I will present evidence that nature does not optimize in the sense of Fermat's principle of least time, contrary to what Schoemaker's unintentionally ambiguous exposition might suggest. First, Huygens' principle, an alternative nonteleological account of Snell's law, is outlined. Second, I confront Fermat's principle with a substantive conceptual problem.

Hans-Martin Sass, Honorary Professor of Philosophy. Founder and board member of the Centre for Medical Ethics, Bochum, Germany. Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Honorary Professor of the Bioethics Research Centre, Beijing. He has written more than 60 books and pamphlets, more than 250 articles in professional journals. Editor of the Ethik in der Praxis/ Practical ethics, Muenster: Lit. Founder and co-editor of the brochures “Medizinethische Materialien”, Bochum: ZME. He has (...) lectured in Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, the Chech Republic, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, France, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Taiwan. The interview devoted to exposition of the concept of bioethics in America and Germany, as well as the professor`s attitude to the idea of the integrative concept of bioethics. The concept of integrative bioethics has been developed in different countries, a component of this concept is the idea of the need for discussion on bioethics in various sectors of society. Equally important in this concept are the definitions of bioethics and the bioethical imperative proposed by Fritz Jahr in 1926. The scientist`s article, which was discovered in 1997, contains a new format of bioethical ideas, as well as a valuable opportunity to enhance understanding the term of bioethics as an integrative science. Interview has been conducted by Hanna Hubenko as a part of the joint international course «Integrative Bioethics». At the meeting it was discussed the experience of cooperation and plans for the future. Cooperation and feedback between scientists remains an unconditional prerogative, also in a pandemic situation. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Martin Heidegger" verfügbar.

Nach der Meinung das Verfassers bezieht sich heute der Streit zwischen der Philosophie und der Theologie auf den Menschen und nicht - wie in der Yergaxgenheit - auf Gott. Aufgrund dieser These wird die späte Abhandlung von Luther “Disputatio de homine" erörtert. An Hand de Vernunft ist die philosophische Anthropologie nur imstande eine Bestimmung des Menschen als einer weltlichen Ezietans zu geben. In der theologischen Anthropologie wird der Mensch als "pura materis Dei" verstanden. Es ist auch keine Begriffsbestimmung des menschlichen (...) Seins; es wird darin nur die Abhängigkeit des Menschen von Gott ausgedrückt. Die leitende Stelle wird der theologischen Anthropologie zugeteilt und nicht der Wissenschaft, die unfähig ist, Grundprobleme das menschlichen Seins zu lósen. (shrink)

Biotopes and Bioethics are highly complex and adaptable systems of Bios. Individual bios is terminal, but the stream of Bios goes on. Basic properties of Bios such as communication and cooperation, competence and competition, contemplation and calculation, compassion and cultivation come in different shades of light and dark in individuals and species, in history and ecology. Hans-Martin Sass discusses the territories of Bios and Bioethics, based on his involvement in decades of consulting in academia, business and politics. Special (...) attention is given to the vision and role of Bioethics in research and training, in religious and cultural traditions, and in the survival, happiness, and health of corporate, social and political bodies. Hans-Martin Sass is Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at Georgetown University, Washington DC, and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Ruhr University, Bochum. (Series: Practical Ethics - Studies / Ethik in der Praxis - Studien, Vol. 40) [Subject: Bioethics]. (shrink)

Term and concept of bioethics originally were developed by Fritz Jahr, a Protestant Pastor in Halle an der Saale in 1927, long before the period, when bioethics in the modern sense was recreated in the US in 1970s and since that time has spread globally. Jahr’s bioethical imperative, influenced by Christian and humanist traditions from Assisi to Schopenhauer and by Buddhist philosophy holds its own position against Kant’s anthropological imperative and against dogmatic Buddhist reasoning: ‘Respect each living being as an (...) end in itself and treat it, if possible, as such’. Jahr interprets the 5th Commandment ‘Thou shall not kill’ offensively and liberally as ‘common morality’ which includes the obligation of caring for one’s own health, public health and health education within the wider framework of a universal bioethical Sittengesetz. In the article-translation the actual contemporary thoughts about the bioethical imperative, which serves not only the object of interdisciplinary study, but also the practical approach to acquiring responsibility and environmental image of thinking, are found. Didactic considerations of Yahr go beyond the paternalistic upbringing, they point to the content and methodological purpose of teaching ethics to ethical discourse. According to Yahr, ethics does not regulate philosophical, theological or political knowledge, does not act as a dictatorship of a way of behavior. Ethics is the conduct of discussions, the culture of discussion and communication. Following the philosophy of Yahr, Professor Hans-Martin Zass formulated the geo-ethical imperative: "Respect the Mother Earth and all natural life as it is, for which the responsible person is an end in itself, and get around as much as possible in this way!". In respect for all living things, there is a relationship between man and animals, plants, nature, including the health systems, educational-informational and research organizations. Pastor Fritz Jahr, who had no immediate influence during his times, built a strong first Protestant foundation for contemporary theological and ethical concepts in medical ethics, bioethics, and environmental ethics. (shrink)

