G iven that events such as the Black Death and the introduction of smallpox to the Americas have comprised some of the greatest catastrophes in human history, it is natural to examine the possibility of global catastrophic biological risks (GCBRs). As Schoch-Spana et al note, a defining characteristic of GCBRs is their intergenerational consequences. In the particularly extreme case of human ex...

This article addresses the centrality of the self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. Self-percepts of efficacy influence thought patterns, actions, and emotional arousal. In causal tests the higher the level of induced self-efficacy, the higher the performance accomplishments and the lower the emotional arousal. Different lines of research are reviewed, showing that the self-efficacy mechanism...

Many opponents of free-will libertarianism argue that libertarian free agency is unintelligible. The aim of my talk is to answer them by suggesting that a coherent conception of libertarian freedom is possible if (and, possibly, only if) we adopt dispositionalism as the explanatory framework of human agency. My argument proceeds as follows. First, I classify the existing explanations of human a...

A cursory read of the social psychological literature suggests that when people find themselves in strong situations, they fail to display agency. The early classic studies of conformity, obedience, and bystander intervention, for example, are renowned for showing that when challenged by strong situational pressures, participants acquiesced-even if it meant abandoning their moral principles or ...

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

taylor argues that procedural liberalism is not viable, or is insensitive to the conditions of social and political possibility, since it cannot justify the political furtherance of common goods. this is because the ontology and epistemology behind it disregard the “transcendental conditions” of human identity and the “dialogical” way of its formation. taylor’s own version of liberalism, on the...