Dismal Loneliness : George Eliot, Auguste Comte and The Lifted Veil

\u27The Lifted Veil\u27 is a curious novella from an author who made the organic form so much her own, focusing as it does upon actions which continually interrupt and fragment the narrative; with its emphasis on the supernatural, on bizarre pseudo-scientific experiments, attempted murder and gothic horror it seems out of place in the canon of a maker of \u27realist\u27 fictions. Yet bizarre though this tale undoubtedly is, it is not merely the mental aberration from an author under stress that Blackwood supposed it to be.\u27 In 1859, the year she first offered it for publication, Eliot had been diffident about the tale, describing it to Blackwood as \u27a slight story of an outre kind - not ajeu d\u27esprit, but ajeu de melancolie\u27.2 But fourteen years later, when he wrote asking for permission to republish it her reply shows a confident author defending her story with the determined statement: I care for the idea which it embodies and which justifies its painfulness. A motto which I wrote on it yesterday perhaps is sufficient indication of that idea: - Give me no light, great heaven, but such as turns To energy of human fellowship, No powers save the growing heritage That makes completer manhood. But it will be well to put the story in harness with some other productions of mine, and not send it forth in dismal loneliness

Evolution And Ethics

Does evolution inform the ancient debate about the roles that instinct (emotion/passion/sentiment/feeling) and reason do and/or should play in how we decide what to do? Evolutionary ethicists typically adopt Darwinism as a suitable explanation for evolution, and on that basis draw conclusions about moral epistemology. However, if Darwinism is to be offered as a premise from which conclusions about moral epistemology are drawn, in order to assess such arguments we must assess that premise. This reveals the highly speculative and metaphysical quality of our theoretical explanations for how evolution happens. Clarifying that helps to facilitate an assessment of the epistemological claims of evolutionary ethicists. There are four general ways that instinct and reason can function in moral deliberation: descriptive instinctivism asserts that moral deliberation is necessarily a matter of instincts because control of the instincts by our faculty of reason is regarded (descriptively) as impossible; descriptive rationalism asserts that moral deliberation is necessarily a matter of reasoning, which (descriptively) must control instinct; prescriptive instinctivism asserts that moral deliberation can involve both rationality and instinct but prescribes following our instincts; prescriptive rationalism also asserts that deliberation can be either instinctive or rational but prescribes following reason. Micheal Ruse (2012), Peter Singer (2011), and Philip Kitcher (2011) each adopt Darwinism and on that basis arrive at descriptive instinctivism, descriptive rationalism, and prescriptive instinctivism, respectively. Our current level of understanding about evolution implies that prescriptive rationalism is a more practical approach to ethical deliberation than the other three alternatives described. Evolution can inform moral epistemology, but only very generally by helping to inform us of what we can justifiably believe about ourselves and nature

The Fallacy of Happiness: A Psychological Investigation of Suicide among Successful People

There are three feelings that prompt a person to take their life: hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness. Studies have found that the risk of suicide increases with decreasing happiness. In the recent past, people have been left clueless when celebrities and successful people ended their lives despite appearing overtly happy. What prompted them to do so? Modern society today highlights the importance of success over failure. Although we are motivated to be successful in life, it should not become our main gauge of happiness. In the same way we should not let success be our main goal in life and get discouraged by failure. Happiness has been viewed in two ways: as concerning the well-being of a person, and as the opposite of depression. Each one of us has different ways of measuring happiness. The quality of one’s happiness depends on one’s priorities in life. Happiness is not merely something that can be quantified with how much success and failure one has because such metric is very much subjective. How do we prevent a young life from extinguishing? How do we identify suicidal behavior among successful people and help those around? The present chapter covers the possible reasons why successful people commit suicide. Role of media in preventing suicide and measures for preventing suicide by successful people has been discussed

