This study focused on the effect of rewards on the cooperative behaviour of individuals when they were part of a mixed group containing both democrats and republicans. There were two conditions, in...Show moreThis study focused on the effect of rewards on the cooperative behaviour of individuals when they were part of a mixed group containing both democrats and republicans. There were two conditions, in the first condition the participants were told they could receive a different amount of reward, based on their political preference. In the second condition, this differential treatment was impossible, and all group members received the same amount of reward. It was expected that participants would cooperate more in the condition where they could be favoured by the reward-giver who shared their same political preferences. The study outcomes showed the opposite effect: individuals cooperated more when rewarding implied an equal treatment for all compared to when there was a possibility of being favoured.Show less
There have been few studies conducted into the effect of victimisation in the context of the bystander effect, wherein one person is mistreated while onlookers take no action to help. Previous...Show moreThere have been few studies conducted into the effect of victimisation in the context of the bystander effect, wherein one person is mistreated while onlookers take no action to help. Previous research indicates that potential impacts may include a feeling of ostracism or an adjustment of perceived social norms. This study explored how participants would react in a dictator game wherein they are given less money than their peers, in circumstances where the peers do or do not try to help, measured by their retaliation against the perpetrator, their psychological needs evaluation and ratings of fairness and justifiedness. No significant differences were found between the two conditions. However, as some research previously suggested, there are differences in coping strategies and responses to mistreatment between individuals. This study found that retaliators also had poorer psychological needs scores for control and self-esteem, rating the perpetrator’s behaviour as unjustified whilst their own vengeful retaliation was, according to them, justified. Future avenues for research are explored.Show less
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
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According to the 2001 Census, almost half of all persons with disabilities are literate and visually disabled. It is when seeing this relatively large number I wondered if visually impaired...Show moreAccording to the 2001 Census, almost half of all persons with disabilities are literate and visually disabled. It is when seeing this relatively large number I wondered if visually impaired children from poverty get an equal chance at education in India. The reason chosen for this subject is empathy and personal interest. I work at Voorall, a foundation in The Hague that stands up for the interests of disabled people. Children are the future of the world and education is something that should be invested in because knowledge is relevant for one’s development. Empowerment of visually disabled people from a poor environment is of great importance, because all children deserve a fair and equal chance in education. This makes it essential that education should be inclusive. Firstly, the methodology will be explained. For this research it was important to do both desk research as well as qualitative research. For the desk research primary as well as secondary sources have been used. The qualitative research has been done in the form of a questionnaire with 9 visually impaired students from India that are from a poor background. The hypothesis is that although the government, NGO’s and institutions are involved in inclusive education, visually challenged school children from poverty have less chance on a good education. Therefore, the main question for this thesis is: How can a fear chance at education also be given to visually challenged students from poverty? Besides the fact that this question will be theoretically approached, I will also give advice with help of the read theories. Some questions need to be answered to form the right advice for the main question. Hence, the sub questions are: What are the policies on inclusiveness and disability by the state?, Which parties and NGO’s are involved in getting poor students an education?, How do schools approach a visual impairment?, How can the state of India and NGO’s realize inclusivity in education amongst the visually challenged underprivileged? and How do visually impaired students experience inclusive education?. For the latter the results of the questionnaire are most useful. In the conclusion a piece of advice will be given on how India can improve inclusive education based on the results of the research questions and questionnaire.Show less
This thesis aimed to examine to what extent the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community at Sogang University reflect the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals in South Korea as a whole. This study discovered...Show moreThis thesis aimed to examine to what extent the experiences of the LGBTQ+ community at Sogang University reflect the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals in South Korea as a whole. This study discovered that LGBTQ+ students at Sogang University, to a certain extent, receive social support from the same sources as the queer community on a national level does, but lack support from online communities and through representation in class and on campus.Show less
