After employing the mindsponge mechanism and 3D information process of creativity to explain the serendipity process in previous chapters, we realize that it may be helpful to delve into the relations between serendipity and the formulation of new values and information connections through non-linear processes. Thus, this chapter summarizes some preliminary attempts to use non-linear information processes to explain serendipity. We also briefly mention the benefits of information exchange among members of social groups and explain this approach.

In order to set a ground for the new hypotheses, theory, and conceptual framework of serendipity, the current chapter aims to review the research landscapes, definitions, types, influential factors, and processes of serendipity. First, bibliometric analyses of 2982 documents retrieved from the Web of Science database were employed to examine the intellectual and conceptual structures in the research field of serendipity. Three major research lines are found: 1) information-seeking behaviors, 2) serendipity in business and sciences, and 3) serendipity in recommender (...) systems. Then, a narrative review of the most notable documents and studies was done to overview the serendipity’s definitions, types, influential factors, and processes. Based on the review, we stipulate the literature gap in which the newly proposed hypotheses, theory, and conceptual framework will fit in. (shrink)

Need considerations play an important role in empirically informed theories of distributive justice. We propose a concept of need-based justice that is related to social participation and provide an ethical measurement of need-based justice. The β-ε-index satisfies the need-principle, monotonicity, sensitivity, transfer and several »technical« axioms. A numerical example is given.

The dissertation deals with the questions surrounding the legal, ethical and strategic aspects of armed drones in warfare. This is a vast and complex field, however, one where there remains more conflict and debate than actual consensus. -/- One of the many themes addressed during the course of this research was an examination of the evolution of modern asymmetric transnational armed conflict. It is the opinion of the author that this phenomenon represents a “grey-zone”; an entirely new paradigm of warfare. (...) International terrorism has not been dealt with in a cohesive fashion. Any international prosecution of terrorism which has been conducted has been either “sectoral” adopting a piecemeal typological approach or has been carried out at the domestic level. -/- A novel approach to the problem, of sub-national actors with transnational reach, was proposed, by attributing certain groups with a new legal personality, that of “Stateless International Entities”, or “SIEs”. Those groups who possess, for all intents and purposes, the same attributes as those of States, could then be judged for their behavior before an international tribunal. Other important topics addressed in this research include an examination of important case law, targeted killing, autonomy, preemption versus prevention, imminence versus intent, the find, fix and finish paradigm, the impact of the media, and the role of the CIA, and finally, the flawed reasoning which adopts technology as a form of strategy. (shrink)

The article presents an original needs-based partial theory of human injustice and shows its relationship to existing theories of human need and human liberation. The theory is based on an original typology of three social structural sources of human injustice, a partial theorization of the mechanisms of human injustice, and a needs-based theorization of the nature of human injustice, as experienced by individuals. The article makes a sociological contribution to normative social theory by clarifying the relationship of human injustice to (...) human needs, human rights, and human liberation. The theory contends that human injustice is produced when oppression, mechanistic dehumanization, and exploitation create systematic inequality in opportunities to address human needs, leading to wrongful need deprivation and the resulting serious harm. In one longer sentence, this needs-based partial theory of the sources, mechanisms, and nature of human injustice contends that three distinct social systemic sources—oppression, mechanistic dehumanization, and exploitation—produce unique and/or overlapping social mechanisms, which create systematic inequality in opportunities to address universal human needs in culturally specific ways, thus producing the nature of the human injustice theorized here: wrongfully unmet needs and serious harm. (shrink)

