Ubuntu is een levensfilosofie. Spirituele levenskracht verbindt de mens met zijn samenleving en de natuur. De werkelijkheid is een dynamiek van op elkaar inwerkende krachten. Het streven naar herstel van harmonie en vrede in een versplinterde wereld is daarbij een cruciaal doel. Ubuntu is verzoeningsgezind. Nelson Mandela was als leider van de bevrijdingsbeweging ANC, na zijn langdurige gevangenschap op Robbeneiland, sterk door ubuntu geïnspireerd. Het gaf hem moed om met de witte minderheidsregering gesprekken aan te gaan om het discriminerende (...) systeem van Apartheid te overwinnen. Tussen zijn vrijlating in 1990 en de eerste non-raciale verkiezingen in 1994 balanceerde Zuid-Afrika op de rand van een bloedige burgeroorlog. Met geduld en vasthoudendheid wist Mandela echter zijn verzoeningsstrategie door te zetten en een catastrofe te voorkomen. Zijn verzoeningspolitiek is tot op de dag van vandaag een inspiratiebron voor het oplossen van nationale en internationale conflicten. (shrink)

What is the future of science and technology? Will academic research become a commodity like so much else? Will technology and science become ever more intertwined? Such questions concern anyone to whom science and technology matter. A philosophical approach can shed light on them, as Hans Radder has amply shown. This volume contains essays by colleagues and friends that highlight the wide variety of topics he has addressed in his work. Whether it is the interaction between science, technology and society, (...) the nature of scientific experimentation, or the scientific realism question, Radder's approach is always acute and committed. 0With contributions by Henk van den Belt, James Robert Brown, Kai Eigner, Andrew Feenberg, Steve Fuller, Makoto Katsumori, Peter Kirschenmann, Christian Krijnen, Peter Kroes, Chunglin Kwa, Sabina Leonelli, Loet Leydesdorff, Alfred Nordmann, Pieter Pekelharing, Arthur Petersen, Henk de Regt, Angela Roothaan, László Ropolyi, Frits Schipper, and Astrid Schwarz. (shrink)

In de vorige jaargang van dit tijdschrift heb ik twee artikelen gepubliceerd over de wijsgerige theologie van de zogenaamde Utrechtse school. Daarop is gereageerd door respectievelijk M. Sarot, G. van den Brink en V. Brümmer. Er zijn drie punten waarop ik de discussie graag kort wil voortzetten: logische consistentie en conceptuele coherentie als norm voor het geloof, het verfijnde realisme, en de eigen aard van de theologie in vergelijking met het concrete geloven. In feite gaat het daarbij steeds om (...) de eigen aard van het geloof. Daarin ligt ook de reden ruimte te vragen voor deze reactie. Het lijkt mij van bijzonder belang voor de theologie dat het concrete geloven op de juiste manier wordt verstaan. Alleen dan kan de theologie dit geloof werkelijk dienen. Dat geldt tegenover het gevaar van versubjectivering van het geloof evenzeer als tegenover dat van verintellectualisering. (shrink)

In het boek Exodus, hoofdstuk 3, wordt verteld hoe God aan Mozes verschijnt in een brandende braambos. De HEER heeft het lijden van Israel in Egypte gezien en wil hen daaruit bevrijden. Daartoe wordt Mozes naar de farao gestuurd om tegen hem te zeggen dat hij Israel moet laten gaan. Met die boodschap moet Mozes eerst naar Israel zelf. Vandaar zijn vraag: wat zullen zij zeggen? Zullen zij mij geloven, als ik zeg dat ik gestuurd ben door de God (...) van hun vader, van Abraham, Isaak en Jakob? Zullen zij niet vragen: wie is die God? Hoe is zijn naam? In antwoord daarop spreekt God de bekende woorden: ‘Ik ben die Ik ben.’ Mozes moet tot de Israelieten zeggen: ‘Ik ben heeft mij tot u gezonden.’ En verder: ‘De HEER, de God van uw vaderen, de God van Abraham, de God van Isaak en de God van Jakob, heeft mij tot u gezonden. Dit is mijn naam voor eeuwig en zo wil Ik aangeroepen worden van geslacht tot geslacht.’. (shrink)

Door de Franse filosoof Maurice Blanchot geïnspireerd pleidooi voor de ritualisering van het denken.

