In vocational rehabilitation, empowerment is understood as the notion that people should make an active, autonomous choice to find their way back to the labour process. Following this line of reasoning, the concept of empowerment implicitly points to a specific kind of activation strategy, namely labour participation. This activation approach has received criticism for being paternalistic, disciplining and having a one-sided orientation on labour participation. Although we share this theoretical criticism, we want to go beyond it by paying attention to (...) the practical consequences of understanding empowerment as an activation strategy. Inspired by the field of Science and Technology Studies, we will explore the meaning of empowerment and activation in concrete practices of vocational rehabilitation in the Netherlands. Our analysis is based on the narratives of people with a work disability about their lives and the vocational rehabilitation programmes they participated in. We present five illustrative cases that how empowerment is ‘done’ in the practice of vocational rehabilitation and its unintended effects. Our analysis demonstrates that activation strategies seem to be caught in a paradox: instead of including people in society, they have excluding consequences. Vocational rehabilitation professionals can go beyond this paradox by learning from the ways in which empowerment is ‘done’ by clients in vocational rehabilitation programmes. (shrink)

In vocational rehabilitation, empowerment is understood as the notion that people should make an active, autonomous choice to find their way back to the labour process. Following this line of reasoning, the concept of empowerment implicitly points to a specific kind of activation strategy, namely labour participation. This activation approach has received criticism for being paternalistic, disciplining and having a one-sided orientation on labour participation. Although we share this theoretical criticism, we want to go beyond it by paying attention to (...) the practical consequences of understanding empowerment as an activation strategy. Inspired by the field of Science and Technology Studies, we will explore the meaning of empowerment and activation in concrete practices of vocational rehabilitation in the Netherlands. Our analysis is based on the narratives of people with a work disability about their lives and the vocational rehabilitation programmes they participated in. We present five illustrative cases that how empowerment is ‘done’ in the practice of vocational rehabilitation and its unintended effects. Our analysis demonstrates that activation strategies seem to be caught in a paradox: instead of including people in society, they have excluding consequences. Vocational rehabilitation professionals can go beyond this paradox by learning from the ways in which empowerment is ‘done’ by clients in vocational rehabilitation programmes. (shrink)

Our 'view' of great philosophers is very often determined by the iconographical tradition. Thus our view of the person Descartes is based, not least, on the well-known portrait in the Louvre in Paris, presumably a copy of a Frans-Hals painting, that shows a rather grim and disdainful Descartes. This view is contrasted here with portraits from Groningen and Copenhagen , which are almost unknown among philosophers and which present us with a rather mellow and affable Descartes. These paintings (...) are considered in the context of other Descartes-portraits. (shrink)

Fear, sadness, surprise, anger, lust and love - virtually nothing was more important in the paintings ofthe Golden Age than convincingly depicting human emotions. In this publication, the Frans Hals Museum and Rembrandt expert Gary Schwartz present a selection of masterpieces in which these emotions are sublimely portrayed. According to seventeenth-century connoisseurs, the beauty of a painting was not even half as important as the passions that could be seen in that painting; they formed the soul of the (...) work. Painters such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Maerten van Heemskerck and Cornelis van Haarlem were masters at depicting a range of emotions. Their works are presented in a new context - the emotional life - and with a focus on the flourishing scientific study of emotions in our own time. Emotions will be published in conjunction with the first exhibition in the Netherlands to present this essential component of painting. Exhibition: Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, the Netherlands (11.10.2014-15.02.2015). (shrink)

Excerpt from Augustin Hurelius Huguftinus wurbe am 15. Rovember 554 geboren. Seine Dater ftabt war Chagafte in Rumibien, heute Souf=flhras im norblichen Gieile ber fran 3öfifchen provin3 Conftantine. Don ber alten Stabt finb nur wenige Erummer ubrig geblieben. Rus ber ein3igen er haltenen 3nfchrift erfahren wir, baß fie bie Rechte eines romifchen muni3ipiums befaß. Hm Riebfcherba, bem hauptftrom Rorbafrilas gelegen, beffen breites @hal 3uerft phoni3ifcher Kolonifation unb fvater romifcher Kultur ben 5uga'ng öffnete, ift ber O)rt auch heute wieber ein nicht (...) unwichtiger hanbelsplaß. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

