Prosociality without morality: A Humean constructivist approach to prosocial practical reason for moral skeptics

<p>The moral skeptic frequently encounters the view that without a belief in moral facts she has insufficient justification for acting in prosocial ways, such as acting with concern for the interests or welfare of others. This thesis is an argument against that view. The thesis is in two parts, each employing a different type of philosophy. Part one is empirical philosophy, and draws on evidence from psychology and history to show that morality is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of prosociality, and may in fact be an obstacle to it. Part two is in the fields of metaethics and practical reason, and addresses the question of how a moral skeptic can employ rationality to develop robust, stable, and coherent practical reasons for prosociality. I argue that this can be done by employing a Humean constructivist view. Finally, I use John Stuart Mill as a case study, arguing that he is a noncognitivist and thus a moral skeptic, and that a Humean constructivist reading of his utilitarian theory accounts for the harmony between his moral skepticism and his prosocial normative theory. Mill thus offers an example of prosociality and moral skepticism within a Humean constructivist framework.</p>

Prosociality without morality: A Humean constructivist approach to prosocial practical reason for moral skeptics

<p>The moral skeptic frequently encounters the view that without a belief in moral facts she has insufficient justification for acting in prosocial ways, such as acting with concern for the interests or welfare of others. This thesis is an argument against that view. The thesis is in two parts, each employing a different type of philosophy. Part one is empirical philosophy, and draws on evidence from psychology and history to show that morality is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of prosociality, and may in fact be an obstacle to it. Part two is in the fields of metaethics and practical reason, and addresses the question of how a moral skeptic can employ rationality to develop robust, stable, and coherent practical reasons for prosociality. I argue that this can be done by employing a Humean constructivist view. Finally, I use John Stuart Mill as a case study, arguing that he is a noncognitivist and thus a moral skeptic, and that a Humean constructivist reading of his utilitarian theory accounts for the harmony between his moral skepticism and his prosocial normative theory. Mill thus offers an example of prosociality and moral skepticism within a Humean constructivist framework.</p>

Ethnoregional Separatism in Europe: Disintegration vs. Integration?

Having been in the 2000s far from the spotlight of the news, European separatism is gradually returning to the information fi eld, which is partly due to the alerting reports from Scotland and Catalonia. The paper attempts to answer the following questions: what is the nature of the ethnoregional separatism in the EU, how does disintegrational agenda cohabit with the European integration dynamics, and what are the prospects for European separatism. The review of the theoretical framework within which ethnic and regionalist separatism exists is followed by the analysis of the empirics gained from diff erent European regions claiming independence or autonomy, such as Scotland, Catalonia, Flanders, Brittany, and many others, in 2000–2021. The author attempts to demythologize the widespread misconception about separatism as a potentially deadly threat to the EU nation-states or the European unity. The research is situated within the constructivist view towards ethnicity and the symbolic practices employed by the separatists; this paradigm is complemented by the institutional approach to the EU governing bodies and practices. The author comes to the following conclusions: currently, disintegrative projects within the EU nation-states cannot be successful, because of the position of the EU and the member states, and due to the uncertainties in the ethnic regions themselves (however, Scotland makes for an important exception, because of Brexit). Most separatist cases in the EU are either of instrumental or of a pure autonomist nature and do not enjoy any support from the integrational grouping that is not ready for the troubles the “internal extension” might cause. Moreover, if in the late 20th century, a discernible trend for decentralization and devolution was present, now the pendulum took the reversed direction, or at least remains unmoving; the author observes the trend for recentralization or at least for the freezing of the current fragile balance.

A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

We respond to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga’s recent claim that Spanish shows genuine cases of strong resultative constructions, e.g. Juan apuñaló a Tomás hasta la muerte ‘John stabbed Tom to death’, argued to be equivalent to the English construction with the PP to death. This claim is theoretically relevant as it challenges the verb-framed behavior of Spanish with respect to Talmy’s typology. Adopting a constructivist view of argument structure, we argue that Spanish hasta la muerte and English to death constructions of this type involve two completely distinct syntactic configurations, and that only the English to death PP can be regarded as a resultative phrase. We claim that the Spanish hasta PP is syntactically computed as an adjunct external to the argument structure of the predicate and provides a boundary to the predicate it merges with. We thus show that the Spanish construction with hasta la muerte fully conforms to the class of Talmy’s verb-framed languages in that this type of construction is expected to be fully available and productive in this class of languages.

