El presente artículo recorre críticamente la situación venezolana a partir de la actual vinculación de lo indígena con un Estado denominado socialista. Sin embargo, el par conceptual indígena/socialista puede ser examinado a la luz de antecedentes socio-históricos que dan cuenta de realidades muy diferentes a las retóricas chavistas. Por otra parte, las acciones del gobierno respecto al petróleo demuestran la lejanía que tiene la cuestión indígena en las preocupaciones del Estado. Los derechos indígenas siguen quedando tras las bambalinas de la (...) política, a lo cual se suma la indiferencia gubernamental por los problemas ecológicos. (shrink)

This volume unites various contributions reflecting the intellectual interests exhibited by Professor Herman Parret (Institute of Philosophy, Leuven), who has continued to observe, and often critically assess, ongoing developments in pragmatics throughout his career. In fact, Parret's contributions to philosophical and empirical/linguistic pragmatics present substantive proposals in the epistemics of communication, while simultaneously offering meta-comments on the ideological premises of extant pragmatic analyses. In a lengthy introduction, an overview is provided of his achievements in promoting an integrated, "maximalist" pragmatics, as (...) well as of the links between his own work in philosophy of language and in semiotics and aesthetics. The remaining 12 essays address relevant pragmatic themes or look into the relation between pragmatics and neighboring disciplines. They deal with grammatical deixis (Brisard, Ikegami) and mood (van der Auwera & Schalley), performativity (Harnish, Holdcroft), speech-act types and their praxeological dimensions (Roulet, Van Overbeke), Wittgensteinian language games (Marques, Parisi), cultural and intercultural identities (Vandenabeele, Verschueren), and the visual arts (Wildgen). (shrink)

Was ist und wie funktioniert praktische Normativität? Können Soll-Sätze aus Ist-Sätzen abgeleitet werden? Gibt es so etwas wie objektive Werte und moralische Tatsachen? Oder beziehen sich normative Aussagen in Wirklichkeit auf mentale Vorgänge in den Subjekten? Welchen Geltungsanspruch haben normative Überzeugungen im Allgemeinen und moralische Überzeugungen im Besonderen? Welche Rolle spielen Wünsche, Emotionen und die (reine) praktische Vernunft? Erkennen wir moralische Regeln und Eigenschaften intuitiv? Beruht alle Moral nur auf Übereinkunft? Diese und weitere Fragen und Probleme sind heute Gegenstand einer (...) umfangreichen, interdisziplinär geführten Normativitäts-Debatte. Auf systematischer Ebene diskutieren Internalisten und Externalisten über das Wesen praktischer Gründe, Realisten und Antirealisten über den ontologischen Status praktischer Normen sowie Kognitivisten und Non-Kognitivisten über die Wahrheitsfähigkeit normativer Aussagen und die Art und Weise, wie das praktisch Gesollte erkannt werden kann. Geführt werden diese Debatten unter Rückgriff auf Positionen, die je nach Selbstverständnis der Teilnehmer aristotelisch, humeanisch, kantisch, utilitaristisch oder pragmatistisch sind. Dieser Band möchte dazu beitragen, Vertreter der unterschiedlichsten Konzeptionen praktischer Normativität in einen konstruktiven Dialog miteinander zu bringen. (shrink)

Sport gehört zum Leben vieler Menschen weltweit. Sport wirft ethische Fragen und Probleme auf, die in den Massenmedien, an Stammtischen und auch in der Wissenschaft diskutiert werden. Wenn es um Doping, Sexismus, Umweltzerstörung, politische Ideologisierung und ähnliches geht, stehen im Hintergrund solcher Diskussionen auch Fragen nach einem dem gesellschaftlichen Zusammenleben und dem Sport angemessenen Menschenbild. In Auseinandersetzung mit leibphänomenologischen Konzepten der zeitgenössischen philosophischen Anthropologie und die Leiblichkeit des Menschen betreffenden Aussagen der theologischen Anthropologie wird in dieser Sportethik das christliche Menschenbild (...) beschrieben. Das Phänomen Sport wird vom Spielgedanken her in den Blick genommen. Als ethisches Leitbild dient die allen Menschen gleiche Würde. Sie wird in Auseinandersetzung mit zeitgenössischen philosophischen und theologischen Entwürfen von der Lehre der Gottebenbildlichkeit des Menschen her beschrieben und für ethische Fragen im Sport fruchtbar gemacht. Exemplarisch werden die Themen Doping, Geschlechterverhältnis, Tier- und Umweltschutz, Politisierung, Kommerzialisierung und die Möglichkeit ethischer Bildung im Sport erörtert. (shrink)

