“Just don’t fool yourself. One stands before a quite certain movement. Just as the spirit was abolished at that Council in Constantinople, that is, as it was dogmatically determined: Man consists only of body and soul, to speak of a spirit is heretical -, so one will strive in another form to abolish the soul, the life of the soul. And the time will come, perhaps not at all in the distant future, when at such a congress as the one that took place in 1912, something quite different will develop, when quite different tendencies will appear, when one will say: It is already morbid in man, if he even thinks about spirit and soul. Only those people are healthy who only talk about the body. – It will be regarded as a symptom of illness if man develops in such a way that he can come to the concept: There is a spirit or a soul. – These will be sick people. And one will find – you can be quite sure – the corresponding remedy through which one will work. At that time one abolished the spirit. The soul will be abolished by a medicine. Out of a “healthy view” one will find a vaccine by which the organism will be worked on in such a way in the earliest possible youth, if possible right at birth, that this human body will not come to the thought: There is a soul and a spirit. – This is how sharply the two world-view currents will confront each other. The one will have to think about how concepts and ideas are to be formed so that they can cope with the real reality, the reality of the spirit and the soul. The other, the successors of today’s materialists, will look for the vaccine that will make the body “healthy”, that is, make it so that this body, through its constitution, no longer talks of such silly things as soul and spirit, but talks “healthy” of the forces that live in machines and chemistry, that constitute planets and suns in the nebula of the world. This will be brought about by physical procedures. The materialistic physicians will be given the task of expelling the souls from mankind. Yes, those who believe that one can see into the future with playful concepts, they are very much mistaken. With serious, thorough, deep concepts one must look into the future. Spiritual science is not a gimmick, is not merely a theory, but spiritual science is a real duty towards the development of mankind.”
In planning and policy, a wicked problem is a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. It refers to an idea or problem that cannot be fixed, where there is no single solution to the problem; and “wicked” denotes resistance to resolution, rather than evil. Another definition is “a problem whose social complexity means that it has no determinable stopping point”.Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems. Due to their complexity, wicked problems are often characterized by organized irresponsibility.
Lönngren, J., & van Poeck, K.. (2021). Wicked problems: a mapping review of the literature. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology
“The term ‘wicked problems’ is today widely used in the sustainability literature, but there is no consensus on its theoretical underpinnings or its utility for research. this paper reports on a mapping review of the wicked problems literature for which we analyzed a sample of 55 papers regarding 1. whether and how the term ‘wicked problems’ is used as a theoretical concept, 2. what meanings are associated with the concept, 3. what epistemological assumptions are stated, and 4. what rhetorical functions the concept performs. the results indicate that the concept is not always consistently applied as a theoretical concept; that authors ascribe many different meanings to the concept; that authors use diverse epistemological assumptions that are not always made explicit; and that the concept performs a wide range of rhetorical functions. the results provide a vocabulary that enables sustainability researchers to more clearly position their work in the dispersed wicked problems literature.”
Grewatsch, S., Kennedy, S., & Bansal, P.. (2021). Tackling wicked problems in strategic management with systems thinking. Strategic Organization
“Strategy scholars are increasingly attempting to tackle complex global social and environmental issues (i.e. wicked problems); yet, many strategy scholars approach these wicked problems in the same way they approach business problems—by building causal models that seek to optimize some form of organizational success. strategy scholars seek to reduce complexity, focusing on the significant variables that explain the salient outcomes. this approach to wicked problems, ironically, divorces firms from the very social-ecological context that makes the problem ‘wicked.’ in this essay, we argue that strategy research into wicked problems can benefit from systems thinking, which deviates radically from the reductionist approach to analysis taken by many strategy scholars. we review some of the basic tenets of systems thinking and describe their differences from reductionist thinking. furthermore, we ask strategy scholars to widen their theoretical lens by (1) investigating co-evolutionary dynamics rather than focusing primarily on static models, (2) advancing processual insights rather than favoring causal identification, and (3) recognizing tipping points and transformative change rather than assuming linear monotonic changes.”
Alford, J., & Head, B. W.. (2017). Wicked and less wicked problems: A typology and a contingency framework. Policy and Society
“This paper addresses shortcomings in the scholarship about ‘wicked problems’, and suggests ways of tackling them. firstly, accounts of these problems tend to ‘totalise’, regarding them as intractable masses of complexity, so conflict-prone and/or intractable that they defy definition and solution. by contrast, we put forward a more nuanced analysis, arguing that complex problems vary in the extent of their wickedness, via such dimensions as their cognitive complexity or the diversity and irreconcilability of the actors or institutions involved. we propose a typology of different forms of wicked problems. a second shortcoming, linked to intractability, is that the favoured means of tackling wicked problems has tended towards ‘one best way’ approaches, most commonly collaboration with key stakeholders. moreover, particular forms of collaboration tend to be routinely applied in ‘one-size-fits-all’ fashion to a variety of situations – notably with a plethora of actors, and a focus on governance rather than implementation management. we put forward a contingency framework, based on our typology, proposing which types of collaboration are suitable for which types of problem. finally, we argue for a more realistic standard of success in dealing with wicked problems, especially the most difficult ones. to call for the ‘solving’ of these problems is to set up a standard which is not only impossible but also perhaps unnecessary. we argue that we do not so much ‘solve’ wicked problems as make progress towards improvement or towards better managing them. we spell out a more realistic version of ‘progress’.”
Schiefloe, P. M.. (2021). The Corona crisis: a wicked problem. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health
“The aim of this paper is to analyse the current corona crisis from the perspective of the theory of wicked problems. the analysis is based on a combination of observation of national and global effects of the pandemic and a study of relevant theoretical contributions. the findings confirm that the crisis is of a kind that corresponds to the main characteristics of the wicked problems theory. the conclusion is that the pandemic cannot be approached by standardised analytical techniques, because it, like other wicked problems, represents a unique challenge and because all possible solutions may lead to unknown negative consequences.”
