Metaphilosophical Criteria for Worldview Comparison

Philosophy lacks criteria to evaluate its philosophical theories. To fill this gap, this essay introduces nine criteria to compare worldviews, classified in three broad categories: objective criteria (objective consistency, scientificity, scope), subjective criteria (subjective consistency, personal utility, emotionality), and intersubjective criteria (intersubjective consistency, collective utility, narrativity). The essay first defines what a worldview is and exposes the heuristic used in the quest for criteria. After describing each criterion individually, it shows what happens when each of them is violated. From the criteria, it derives assessment tests to compare and improve different worldviews. These include the is‐ought, ought‐act, and is‐act first‐order tests; the critical and dialectical second‐order tests; the mixed‐questions and first‐second‐order third‐order tests; and the we‐I, we‐it, and it‐I tests. The essay then applies these criteria and tests to a concrete example, comparing the Flying Spaghetti Monster deity with Intelligent Design. For another application, it draws more general fruitful suggestions for the dialogue between science and religion.     

Effects of workaholism on volunteer firefighters’ performance: a moderated mediation model including supervisor recognition and emotional exhaustion

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Although workaholism has been associated with job performance, the mechanisms that explain this relationship remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the conditional indirect effects of workaholism on performance via emotional exhaustion, across low and high levels of supervisor recognition.

Methods: We conducted an empirical cross-sectional study using a sample of 1028 volunteer firefighters who completed a self-report questionnaire assessing workaholism, emotional exhaustion, work performance, and supervisor recognition.

Results: Tests of latent interactions were performed using the latent moderated structural equation modeling approach. Consistent with our predictions, results revealed that the negative indirect effects of workaholism on performance, through emotional exhaustion, were stronger when supervisor recognition was low.

Conclusions: Theorical contributions and perspectives, as well as implications for practice are discussed.     

{111} Glide in Ni3Al at room temperature. In situ observations under weak-beam conditions

Abstract

In situexperiments are performed in Ni₃AL at room temperature. We observe reversible changes of antiphase boundary (APB) planes between {111} and {100}, and movements in {111} planes controlled by the crossing of sessile positions with the APB plane in {111}.     

Evaluation of arm dominance by using the mechanomyographic signal

The authors collected and compared mechanomyo-graphic (MMG) signal behavior from the biceps brachii of left and right arms of right-handed men (n = 19) and women (n = 20) who performed isometric contractions at 5 contraction levels. Mean frequency (MF) and RMS values were calculated from the MMG signals that arose from lateral oscillations of muscle fibers. Across genders and arms, RMS values increased with contraction level and MF values decreased with increase in muscle contraction. The authors found no significant difference in those parameters between dominant and nondominant arms. Therefore, summation of muscle twitches obtained from the MMG signal collected in biceps brachii muscle does not reveal any difference between dominant and nondominant arms.     

Mother's prenatal and postpartum depression symptoms and infant's sleep problems at 6 months

Mother's prenatal and postpartum depression have been associated with infant's sleep problems. This study aimed to analyze (a) the effects of mother's prenatal and postpartum depression symptoms, including the effects of prenatal and postpartum anxiety and depression scores of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), on infant's sleep problems at 6 months, and (b) the interaction effect between mother's prenatal and postpartum depression symptoms and infant's sex on infant's sleep problems at 6 months. The sample was comprised of 164 mother–infant dyads whose mothers completed measures of depression at the third trimester of pregnancy, 2 weeks, 3 and 6 months postpartum and a measure of infant's sleep problems at 6 months (CSHQ-I). Mother's prenatal depression symptoms, specifically depression scores of the EPDS, predicted more infant's sleep anxiety and daytime sleepiness, while mother's depression symptoms at 2 weeks postpartum, specifically anxiety scores of the EPDS, predicted more bedtime resistance and CSHQ-I total scores at 6 months. Boys of mothers with more prenatal depression symptoms presented more sleep anxiety at 6 months. Both mother's prenatal and early postpartum depression symptoms have a negative effect on the emergence of infant's sleep problems. Additionally, boys seem more vulnerable to mother's prenatal depression symptoms.