Hasil untuk "Philosophy. Psychology. Religion"

J. Weisz, Fred Rothbaum, Thomas C. Blackburn

Nina Lutz, Benjamin Olsen, Weishung Liu et al.

Previous work has found a lack of research in HCI on religion, partly driven by misunderstandings of values and practices between religious and technical communities. To bridge this divide in an empirically rigorous way, we conducted an interview study with 48 religious people and/or experts from 11 faiths, and we document how religious people experience, understand, and imagine technologies. We show that religious stakeholders find non-neutral secular embeddings in technologies and the firms and people that design them, and how these manifest in unintended harms for religious and nonreligious users. Our findings reveal how users navigate technoreligious practices with religiously informed mental models and what they desire from technologies. Informed by this, we distill six design values -- wonder, humility, space, embodiedness, community, and eternity -- to guide technologists in considering and leveraging religion as an additional, valid sociocultural resource when designing for a holistic user. We further spell out directions for future research.

Katharina Simbeck, Mariam Mahran

Despite growing research on bias in large language models (LLMs), most work has focused on gender and race, with little attention to religious identity. This paper explores how religion is internally represented in LLMs and how it intersects with concepts of violence and geography. Using mechanistic interpretability and Sparse Autoencoders (SAEs) via the Neuronpedia API, we analyze latent feature activations across five models. We measure overlap between religion- and violence-related prompts and probe semantic patterns in activation contexts. While all five religions show comparable internal cohesion, Islam is more frequently linked to features associated with violent language. In contrast, geographic associations largely reflect real-world religious demographics, revealing how models embed both factual distributions and cultural stereotypes. These findings highlight the value of structural analysis in auditing not just outputs but also internal representations that shape model behavior.

Kazi Abrab Hossain, Jannatul Somiya Mahmud, Maria Hossain Tuli et al.

While recent developments in large language models have improved bias detection and classification, sensitive subjects like religion still present challenges because even minor errors can result in severe misunderstandings. In particular, multilingual models often misrepresent religions and have difficulties being accurate in religious contexts. To address this, we introduce BRAND: Bilingual Religious Accountable Norm Dataset, which focuses on the four main religions of South Asia: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, containing over 2,400 entries, and we used three different types of prompts in both English and Bengali. Our results indicate that models perform better in English than in Bengali and consistently display bias toward Islam, even when answering religion-neutral questions. These findings highlight persistent bias in multilingual models when similar questions are asked in different languages. We further connect our findings to the broader issues in HCI regarding religion and spirituality.

Zizhou Liu, Ziwei Gong, Lin Ai et al.

Psychological insights have long shaped pivotal NLP breakthroughs, from attention mechanisms to reinforcement learning and social modeling. As Large Language Models (LLMs) develop, there is a rising consensus that psychology is essential for capturing human-like cognition, behavior, and interaction. This paper reviews how psychological theories can inform and enhance stages of LLM development. Our review integrates insights from six subfields of psychology, including cognitive, developmental, behavioral, social, personality psychology, and psycholinguistics. With stage-wise analysis, we highlight current trends and gaps in how psychological theories are applied. By examining both cross-domain connections and points of tension, we aim to bridge disciplinary divides and promote more thoughtful integration of psychology into NLP research.

Kevin Hunt

This article addresses the fundamental concept underpinning Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, which recognizes selective empathy and extraordinary empathy dissonance within our contemporary cultures as a continuum, not a moment. The article uses Michel Serres's philosophical process to provide an ontological and epistemological framework within which The Zone of Interest can be understood analogously as a warning about darkness enveloping the world. Glazer has emphasized the axiom of his film is focusing upon the present. The Zone of Interest asks questions about humanity's contemporary cultural sensibilities, which determine how societies engage with diversity, difference, and the multiplicities of perspective that are an inescapable part of the global geopolitical landscape. Serres's process is inherently analogical, recognizing patterns of knowing and being that recur isomorphically across space and time. This article brings together the immersive sensibility mediated through the screen – situating The Zone of Interest as a cinematic experience that elevates sound over vision – with Serres's assimilation of Lucretian atomism, which links materialism and ethics; the importance of noise as a source of knowledge within Serresian thought; and a topological approach to time and space, which shapes the analogical, qualitatively relational, processes characteristic of Serres's philosophy.

Sebastian De Haro

This is a review of James Read's insightful book, Background Independence in Classical and Quantum Gravity. The book introduces various notions of background-independence which it then makes precise, and uses to make verdicts about background-independence on a wide range of examples of spacetime theories in both classical and quantum gravity. This short book is, in several ways, a worthy example of how technical philosophy of physics ought to be done. I first discuss the content, then raise a number points where I disagree with the book.