Termeer, C. J. A. M., Dewulf, A., & Biesbroek, R.. (2019). A critical assessment of the wicked problem concept: relevance and usefulness for policy science and practice. Policy and Society
“The concept of wicked problems has served as an inspiration for research in a variety of research fields but has also contributed to conceptual confusion through the various ways in which it has been defined and used. in this special issue, a number of ontological, theoretical and methodological issues are discussed. first, while its use as a buzzword has undermined precise conceptual definition, recent work goes beyond the wicked versus tame dichotomy and conceptualizes wickedness as a matter of degree, differentiates between dimensions of wickedness and emphasizes the relational character of problem definitions. second, new and existing governance approaches have often been unproblematically proposed as ways to solve wicked problems, while only imperfect solutions, partial solutions or small wins are achievable in practice. third, the concept of wicked problems has had little direct impact on policy theories, and while some argue that the analysis of wicked problems should be mainstreamed in public policy thinking, others propose to reject the concept and rely on existing policy theories. fourth, as a concept used in policy practice, wicked problems tend to provoke either paralysis or an overestimation of what policy can do about wicked problems. possible ways forward include (1) leaving the concept behind; (2) using the wicked problems literature as knowledge base to understand when and why policy and governance approaches fail; and (3) developing dimensions of wicked problems (i.e. conflict, complexity and uncertainty) into more analytically precise research tools and linking them with more closely with contemporary policy science developments.”
Hoffman, J., Pelzer, P., Albert, L., Béneker, T., Hajer, M., & Mangnus, A.. (2021). A futuring approach to teaching wicked problems. Journal of Geography in Higher Education
“This paper investigates how the teaching and learning about ‘wicked’ environmental problems may be fostered through an educational approach premised on futuring–the active imagination of the future. the growing academic interest in possible and desirable futures provides a promising starting point for restructuring education as coupling knowledge to imagination and teaching to policy practice can open up new, experiential ways of learning. empirically, this paper draws upon research on an experimental futuring course employing a ‘mixed classroom’ formula in which students and policy-makers learn together about sustainability challenges. drawing on the notion of inquiry, this course is set up with the aim to foster a critical engagement with the ways futures are imagined in political debates and decision-making. through complementary activities, the students were pushed to imagine possible futures around a central theme, the transition to a circular economy, in interaction with the policy-makers and other practitioners. this culminated in a ‘museum of the future’. from our action-research-based investigation of the learning experiences in the course, we conclude that a futuring approach to teaching wicked problems results in a more active attitude of students towards the space in which wicked problems and solutions are collectively imagined and deliberated.”
Walls, H. L.. (2018). Wicked problems and a “wicked” solution. Globalization and Health
“Background: ‘Wicked’ is the term used to describe some of the most challenging and complex issues of our time, many of which threaten human health. climate change, biodiversity loss, persisting poverty, the advancing obesity epidemic, and food insecurity are all examples of such wicked problems. however there is a strong body of evidence describing the solutions for addressing many of these problems. given that much is known about how many of these problems could be addressed – and given the risks of not acting – what will it take to create the ‘tipping point’ needed for effective action? main body: a recent (2015) court ruling in the hague held that the dutch government’s stance on climate change was illegal, ordering them to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% within 5 years (by 2020), relative to 1990 levels. the case was filed on behalf of 886 dutch citizens, suing the government for violating human rights and climate changes treaties by failing to take adequate action to prevent the harmful impacts of climate change. this judicial ruling has the potential to provide a way forward, inspiring other civil movements and creating a template from which to address other wicked problems. conclusion: this judicial strategy to address the need to lower greenhouse gas emissions in the netherlands is not a magic bullet, and requires a particular legal and institutional setting. however it has the potential to be a game-changer – providing an example of a strategy for achieving domestic regulatory change that is likely to be replicable in some countries elsewhere, and providing an example of a particularly ‘wicked’ (in the positive, street-slang sense of the word) strategy to address seemingly intractable and wicked problems.”
Peters, B. G., & Tarpey, M.. (2019). Are wicked problems really so wicked? Perceptions of policy problems. Policy and Society
“The concept of wicked problems has become widely used in policy analysis. the popularity of the concept has led to its overuse, and has produced significant conceptual stretching. this paper investigates the extent to which this stretching has led to the application of the concept to issues which are not ‘wicked’ in any meaningful sense. based on a survey of policy experts, we find that few, if any, policy problems are perceived to have all the attributes of wicked problems. although the concept does not appear useful in categorizing problems in a strict manner, the presence or absence of certain attributes can still be used in understanding the problems and in designing solutions for them.”
Peters, B. G.. (2017). What is so wicked about wicked problems? A conceptual analysis and a research program. Policy and Society
“The concept of wicked problems has become a fad in contemporary policy analysis, with any number of problems being labeled as ‘wicked’. however, if many of these problems are analyzed using a strict definition of the concept they do not meet the criteria. building on this analysis, i have developed a research program to investigate the extent to which even those problems usually thought to be wicked are actually that difficult.”
King, R.. (2021). On Europe, Immigration and Inequality: Brexit as a ‘Wicked Problem’. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies
“In this paper i attempt a novel interpretation of brexit as a ‘wicked problem’. wicked problems are those which are unique and complex, full of internal contradictions, and defy solution, instead only creating other problems. after reviewing the lead-up to the 2016 brexit referendum, particularly the role of immigration, the core of the paper takes the main criteria for the specification of a wicked problem and applies them to brexit. special attention is given to two propositions: that every wicked problem is a symptom of other problems; and that every attempted solution to a wicked problem produces irreversible consequences. both are seen to apply to brexit. in the conclusion, i explore ‘wicked synergies’ between brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.”
Dentoni, D., Bitzer, V., & Schouten, G.. (2018). Harnessing Wicked Problems in Multi-stakeholder Partnerships. Journal of Business Ethics
“Despite the burgeoning literature on the governance and impact of cross-sector partnerships in the past two decades, the debate on how and when these collaborative arrangements address globally relevant problems and contribute to systemic change remains open. building upon the notion of wicked problems and the literature on governing such wicked problems, this paper defines harnessing problems in multi-stakeholder partnerships (msps) as the approach of taking into account the nature of the problem and of organizing governance processes accordingly. the paper develops an innovative analytical framework that conceptualizes msps in terms of three governance processes (deliberation, decision-making and enforcement) harnessing three key dimensions of wicked problems (knowledge uncertainty, value conflict and dynamic complexity). the roundtable on sustainable palm oil provides an illustrative case study on how this analytical framework describes and explains organizational change in partnerships from a problem-based perspective. the framework can be used to better understand and predict the complex relationships between msp governance processes, systemic change and societal problems, but also as a guiding tool in (re-)organizing governance processes to continuously re-assess the problems over time and address them accordingly.”