Although the literature on, and the interest in, the relation of Husserlian phenomenology and Hegelian phenomenology are almost next to nil, the interpretations surrounding this relation are plagued by a number of aporiai. There is too much attention to extraneous matters. There is no adequate attempt to work out and explicate their respective theories of phenomenology and the coherency of the theories. There is a failure to spell out the presuppositions involved in the formation of transcendental philosophy which is to (...) be established within their respective phenomenological frameworks. Our approach avoids these pitfalls by focusing on Husserl's phenomenology as a transcendental philosophy within a subjectively dependent framework, and on Hegel's phenomenology as a propadeutic to a concept dependent framework. As a propadeutic, however, Hegelian phenomenology is an immanent critique of philosophical discourse, which is articulated within a subjectively dependent framework, in order for the concept dependent framework to be instituted. The question is raised as to whether Husserlian phenomenology can be encompassed by the immanent critique of the PhS. This would mean that Husserl's phenomenology must be prefigured by a cognitive formation in the PhS. We answer this question in the affirmative. We give individual treatment to Husserl and Hegel concerning the relation of phenomenology to logic. We go into a detailed analysis of what is involved in Husserl's notion of the subjective-logical and its aesthetic orientation, where we develop Husserl's full phenomenological theory of subjective life and its relation to world. We show that Husserl's full phenomenological theory of subjective life and world is prefigured by and maintains a family resemblance to the cognitive formation "Religion." We demonstrate finally that the argument of "Absolute Knowing" provides for the elimination of the subjective dependent framework as a viable principle for philosophical discourse. With this result, it becomes possible to claim that Hegel's PhS has encompassed and, hence, negated the subjectively dependent phenomenology of Husserl. (shrink)

Ever since Kant, mainstream moral philosophy has been more or less animated by the mission of discovering inescapable law-like rules that would provide a binding justification for morality. Recently, however, more and more authors have started to question a) whether this is possible, and b) what could this project, after all, achieve? An alternative vision of the task of moral philosophy starts from the pragmatic idea that philosophizing begins and ends in the actual human experience. It leads into a view (...) where morality is seen as a ‘social technology’ that aims to make living together possible, and strengthen people’s capability to live a good life within a society. Moral rules, then, are tools that we use to influence our behavior for the better. The role of moral philosophy is, accordingly, to develop further our moral tools, to propose solutions that enhance people’s capabilities to live good lives. In other words, moral philosophers become ethical engineers that use their expertise in ethical topics to criticize existing ‘moral technology’ and construct new concepts and theories that better answer the current challenges for living a good life. (shrink)

A number of recently-offered examples demonstrate that it is possible for films to be works of philosophy, but do not speak to just how many films are. Here I suggest one way in which a great number of films could be reasonably interpreted this way. My focus is on what I take to be our most crucial criterion for a film’s being philosophy: that it must present a philosophical argument. I present here a form that is plausibly shared by a (...) good number of arguments made by films, and provide a number of examples of films that present arguments of this form in favor of philosophical conclusions. (shrink)

A group of 71 university students were first asked to explain 3 conceptual metaphors. Then the participants' cognitive styles were classified into "analytic" or "holistic" and "imager" or "verbalizer" by means of the Riding (1991) computer-assisted test of cognitive styles. The results of the experiment revealed cognitive style variables in participants' preferred strategies to explain the metaphors: (a) "holistic thinkers" were more likely than "analytic" ones to blend their conception of the target domain with the source domain, and (b) "imagers" (...) were more likely than "verbalizers" to refer to stereotypical images to explain the metaphors. (shrink)