Lucas Gren, Robert Feldt

This position paper explores the intricate relationship between social psychology and secure software engineering, underscoring the vital role social psychology plays in the realm of engineering secure software systems. Beyond a mere technical endeavor, this paper contends that understanding and integrating social psychology principles into software processes are imperative for establishing robust and secure software systems. Recent studies in related fields show the importance of understanding the social psychology of other security domains. Finally, we identify critical gaps in software security research and present a set of research questions for incorporating more social psychology into software security research.

Tracy Sweet, Selena Wang

Social network analysis can answer research questions such as why or how individuals interact or form relationships and how those relationships impact other outcomes. Despite the breadth of methods available to address psychological research questions, social network analysis is not yet a standard practice in psychological research. To promote the use of social network analysis in psychological research, we present an overview of network methods, situating each method within the context of research studies and questions in psychology.

Charel D. du Toit

The parable of the Prodigal Son is traditionally viewed from an androcentric perspective, focusing on the male characters, such as the father and brothers. However, this article suggests that the original listeners may have perceived female characters as present and significant. It briefly explores the roles of the Prodigal’s mother and the father’s mother, proposing an alternative interpretation. Evidence indicates that a 1st-century audience might have envisioned a parallel narrative, termed ‘the Parable of the Two Mothers’, within the story. This imagined parallel parable could reflect the high-context understanding of the original hearers. The article aims to reconstruct this proposed parallel parable not only as a potentially imagined narrative within the Prodigal Son but also as a counter-narrative tool. This tool seeks to aid faith communities in addressing gender-based violence (GBV) by offering a narrative device that brings women’s voices to the forefront in congregational and social contexts. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The interdisciplinary nature of this article contributes to the debate on the roles and importance of women in the church by investigating the value that women had in the parables of Jesus. Furthermore, this article promotes an inclusive reading of biblical texts aiming to combat the pandemic of GBV in South African communities. By reading women as present in the text, emphasis is given to the voices of women in the Bible and the importance of their representation today. This research is also in line with the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5: Gender equality and women empowerment.

Ricardo Miranda Nachmanowicz

O presente trabalho aborda a filosofia estética de Eduard Hanslick, no intuito de demarcá-la enquanto abordagem epistemológica da música e um caso paradigmático para a autonomia musical. Foram analisadas as premissas epistemológicas que guiaram a obra Do belo musical, bem como as suas mais prováveis influências. Conclui-se, apresentando o conceito de ideia musical como formulação epistemológica fortemente influenciada pelo positivismo e princípio qualificador da percepção musical autônoma. Adiciona-se a essa conclusão uma desambiguação, com o conceito de ideia estética de Kant.esente trabalho aborda a filosofia estética de Eduard Hanslick no intuito de demarca-la enquanto abordagem epistemológica da música e um caso paradigmático para a autonomia musical. Foram analisadas as premissas epistemológicas que guiaram a obra Do belo musical, bem como as suas mais prováveis influências. Concluímos apresentando o conceito de ideia musical enquanto formulação epistemológica fortemente influenciada pelo positivismo e enquanto princípio qualificador da percepção musical autônoma. Adicionamos a essa conclusão uma desambiguação com o conceito de ideia estética de Kant.

Soroush Marouzi

Frank Ramsey’s philosophy, developed in the 1920s in Cambridge, was in conversation with the debates surrounding intellectualism in the early twentieth century. Ramsey made his mark on the anti-intellectualist tradition via his notion of habit. He posited that human judgments take shape through habitual processes, and he rejected the separation between the domain of reason, on one hand, and the domain of habit, on the other. Ramsey also provided the ground to explore the nature of knowledge employed in acting from habit. That ground was passed onto Margaret MacDonald who came up with the distinction between knowing that something is the case and knowing how to apply a rule (or habit), the distinction that set the stage for Gilbert Ryle’s philosophical project against intellectualism from the 1940s onward. Ramsey thus influenced Ryle’s account of knowledge through the channel of MacDonald.