Niskanen, V. P., Rask, M., & Raisio, H.. (2021). Wicked Problems in Africa: A Systematic Literature Review. SAGE Open
“The theory of wicked problems, originating from western academic discussion, has evolved since the 2000s toward a universal diagnostic of societal challenges. in this article, we employ a systematic literature review to investigate the application of the concept of wicked problems in studies focusing on the african context. our aim is to understand the additional value and limitations of using the concept in a non-western frame of reference. we conclude that the concept remains underutilized in studies concentrating on africa; moreover, when it is used, it is mainly by academics of western or anglophone origin. overall, the concept of wicked problems is mainly applied descriptively rather than theoretically. based on the analysis of the themes and issues characterized as wicked, we elaborate toward a typology that takes account of the concrete ‘manifestations’ (e.g., health issues such as aids/hiv and its treatment history) and ‘mechanisms’ (e.g., historical path dependency) that condition the presence of wicked problems in the african context. the article contributes to the theory of wicked problems by developing a typology that distinguishes between interlinked and contextual problems (often characterized through the concept of ‘dual wickedness’), and proposes that problems can become exacerbated when the two dimensions are simultaneously present.”
Turnbull, N., & Hoppe, R.. (2019). Problematizing ‘wickedness’: a critique of the wicked problems concept, from philosophy to practice. Policy and Society
“The concept of ‘wicked problems’ is a major current in the fields of policy analysis and planning. however, the basis of the concept has been insufficiently examined. this re-examination of its conceptual basis explains the origins of the limitations and flaws in the wicked problems concept. this paper analyses and rejects the notion of ‘wicked problems’ on philosophical and practical grounds. we argue instead that the policy sciences already had better conceptualizations of public problems before rittel and webber’s flawed formulation. we return to this literature, and build upon it by reframing ‘wickedness’ in terms of higher and lower levels of problematicity in problem structuring efforts. in doing so, we offer an alternative, novel combination of the philosophy of questioning and the policy work approach to policy practice. ‘wickedness’ is re-conceptualized as problematicity, conceived as the distance between those who question or inquire into a policy problem. this is primarily a political distance, articulated in terms of ideas, interests, institutions and practices. high problematicity arises only when wide political distances are explicitly maintained, such that partial answers cannot be reached. practitioners deal with problematicity by a dual practical strategy of balancing closing-down and opening-up sub-questions to the problem in order to structure them such that they become amenable to action through partial answers. this simultaneously incorporates a politics of negotiating political distance via partisan adjustment and serial strategic analysis. the argument constitutes a theoretically and practically superior alternative to the ‘wicked problems’ perspective.”
Head, B. W.. (2019). Forty years of wicked problems literature: forging closer links to policy studies. Policy and Society
“Rittel and webber boldly challenged the conventional assumption that ‘scientific’ approaches to social policy and planning provide the most reliable guidance for practitioners and researchers who are addressing complex, and contested, social problems. this provocative claim, that scientific-technical approaches would not ‘work’ for complex social issues, has engaged policy analysts, academic researchers and planning practitioners since the 1970s. grappling with the implications of complexity and uncertainty in policy debates, the first generation of ‘wicked problem’ scholars generally agreed that wicked issues require correspondingly complex and iterative approaches. this tended to quarantine complex ‘wicked’ problems as a special category that required special collaborative processes. most often they recommended the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in exploring the relevant issues, interests, value differences and policy responses. more than four decades later, however, there are strong arguments for developing a second-generation approach which would ‘mainstream’ the analysis of wicked problems in public policy. while continuing to recognize the centrality of complexity and uncertainty, and the need for creative thinking, a broader approach would make better use of recent public policy literatures on such topics as problem framing, policy design, policy capacity and the contexts of policy implementation.”
Termeer, C. J. A. M., & Dewulf, A.. (2019). A small wins framework to overcome the evaluation paradox of governing wicked problems. Policy and Society
“The evaluation of policy strategies to tackle wicked policy problems inevitably involves a paradox of trying to judge solutions for problems that have no solutions and for which additional efforts might increase the chances of finding better responses. this paper analyzes how the concept of small wins can contribute to evaluating progress in wicked problem areas in a way that energizes a variety of stakeholders instead of paralyzing them and embraces complexity instead of reverting to taming and overestimation. it presents a small wins evaluation framework that is rooted in the underlying policy perspective of making progress through accumulating small wins. it comprises three steps: 1) identifying and valuing small wins; 2) analyzing whether the right propelling mechanisms are activated so as to accumulate into transformative change; 3) organizing that results feed back into the policy process to activate new small wins. this framework will inevitably clash with unrealistic expectations of addressing wicked problems rapidly, radically and comprehensively.”
Head, B. W., & Alford, J.. (2015). Wicked Problems: Implications for Public Policy and Management. Administration and Society
“The concept of ‘wicked problems’ has attracted increasing focus in policy research, but the implications for public organizations have received less attention. this article examines the main organizational and cognitive dimensions emerging from the research literature on wicked problems. we identify several recent approaches to addressing problem complexity and stakeholder divergence based on the literatures on systems thinking, collaboration and coordination, and the adaptive leadership roles of public leaders and managers. we raise some challenges for public management in some key functional areas of government—strategy making, organizational design, people management, and performance measurement. we argue that provisional solutions can be developed, despite the difficulties of reforming governance processes to address wicked problems more effectively.”
Thollander, P., Palm, J., & Hedbrant, J.. (2019). Energy efficiency as a wicked problem. Sustainability (Switzerland)
“Together with increased shares of renewable energy supply, improved energy efficiency is the foremost means of mitigating climate change. however, the energy efficiency potential is far from being realized, which is commonly explained by the existence of various barriers to energy efficiency. initially mentioned by churchman, the term ‘wicked problems’ became established in the 1970s, meaning a kind of problem that has a resistance to resolution because of incomplete, contradictory, or changing requirements. in the academic literature, wicked problems have later served as a critical model in the understanding of various challenges related to society, such as for example climate change mitigation. this aim of this paper is to analyze how the perspective of wicked problems can contribute to an enhanced understanding of improved energy efficiency. the paper draws examples from the manufacturing sector. results indicate that standalone technology improvements as well as energy management and energy policy programs giving emphasis to standalone technology improvements may not represent a stronger form of a wicked problem as such. rather, it seems to be the actual decision-making process involving values among the decision makers as well as the level of needed knowledge involved in decision-making that give rise to the ‘wickedness’. the analysis shows that wicked problems arise in socio-technical settings involving several components such as technology, systems, institutions, and people, which make post-normal science a needed approach.”