This thesis explores Officer Cadets' social construction of leadership at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS). It addresses calls for more research into leadership behaviours. Taking a social constructionist perspective, the thesis focuses on unmasking the social construction of Leadership amongst Officer Cadets. This study adopts a reflexive approach, acknowledging the centrality of the researcher in the co-construction of the data. The thesis develops interdisciplinary links between the theoretical areas of Dark Leadership to problematize and inform contemporary understandings of Officer (...) Cadets' social construction of leadership through the emergent findings of the study. This qualitative study employed a mono-method research design consisting of semistructured interviews. Through these, participants shared their lived experiences and gave descriptions and understandings of their past leadership experiences before and current experiences within Sandhurst with a reflexive interview approach. The thesis utilises Reflexive Thematic analysis to interpret the data, with the results presented thematically. The thesis uses reflexive thematic analysis to explore dark leadership through a social constructionist lens; the research has evidenced functional changes to practices within Sandhurst and developed a model of what dark leadership at Sandhurst is from an Officer Cadets view. This approach highlights the importance of contextuality, the person and the situation through a holistic Leadership approach. The thesis proposes a holistic framework for leadership, which would advance toward de-coupling the dichotomies of leadership. (shrink)

Employee turnover is extremely costly to any business in terms of training costs and loss of pertinent knowledge and experience. This paper explores the contributors to the high rates of employee turnover seen in public accounting by focusing on the Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Employee retention is a factor of corresponding employee motivation, as seen through the analysis of popular motivational theories and their applications to a career in public accounting. This paper also delves into (...) the possible contributors to the differences in retention rates between males and females in this occupation. Lastly, an analysis of current firm programs and initiatives is conducted, with suggestions for ulterior areas of focus and improvements to current programs. The popular motivational theories explored signify important areas of focus for current and suggested programs. The opportunities presented by effective and accessible mentors are of extreme importance to reducing turnover and aiding an employee in developing ownership over a firm’s mission. Additionally, stereotypes associated with females in the business world and the inherent work of public accounting inhibits young professionals from establishing longevity with a firm. The current programs offered by the Big Four firms are likely to be enhanced and improved upon by new generations of professionals entering into the higher ranks of leadership. (shrink)

A long tradition of psychological research has explored the distinction between characteristics that are part of the self and those that lie outside of it. Recently, a surge of research has begun examining a further distinction. Even among characteristics that are internal to the self, people pick out a subset as belonging to the true self. These factors are judged as making people who they really are, deep down. In this paper, we introduce the concept of the true self and (...) identify features that distinguish people’s understanding of the true self from their understanding of the self more generally. In particular, we consider recent findings that the true self is perceived as positive and moral, and that this tendency is actor-observer invariant and cross-culturally stable. We then explore possible explanations for these findings and discuss their implications for a variety of issues in psychology. (shrink)

(THIS PAPER NEEDS A CORRECTION) Satisfaction is a complex concept which has a key role in each individual’s everyday life and impacts their behavior. Abraham Maslow (1943) suggested a framework [1] to study human motivation, which was a starting point towards developing the quality of life(QOL) theory. On that article, he described a hierarchy of human needs, that is generally consist of fundamental needs which are required for human survival, and environment dependent ones, like society, safety and etc. In this (...) study, we are trying to represent a tangible mathematical model for assessing the sense of need for water in terms of the available source of water. On this very subject, M. Joseph Sirgy [2] states that ”From a human developmental perspective, QOL goals can be defined as satisfaction of human developmental needs in a community or society”. Accordingly, in the first section we propose a model for the water needs of an individual. In the second section, we continue the discussion by checking the behavior of the model on a given population, and each time by assuming that we have two out of three involved factors, we try to suggest an estimation for the other one. (shrink)

Our analysis reveals two major types of "Community of Learners" (COL) projects: instrumental and ontological. In instrumental COL, the notion of community is separated from instruction in order to reach some preset endpoints: curricular or otherwise. We notice three main instrumental COL models: relational, instructional, and engagement. Ontological COL redefines learning as an ill-defined, distributed, social, multi-faceted, poly-goal, agency-based, and situated process that integrates all educational aspects. We will consider two ontological COL projects into: narrowly dialogic and polyphonic.