Perjumpaan Fransiskus Assisi dengan Sultan al-Kamil di tengah ko- baran perang salib akhir-akhir ini mendapat banyak perhatian dari pel- bagai macam peneliti (Hoeberichts 1997; Warren 2003, Tolan 2007, Moses 2009). Yang terakhir, Paul Moses—seorang Guru Besar Jurnalistik di Brooklyn College, New York— melakukan investigasinya sendiri dan menulis suatu buku yang sangat menarik dan aktual, seperti yang boleh diharapkan dari seorang pakar komunikasi. Landasan penting penelitian Moses adalah evaluasinya yang kritis terhadap sumber-sumber. Ia mengemukakan bahwa sumber-sumber tertua tentang peristiwa ini (Jacques (...) de Vitry, dan sebuah kronik yang anonim, keduanya saksi mata perang salib kelima itu) memberi gambaran lebih damai tentang perjumpaan ini ketimbang riwayat-riwayat hidup Fransiskus yang kemudian (Celano, Bonaventura, dll.) yang menggambarkannya sebagai misi yang konfrontatif, berusaha mempertobatkan Sultan untuk mencari kemartiran. Adalah Konsili Lateran IV (1215) dan Paus Innocentius III (1198-1216) serta penggantinya, Paus Honorius III, yang pada masa itu membangkitkan semangat untuk perang salib kelima guna merebut kembali Yerusalem yang belasan tahun sebelumnya direbut dari tangan penguasa Kristen oleh Salah ad-Din (Saladin), paman Sultan Malik al- Kamil. Kendati keluarga Sultan sudah memberitahukan bahwa Sultan bersedia menyerahkan kembali Yerusalem demi persetujuan damai, pihak Paus dan raja-raja Barat tetap mengobarkan semangat perang dan mengumpulkan pasukan. Menurut Moses, Fransiskus, dan saudara- saudaranya diharapkan oleh Gereja ikut mewartakan perang suci, tetapi ia memilih membawakan Injil ke seluruh Eropa, tidak terkecuali juga ke wilayah-wilayah Muslim. Serangan pasukan salib ke Kesultanan Mesir dimulai dari kota pela- buhan Damietta di delta Sungai Nil. Tawaran damai Malik al-Kamil, Sultan Mesir yang dikenal bijaksana dan juga moderat terhadap umat Kristiani di Mesir, kembali ditolak oleh Kardinal Pelagius, utusan Paus dalam perang salib kelima ini. Fransiskus datang ke camp crusaders pada Agustus 1219 dan memberi peringatan kepada para crusaders bahwa serangan mereka akan gagal, tetapi ia ditertawakan. Lalu pada September 1219 ia memutuskan untuk mencari jalan lain dengan menyeberangi lini permusuhan dan mendatangi Sultan al-Malik, tidak sebagai utusan tetapi hanya dengan pengetahuan Kardinal Pelagius menggambarkan Sultan al-Kamil sebagai binatang buas. Sebagai anak zamannya, Fransiskus ingin menciptakan damai dengan mewartakan Injil kepada Sultan. Hal itu tampaknya dilakukannya dengan cara yang khas, sebab dalam sumber tertua dikatakan bahwa Sultan mendengarkannya dengan penuh perhatian, dan memperlakukan Fransiskus sebagai tamu terhormat selama beberapa hari. Menurut Moses, Sultan mungkin terharu bahwa ada orang Kristiani yang berbeda dengan para agresor rakus yang ia kenal dari perang salib. Al-Kamil yang dikenal terbuka untuk Sufisme mungkin juga suka mendengarkan Fransiskus, karena