Sediri, S., Trommetter, M., Frascaria-Lacoste, N., & Fernandez-Manjarrés, J.. (2020). Transformability as a wicked problem: A cautionary tale?. Sustainability (Switzerland)
“Transformability is increasingly promoted as a way of moving societies toward more sustainable futures in the era of the anthropocene, mostly because the concept of resilience has fallen short in many instances where impacts on social-ecological systems are continuous, varied, and usually unknown. while such transformations can play a crucial role in improving the sustainability of social-ecological systems, they may lead to unexpected and undesirable outcomes. this literature review on social-ecological transformability and wicked problems seeks to shed light on and acknowledge some of the limitations of transformability regarding unforeseen conditions. we argue that wicked problems arise in transformation initiatives in the presence of high complexity, deep uncertainty, deep conflicts, and divergence among stakeholders, as well as scale mismatches concerning spatial, temporal, and institutional processes. our findings may explain why some transformation initiatives fail to generate expected changes on the ground, mainly in two cases: (a) a polarized configuration that maintains the status quo of the system to be transformed and (b) an unforeseen transformation that causes the system to lurch from crisis to crisis. to conclude, we recommend using diagnostic questions to prevent wicked problems in social-ecological transformations.”
Frey-Heger, C., Gatzweiler, M. K., & Hinings, C. R.. (2021). No End In Sight: How regimes form barriers to addressing the wicked problem of displacement. Organization Studies
“Wicked problems are complex and dispersed challenges that go beyond the capacity of individual organizations and require a response by multiple actors, often in the form of transnational regimes. while research on regimes has provided insights into such collective responses, less is known about how such regimes may form barriers that hinder and block appropriate responses to addressing wicked problems. exploring the problematic role of regime-level responses is timely given that many of today’s wicked problems are far from being alleviated and in many instances appear instead to be intensifying. we draw from complementary insights of regime theory and research on institutional barriers to explore our research question: how do regimes form barriers to addressing wicked problems, and which mechanisms sustain such barriers? we explore this question with a longitudinal case study of the transnational regime for refugee protection and its response to displacement in rwanda. from our findings, we develop a model of dissociation that explains how actors move further away from addressing a wicked problem. we identify four dissociative mechanisms (discounting, delimiting, separating, and displaying) that each create a distinct regime-level barrier. these barriers are distributed and mutually reinforcing, which makes it increasingly hard for actors to find alternative ways of responding to an escalating problem. our study provides insights for research on regimes and wicked problems as well as studies on institutional barriers. we conclude with policy implications for overcoming those barriers, in line with the wider concerns and motivations of this special issue.”
Mason, T. H. E., Pollard, C. R. J., Chimalakonda, D., Guerrero, A. M., Kerr-Smith, C., Milheiras, S. A. G., … Bunnefeld, N.. (2018). Wicked conflict: Using wicked problem thinking for holistic management of conservation conflict. Conservation Letters
“Conservation conflict is widespread, damaging, and has proved difficult to manage using conventional conservation approaches. conflicts are often ‘wicked problems,’ lacking clear solutions due to divergent values of stakeholders, and being embedded within wickedly complex environments. drawing on the concept of wicked environmental problems could lead to management strategies better suited to tackling conflict. however, it is unclear whether managers are embracing ideas from the wicked problems concept. there is currently a lack of guidance for applying strategies to tackle particular wicked problems, such as conservation conflict. we explored the suitability of wicked problems-inspired management, using eight contemporary conflict case studies. conservation conflict was managed predominantly using conventional approaches suited to tackling single objectives in simple environments, rather than balancing competing objectives in complex environments. to deal with different characteristics of wickedness, we recommend that managers develop strategies combining distributed decision-making, diverse opinions, pattern-based predictions, trade-off-based objectives, and reporting of failures. recent advances in conservation conflict research have focused on improving interactions among stakeholders. we believe that such stakeholder-focused approaches would dovetail with the whole-system focus of a wicked problems framework, allowing conservationists to move toward a holistic strategy for managing conservation conflict.”
Daviter, F.. (2017). Coping, taming or solving: alternative approaches to the governance of wicked problems. Policy Studies
“One of the truisms of policy analysis is that policy problems are rarely solved. as an ever-increasing number of policy issues are identified as an inherently ill-structured and intractable type of wicked problem, the question of what policy analysis sets out to accomplish has emerged as more central than ever. if solving wicked problems is beyond reach, research on wicked problems needs to provide a clearer understanding of the alternatives. the article identifies and explicates three distinguishable strategies of problem governance: coping, taming and solving. it shows that their intellectual premises and practical implications clearly contrast in core respects. the article argues that none of the identified strategies of problem governance is invariably more suitable for dealing with wicked problems. rather than advocate for some universally applicable approach to the governance of wicked problems, the article asks under what conditions different ways of governing wicked problems are analytically reasonable and normatively justified. it concludes that a more systematic assessment of alternative approaches of problem governance requires a reorientation of the debate away from the conception of wicked problems as a singular type toward the more focused analysis of different dimensions of problem wickedness.”
Crosby, A., Dunn, J. L., Aditjondro, E., & Rachfiansyah. (2019). Tobacco Control Is a Wicked Problem: Situating Design Responses in Yogyakarta and Banjarmasin. She Ji
“Tobacco use is a persistent social issue worldwide. the world health organization has found that policy change and regulation are the clearest paths to resolution. in indonesia, where smoking is increasingly common, tobacco control has become a wicked problem, plagued by conflicting stakeholder interests, public mistrust of science and government, and the lack of a clear path to a nationally applicable approach. at the local level, however, social change can take many forms, and involve diverse communities, individual citizens, businesses, ngos, and multiple levels of government in dynamic stakeholder configurations. by treating tobacco in indonesia as a wicked problem, and taking an iterative, collaborative approach to resolution, we demonstrate how locally-organized, youth-focused anti-tobacco campaigns are less about finding a single solution to tobacco use and more about identifying, connecting, and supporting local stakeholders working together towards preferred futures. we argue for the inclusion of locally-focused design research programs when rethinking complex issues such as tobacco control in places where national regulation is failing.”
Smith, K. J.. (2022). Wicked Problems in Pharmacy Education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education
“Wicked problems are unstructured, cross-cutting, and relentless. while problem-solving is an expected outcome of pharmacy education programs, are we, as pharmacy educators, acknowledging the ‘wicked’ problems we have in the academy? this commentary provides examples of wicked problems in pharmacy practice and education and suggestions for engaging with wicked problems in an effort to solve them. pharmacy educators must hold a summit on wicked problems in pharmacy education in order to address the complex problems we are currently facing in order to shape the profession for the future.”
