The details of the example of the ‘murderer at the door’ – as it is commonly, if inaccurately called – are more complicated than most interpreters assume. This chapter is dedicated to the details of the case, many of which surface only in the light of other eighteenth-century versions of the story. Does the would-be murderer know that the person hiding his intended victim knows about his murderous intentions? Why are the options of the person asked about the victim’s hiding place restricted to yes or no, and how would this restriction work in practice? What are the reasons or motives of someone who intends to lie to a would-be murderer? And what are Constant’s ‘intermediate principles’, which he introduces to defuse the problem case? The chapter also explores Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s discussion of the case in his 1798 System of Ethics. Fichte and Kant agree that lying is not a legitimate option; but Fichte is by far the more radical moralist of the two.

Chapter 8 draws on sociological literature in debating whether law – however drafted – is capable of solving the complex problem of discrimination against people who look different. It argues that, although we should not expect too much of law in tackling the complex social problem of appearance bias, strategically targeted laws can sometimes play a part in changing attitudes, norms and behaviours. While prohibitions on discrimination are important for remedial purposes, other types of legal and social reform may be better placed to create the conditions for greater inclusion of people with visible differences.

As soon as Italy entered the war, mobilisation orders were issued, from which emigrants were not exempted. From May–December 1915, two-thirds of the 300,000 emigrant soldiers would depart from their adopted homelands. Their passage was paid by the Italian government, but transporting thousands of reservists across the Atlantic was a formidable logistical challenge. This chapter examines the initial mobilisation of the reservists, their motivations for enlisting and their journeys to Italy in 1915. Their decisions to depart rested on many factors, including country of emigration, family situation, economic considerations, the length of time a man had spent abroad, degree of adherence to a sense of Italian national identity and political beliefs. Youthful naivety and a desire for adventure were also common motivators and the dangers of submarine attack when crossing the Atlantic a significant deterrent. Despite the mobilisation orders to emigrants, the Italian government had limited power to compel them to return from abroad to serve. The main incentive was a negative one: if reservists did not respond to the draft, they would be subject to severe penalties at a later date if they were to return to Italy.

Becoming a proficient reader in a new or second language (L2) is a complex process because it requires combining reading resources of both L1 and L2 into a dual-language processing system. Thus, L2 learners need support to overcome linguistic and processing practice limitations to read in a language in which they have yet to become proficient. As new technologies flourish, tools for learners and educators also increase. This chapter describes the background and historical perspectives of applying computer technologies to teaching and learning reading in L2. It then presents a survey of major CALL journals for current research and practices using technologies for L2 reading. Based on the survey findings, the chapter provides suggestions for effective integration of technologies into L2 reading teaching and learning vocabulary and reading comprehension, strategic reading, reading fluency and extensive reading, and motivation. Finally, future directions for applying technologies to teaching and learning L2 reading are discussed.

The issue of whether technology is inherently motivating for learners and teachers has often been discussed in the literature around computers and language learning. Yet, there is more to this relationship than initially meets the eye. This chapter outlines the ways in which symbolic power plays a part in both personal and institutional motivations for the adoption of technology. The chapter also looks at the way motivation is often credited as a key to success, though rarely with much empirical evidence. Finally, the article takes on a practitioner’s viewpoint to share several motivational techniques that can assist with practice and research.

Four themes regarding the nature of meaning making are proposed: (1) That humans are inherently motivated to seek and find meaning, from cradle to grave; (2) Meaning making is an active process, always involving an interaction between person and event; (3) There is a dynamic, transactional relationship between meaning and experience, with past meanings impacting what is experienced and new experiences altering meaning systems; and (4) The developmental process underlying meaning making is inextricably social.

TOT states have a subjective phenomenology to them that is worthy of investigation in and of itself. Although examining the mechanisms of word-retrieval failure is an important part of fully understanding TOT experiences, the mechanisms of word-retrieval failure are not the complete picture. For one thing, not all instances of word-retrieval failure result in a TOT state. For another, TOT states are an inherently subjective phenomenon with a potentially unique set of phenomenological qualities that distinguish them from other metacognitive states of awareness and experiences. Understanding the subjective phenomenology of TOTs could help to elucidate important facets of metacognition as well as human consciousness more broadly.

This chapter takes a look at the intricate relationship between music and our emotions, focusing on how music modulates activity within the four major emotion systems in the brain: the vitalization system, the pleasure, pain, and craving system, the happiness system, and the subconscious. It explores how music can stimulate our ’courage centre’, a core component of the vitalization system, motivating us during physical exercise and promoting relaxation. It also examines the profound impact of music on the pleasure, pain, and craving system, discussing how music can evoke pleasure, alleviate pain, and even address cravings. Furthermore, the chapter investigates the happiness system, highlighting how music can foster social bonding, tap into our ’soul’ (hippocampus), and promote both hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. It also examines the subconscious, revealing how music can influence our thoughts, beliefs, and emotional responses, offering strategies to counteract negative thought patterns and foster inner peace. By understanding how music interacts with these four emotion systems, readers can harness its power to regulate emotions, promote positive moods, and enhance personal growth.

In this chapter we touch on the idea of inter-learner variability in outcome (i.e., how far learners get) as well as rate of acquisition among different learners. We then link these issues to the idea of individual differences as explanatory factors. We focus on the most studied: motivation, aptitude, and working memory.

Chapter 8 focuses on the timescale in which the short-term timescale of activity and experience is embedded, namely, the creative artist’s life course. It discusses artistic talent, art school and training, the artist’s personality, including the relationship between psychopathology and art, the outsider phenomenon, motivation, inspiration, and drives for artistic creation, artistic identities, intersectionality, and the artistic persona, all of which are complex phenomena. The chapter also discusses the complexity of the relationship between personality and artistic creation, based on a complex dynamic systems approach to personality itself.

This chapter of the handbook examines the sanctioning doctrines within Anglo-American criminal law and explores similarities and differences between criminal blame and ordinary social blame. The chapter explores the legal notion of actus reus in the context of intended but incomplete transgressive conduct, the distinction between intended and unintended outcomes, as well as questions of recklessness and the role of a transgressor’s character in ordinary and legal blame. It also explores the possibility that a fundamental human motivation to punish those with bad character can influence perceptions of legal questions such as consciousness of risk. Intuitions about the role of moral character in legal blame have produced legal rules restricting the consideration of prior misdeeds. At the same time, these rules and their interpretation ultimately rest on political and moral judgments, rather than psychological insights. The chapter concludes by briefly exploring some remaining questions of criminal law and intuitive blame, such as the role of cultural commitments on motivations to impose legal blame.

This chapter reviews research on the effects of age on emotion as well as decision making. After reviewing the neural regions involved in emotion, the chapter delves into the topics of emotion identification, emotion regulation, life satisfaction, socioemotional selectivity theory, and emotion and memory. Turning to the research on decision making and reward, the chapter considers how age affects brain activity during tasks involving reward, economic decisions, and gambling. It also discusses economic decision making in a social context and future directions in motivation research.