The ideal of humanity.--The federation of humanity.--The moral progress of humanity.

A prominent feature of Norwegian nationalism in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth century was its use of Norway’s Viking and medieval history. This use is visible in Norwegian popular and political culture of the period with, among other things, the Norwegianization of city names and the emergence of the Dragon style. This article examines the role of commemoration of Viking heroes in Norwegian street names and memory sites in the period (...) 1850-1940. In doing so, the article identifies who were remembered, when and where, and shows how there was an increase in Viking and medieval street names in the lead-up to 1900. The article also shows how the Norwegian population embraced and partook in the remembrance of these heroes through the case studies of the restoration of Trondheim Cathedral for 1930 and the construction of Haraldshaugen monument in 1872. By comparing these case studies with the spread of street names referencing the medieval, this article shows how there is a correlation between the increase in street names and the popular contributions to the construction of national memorials which suggests an increased participation in the national community. This shows the link between the spread of nationalism and medievalism in Norway in the period leading up to the Second World War opening the way to examine Norwegian medievalism as a component of the popularisation of the idea of an independent Norway. (shrink)

Corporations are often considered as moral agents. Traditional ethical systems are directed toward human beings—how could human rules be expected to apply to corporations? In this paper an alternative system of ethics is proposed, tailored specifically for the corporate entity. I use the method of Aristotle, in which the character traits that are conducive to the goal of human activity, happiness, are derived. For corporations, the goal is taken to be the traditional capitalist one of sustainable profit, and corresponding corporate (...) virtues are derived. I argue that corporate virtues such as Efficient Production, Resource Management, Correct Pricing, and Right Relationship will be beneficial to human beings. It is profitable to consider the interests of human beings, because thecorporation will avoid a costly war of offense and retaliation. A corporate ethics is developed that protects humans and has motivating force not based on human nature, but rather profit. (shrink)

I examine Edith Stein’s argument for the existence of God found in Finite and Eternal Being. Although largely Thomistic in its structure, the proof is unique in its details, starting with the life of the ego (Ichleben) and ascending to the being of God. The ego is shown to be contingent in its being as well as in the meaning-content through which it lives. Stein argues that this dependent being cannot be accounted for without a being that does not need (...) to receive its being, namely, God. She then turns to the felt security of being as a counter to Heideggerian Angst as a revelatory mood, arguing that security puts us into contact with divine being. She concludes by admitting that proofs rarely convince because of the infinite distance between creature and creator, but concedes to them a role, nonetheless, in shrinking the distance between belief and unbelief. (shrink)

Do animals possess rights? The argument works from marginal cases: we attribute value to humans because of some minimal set of characteristics thathumans possess. Animals possess these characteristics; therefore they deserve moral consideration. Such arguments depend on a functionalist attribution of value. Any turn to functionalism will necessarily be detrimental to human dignity, since some humans will not qualify. I will show how the methods used to establish animal rights are generally some form of functionalism, with particular emphasis on Peter (...) Singer and Tom Regan. Functionalism will always be arbitrary, since it assigns value on the basis of facts that do not necessitate such values. A better alternative is Aquinas’s theory of human dignity, that humans are valuable because of their supernatural destiny. This theory cannot be proven, but neither can the functionalist argument. Further, the human dignity argument is more rational, since it avoids many of the problems of the functionalist animal rights position. (shrink)

Der Kinder- und Jugendgesundheitssurvey soll repräsentative, gültige Daten und Erkenntnisse zur gesundheitlichen Situation von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Deutschland als entscheidende Voraussetzung für die Bewertung und die Verbesserung von deren gesundheitlicher Lage schaffen. Forschung und insbesondere Blutentnahmen an nichteinwilligungsfähigen Personen erfordern eine profunde ethische und rechtliche Überprüfung. Der Beitrag befasst sich damit, welche medizinethischen Empfehlungen und welche rechtlichen Grundsätze in Deutschland für die Bewertung relevant sind. Nach geltendem deutschen Recht können Eltern zu Blutentnahmen bei ihren Kindern nur zustimmen, wenn diese (...) in deren individuellem gesundheitlichen Interesse liegen. Ein „gruppenspezifischer Nutzen“, wie er von Medizinethikern national und international als Voraussetzung für ethische Akzeptabilität (bei minimalem Risiko der Untersuchungen) ebenfalls für sinnvoll und wichtig angesehen wird, und der in dem geplanten Survey in jedem Falle gegeben wäre, genügt deutschen Rechtsansprüchen nicht. Im Pretest hat sich der potenzielle individuelle Nutzen der Blutentnahmen bestätigt: Viele Kinder hatten biochemisch nachweisbare Gesundheitsrisiken (z. B. verborgener Nährstoffmangel, allergische Sensibilisierung, Hinweise auf Impflücken oder langfristige Gesundheitsrisiken), die ohne Blutuntersuchung nicht feststellbar gewesen wären. Bei über 90% der Kinder waren nach schriftlicher Einwilligung der Eltern und Jugendlichen sowie informeller Zustimmung der Kinder, die in jedem einzelnen Falle berücksichtigt wurde, Blutentnahmen möglich. Nach der Befragung einer Unterstichprobe ist die Akzeptanz insgesamt gut. (shrink)

