Environmental Ethics and Linkola＇s Ecofascism： An Ethics Beyond Humanism

Ecofascism as a tradition in Environmental Ethics seems to burgeoning with potential. The roots of Ecofascism can be traced back to the German Romantic School, to the Wagnerian narration of the Nibelungen saga, to the works of Fichte and Herder and, finally, to the so-called volkisch movement. Those who take pride in describing themselves as ecofascists grosso modo tend to prioritize the moral value of the ecosphere, while, at the same time, they almost entirely devalue species and individuals. Additionally, these ecofascists are eager to reject democracy, the idea of progress in its entirety, as well as industrialization and urbanization. They also seem to be hostile towards individual autonomy and free will. In this short essay I will present and discuss Kaarlo Pentti Linkola＇s approach to environmental ethics, one that could be well described as the epitome of Ecofascism. I will argue that his arguments are neither sound nor documented, and I will conclude that Linkola＇s overall approach is, in my view, contrary to the purpose as well as to the very essence of morality.     

Teaching children to comprehend propositions conjoined by “before” and “after”

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate a language-training procedure in which preschool children (age 51 months) were given sentences evoking opposite interpretations of the same syntactic structures. The syntactic forms of interest were before/after sentences in which order of event mention reverses the order of event occurrence. It was known that precomprehenders would misinterpret reverse-order forms describing two arbitrarily sequenced events but not two logically sequenced events. The training procedure entailed presenting exemplars which expressed both kinds of events in alternating order so that the discrepancy in interpretations might be detected and corrected by the child. Results indicated that this procedure was effective. A third experiment showed that its success was not due simply to practice with logically sequenced exemplars. Performance patterns gave evidence for the role of interpretational strategies during the course of acquisition. Processes of cognitive disequilibrium and restructuring are offered to explain results although alternative explanations are not ruled out.     

Long-term sensitization training primes Aplysia for further learning

Repetitive, unilateral stimulation of Aplysia induces long-term sensitization (LTS) of ipsilaterally elicited siphon-withdrawal responses. Whereas some morphological effects of training appear only on ipsilateral sensory neurons, others appear bilaterally. We tested the possibility that contralateral morphological modifications may have functional significance. Therefore, we examined whether LTS training primes subsequent sensitization. Twenty-four hours after LTS training the effects of brief shock treatment (BST) were examined. BST failed to sensitize animals that had previously received either 4-d control treatment or 4-d ipsilateral LTS training. In contrast, BST did sensitize animals that had previously received 4-d contralateral LTS training, suggesting the presence of a latent trace that primes the animal for further learning.     

Contact sports, moral functioning and planned behaviour theory

The goal was to test the psychometric properties of the Moral Functioning Scale in a Greek athletic context, and to investigate any possible relation between moral functioning and planned behaviour. The sample comprised 384 athletes, 103 from the sport of football (soccer), 97 from basketball, and 184 from water polo. To measure moral functioning the researchers used a scale developed by Gibbons, Ebbeck, and Weiss. Planned Behaviour was assessed with a questionnaire based on Planned Behaviour Theory. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated strong association for Attitudes, Intention, Role Identity, and Perceived Behavioural Control with the four dilemmas of the moral functioning scale. The moral reasoning measure is a promising tool for measuring athletes' moral dilemmas in Greece.     

Age-Associated Differences in Positional Variability Are Greater With the Lower Limb

The authors’ purpose was to determine the interaction of age and limb used on positional variability at different loads. Eleven young adults and 10 older adults were asked to accurately match and maintain a horizontal target line with 5° abduction of their index finger and 5° dorsiflexion of their ankle for 20 s at loads ranging from 2 to 50% of the maximal load that could be lifted with each limb. The visual gain was kept constant at 1° (visual angle). Positional variability was greater in older adults for both limbs, nonetheless age-associated differences were greater for the ankle dorsiflexion task compared with the abduction of the index finger task. In addition, we found that, independent of age, motor output variability was greater with the lower limb. These results provide novel evidence that older adults may exhibit greater impairments in motor control with the foot compared with the finger. Furthermore, these findings support the idea, using a different task than previous literature, that the lower limb has greater motor output variability than the upper limb.     

