The Ambivalence

Gadamer’s Ambivalence toward the Enlightenment Project

This essay explores Gadamer’s ambivalent relationship with modernity.  Gadamer is a prominent critic of the Enlightenment project.  His criticisms are both theoretical and practical.  Theoretically, representationalism is at the center of modern epistemology for Gadamer.  Practically, Gadamer sees the demotion of prudence (phronesis) as fundamental to the “bad” Enlightenment.  Gadamer’s attempt...

Immune ambivalence

In addition to cytotoxic effects, anticancer agents can exert multiple immunomodulatory functions. We have recently described the molecular mechanisms whereby bleomycin can 1) promote endoplasmic reticulum stress, causing the immunogenic death of cancer cells and hence strengthening antitumor CD8+ T cell responses; and 2) induce the secretion of transforming growth factor β (TGFβ), which stimul...

The Ambivalence of Promising Technology

Issues of responsibility in the world of nanotechnology are becoming explicit with the emergence of a discourse on 'responsible development' of nanoscience and nanotechnologies. Much of this discourse centres on the ambivalences of nanotechnology and of promising technology in general. Actors must find means of dealing with these ambivalences. Actors' actions and responses to ambivalence are sh...

The Ambivalence of Expert Categorizers

We explored people’s reactions to expert categorizers who expressed difficulty in making a categorization decision. Specifically, we compared people’s impressions of expert health professionals who either expressed certainty, uncertainty, or ambivalence about a categorization decision in the form of a diagnosis. We found that ambivalence resulted in the most negative impressions of these expert...

Ambivalence in Organizations