This essay argues that the deontological view of morality is connected to extreme and massive forms of violence through a kind of phenomenological necessity. In the first main section, I examine one family of such violence, which usually comes under the label of “religious violence”. I argue that it is not the religious element but the disqualification of context from the realm of justification which characterizes such violence. In the second main section, I examine the phenomenology of duty to conclude (...) that duty, by definition, denies any normative relevance to context. In the third main section, I use this sketch of a phenomenology of duty to propose a hypothesis about the underpinnings of the connection between mass violence and duty, namely, that the notion of duty carries with it the exclusion of moderation, and places the agent before an impossible situation that can only be resolved by violence. (shrink)

The restructuration of municipalities which has been decided by the Belgian government, is not only a purely technical operatzon but rather, and in the first place, a social problem. The shape and duty-profile of a local authority should not, indeed, be attuned only to fast changing expectations as far as services are concerned, but to consultation and participation as well.Public administration research cannot keep aloof from this debate, but is considerably hampered by the institutional confusion and the insufficient explicitation of (...) the aims of the present reform. A starting-pointcan, however, be found in the mergers of municipalities that were realized in 1964 and in 1970/1971. In 67 of these municipalities an inquiry was held concerning the consequences of the merger, and moreover, in twotest-cases this inquiry grew to a full-scale systematic policy analysis.This research shows that, as a rule, the former municipalities are reasonably represented in the new entity's council, but it also reveals that few efforts are made to give this representation a broader impact along formal or informal participation-channels. Integration of employees has not caused insurmountable problems. However, in large sized municipalities, resulting from mergers, one could notice a drastic increase in municipal personnel, not only with regard to new duties and objectives but to traditional administrative and police duties as well. Such a phenomenon points to the far-reaching changes which a substantial scale-increase provokes in a municipality's structure and policy profile. A large municipality resulting from mergers is no langer a simple sum of component parts, but a completely new entity, wishing to catch up as fast as possible with comparable municipalities that passed through a progressive growth process. Therefore, scale-increase is not only a means of economizing or an intra-administrative matter, but rather a way of creating chances for further development or wealth and well-being. (shrink)

Das Phänomen des Separatismus hat sich, wie der Zerfall der Sowjetunion und Jugoslawiens zeigt, zu einem wichtigen Faktor der internationalen Politik entwickelt. Auch in vielen demokratischen Staaten, die ihren Bürgern grundlegende Freiheiten gewähren, sind Spaltungstendenzen zu beobachten. Die Arbeit geht der Frage nach, ob sich Sezessionen von Staaten, die demokratisch verfasst sind, rechtfertigen lassen. Dazu werden die führenden philosophischen (und völkerrechtlichen) Konzeptionen einer eingehenden Analyse unterzogen. Erörtert werden zum einen die maßgeblich von Allen Buchanan entwickelten Gerechtigkeitstheorien, die nur gegen staatliches (...) Unrecht gerichtete Sezessionen für legitim erachten. Zum anderen werden die ‑ z.B. von David Miller vertretenen ‑ Theorien der nationalen Selbstbestimmung untersucht. Ausgehend von einer Kritik der beiden Begründungsansätze stellt der Autor eine eigene Legitimationstheorie vor. Unter Berufung auf die grundlegenden Werte, zu denen sich moderne Demokratien bekennen, spricht er sich für die Anerkennung eines Sezessionsrechts aus. In seiner Argumentation geht er auch auf mögliche Folgen weitreichender Separationsbefugnisse, wie die Entstehung von Mikrostaaten oder Enklaven, ein. -/- . (shrink)

“Daily Mail”, “Centros”, “Überseering” and “Inspire Art”: The ECJ has triggered by applying the principle of freedom of establishment step by step the competition between EU corporate legal systems. Entrepreneurs and investors within the EU now can choose between the various corporate legal forms of the various member states when deciding where and how to carry out their business. “Corporate Business Forms in Europe” is the first compendium including a review and description of the most important types of corporate business (...) forms in the newly enlarged Europe. In particular with respect to the proposed directive concerning the transfer of the registered office of a company from one member state to another under perpetuation of its legal capacity this compendium becomes an indispensable reference book for investors/businessmen, lawyers and students providing practical information starting with the formation and ending with the winding up of the various types of corporate entities presented. The team of authors comprises lawyers and professionals from the various countries concerned with a profound background in corporate law. (shrink)