Requests for stories

My contribution traces the evolving notion of tellability in the study of narrative over the last thirty-odd years: Tellability was initially seen as an objective property of textual content, but research on narrative in real contexts of talk has increasingly recognized the various ways interactional factors can override content as grounds for relating a story. I advance a set of research strategies based on investigation of the discourse structures that accompany the negotiation of tellability in context and the syntactic markers of tellability, specifically requests for stories like “tell me” and “tell her,” correlating with features of recipient design in narration. This will reveal distinctions in presuppositions about who knows a story already, who else should be included, and who may conarrate, demonstrating how tellability varies from one participant to another even in the same context.

Meta-Ethics

Moore’s arguments begin a debate that revives sentimentalist and rationalist arguments. According to Moore, ‘good’ is indefinable, because there is no definition of it that mentions only ‘natural’ properties. Non-naturalist objectivists argue that we know about objective moral properties, but not in the way we know about other properties. Non-cognitivists argue that goodness is not an objective property at all; when we say that something is good, we are not stating a fact about it, but expressing an emotion, or issuing some prescription. Even if objectivism is correct about the meaning of moral judgments, we may still deny that any moral judgments are true, on the ground that we have no reason to believe that there are any moral facts of the sort that objectivists claim to describe. Further discussion of these arguments against objectivism requires closer attention to the difference between moral concepts and moral properties.

Spinoza’s Moral Realism

This chapter shows that Spinoza is committed to a type of moral realism. By “moral realism” is meant a theory of the way of life that is best for us as human beings, a theory based on a view on which good and bad are objective properties. By “objective property” is meant a property whose instance(s) does (do) not directly depend on anyone’s desires, emotions, or beliefs about its existence and nature. The author argues that, for Spinoza, the properties of goodness and badness are objective properties. Instances of goodness do not directly depend on someone’s desires, emotions, and beliefs about the existence and nature of goodness. The same holds for badness. His argument for this reading hinges on the conception of human nature that Spinoza appeals to in his definition of “virtue” (4D8). This conception of human nature serves as the foundation for the objectivity of the properties of goodness and badness, and the author contends that it is this that makes Spinoza a type of moral realist.

STATEMENT OF THE SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS ON THE BASIS OF THE POSTULATE OF NONEQUILIBRIUM

Most physical laws are quantitative expressions of the philosophical laws of the conservation of matter and its properties of motion. The first law of thermodynamics (FLT) is an analytical expression of the law of conservation of motion when its shape changes. As for the second law of thermodynamics (SLT), it has not yet been clarified which property of matter does not change during the course of reversible processes and changes during the course of irreversible processes in an isolated system (IS). Hence, a large number of the SLT statements and an abundance of material to clarify these formulations. The author of the SLT is based on the “postulate of nonequilibrium”, according to which there is an objective property of matter - “nonequilibrium”, which characterizes the unequal distribution of matter and movement in space. All processes (reversible and irreversible) can proceed only in nonequilibrium systems. This leads to the only formulation of the second law of thermodynamics: when the reversible (ideal) processes occur in an isolated system, the nonequilibrium is preserved, and with the occurrence of irreversible (real) processes – decreases. When the system reaches an equilibrium state, the nonequilibrium disappears, and all processes cease. As a quantitative measure of the nonequilibrium of the system, we consider the maximum work that can be done when a nonequilibrium system transitions to an equilibrium state. The following quantities are used to calculate this work: “potential difference”, “entropy difference”, change in exergy. All these values decrease in the course of real (irreversible) processes in the isolated system and do not change in the course of reversible processes. As a result, a generalized expression of the SLT through the quantitative characteristics of the nonequilibrium of the system in the form of an inequality, which includes R. Claudius’s inequality for changing the entropy of an isolated system, is obtained.

FORMATION OF RISK-BALANCED STYLE OF PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

The basis of the sustainable development of society with ever-growing scientific and technical progress is noxology as a science about the dangers of the world, since the risk of being in modern society is higher than ever. In this regard, a scientific noxospheric picture of the world is being formed as an integrative knowledge system, which should be the basis for the formation of a new, noxological worldview, in which security is the main value norm of risk-oriented thinking. The article is aimed at the theoretical substantiation of the necessity of developing a risk-balanced style of professional activity among university students on the basis of risk-thinking as an objective property of the personality. The article also reveals the authors’ concept of the noxological consciousness and explains the term of a risk-balanced style of professional activity. The definition, structure and main constituent elements of this personal phenomenon are given. It is determined that noxological style of professional activity includes such components as risk-thinking, self-regulation, intellectual features and capabilities, “labor model”, individual biological rhythms, will, as well as habits and special techniques of activity. Various characteristics of risks in the professional activity of a specialist are considered. Based on the analysis of scientific and pedagogical literature on the problem and the method of observation, the modeling of the pedagogical system of training a specialist with a risk-balanced style of professional activity is presented, the effectiveness of which is confirmed by the formative experiment.