A new resultative construction in Spanish? A reply to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga

We respond to Rodríguez Arrizabalaga’s recent claim that Spanish shows genuine cases of strong resultative constructions, e.g. Juan apuñaló a Tomás hasta la muerte ‘John stabbed Tom to death’, argued to be equivalent to the English construction with the PP to death. This claim is theoretically relevant as it challenges the verb-framed behavior of Spanish with respect to Talmy’s typology. Adopting a constructivist view of argument structure, we argue that Spanish hasta la muerte and English to death constructions of this type involve two completely distinct syntactic configurations, and that only the English to death PP can be regarded as a resultative phrase. We claim that the Spanish hasta PP is syntactically computed as an adjunct external to the argument structure of the predicate and provides a boundary to the predicate it merges with. We thus show that the Spanish construction with hasta la muerte fully conforms to the class of Talmy’s verb-framed languages in that this type of construction is expected to be fully available and productive in this class of languages.

The Concept of Intercultural Communication in the Theory of Psycholinguistics

Intercultural communication may be defined as the ability, possibly more acquired than innate, to engage in successful communicative interactions with people representing different languages, cultures, social morals and norms of behavior. It implies not only mastery and judicious of language use in itself but also skillful application of suitable social conventions with cultural sensitivity, political correctness as well as attention to needs and wishes of a given group or a particular individual. Language teaching and learning have entered a phase which takes a more constructivist view of learning emphasizing personal learning and discovery on the part of the learner, with more task-based, collaborative activity between learners, and a more facilitating role for the teacher. Communication skills are central to the activity of today’s business professional.

Wendt versus Pollock: Toward visual semiotics in the discipline of IR theory

We focus on a key IR Theory article by Alexander Wendt (1992) and two Jackson Pollock paintings. Our aim is to identify meanings Pollock’s art communicates and reveals for Wendt (1992). It derives from an appeal to visual imagination and a desire for semiotic interpretation of Constructivist view of anarchy. The visual sign is an association such that there is Wendt’s theoretical claim on the one hand and an abstract painting on the other. We do not gaze at Wendt’s claim, we read it. We do not read a painting, look at it. This remark does not imply a one-way relationship. We can argue that a specific painting comes to life in our mind where colored movements are inextricably mixed up when we read the constructivist claim. Both Pollock paintings selected for our sign-making effort confirm the dynamic character of Constructivism and reveal not only three but countlessly many anarchies in international relations. They foment our assessments of abrupt changes of intersubjectivity among states. Cyclicality of dripped paints provides an anchor to fix Wendt’s anarchy conceptualization in these structural-abstract paintings. As to Wendt’s concept of anarchy, it acts as a helper, as a standard, against which interpretations of Pollock’s artwork construct meanings.

Introduction

The introduction sets the stage for what follows. Constructivism is presented as a position that seeks to explain why some considerations are reasons for or against certain actions. It thus disagrees with fundamentalist views which deny that a general, yet informative explanation of this kind is available. Constructivism also differs from Humean views that offer such an explanation in terms of the agent’s actual or hypothetical desires. By contrast, constructivism suggests that reasons can be explained as an upshot of our capacity to reason. The introduction also highlights that the constructivist view to be developed in the book is a meta-ethical, rather than a first-order normative position, and that it offers an account only of practical reasons, leaving, e.g., epistemic reasons aside.

The Culture of Life and the New Maternity

Within the divergent streams of late-modern and largely Western feminism, the experience and ethos (and ethics) of motherhood and the significance of the “maternal body” have been hotly contested and problematic. What might be called “the maternal problematic” is also evident in the highly flammable touchpoints between Catholic magisterial teaching and secular feminism—especially in relation to women’s work, vocation and perhaps most contentiously, in relation to women’s fertility and pregnancy. This article mines Pope Saint John Paul II’s major encyclical letter of 1995, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) and his intervention into this charged milieu. The Encyclical is rightly viewed as an important exegesis and expansion on the traditional Catholic magisterial teaching upon the ethics of the “sanctity of life”. This article aims to demonstrate that the Encyclical also attempts a fresh line of departure, by weaving into the ethical discussion the importance of “the maternal” as a distinctive interpersonal experience and awareness. This enriches the pastoral and ethical voice of the Church’s witness to human dignity and human life. The Encyclical contains the seeds of what this article will call “a new maternity”, a type of meta-ethos, integral to the development of a “new feminism” which is also aligned and pivotal to the formation of “a culture of life The article will suggest that far from presenting a reductive, oppressive or constructivist view of women and maternity, Evangelium Vitae, when read in synthesis with the Polish Pope’s wider ressourcement of “theological anthropology,” explores three original themes: (a) the importance of maternal “creational contemplation” in women as a force for a humane societal ethos; (b) the invitational dramatics of the maternal in understanding the Catholic ethos surrounding procreation; (c) the personal solidarity and iconic role of the Virgin Mary’s maternity in all expressions of women’s maternal vocation whether physical, existential and/or mystical.