HJ EIKMEYER AND H. RIESER Word Semantics from Different Points of View. An Introduction to the Present Volume /. Possible Worlds Possible worlds have turned ...

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Friedrich Engels und die wegweisende Bedeutung der Philosophie für die Naturwissenschaft" verfügbar.

Werturteile über Musik - lassen sie sich begründen, sind sie verbindlich, welche Geltung haben sie? Das Buch untersucht philosophische, soziologische und pädagogische Aspekte. Dabei werden insbesondere die wichtigsten Urteilsformen und Argumentationsmöglichkeiten sowohl mit kulturabhängigem als auch mit universalem Geltungsanspruch dargestellt und diskutiert. Den theoretischen Erörterungen folgen mit zahlreichen Noten- und Textbeispielen Hinweise und methodische Vorschläge zur Beurteilung von Musik in unterschiedlichen kulturellen Milieus.

Most of the reports on synthetic biology include not only familiar topics like biosafety and biosecurity but also a chapter on ‘ethical concerns’; a variety of diffuse topics that are interrelated in some way or another. This article deals with these ‘ethical concerns’. In particular it addresses issues such as the intrinsic value of life and how to deal with ‘artificial life’, and the fear that synthetic biologists are tampering with nature or playing God. Its aim is to analyse what (...) exactly is the nature of the concerns and what rationale may lie behind them. The analysis concludes that the above-mentioned worries do not give genuine cause for serious concern. In the best possible way they are interpreted as slippery slope arguments, yet arguments of this type need to be handled with care. It is argued that although we are urged to be especially vigilant we do not have sufficiently cogent reasons to assume that synthetic biology will cause such fundamental hazards as to warrant restricting or refraining from research in this field. (shrink)

This paper considers the concept of freedom in behavioural terms, defining it in relation to freedom of action. This notion is applied to psychiatric abnormalities, and it is suggested that this new way of looking at the problem may go some way to surmount the philosophical difficulties normally attaching to the notion of freedom.

The commercialization of ‘big science’ is in full swing, leading to situations in which the ethical principles of academia are beginning to be compromised. This is exemplified by the profitable business of genetic ancestry testing. The goals of this sort of ‘big science’ are not necessarily in any way novel, however. In particular, large genotyping projects have a certain start‐up time when their design is frozen in, so that the projects often lag behind the development of genetic knowledge. On the (...) other hand, extremely provisional knowledge about potential disease markers is being rapidly turned into questionable ‘tests’, purporting to determine risk factors for complex disorders, by private companies that are eager to get their share of a profitable market of the future. The flow of money generated by such concerns looks likely to erode traditional research operations and small‐scale projects, which risk becoming pebbles on the ‘big science’ landscape. BioEssays 30:1246–1251, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

After more than a decade of intensive discussion, the concept of »sustainable development still remains rather vague. However, a broad consent exists that sustainability implies intragenerational as well as intergenerational equity. Therefore, a policy for sustainability has to go beyond pareto-superiority and to face both queastions of distribution and of scale. This reveals that at the core of sustainability ethical problems are involved. Although the notion of sustainability cannot be used as a concrete recipe, as Karl Homann correctly observes, it (...) has tobe clarified in ordertobe a useful regulative idea. (shrink)