THE CONCEPT OF HUMAN DIGNITY AND THE REALISTIC UTOPIA OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Abstract: Human rights developed in response to specific violations of human dignity, and can therefore be conceived as specifications of human dignity, their moral source. This internal relationship explains the moral content and moreover the distinguishing feature of human rights: they are designed for an effective implementation of the core moral values of an egalitarian universalism in terms of coercive law. This essay is an attempt to explain this moral‐legal Janus face of human rights through the mediating role of the concept of human dignity. This concept is due to a remarkable generalization of the particularistic meanings of those “dignities” that once were attached to specific honorific functions and memberships. In spite of its abstract meaning, “human dignity” still retains from its particularistic precursor concepts the connotation of depending on the social recognition of a status—in this case, the status of democratic citizenship. Only membership in a constitutional political community can protect, by granting equal rights, the equal human dignity of everybody.     

The effects of religious socialization and religious identity on psychosocial functioning in Korean American adolescents from immigrant families

This study examined religious identity as a mediator and moderator between religious socialization by parents, peers, and religious mentors and psychosocial functioning (i.e., social competence, internalizing and externalizing behavior problems) among 155 Korean American adolescents. Religious socialization by parents and peers were positively associated with adolescents' religious identity and social competence. Religious identity fully mediated the relationship between religious socialization by parents and social competence, and partially mediated the relationship between religious socialization by peers and social competence. A competing model with religious identity as a moderator found adolescents with low religious identity showed significantly more externalizing behavior problems when they received more religious socialization from parents.     

Motivation for Dental Home Care: Testing a Self‐Determination Theory Model1

The present research developed the Self‐Regulation for Dental Home Care Questionnaire (SRDHCQ), based on self‐determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000 ), and used it in an SDT process model of dental health behaviors and self‐rated oral health. In this model, patients' perceptions of autonomy‐supportive (relative to controlling) dental professionals were expected to positively predict patients' psychological needs satisfaction in treatment. Needs satisfaction was expected to be positively related to autonomous motivation for dental home care and perceived dental competence, which were expected to be positively associated with self‐rated oral health and dental health behaviors. Confirmatory factor analysis of the 5‐factor SRDHCQ model fit the data very well, and a structural equation model supported the hypothesized process model.     

Is There a “Language of Education“?

Studies in Philosophy and Education - What Israel Scheffler analyzed in his The Language of Education was a corpus of slogans and metaphors which obviously influence public communication. But are...     

Macedonian Reforms and Muslim Opposition during the Hamidian Era: 1878-1908

This article investigates Muslim opposition to European reforms within the framework of the Macedonian Question as it developed between 1878 and 1908. Reforms granted to the Christian communities in the Macedonian provinces after the Berlin Treaty (1878) did not bring tranquillity but rather contributed to the escalation of the existing turmoil. In addition, the worsening situation and the diminishing role of the Ottoman administration as a result of European interference created concern, but more importantly caused an intensification of religious sentiment among the Muslims. As a result, various classes of Macedonian Muslims, urban and rural, peasants and professionals, joined forces to prevent a further decline in their circumstances by demanding reform to the central administration.     

Reddish Green: A Challenge for Modal Claims About Phenomenal Structure1

We discuss two modal claims about the phenomenal structure of color experiences: (i) violet experiences are necessarily experiences of a color that is for the subject on that occasion phenomenally composed of red and blue (the modal claim about violet) and (ii) no subject can possibly have an experience of a color that is for it then phenomenally composed of red and green (the modal claim about reddish green). The modal claim about reddish green is undermined by empirical results. We discuss whether these empirical results cast doubt on the other modal claims as well. We argue that this not the case. Our argument is based on the thesis that the best argument for the modal claim about violet is quite different from the best argument for the modal claim about reddish green. To argue for this disanalogy we propose a reconstruction of the best available justification for both claims.     

Actors and actions: The role of agent behavior in infants' attribution of goals

Twelve-month-old infants attribute goals to both familiar, human agents and unfamiliar, non-human agents. They also attribute goal-directedness to both familiar actions and unfamiliar ones. Four conditions examined information 12-month-olds use to determine which actions of an unfamiliar agent are goal-directed. Infants who witnessed the agent interact contingently with a human confederate encoded the agent's actions as goal-directed; infants who saw a human confederate model an intentional stance toward the agent without the agent's participation, did not. Infants who witnessed the agent align itself with one of two potential targets before approaching that target encoded the approach as goal-directed; infants who did not observe the self-alignment did not encode the approach as goal-directed. A possible common underpinning of these two seemingly independent sources of information is discussed.     

At the intersection of social and cognitive development: internal working models of attachment in infancy

Three visual habituation studies using abstract animations tested the claim that infants' attachment behavior in the Strange Situation procedure corresponds to their expectations about caregiver-infant interactions. Three unique patterns of expectations were revealed. Securely attached infants expected infants to seek comfort from caregivers and expected caregivers to provide comfort. Insecure-resistant infants not only expected infants to seek comfort from caregivers but also expected caregivers to withhold comfort. Insecure-avoidant infants expected infants to avoid seeking comfort from caregivers and expected caregivers to withhold comfort. These data support Bowlby's (1958) original claims-that infants form internal working models of attachment that are expressed in infants' own behavior.