In this thesis I examine the interaction between the marketization of education and class in Vietnam and China. I used Marxist class theories in combination with Bourdieuian concepts of class...Show moreIn this thesis I examine the interaction between the marketization of education and class in Vietnam and China. I used Marxist class theories in combination with Bourdieuian concepts of class habitus and cultural capital to conclude that marketization of education did not result in changing class relations in Vietnam and China, arguing against Victor Nee’s theory that marketization of education would lead to increased social mobility. Due to marketization the state lost total control over education, however, the new none-state actors and institutions remained subordinate to the state. The dominant class maintained their cultural capital and gained economic capital due to marketization. The working class did not gain the economic and cultural capital needed for access to the marketized education system. This dynamic resulted in a more rigid class divide, making social mobility less likely.Show less
Introduction Money used to be simple. Everybody liked the shiny yellow metal we now call gold. However, at a certain point, some so-called ‘states’ made the whole practice of exchanging gold rather...Show moreIntroduction Money used to be simple. Everybody liked the shiny yellow metal we now call gold. However, at a certain point, some so-called ‘states’ made the whole practice of exchanging gold rather more complicated, as they issued vouchers that were said to ‘represent’ an amount of gold. Even more farfetched was their later decision to cut any links between our metal of desire and the vouchers we got accustomed to. In the present day, our vouchers often lack any physical qualities, and seem to be nothing more than digits projected on a computer screen. It is perhaps remarkable that the proverbial man or woman in the street does not at all seem to be concerned with how abstract our money really is. Its omnipresence and utility have made almost every inhabitant on earth comfortable using it. We hardly reflect on its nature anymore. And so, now that an entirely novel type of money – cryptomoney – is coming to the forefront, we are quick to accept it as just another incarnation of a phenomenon that we have been familiar with ever since we started appreciating a certain shiny yellow metal. But I believe this to be a mistake. Cryptomoney has the potential to transform our financial system just as radically as the move from gold and silver to fiat money, or the abandonment of the gold standard once did. This is because there are certain qualities to cryptomoney that are fundamentally different from the money as we know it. It seems, however, that although some people are interested in comparing different types of money from an economic standpoint, not many care about the philosophical implications of choosing one system over another. I believe this to be a second mistake. The economist Leonidas Zelmanovitz is right when he says that ‘the value of any monetary policy is contingent on its adherence to a coherent set of philosophical assumptions’. But this works both ways, and we should also not neglect how our philosophical assumptions are challenged by the sort of money we use. If cryptomoney would make it harder for us to adhere to our ideas about justice, equality, fairness etc. that underlie our financial system, we should try to prevent it from gaining too much prominence. The question that lies at the origin of this investigation is the following: should we want to replace ‘traditional’ money with cryptomoney? The answer to this question will be negative: in this paper I will argue that it is impossible to replace traditional currencies with any form of cryptomoney and not as a direct result undermine national sovereignty and increase inequality within countries, and between them. The former is under threat because of the decentralized market-based nature of cryptomoney that leaves powerless governmental tools to execute monetary policy. The latter is the result of the disproportionate advantage more affluent people and countries will gain over their poorer equivalents as a consequence of the way cryptomoney works. If we see the consequences of these two effects through, we arrive at the conclusion that any form of replacement of traditional money by cryptomoney means a redistribution of power from (democratic) states to the market, from people to algorithms, from economically less developed countries to economically more developed countries, and from the poor to the rich. Such a redistribution, I will argue, is unjust and undermines the legitimacy of states. To support this conclusion, I have divided this thesis in four chapters. In chapter one, I will answer the questions what money is and how cryptomoney is a separate subset of the money family. A definition of cryptomoney will also be provided, as there are many virtual phenomena called cryptomoney that are really something else. Through this definition we will come to see that cryptomoney functions quite differently from the money we use today. And because