In een tweetal artikelen in dit tijdschrift heeft Henk Geertsema aandacht besteed aan de Utrechtse wijsgerige theologie. In het eerste artikel concentreerde hij zich op de bundel Hoe is Uw Naam?, terwijl hij in het tweede vooral ingaat op het werk van Vincent Brümmer. De scheiding is echter niet zo strikt; ook in het artikel over Brümmer komt Geertsema veelvuldig over Hoe is Uw Naam? te spreken. In deze reactie wil ik ingaan op Geertsema’s kritiek op de wijze waarop (...) Gijsbert van den Brink en ondergetekende in Hoe is Uw Naam? twee criteria voor de wijsgerige theologie bespreken, en deze reactie concretiseren door de meer theoretische opmerkingen toe te passen op een voorbeeld dat Geertsema zelf ter sprake brengt, dat van het berouw van God. Daarbij zal ik uitgaan van enkele passages die Geertsema in zijn artikel over Brümmer aan Hoe is Uw Naam? wijdt. (shrink)

In zijn verhelderende opstel over De eigen aard van het geloof in de wijsgerige theologie van Vincent Brümmer, gaat Henk Geertsema vooral in op ‘de aard van de geloofskennis zoals die in de Utrechtse school [en met name in mijn geschriften] wordt gezien’ . De centrale vraag voor Geertsema is ‘of de wijze waarop Brümmer de kennis die eigen is aan het geloof, opvat recht doet aan het eigen aard van het bijbelse geloof als bepaald door de levende (...) omgang met God’ . Twee gezichtspunten zijn hier vooral van belang:’ de verbinding van geloofskennis met de praktische levenshouding, die kenmerkend wordt geacht voor het “verfijnd theologisch realisme” van de Utrechtse school; de typering van de wijsgerige theologie als “grammatica van het geloof”‘ . In mijn antwoord zal ik vooral ingaan op Geerstema’s bespreking van het ‘verfijnd theologisch realisme’. Ten aanzien van ‘het grammatica van het geloof’ zal ik volstaan met een opmerking over Geertsema’s onderscheiding tussen ‘de taal van de wijsgerige theologie’ en ‘die van het concrete geloven of van de Bijbel’ . Ik kan hier kort zijn omdat Marcel Sarot in zijn bijdrage uitvoerig op dit punt ingaat. (shrink)

In _The Very Idea of Organization_ Krijnen develops a new philosophical methodology for a social ontology in general and an organizational ontology in particular by rejuvenating the Kantian and Hegelian tradition of philosophy.

The author defends the thesis that with the neo-Kantian concept of the concept determinacy is conceived of as mediation but not also as self-mediation. In terms of Hegel, neo-Kantianism conceives of the concept as an essence, not as a concept. Consequently, neo-Kantianism does insufficient justice to its own claim of transcendental idealism to be the self-knowledge of reason. This thesis is substantiated by scrutinizing, first, the functional account of the concept as developed by the Marburg neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer and the (...) Southwest neo-Kantian Bruno Bauch. Subsequently, the transcendental idealist conception of the concept as a function-concept is problematized by taking Hegel’s speculative-idealist doctrine of concepts into account. It becomes clear that concept progresses from itself as a concept of substance to the function-concept, and finally to the concept. (shrink)

Contemporary philosophy of recognition represents probably the most prominent direction that presently claims to introduce an updated version of classical German idealism into ongoing debates, including the debate on the nature of sociality. In particular, studies of Axel Honneth offer triggering contributions in Frankfurt School fashion while at the same time rejuvenating Hegel’s philosophy in terms of a philosophy of recognition. According to Honneth, this attempt at a rejuvenation also involves substantial modification of Hegelian doctrines. It is shown that Honneth (...) underestimates the implications of Hegel’s thoughts about the theme, method and systematic form of philosophy. As a consequence, Honneth’s social philosophy is, on the one hand, in need of a plausible foundation. This leads, on the other hand, to a different construction of the social within philosophy than Honneth offers. (shrink)

