Philosophy of Education in a Poor Historical Moment: A Personal Account

Under the post-metaphysical sky “old” humanistic-oriented education is possible solely at the cost of its transformation into its negative, into a power that is determined to diminish human potentials for self-exaltation. Nothing less than total metamorphosis is needed to rescue the core of humanistic genesis: the quest for edifying Life and resistance to the call for “home-returning” into the total harmony that is promised to us within nothingness.     

Preference for Human (vs. Robotic) Labor is Stronger in Symbolic Consumption Contexts

Advances in robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence increasingly enable firms to replace human labor with technology, thereby fundamentally transforming how goods and services are produced. From both managerial and societal points of view, it is therefore important to understand demand‐side incentives for firms to employ human labor. We begin to address this question by examining for which products and services consumers are more likely to favor human (vs. robotic) labor. In six studies, we demonstrate that consumers prefer human (vs. robotic) labor more for products with higher (vs. lower) symbolic value (e.g., when expressing something about one's beliefs and personality is of greater importance). We theorize that this is because consumers have stronger uniqueness motives in more (vs. less) symbolic consumption contexts (and associate human labor more strongly with product uniqueness). In line with this account, we demonstrate that individual differences in need for uniqueness moderate the interaction between production mode and symbolic motives and that a measure of uniqueness motives mediates the effect of consumption context on preferences for human (vs. robotic) production.     

Rank order in pairs of communally nursing female mice (Mus musculus domesticus) and Maternal Aggression Towards Conspecific Intruders of Differing Sex

This study examined social behavior between pairs of unfamiliar lactating females, with litters of the same age, at different periods after parturition (3, 7, and 17 days). Tests were generally followed by the formation of communal rearing nests, and subsequent maternal attack on intruders of differing sex was assessed. In all three intervals lactating females showed ritualized attack with formation of clear dominance-subordination relationships before combining litters into communal nests. The dominant females in 90% of cases started to retrieve alien pups into their nests. Agonistic behavior and communal nest formation were most rapid when pups were around 3 days old. Maternal attack on conspecific intruders was mainly displayed by the dominant lactating females. Male and female intruders were equally attacked (in terms of frequency and intensity of attack), but there was less such aggression when pups were around 17 days of age. Nevertheless the topography of biting attack employed against female and male conspecific intruders was different. Females were attacked using a strategy avoiding bites to the head and ventral surface (indicative of “offensive” behavior) whereas males were severely bitten on vulnerable body regions (indicative of “defensive” behavior).     

Variation in aggressive behavior and anatomo-physiological correlates generated by crowding without physical contact in the house mouse

Behavioral, physiological (i.e., endocrine), and anatomical consequences of crowding in mice were studied in a situation where animals were in auditory, visual, olfactory, and tactile contact but restrained from full physical interactions, to prevent overt aggression. Males that cohabited with females undisturbed by neighboring conspecifics showed greater propensity to attack same-sex intruders and had higher plasma testosterone levels than did their “crowded” counterparts, that is, males cohabiting with females and housed adjacent to other male/female pairs. In this respect, the latter animals resembled submissive males. However, a significant increase in weight of androgen-dependent target organs (i.e., seminal vesicles and preputial glands) was found in crowded males. These data indicate that despite the observed inhibition of social aggression these males are not physiologically comparable (homologous) to male mice that experienced defeat and the stress of submission during fighting. The intriguing possibility that different conversion pathway of testosterone are accelerated, as a result of social communication, in males living in these two environments and the behavioral implications of these possibilities are discussed. Finally, the parental behavior of crowded animals, although not freely interacting with each other, was disrupted, causing a marked decrease in reproductive success. In this situation a high incidence of infanticide of their offspring by both parents was observed, whereas this behavior was virtually absent in non-crowded male/female pairs.     

Opposite strain-dependent differences for intermale aggressive behavior elicited by individual housing and housing with a female in the mouse

Male mice of the C57BL/6 strain show a significant increase in aggression toward a nonaggressive male conspecific following 72 hr of individual housing. However, this increase was no longer evident following 2 weeks of individual housing. When housed with a female, C57BL/6 mice show significantly more aggression than singly housed mice of the same strain after 72 hr as well as 2, 4, 8 weeks of differential housing. Male C57BL/6 mice housed with a female also show significantly higher levels of aggression than DBA/2 mice living in the same housing condition after 4 or 8 weeks of differential housing. Finally, male DBA/2 mice individually housed for 8 weeks are significantly more aggressive than mice of the same strain housed with a female for the same time. These results indicate that the increase in aggressive behavior observed following isolation and cohabitation with a female in the mouse is not the same phenomenon. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.