I argue that the category of equipment denoted computational objects have, by virtue of the unique presence of those objects in the world as permanently withdrawn from full disclosure of operation due to their dependence on computational code, a unique manner of causal interaction with users that can only be described as vicarious. As computational devices become increasingly ubiquitous as tools for managing and navigation the human world, this vicarious relationship becomes important in understanding how this technology affects the phenomenological (...) experience of being in the world as it is, alongside computational objects, and how orientation towards the world can be described as computational. (shrink)

More than 75 years ago, Gordon Allport stated that the attitude construct is the heart of social psychology. Allport's sentiment remains true today - people's evaluations of themselves, other individuals, groups and social issues are the core of the discipline. This four-volume set brings together important papers on the psychology of attitudes to serve as the most fully comprehensive collection on the attitude concept. Volume One: Attitude, Content, Structure, Function and Measurement Volume Two: Implications for Information-Processing and Behaviour Volume Three: (...) Cognitive, Affective and Behavioural Processes that Shape Attitudes Volume Four: Roles of Brain, Body and Society. (shrink)

Since its first appearance just over a decade ago, Habermas's constitutional patriotism has inspired a rich and articulate series of theoretical analyses and has indirectly encouraged constitutional projects such as the Constitution for Europe. The popularity of constitutional patriotism among political and constitutional theorists has, however, also generated some confusion over the aims and basic structure of Habermas's endeavour. For instance, it is unclear whether constitutional patriotism ought to be considered a constitutional or political theory. This paper seeks to clarify (...) some of the misunderstandings surrounding constitutional patriotism. It will contend that the theory is, at its core, a political theory that explains the implications of having a democratically open constitutional polity. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section introduces Habermas's theory of constitutional patriotism. I argue that one of constitutional patriotism's main contributions to current constitutional and political debates is an increased awareness of the democratic accountability of constitutional norms. The second section discusses the effect that pluralism should have in a deliberative democracy. In the third section, I discuss the implications of pluralism in the debate over the role of nationalism and democracy. (shrink)

Maintaining the tensions and divisions between the human and non-human, nature and culture has been a mainstay of Euro-American thought. Drawing upon two studies of people's associations with horses, we examine how these divisions are being reworked in the social sciences as well in everyday life. We focus on how different ideas about ‘horses’, ‘horsemanship’ and how knowledge is acquired, accomplishes different social worlds. Specifically, what emerges in these differential discourses is that a paradox is put into play to make (...) a distinction between traditional and contemporary ways of being in relation to nature and the animal; it is the paradox of what we want to refer to as ‘natural technologies’. We suggest that the paradox of ‘natural technologies’ is a proliferating feature of Euro-American cultural life that troubles old divisions between nature and culture and propose that it indicates less about a politics of nature than a politics of culture. Specifically, we show that the preoccupation with bringing nature, and the non-human, more into alignment with the human promotes ethics and equality as matters of lifestyle choice to the exclusion of very specific ideas about tradition, hierarchy, evolution and socialization. (shrink)