The Relation Between Autonomy and Well-Being in Higher Education Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, higher education has drastically moved online, which has increased the importance of autonomous learning by students. A decrease in students' well-being has meanwhile been registered across the globe. In this study, we examine which learning characteristics increase student well-being under the pandemic constraints. We investigate students' well-being, specifically burnout, amotivation, and study engagement, and their relation to learning autonomy. Two types of autonomy were included: autonomy at the student-level and autonomy at the instructor-level, measured via the instructors' communication and support provided for online learning. Our analyses show that amotivation and burnout correlated negatively with both kinds of autonomy. Similarly, student engagement correlated positively with both kinds of autonomy. A multiple regression showed that student-level autonomy was the only variable to significantly predict all three well-being variables, while instructor support predicted only study engagement and burnout. Instructor communication did not predict any well-being variables. Implications, limitations, and future directions for the role of autonomy in online learning are discussed

How Common is Common Human Reason?:The Plurality of Moral Perspectives and Kant’s Ethics

In his practical philosophy, Kant aims to systematize and ground a conception of morality that every human being already in some form is supposedly committed to in virtue of her common human reason. While Kantians especially in the last few years have explicitly acknowledged the central role of common human reason for a correct understanding of Kant’s ethics, there has been very little detailed critical discussion of the very notion of a common human reason as Kant envisages it. Sticker critically discusses in what ways Kant is committed to the notion that there are certain rational insights and rational capacities that all humans share, and thus investigates critically how Kant thinks moral normativity appears to the common human being, the rational agent who did not enjoy special education or philosophical training

Institutionalising Kant's political philosophy: Foregrounding cosmopolitan right

There exists a longstanding debate over the global institutional implications of Immanuel Kant's political philosophy: does such a philosophy entail a federal world government, or instead only a confederal ‘league of nations’? However, while the systematic nature of Kant's tripartite ‘doctrine of right' is well recognised, this debate has been conducted with all but exclusive focus on ‘international right' in particular. This article, by contrast, brings ‘cosmopolitan right' firmly into view. It proceeds by way of engagement with the two Kantian arguments made in defence of a ‘league of nations’ in discussion of international right, each of which appeals to aspects of states’ supposed ‘personhood’: the first appeals to states’ distinctive moral personality; the second to states’ physical manifestation. The article considers what happens when we assess these arguments not just in light of the demands of international right, but also in light of cosmopolitan right, and thus in light of public right more comprehensively. The answer is that such arguments cannot succeed as full defences of a league of nations. Indeed, when we assess such arguments with cosmopolitan right in view, they point instead – either tentatively or definitively – in the direction of world government

Analyse van gestelde Tweede-Kamervragen over dierenwelzijn en de verkregen media-aandacht in het jaar 2007/2008

Een onderzoek naar het effect van de grote hoeveelheid kamervragen over dierenwelzijn in de periode maart 2007-februari 2008. Er is gekeken naar de media-aandacht die dit gegenereerd heeft, maar ook of hierdoor het onderwerp op de politieke agenda is terecht gekome