The Epistemology of Ignorance

Nancy Tuana explores the nature of the epistemology of ignorance in her essay titled, Coming to Understand: Orgasm and the Epistemology of Ignorance . She describes our current epistemologies as too narrow, lacking in scope and truth because they focus only on the knowledge we have and ignore the knowledge we don’t have. If we want to more fully understand how our culture produces information, “we must also understand that practices that account for not knowing, that is, our lack of knowledge about a phenomena or, in some cases, an account of the practices that resulted in a group unlearning what was once a realm of knowledge”. Essentially and somewhat paradoxically, if we want to understand how we have knowledge, we have to know what we don’t know, and why. The epistemology of ignorance serves to marginalize types of knowledge and erase or simply make invisible what was once and has always been available. This activity of making certain knowledge invisible contributes to the oppression of one class to those in power. It is this power dynamic that I will explore in specific relation by the science of women’s raced and classed bodies

Science and corporeal religion: a feminist materialist reconsideration of gender/sex diversity in religiosity

This dissertation develops a feminist materialist interpretation of the role the neuroendocrine system plays in the development of gender/sex differences in religion. Data emerging from psychology, sociology, and cognitive science have continually indicated that women are more religious than men, in various senses of those contested terms, but the factors contributing to these findings are little understood and disciplinary perspectives are often unhelpfully siloed. Previous scholarship has tended to highlight socio-cultural factors while ignoring biological factors or to focus on biological factors while relying on problematic and unsubstantiated gender stereotypes. Addressing gender/sex difference is vital for understanding religion and how we study it. This dissertation interprets this difference by means of a multidisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach. This approach builds upon insights from the cognitive and evolutionary science of religion, affect theory and affective neuroscience, and social neuroendocrinology, and it is rooted in the foundational insights of feminist materialism, including that cultural and micro-sociological forces are inseparable from biological materiality. The dissertation shows how a better way of understanding gender/sex differences in religion emerges through focusing on the co-construction of biological materiality and cultural meanings. This includes deploying a gene-culture co-evolutionary explanation of ultrasociality and an understanding of the biology of performativity to argue that religious behavior and temperaments emerge from the enactment and hormonal underpinnings of six affective adaptive desires: the desires for (1) bonding and attachment, (2) communal mythos, (3) deliverance from suffering, (4) purpose, (5) understanding, and (6) reliable leadership. By hypothesizing the patterns of hormonal release and activation associated with ritualized affects—primarily considering oxytocin, testosterone, vasopressin, estrogen, dopamine, and serotonin—the dissertation theorizes four dimensions of religious temperament: (1) nurturant religiosity, (2) ecstatic religiosity, (3) protective/hierarchical religiosity, and (4) antagonistic religiosity. This dissertation conceptualizes hormones as chemical messengers that enable the diversity emerging from the imbrication of physical materiality and socio-cultural forces. In doing so, it demonstrates how hormonal aspects of gender/sex and culturally constructed aspects of gender/sex are always already intertwined in their influence on religiosity. This theoretical framework sheds light on both the diversity and the noticeable patterns observed in gender/sex differences in religious behaviors and affects. This problematizes the terms of the “women are more religious than men” while putting in place a more adequate framework for interpreting the variety of ways it appears in human lives

Exportações e importações do agronegócio brasileiro e seus determinantes no período 1995-2009

Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar a evolução das exportações e importações do agronegócio brasileiro e seus determinantes no período de 1995 a 2009. Como resultado, identificou-se que as exportações cresceram em média 4,63% ao ano, enquanto que as importações tiveram uma queda anual de 4,46%. No caso dos determinantes das exportações, verificou-se que a taxa de câmbio efetiva real não influenciou as exportações do agronegócio, enquanto que a renda internacional e o índice de commodities alimentação exerceram um efeito positivo ao nível de significância adotado. No caso das importações, pode-se dizer que a taxa de câmbio determinou-a negativamente, enquanto que o índice de commodities geral influenciou-a positivamente, e para o PIB do Brasil não se captou nenhuma influência sua sobre as importações