Der Kinder- und Jugendgesundheitssurvey soll repräsentative, gültige Daten und Erkenntnisse zur gesundheitlichen Situation von Kindern und Jugendlichen in Deutschland als entscheidende Voraussetzung für die Bewertung und die Verbesserung von deren gesundheitlicher Lage schaffen. Forschung und insbesondere Blutentnahmen an nichteinwilligungsfähigen Personen erfordern eine profunde ethische und rechtliche Überprüfung. Der Beitrag befasst sich damit, welche medizinethischen Empfehlungen und welche rechtlichen Grundsätze in Deutschland für die Bewertung relevant sind. Nach geltendem deutschen Recht können Eltern zu Blutentnahmen bei ihren Kindern nur zustimmen, wenn diese (...) in deren individuellem gesundheitlichen Interesse liegen. Ein „gruppenspezifischer Nutzen“, wie er von Medizinethikern national und international als Voraussetzung für ethische Akzeptabilität (bei minimalem Risiko der Untersuchungen) ebenfalls für sinnvoll und wichtig angesehen wird, und der in dem geplanten Survey in jedem Falle gegeben wäre, genügt deutschen Rechtsansprüchen nicht. Im Pretest hat sich der potenzielle individuelle Nutzen der Blutentnahmen bestätigt: Viele Kinder hatten biochemisch nachweisbare Gesundheitsrisiken (z. B. verborgener Nährstoffmangel, allergische Sensibilisierung, Hinweise auf Impflücken oder langfristige Gesundheitsrisiken), die ohne Blutuntersuchung nicht feststellbar gewesen wären. Bei über 90% der Kinder waren nach schriftlicher Einwilligung der Eltern und Jugendlichen sowie informeller Zustimmung der Kinder, die in jedem einzelnen Falle berücksichtigt wurde, Blutentnahmen möglich. Nach der Befragung einer Unterstichprobe ist die Akzeptanz insgesamt gut. (shrink)

We consider the implications for the ethical evaluation of research programs of two fundamental changes in the revised research ethical guideline of the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences. The first is the extension of scope that follows from exchanging “biomedical” for “health‐related” research, and the second is the new evaluative basis of “social value,” which implies new ethical requirements of research. We use the example of antibiotic resistance interventions to explore the need to consider the instances of what (...) we term the pragmatic risks of such interventions to evaluate the social value of certain kinds of health‐related research. These (pragmatic) risks severely threaten the social value of interventions in every area where human and social responses significantly impact on their effectiveness. Thus, the social value of health‐related research needed to demonstrate its effectiveness depends on the extent and successful management of such risks. Research designed to take into account the management of pragmatic risks also gives rise to similar types of risks, and the potential for social value in light of those risks needs to be considered in ethical reviews based on the new guidelines. We argue that, to handle this new expanded task, the international system of research ethical review addressed by the guidelines needs institutional development. (shrink)

Die Teilhabe an der lateinischen res publica litterarum der frühneuzeitlichen Fakultäten und Universitäten wurde mittels gemeinsamer literarischer Ausdrucksformen reguliert - zuweilen in Gestalt feingeistiger philologischer Kontroverse, zuweilen als wüste Polemik oder tosender Jubel. In Fallstudien zu Humanisten aus drei Jahrhunderten geht der Band der Frage nach, wie kollegiale Beziehungen literarisch inszeniert und innerhalb der Gelehrtengemeinschaft instrumentalisiert wurden. Diskursregeln und Kommunikationsbedingungen kommen dabei ebenso zur Sprache wie die Anwendung literarischer Modelle aus antiker und nachantiker Invektive, Satire und Panegyrik.

Guest editorial to a special symposium on New Media and Risky Behavior of Children and Young People: Ethics and Policy Implications.

