Normative Alethic Pluralism

Some philosophers have argued that truth is a norm of judgement and have provided a variety of formulations of this general thesis. In this paper, I shall side with these philosophers and assume that truth is a norm of judgement. What I am primarily interested in here are two core questions concerning the judgement-truth norm: (i) what are the normative relationships between truth and judgement? And (ii) do these relationships vary or are they constant? I argue for a pluralist picture—what I call Normative Alethic Pluralism (NAP)—according to which (i) there is more than one correct judgement-truth norm and (ii) the normative relationships between truth and judgement vary in relation to the subject matter of the judgement. By means of a comparative analysis of disagreement in three areas of the evaluative domain—refined aesthetics, basic taste and morality—I show that there is an important variability in the normative significance of disagreement—I call this the variability conjecture. By presenting a variation of Lynch’s scope problem for alethic monism, I argue that a monistic approach to the normative function of truth is unable to vindicate the conjecture. I then argue that normative alethic pluralism provides us with a promising model to account for it

Fitness Norms for the Plank Exercise

PURPOSE: Adequate strength of core musculature is critical for optimal physical performance and postural control. Currently, standards for core musculature strength and stability have not been established. This study sought to determine normative fitness measurements of core musculature endurance using the plank exercise. METHODS: 168 collegiate male and female participants (18-25 years of age) were recruited. Participants were instructed in plank positioning; elbows bent at 90° directly below the shoulders, hands unclasped, feet placed hip width apart with ankles at 90° and pelvis tilted in the neutral position. After a 5-minute warm-up, participants were told to maintain the plank position as long as possible until complete fatigue was reached. The test was terminated if proper form was broken. The total time held in proper plank position was recorded. RESULTS: The mean time held in the plank position was 96.25 + 43.16 and 116.58 + 65.49 seconds for females and males, respectively. For females, quartiles showed that the 25th percentile was 63 seconds, the 50th percentile was 90 seconds, while the 75th percentile was 121 seconds. Quartiles for males were 77seconds, 106 seconds and 128.5 seconds for the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles, respectively. CONCLUSION: This study provides normative values for the plank exercise that can be added to current fitness appraisal protocols to assess core muscular endurance. These data suggest that 1.50 minutes in females and 1.77 minutes in males (50th percentile values) could be considered average duration of the plank exercise for this age group

Homo Socionicus: a Case Study of Simulation Models of Norms

This paper describes a survey of normative agent-based social simulation models. These models are examined from the perspective of the foundations of social theory. Agent-based modelling contributes to the research program of methodological individualism. Norms are a central concept in the role theoretic concept of action in the tradition of Durkheim and Parsons. This paper investigates to what extend normative agent-based models are able to capture the role theoretic concept of norms. Three methodological core problems are identified: the question of norm transmission, normative transformation of agents and what kind of analysis the models contribute. It can be shown that initially the models appeared only to address some of these problems rather than all of them simultaneously. More recent developments, however, show progress in that direction. However, the degree of resolution of intra agent processes remains too low for a comprehensive understanding of normative behaviour regulation.Norms, Normative Agent-Based Social Simulation, Role Theory, Methodological Individualism

Moral Normative Force and Clinical Ethics Expertise

Brummett and Salter propose a useful and timely taxonomy of clinical ethics expertise (2019). As the field becomes further “professionalized” this taxonomy is important, and the core of it is right. It needs some refinement around the edges, however. In their conclusion, Brummett and Salter rightly point out that there is a significant difference between the ethicist whose recommendations are procedure- and process-heavy, consensus-driven, and dialogical and the authoritarian ethicist whose recommendations flow from “private moral views” (Brummett and Salter, 2019). This admission doesn’t go far enough. Brummett and Salter’s taxonomy fails to capture the notion that offering recommendations whose normative force is moral is different in kind from recommendations whose normative force is non-moral, such as those recommendations that are free of moral content or justified by convention. The difference is in kind, not scale. I argue further that clinical ethics expertise, if possible, consists at least in offering recommendations whose normative force is moral. These two claims imply that the taxonomy fails to cut clinical ethics expertise at the joints: the ethicist who offers justified non-moral normative recommendations is a different kind of ethicist from the one who offers justified moral normative recommendations, yet both are categorized as clinical ethics experts. I finish by offering a refinement of the taxonomy that more precisely categorizes clinical ethicists

Hegel and the Ethics of Brandom’s Metaphysics

In order to develop his pragmatist and inferentialist framework, Robert Brandom appropriates, reconstructs and revises key themes in German Idealism such as the self-legislation of norms, the social institution of concepts and facts, a norm-oriented account of being and the critique of representationalist accounts of meaning and truth. However, these themes have an essential ethical dimension, one that Brandom has not explicitly acknowledged. For Hegel, the determination of norms and facts and the institution of normative statuses take place in the context of Sittlichkeit (‘ethical life’). By engaging with some of the more ontologically and ethically substantive points raised by Hegel, I argue that, from a Hegelian perspective, Brandom’s project regarding the social determination of truth and meaning cannot be divorced from ethics, specifically, the ethical dimension of social recognition. Furthermore, I argue that, in real situations (as opposed to ideal ones), claims to normative authority cannot be considered independently from the legitimacy of those claims, a legitimacy that Brandom is unable to reasonably explain. Finally, I argue that a Hegelian solution to the problems facing Brandom’s framework calls into question the unity of reason that is at the core of Brandom’s normative pragmatics and inferential semantics