This paper discusses Rawls’s thesis that the social basis of self-respect is one of the primarysocial goods. While the central element of the social basis consists in the attitudes of others(e.g. respect or esteem) the social basis may include also possession of various goods. Further,one may distinguish, following Honneth, universalistic basic respect from differential esteem andfrom loving care. This paper focuses on esteem, and further distinguishes three importantvarieties thereof (anti-stigmatization; contributions to societal goods, projects of self-realization),which all differ from recognition (...) of cultural identity. The normative implications will differ in these different contexts. (shrink)

This paper discusses essential motivational representations necessary for a comprehensive computational cognitive architecture. It hypothesizes the need for implicit drive representations, as well as explicit goal representations. Drive representations consist of primary drives — both low-level primary drives (concerned mostly with basic physiological needs) and high-level primary drives (concerned more with social needs), as well as derived (secondary) drives. On the basis of drives, explicit goals may be generated on the fly during an agent’s interaction with various situations. These motivational (...) representations help to make cognitive architectural models more comprehensive and provide deeper explanations of psychological processes. This work represents a step forward in making computational cognitive architectures better reflections of the human mind and all its motivational complexity and intricacy. (shrink)

Translated from: W.V.O.Quine, W. H. O. (1986): Philosophy of Logic. Second Edition. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England, 47-61.

Social media has triggered an increase in fake news spread about different aspects of modern lives, society, politics, societal changes, etc., and has also affected companies’ reputation and brands’ trust. Therefore, this paper is aimed at investigating why social media users share fake news about environmentally friendly brands. To examine social media users’ behavior towards environmentally friendly brands, a theoretical research model proposed and analyzed using structural equations modeling in SmartPLS on a convenience sample consisting of 922 questionnaires. Data was (...) collected by means of a quantitative-based approach via a survey conducted among social media users from an emerging market. The results show that social media flow has a mediated impact on sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social media. Considering the critical consequences of fake news, the paper argues that understanding the dissemination process of this type of bogus content on social media platforms has important theoretical and managerial implications. Understanding the psychological mechanisms that influence people’s behavior in sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social networking sites (SNS) could help in better understanding the factors and the effects of this phenomenon. The originality of this research consists of proposing flow theory from positive psychology to be used as a theoretical framework to explain users’ behavior of sharing fake news about environmentally friendly brands on social media. (shrink)

The author details his experience in using geology field trips to provide hands-on learning for his students and opportunities to assess student learning of key course concepts. -/- .

The main problem of this text is as follows: While identifying the status of education systems related to moral education with the title of industrial education, the situation is identified through the problems of the morality of education or moral education. Then, a proposal on the education of morality is made through the system evaluation. This point is for the text. These problems are dealt with by using an in-depth and holistic evaluation method together with description and identification. The text (...) primarily focuses on the founding meaning through which time manifests. Because education is both built by this meaning and fulfills a task that perpetuates it. As a part of an entirety/ground reflecting the spirit of the time, education carries/overflows its nuclei and aims. The expression “industrial education” is crucial in that it expresses both its roots, the entirety to which it belongs, and the network of values it has. Here, the term industrial refers to the ground in question, and industrial education refers to the educational understanding of that ground. It is unthinkable that the network of values it possesses is contrary to the whole in question. In the text, the identification of this situation is described through the “ethics of education”. This process that humanity has experienced is new. Therefore, industrial education should be interpreted with its conceptual network. Thus, concepts such as "environment", "context", "transformation", "change" have been redefined. This is essential to make sense of the situation. It identifies that the final solutions sought can be possible not with the “morals of education” but with the "education of morals". This means proposing a reinstallation of the system/environment. (shrink)