What is health? This question figures prominently in several ethical, medicinal and psychological issues. Against this background the paper investigates the definition and the understanding of health in Karl Barth‘s dogmatics in its theological framework. The reconstruction provides a model of health, which allows treating contemporary issues, because it presents a dynamic and relational model with several dimensions, including the dimension of will. The will to health, though depending on somatic, psychic and social conditions, plays an important role in handling (...) with diseases, in living with imperfections and in supporting healthy lifestyle and preventive measures. This will must be interpreted as the will and the power to be a human being with its gifts and limits. (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGRudolf Otto hat sich – was weithin unbekannt geblieben ist – mehrfach mit »Darwinismus« auseinandergesetzt. Er sah in ihm eine Gefahr für Geist und Frömmigkeit, lehnte ihn aber keineswegs in Bausch und Bogen ab. Er hielt ihn für begrenzt und wenig plausibel; ihm gegenüber sei auf der Eigenständigkeit des Geistigen zu bestehen. Otto wendet sich gegen Naturalismus und Supranaturalismus. Der Religion gehe es um »Teleologie«; ohne »Teleologie« hänge die Deszendenztheorie sozusagen in der Luft. Er wirbt für eine Doppelperspektive, ohne zu (...) berücksichtigen, dass Teleologie als solche kein theologisches Argument sein kann. Angesichts der heute verschärften Fragestellung eines »neuronalen Darwinismus« muss die Verhältnisbestimmung zur Religion innerhalb des Evolutionsdenkens gesucht werden: Religion als Schutz der biologischen und kulturellen Evolution vor sich selbst.SUMMARYAlthough it has generally gone unremarked, Rudolf Otto several times took up the discussion about “Darwinism”. He saw in it a danger for spiritual life and piety while at the same time he by no means rejected it altogether. Regarding it as plausible to a certain, limited extent, he considered it necessary at the same time to insist on the autonomy of the spiritual. Otto takes a position against naturalism and supernaturalism. In religion, he argues, it is a question of “teleology”, and without teleology the theory of descent hangs, so to speak, in the air. He calls for a double perspective, while overlooking that teleology as such cannot be a theological argument. In view of today's increasingly sharply focused “neuronal Darwinism” we need to seek to position religion within evolutionary thought: i.e. religion as the protection of biological and cultural evolution from itself. (shrink)

There are contemporary tendencies to regard the human consciousness as an algorithm, or to reduce the human subjective to organic-natural processes or to see it as a social construction depending on cultural conditions. Such approaches pose a challenge to ethical humanism, as it seems, as if it requires new justification and groundings. How can we grasp and defend the concept of embodied subjectivity of man and its freedom to act? How can we think of its unity including thought, will and (...) feeling, preventing it from getting lost in specialized potentials, and maintaining the person as an alert, responsible and self-founded unit? Furthermore, how is it possible to preserve the meaning of the name of the soul, since the notion of this traditional limit concept of the human subjective has fallen into disuse and likely vanished from the horizon? The essay asks for answer with the help of Hermann Cohen, the great Jewish philosopher of Neo-Kantianism, following the traces of his repeatedly stated, however never written systematic psychology. This first part of investigation confines itself to understand Cohen's early interpretation of Plato as the "primordial cell" of his psychology in order to show how the first three parts of his system of philosophy answer to some of the questions and problems the early work had raised, with special attention to Cohens philosophy of religion. Self-movement of soul and its deep connection with the human body could be viewed and grasped from the unity of human culture as well as of the allness of man. (shrink)

