Scientia intuitiva in the Ethics

**For my more recent views of the third kind of cognition, see my "Finding Oneself in God"** Abstract: Cognition of the third kind, or scientia intuitiva, is supposed to secure beatitudo, or virtue itself (E5p42). But what is scientia intuitiva, and how is it different from (and superior to) reason? I suggest a new answer to this old and vexing question at the core of Spinoza’s project in the Ethics. On my view, Spinoza’s scientia intuitiva resembles Descartes’s scientia more than has been appreciated. Although Spinoza’s God is not Descartes’s benevolent, transcendent God, Spinoza agrees with Descartes that the highest certainty requires that a cognizer correctly conceive of God and her causal relation to God; it is only with cognition of the third kind that a cognizer can be certain that her adequate (that is, clear and distinct) representations of extramental things agree with formally real, extramental ideata, and so are true. If this is right, a reading of Spinoza that has dominated scholarship since the Ethics’ publication is misguided: for Spinoza, it is not always the case that having (and recognizing that one has) a clear and distinct idea is sufficient for knowing that that idea is true. I end the chapter by suggesting why scientia is intuitive for Spinoza: Spinoza attempts to avoid Cartesian-Circle-style circularity by insisting that a cognizer must intuit the correct representation of God and God’s relation to things

Crafting better team climate: the benefits of using creative methods during team initiation

This study employs a mixed methods approach to investigate the effect of creative methods, the combinative use of model building and storytelling, during team initiation on team climate, a critical people-related factor in the management of collective innovation work. Qualitative analysis provides empirical evidence that creative methods benefit team initiation by raising participative confidence, engagement with the social environment as well as the team activities, friendly competition among team members, and by reducing fear of failure and habitual thinking. We also find support that the use of creative methods initiates and supports the development of positive team climate over the span of a team’s life. A quantitative comparison with two control groups using the 14-item team climate inventory (TCI) 13 weeks after the team initiation indicates that the test group has significantly higher values in all dimensions of the TCI than the two control groups. Overall, this examination informs the work of innovation managers and scholars with vital insights about the effectiveness of using creative methods during team initiation

Increasing Homework Quality and Completion Through Improved Student Engagement

The objective of our action research project was to determine if improved student to teacher engagement would lead to increased homework completion and quality. Our research focused on a kindergarten classroom consisting of 18 students and an EBD resource room consisting of 17 students in grades 7-12. We collected data from student interviews, student surveys, classroom observations, and homework completion charts. The survey dealt with students’ feelings toward homework and the student interviews dealt with what motivates the students. The results showed that students who felt appreciated were more engaged and were more motivated to complete homework. We plan to continue implementing student choice and will continue to build and sustain individual student to teacher relationships. We also plan to continue and maintain our homework completion models in our classrooms

Marshalling McCulloch

David Schwartz’s terrific new book is subtitled John Marshall and the 200-Year Odyssey of McCulloch v. Maryland. But the book is about much more than Marshall and McCulloch. It’s bout the long struggle over the scope of national power. Marshall and McCulloch are characters in the story, but the story isn’t centrally about them. Indeed, an important part of Schwartz’s narrative is that McCulloch has mattered relatively little in that struggle, except as a protean symbol

Reframing Article I, Section 8

Constitutional lawyers usually think of the Constitution\u27s enumeration of congressional powers as a device for limiting the federal government\u27s legislative jurisdiction. And there\u27s something to that. But considered from the point of view of the Constitution\u27s drafters, it makes more sense to think of the enumeration of congressional powers as primarily a device for empowering Congress, not limiting it. The Framers wanted both to empower and to limit the general government, and the Constitution\u27s enumeration of congressional powers makes more sense as a means of empowerment than as a means of limitation. The major exception--that is, the one significant way in which enumerating congressional powers would have made sense as a means of limitation--lies with the Framers\u27 concern that Congress would not have the capacity to provide the governance that the far-flung nation would require, coupled with their intuition that legislative domains had to belong either to Congress or the state legislatures rather than both simultaneously. Within that conception, enumerating specific congressional powers would have been a way to avoid preempting large swaths of necessary local regulation. But given modern constitutional law\u27s comfort with concurrent legislative jurisdiction, that concern no longer provides a reason for treating the enumeration of congressional powers as a device for limiting the national government

Unbundling Constitutionality

Constitutional theory features a persistent controversy over the source or sources of constitutional status, that is, over the criteria that qualify some rules as constitutional rules. This Article contends that no single criterion characterizes all of the rules that American law treats as constitutional, such that it is a mistake to think of constitutionality as a status with necessary conditions. It is better to think of constitutionality on a bundle-of-sticks model: different attributes associated with constitutionality might or might not be present in any constitutional rule. Analysts should often direct their attention more to the separate substantive properties that are associated with constitutionality than to the question of constitutional status itself

Body Dissatisfaction and Males: A Conceptual Model

Within society it appears that dissatisfaction with one’s body is seen as a female-exclusive problem. However, limited research on men and body dissatisfaction suggests that men do experience body dissatisfaction, and these rates are increasing over time. The present literature review seeks to tie together consistent themes seen within these studies, and proposes a model based on these connections that may explain the growth in prevalence rates over time. Two theories, threatened masculinity theory and self-discrepancy theory, are also applied within the model. The model presented within this review can help give new direction to future research on men and body dissatisfaction. By improving research, we can help eliminate the stereotype that body dissatisfaction is a “female-exclusive” issue and men who experience clinical levels of body dissatisfaction can receive the treatment they require