Assessing Perceptions of the Integrative Justice Model Propositions: A Critical Step Toward Operationalizing a Macro Model

Propositions underlying the theoretical tenets of the Integrative Justice Model (IJM), a normative, ethical framework for engaging in impoverished markets, are investigated for reliability in application. Santos and Laczniak provide numerous decision principles to help the marketer to evaluate fairness in the marketplace exchange, yet which are most reflective of the core tenets and most useful in application? Managerial perceptions of the extent to which the propositions reflect the core tenets of the IJM are evaluated in this critical step toward operationalizing the model. Factor analysis is implemented with a relatively small sample, a challenge particularly common in research with the impoverished or marginalized, to evaluate the decision principles most reflective of the core tenets, from the perspective of the marketer/manager. Normality is not considered a critical assumption of factor analysis where groups of like variables are clustered into underlying constructs. This work articulates a critical step in macromarketing research methods, exemplifying an approach resilient to micro samples under macro frameworks

Test-Retest Reliability and Validity of the Plank Exercise

Purpose: The plank exercise is a popular and widely used exercise to increase core strength. We previously established normative values for the plank exercise that may be used for fitness classification to identify gaps in core muscular strength and endurance. Whether the plank exercise can be confidently added to current fitness appraisal protocols will depend on its reliability and validity in the fitness testing environment. This study sought to examine test-retest reliability of the plank exercise and to compare plank performance with established normative values for the curl up test. The role of verbal encouragement cues during plank performance testing was also assessed. Methods: Collegiate male (n=14) and female participants (n=19) performed the plank exercise in two separate sessions separated by a minimum of 72 hr. Participants maintained the plank position until complete fatigue was reached. Verbal cues were given to half of the participants in one of the two sessions. Performance on the curl up exercise was measured in a third, separate session. Results: Intraclass correlation showed that mean time held in the plank position was not significantly different between the two plank testing sessions (108.15 + 49.38 versus 111.39 + 56.87 seconds, p=0.556). Verbal encouragement cues did not improve performance time (between group effect, p=0.940). The curl up test was not significantly correlated with either plank session (r=0.410 and 0.276 for plank session one and two, respectively). Surprisingly, the curl up test was positively correlated with participant height (r=0.578). Conclusion: This study suggests that the plank exercise is a reliable test; plank performance was comparable across testing sessions and not influenced by verbal encouragement. Further testing is needed to confirm validity of the plank exercise as a measure of core muscular endurance. We show here that plank performance was not correlated with the standard curl up test. However, the curl up test may not adequately measure core strength, given that increased body height was associated with higher curl up completion scores

A Compendium of Core Lexicon Checklists

Core Lexicon (CoreLex) is a relatively new approach assessing lexical use in discourse. CoreLex examines the specific lexical items used to tell a story, or how typical lexical items are compared with a normative sample. This method has great potential for clinical utilization because CoreLex measures are fast, easy to administer, and correlate with microlinguistic and macrolinguistic discourse measures. The purpose of this article is to provide clinicians with a centralized resource for currently available CoreLex checklists, including information regarding development, norms, and guidelines for use

Can Mature Democracies Be Perfected?

One of the more vexing questions about democracy that is often debated among political theorists, political scientists, and legal scholars is whether the democratic character of mature democracies can be improved. From one view, that of democratic realists, mature democracies are perfected as a matter of definition and as a matter of realistic expectations. Because mature democracies are those that respect core democratic principles, variations outside the core are simply policy differences based upon each democratic polity’s willingness to engage in a different set of trade-offs. For democratic realists, variations in democratic practice that are not related to core democratic principles do not in any way call into question the democratic character of the polity. From another view, that of democratic perfectionists, even among mature democratic states that share core democratic commitments, there exist electoral deficiencies that call into question the democratic character of mature democracies. From the perspective of democratic perfectionists, democracy is a continuum and not a binary condition of either democratic or not. Given that democracy is a more-or-less proposition (as opposed to either-or), it makes sense to talk about perfecting mature democracies as there is a normative ideal vision to perfect toward

Some Simple Games for Teaching and Research. Part 1: Cooperative Games

Over many years some simple cooperative games have been considered in lectures on game theory. The games were selected in order to provide insight into various normative theories of solution to n-person games. It is suggested that the results indicate that when solutions have outcomes in common, predictability is higher than when they are apart. The core is attractive but less so when it is heavily nonsymmetric.