cryptomoney’s ability to change our society stems in part from its technicalities, I will then give a concise explanation of how cryptomoney works. One of the really novel aspects of cryptomoney is the way it is safeguarded against fraud. The technology that does this, the ‘blockchain’, is the reason why cryptomoney could be the first serious competitor to national currencies since gold. Important as this all is, we will not discuss the mathematical or programmers’ side of cryptomoney in detail; it has been done elsewhere. Rather, we move on to the second chapter and discuss the consequences that a financial regime based on cryptomoney would have for states and individual users. We refrain from giving too strong a normative judgment here, and merely list and explain some of the most important practical advantages and disadvantages that the introduction of cryptomoney could have, in order to better understand why cryptomoney is so attractive to some of its proponents. In chapters three and four we shift our attention to the main question of the thesis: is cryptomoney a good idea? Now there might be many arguments that could be given either for or against using cryptomoney, and some of these will be discussed in chapter two. Many of these arguments, however, are mostly pragmatic in nature, and therefore not very interesting for a philosophical inquiry. Others do merit more thorough examination, but are contingent on the type of cryptocurrency used. However, there are two arguments against cryptomoney that are rather more substantial. In chapter three, we will explain why cryptomoney necessarily undermines national sovereignty, and why that would be bad. Chapter four does the same for equality. These arguments hold for any form of cryptomoney as defined in chapter one, as they are the direct result of the way cryptomoney functions. Furthermore, they transcend all pragmatic arguments, because of the strong commitment many of us have to sovereignty and equality. Naturally, not everyone believes in these values. And although I will give some arguments in favour of sovereignty and equality, this thesis does not have the explicit aim to convince those that a priori disagree with me that these two principles are desirable. There are many libertarians and anarchists who are outright opposed to the basic idea of statehood, and do not think that national sovereignty is worthwhile at all. Likewise, there are some who claim that (some sort of) inequality has utility, usually because it yields a desired effect. For some niche thinkers it could even be good in itself. This paper might not be for them. Of course, many of cryptomoney’s (dis)advantages will only become apparent in a future where cryptomoney sheds its volatile state and blossoms into a type of money on par with the money we have now. That it could come that far is an underlying assumption for this research. It is made plausible throughout, and in chapter one especially. Interest in cryptomoney surges and it has already proven to be a very popular type of artificially created money. At the same time, it would be folly to claim that we are on the brink of a true cryptomoney revolution. The trade volume of all cryptocurrencies combined is still quite small, and no single currency, not even the (in)famous bitcoin, is anywhere near a position where it could start replacing even the weakest of national currencies. So uncertain is the future in fact, that it is even possible that we are already past the peak of cryptomoney. And that would then actually be a good thing, as an ascension of cryptomoney will lead to an increase of the problems noted in chapter three and four. In a way, you could say that this inquiry aims to make itself obsolete, because in the end it argues that cryptomoney would be bad for us. Still, if we manage to keep the use of cryptomoney at bay, and all the different cryptocurrencies lose their value, that would not mean that the phenomenon could not still be valuable as a hypothetical alternative to traditional money, capable of shedding light on our current monetary institutions and the normative foundations on which these are based.Show less
This thesis will examine changing gender roles and the ideal of equality in marriage during the Middle Ages using two medieval tales: The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and Chaucer’s Wife...Show moreThis thesis will examine changing gender roles and the ideal of equality in marriage during the Middle Ages using two medieval tales: The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnell and Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale. In both tales, the figure of the loathly lady is an important character who overthrows traditional gender roles and embodies a new kind of ideal woman. She defies the gender binary by not conforming to her expected gender role and by conveying the message that women want sovereignty over their husbands. The ultimate goal, however, is not for a woman to be superior to a man, but for both to live as equals in marriage. In this thesis I will apply medieval gender theories to both The Wedding if Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and The Wife of Bath’s Tale in order to show the inferior position that women were expected to take, especially in marriage, and how the loathly lady proposes a new ideal of equality by claiming that what women actually want is to have power themselves.Show less