The impact of experiential avoidance on the relations between illness representations,pain catastrophising and pain interference in chronic pain

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of experiential avoidance (EA) on the indirect relationship of chronic pain patients’ illness representations to pain interference, through pain catastrophising

Design and main outcome measure: The sample consisted of 162 patients diagnosed with an arthritis-related or a musculoskeletal disorder. The effects of EA on the pathway between illness representations, pain catastrophising and pain interference were examined with PROCESS, a computational tool for SPSS

Results: After controlling for patient and illness-related variables and pain severity, the ‘illness representations–pain catastrophising–pain interference’ pathway was interrupted at the higher levels of EA. The reason was that, at the high levels of EA, either the relation of illness representations to pain catastrophising or the relation of pain catastrophising to pain interference was not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that EA is not a generalised negative response to highly aversive conditions, at least as far as the factors examined in this study are concerned. EA may rather reflect a coping reaction, the impact of which depends on its specific interactions with the other aspects of the self-regulation mechanism. At least in chronic pain, EA should become the focus of potential intervention only when its interaction with the illness-related self-regulation mechanism results in negative outcomes.     

Time but not force is transferred between ipsilateral upper and lower limbs

The authors compared the force and time endpoint accuracy of goal-directed ipsilateral upper and lower limb isometric contractions and determined the components of motor performance that can be transferred from 1 limb to the other after practice. Ten young adults (27.4 +/- 4.4 years) performed 100 trials that involved their matching peak force to a force-time target with ankle dorsiflexor and elbow flexor muscles. The peak force error and variability was greater for ankle dorsiflexor contractions than for elbow flexor contractions, whereas the timing error and variability did not significantly vary with limb. There was transfer of timing, but not force, of motor output between upper and lower limbs. The timing error of the elbow flexor contractions decreased by 23% when those contractions were preceded by ankle dorsiflexor contractions, and the timing error of the ankle dorsiflexors decreased by 24% when those contractions were preceded by elbow flexor contractions. These finding therefore suggest that timing of an aiming isometric contraction may be organized at a common part of the brain for the upper and lower limbs.     

Age-associated differences in positional variability are greater with the lower limb

The authors' purpose was to determine the interaction of age and limb used on positional variability at different loads. Eleven young adults and 10 older adults were asked to accurately match and maintain a horizontal target line with 5° abduction of their index finger and 5° dorsiflexion of their ankle for 20 s at loads ranging from 2 to 50% of the maximal load that could be lifted with each limb. The visual gain was kept constant at 1° (visual angle). Positional variability was greater in older adults for both limbs, nonetheless age-associated differences were greater for the ankle dorsiflexion task compared with the abduction of the index finger task. In addition, we found that, independent of age, motor output variability was greater with the lower limb. These results provide novel evidence that older adults may exhibit greater impairments in motor control with the foot compared with the finger. Furthermore, these findings support the idea, using a different task than previous literature, that the lower limb has greater motor output variability than the upper limb.     

Emergent social identities in a flood: Implications for community psychosocial resilience

Although the mobilization of pre‐existing networks is crucial in psychosocial resilience in disasters, shared identities can also emerge in the absence of such previous bonds, due to survivors sharing a sense of common fate. Common fate seems to operate in sudden‐impact disasters (e.g., bombings), but to our knowledge, no research has explored social identity processes in “rising‐tide” incidents. We interviewed an opportunity sample of 17 residents of York, United Kingdom, who were involved in the 2015–2016 floods. Using thematic and discourse analysis, we investigated residents' experiences of the floods and the strategic function that invocations of community identities perform. We show how shared community identities emerged (e.g., because of shared problems, shared goals, perceptions of vulnerability, and collapse of previous group boundaries) and show how they acted as a basis of social support (both given and expected). The findings serve to further develop the social identity model of collective psychosocial resilience in rising‐tide disasters. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.     

Two new cases of rank reversals when the AHP and some of its additive variants are used that do not occur with the multiplicative AHP

Many researchers have long observed some cases in which certain ranking irregularities can occur when the original analytic hierarchy process (AHP), or some of its variants, are used. This paper presents two new categories of ranking irregularities which defy common intuition. These ranking irregularities occur when one decomposes a decision problem into a set of smaller problems each defined on two alternatives and the same criteria as the original problem. These irregularities are possible when the original AHP, or some of its additive variants, are used. Computational experiments on random test problems and an examination of some real‐life case studies suggest that these ranking irregularities are dramatically likely to occur. This paper also proves that these ranking irregularities are not possible when a multiplicative variant of the AHP is used. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.