Fransiskus terkesan mirip dengan seorang Sufi. Di lain pihak, Fransiskus juga terkesan dengan apa yang ia lihat, misalnya cara pasukan Muslim menjawab panggilan untuk berdoa............................................................... Kenyataan asli menurut Tolan ialah bahwa Fransiskus ingin menjalankan hidup rasuli sampai dengan mahkotanya, kemartiran, yang dapat ia peroleh dengan pergi mewartakan Injil kepada Sultan. Ini memang gam- baran yang jelas ada dalam biografi-biografi Celano dan Bonaventura, te- tapi tidak muncul dalam kronik-kronik lebih tua dan konteks hidup Fran- siskus sendiri. Kelemahan karya Tolan ialah bahwa ia kurang kembali kepada tulisan-tulisan Fransiskus sendiri dan riwayat hidupnya, seperti yang dilakukan secara mengesankan oleh Moses yang berhasil memper- lihatkan dalam konteks hidup Fransiskus suatu penolakan terhadap pe- rang, pewartaan damai, penghargaan terhadap praktik doa Islam, dan cara misi baru; yang semuanya harus dijadikan patokan untuk interpretasi per- jumpaan Fransiskus dengan Sultan. Tolan gagal melihat tema damai dalam riwayat hidup dan tulisan-tulisan Fransiskus itu, dan dengan demikian juga tidak mengakui adanya sesuatu yang inspiratif dalam peristiwa perjumpaan itu untuk hubungan Muslim–Kristiani masa sekarang. Sebaliknya, ia agak keras menolak interpretasi sejumlah peneliti dan gerakan damai sejak akhir abad ke-20 yang melihat misi Fransiskus sebagai misi damai dan menemukan dalam Fransiskus suatu model untuk menolak kekerasan perang dan mencari pendekatan baru, khususnya dalam hal ketegangan antaragama. Kelemahan karya Tolan ini sangat tampak justru dalam perbandingan dengan karya Moses, yang tidak mendiskusikan Tolan sebab terlambat menerimanya. Buku ketiga, St. Francis and the Conversion of the Muslims, karya Frank M. Rega, amat berbeda dengan kedua studi ilmiah di atas. Dengan tidak kritis sedikit pun, Rega menggabungkan semua yang bagus-bagus dalam pelbagai versi—dari kronik-kronik paling awal sampai ke legenda- legenda yang sangat kemudian—tentang perjumpaan Fransiskus dengan Sultan itu. Tanpa membedakan pelbagai versi dan bertanya tentang latarbelakang dan tujuan masing-masing, seperti dilakukan Tolan, Rega menciptakan suatu versi gabungan yang agaknya akan disukai oleh pembaca Katolik yang saleh dan konservatif (yang memang dilayani oleh penerbit Tan Books), tetapi tidak bernilai bagi seorang peneliti yang ingin menyingkapkan maksud Fransiskus sendiri dan sumber-sumber masing-masing; dan sangat mengecewakan pembaca kritis sekarang yang mencari ilham dalam adegan ini bagi masalah-masalah dunia sekarang. Cerita legendaris Rega yang penuh triumfantalisme yang hampir-hampir yakin bahwa Sultan bertobat dan dibaptis menjelang kematiannya, tentu lebih mengganggu hubungan Kristen dan Muslim sekarang daripada membantu menemukan suatu pendekatan baru. (Martin Harun, Program Studi Ilmu Teologi, Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyarkara, Jakarta). (shrink)