Résumé — Bien que le « social » ne soit pas un thème central du néokantisme de Bade, il est néanmoins l’occasion de développer, dans le contexte de ce courant philosophique, ce qu’on appelle aujourd’hui une ontologie sociale, qui peut être élaborée de manière exemplaire dans la perspective de Rickert. La conception fondamentale de la philosophie de l’histoire, que j’analyse, offre chez Rickert la clef d’une détermination formelle de l’ontologie sociale. En outre, Rickert offre une base systématique qui permet de (...) définir le « social ». Les tenants de l’école de Bade, tels Windelband, Bauch, Cohn, voient, comme Rickert, dans le « social » la condition de la réalisation de la culture ; mais à la différence de ce dernier, cette sphère revêt chez eux une coloration éthique.— Although the « social » is not a core concept of the Southwest school of Neo-Kantianism, this philosophy offers beginnings for the development of what is nowadays called social ontology. I develop this point by presenting an analysis of Rickert’s concept of the philosophy of history. He turns out to be the key for a formal determination of a social ontology. Moreover, Rickert also offers a systematic beginning as far as the content of the social is concerned. Like Rickert also other thinkers of the Southwest school conceive the social as a condition for realizing values, but unlike Rickert in their model the sphere of realization has an « ethical » flavour. (shrink)

Die Ontologie des Sozialen fragt nach der irreduziblen Verfassung der gesellschaftlichen Dimension menschlichen Daseins. Vor das Problem ihrer begrifflichen Bestimmung sahen sich im 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert naturgemäß schon die theoretischen Grundlegungsversuche zur Soziologie als einer eigenständigen wissenschaftlichen Disziplin gestellt. Die gegenwärtige Debatte kommt jedoch über weite Strecken hinweg ohne jede historische Bezugnahme aus. Die mangelnde Berücksichtigung geschichtlicher Zusammenhänge allerdings bedroht die Reflexion hier wie sonst mit sachlichen Einseitigkeiten; muss sich doch jedes ernsthafte Nachdenken mit einschlägigen Meinungen der Vergangenheit (...) gleichzeitig und durch sie ebenso herausgefordert wie belehrbar wissen. Der vorliegende Band erweitert darum die Quellenlage. Er versammelt Beiträge von einschlägig ausgewiesenen Experten und Nachwuchswissenschaftlern, welche die verschiedenen Konzeptualisierungsstrategien, die bereits im Umfeld der klassischen deutschen Philosophie entwickelt worden sind, aufgreifen und systematisch nutzbar machen. Insbesondere Kant, Fichte und Hegel werden als gewinnbringende Anlaufstellen für sozialontologische Überlegungen erschlossen. (shrink)

The meaning and validity of Kant’s Kant’s doctrine of schematism remains contested until today. In neo-Kantianism and post-War transcendental philosophy, Kant’s schematism of the pure concepts of understanding is transformed drastically. Kant’s thesis of heterogeneity is overcome by taking it back into the internal relationships of the structure of cognition. The spontaneity of thought, performing schematizations, is retained, but Kant’s project of conceiving of the foundations of knowledge in the fashion of a theory of apperception of the I as well (...) as the externality of the given and the determination of the given that goes along with it is sublated by an objective order of validity-noematic constitution and regulation. Kant’s doctrine of schematism, then, shows to be methodology. (shrink)

In the context of his theory of numberings, Ershov showed that Kleene's recursion theorem holds for any precomplete numbering. We discuss various generalizations of this result. Among other things, we show that Arslanov's completeness criterion also holds for every precomplete numbering, and we discuss the relation with Visser's ADN theorem, as well as the uniformity or nonuniformity of the various fixed point theorems. Finally, we base numberings on partial combinatory algebras and prove a generalization of Ershov's theorem in this context.

Hans Wagner (1917-2000) hat Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts eine systematische Erneuerung der Transzendentalphilosophie in Angriff genommen: eine an Kants subjektheoretischem Geltungsbegriff orientierte und Problementwicklungen des deutschen Idealismus, des Neukantianismus und der Phanomenologie integrierende Transzendentalphilosophie. Diese Gedenkschrift zu seinem hundertsten Geburtstag enthalt Beitrage von Reinhold Aschenberg, Reinhold Breil, Martin Bunte, Werner Flach, Klaus Ganglbauer, Bernward Grunewald, Reinhard Hiltscher, Christian Krijnen, Peter Michael Lippitz, Steinar Mathisen, Gerhard Seel, Manfred Wetzel und Kurt Walter Zeidler, welche die Philosophie Wagners in ihrem historischen und (...) systematischen Gehalt erkunden. (shrink)

