The Cognitive Immune System

How do we know when a belief or behavior qualifies as pathological? Are institutions vulnerable to pathological beliefs and behaviors? Nicolas de Condorcet sought answers to these questions using Enlightenment reason. This chapter argues that Condorcet’s modern liberal approach to diagnosing and treating pathological beliefs and behaviors (1) didn’t go far enough, and (2) contained significant blind spots that we are only now coming to appreciate through scientific discoveries. Currently the United States and much of the world is crippled by two pandemics: the coronavirus (a physical virus) and the right-wing cult (a cognitive virus). This chapter introduces the theory of the cognitive immune system and discusses the affordances and limits of the metaphor to medical epidemiology.

IZAZOVI PRAVNOG UREĐENJA UPOTREBE OSOBNIH PODATAKA IZ GENSKIH TESTOVA U SVRHU OSIGURANJA

The paper deals with the issue of using genetic tests for insurance purposes. After introductory remarks, the paper provides an overview of various international and European legal sources both on data protection in general, and on the protection of data from genetic tests. The paper then researches into different solutions proposed by comparative law concerning the use of data from genetic tests for insurance purposes. Some solutions explicitly ban the use of genetic tests for insurance purposes (France, Austria, Portugal, Croatia), while others adopt a more liberal approach, allowing for its use (the USA, the UK, Germany). It is concluded that personal data protection does not exclude the possibility using data from genetic tests for insurance purposes, which proves the need for a common EU approach to the issue.

Inclusive Higher Education in India in the Age of Neo-liberalism

Education is now considered a pre-condition in all societies, particularly in the developing societies, for inclusive development and to fight different inequalities. This can only be possible if access to higher education is based on equity, and a public-funded education system can ensure this. The paper is based on qualitative research and analyses the changes in the higher education system in India from a largely public-funded education system towards a commercial, profit-driven system. The policy shifts are analyzed from comparative and historical perspectives. The neo-liberal approach to education facilitates commercialization, leading to the exclusion of the poor from the higher education system and defeating the constitutional goals of building an inclusive democratic society. The functioning of democracy is also dependent on education as it creates citizens and empowers the marginalized to enter into the democratic system, thus legitimizing the state. The paper concludes that the neo-liberal paradigm of development is contradictory to inclusive education and inclusive development as it commoditizes education.

Legal status of cryptocurrency in Asian countries

The article is devoted to the study of the experience of legal regulation of the legal status of cryptocurrencies and transactions with them in Asian countries (except for the People's Republic of China and Asian countries - members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, as the author examined them in separate publications). In the article the author, based on the study of regulations, administrative and judicial practice of all major countries in this part of the world, emphasizes the divergent trends in cryptocurrency transactions regulation in the region, when some countries move from a liberal approach to the use of cryptocurrencies to their total ban and vice versa. It is noted that almost all countries in the region give a legal assessment of the payment function of cryptocurrencies, using regulatory or prohibitive approaches, depending on the chosen policy, which indirectly confirms their understanding of the legal nature of cryptocurrencies primarily as a means of payment. At the same time, these countries not only categorically distinguish cryptocurrencies from fiat money issued by central banks, but also mostly avoid the official definition of cryptocurrency as private (decentralized) cash, preferring to qualify them as an intangible asset, virtual asset, digital asset, financial value and even a good or service, which is currently a kind of compromise between political expediency and economic realities. The author also notes that the Asian region is characterized by very active attempts to resolve the legal status of cryptocurrencies at the legislative level, and not just administrative or judicial response to the actual legal relationship, although the progress of different countries in this matter is different. As a result, the author concludes that in the Asian countries considered in the article, there is no same view on the legal nature of cryptocurrency, its qualification as an object of civil rights, and ways to regulate transactions with it (libertarian approach, positive-cryptocurrency approach but with detailed government regulation and control or a completely restrictive policy in relation to the cryptocurrency market).

Ideological Foundations of the Provisions of the Criminal Code on Crime and Punishment

The article examines the ideological foundations of modern criminal legislation, in the aspect of crime and criminal punishability of socially dangerous acts. The author examines the influence of conservative and liberal approaches on the formation of the criminal law, its consistency, as well as the content of individual institutions and provisions. The degree and quality of such an impact of the liberal approach on the essential properties and substantive aspects of criminal legislation is thoroughly studied. In this regard, the author gives illustrative examples of negative manifestations of liberal views, argues argumentatively about the need to reflect the conservative value approach in the current criminal law. Similarly, the question of the manifestations of the liberal idea in the aspect of the formation of the penalization component of the Criminal Code is considered. It is argued that the rejection of the punitive concept of punishment led to the desystematization of the list of criminal penalties.