Zhang, J., & Kim, Y.. (2016). Digital government and wicked problems: Solution or problem?. Information Polity
“The theme of the 16th international conference on digital government research (dg.o 2015) – ‘“digital government and wicked problems”’ – drew attention to the increasingly complex global problems we are facing today. in the late 1960s, the term ‘“wicked problems”’ was coined to refer to societal and public planning problems that had no definitive solutions [1,2]. many problems, such as those identified in the theme of the conference – climate change, urbanization, and inequality – often exhibit the characteristics of ‘“wickedness”’ in the sense that they are both difficult to define and solve. the selection of this theme for dg.o 2015 reflects the digital government research community’s ambition and dedication to achieve a degree of understanding necessary to address some of the most intractable of these problems with the aid of emerging technologies. this special issue includes seven of the best papers from the dg.o 2015 conference. in this editorial, we highlight the characteristics of ‘ “wicked problems”’ briefly, and the way in which the term is relevant in digital government research. we then introduce the articles selected for this special issue. lastly, we provide suggestions to foster future research that addresses the nature of ‘ “wickedness”’ in digital government initiatives.”
Jentoft, S., & Chuenpagdee, R.. (2009). Fisheries and coastal governance as a wicked problem. Marine Policy
The American Psychological Society (APS) defines a “big lie” as “a propaganda device in which a false statement of extreme magnitude is constantly repeated to persuade the public. The assumption is that a Big Lie is less likely to be challenged than a lesser one because people will assume that evidence exists to support a statement of such magnitude.”
According to Wikipedia, a big lie (German: große Lüge) is a gross distortion or misrepresentation of the truth, used especially as a propaganda technique.[1][2] The German expression was coined by Adolf Hitler, when he dictated his book Mein Kampf (1925), to describe the use of a lie so colossal that no one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously.” Hitler claimed that the technique had been used by Jews to blame Germany’s loss in World War I on German general Erich Ludendorff, who was a prominent nationalist political leader in the Weimar Republic.
According to historian Jeffrey Herf, the Nazis used the idea of the original big lie to turn sentiment against Jews and justify the Holocaust. Herf maintains that Joseph Goebbels and the Nazi Party actually used the big lie technique that they described – and that they used it to turn long-standing antisemitism in Europe into mass murder. Herf further argues that the Nazis’ big lie was their depiction of Germany as an innocent, besieged land striking back at “international Jewry”, which the Nazis blamed for starting World War I. Nazi propaganda repeatedly claimed that Jews held power behind the scenes in Britain, Russia, and the United States. It further spread claims that the Jews had begun a war of extermination against Germany, and used these to assert that Germany had a right to annihilate the Jews in self-defense.
DiMaggio, A. R.. (2022). Conspiracy Theories and the Manufacture of Dissent: QAnon, the ‘Big Lie’, Covid-19, and the Rise of Rightwing Propaganda. Critical Sociology
“This paper examines the impact of partisanship, rightwing media, and social media on attitudes about contemporary conspiracy theories. mainstream scholarly views that ‘both sides’ of the political aisle indulge routinely in such theories are challenged. i adopt a gramscian hegemonic framework that examines rising rightwing conspiracy theories as a manifestation of mass false consciousness in service of a political-economic system that serves upper-class interests. issues examined include the qanon movement, ‘big lie’ voter fraud conspiracism, and covid-19 conspiracy theories, and the way they related to partisanship, rightwing media, and social media. i provide evidence that republican partisanship, rightwing media consumption, and social media consumption are all significant statistical predictors of acceptance of modern conspiracy theories.”
Geraldes, D., Heinicke, F., & Kim, D. G.. (2021). Big and small lies. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics
“Lying involves many decisions yielding big or small benefits. are big and small lies complementary or supplementary? in a laboratory experiment where the participants could simultaneously tell a big and a small lie, our study finds that lies are complementary. the participants who lie more in the big lie, also do so in the small lie and vice versa. our study also finds that although replacing one dimension of the lying opportunities with a randomly determined prize does not affect the overall lying behavior, repeatedly being lucky on a high-stakes prize leads to less lying on the report of a low-stakes outcome.”
Obar, J. A., & Oeldorf-Hirsch, A.. (2020). The biggest lie on the Internet: ignoring the privacy policies and terms of service policies of social networking services. Information Communication and Society
“This paper addresses ‘the biggest lie on the internet’ with an empirical investigation of privacy policy (pp) and terms of service (tos) policy reading behavior. an experimental survey (n = 543) assessed the extent to which individuals ignored pp and tos when joining a fictitious social networking service (sns), namedrop. results reveal 74% skipped pp, selecting the ‘quick join’ clickwrap. average adult reading speed (250–280 words per minute), suggests pp should have taken 29–32 minutes and tos 15–17 minutes to read. for those that didn’t select the clickwrap, average pp reading time was 73 seconds. all participants were presented the tos and had an average reading time of 51 seconds. most participants agreed to the policies, 97% to pp and 93% to tos, with decliners reading pp 30 seconds longer and tos 90 seconds longer. a regression analysis identifies information overload as a significant negative predictor of reading tos upon sign up, when tos changes, and when pp changes. qualitative findings suggest that participants view policies as nuisance, ignoring them to pursue the ends of digital production, without being inhibited by the means. implications are revealed as 98% missed namedrop tos ‘gotcha clauses’ about data sharing with the nsa and employers, and about providing a first-born child as payment for sns access.”
Jacobson, G. C.. (2021). Donald Trump’s Big Lie and the Future of the Republican Party. Presidential Studies Quarterly
“Donald trump’s bid to nullify joseph biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election was a grotesque assault on american democracy that ultimately provoked an invasion of the capitol by a right-wing mob trying to derail certification of biden’s victory. although most americans were appalled by his actions, trump retained the support of nearly three quarters of ordinary republicans, most subscribing to this big lie of a stolen election. this poses dilemma for republican leaders hoping to hold trump’s base without narrowing their party’s appeal to the broader electorate. this article investigates the parameters of their dilemma by examining how the public in general and republican voters in particular have responded to trump’s attempt to steal the election from biden and what these reactions imply for the party’s future.”
Whitehead, M. A., Foste, Z., Duran, A., Tevis, T., & Cabrera, N. L.. (2021). Commentary disrupting the big lie: Higher education and whitelash in a post/colorblind era. Education Sciences
“James baldwin (1998) described whiteness as ‘the big lie’ of american society where the belief in the inherent superiority of white people allowed for, emboldened, and facilitated violence against people of color. in the post-civil rights era, scholars reframed whiteness as an invisible, hegemonic social norm, and a great deal of education scholarship continues to be rooted in this metaphor of invisibility. however, leonardo (2020) theorized that in a post-45 era of ‘whitelash’ (embrick et al., 2020), ‘post-colorblindness’ is more accurate to describe contemporary racial stratification whereby whiteness is both (a) more visible and (b) increasingly appealing to perceived injuries of ‘reverse racism.’ from this perspective, we offer three theoretical concepts to guide the future of whiteness in education scholarship. specifically, we argue that scholars critically studying whiteness in education must explicitly: (1) address the historicity of whiteness, (2) analyze the public embrace of whiteness, and (3) emphasize the material consequences of whiteness on the lives of people of color. by doing this, we argue that critical scholars of race in higher education will more clearly understand the changing nature of whiteness while avoiding the analytical trap of invisibility that is decreasingly relevant.”