L'isolement social (désocialisation) implique une absence totale ou presque totale de contact entre un individu et la société. Cela peut être un problème pour les personnes de tout âge, bien que les symptômes puissent différer selon le groupe d'âge. L'isolement social peut inclure le fait de rester à la maison pendant de longues périodes et le manque de communication face à face avec la famille, les connaissances, les amis ou les collègues. L'isolement social peut conduire à des sentiments de solitude, (...) de peur des autres ou de mauvaise estime de soi. Nous ne pouvons pas exister indépendamment de nos relations avec les autres. Notre propre humanité est réduite lorsque les autres sont traités sans dignité et sans respect. Dans le même temps, causer du tort à une autre personne peut également affecter la perception de soi-même. Il s'avère que l'humanité d'une personne dépend de l'humanité de ceux qui l'entourent. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14145.79203. (shrink)

Universal Basic Income has become a popular idea in the last few decades even though one can find its roots in the earlier centuries. In this thesis, I have examined the position of UBI in the works of the most influential contemporary philosophers. By connecting the idea of UBI with some certain concepts from different philosophers, I aimed to improve the overall understanding of UBI. I have mentioned the concepts such as "labor", "leisure", "idleness", "boredom", "poverty", "inequality", "distribution", "happiness", "power", (...) "needs", "truth", "alienation", etc. I have used a literature methodology for my research. I have tried to read and relate the concept of UBI with the works of 10 philosophers: Arthur Schopenhauer, Karl Marx, William James, Bertrand Russell, Michel Foucault, John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Zizek, Peter Singer. (shrink)

Discourse on benefit provision has long been a point of contention within political rhetoric. Although research has demonstrated the damaging impact that welfare cuts have had on people with disabilities, there has been a focus on the material impact of the deprivation such cuts have caused. In the context of welfare, mental health has received little attention in the research literature, often contextualised within the wider remit of disability, with little regard for the nuances of distress. There is a need (...) to consider this in the context of discourse, exploring issues of subjectivity, identity, power relationships and economic concerns. The first empirical study discursively explored how newspapers represent and position mental illness in regard to claiming benefits, neoliberal practices and the capitalist political economy. In ’Shame, Tragedy and the Neoliberal Ideal’. the social and political function of shame as a response to neoliberalism was explored. ‘Class and Classlessness’ explored how discourses of shame were deployed in regard to class and their implications for identity, citizenship and selfhood. The second empirical study discursively explored how mental health service-users who claim benefits negotiate identities and construct accounts of accessing the benefits system. A discourse of malign surveillance in the benefits system was explored, considering issues of deviance and social control. A discourse of ‘Consumerism and Alienation: A Breakdown in Society’ was also explored, where participants positioned themselves as ‘distanced’ and ‘outside’ of ‘human’. The data from both empirical studies were analysed using an innovative discursive method that was developed to engage with the ideas of both Foucault and Marx. The legitimisation of taken-for-granted assumptions regarding those with mental health difficulties who claim benefits was interrogated in a critically geared manner, whilst opening up spaces for empowerment, resistance, and social change. The thesis produces new knowledge regarding the interdiscursive relationship between disability and distress in the context of the welfare system, whilst exploring the potential of innovative and nuanced discursive methods. (shrink)

Natural disasters are social disruptions triggered by physical events. Every year, hundreds of natural disasters occur and tens of thousands of people are killed as a result. I maintain that everyone would want to be provided with assistance in the aftermath a natural disaster. If a national government is not providing post disaster assistance, then we expect that some other institution has the responsibility to provide it. Unfortunately, that is not the case currently. Therefore, in this thesis I argue that (...) in some situations the international community is required to intervene on behalf of those affected by the disaster caused by a natural hazard. Natural disaster intervention is a moral requirement: because the international community has a duty to provide the goods we are entitled to as per the human right to welfare, even in natural disaster scenarios. After making my argument as to why a natural disaster intervention policy should be developed I explain the basic principles of such a policy by applying the Just War criteria to natural disaster scenarios in which a national government is unable or unwilling to provide assistance to its people. (shrink)