Psychopathy and the HEXACO personality model

Within the recently published DSM-5, alternative diagnostic criteria for personality disorders have been offered (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). These changes allow for a more dimensional diagnostic system than has been previously used while maintaining some aspects of a categorical system (Skodol et al., 2011). These changes also include a description of specific traits that characterize personality disorders and make it possible for measures of normal personality to have a more significant impact in their diagnosis. Relevant to the present study are the changes in the diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and psychopathy, considered by many to be an extreme variant of antisocial personality disorder (Cloninger, Svrakic, Bayon, & Przybeck, 1999; Lynam, 2002; Miller, Lynam, Widiger, & Leukefeld, 2001). While a volume of research has been conducted on the use of the Five-Factor Model in describing psychopathic characteristics (Costa & McCrae, 1990; Dyce & O\u27Connor, 1998; Lynam & Widiger, 2001), little research has been conducted that investigates the effectiveness of a six-factor personality model, such as the HEXACO, in defining psychopathy (Lee & Ashton, 2005). The present study investigated the effectiveness of the HEXACO personality model in describing trait-level characteristics of psychopathy in a student sample and a prison sample. Twenty-two HEXACO facets were found to be significant predictors of psychopathy. The results from the student population were consistent with the hypothesized relationships; however, the results from the inmate population were contrary to the literature and the proposed hypotheses. Future study utilizing a larger sample is necessary in order to determine more definite relationships and viability of a measure of normal personality in the prediction of psychopathy

How Immersion in Nature Impacts the Human Spirit: A Phenomenological Study

Research demonstrates that spending time in nature restores, heals, and fosters connection in people. However, little is known regarding nature’s impact on the human spirit. The purpose of this phenomenological, mixed-method study is to describe nature’s impact on the human spirit. Twenty-six adults spent a minimum of fifteen minutes-a-day over a ten-day time period immersing themselves in nature and reflecting on a dimension of their spirit. Participants used photography and journaling to share reflections regarding how nature impacted their spirit. Six main spiritual themes emerged from thematic analysis: connection, vibrancy, awe/presence, joy, gratitude, and compassion. Of these six themes, the findings reveal that immersion in nature impacts the human spirit most significantly by providing a sense of connection, vibrancy, and awe. Furthermore, regardless of the type of nature activity, the location, or the time of day, immersion in nature offered a sense of connection for every participant, which in turn promoted spiritual well-being. Spending time in nature offers a cost-free and accessible way to foster spiritual well-being

An Ethic of Love: A Frommean Critique of Education

This dissertation is centrally concerned with the ways in which Erich Fromm’s critical analysis of society can be applied to education, specifically looking at the ways in which Fromm’s conceptualizations of freedom, ethics, and love can be used both to critique education and to provide an alternative vision of education through an ethic of love. With its focus on humanization and freedom, critical pedagogy offers a powerful critique, but its liberatory potential has yet to be fully realized, largely because of the ways in which critical theory has been engaged in the work of critical pedagogy. Fromm’s work offers a necessary complication to critical pedagogy through his analysis of the psychological and emotional dimensions of authentic humanization. Combining the liberatory aims of critical pedagogy with Fromm’s work enables us to reveal how schooling functions to perpetuate negative freedom, to propose a universal ethic or moral vision for critical educational studies, and to engage in a critical humanizing praxis. Ultimately, the hope of this project is to show how a more complex understanding of freedom that centers a critical theory of love allows us to develop a pedagogical framework where education as the practice of positive freedom becomes synonymous with teaching as an ethic of love

Social work, independent realities & the circle of moral considerability: Respect for humans, animals & the natural world

Social work\u27s conceptualization as to what it is that entitles an individual or entity to moral consideration, or as having moral status, is thoroughly anthropocentric, and is articulated in complete disregard of the context of our fundamental evolutionary continuity and our embeddedness within an evolving natural world, and flies in the face of the reality that we already inhabit mixed communities and a wider household. It is deemed to be obvious that we are islands of moral value in an otherwise valueless natural world

The prophetic function of religious journalism

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit