The human being’s mastery of itself, on which the self is founded, practically always involves the annihilation of the subject in whose service that mastery is maintained, because the substance which is mastered, suppressed, and disintegrated by self-preservation is nothing other than the living entity.

Some of the recent criticisms published during and after the last revision process of the Declaration of Helsinki are directed at its basic legitimacy. In this article we want to have a closer look at the two criticisms we consider to be the most fundamental. The first criticism questions the legitimate authorship of the World Medical Association to publish a document such as the Declaration. The second fundamental criticism we want to examine argues that the last revision process failed to (...) meet the standards for fair, democratic procedures. Although both criticisms deny the formal legitimacy of the Declaration in the most fundamental way, they have never been addressed in detail in a single article. We refute most of the related arguments. However, acknowledging some of the points made, improvements for future revision processes and versions of the Declaration of Helsinki are outlined. (shrink)

Gerontologists have proposed different concepts for ageing well such as ‘successful ageing’, ‘active ageing’, and ‘healthy ageing’. These conceptions are primarily focused on maintaining health and preventing disease. But they also raise the questions: what is a good life in old age and how can it be achieved? While medical in origin, these concepts and strategies for ageing well also contain ethical advice for individuals and societies on how to act regarding ageing and old age. This connection between gerontology and (...) ethics is overlooked by both schools of thought. We thus develop this research programme for a systematic geroethics in four steps. First, we analyze ‘successful ageing’ as put forward by Rowe and Kahn as a paradigmatic example of a gerontological conception of ageing well. Then, in a second step, we move from criticisms within gerontology to an ethical perspective; in particular, we want to clarify the problem of the claim of universal validity of conceptions of the good life. In a third constructive step, we explain how the ‘capabilities approach’ could be applied in this context as a normative foundation for the implicit normative assumptions of gerontological conceptions of ageing well, such as a particular choice of functionings, the ethical relevance of human agency, and the resulting claims of individuals towards society. Finally, using a concept developed by the German philosopher Ursula Wolf, we systematically develop the different aspects of the connection between ageing well and the theory of the good life in their full complexity and show their interconnectedness. (shrink)

The vast majority of empirical research on stakeholder management has traditionally focused on multinational corporations. Only in recent years, scholars have begun to pay attention to the stakeholder management concept in relation to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The few existing studies in this area, however, discuss SMEs as a context free category or remain focused on single country analysis. This cross-national empirical research investigates SME owner-managers' perceptions of stakeholder management in six European countries. The comparative analysis is followed by (...) a discussion of how institutional, cultural and linguistic contexts can influence owner-managers' sensemaking of stakeholder management. Our study questions the universality of specific management terms and proposes that more attention should be paid to the institutional, cultural and linguistic environments that shape economic activity in different parts of Europe. (shrink)

This volume outlines a model of language that can be characterized as functionalist, usage-based, dynamic, and complex-adaptive. The core idea is that linguistic structure is not stable and uniform, but continually refreshed by the interaction between three components: usage, the communicative activities of speakers; conventionalization, the social processes triggered by these activities and feeding back into them; and entrenchment, the individual cognitive processes that are also linked to these activities in a feedback loop. Hans-Joerg Schmid explains how this multiple (...) feedback system works by extending his Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model, showing how the linguistic system is created, sustained, and continually adapted by the ongoing interaction between usage, conventionalization, and entrenchment. Fulfilling the promise of usage-based accounts, the model explains how exactly usage is transformed into collective and individual grammar and how these two grammars in turn feed back into usage.0The book is exceptionally broad in scope, with insights from a wide range of linguistic subdisciplines. It provides a coherent account of the role of multiple factors that influence language structure, variation, and change, including frequency, economy, identity, multilingualism, and language contact. (shrink)

Book notice Content Type Journal Article Pages 1-2 DOI 10.1007/s11016-011-9588-3 Authors Nicolas Rasmussen, School of History and Philosophy, University of NSW, Sydney, 2052 Australia Journal Metascience Online ISSN 1467-9981 Print ISSN 0815-0796.