The main aim of this work it’s to show that the speech used to explain the problem of poverty, can be located in a rhetorical field, especially when you’re looking to convince the acceptation of strategies based inhuman development with some axiological value. The rhetorical as a way of persuasion make the believing of what should correspond to each other in what we understood as fare. Is the case of the actions that the State makes to persuade the necessity to (...) give attention to some vulnerable groups by recognizing basic necessities and also with specific actions that allow us to attend between the ones that are experimenting it. And it initiates with the recognition of the basic needs of an heterogeneous auditorium, that besides of identifying a different ways to attend them, recognize the concern for others to cover their elementary necessities, that means, it stays with a Socratic approach.From a rhetorical approach, the highly intention of social political instruments it’s to facilitate the access to some resources as a way to materialize the minimum conditions of life of contingent conditions environment are poverty minimizers. It’s A Sen. who’s trying to increase social conciseness in the middle of axiological virtues of J. Rawls uses the social construction of the moral principles as poverty reducers and in justice situations. Both intentions allow to recognize the situations of justice as the result of integrating data, with no esculent but complementary for poverty issues. (shrink)

Précis of the overall research conveyed by the Chair for Philosophy and Motivation at Munich School of Philosophy.

To perceive an affordance is to perceive an object or situation as presenting an opportunity for action. The concept of affordances has been taken up across wide range of disciplines, including AI. I explore an interesting extension of the concept of affordances in robotics. Among the affordances that artificial systems have been engineered to detect are affordances to deliberate. In psychology, affordances are typically limited to bodily action, so the it is noteworthy that AI researchers have found it helpful to (...) extend the concept to encompass mental actions. I propose that psychologists can learn from this extension, and argue that human subjects can perceive mental affordances, such as affordances to attend, affordances to imagine and affordances to count. (shrink)

This article presents a new conceptual view on the conscious will. This new concept approaches our will from the perspective of the requirements of our neural-muscular system and not from our anthropocentric perspective. This approach not only repositions the will at the core of behavior control, it also integrates the studies of Libet and Wegner, which seem to support the opposite. The will does not return as an instrument we use to steer, but rather as part of the way we (...) learn new automatic behavior and of how our neural system steers us. The new concept suggests that understanding of our will is more about understanding of our daily behavior than about the will itself. (shrink)

Logos, generally regarded as the basic principle of the operating world, seems to be closely tied up with development of human being. With the evolutionary history of human, logos evolves into three different dimensional expressions, namely reason, rationality, and reasonableness. In different historical periods, each expression of logos has their own glory days respectively. In the age of ancient Greek sages, reason referred to the whole range of subjects from geometry argumentation to rhetoric. Later on, there emerged a superiority on (...) theoretical abstraction and logical deduction, which was called the dictatorship of rationality. Yet it was found that the bureaucratization of learning had created as many problems as it solved. In recent decades, the years had seen a revived interest in substantial arguments in medical ethics, ecology, and other practical fields. However, we are not inclined to regard reasonableness as a way that it can cure once and for all the crisis of our times. Based on the imperfection of each variant and indeterminacy of the topic, we attempt to track back to logos in a more comprehensive perspective, corresponding to diversity of human activities and modern social production way of life. (shrink)

The law of England and Wales provides that an adult with capacity has the right to refuse medical treatment both contemporaneously and in an advance refusal. Legislation separates general advance refusals of treatment from advance refusals of life-sustaining treatment. The law, outlined in ss.24 to 26 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, is stricter for creation of the latter. These sections brought with them a new age of interests by purporting to elevate individual autonomy as the primary concern. Beginning with (...) the classical tale of Odysseus and a general discussion of the value to be found in a law seeking to preserve individual autonomy, this thesis seeks to act as a critique of the current enactment in practice. The provisions are already under-used and under-applied; without change, they may never reach the stage where they are ethically and practically viable. It is argued that the advance refusals provisions are not taking full effect due to a combination of lacking moral grounding and general dismissal of key ethical dilemmas at the forefront of application. Building on this, the moral basis for this thesis is found in Alan Gewirth’s Principle of Generic Consistency (PGC) which links directly with the general application of human rights. The PGC becomes a compass for determining how best to treat persons when addressing the three most prominent challenges faced by the 2005 Act which are: the debate between the conferred right of autonomy versus the right to life; the issue of personhood; and, the personal identity problem. Ultimately, unless framework provisions are strengthened, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is rethought in light of prominent ethical, legal and social considerations, the constraints of the Act on paper will continue to suppress the important underlying values promulgating individual autonomy. (shrink)