In this article, I explore what it means to “serve somebody,” drawing from my own experience as a full-time chaplain. Chaplains must serve many different parties, but are ultimately called to care for their patients via a covenental relationship of care.

There is a presumption in some circles that the identification of an externality or a public good presents a prima facie case for government intervention. Tyler Cowen has assembled a group of articles that challenge this view by arguing that the market, broadly construed, can handle many problems of public goods and externalities that are normally considered the province of the state. Although these articles present a stimulating perspective on problems of externalities and public goods, several of the essays overstate (...) their case and misrepresent the standard theory of public goods and externalities. (shrink)

For the past thirty years, Hal Foster has pushed the boundaries of cultural criticism, establishing a vantage point from which the seemingly disparate agendas of artists, patrons, and critics have a telling coherence. In The Anti-Aesthetic, preeminent critics such as Jean Baudrillard, Rosalind Krauss, Fredric Jameson, and Edward Said consider the full range of postmodern cultural production, from the writing of John Cage, to Cindy Sherman's film stills, to Barbara Kruger's collages. With a redesigned cover and a new afterword that (...) situates the book in relation to contemporary criticism, The Anti-Aesthetic provides a strong introduction for newcomers and a point of reference for those already engaged in discussions of postmodern art, culture, and criticism. Includes a new afterword by Hal Foster and 12 black and white photographs. (shrink)

This essay is a review of Ronald Dworkin's recent essay on equality of resources. Many of the ideas discussed by Dworkin have also been examined by economists with, I believe, considerable insight. Unfortunately, economists tend to write for economists, not for philosophers, and their insights are seldom communicated properly to noneconomists. Of course, the same criticism can be levied on philosophers! But perhaps legal theorists are less subject to this criticism. One of the great contributions of Dworkin is that he (...) is very readable; and the quality of his exposition makes these ideas accessible to a wide audience of philosophers, lawyers, and social scientists in general. (shrink)

ABSTRACT We outline a number of ethical objections to genetic technologies aimed at enhancing human capacities and traits. We then argue that, despite the persuasiveness of some of these objections, they are insufficient to stop the development and use of genetic enhancement technologies. We contend that the inevitability of the technologies results from a particular guiding worldview of humans as masters of the human evolutionary future, and conclude that recognising this worldview points to new directions for ethical thinking about genetic (...) enhancement technologies. (shrink)

The flaws in social psychological research pointed out by Cesario have societal costs. These include ignoring crucial base rates thereby degrading the effectiveness of policy decisions, generalizing the conclusions derived from experiments on non-professionals thereby distorting the public's view of professional law enforcement personnel, questionable accusations of racism, and mis-attributions of the causes of racial differences in behavior.

This paper takes issue with those commentators of Heidegger's philosophy whose point of entry into his thinking is the inherited prejudices of others. It demonstrates that if prior judgments are suspended, so that Heidegger's texts are permitted to speak for themselves, the truth of his `position', more a wege than a static motionless point, gradually and inexorably begins to emerge. I take Pope Benedict's first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, to draw the theological contours of a truly post-modern ethic. I then (...) hold up Heidegger's philosophy, as this is characterized principally though not exclusively in his lecture Der Satz Der Identität, to consider possible symmetries. Finally I offer an answer to the question: does Heidegger's thought have ethical consequences? (shrink)

We study the problem of the approach to equilibrium in a macroscopic quantum system in an abstract setting. We prove that, for a typical choice of “nonequilibrium subspace”, any initial state (from the energy shell) thermalizes, and in fact does so very quickly, on the order of the Boltzmann time τ B := h/(k B T ). This apparently unrealistic, but mathematically rigorous, conclusion has the important physical implication that the moderately slow decay observed in reality is not typical in (...) the present setting. (shrink)

Leading scholars address the ethical and practical dimensions of Heidegger's thought.

In this book two of the leading figures in argumentation theory present a view of argumentation as a means of resolving differences of opinion by testing the acceptability of the disputed positions. Their model of a 'critical discussion' serves as a theoretical tool for analysing, evaluating and producing argumentative discourse. They develop a method for the reconstruction of argumentative discourse that takes into account all aspects that are relevant to a critical assessment. They also propose a practical code of behaviour (...) for discussants who want to resolve their differences in a reasonable way. This is a major contribution to the study of argumentation and will be of particular value to professionals and graduate students in speech communication, informal logic, rhetoric, critical thinking, linguistics, and philosophy. (shrink)

Getting everything you want out of life isn't about doing more. It's about becoming more. Hal Elrod and The Miracle Morning have helped millions of people become the person they need to be to create the life they've always wanted. Now, it's your turn.