in a nervous system of a given species. This chapter provides a critical perspective on the role of connectomes in neuroscientific practice and asks how the connectomic approach fits into a larger context in which network thinking permeates technology, infrastructure, social life, and the economy. In the first part of this chapter, we argue that, seen from the perspective of ongoing research, the notion of connectomes as “complete descriptions” is misguided. Our argument combines Rachel Ankeny’s analysis of neuroanatomical wiring diagrams (...) as “descriptive models” with Hans-Joerg Rheinberger’s notion of “epistemic objects,” i.e., targets of research that are still partially unknown. Combining these aspects we conclude that connectomes are constitutively epistemic objects: there just is no way to turn them into permanent and complete technical standards because the possibilities to map connection properties under different modeling assumptions are potentially inexhaustible. In the second part of the chapter, we use this understanding of connectomes as constitutively epistemic objects in order to critically assess the historical and political dimensions of current neuroscientific research. We argue that connectomics shows how the notion of the “brain as a network” has become the dominant metaphor of contemporary brain research. We further point out that this metaphor shares (potentially problematic) affinities to the form of contemporary “network societies.” We close by pointing out how the relation between connectomes and networks in society could be used in a more fruitful manner. (shrink)

Continental Philosophy of Science provides an expert guide to the major twentieth-century French and German philosophical thinking on science. A comprehensive introduction by the editor provides a unified interpretative survey of continental work on philosophy of science. Interpretative essays are complemented by key primary-source selections. Includes previously untranslated texts by Bergson, Bachelard, and Canguilhem and new translations of texts by Hegel and Cassirer. Contributors include Terry Pinkard, Jean Gayon, Richard Tieszen, Michael Friedman, Joseph Rouse, Mary Tiles, Hans-Jöerg Rheinberger, Linda (...) Alcoff, Todd May, Axel Honneth, and Penelope Deutscher. (shrink)

The central aim of this paper is to present a Boolean algebraic approach to the classical Aristotelian Relations of Opposition, namely Contradiction and (Sub)contrariety, and to provide a 3D visualisation of those relations based on the geometrical properties of Platonic and Archimedean solids. In the first part we start from the standard Generalized Quantifier analysis of expressions for comparative quantification to build the Comparative Quantifier Algebra CQA. The underlying scalar structure allows us to define the Aristotelian relations in Boolean terms (...) and to propose a 3D visualisation by transforming a cube into an octahedron. In part two, the architecture of the CQA is shown to carry over, both to the classical quantifiers of Predicate Calculus and to the modal operators—which are given a Generalized Quantifier style re-interpretation. In this way we provide an algebraic foundation for Blanché’s Aristotelian hexagon as well as a 3D alternative to his 2D star-like visualisation. In a final part, a richer scalar structure is argued to underly the realm of Modality, thus generalizing the 3D algebra with eight (2 3 ) operators to a 4D algebra with sixteen (2 4 ) operators. The visual representation of the latter structure involves a transformation of the hypercube to a rhombic dodecahedron. The resulting 3D visualisation allows a straightforward embedding, not only of the classical Blanché star of Aristotelian relations or the paracomplete and paraconsistent stars of Béziau (Log Investig 10, 218–232, 2003) but also of three additional isomorphic Aristotelian constellations. (shrink)

EUVÉ, François. Science, foi, sagesse . Faut-il parler de convergence? João Batista Libanio MUTSCHLER, Hans-Dieter. Physik und religion . Perspektiven und Grenzen eines Dialogs. João Batista Libanio RIEGER, Joerg. Remember the poor . The callenge to theology in the twenty-first century. João Batista Libanio RIBEIRO, Fernando. Os Incas . As plantas do poder e um tribunal espanhol. João Batista Libanio SOUZA, Alberto de Mello e (Org.). Dimensões da avaliação educacional . Suzana dos Santos Gomes BOFF, Leonardo. Virtudes para um (...) outro mundo possível . v. I: Hospitalidade: direito e dever de todos. BOFF, Leonardo. Virtudes para um outro mundo possível . v. II: Convivência, respeito & tolerância . Paulo Agostinho Nogueira Baptista LIBANIO, João Batista. Qual o futuro do Cristianismo? Paulo Agostinho Nogueira Baptista. (shrink)