Martin, R. L.. (2014). The big lie of strategic planning. Harvard Business Review
“The colonial and apartheid knowledge systems and eurocentrism have not been sufficiently questioned, let alone transformed, during the first two decades of democracy in south africa. the movement to decolonize higher education was launched by students in 2015. the fact that the students are at the forefront of the campaign for decolonization and not the university leaders, academics, and administrators tells a lot about the state of higher education in post-apartheid south africa and the continued maintenance of the hegemonic status quo when it comes to the knowledge, teaching, learning and research at the country’s universities. decolonization of knowledge is crucial in order to rewrite histories, reassert the dignity of the oppressed and refocus the knowledge production and worldviews for the sake of the present and the future of the country and its people, as well as the rest of the african continent. the dismantling of the ‘pedagogy of big lies’ rooted in colonialism and apartheid will require a complete reconstruction of the episte-mological model. the decolonized curriculum must place south africa and africa in the center of teaching, learning and research and incorporate the epistemic perspectives, knowledge and thinking from the african continent and the global south and place them on an equal footing with the currently hegemonic eurocentric canon.”
Canon, D. T., & Sherman, O.. (2021). Debunking the “Big Lie”: Election Administration in the 2020 Presidential Election. Presidential Studies Quarterly
“The democratic process in the united states was sorely tested in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. our electoral institutions survived that test, but the fragility of our democracy was exposed by a concerted effort to overturn the results of the presidential election, first in the courts and then with an insurrection at the nation’s capitol on january 6, 2021. we examine how this happened. specifically, we will attempt to answer the following questions: how did the big lie evolve and what were its claims? how did the covid pandemic and foreign interference complicate the voting process and contribute to the claims of fraud? how did the courts adjudicate the claims of fraud? finally, how do we restore trust in the voting process?.”
McVeigh, M.. (2020). Telling big little lies: Writing the female gothic as extended metaphor in complex television. Journal of Screenwriting
“This article investigates the writing of the female gothic as extended metaphor in the complex tv series big little lies (2017). it builds on my earlier work, ‘theme and complex narrative structure in hbo’s big little lies 2017’ (2019), wherein i applied porter et al.’s (2002) structuralist narrative tool, the ‘scene function model’, to investigate the way narrative and theme is progressed in complex interweaving stories via the writing of core or ‘kernel’ narrative scenes. herein, i further investigate storytelling in series tv by proposing the ‘satellite’ narrative scene as a means by which the screenwriter may conceptualize and deploy metaphor to create viewer engagement. first, i consider david e. kelley’s series screenplay, big little lies, as a blueprint for hbo’s televised series. specifically, i apply theories of complex tv, gothic television and domestic noir to consider how kelley deploys the female gothic as extended metaphor to inform formal narrative elements including the pre-titles sequences and flashbacks repeated across episodes.”
Zenko, M.. (2016). The Big Lie About the Libyan War. Foreign Policy
Obar, J. A.. (2016). The Biggest Lie on the Internet: Ignoring the Privacy Policies and Terms of Service Policies of Social Networking Services. SSRN Electronic Journal
“This paper addresses ‘the biggest lie on the internet’ with an empirical investigation of privacy policy (pp) and terms of service (tos) policy reading behavior. an experimental survey (n=543) assessed the extent to which individuals ignore pp and tos when joining a fictitious social networking service, namedrop. results reveal 74% skipped pp, selecting the ‘quick join’ clickwrap. for readers, average pp reading time was 73 seconds, and average tos reading time was 51 seconds. a regression analysis revealed information overload as a significant negative predictor of reading tos upon signup, when tos changes, and when pp changes. qualitative findings suggest that participants view policies as nuisance, ignoring them to pursue the ends of digital production, without being inhibited by the means. implications were revealed as 98% missed namedrop tos ‘gotcha clauses’ about data sharing with the nsa and employers, and about providing a first-born child as payment for sns access.”
Katz, E.. (1992). The big lie: Human restoration of nature. Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology
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“An overview of environmental ethics / clare palmer — the land ethic / aldo leopold — is there a need for a new, an environmental, ethic? / richard sylvan (routley) — not for humans only : the place of nonhumans in environmental issues / peter singer — animal rights : what’s in a name? with a brief extract from the case for animal rights / tom regan — the ethics of respect for nature / paul w. taylor — is there a place for animals in the moral consideration of nature? / eric katz — can animal rights activists be environmentalists? / gary e. varner — against the moral considerability of ecosystems / harley cahen — the varieties of intrinsic value / john o’neill — value in nature and the nature of value / holmes rolston iii — the source and locus of intrinsic value : a reexamination / keekok lee — environmental ethics and weak anthropocentrism / bryan g. norton — weak anthropocentric intrinsic value / eugene hargrove — moral pluralism and the course of environmental ethics / christopher d. stone — the case against moral pluralism / j. baird callicott — minimal, moderate, and extreme moral pluralism / peter s. wenz — the case for a practical pluralism / andrew light — deep ecology : a new philosophy of our time? / warwick fox — the deep ecological movement : some philosophical aspects / arne naess — ecofeminism : toward global justice and planetary health / greta gaard and lori gruen — ecological feminism and ecosystem ecology / karen j. warren and jim cheney — beyond intrinsic value : pragmatism in environmental ethics / anthony weston — pragmatism in environmental ethics : democracy, pluralism, and the management of nature / ben a. minteer and robert e. manning — the ethics of sustainable resources / donald scherer — toward a just and sustainable economic order / john b. cobb, jr. — ethics, public policy, and global warming / dale jamieson — faking nature / robert elliot — the big lie : human restoration of nature / eric katz — ecological restoration and the culture of nature : a pragmatic perspective / andrew light — an amalgamation of wilderness preservation arguments / michael p. nelson — a critique of and an alternative to the wilderness idea / j. baird callicott — wilderness– now more than ever : a response to callicott / reed f. noss — feeding people versus saving nature? / holmes rolston iii — saving nature, feeding people, and ethics / robin attfield — integrating environmentalism and human rights / james w. nic…”
Becker, J.. (2004). The big lie. Index on Censorship
Polarization, in many disciplines, is a tendency to be located close to one of the opposite ends of a continuum.
