyses this journey of the progress of the self, which starts with Matangini and culminates in Bimala. The paper concludes that women’s journey to emancipation is symbolic of the journey of the nation to independence.


Electricity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-186
Author(s):  
Md Tanbhir Hoq ◽  
Nathaniel Taylor

The introduction of series capacitors in transmission lines causes problems in terms of reliability and the security of distance protection relays. As distance protection is widely used in the transmission network, the challenge of applying it to series compensated lines has been taken up by utilities and relay manufacturers in various ways. In the field of power system protection, developments are largely driven by relay manufacturers, and are often not published in the academic literature; the status and trend of the relay manufacturer’s development are better found in their product manuals and patent activity. Further insight into specific implementations by transmission utilities can be found from publications in industry-led forums and some academic journals. This article surveys the status and development of distance protection for series compensated lines, with a focus on industrial implementation and practical considerations. Factors that influence the protection of series compensated lines are presented. Implementation examples reported by utilities are summarized as examples of the different situations encountered and the methods used to deal with them. It is observed that many utilities use communication-aided protection in series compensated lines, and distance protection is used with reduced reach. Solutions described in relay manuals are presented to demonstrate the manufacturers’ approaches to problems associated with series capacitor protection. While there are methods to counter voltage inversion, current inversion seems to represent a more serious challenge. A patent overview indicates the trends in this domain to be moving towards time-domain-based faster protection methods.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 508
Author(s):  
Robert K. Townsend ◽  
Kyle M. Fargen

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a debilitating condition that has traditionally been difficult to treat. In recent years, there has been increasing focus on the role of intracranial venous hypertension in the pathophysiology of IIH. Based on increased understanding of this pathophysiology, venous sinus stenting (VSS) has emerged as a safe and reliable treatment for a certain population of patients with IIH. Stratifying patients with IIH based on the status of their venous outflow can provide insight into which patients may enjoy reduction in their symptoms after VSS and provides information regarding why some patients may have symptom recurrence. The traditional view of IIH as a disease due to obesity in young women has been cast into doubt as the understanding of the role of intracranial venous hypertension has improved.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136216882098693
Author(s):  
Eva Jakupčević ◽  
Mihajla Ćavar Portolan

Pragmatic competence is an essential element of communicative competence, which makes it relevant for speakers of all ages, including young language learners (YLLs). Despite the recognized importance of pragmatics, research of textbooks for adult second language (L2) learners to date has found them lacking in their approach to this key aspect of language. However, there is very little research of pragmatics in textbooks for YLLs, which would provide insight into the extent to which these materials can support teachers in including elements of pragmatic competence into their language classes. The present study aims to fill this gap by determining how much pragmatic content is included in 18 textbooks used in Croatian primary schools with learners aged 9–12 years. The textbooks are compared in regard to the percentage of pages with pragmatic content as well as the different speech acts that receive explicit attention in them. The main finding of the study is the great amount of inconsistency when it comes to the scope and treatment of pragmatic content, with some textbooks proving extremely lacking. The results present a concerning picture as all of the students using these diverse textbooks should be following the same curriculum which emphasizes the development of communicative competence.


2009 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franz Schultheis ◽  
Patricia Holder ◽  
Constantin Wagner

Today Pierre Bourdieu is well known as one of the most important social scientists of the 20th century. One of the outstanding qualities of his work has been his innovative combination of different methods and research strategies as well as his analytical skills in interpreting the obtained data (his ‘sociological gaze’). In this paper, we attempt to retrace the development of an extraordinary way of doing social research and show the benefit of Bourdieu's visual sociology for his empirical fieldwork and sociological theory. The article particularly stresses the significance of his photographic archive, which has long been ignored within the appreciation of Bourdieu's work. Studying Bourdieu's photography gives access to his æuvre in several new ways: not only can we understand how Bourdieu became an unconventional sociologist practicing his craft in the midst of a colonial war. Bourdieu's visual anthropology also offers an insight into the status nascendi of Bourdieu's sociology in all its elementary forms and contents. Through his photography Boudieu demonstrated the concepts of ‘ habitat and habitus’, the material and symbolic living conditions of the Algerian population.


Author(s):  
Samuel Suss ◽  
Vincent Thomson

Product development processes of complex products are complex themselves and particularly difficult to plan and manage effectively. Although many organizations manage their product development processes by monitoring the status of documents that are created as deliverables, in fact the progress of the process is in large part based on the actual information flow which is required to develop the product and produce the documents. A vital element in making product development processes work well is the correct understanding of how information flows and how to facilitate its development. In this paper we describe an executable stochastic model of the product development process that incorporates the salient features of the interplay between the information development, exchange and progress of the technical work. Experiments with the model provide insight into the mechanisms that drive these complex processes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esha Mishra ◽  
Subrata Majumder ◽  
Shikha Varma ◽  
Peter A. Dowben

Abstract X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) has been used to study the interactions of heavy metal ions with DNA with some success. Surface sensitivity and selectivity of XPS are advantageous for identifying and characterizing the chemical and elemental structure of the DNA to metal interaction. This review summarizes the status of what amounts to a large part of the photoemission investigations of biomolecule interactions with metals and offers insight into the mechanism for heavy metal-bio interface interactions. Specifically, it is seen that metal interaction with DNA results in conformational changes in the DNA structure.


2022 ◽  
pp. 136346152110673
Author(s):  
Heidi Mitton

This study sought to understand interpretations of interconnections between historical trauma, contemporary violence, and resilience in a Maya Achi community currently engaged in promoting peace and social change through popular education. In particular, the ways in which participants drew upon identity and memory in articulating characteristics of community distress and resilience are discussed. The research is informed by liberation psychology and critical perspectives of mental health, particularly considering the challenges inherent in the promotion of collective memory of trauma and resistance in contexts of violence and humanitarian settings. Participant reflections on historical and contemporary violence highlight elements of collective distress, connecting identity and memory with acts of both oppression and resistance. Education and development are signaled as possible sites of resilience but also experienced as sites of power upholding the status quo. Diverse experiences and applications of identity and memory provide insight into the ways in which community organizations working in contexts of political violence might navigate polarizing and paradoxical discourses in order to subvert, co-opt, or adapt to hegemonic cultural, political, and economic power relations in the process of transformation for collective resilience.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Cuneyt Demir ◽  
Mehmet Takkac

<p>Awareness of language or language competency has greatly changed from the focus of language itself as form and structure to language use as pragmatics. Accordingly, it is widely accepted that different cultures structure discourse in different ways. Moreover, studies have shown that this holds for discourse genres traditionally considered as highly standardized in their rituals and formulas. Taking inspiration from such studies, this paper employs a corpus-based approach to examine variations of the apology and thanking strategies used in English and Italian. First the apology itself as a form of social action is closely analyzed and then thanking. This study also pays special attention on analyzing and contrasting apology and thanking strategies in American English and in Italian in terms of Marion Owen’s remedial strategies (Owen, 1983), and Olshtain &amp; Cohen’s semantic formulas in the apology speech act set (Olshtain &amp; Cohen, 1983). The purpose of the study is not only to compare apology and thanking speech acts but to also learn their contextual use. The findings suggest that the status and role of the situation affect the speakers’ choice of apology and thanking strategies, and semantic formulas are of great importance.</p>


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