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832)" verfügbar.

We investigate how social comparison processes in leader treatment quality impact group members’ self-worth, affect, and behavior. Evidences from the field and the laboratory suggest that employees who are treated kinder and more considerate than their fellow group members experience more self-worth and positive affect. Moreover, the greater positive self-implications of preferentially treated group members motivate them more strongly to comply with norms and to engage in tasks that benefit the group. These findings suggest that leaders face an ethical trade-off (...) between satisfying the moral standard of treating everybody equally well and satisfying individual group members’ desire to be treated better than others. (shrink)

This introductory text is a critical theory toolkit on how to how to make use of Karl Marx's ideas in media, communication and cultural studies. Karl Marx's ideas remain of crucial relevance, and in this short, student-friendly book, leading expert Christian Fuchs introduces Marx to the reader by discussing fifteen of his key concepts and showing how they matter for understanding the digital and communicative capitalism that shapes human life in 21st century society. Key concepts covered include: (...) the dialectic, materialism, commodities, capital, capitalism, labour, surplus-value, the working class, alienation, means of communication, the general intellect, ideology, socialism, communism, and class struggles. Students taking courses in Media, Culture and Society; Communication Theory; Media Economics; Political Communication and Cultural Studies will find Fuchs' concise introduction an essential guide to Marx. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Spiritual AuthorityA Christian PerspectiveKarl BaierOne could define spiritual authority as the power to support the opening of the entire universe —and especially of the life of human beings—toward union with the redeeming ultimate reality. Christian tradition knows several holders of this power: God, Jesus Christ, the angels, the saints and priests, spiritual guides, and last but not least each and every Christian and person of goodwill. (...) They all are spiritual authorities and together create a field of liberating power with many interdependent centers. One can conceive of spiritual authority in Christianity as a complex interplay between these various forces. The manifestation of spiritual power through them does not take place for its own sake, or to celebrate the holder of spiritual authority, but to empower other centers. Thus, spiritual power is not private property. It is only real insofar as it is passed on to others. In the field of human spiritual authority, tensions and struggles arise if the flow of authority is blocked by a particular center attempting to monopolize spiritual power for the establishment of an illusionary self-identity.Rather than going into an analysis of the entire field, I would like to take a closer look at one of its facets: “spiritual guides,” those who are acknowledged specialists in helping others to a life in the presence of God. Of course, other centers of spiritual authority will sooner or later also come into the picture, because in the field of spiritual power one authority cannot be understood without the others. Fields of other forms of power and their centers of authority (scriptural authority, political authority, etc.) also influence and partially permeate the field of spiritual authority, but that is a subject for another enquiry.Spiritual Guidance in the History of ChristianityA central socioreligious form of spiritual authority manifests itself within relationships of spiritual guidance, or (to use the common Christian phrase) within spiritual direction. The remaining part of this paper deals with concepts of spiritual direction and ways of understanding the authority of the director in his or her relationship to [End Page 107] the directee within Christian spiritual life. Before looking into the current situation, I will highlight some milestones in the history of Christian spiritual guidance.From late antiquity onward, spiritual authority was accepted within Christian communities as a specific form of authority, quite different from other forms and especially different from the authority of the clergy to lead the Church.The earliest context in which this difference appeared coincides with the beginning of spiritual direction. Spiritual direction in Christianity originated as a monastic concept.1 “Historically it was from the movement of desert monasticism that we received the idea of spiritual direction within the framework of Christian practice.”2 As abba (“father”) and amma (“mother”) ascetics, holy men or women, like the hermits of the Egyptian desert who lived on the periphery of the socioreligious zone controlled by the ecclesiastical hierarchy, functioned as independent spiritual authorities for their fellow monks and nuns as well as for people from further afield who visited the desert to ask for spiritual advice. As one can imagine, the relationship between the two forms of authority was complex, and one can observe tensions and attempts at reconciliation between the authority of the charismatic ascetics and the authority of the bishops, as well as between ascetical ideals taken from monasticism and the pastoral care for lay Christians from the fourth to the sixth century.3The Decretum Gelasianum, an official document dating back to the beginning of the sixth century, assessed that the vitae patrum—the books containing narratives of the lives and the spiritual teachings of the desert fathers—were to be accepted by the Church as valid teaching with all honor (cum omni honore suscipimus). The use of the term “father” in this text indirectly confirms that no ordination was necessary to receive this honorary title and the ministry connected to it. Most of the fathers acknowledged by the Decretum Gelasianum have never been ordained priests.When the desert tradition was superseded by organized monasticism, the charismatic authority of the abba or amma became institutionalized in the form of monastery rules, which functioned... (shrink)