According to a simple form of consequentialism, we should base decision on our judgments about their consequences for achieving out goals. Our goals give us reason to endorse consequentialism as a standard of decision making. Alternative standards invariably lead to consequences that are less good in this sense. Yet some people knowingly follow decision rules that violate consequentialism. For example, they prefer harmful omissions to less harmful acts, they favor the status quo over alternatives they would otherwise judge to be (...) better, they provide third-party compensation on the basis of the cause of an injury rather than the benefit from the compensation, they ignore deterrent effects in decisions about punishment, and they resist coercive reforms they judge to be beneficial. I suggest that nonconsequentialist principles arise from overgeneralizing rules that are consistent with consequentialism in a limited set of cases. Commitment to such rules is detached from their original purposes. The existence of such nonconsequentialist decision biases has implications for philosophical and experimental methodology, the relation between psychology and public policy, and education. (shrink)

The human loss of the sense of sacred has been driven by a mechanization of the world that privileges the mundane and the material. Yet the earliest surviving history of the human mind reveals a widespread, embodied human faculty for perception of the cosmos and an intimate human relation to the cosmos. This history hints of an origin story that may be partly recovered by sacred relics of human prehistory.

The recent renewed interest in the foundation of quantum statistical mechanics and in the dynamics of isolated quantum systems has led to a revival of the old approach by von Neumann to investigate the problem of thermalization only in terms of quantum dynamics in an isolated system [1, 2]. It has been demonstrated in some general or concrete settings that a pure initial state evolving under quantum dynamics indeed approaches an equilibrium state [3–9]. The underlying idea that a single pure (...) quantum state can fully describe thermal equilibrium has also become much more concrete [10–12]. (shrink)

Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.

In A Philosophical, Scientific and Theological Defense for the Notion That a God Exists, Hal Flemings presents an overview of the history of the debate on the question of the existence of God. In an objective fashion, Flemings provides equal voice to opposing views while not hiding his own. He treats the problem of evil from a new perspective, which includes moral evil and natural evil and discusses the relationship between God and the theoretical and factual sciences.

BackgroundConcerns about research misbehavior in academic science have sparked interest in the factors that may explain research misbehavior. Often three clusters of factors are distinguished: individual factors, climate factors and publication factors. Our research question was: to what extent can individual, climate and publication factors explain the variance in frequently perceived research misbehaviors?MethodsFrom May 2017 until July 2017, we conducted a survey study among academic researchers in Amsterdam. The survey included three measurement instruments that we previously reported individual results of (...) and here we integrate these findings.ResultsOne thousand two hundred ninety-eight researchers completed the survey. Results showed that individual, climate and publication factors combined explained 34% of variance in perceived frequency of research misbehavior. Individual factors explained 7%, climate factors explained 22% and publication factors 16%.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the perceptions of the research climate play a substantial role in explaining variance in research misbehavior. This suggests that efforts to improve departmental norms might have a salutary effect on behavior. (shrink)

Mathematicians suggest that some proofs are valued for their explanatory value. This has led to a philosophical debate about the distinction between explanatory and non-explanatory proofs. In this paper, we explore whether contrasting views about the explanatory value of proof are possible and how to understand these diverging assessments. By considering an epistemic and contextual conception of explanation, we can make sense of disagreements about explanatoriness in mathematics by identifying differences in the background knowledge, skill corpus, or epistemic aims of (...) mathematicians or mathematical communities. We focus on the relation between explanation, epistemic aims and diverging explanatory assessments by looking at cases from mathematical practice. (shrink)

Presents a philosophy of values which has grown out of a life long intimacy with the out of doors world.