The rise of the mechanistic worldview in the seventeenth century had a major impact on views of biological generation. Many seventeenth century naturalists rejected the old animist thesis. However, the alternative view of gradual mechanistic formation in embryology didn’t convince either. How to articulate the peculiarity of life? Researchers in the seventeenth century proposed both “animist” and mechanistic theories of life. In the eighteenth century again a controversy in biology arose regarding the explanation of generation. Some adhered to the view (...) that life is a physical property of matter (e.g. Buffon), others saw living entities as the result of the development of pre-existing germs (e.g. Bonnet). Naturalists, lacked a convincing account that could guide their research. In interaction with leading naturalists of his time Immanuel Kant articulated an approach to explaining generation. Kant’s account, delineated in his Kritik der Urteilskraft (Critique of the power of judgment) (1790), is a combination of Newtonian non-reductionist mechanism in explanation, and a concept of natural end comparable to Stahl’s formal conception of organic bodies. It consists of two claims: a) in biology only mechanical explanation is explanatory, and b) living entities contain some original organisation, which is mechanically unexplainable. In the nineteenth century this approach influenced naturalists as Müller, Virchow, and Von Baer, in their physiological research. Dissatisfied with a sheer mechanistic or, on the other hand, a sheer teleological approach, they appreciated the Kantian account of mechanical explanation of natural ends. In Germany, in the second halve of the nineteenth century, Ernst Haeckel reopened the debate about abiogenesis, which still continuous. (shrink)

When viewing a circular coin rotated in depth, it fills an elliptical region of the distal scene. For some, this appears to generate a two-fold experience, in which one sees the coin as simultaneously circular (in light of its 3D shape) and elliptical (in light of its 2D ‘perspectival shape’ or ‘p-shape’). An energetic philosophical debate asks whether the latter p-shapes are genuinely presented in perceptual experience (as ‘perspectivalists’ argue) or if, instead, this appearance is somehow derived or inferred from (...) experience (as ‘anti-perspectivalists’ argue). This debate, however, has largely turned on introspection. In a recent study, Morales, Bax, and Firestone (2020) aim to provide the first empirical test of this question. They asked subjects to find an elliptical coin seen face-on from a search array that also included a circular coin seen either face-on or at an angle. They found that subjects reacted more slowly when the distracting circle was seen at an angle, such that it’s p-shape matched that of the target ellipse. From this, they concluded that the similar p-shape between the ellipse and circle constituted a phenomenal similarity between the two, and thus that perspectivalism is true. We show that these results can also be explained by pre-attentive guidance by unconscious representations (in what follows, just “unconscious pre-attentive guidance”) and that this explanation is at least as plausible as one from phenomenal similarity. Thus, we conclude that the experiment does not support perspectivalism over anti-perspectivalism. (shrink)

In this review essay, I discuss how Lambert Zuidervaart relates to the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd in two of his books. He himself calls his work in this regard a critical retrieval. To answer the question as to how far this characterization is justified, we will look at Zuidervaart’s discussion of the religious antithesis and the transcendental critique, his idea of macrostructures and societal evil, and his view of truth and knowledge.

The founding fathers of modern philosophy of culture, the neo-Kantians, and especially the Southwest school, brought the concept of culture into play as a counter concept to that of nature. Taking Heinrich Rickert?s conception of culture as a starting point, the article shows how culture is conceived of as a self-formation of the subject. It leads to transcendental idealism of freedom, typical of a Kantian type of transcendental philosophy. However, in this self and world formation of the subject it is (...) presupposed that nature is to any extent formable by values and thus by freedom. This presupposition cannot be accounted for properly within transcendental idealism. Hegel, by contrast, conceives of culture as a manifestation of the idea, leading to speculative idealism of freedom. The origin of culture, i.e., its original determinacy, should not be conceived of in terms of an opposition to nature, and consequently in the fashion of a subject of thought and action that forms itself by forming its world, culture. Rather, it should be conceived of in terms of a manifestation of the idea as the truly transcendental subject qua absolute ground of validity and thus the ground of being too. Nature and culture are both primarily determined by their ideal character and the relationships emerging therefrom. (shrink)

Recognition -- German Idealism as an Ongoing Challenge seeks to answer the question: does the present philosophical debate about recognition incorporate sufficiently the systematical requirements of the philosophy it pretends to inherit and rejuvenate, i.e. German idealism?