There are quite a number of rocky roads on which the old continent has embarked. There is, first, a harmonization of cultures and attitudes in the creation of a common European market of values and valuables, a harmonization undertaken in order to survive in an increasingly competitive global market. Second, there is a reactivation of specific European traditions in discourse, peaceable hermeneutics, solidarity, subsidiarity, tolerance in both conflict reduction and solution, and respect for self-determination and self-responsibility. Third, there is an (...) integration of theory and practice, of visions and reality, of national identity or pride and common European rights, and of obligations and cultural heritages. Last but not least, there is a question about the definition of European in a world which, at least in part, has been developed by successful European missionary work in the distribution of Age-of-Reason principles such as personal autonomy and social and ideational tolerance, the promotion of science-based technologies, and the creation of global markets for goods and services. (shrink)

This paper discusses ethical and theological issues of Sterbehilfe, assistance in the process of dying versus assistance to die, in particular the challenges of comfort care and palliative for the dying. Advance Directives are evaluated as instruments to establish patients preferences, to guide caregivers and physicians, and to honor patient~s values, visions and beliefs. It is recommended that churches and pastors take a lead in addressing these issues and help patients and their families in preparing for and executing Advance Directives, (...) churches also should take a Iead in developing model forms. The appendix contains a sample of an integrated Patientenverfügrung, Advance Medical Directive including a durable power of attomey and a value-based wish-and-directive list, taking the German legal framework into account and based on monotheistic systems of regious orientation. (shrink)

First publication of a letter of Albert Einstein to Hans Vaihinger, dated May, 1919, concerning Vaihinger's concept of "Fiktionen", the role of Geometry in Poincaré's system, and the importance of "real culture" in the intellectual's style of life. The letter is introduced and annotated.

The paper presents an overview of political and professional committees in the Federal Republic of Germany dealing with issues of biomedical ethics. The prevailing tendencies of paternalistic atittudes, the worst-casescenario argumentation method, and the unfortunate practice of applying general principles rather than mid-level principles in the assessment of concrete challenges in treatment and regulation are analyzed. Keywords: conflict, control, consent, commission design, paternalism, political ethics, regulation, self-regulation CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this?

The President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research published in March of 1983 its Report, Securing Access to Health Care: The Ethical Implications of Differences in the Availability of Health Services . Concluding that there are "ethical obligations" on behalf of society which are balanced by individual obligations, the Report provides an ethical framework for ensuring "ultimate responsibility" of the Federal government to arrange for equitable access to health and to a fair (...) share of cost. In doing so the Report neither makes justice nor beneficence the prime moral principle in public health care, it rather calls for a common sense approach in "approximating adequacy". But how to define equality without creating uniformity in a society rich in its diversity, including attitudes towards health? Keywords: justice, beneficence, right to health care, equality, distribution CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

Die Diskussion um die Grenzen des Wachstums ist noch nicht zum Kern vorgedrungen; zur Frage nach den limits to growth der materia humana. Es wird insbesondere auf den Beitrag philosophischer Theorien und Weltanschauungen zum Baubban an der Resource materia humana hingewiesen. Im Interesse des Rechtes auf natürliche und kulturelle Ungleichheit zwischen Indidividuen, Völkern und Kulturen wird eine konflikttheoretisch und humanistisch begründete Neuorientierung philosophscher Argumentation empfohlen und auf die Leistungsfähigkeit des Aristotelischen Maßes der Mitte und des aufklärerischen Toleranzkonzeptes hingewiesen.

In the spring of 1980 everyone in China wore the blue Mao uniform; the Cultural Revolution had been terminated a year before and the “Let 1000 Flowers Blossom” campaign introducing economic and cultural diversity and personal responsibility had just gotten off the ground. Ten lines of bicycles in each direction respectfully gave way for the few official, window-curtained limousines of the Red Flag or Shanghai type. Cadres and academics were interested in keeping up with what had happened in the rest (...) of the world during the three decades of Chinese self-isolation during the Civil War first and the Cultural Revolution thereafter. In the fall of 1985 the dresses were more colorful, and Beijing experienced lovers walking hand in hand, cadres preferring Nissan compact cars without curtains over full-sized, curtained Red Flags, and a real rush hour, mixing the ever increasing number of bicycles with official and private cars, trucks, and three-horse wagons bringing vegetables and meat from market oriented farmers into town for good profit. The blue Mao outfit becomes more and more the business dress of cadres and business executives or the clothing of the less fortunate; fabric and style indicate the precise social rank of the wearer. (shrink)