Justice in the System of Socioeconomic Relations: Theoretical and Institutional Aspects

The Object of the Study. Justice as a social phenomenon, a property, and the system-forming side of social relations.The Subject of the Study. Systems aralysing the phenomenon of justice as an objective characteristic of social relations at the theoretic and conceptual levels in the socioeconomic sphere. The Purpose of the Study. The category of justice, its essential, meaningful characteristics in the context of socioeconomic relations.The Main Provisions of the ArticleIn the context of globalization of social processes, the problem of justice has acquired special importance both in theoretical, ideological and practical terms. In the system of socio-economic relations, justice as an objective property of these relations is determined through the socio-philosophical category, which indicates the correspondence of appropriation as a process of securing resources, property, means of production, material goods, services and various types of income for an economic entity or an individual to the results of their activities.At each stage of social development, economic justice has its limits , which are the interests of the state and social groups. The latter dictate their demands for the application of the principles of justice, primarily through decent remuneration for work. As an economic problem, justice is manifested in the form of claims, conditions imposed on the political power about effective taxation and adequate tax burden on the population.But in general, the study of the problems of justice in economic relations is closely related to the need to find more effective options for the development of production and society. On a socially significant scale, socio-economic justice acts as the expediency of the emerging property relations, and their transformation at a certain historical stage. The dynamics of changes in economic relations, the basis of which are property relations, causes changes in the specific meaning of justice in this process

THE IMPACT OF THE LAW VALUES TO OVERCOME LEGAL NIGILISM

The article substantiates the idea that in the process of the formation and development of the foundations of a civil society and the rule of law, legal nihilism continues showing to a certain extent its potential and thus inhibiting progressive legal changes. Attention is focused on the peculiarities of the stability of legal nihilism and the problems of its gradual overcoming. It is emphasized in the offered article the importance of the law values priority, of the legal ideal, of the principle of social justice in the process of eradicating the manifestations of legal nihilism in the relevant areas of society life activity and personality. The authors came to the following conclusion: Values of law is a phenomenon of objective property, to be based on the ideas of the natural law, arising from the fact of human existence and directed exclusively to a person, to his rights and needs. Value entity of law really manifests itself only under operating conditions of civil society and legal state, recognising a person, his rights and freedoms as the highest social value. Legal nihilism begins losing its potential strength only when the majority of members of civil society recognize the priority of values of law. Confrontation of values of law and legal nihilism decisively narrows the scope of negative legal phenomena in all forms of their manifestation. Basing on the values of law, civil society institutions can solve problems being in the field of interests and needs of each person, so creating favourable conditions to eradicate legal nihilism. Using the truly valuable potential of law (first of all, legal law), civil society and legal state carry out transformations that ensure decent existence of any individual and by this minimizing the manifestation of legal nihilism. Even with a sufficiently high level of development of civil society and legal state, the practical negative attitude to legal nihilism should not weaken, because in the face of any social and legal reality, various offenses (including serious crimes) can be committed. Overcoming legal nihilism is associated with constant increase in the level of legal awareness and legal culture of the majority of members of civil society, which is a consequence of the following conclusions. Values of law is a phenomenon of objective property, based on the ideas of natural law, arising from the fact of a person’s existence and directed exclusively to a person, his rights and needs. The value essence of law really manifests itself only in the conditions of the functioning of civil society and the rule of law, recognize a person, his rights and freedoms as the highest social value. Legal nihilism begins to lose gradually its potential strength only when the majority of members of civil society recognize the priority of the values of law. The confrontation of the values of law and legal nihilism decisively narrows the scope of negative legal phenomena in all forms of their manifestation. Based on the values of law, civil society institutions can solve problems that are in the field of interests and needs of each person, which creates favourable conditions for the eradication of legal nihilism. Using the truly valuable potential of law (first of all, legal laws), civil society and the rule of law carry out those transformations that ensure the worthy existence of the individual and thereby minimize the manifestation of legal nihilism. Even with a sufficiently high level of development of civil society and legal law any negative attitude to legal nihilism should not be weaken, since in the conditions of any social and legal reality, various offenses (including serious crimes) can be committed. Overcoming legal nihilism is associated with permanent increase in the level of legal awareness and legal culture of the majority of civil society members which is a consequence of increase of quality of legal education and upbringing.

CONCEPTUALITY AS AN OBJECTIVE PROPERTY OF LAW DETERMINED BY PRINCIPLES OF LEGAL THINKING

The property of conceptuality inherent in the right caused by a genetic linkage of thinking and the right and also the dualism inherent in legal thinking which is expressed in attribution to legal thinking of such properties as conceptuality and normativity is proved in article; on the basis of the comparative analysis of characteristics of normativity and conceptuality of legal thinking, the assumptions of conceptuality as objective property of the right are formulated.

Metaepistemology

Metaepistemology may be partly characterized as the study of the nature, aims, methods and legitimacy of epistemology. Given such a characterization, most epistemological views and theories have an important metaepistemological aspect or, at least, a number of more or less explicit metaepistemological commitments. Metaepistemology is an important area of philosophy because it exemplifies that philosophy must serve as its own metadiscipline by continuously reflecting critically on its own methods and aims. Even though philosophical methodology may be regarded as a branch of epistemology, epistemology itself is as much in need of metaphilosophical examination as other core disciplines of philosophy. Moreover, metaepistemology is important because it bears significantly on first-order epistemological questions. Indeed, many of the most prominent contemporary debates in philosophy have a distinctly metaepistemological aspect. For example, the debates between rationalists and empiricists do not only concern the nature of cognition of specific areas – perception, arithmetic, logic and so forth – but also general metaepistemological questions about whether it is realistic and desirable that epistemology be naturalized. Likewise, the debates between epistemic internalists and externalists include metaepistemological debates about whether the proper focus for epistemology should be the cognizer’s rational perspective or some more objective property of the cognizer’s epistemic position. Similarly, the debates concerning the relationship between folk epistemology and epistemological theorizing include metaepistemological debates about how empirical data concerning folk epistemology should impact epistemology itself. Each of these debates provides an example of how first-order epistemological issues are deeply connected, and sometimes inseparable from, metaepistemological considerations.