Dagstuhl News January - December 2001

"Dagstuhl News" is a publication edited especially for the members of the Foundation "Informatikzentrum Schloss Dagstuhl" to thank them for their support. The News give a summary of the scientific work being done in Dagstuhl. Each Dagstuhl Seminar is presented by a small abstract describing the contents and scientific highlights of the seminar as well as the perspectives or challenges of the research topic

Induction and plausibility : a formal approach from the sandpoint of artificial intelligence

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal

Self-consistency, cognitive reactions and autobiographical memory in depression

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

One hill I\u27m willing to die on: Moral conviction as a catalyst for advocacy on behalf of controversial health- and public-policy-related attitudes

The grassroots spread of health and social movements is a highly important but largely understudied social process. Advocating on behalf of your beliefs to others violates the principles of Politeness Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1978) and therefore poses social risk. However, people do advocate for these beliefs, to a degree; as noted by Skitka (2002), people seem to select a limited number of positions to incorporate into their self-concept, choosing some to represent the self as a symbolic act. She argues that some of these attitudes most deeply ingrained and most motivating to act are those that are moral mandates . Within this work, I discussed this construct of morality in the context of attitude structure (e.g. Teeny & Petty, 2018), attitude strength (e.g. Skitka, Bauman, & Sargis, 2005), observed behavioral intentions and effects (e.g. Cole Wright, Cullum, & Schwab, 2008), the self (discussing implication of Skitka, 2002), and regulatory orientation (Zaal, Laar, Ståhl, Ellemers, & Derks, 2011), focusing the discussion and subsequent research on the latter two. I then completed three empirical studies. In Study 1, I tested the factor structure of various operationalizations of morality, as well as attitude structure and strength, and their ability to predict outcomes previously associated with moral conviction. Moral conviction and moral acceptability were determined to be the most theoretically and predictively distinct conceptualizations, and evidence was found for basis being a significant interactor with morality in predicting the replicated outcomes. In Study 2, I examined how morality interacts with perceived controversy and majority status, to elucidate the nature of morality as a counteractive force to social risk. I found that majority significantly increased the positive effect of morality on advocacy, but also found significant 2- and 3-way interactions with attitude bases. In Study 3, I experimentally tested the effects of perceived morality on both intentions and actual advocacy behavior, manipulating the perceived regulatory orientation (i.e. risk sensitivity) and belief in the attitude as central to the self-concept. Alone, these manipulations had no significant effect. However, significant effects were found in interaction with basis. Conclusions focused on several keys areas. First, range restriction and potential fragile effects appeared to undermine consistency in determining significant effects. I strongly suggest the attitudes research field expand its use of stimulus sampling. on the nature of morality in interaction with basis. Different conceptions of morality interacted differently with cognitive and affective basis. Future work into the effect of morality on attitude outcomes should incorporate basis as a primary variable. Secondly, morality and high affect generally increased intent to advocate, however, at maximum levels the opposite was found, suppressing advocacy not necessarily through social pressures but likely an untenable amount of dissonance or a change in perceived utility. Finally, models utilizing frame manipulations left morality accounting for no significant variance. Future work should be done to determine the relationship between these frames and morality, as a mediating relationship remains a possibility

Velvet Rope Discrimination

Public accommodations are private and public facilities that are held out to and used by the public. Public accommodations were significant battlegrounds for the Civil Rights Movement as protesters and litigators fought for equal access to swimming pools, movie theaters, and lunch counters. These sites were also important for the Women’s Rights Movement, which challenged sexist norms that prohibited their service in bars and restaurants if they were unaccompanied by men. Tragically, public accommodation law has fallen off the civil rights race and gender agenda. This inattention exists despite media accounts, case law, and empirical data that demonstrate that discrimination based on race and sex thrives in these spaces. This Article focuses on two normalized practices that violate federal and state anti-discrimination laws yet have been undertheorized by legal scholars: dress codes and gender-based pricing (i.e. ladies’ night) in bars, restaurants, and nightclubs. It deploys legal history to illustrate how access to these public accommodations has been determined by assumptions about race and sex for more than a century. Statutory developments — mostly notably Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and similar state-analogs — helped cabin racial and gender discrimination in public accommodations. Yet throughout the late 1960s, “velvet rope discrimination” evolved, which refers to the use of legally protected categories by public accommodations in their determinations of who is granted entry and in their provision of service. This Article examines public accommodations law through the lens of velvet rope discrimination and argues for the legal prohibition of dress codes and gender-based pricing. These policies traffic dangerous stereotypes about racial minorities, women, and the LGBTQ community and precludes their equal enjoyment of these facilities. By offering a comprehensive legal account of two overlooked practices, this Article presents a new way of thinking about anti-discrimination law and democratic inclusion

The Multilateral Standard of Review: Export Restrictions, GATT Exceptions and Exemptions

This dissertation argues for the adoption of a new interpretative standard that urges the WTO adjudicator to explicitly take account of the economic heterogeneity of the WTO Membership when construing exemption provisions in the GATT 1994. In particular, the judicial decision maker should construe and interpret exemption provisions using the embedded standard of review, such that the Member States’ economic conditions enlighten the contextual interpretation of the language of the provision. This multilateral standard of review compels the adjudicator to accord conditional deference to developmental policies, as applied by a Member State in expression of its preferred economic strategy to expand the trade and production of goods and services. This dissertation examines the history of the standard of review in the GATT 1947 and GATT 1994 in order to critically examine its application to the construction and interpretation of the exemption provision of Article XI:2(a) GATT 1994. The proposed multilateral standard of review overcomes the post-modern critique of judicial practice by emphasizing the collaborative intent of the Membership, as revealed through the adjudicator’s understanding of the object and purpose of the agreement