This article presents a new conceptual view on the conscious will. This new concept approaches our will from the perspective of the requirements of our neural-muscular system and not from our anthropocentric perspective. This approach not only repositions the will at the core of behavior control, it also integrates the studies of Libet and Wegner, which seem to support the opposite. The will does not return as an instrument we use to steer, but rather as part of the way we (...) learn new automatic behavior and of how our neural system steers us. The new concept suggests that understanding of our will is more about understanding of our daily behavior then about the will itself. (shrink)

In this paper, we present a case of a boy – Noah Wall, who till today surprises the world of neuroscience with his will to grow his brain and survive. The case presented in this study sets a stepping stone in understanding the advent of the will to make a choice, from a neuro-quantum mechanics interpretation. We propose that besides our internal states of choices (neurogenesis, neuroplasticity, cell differentiation, etc.) we also relate with external states of choices (love, compassion, empathy, (...) emotions, etc.) that contributes to its emergence. Quantum uncertainty seems to support the existence of a fundamental property based on which the universe functions; which means that even the nothing of free space has a small chance of containing something. Outcomes are not determined by prior or random events but by consciousness that gives rise to these outcomes. This provides us a lead into understanding the existence of the will and the origin of choice when we look deeper into the realms of the implausible interpretations of quantum mechanics. Free will is the ability for the mind to choose between possible outcomes. Willful power is therefore not only a psychological intervention but also a biological and quantum intervention, where we have the capacity to make choices about what direction we will take, making a change to the systematic functioning of our body. (shrink)

Social isolation (desocialization) implies a complete or almost complete lack of contact between an individual and society. This can be a problem for people of any age, although the symptoms may differ depending on the age group. Social isolation can include staying home for long periods of time, and lack of face-to-face communication with family, acquaintances, friends, or co-workers. Social isolation can lead to feelings of loneliness, fear of others or negative self-esteem. We cannot exist independently of our relationships with (...) others. One's own humanity is reduced when others are treated without dignity and respect. At the same time, provoking harm to another person can also affect perceptions of oneself. It turns out that a person's humanity depends on the humanity of those around him. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.35832.06405. (shrink)

Izolarea socială (desocializarea) presupune o lipsă completă sau aproape completă de contact între un individ și societate. Aceasta poate fi o problemă pentru persoanele de orice vârstă, deși simptomele pot diferi în funcție de grupul de vârstă. Izolarea socială poate include șederea acasă pentru perioade îndelungate de timp, și lipsa comunicării față în față cu familia, cunoștințele, prietenii sau colegii de servici. Izolarea socială poate duce la sentimente de singurătate, frica de ceilalți sau stima de sine negativă. Nu putem exista (...) independent de relațiile noastre cu ceilalți. Propria umanitate este redusă atunci când alții sunt tratați fără demnitate și respect. În același timp, provocarea de rău altei persoane poate afecta și percepțiile despre sine. Rezultă că umanitatea unei persoane depinde de umanitatea celor din jurul ei. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.27847.32166. (shrink)

While the substantiation of “best interests” has received much attention, the question of how “the child” is conceptualised to ensure any action taken or decision made is in the particular child’s best interests has been largely neglected. In this paper, I argue that the lack of robust understanding of who “the child” is means that we continue to make many generalisations and category-based assumptions in determining the child’s best interests. In addressing the challenge of doing right by the individual child, (...) I propose a three-step approach based on a theoretical model of the child that avoids presumptions about child-typical needs and insists on an assessment of the child’s individual characteristics, needs, qualities, and circumstances, making it the only conceptualisation fully meeting the child centrism criterion required by children’s rights as determined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (shrink)

Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tutkia sisäistä yrittäjyyttä luovuuden kautta työkierron kontekstissa suomalaisen keskisuuren kaupungin liikelaitoksessa. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostui teemahaastattelun menetelmällä kerätystä aineistosta, joka analysoitiin abduktiivisen sisällönanalyysin menetelmällä. Tutkimus pyrki syventämään ymmärrystä liikelaitoksen työntekijöiden ja toimihenkilöiden luovuuteen liittyen. Tutkimus käsitteli henkilöstöryhmien luovuutta, luovuuden mahdollistavaa kulttuuria sekä luovuuden kehittämistä ja niiden eroavaisuuksia henkilöstöryhmien välillä. Tutkimuksen perusteella selvisi, että henkilöstöryhmien välillä on eroa siinä, missä määrin he kokevat voivansa vaikuttaa omaan luovuuteensa töissä. Toimihenkilöiden kohdalla aktiivinen subjektin rooli oli yleisempi, kun taas työntekijät kokivat olevansa (...) useissa yhteyksissä objekteja. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan päätellä, että luovuuden kaltainen abstrakti ilmiö voidaan pilkkoa pienempiin palasiin. Ilmiön ymmärtäminen on tärkeää, jotta organisaatiossa voidaan ajatella luovuutta strategisena kohteena ja että sitä voidaan johtaa. (shrink)

In past decades, significant work in behavioural economics has decisively revealed the limitations of the human agency model known as Homo Economicus, whereby humans are purely driven by material self-interest. These behavioural findings are, however, far from integrated in mainstream economic theory, which builds heavily on the neoclassical tradition. Unbeknown to modern economics, Bernard Mandeville and Adam Smith already proposed a richer model of human agency in which choices also depend on the desire for social approbation. The social approbation mechanism (...) complements material self-interest and provides a more diverse toolset, which is able to explain social preferences. Mainstream economic agency confines the study of human action to an artificially-limited spectrum because it reduces society to atomistic individuals who maximise one all-purpose measure of value: utility, which is often instrumented by consumption. Collective action is therefore only sustainable where material incentives are in place, as the economic agent rides for free unless financially penalised. To explain pro-social behaviour from the standpoint of self-interest, Mandeville and Smith proposed that agents also maximise social approbation, which conveys incentives to act pro-socially because the desire for others' approval encourages compliance with social norms. The upshot for collective action is that, assuming social norms represent common interests, approval from others provides an extrinsic motive for pro-social behaviour. I formalise the mechanism by proposing a simple utility function in which agents maximise social approbation as well as material self-interest. (shrink)

This dissertation employed Ernest L. Boyer's scholarship of integration by synthesizing Seligman, Aristotle, and Smith's literature to discuss what constitutes happiness, a good life, and how to apply Martin Seligman's framework to achieve these objectives. The dissertation will also discuss how happiness was defined during the Aristotle era and how happiness is measured in contemporary society and societal perspective toward individual economics and happiness. This integration is especially necessary for studying humanities, which I used to understand the past and its (...) influence on the present. Understanding our past encourages us to appreciate the present and work with others to establish productive and positive future systems. Thus, increasing our understanding of what it means to be human in the age of technology. (shrink)

Many Public Administrations structure their services around the notion of users’ need. However, there is a gap between private, subjectively perceived needs (self-attributed) and needs that are attributed by PA to citizens (heteroattributed). Because of the gap, citizens’ needs are often only partially satisfied by PAs services. This gap is in part due to the fact that the meaning of the word “need” is ambiguous and full of antinomic nuances. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a definition of (...) “need” suitable for citizens’ needs management with respect to PA’s services offering, and to provide an accurate ontological analysis of the notion of “need” and the network of concepts that relate to it. (shrink)

This paper argues that theories of communism and capitalism should not be considered as opposites or alternatives, but rather systems that satisfy different stages of humanity's technological development. The argument derives from Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and a focus on the role of innovation within systems. Some argue that capitalism focuses on the lower, and communism on the higher, layers of the hierarchy – which lays the basis for their inability to compete in different periods....