Zusammenfassung Zu den gegenwärtig am intensivsten diskutierten Themen der Politikwissenschaft gehört die Debatte um den Aufstieg des Regulierungsstaates. Während einige Autoren den Regulierungsstaat für eine neue „intelligente“ Form von Staatlichkeit halten, die ihre Politikziele durch eine geschickte Architektur von Regulierungsregimen erreicht, verweisen andere Autoren auf seine Tendenz zur Kolonialisierung gesellschaftlicher Sektoren und zu utopischen Ambitionen. Der vorliegende Beitrag vertritt die Auffassung, dass das Vordringen staatlicher Regulierung im Sport einen kritischen Fall für die aktuelle Debatte um Konturen und Ambitionen des Regulierungsstaates (...) konstituiert, weil es sich beim Sport um einen hybriden Sektor handelt, der sowohl ein Unterhaltungsgut produziert, als auch sozialintegrative Leistungen bereitstellt. Die Fallstudie zum Aufstieg des Regulierungsstaates im englischen Fußball versucht die Thesen zu unterstützen, dass (a) die Ambitionen des Regulierungsstaates in starkem Maße kontext- und pfadabhängig sind und (b) die Fähigkeit des „intelligenten“ Regulierungsstaates begrenzt ist, Selbstregulierungsregime zu kreieren, die einen Sektor davor bewahren, von starken kommerziellen Interessen „übernommen“ zu werden. (shrink)

One of the career options Ede Christian University for higher professional education offers is nursing. As a Christian professional school, the ECU provides learning environments for nursing students to become professionals who are to exhibit a Christian life style, values and professional ethics. Nursing graduates of our school in general may have a Christian disposition regarding major issues in health care like displaying respect for patients, having a correct attitude, practising informed consent, displaying confidentiality, and avoiding euthanasia etc. A worrying (...) development for educators, though, is that often within a year after their graduation these young nursing professionals may adopt the secularized behaviour predominant in their workplace, even when that behaviour in some respects contrasts with the values they internalized during their nursing education. . Apparently, the shaping force of the social context of a professional practice can be stronger than the personal beliefs young professionals adopt before their graduation. (shrink)

Global society is facing formidable current and future problems that threaten the prospects for justice and peace, sustainability, and the well-being of humanity both now and in the future. Many of these problems are related to science and technology and to how they function in the world. If the social responsibility of scientists and engineers implies a duty to safeguard or promote a peaceful, just and sustainable world society, then science and engineering education should empower students to fulfil this responsibility. (...) The contributions to this special issue present European examples of teaching social responsibility to students in science and engineering, and provide examples and discussion of how this teaching can be promoted, and of obstacles that are encountered. Speaking generally, education aimed at preparing future scientists and engineers for social responsibility is presently very limited and seemingly insufficient in view of the enormous ethical and social problems that are associated with current science and technology. Although many social, political and professional organisations have expressed the need for the provision of teaching for social responsibility, important and persistent barriers stand in the way of its sustained development. What is needed are both bottom-up teaching initiatives from individuals or groups of academic teachers, and top-down support to secure appropriate embedding in the university. Often the latter is lacking or inadequate. Educational policies at the national or international level, such as the Bologna agreements in Europe, can be an opportunity for introducing teaching for social responsibility. However, frequently no or only limited positive effect of such policies can be discerned. Existing accreditation and evaluation mechanisms do not guarantee appropriate attention to teaching for social responsibility, because, in their current form, they provide no guarantee that the curricula pay sufficient attention to teaching goals that are desirable for society as a whole. (shrink)

The sixteenth-century Dutch spiritualist and controversialist, Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (1522-1590), is increasingly recognized as a pivotal figure in the cultural and political life of the early Dutch Republic. With the appearance of Henk Bonger's widely acclaimed biography (1978), the first complete account of Coornhert's life became available in the Dutch language. Today this biography is still the starting point of any serious research on Coornhert and his circle. This translation now makes this standard biography available in English for the (...) first time. The translator profited from Henk Bonger's comments on the translated chapters, and the author approved of adaptations and changes where these were deemed necessary. The structure and most of the chapters of the book are as they were in the original. The chief changes are: the abridgment and combination into one chapter of the two original chapters on Coornhert's creative work and his translations. The ample quotes from Coornhert contained in the text enable the reader to attain a first hand acquaintance with Coornhert's profound thought and inimitable style. References have been updated and some explanatory remarks intended for a non-Dutch readership were added. The translation is complemented with a full bibliography of Coornhert's writings, as well as an up-to-date bibliography of the secondary literature; with 25 illustrations. (shrink)