Polarization (economics), faster decrease of moderate-skill jobs relative to low-skill and high-skill jobs
Political polarization, when public opinion divides and becomes oppositional
Social polarization, segregation of society into social groups, from high-income to low-income
Group polarization, tendency of a group to make more extreme decisions than individuals’ initial inclinations
Attitude polarization, when disagreement becomes more extreme as different parties consider evidence
Racial polarization, when a population with varying ancestry is divided into distinct racial groups
Hegelian dialectic, usually presented in a threefold manner, was stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus as comprising three dialectical stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis, which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis. Although this model is often named after Hegel, he never used that specific formulation. Hegel ascribed that terminology to Kant. Carrying on Kant’s work, Fichte greatly elaborated on the synthesis model and popularized it.
See also: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel § Dialectics, speculation, idealism
Singer, D. J., Bramson, A., Grim, P., Holman, B., Jung, J., Kovaka, K., … Berger, W. J.. (2019). Rational social and political polarization. Philosophical Studies
“Public discussions of political and social issues are often characterized by deep and persistent polarization. in social psychology, it’s standard to treat belief polarization as the product of epistemic irrationality. in contrast, we argue that the persistent disagreement that grounds political and social polarization can be produced by epistemically rational agents, when those agents have limited cognitive resources. using an agent-based model of group deliberation, we show that groups of deliberating agents using coherence-based strategies for managing their limited resources tend to polarize into different subgroups. we argue that using that strategy is epistemically rational for limited agents. so even though group polarization looks like it must be the product of human irrationality, polarization can be the result of fully rational deliberation with natural human limitations.”
Eibach, R.. (2021). Ideological Polarization and Social Psychology. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology
Willer, D., Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S.. (1989). Rediscovering the Social Group: A Self-Categorization Theory.. Contemporary Sociology
“(From the jacket) this book presents a new theory of the social group which seeks to explain how individuals become unified into a group and capable of collective behaviour. the book summarizes classic psychological theories of the group, describes and explains the important effects of group membership on social behaviour, outlines self-categorization theory in full and shows how the general perspective has been applied in research on group formation and cohesion, social influence, the polarization of social attitudes, crowd psychology and social stereotyping. the theory emerges as a fundamental new contribution to social psychology.”
Van Bavel, J. J., Rathje, S., Harris, E., Robertson, C., & Sternisko, A.. (2021). How social media shapes polarization. Trends in Cognitive Sciences
“This article reviews the empirical evidence on the relationship between social media and political polarization. we argue that social media shapes polarization through the following social, cognitive, and technological processes: partisan selection, message content, and platform design and algorithms.”
Simas, E. N., Clifford, S., & Kirkland, J. H.. (2020). How Empathic Concern Fuels Political Polarization. American Political Science Review
“Over the past two decades, there has been a marked increase in partisan social polarization, leaving scholars in search of solutions to partisan conflict. the psychology of intergroup relations identifies empathy as one of the key mechanisms that reduces intergroup conflict, and some have suggested that a lack of empathy has contributed to partisan polarization. yet, empathy may not always live up to this promise. we argue that, in practice, the experience of empathy is biased toward one’s ingroup and can actually exacerbate political polarization. first, using a large, national sample, we demonstrate that higher levels of dispositional empathic concern are associated with higher levels of affective polarization. second, using an experimental design, we show that individuals high in empathic concern show greater partisan bias in evaluating contentious political events. taken together, our results suggest that, contrary to popular views, higher levels of dispositional empathy actually facilitate partisan polarization.”
Valdesolo, P., & Graham, J.. (2016). Social Psychology of Political Polarization. Social Psychology of Political Polarization
“The 21st-century political landscape has been defined by deep ideological polarization, and as a result scientific inquiry into the psychological mechanisms underlying this divide has taken on increased relevance. the topic is by no means new to social psychology. classic literature on intergroup conflict shows how pervasive and intractable these group conflicts can be, how readily they can emerge from even minimal group identities, and the hedonic rewards reaped from adopting an ‘us vs. them’ perspective. indeed, this literature paints a bleak picture for the efficacy of any interventions geared toward reducing intergroup discord. but advances in the psychology of moral judgments and behavior, in particular greater understanding of how moral concerns might inform the creation and stability of political identities, offer new ways forward in understanding partisan divides. this volume brings together leading researchers in moral and political psychology, offering new perspectives on the moral roots of political ideology, and exciting new opportunities for the development of more effective applied interventions.”
Lees, J., & Cikara, M.. (2021). Understanding and combating misperceived polarization. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
“By many accounts politics is becoming more polarized, yielding dire consequences for democracy and trust in government. yet a growing body of research on so-called false polarization finds that perceptions of ‘what the other side believes’ are inaccurate – specifically, overly pessimistic – and that these inaccuracies exacerbate intergroup conflict. through a review of existing work and a reanalysis of published data, we (i) develop a typology of the disparate phenomena that are labelled ‘polarization’, (ii) use that typology to distinguish actual from (mis)perceived polarization, and (iii) identify when misperceived polarization gives rise to actual polarization (e.g. extreme issue attitudes and prejudice). we further suggest that a specific psychological domain is ideal for developing corrective interventions: meta-perception, one’s judgement of how they are perceived by others. we review evidence indicating that correcting meta-perception inaccuracies is effective at reducing intergroup conflict and discuss methods for precisely measuring meta-perception accuracy. we argue that the reputational nature of meta-perception provides a motivational mechanism by which individuals are sensitive to the truth, even when those truths pertain to the ‘other side’. we conclude by discussing how these insights can be integrated into existing research seeking to understand polarization and its negative consequences. this article is part of the theme issue ‘the political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms’.”
Roblain, A., & Green, E. G. T.. (2021). From perceived polarization of immigration attitudes to collective action. International Journal of Intercultural Relations
“In the context where immigration divides the political space of western societies, perceived social polarization as an explanation of collective action is surprisingly understudied in contemporary social psychology. we hypothesize that the more people perceive polarization, the more they will engage in collective action in line with their attitudes. moreover, this effect should be explained by two interrelated factors: identification and perceived efficacy. perceived polarization should shape how important immigration attitudes are for individuals’ self-definition and thereby believing oneself capable of making a change, which in turn triggers collective action. to test our predictions, we conducted three studies (studies 1 and 2 were correlational and study 3 experimental) among mobilized and non-mobilized samples in two countries (i.e., belgium and switzerland). results partially support our predictions that perceived social polarization on immigration issues relates to engaging in collective action. indirect effect analyses revealed the predominant role of identity dynamics in the social psychological processes linked to perceiving polarization. these results provide potential explanations to the strong mobilization that emerged since 2015 following the so-called migrant crisis. implications of our findings for collective action literature are discussed.”