The same year as the opening of the Woodstock music festival, a small medical school in Hamilton, Ontario, launched a daring new medical education programme in which lectures were replaced by small-group, interdisciplinary problem-based tutorials. Problem-based learning, as it became known, took the world of higher education by storm, such that today over 500 institutions in the World claim to use this method in almost every field of study, from engineering to liberal arts. Through the in-depth historical analysis of archive (...) materials, oral history interviews and contemporary publications, this thesis proposes a rigorous account of the intellectual history of PBL from its birth place at McMaster University, to its evolution in Maastricht University, closing on a comparison with the Danish problem-oriented, project-based model of higher education. The author delivers a narrative that stands at the cross-roads between history, philosophy of education and cognitive psychology. “Revolutions and Re-iterations” retraces not only the key historical events that shaped PBL but also the sources of inspiration for many of PBL’s key features and the central theoretical debates that defined the practice of PBL since the 1970s. (shrink)

3rd century BCE India saw in Aśoka a legendary emperor, widely admired for his political achievements but even more so for his unprecedented humanitarian approach to governance, which was deeply shaped by the Buddhist faith he adopted. His outstanding historical example invites a closer investigation into his character and behaviour patterns in the search for a new role model of cross-cultural leadership excellence. In this work✝ I will contrast the leadership approaches of today which are strongly influenced by the Western (...) academic world with the holistic, human-centred way we can extract from Buddhist teachings. From there I will examine Aśoka’s biography and character, as far as we can reinterpret from the available historical material, to extract in what manner and how closely he embodied the Buddhist ideal of leadership. To do so, I will as far as possible make use of archeologic evidence available in the form of epigraphs issued by the emperor. In this way, I hope to inspire leaders, Buddhists or non-Buddhists, to consider and embrace a leadership style which is felt most suitable for a globalised world we live in. (shrink)

For too long, a majority of economic stories speak of perfectly informed, fully rational optimisation within a purely materialistic world – leaving a lack of evidence and explanation regarding human decision makers and entrepreneurs revolutionising the decision space. Strands like game theory and institutional economics have already adopted a more practical view. Evolutionary and behavioural economics were finally able to establish the necessary links to other disciplines – like psychology and informational science. This paper recaps selected parts of the literature (...) that favour a conceptional view of computational agents. Firstly, we invite economic modellers to question the microfoundation of their assumptions with regard to the individual or to an aggregate level of human behaviour that they truly refer to. Secondly, we illustrate the potential, as well as the limitations, that computational agents exhibit – with regard to the incorporation of creativity as the main source of innovative behaviour. Thirdly, this rather superficial collection of ideas serves as a position paper for future approaches. (shrink)

Backpacker travel has become an imperative trend in modern tourism. Previous research, however, has not discussed in-depth the intentions and motivations of accommodation selection, in particular, the religious organization e.g. church, mosque, synagogue, and temple affiliated pilgrim hostel. To fill the gap of previous studies, this study provides a new research direction involving the pilgrim hostel playing an essential role as more than mere pilgrim accommodation; pilgrim hostels in Taiwan have surprisingly included a certain percentage of backpacker tourists. A survey (...) addressed the primary identity and service content perceptions of lodgers. Two historical temple-affiliated pilgrim hostels generated 287 valid responses; 112 backpackers, composing 39 % of the sample units, participated in person. Study findings indicated many significant differences between pilgrims and backpackers regarding self-recognised identity on journeys and perceptions of pilgrim hostel service content (for example, religious identification, reason for lodging, total travel expense, number of nights stayed, customer satisfaction, and service value). Implications of these findings provide suggestions and practical applications for the tourism stakeholder and for future research. (shrink)