Small Business and the False Dichotomies of Contract Law

The article explores the classic consumer- merchant dichotomy from the vantage of small businesses. Using empirical data and the psychology, economics, and management literature, it shows that small businesses, treated like large businesses throughout most of contract and commercial law, in fact behave more like consumers. Small businesses lack the financial strength of large businesses. They generally lack the information gathering ability of large businesses. Finally, they generally are more prey to cognitive errors than are large businesses. As a result, small businesses lose in two ways. When they deal with consumers, they are presumed to have the power, information, and cognitive capacity of large firms. The law thus obliges them to grant protections based on asymmetries that may not exist. When they deal with large businesses, the law treats them as essentially equal, even though small businesses may suffer from the same disadvantages that require legal intervention for consumers. The article considers the ways in which the law can deal with this false dichotomy and suggests some solutions, particularly in the way the law treats risk allocation

Understanding Human Sexuality in John Paul II’s Theology of the Body: An Analysis of the Historical Development of Doctrine in the Catholic Tradition

The most volatile area of contention in the discourse between a pure secularized world and the Church in contemporary times is located in the area of sexuality, marriage and family life. Modernist and liberal post enlightenment culture accuse the Church to be unchanging, and unreflective of modern ‘personal’ choices in the contested areas of human sexuality. Within the Church, there are voices also who call for ‘developments’ in such areas of doctrine. For over forty years, these conversation has taken on many shades of grey coming to a head with questions of discordancy and same sex unions among other pressing and related issues. This dissertation aims to contribute to the ongoing conversation by attempting to clarify the foundational understanding of what constitutes the possibility of a development in doctrine or the lack of it. There are five chapters of this work devoted to this endeavor. In chapter one the encyclical tradition of a hundred years timeline, focused on questions of sexuality and family life are reviewed to establish a historical development in the magisterial position of the Church. Chapter two is devoted to John Paul II’s Theology of the Body which is set up as the frame work upon which this project argues for what is perhaps the current magisterial position on the topic under discussion. In chapter three, a review is undertaken to explore questions about the natural law which forms a bedrock of Catholic argument in its moral theology and for cases of personal sexual ethics. A historical analysis is employed to see how the theory itself has evolved from its ancient origins, into scholasticism, and how it has been used in political jurisprudence. More importantly to its reemergence within the last century as the new natural law theory which seeks to establish the same argument purely from a philosophical aspect and without a theistic foundation. Four theological voices are engaged in chapter four to try and locate what broadly contemporary and wider theological contexts have to say from an anthropological, feminist, and cultural context. In chapter five, the idea of development of doctrine is reviewed. The questions of discordancy and same sex unions are used as theoretical frame work to presenting how development in doctrine has the possibility of a shift or the impossibility their off. A hypothetical idea is borrowed from liturgical theology, using the idea of ‘matter’ and ‘form’ to explain essentials of Christian doctrine (also known as dogma) which remains unchanging as defined position. And the accidental aspects of Christian doctrine which is open to re-interpretation in the light of new cultures and new questions. The entire notion of doctrine rests on ‘Christian tradition’, therefore a question of tradition, and what is being traditioned across time is explored to clarify the process necessary for proper understanding of development. In conclusion, some pastoral recommendations are made based on current papal and magisterial documents as possible means of approaching newer questions raised by a secularized and post enlightenment world

Framing Anti-War Theatre: Public Perceptions of Embedded

Extending research of framing anti-war protest is framed in the public sphere, this study examines theatre critics\u27 reviews and viewers\u27 responses to Tim Robbins\u27 anti-war play Embedded. My research examines how two groups of publics interpreted Embedded: (1) professional theatre reviewers and (2) a sample of Utah State University students. It is important to note that the majority of the students who participated in this study are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon), a consistently social and political conservative religious sect. Thus, how this specific group of viewers deciphered Embedded is of special interest. Critical analyses of both reviews and responses revealed the prominence of two seemingly irreconcilable partisan master frames in critics\u27 and spectators\u27 interpretations of the play\u27s protest narratives. Although these frames seem to be incompatible, adherents to both whining for peace and anti-war protest consider protection of American democracy the primary goal. However, members of both groups define the role of anti-war protest in, and defense of, democracy differently. Examination of discourse suggests that marginalization of anti-war protest continues to be the privileged discourse. Overwhelming dismissal of Embedded\u27s anti-war narratives by the majority of critics and Latter-day Saint (LDS) viewers indicates that dissent was framed according to cultural and societal values, which perpetuated conceptions of anti-war protest as deviant. Thus, in both public discussion and personal interpretation of Embedded\u27s outward expression of protest, anti-war activism is perceived to be illegitimate when the United States is at war. Results suggest that most theatre critics and LDS viewers relied on values framing in their perception of the play, which negated complex and nuanced discussion regarding military action in Iraq. By broadening discussion of how anti-war dissent is framed by including theatre critics and individual viewers, this research provides insight into how dissenting action is perceived within a larger cultural context. As findings reveal, it is reasonable to conclude that marginalization of anti-war dissent is not limited to mass media. Rather, I argue that dismissal of protest may be perpetuated on a wider societal scale, a problematic trend, especially as protest is widely considered to be a valuable tenet of democratic practice