We Don't Need No Noumena? Freedom Through Rational Self-Cultivation in Kant

In this paper I argue that we find in Kant a more plausible alternative to his transcendental conception of freedom. In the Metaphysics of Morals in particular, we find a naturalistic conception of freedom premised upon a theory of rational self-cultivation. The motivation for a naturalising reading of Kant is two-fold. On the one hand, a naturalistic conception of freedom avoids the charges levelled against Kant’s 'panicky metaphysics', which both forces us to accept an ontologically extravagant picture of the world and the self, and also commits us to understanding freedom in nonspatiotemporal terms, thus excluding the possibility that the process of becoming free is progressive. And second, on a naturalistic reading we can repackage normativity back into Kant’s account of freedom, which has seemed to scholars unacceptably absent. I explain how the process of becoming free, on the naturalistic view, involves cultivating certain 'aesthetic preconditions of the mind’s receptivity to concepts of duty'.1 Happily, these conditions incur no unpalatable ontological penalties; rather, they constitute an achievement of the rational aspect of the self. Pointedly, this is not a self who is free only in virtue of having membership in the noumenal realm. Rather, effortful self-development entails a battle to become practically free, and thereby moral. The primary attraction to this reading of Kant is that it describes freedom as a naturalistic achievement, rather than a metaphysical given. Thus I show that by jettisoning, or at least naturalising, the picture of noumenal selfhood we not only find a theory that is poorer in panicky metaphysics, but much richer in normative force

Negotiating equity in UK universities.

Description of the project The research involved six case studies of higher education institutions across England, Scotland and Wales. The project aims were:to explore staff experiences of equity issues and institutional equity policies. Participants were drawn from different occupational backgrounds and a variety of socio-cultural groups paying attention also to gender, sexual orientation, ‘race’/ethnicity, disability, age and religio to conduct a critical discourse analysis of equity policies in the six institution to gather the views of senior manager-academics and administrators on their institutional equality policies, and how these relate to national policie to identify challenges, inadequacies, examples of good practice, and constraints/incentives in relation to equity policies at institutional and sector level

What is a Good Plan? Cultural Variations in Expert Planners’ Concepts of Plan Quality

This article presents the results of a field research study examining commonalities and differences between American and British operational planners’ mental models of planning. We conducted Cultural Network Analysis (CNA) interviews with 14 experienced operational planners in the US and UK. Our results demonstrate the existence of fundamental differences between the way American and British expert planners conceive of a high quality plan. Our results revealed that the American planners’ model focused on specification of action to achieve synchronization, providing little autonomy at the level of execution, and included the belief that increasing contingencies reduces risk. The British planners’ model stressed the internal coherence of the plan, to support shared situational awareness and thereby flexibility at the level of execution. The British model also emphasized the belief that reducing the number of assumptions decreases risk. Overall, the American ideal plan serves a controlling function, whereas the British ideal plan supports an enabling function. Interestingly, both the US and UK would view the other’s ideal plan as riskier than their own. The implications of cultural models of plans and planning are described for establishing performance measures and designing systems to support multinational planning teams

US/UK Mental Models of Planning: The Relationship Between Plan Detail and Plan Quality

This paper presents the results of a research study applying a new cultural analysis method to capture commonalities and differences between US and UK mental models of operational planning. The results demonstrate the existence of fundamental differences between the way US and UK planners think about what it means to have a high quality plan. Specifically, the present study captures differences in how US and UK planners conceptualize plan quality. Explicit models of cultural differences in conceptions of plan quality are useful for establishing performance metrics for multinational planning teams. This paper discusses the prospects of enabling automatic evaluation of multinational team performance by combining recent advances in cultural modelling with enhanced ontology languages

Conformal Operators for Partially Massless States

The AdS/CFT correspondence is explored for ``partially massless'' fields in AdS space (which have fewer helicity states than a massive field but more than a conventional massless field). Such fields correspond in the boundary conformal field theory to fields obeying a certain conformally-invariant differential equation that has been described by Eastwood et al. The first descendant of such a field is a conformal field of negative norm. Hence, partially massless fields may make more physical sense in de Sitter as opposed to Anti de Sitter space.Comment: 14 page

Early diversion and empowerment policing : evaluating an adult female offender triage project

This paper provides an evaluation of a police pilot early-diversion scheme for adult females who were arrested for low-severity offences using a natural experiment design. The intervention is novel in that it diverts arrestees to a women’s centre for assistance to address their criminogenic needs rather than process them through the criminal justice system. The intervention is timely and attractive given its rehabilitative features and its potential for reducing demand on the criminal justice system through community resolution. The study found a promising effect of the intervention on rates of rearrest and daily risk of rearrest over a twelve month follow-up period, but a higher frequency of rearrest among those of the intervention group who were rearrested. The findings are discussed in relation to the political context, theoretical background and police performance and the gendered dynamics of offending

The effects of a chemosterilant (Mestranol) on population and behavior in the Richardson's ground squirrel (Spermophilus richardsonii) in Alberta

A chemosterilant, mestranol, was administered to three populations of Richardson's ground squirrel in southeastern Alberta. Mestranol was given to all squirrels in one plot, to only 50 percent in another plot, while a third plot remained as control. In all plots social behavior and population dynamics were followed over two seasons by live trapping and visual observations. Mestranol sterilized all females who received the drug shortly before or in early pregnancy; accordingly the birth rates were reduced. Levels of total aggression were also reduced but increased survival and immigration rates nullified the effects of the treatment during the first season. During the second season, low birth rates due to repeated treatment in one plot and to adult emigration and unknown causes in the other, were not compensated for by immigration. As a result of the repeated mestranol treatment and in one case also of adult emigration, the numbers of squirrels were reduced in the vicinity, thus limiting potential immigration in the treated plots. As a consequence, both treated populations crashed, demonstrating the effectiveness of mestranol

Adrenal Crisis

Glucocorticoid replacement therapy, available since the 1950s, has prolonged the survival of patients with adrenal insufficiency. However, adrenal crises, which are life-threatening medical emergencies, still develop in many affected patients. Adrenal crisis appears to be increasing in frequency, despite the availability of effective preventive strategies. This review examines the definitions, pathophysiology, epidemiology, and treatment of adrenal crises