Am I a Cyborg? Are You?

Philosophia - The term “cyborg” is being used in a surprising variety of ways. Some authors argue that the human being as such is—and has always been—a cyborg (Clark,...     

Why Are You Betraying Your Class?

Abstract: Social justice concerns us on two counts: One, what is social justice? Two, given that we know the answer to one, then the question is: how can social justice be implemented? Answering the first question requires hitting the right balance between two values: liberty and equality. My concern here, however, is with the second question, the question of implementation rather than with what social justice consists of. I assume that the right balance between liberty and equality is somehow a given. To implement the structural changes that a just society requires calls for a historical agent that can bring about such changes. The working class was a good candidate to be such a historical agent. The working class was suitable for this historical task because it was the class that had the most to gain from a just society and it was a very large class of people. The working class was singled out for this task not for being a particularly virtuous class but by being the class that had the most to gain from a change in the status quo. But the working class is rapidly disappearing; in the developed countries, it has shrunk considerably. Thus, the implementation of social justice is now left without an effective historical agent to carry it through.     

What Kind of Narcissist Are You?

We are all narcissists, and necessarily so, since healthy narcissism is one of the main routes available to us for nourishing and protecting ourselves. Like all personality traits, narcissism is dimensional. For our own good, and for that of those whose lives we touch, it is useful to know what kind of narcissist we are, and to what effect. When my own narcissism was tweaked by an event that left most people relatively nonplussed, I examined the implications of this psychic insult. I looked to the contents of my narcissistic mirror, asking who and what had contributed to that template. After this analysis, I was able to see more clearly and concretely how helpful the concept of narcissism can be when trying to understand both normal and pathological behavior.     

Are You Alive? Sensor Data as a Resource for Social Interaction

This paper presents findings from the field test of a prototype device that collects heart rate sensor data and displays it for users. The prototype was tested on a football team, including teenage players, their parents and coaches. The findings include notes on user expectations related to the technology and detailed analyses of the social interactions that took place during the test. The paper concludes with design implications relating to this application, but also poses challenges for context-aware computing and machine intelligence in general.

Who Do You Think You Are? Evolving Ethical Meaning Making

People must develop ways to determine and manage acceptable and unacceptable behaviors within their communities, although not all communities create the same ethical systems. Understanding differences in ethical systems, including between constructivists and their critics, might benefit from considering constructive-developmental theory, which views ethics as related to evolving individual self-identities in a context of accompanying cultural evolution. By considering that people's ethical frameworks evolve over the life span and that current society consists of people at various levels within that evolutionary process, we may arrive at a better understanding of ethical differences and include a wider range of perspectives in our discourse.     

Are You Attracted? Do You Intend to Pursue? A Recruiting Policy-Capturing Study

This study examines the relative importance of four factors: job factors of pay and promotion, and two organizational image factors: lay-off policy and ecological rating, on recruits' attraction or job pursuit. We identify that factors determining potential job recruits' attraction to an organization may not equate with the factors that prompt job pursuit intentions. Using a sample of business students and policy-capturing methodology, results show ecological rating most strongly predicted attractiveness, while pay most strongly predicted job pursuit intentions.     

‘You Are What You Read:’ Is selective exposure a way people tell us who they are?

Selective exposure is the tendency to gather viewpoint-congenial versus viewpoint-uncongenial information. Extant models of selective exposure suggest this tendency occurs because people anticipate reading congenial (vs. uncongenial) information will cause more favourable intrapersonal consequences. However, these models ignore the notion that people's information choices are, in part, symbolic gestures designed to convey identity-relevant beliefs to an audience through information display. Drawing from perspectives that emphasize human consumption as symbolic and a way to signal one's identity, we suggest that selective exposure pertains not only to information processing but also to conveying identity through information display. Experiment 1 showed that people characterize information display as a way to communicate their views to an audience. Experiments 2–4 showed that people are averse to displaying uncongenial versus congenial information (without processing the information), anticipate feeling more uncomfortable and more inauthentic merely displaying (without processing) uncongenial versus congenial information, and that people's intentions to engage in selective exposure in daily life are a function of their belief that selective-exposure displays convey their identity. None of these studies or findings can be generated from extant selective-exposure theories. Thus, selective-exposure theories are likely incomplete because they ignore people's beliefs and goals regarding information display.     

Are You Ready for Some Football? A Monday Night Documentary?

According to three of the most prominent contemporary theories of documentary—those of Gregory Currie, Noël Carroll, and Carl Plantinga—live televised sports broadcasts like Monday Night Football count as members of that category. I begin this article by explaining how each of these theories encompasses live televised sports. Next, I argue that this inclusion is a serious mistake. Attention to it reveals that any adequate account of documentaries must include a condition that Currie, Carroll, and Plantinga ignore. After considering some candidates for this condition, I develop a technical notion of “account” and defend the proposal that documentaries are primarily accounts. Any theory of documentary that incorporates this insight will fit more comfortably with the standard categorical distinctions made in critical and everyday practice.     

Pastor,are You a Religious Illiterate?

Abstract : The growing religious diversity of the United States forces pastors into the role of spokesperson for the Christian faith along with becoming chief educator about other religious traditions for the congregation. Pastors, now more than ever, have the responsibility to become educated about the world's religions and to share this knowledge with their parishioners. To prepare clergy for these new responsibilities, three Lutheran pastors speak from their own experiences of deliberately engaging and studying diverse religious communities. With special focus on Islam and Hinduism, the pastors provide resources for further reading and study. This collaborative effort aims to encourage and empower pastors to embrace these new components of their calling by openly and regularly interacting with their religious neighbors.     

How Are You,奥林匹克!

~~How Are You,奥林匹克!@张宝城 @王兴 @谭胜功~~     

Are You Kynd? Conformity and Deviance Within the Jamband Subculture

I use measures of interpersonal involvement specific to differential association theory to explain variation within the jamband subculture. Specifically, I examine the relationship between the differential association modalities (frequency, intensity, priority, and duration) and the affective meanings (evaluation, potency, and activity) associated with six behaviors that are relevant to that subculture. I expect the modalities to be related positively to the evaluation and potency of four prosocial (what I term “kynd”) behaviors (to barter, to follow a band, to share, to trade music) and negatively to the evaluation and potency of two “unkynd” behaviors (to talk down, to threaten). Using data from self-administered surveys (n = 379), I find that frequency and intensity predict variation in the affective meaning of kynd and unkynd behaviors. However, priority and duration generally do not predict variation in the affective meaning of kynd and unkynd behaviors.     

Are You Sure There Isn't a Monster in the Closet? Regulation of Children's Worrying in Uncertain Contexts

Intolerance of uncertainty and maladaptive information seeking are linked in many models of worry and clinical anxiety. This study aimed to examine children's use of information to regulate negative arousal associated with uncertainty in an exciting or threatening pretend play context. Children were presented with a positively or negatively valenced imaginary creature in a closed box. They were then given visual, verbal, or no reminder as to the pretend status of the entity. Children in the verbal and no information conditions were significantly more likely to spontaneously check as to the presence or absence of the creature during the game. These results confirm that some children react with more intense worry in situations of uncertainty, and that the type of information provided to children is important in assisting them to regulate that emotional response. The study provides analogue experimental support for the value in clinical contexts of direct experience in order to reduce uncertainty regarding imagined possibilities, and, in turn, worrying.