Two of the most brilliant German thinkers of the twentieth century were Karl Jaspers and Rudolf Bultmann. Jaspers, the philosopher, and Bultmann, the theologian, were both influenced by the philosophy of Martin Heidegger and the rise of the existentialist movement. Late in their careers they interacted on the subject of Bultmann's attempt to divest Christianity of its mythical components and make sense of it in more modern terms. This work is a compilation of articles by Jaspers and Bultmann that (...) formed a running debate originally published in various scholarly journals. The first half of the book is Jaspers' lengthy and critical analysis of Bultmann's interpretation of Christianity, in which Jaspers essentially rejects the premise that Christianity or any other religion can or should be understood without its mythical framework. Jaspers charges that Bultmann has radically misunderstood the nature of myth and that myth is an irreplaceable form of symbolic communication. In the second part, Bultmann defends his approach, suggesting that Jaspers has not really understood his intent or meaning. Contemporary people today, schooled in the scientific tradition, are likely to reject the biblical texts because of their miraculous claims and supernatural content. Bultmann insists that the scholarly, scientific study of the Bible is a legitimate way to reveal its true message, apart from all the supernatural trappings. Finally, in response, Jaspers accepts some of Bultmann's clarifications but takes him to task on the subject of 'justification by faith', which he feels Bultmann defines too narrowly and too exclusively. This stimulating work by two penetrating minds will give anyone interested in perennial philosophical and theological questions much to ponder. (shrink)

Abstract.In order to develop a single narrative of God's continuing creation that includes salvation, this essay in theological construction focuses on the idea of transformation. Using the metaphor of conceptual maps in science and religion, it weaves together ideas about evolution, God working in the world, and how humans can be brought to wholeness in community in relation to God.

God's action in the world poses a challenge for the Christian scholar. At the scholarly level of one's discipline, invocations of divine Providence as an explanatory category are considered unacceptable. Yet the scholar-believer necessarily acknowledges that God is indeed active in His Creation. Generally, this tension is resolved via the assumption of methodological naturalism at the level of one's discipline and the embrace of theism at the level of one's faith. This can result in an incoherence between the commitments (...) of one's discipline and one's faith. Yet both theology and physics suggest that this tension may be relieved somewhat by acknowledging that the physical universe is no longer understood to be closed to the possibility of divine action. Consequently, Christian historians may want to reconsider the value of Providence as an explanatory category. (shrink)

The book provides the first analysis of Karl Christian Friedrich Krause_s system of philosophy and his panentheism in English. Karl Christian Friedrich Krause has bequeathed to us a system of philosophy which is little recognised in contemporary philosophy. This is both surprising and unfortunate, because Krause_s philosophical system has much to offer: Through transcendental reflection on the nature of the human, Krause understands God as the one infinite and unconditioned reality, and the ultimate necessary condition of (...) knowledge. God makes humanity, nature, and reason ultimately comprehensible as the essential categories of the divine Essence. God is thus the single, primary, object of science that is already logically presupposed even before His discovery. Science presupposes theology, and theology is best read as panentheism. (shrink)

Panentheism is an often-discussed alternative to Classical theism, and almost any discussion of panentheism starts by way of acknowledging Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832) as the person who coined the term.1 However, apart from this tribute, Krause's own panentheism is almost completely unknown. In what follows, I first present a brief overview of Krause's life and correct some misconceptions of his work before I turn to the core ideas of Krause's own panentheistic system of philosophy. In brief, Krause (...) elaborates a scientific holism that is anchored in intellectual intuition of the Absolute as the one principle of being and recognition. The task of philosophical speculation consequently is twofold: the analytic-ascending part of philosophy proceeds by way of transcendental reflection and according to Krause enables us to obtain intellectual intuition. The synthetic-descending part of philosophy starts by way of showing that science as a whole is an explication of the original union of the Absolute as apprehended in intellectual intuition. Once this is achieved, Krause argues that the emerging philosophy of science is most adequately referred to as “panentheism” since everything is what it is “in and through” the Absolute, while the Absolute itself is not reducible to anything in particular. I end by showing how to relate Krause's panentheism to recent philosophical discussion. (shrink)

In a rare volume, Barth presents his lecture on "The Holy Spirit and the Christian Life", in which he insists there is no way to get behind or beyond the fact that God is revealed to us in three distinct ways, yet with a unity that cannot be divided.