In his choice of texts, the Editor has been faced with the difficult task of selecting, from among the author's more than 600 publications, those of the greatest philosophical interest. It is chiefly the topics of value-rela tivism and the logic of norms that have been kept in view. The selection has also been guided by the endeavour to reprint, so far as possible, texts which have not hitherto appeared in English. At times, however, this aim has had to be (...) discarded, in order to include works of key im portance and also the latest expressions of Kelsen's view. In addition to the two topics already mentioned, the Editor has con sidered Kelsen's discussions of the causal principle to be so far worthy of philosophical attention, that some writings on causality and account ability have been included in this collection of philosophical studies. OTA WEINBERGER Hans Kelsen died on April 19th, 1973. Only his work now lives, for the inspiration of future generations of jurists and philosophers. Graz, 25th April, 1973 OT A WEINBERGER TRANSLATOR'S NOTE I am obliged to the Editor for his careful scrutiny of the translation, which has led to a number of corrections and improvements in the text. (shrink)

The ArgumentIn the first part of this paper, issues concerning an “epistemology of time” are raised. The Derridean theme of the historial movement of a trace is connected to Prigogine's notion of an operator-time. It is suggested that both conceptions can be used to characterize the dynamics of experimental systems in contemporary science. It is argued that such systems have, to speak with Hacking, “a life of their own” and that this is precisely the reason for their inherent unpredictability.In the (...) second part, a case from the history of virology and cytomorphology is presented. The movement of a particular experimental system is followed in its peculiar tension between deferring and becoming different—i.e., between the persistence of a problem and the vagaries of its successive transformations. They are rendered possible by novel technical implementations, but they are not determined in any meaningful sense on a mere technological level.In conclusion, a point is made for a deconstructive approach to the history of science. (shrink)

In this article, Hans Schildermans suggests practices of study as a way for universities to respond to socio-ecological questions, issues, and problems related to the Anthropocene. He elaborates the concept of study practices by drawing on traditional pragmatic notions, such as problematic situation and problematization, as these are articulated in John Dewey's theory of inquiry. Prompted by concerns about the closed problem–solution nexus, as well as questions concerning the (egological) worldview underlying this theory, Schildermans aims to reread these ideas (...) through the lens of contemporary authors such as Isabelle Stengers. In doing so, he articulates the educational dynamics of practices of study that address problematic situations, with specific attention to matters of educational futurity. In other words, centrally important to this analysis is the question of how these practices of study participate in a world in-the-making by activating possible futures — or, to formulate it somewhat differently, how practices of study give shape to a pragmatics of a world to-be-made. (shrink)

​Die Beiträge befassen sich mit der Verfassung des Politischen und bilden die wichtigsten Kernthesen von Hans Vorländer ab.

J.M. R. Lenz hat sich keineswegs als ein „vorübergehendes Meteor“ erwiesen, wie Goethe urteilte, sondern gilt inzwischen als einer der wichtigsten Autoren des 18. Jahrhunderts. Sein unglückliches Schicksal ist, vor allem über Büchner vermittelt, ein bis heute aktuelles Thema der produktiven Rezeption. Seine Werke entziehen sich aufgrund ihrer formalen und thematischen Vielschichtigkeit schnellen Deutungen. Das Lenz-Handbuch, an dem namhafte Vertreter der einschlägigen Forschung wie auch junge Autoren mitgearbeitet haben, vermittelt ein umfassendes und differenziertes Bild von Leben und Werk. Die Artikel (...) erschließen das Werk nach Gattungen sowie nach übergreifenden innovativen Gesichtspunkten. Die Rezeption von Autor und Werk in Wissenschaft, Literatur, Kunst, Musik und Film wird einbezogen. Dem ‚Lenz-Kenner‘ vermittelt das Handbuch den aktuellen Stand der Wissenschaft, aber auch neue Einsichten und damit die Grundlage für weitere eigene Forschungsarbeiten, dem Interessenten am Autor, an der Literaturgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts und ihrer Aneignung heute bietet das Handbuch eine Fülle von Informationen und Anregungen, die zugleich der besonderen Rolle von Lenz im literarischen Feld seiner Zeit gerecht zu werden versuchen. (shrink)