Gonzalo Bustamante Kuschel

This article examines the subtle nuances of Hobbes’s and Kant’s perspectives on rhetoric and materialism, contextualising them within the broader framework of political philosophy. Despite both philosophers being critics of rhetoric, their approaches exhibit notable divergences. Hobbes, who advocated for monarchy, criticized rhetoric from the perspective of a materialist anthropology influenced by Lucretius. However, he paradoxically employed rhetorical strategies in his new scientia civilis. Despite critiquing both Lucretian materialism and rhetoric, Kant incorporated certain rhetorical elements compatible with his philosophical framework, particularly in relation to Epicureanism. This study analyses their interpretations of paradiastole and the implications for the political thought. The argument is that both thinkers, in seeking a rational foundation for the political order, anchor their notions of rationality in Epicurean materialism, by reconfiguring rhetorical elements to suit their respective philosophies. The article elucidates Kant’s republican proclivities and his aspiration to maximize the citizens’ autonomy, which contrasts with Hobbes’s monarchical orientation. This research contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the early modern political thought and its relevance to the contemporary republican and democratic theory.

Baginda Sitompul, Afriani Manalu, Grace Metaria Sihombing et al.

In the Bible there is a lot of information that writes down the teachings that Jesus did. The fruit of Jesus' teaching is proof that He is a teacher who has a personality, broad insight, role model, both from His words and deeds. The works of Jesus are inseparable from the culture of learning that has been carried out since he was young. This is one factor that makes Him appear as the Great Teacher. After finishing studying from school, Jesus taught with creative and effective methods for His followers. For this reason, in the context of Christian Religious Education (PAK) which is taught in formal schools, it is necessary to refer to Christian Religious Education at the time of Jesus, so that the principles of Christian Religious Education in schools can be specifically maintained from time to time. The researcher will explain how Christian Religious Education was when Jesus was a Jewish boy, starting with His education in the midst of the family, education at Beit Safar, education at Beit Talmud, education at the Beit Midrash stage, to the implementation of Christian Religious Education in schools today. The purpose of writing is to study Christian Religious Education at the time of Jesus in schools and the implementation of Christian Religious Education in formal schools. The method used in writing is a qualitative research method with literature as the main source.

Zijin Yao, Yue Li

Individual zone of optimal functioning (IZOF) is a psychological model studied and applied to quantify athletes’ anxiety and predicts their achievement in sports competitions. This study aimed to determine the application of the IZOF model to evaluate music performance anxiety (MPA) in pianists because the causes of anxiety in athletes and musicians may be similar. A total of 30 college-level piano-major students were included in the study, and the anxiety level in performance was scored by the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 questionnaire. In the first phase, participants recalled and self-scored the four important performances in the past year. Notably, seven piano teachers scored the performances. Both results were combined to identify the individual IZOF zone. Each student showed different anxiety scores for cognitive state anxiety (CA), somatic state anxiety (SA), and self-confidence (SC). In the second phase, all participants scored their anxiety level 1 day before the final performance, and the same judges evaluated the performance immediately afterward. A total of 60% of the participants who had at least two subscales inside the IZOF received performance scores greater than 90. In conclusion, the IZOF model provides information for both piano teachers and pianists to help review their anxiety intensity and predict their performance scores to some extent.

Maria Tresita Paul V., N. Uma Devi

COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the roots of healthcare facilities worldwide, with the US being one of the most affected countries irrespective of being a superpower. Along with the current pandemic, COVID-19 can cause a secondary crisis of mental health pandemic if left unignored. Various studies from past epidemics, financial turmoil and pandemic, especially SARS and MERS, have shown a steep increase in mental and psychological issues like depression, low quality of life, self-harm and suicidal tendencies among general populations. The most venerable being the individuals infected and cured due to social discrimination. The government is taking steps to contain and prevent further infections of COVID-19. However, the mental and psychological wellbeing of people is still left ignored in developing countries like India. There is a significant gap in India concerning mental and psychological health still being stigmatized and considered 'non-existent'. This study's effort is to highlight the importance of mental and psychological health and to suggest interventions based on positive psychology literature. These interventions can support the wellbeing of people acting as a psychological first aid. Keywords: COVID-19, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Mental wellbeing, Psychological Wellbeing, Positive Psychology Interventions. KEYWORDS - COVID-19, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Wellbeing, Positive Psychology, Interventions, PPI.

Michael te Vrugt

A long and intense debate in philosophy is concerned with the question whether there can be haecceistic differences between possible worlds, that is, nonqualitative differences that only arise from different de re representations. According to haecceitism, it can give rise to a different situation if the positions of two qualitatively identical particles are exchanged, while according to anti-haecceitism, this is not the case. It has been suggested that classical statistical mechanics might provide evidence for one of these positions. However, most philosophers of physics argue that it does not. In this article, we show that order-preserving dynamics, a novel method from statistical mechanics developed for the description of nonergodic systems, changes this situation: It is intrinsically haecceistic and makes different experimental predictions than non-haecceistic alternatives. Thereby, it provides an empirical argument for the existence of modality de re.