From Unicorns to Mules: Phillip Pettit, Hannah Arendt, and the Liberal Human Rights Regime

<p>The research presented here is an effort to interpret the discrepancy between the theoretical inalienability of human rights and the ease with which they are alienated in practice; a paradox Hannah Arendt regarded as the most conspicuous and cruel contradiction of human rights discourse. Proponents of the contemporary human rights regime have recognised that two principal characteristics of liberal human rights politics—namely, the double appellation of the Rights of Man and Citizen and an insistence on sovereignty and power-politics—directly contribute to this paradox. Nonetheless, they deem the current approach to combating rights violations to be ‘the best we can hope for’. After discussing this pragmatic liberal approach, this paper continues by analysing the alternative approaches championed by two republican traditions which criticise liberal human rights—Pettit’s neo-republicanism and Arendt’s participatory republicanism. The former of these proposes an institutional commitment to the rights of the citizen, whereas the latter deems the direct action of political subjects to be the most effective form of guaranteeing written rights in practice. Finally, in agreement with Arendt’s thought, this paper argues that while liberal power-politics and neo-republican institutionalism have their place in human rights politics, rights are at their most secure as expressions of autonomous action.</p>

From Unicorns to Mules: Phillip Pettit, Hannah Arendt, and the Liberal Human Rights Regime

<p>The research presented here is an effort to interpret the discrepancy between the theoretical inalienability of human rights and the ease with which they are alienated in practice; a paradox Hannah Arendt regarded as the most conspicuous and cruel contradiction of human rights discourse. Proponents of the contemporary human rights regime have recognised that two principal characteristics of liberal human rights politics—namely, the double appellation of the Rights of Man and Citizen and an insistence on sovereignty and power-politics—directly contribute to this paradox. Nonetheless, they deem the current approach to combating rights violations to be ‘the best we can hope for’. After discussing this pragmatic liberal approach, this paper continues by analysing the alternative approaches championed by two republican traditions which criticise liberal human rights—Pettit’s neo-republicanism and Arendt’s participatory republicanism. The former of these proposes an institutional commitment to the rights of the citizen, whereas the latter deems the direct action of political subjects to be the most effective form of guaranteeing written rights in practice. Finally, in agreement with Arendt’s thought, this paper argues that while liberal power-politics and neo-republican institutionalism have their place in human rights politics, rights are at their most secure as expressions of autonomous action.</p>

Rzeczowe zarządzanie zyskiem jako instrument kształtowania dużych strat w przedsiębiorstwach przemysłowych

The purpose of the article/hypothesis: The aim of the paper is to show the importance of the implemented real earnings management (REM) in the intentional shaping of large losses in public industrial enterprises listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Methodology: The basic method of assessing the REM activities was compliant with the Roychowdhury methodology, enabling the estimation of the abnormal levels of: operational cash flows, production costs and discretionary expenses. In turn, the modified verision of iosik model was used to assess the impact of REM practices on the frequency of large losses in tested sample. Results of the research: The obtained results show that the REM implemented by means of overproduction, granting above-average rebates and a liberal approach in the field of trade credits may be considered an important path of intentional deepening of the net loss in public industrial companies.

The Role of Political Economy in Determining the Goals of Firm Laws

The emergence of political schools, especially leftist views, created a closer link between economy on the one hand and political views and schools on the other hand. In fact, prior to the advent of economics-based political schools, the relationship between political schools and economics was not clear, and instead, economic tendencies were mostly stressed by scholars and business organizations. Despite the fact that mercantilism did not last long, and survived for almost only two centuries, it exerted a profound impact on the structure of the western economy. Although the classical school, and mainly Adam Smith, played a role in undermining the idea of mercantilism, it lost its position with the rise of nationalist ideas in the 19th century. In fact, the discriminatory implications and issues of the liberal approach led to the boom of socialism. In the field of political economy, the function of corporate governance has long been of interest to scholars, at the core of which are the two shareholder-based and stakeholder-based views. While the former highlights the interests of the ultimate owners of the company, the latter underscores the interests of the community and all stakeholders as the goal of corporate governance, and both pursue different and sometimes conflicting objectives. The basis of such a difference lies in the discrepancy between individualism and socialism, an influential factor in goal determination of firms.