Donald Davidson has shocked his readers by arguing that assertion is not a conventional activity, thus attacking what was taken to be a truism by most philosophers of language. The paper claims that Davidson's argument is seriously flawed by his failure to distinguish a number of questions which should be kept separate. Assertion is a matter of seriousness, not of sincerity; departures from seriousness are marked by techniques which are undeniably conventional. There are no parallel indicators of seriousness, i. e. (...) there is no assertion-sign. But this necessary absence of a conventional marker of seriousness from our communicative repertoire does not imply that the activity of asserting is not conventional. Assertion differs in important ways from eating or walking; it is these differences which have led Searle, Lewis, EHimmett and countless others to conceive of language as essentially conventional'. The paper argues that Davidson'snaturalistic challenge illuminates the (non-existing) role of the assertion-sign, while failing to undermine the credentials of the 'truism'. (shrink)

This essay attempts to give definitions and identity conditions for the two predominant senses of ‘Argument’ currently in use, the one involving reasons for a conclusion and the other denoting an expressed disagreement with ensuing verbal behaviour by two parties. I see Johnson's new concept of ‘Argument’, as developed in his book Manifest Rationality, as a hybrid of the two common senses of ‘Argument’, and, accordingly, I try to define and give the identity conditions of Johnson-arguments. Finally, I disagree with (...) Johnson on the nature of the definition he thinks he has proposed, and I conclude with observations suggesting that his logical perspective has dialectical and rhetorical components. (shrink)

Das kunstlerische Denken, das auf dem Denken der Sinne beruht, stellt sich seine Zeichen - in der Musik also: seine Klange - nicht vor, sondern lebt unmittelbar in ihnen, badet, watet, schwimmt in ihrer Materie und gestaltet aus ihr neue geistige Lebensformen. Ich nenne das Musikdenken das flussige Denken - so Hans Zender in einer programmatischen Ausserung. Im Hintergrund seines vielschichtigen kompositorischen Werks stehen grundlegende philosophische Fragen: Wie ist das Verhaltnis von Logos und Mythos? Was bedeutet Wahrheit in der (...) Kunst? Wo liegen die Grenzen der Rationalitat? Wie hangen Glaube und Liebe, Leere und Schweigen, Sagbares und Unsagbares zusammen? In neueren Aufsatzen und Aphorismen beruhrt Hans Zender diese und andere grosse Themen des Menschseins. Im Dialog mit Texten der religiosen und philosophischen Weltliteratur - vom I Ging bis zu Nietzsche, von der Bibel bis zum Herz-Sutra - zeigt er, dass es gerade die Paradoxa und Grenzgange des Denkens sind, die Kunstwerk zum Elementarereignis machen. (shrink)

Tolerance—though seen to be necessary on a world divided by deep differences—often strikes us as grudgingly given and resentfully received. Conceived more widely, however, tolerance can be seen to occupy the difficult, and contested, terrain between merely putting up with and accepting others.

The problem of joint measurement of incompatible observables is investigated. Measurements are represented by positive operator-valued measures. A quantitative notion of inaccuracy is defined. It is shown that within this framework joint inaccurate measurements are possible for arbitrary maximal projection-valued measures on finite-dimensional spaces. The accuracy of such measurements is limited, as is shown by an inaccuracy inequality we derive. This new type of uncertainty relation can be unambiguously interpreted as referring to measurement precision rather than preparative quality. Several recent (...) experiments are seen to be realizations of such joint measurements. (shrink)