Ist das menschliche Handeln vorbestimmt oder kann der Einzelne frei entscheiden? In Auseinandersetzung mit den Positionen von Chrysipp, Epikur und Karneades gelangt Cicero zur Auffassung, dass es für den menschlichen Willen keine von außen wirkenden und vorausgehenden Ursachen gebe, die diesen Entscheidungsprozess bestimmen. Die Mitte 44 v.Chr. begonnene und unvollendet gebliebene Schrift schließt sich unmittelbar an "De divinatione" und "De natura deorum" an.

The three works to be examined here are concerned in their various ways with the rationality of ethics. Baier is concerned almost exclusively with bringing out the rationality of ethics, and in the process develops a new/old ethical theory. Ginsberg's concern with "the rational ethic" is rather subsidiary to his main themes, namely the unsoundness of cultural relativism and the truth concerning the relevance of the findings of sociology and other social sciences to ethics. Mackinnon is largely concerned with the (...) meta-ethical problem of the "different styles of reasoning" in ethics, and hence with the problem of the inter-relation of ethics and metaphysics on various levels, logical, historical and psychological. (shrink)

Accent in Hittite: A Study in Plene Spelling, Consonant Gradation, Clitics, and Metrics. By Alwin Kloekhorst. Studien zu den Boğazköy-Texten, vol. 56. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014. Pp. xxv + 716. €98.

Ethical conflicts have always been connected with new techniques of reproductive medicine such as in-vitro fertilization. The fundamental question is: When does human life begin and from which stage of development should the embryo be protected? This question cannot be solved by scientific findings only. In prenatal ontogenesis there is no moment during the development from the fertilized oocyte to a human being which could be recognized as an orientation point for all ethical problems connected with the question of the (...) right to dispose of prenatal life (interruption of pregnancy, research on embryos). The protection of an individual human life must be valid for all in the same manner and from the very beginning on. It must not depend on value judgments or on stages of development, so-called grades of humanity, because these would then become selection criteria. Procreated life must have the right to be born. These were the essential ethical arguments which led to the German Embryo Protection Law. (shrink)

El mayor capital de nuestra narrativa, enclaustrada bajo un techo de acero, es el yo, que ha dejado a oscuras a la otredad, el colectivo. Esta narrativa se adscribe rigurosamente al realismo capitalista, centrada en un yo, esencialista, deshistorizada, emotiva, privatizada en cuanto a la preocupación por él/la sujeto/a protagonista y su entorno afectivo; además, sin expectativas de futuro, en constante trayecto hacia el pasado infantil o adolescencial. La definición del momento histórico por el que actualmente atraviesa la literatura chilena, (...) es el de un lento pero decidido declive hacia la insignificancia. No está a punto de desaparecer, por el contrario, se está publicando mucho, incluso en pandemia. Tampoco quiero decir que en este siglo no se hayan publicado obras valiosas. Las hay y en buen número. Más bien se trata del corrimiento de lo literario en su conjunto hacia una zona de insignificancia cultural. Camino a convertirse en un nicho de consumo definido por un rango decidida-mente decreciente, la literatura parece estar rebelándose poco frente a este dramático hecho. (shrink)

Husserl - at least in his third intellectual career - was convinced that subject is placed at the heart of philosophy and philosophy is nothing but egology. This Cartesian character makes Husserl one of the greatest figures of modern thought. But in contemporary period, this central ego and, accompanied with that, the modern thought have been challenged by poststructuralists. Because of their focus on psychoanalysis and their priority to other poststructuralist writings, Lacan's argumeats are significant. In this article, at first, (...) we proceed with the Lacan's central idea against the Cartesian subject, and then by explaining Husserl's thoughts we will see what his defence is. Husserl, by phenomenological reduction of natural attitude inherent in natural sciences, places phenomenology in a different dimension and prefers it to other sciences. The process of raising empirical ego to transcendental ego supports such defence. (shrink)