Is Multiculturalism Discriminatory?

Res Publica - Many political theorists are multiculturalists. They believe that states ought to support and accommodate minority cultures, even if they disagree about when such support and...     

Is Retirement Good or Bad for Subjective Well-Being?

Retirement has been viewed either as a transition that is accompanied by psychological distress or as a time of continued, or even enhanced, subjective well-being. Existing evidence is mixed, with some studies reporting retirement as positively related to well-being and others reporting a negative relationship or none at all. Our research indicates that developmental and social contexts shape an individual’s retirement decisions and experiences, so that retirement should be studied in its ecological and life-course context. Research on marital quality and subjective well-being in retirement has demonstrated both similarities and differences between men and women, as well as the need to consider couples conjointly (rather than viewing individuals in isolation). Future research focusing on the retirement process as it unfolds over time and in ecological context can serve to illuminate the circumstances under which retirement promotes or detracts from the quality of life.     

How Bad Is Rape?

I argue that to be compelled to do routine work is to be gravely harmed. Indeed, that pink-collar work is a more serious harm to women than rape. My purpose is to urge politically active feminists and feminist organizations to arrange their priorities accordingly and devote most of their resources to working for the elimination of sex segregation in employment.     

Is Bad News Always Bad?: Cue and Feedback Effects on Intrinsic Motivation

Although previous research has suggested that, in general, negative feedback concerning performance reduces intrinsically motivated activity, results of the present study indicate that mild negative feedback can increase intrinsic motivation when associated with environmental cues signalling self-determination (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Subjects working on brain-teasers who were given mild negative feedback—but who had a choice of problems to solve, no expectation of evaluation, and who received scores privately—retained as much or more intrinsic motivation than subjects given positive feedback under the same conditions. Subjects in controlling contexts showed less intrinsic motivation. The measure of intrinsic motivation used in this study was a sum of standardized mood and target activity, following recent criticisms of the use of strictly behavioral measures to operationalize intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 1986).     

What's Bad About Bad Faith?

Abstract: Contemporary common sense holds that authenticity is an ethical ideal: that there is something bad about inauthenticity, and something good about authenticity. Here we criticize the view that authenticity is bad because it detracts from the wellbeing of the inauthentic person, and propose an alternative moral account of the badness of inauthenticity, based on the idea that inauthentic behaviour is potentially misleading.     

Are We Essentially Animals?

Animalism is the view that we human individuals are animals. And standard animalists claim that if we are animals, we are animals essentially. This is because they believe that if we are animals, we are essentially members of the human kind (e.g., human animal, Homo sapiens), and as a result, we have the criterion of identity by virtue of that kind. The goal of this paper is to reject the claim that our being animals implies our essentially being animals. I begin by reformulating the standard animalist's argument for the claim that we are essentially biological entities of some sort. I then argue that the very same argumentative strategy can be applied against standard animalism. Specifically, the standard animalist's reasoning for the claim that we are contingently psychological beings faces a dilemma that undermines the claim that we are animals essentially. In the remainder of the paper, I reply to various objections to my argument and consider a strategy that animalists can pursue in attempting to block the dilemma.     

What Is Bayesian Confirmation for?

Peter Brössel and Franz Huber in 2015 argued that the Bayesian concept of confirmation had no use. I will argue that it has both the uses they discussed—it can be used for making claims about how worthy of belief various hypotheses are, and it can be used to measure the epistemic value of experiments. Furthermore, it can be useful in explanations. More generally, I will argue that more coarse-grained concepts (like confirmation) can be useful, even when we have more fine-grained concepts (like credences).     

Is a Finite Life Such a Bad Idea? Transhumanism and Theological Anthropology

Creaturely life is finite life. Transhumanism suggests that human life will be better and even fulfilled in a new way, if humans can overcome some of the finite conditions now given. I argue that there are theological, ethical, and biological points to be taken into consideration that may challenge the transhuman vision of a good life. The finite conditions of human life are what makes human life human, and these conditions are also part of why the deeper meaning of human life is realized in love for others, and not in the quest for making one's own life go on (almost) endlessly. In addition to looking at some material from popular culture and the philosopher Hans Jonas, the article also draws on recent discussions on transhumanism present in contemporary theology.     

When is Death Bad,When it is Bad?

Philosophia - On a view most secularists accept, the deceased individual goes out of existence. How, then, can death be a bad thing for, or harm, the deceased? I consider the doctrine of...     

Is Situationism Conservatively Revisionary for Ethics?

The Journal of Ethics - Psychological situationism is the view that our behavior is ordered by external features of situations as opposed to robust character traits. Philosophical situationists...