N. Kh. Svanadze, R. A. Kasimov, A. A. Orlovsky et al.

Relevance. There are large regional disparities in prevalence of non-communicable disease risk factors, as well as in the cardiovascular disease (CVD) incidence and mortality rates in Russian Federation (RF). Aim. To demonstrate the disparities in prevalence of CVD risk factors between Vologda Oblast districts. Materials and methods. Databases created in 2009 at the State-financed health institution of the Vologda Oblast «Vologda Regional Center for Medical Prevention», based on the results of a survey conducted within the framework of the World Health Organization CINDI program. CINDI questionnaire; cross-sectional study; the data was processed using R programming language and the Statistica software package 12. Results. The most common behavioral CVD risk factors in different Vologda Oblast districts included inadequate fruits and vegetables consumption (30–90%) and alcohol abuse (40–80%); hypertension (40–60%), overweight and obesity (30–55%) were the most frequent biological CVD risk factors; the most prevalent socio-economic risk factors included low education level (75–90%) and unemployment (20–40%). Participants residing in rural municipalities differed from urban okrugs (cities) dwellers in a higher prevalence of smoking (p < 0.01), alcohol abuse (p < 0.001), inadequate fruits and vegetables consumption (p < 0.0001), overweight and obesity (p < 0.05), unemployment (p < 0.0001), low education level (p < 0.0001), as well as a low overall assessment of their health (p < 0.05). Conclusions. We detected disparities in CVD risk factors prevalence between Vologda Oblast districts in 2009. Both behavioral and biological CVD risk factors were more common in participants from rural municipalities. The CVD risk factors distribution between the RF subjects’ districts requires further scientific research.

Jonathan A Lanman

According to Miller (2003), the field of cognitive science took shape through the combined contributions of scholars in psychology, philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. The sub-field of the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR), too, has taken shape through the contributions of scholars from a number of disciplines including different branches of psychology, anthropology, neuroscience, history, religious studies, philosophy, biology, computer science, and more. Each discipline brings its own set of perspectives, tools, and evidential base to the scientific study of religion. In Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind: What Mental Abnormalities Can Teach Us About Religions, Robert N. McCauley and George Graham (2020) demonstrate the benefits that philosophers bring to our growing field. Their precision and rigor in evaluating arguments, evidence, and metatheoretical assumptions shines through in both their overall goals for the volume and the particular topics they use to illustrate their perspective. The field is better for it. My wish for their monograph, and what I will ask of the authors below, is for them to utilize that precision and rigor a bit more on an issue I still found unclear in the text: does labeling some symptom or disorder as “religious” have any scientific utility in better understanding its causes or effects? InHearing Voices, McCauley and Graham aim to kickstart the systematic interdisciplinary investigation into “forms of religious and theistic cognition that either strongly resemble or are directly associated with cases of mental illness or disorder” by exploring “why religions around the world and throughout human history have hit upon multiple means for engendering experiences with many of the same features as those associated with various mental disorders” (p. 5) and, by doing so, “illustrate how the scientific field of psychopathology can serve as a robust disciplinary aid to the cognitive science of religion” (p. xiii). Throughout the text, they defend an interdisciplinary framework they call “ecumenical naturalism” or EN and a “byproduct” account of the influence of cognitive mechanisms on the religious phenomena discussed. EN, they tell us, entails bringing the “same theories, findings, and research tools to the study of cognition whether it is normal, pathological, or religious” (p.xiv). The framework is ecumenical “in its attention to normal and abnormal forms of human religiosity” and naturalistic “in its commitment to the science of cognition and the study of mental illness” (p. 211). The byproduct theory, as they relate, holds that the cognitive systems at work in religious contexts are “garden variety” cognitive systems and that their existence owes nothing to religion or each other. It also holds that “religious representations tend to evolve in directions that are consonant with the content biases of human minds” (p. 17). With the framework of ecumenical naturalism in place and the byproduct approach described and defended, the authors put them to use in four chapters to examine four areas of entanglement between religion, cognition, and mental illness. Chapter 2 examines the phenomena of hearing voices, while Chapter 3 examines prayer and depression, Chapter 4 examines scrupulosity, ritual, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Chapter 5 examines autism’s impacts on religiosity. In