Using Lecture Capture to Improve Online and In-Class Student Performance in Principles of Economics

The primary purpose of deploying a lecture capture method of course delivery is to enhance student performance in online classes. In this study, recordings of classroom lectures are available to students in online sections of the course, as well as those taking the class in face-to-face class sections. We examine the effects of viewing these recorded lectures on student performance in principles of economics courses (macro and micro) over the course of five years. The setting is a small regional university that serves an extensive rural area. The dataset consists of close to 700 students, 55% of which enrolled in online course sections. Course grades, as the dependent variable, are regressed on measures of personal characteristics and academic maturity, as well as use of the recorded lectures. Results indicate that online students who watch the recorded lectures earn course grades that are significantly higher than counterparts who do not. There is also evidence that students in the face-to-face course sections also benefit significantly from watching recorded lectures

The Silence Around Non-Ordinary Experiences During the Pandemic

The paper presents new research about spiritual experiences during COVID-19. It starts with a wider discussion about the relationship between spirituality and wellbeing, based on research carried out in Brazil and the UK before the pandemic. The research showed a strict division be-tween personal faith and medical treatment, reflecting a professional distance when treating patients that results in patients’ unwillingness to speak about their experience to anyone in the medical profession, even when these experiences impact their mental health. The paper then explores some preliminary findings of a new research project about spiritual experience during COVID-19 and reflects on four three themes that have emerged from the data thus far: 1) changes in patients’ relationships with their religious communities, shifts in one’s subjective sense of spiritual connection and intuition, 2) seeing spiritual figures and near death experiences, and 3) interpretations of COVID-19 as a spiritual contagion. These themes contribute to a nuanced understanding of how spiritual experiences that arise in moments of crisis are interpreted by the people who have them, potentially contributing to resilience and coping. The last section discusses the reluctance to speak about non-ordinary experiences and reflects on the importance of accepting non-ordinary experiences for mental health

L'évolution du capitalisme marchand à Venise : le financement des galere da mercato à la fin du XVe siècle

The Evolution of Merchant Capitalism in Venice : the Financing of the galere da mercato at the End of the XVth Century. Venice built its fortune upon the good management of its naval potential, the flower of which remains its navigation line. The financial resources of the city-state converged with this activity and the auction system enabled great number of patricians to participate in the enrichment the city and their own lineage. The difficult conjoncture of the 1490s greatly disturbed the normal exploitation of the mude. Multiple problems of functioning interfered with the principle of large participation and, little by little, only the most influential and richest lineages maintained control of the economic sector. In the beginning of the XVIth century small group of families dictated their will by imposing their choices in the Senate and thereby obtained important advantage. However, the Senate majority, tired of such manipulation, reacted violently and persuaded the Nation of the necessity of abandoning the navigation lines.Doumerc Bernard, Stockly Doris. L'évolution du capitalisme marchand à Venise : le financement des galere da mercato à la fin du XVe siècle. In: Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 50ᵉ année, N. 1, 1995. pp. 133-157

The Fruits of Spiritual Experiences during the Pandemic: COVID-19 and the Effects of Non-ordinary Experiences

This paper presents new research about spiritual experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to discuss the impact of spiritual experiences on people’s lives and relationships. Building upon William James’ four features of the “fruits” of religious experience as a conceptual frame, the paper presents data from two surveys in which participants narrated spiritual experiences and reflected on the impacts of those experiences. We start with a short presentation of James’ ideas about the fruits of religious experience. The next section outlines four themes that have emerged from the narratives of spiritual experiences during the pandemic: impacts on people’s relationships with their religious communities, shifts in one’s subjective sense of spiritual connection and intuition, encounters with spiritual figures and near-death experiences, and interpretations of COVID-19 as a spiritual contagion. The final section broadens the discussion from the impact of specific spiritual experiences to include spiritual responses to the pandemic more generally, leading to a discussion of the experiences within the wider debate in fruits of religious experience