Levendusky, M. S.. (2018). When efforts to depolarize the electorate fail. Public Opinion Quarterly
“The mass public has become affectively polarized-ordinary americans increasingly dislike and distrust those from the other party, with negative consequences for politics. drawing on work in political and social psychology, this paper tests two mechanisms for reducing this discord, both of which have been shown to reduce similar biases in other settings: heightening partisan ambivalence, and using self-affirmation techniques. a population-based survey experiment shows that neither strategy reduces affective polarization in the aggregate. but this null finding masks an important heterogeneity: heightening partisan ambivalence reduces affective polarization for ideological moderates, but increases such discord for those with more extreme ideological identities. efforts to depolarize the electorate can make it more deeply divided, with important implications for our understanding of contemporary politics and the durability of affective polarization.”
Brady, W. J., Wills, J. A., Jost, J. T., Tucker, J. A., Van Bavel, J. J., & Fiske, S. T.. (2017). Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
“Political debate concerning moralized issues is increasingly common in online social networks. however, moral psychology has yet to incorporate the study of social networks to investigate processes by which some moral ideas spread more rapidly or broadly than others. here, we show that the expression of moral emotion is key for the spread of moral and political ideas in online social networks, a process we call ‘moral contagion.’ using a large sample of social media communications about three polarizing moral/political issues (n = 563,312), we observed that the presence of moral-emotional words in messages increased their diffusion by a factor of 20% for each additional word. furthermore, we found that moral contagion was bounded by group membership; moral-emotional language increased diffusion more strongly within liberal and conservative networks, and less between them. our results highlight the importance of emotion in the social transmission of moral ideas and also demonstrate the utility of social network methods for studying morality. these findings offer insights into how people are exposed to moral and political ideas through social networks, thus expanding models of social influence and group polarization as people become increasingly immersed in social media networks.”
“Zwart uses hegel’s dialectical method to develop a dialectical methodology for assessing biology as technoscience during the anthropocene. in this paper i will evaluate this use of hegelian dialectics in biology. i will first elaborate the meaning of hegel’s method of ‘dialectics’. this helps me to evaluate zwart’s dialectical scientific methodology from the perspective of hegel’s method of ‘dialectics’ and to evaluate zwart’s dialectical scientific methodology from the perspective of the praxis of biology. finally, i will oppose zwart’s claim that the synthetic cell is an appropriate case study to demonstrate the relevance of dialectics for understanding contemporary biological research.”
Etim, F., & Akpabio, M. K.-A.. (2018). Hegelian Dialectics: Implications for Violence and Peace in Nigeria. Open Journal of Philosophy
“The place of hegelian dialectics in paul ricoeur’s thinking. by r. picardi. this paper reconstructs the principal stages of ricoeur’s confrontation with hegel’s dialectics, from the first manuscript notes on hegel’s negativity to the 1975 essay the place of dialectics . the author’s objective is three-fold. first to recover at its genesis the ricoeurian effort toward regionalization of hegelian dialectics, the reasons of which cannot be reduced to a generic refusal of the effects of systematic totalization of the hegelian identification of negation with mediation. secondly, he aims to underscore the exogenous and endogenous reasons that underlie the extension and displacement of hegelian ethics, due to the ricoeurian grafting of hermeneutics onto phenomenology. finally, the author intends to determine the variable place maintained by hegelian dialectics regarding other dialectics that fuel the dialectical style of ricoeur’s philosophy, from kierkegaard’s dialectics of paradox and the dialectics of the five genders of the sophist – as he interprets them – to the nabertian dialectics between act and signs.”
Zwart, H.. (2021). The Empirical and the Holistic Turn: A Hegelian Dialectics of Technoscience Revisited. Foundations of Science
“My effort to address the comments made by the two distinguished scholars (to ‘negate their negations’ as it were), consists of three steps. i will start with a brief resume of hegel’s dialectical logic, to provide a scaffold for the debate. subsequently, i will address the comments made. in the case of hans-jörg rheinberger, i will focus on his reference to althusser. in the case of bart gremmen, i will focus on the dialectics of biology (on biology as an inherently dialectical science), notably on his reference to mendel. finally, i will address the tension between the conceptual and the empirical dimension of philosophical scholarship.”
Tavilla, I., Kralik, R., Webb, C., Jiang, X., & Manuel, A. J.. (2019). The rise of fascism and the reformation of hegel’s dialectic into italian neo-idealist philosophy. XLinguae
“Fascism’s rise to power in italy directly involved the main exponents of neo-idealism – the dominant philosophy at that time: giovanni gentile and benedetto croce, who were promoters respectively of the manifesto of the fascist intellectuals and the manifesto of the anti-fascist intellectuals. at the beginning of the century the two philosophers were committed to reforming hegelian dialectic, the outcomes of which seem to account for both gentile’s fervent adherence to fascism and croce’s equally fervent opposition.”
Ebbesen, D. K., & Olsen, J.. (2021). Exploring the Preconditions for a Developmental Science: Hegelian Metaphysics and Dialectics. Human Arenas
“In this article, we explore the metaphysics of hegelian dialectics and its implications for a developmental science. more specifically, we investigate how hegel initiated the move from classical mechanicism to dialectics, thus rearranging the ruling scientific logic at his time. we do this by introducing some of the metaphysical assertions implied by mechanicism and showing how these assertions are scientifically inadequate in explicating the relation between the empirical matter and abstract representation of a given (developmental) phenomenon. this claim leads us to a discussion of the theory of knowledge offered by hegel as opposed to kant, and how these theories relate to the struggle between process and structure. finally, we find that the subject is displaced in between observation and experience and thus epistemically constrained in its access to empirical matters. this fact draws attention to the importance of considering the metaphysical aspects of the sense-modalities, and how such aspects relate to any given developmental phenomenon. overall the article illustrates the potentials of hegelian dialectics for avoiding entrenched dualisms and static oppositions in future research.”
Wikipedia: Robert David Steele died from COVID-19 in Florida on August 29, 2021, at the age of 69.[13] Before his admission to hospital, Steele had promoted an anti-vaccination campaign. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_David_Steele#Death