The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) is presented and understood as the primary reference point regarding questions of children’s rights. However, the UNCRC is not a neutral instrument deployed to meet the rights of children: it embodies a specific perception of the child, childhood and citizenship. The interpretation of the UNCRC from the point of view of children’s legal status emphasises the autonomy of children; the focus is on the rights that children possess. Conversely, the (...) social-political interpretation of the UNCRC addresses the question of how the rights of children can be realised. It is suggested that distinguishing between these interpretations is essential with regard to questions of pedagogy and education. (shrink)

Wittgenstein übernimmt im Tractatus das Zusammenhangsprinzip von Frege und formuliert die Doktrin von der Priorität des Satzes vor seinen Teilen, den Wörtern. Dies ist die frühste Formulierung kontextualistischen Denkens bei Wittgenstein. In der Spätphilosophie wird das "Sprachspiel" zur sinnkonstituierenden Einheit sprachlicher Kommunikation und damit zum Inbegriff kontextualistischen Denkens beim späten Wittgenstein. Eine Untersuchung der zentralen Begriffe von Wittgensteins Spätphilosophie offenbart starke Verwandtschaft zu Schapps Begriff der "Geschichten". G. Bateson führt den Terminus "Geschichte" in jenem Schappschen Sinne als Prinzip des geistigen (...) Prozesses der Informationsgewinnung bzw. Sinnkonstitution ein. Damit läßt sich über Schapps Phänomenologie der Geschichten eine Brücke von Wittgenstein zu Bateson schlagen und eine bislang unbemerkte Affinität zwischen beiden Denkern aufzeigen. Umgekehrt werden mit dem von Bateson geprägten Begriff der Transkontextualität Phänomene beschreibbar, die Wittgenstein bei der Diskussion mathematischer bzw. logischer Paradoxien behandelt. Demnach sind solche Paradoxien transkontextuelle Phänomene, die in ihrem Sinn unterbestimmt sind, ähnlich dem transkontextuellen Verhalten, das sinnbestimmende Kontexte (Sprachspiele) transzendiert und außerhalb solcher Kontexte als verrückt erscheint. (shrink)

Wittgenstein übernimmt im Tractatus das Zusammenhangsprinzip von Frege und formuliert die Doktrin von der Priorität des Satzes vor seinen Teilen, den Wörtern. Dies ist die frühste Formulierung kontextualistischen Denkens bei Wittgenstein. In der Spätphilosophie wird das "Sprachspiel" zur sinnkonstituierenden Einheit sprachlicher Kommunikation und damit zum Inbegriff kontextualistischen Denkens beim späten Wittgenstein. Eine Untersuchung der zentralen Begriffe von Wittgensteins Spätphilosophie offenbart starke Verwandtschaft zu Schapps Begriff der "Geschichten". G. Bateson führt den Terminus "Geschichte" in jenem Schappschen Sinne als Prinzip des geistigen (...) Prozesses der Informationsgewinnung bzw. Sinnkonstitution ein. Damit läßt sich über Schapps Phänomenologie der Geschichten eine Brücke von Wittgenstein zu Bateson schlagen und eine bislang unbemerkte Affinität zwischen beiden Denkern aufzeigen. Umgekehrt werden mit dem von Bateson geprägten Begriff der Transkontextualität Phänomene beschreibbar, die Wittgenstein bei der Diskussion mathematischer bzw. logischer Paradoxien behandelt. Demnach sind solche Paradoxien transkontextuelle Phänomene, die in ihrem Sinn unterbestimmt sind, ähnlich dem transkontextuellen Verhalten, das sinnbestimmende Kontexte (Sprachspiele) transzendiert und außerhalb solcher Kontexte als verrückt erscheint. (shrink)

The article describes the development of adolescents for a sense of self in a lesbian home, in order to compile guidelines for lesbian parents as well as pastoral counsellors to help and guide adolescents to develop a healthy sense of self. From the research results, it appears that there are certain positive and negative aspects of a lesbian home that influence adolescents’ sense of self. Where both parents are involved with the adolescents, share household duties equally and have a quality (...) relationship with each other and the adolescents, the adolescents are generally well-adapted, happy and able to handle challenges in order to develop a healthy sense of self. The positive influence that Christian religious certainty has on the overall development of the adolescents was also confirmed by this study. On the other hand, adolescents experience particular aspects as challenging and impeding in their development of a healthy sense of self: Conflict and criticism from the companion parents are humiliating and destructive. Stigmatising, teasing and rejection from the hetero-normative society, as a result of their parents’ sexual orientation, appear to be the largest obstacles in their psychosocial development. They react in a shy, negative and evasive way to the stigmatisation and withdraw themselves from situations that could be painful and humiliating. It also appears that the absence of a father figure and financial tension in lesbian families are impeding the adolescents’ healthy development of a sense of self. (shrink)

Erkennen wir die Welt so, wie sie wirklich ist oder konstruieren wir die Wirklichkeit, in der wir leben? Der einführende Artikel vom Herausgeber und der Beitrag von E. von Glasersfeld wollen zeigen, dass diese Streitfrage sich durch die ganze abendländische Philosophiegeschichte zieht. In dem Sammelband wird der Streit auf der Grundlage alter und neuer Argumente noch einmal ausgefochten. Stützen sich die einen auf die wissenschaftliche Erforschung unseres Gehirns und unserer kognitiven Fähigkeiten, um ihre These der Nichterkennbarkeit einer von uns unabhängig (...) existierenden Welt zu untermauern, so meinen die anderen, diese Argumentation sei zirkulär, ja, habe der radikale Konstruktivismus recht, so sei er widersprüchlich und damit falsch. Hinter dem konstruktivistischen Paradigma verberge sich zudem letztlich ein naiver Naturalismus, der glaubt, mit Hilfe wissenschaftlicher Forschungen allein erkenntnistheoretische Aussagen machen zu können, so die Argumentation von H.J. Wendel. Hingegen sind es vor allem Literatur- und Sozialwissenschaftler, die in etwas abgewandelter Form den Konstruktivismus durchaus als wissenschaftliches Paradigma akzeptieren. So verteidigt Wolfgang Frindte einen Sozialen Konstruktivismus, der die Auffassung vertritt, wir erzeugten unsere Wirklichkeit zusammen im Diskurs. S.J. Schmidt geht davon aus, dass soziale Systeme über Wirklichkeitsmodelle verfügen, die in der gesellschaftlichen Evolution über die Konstitution und Thematisierung für essentiell gehaltener Unterscheidungen entstehen. Verschiedene Beiträge beziehen sich explizit auf die Theorie von Humberto Maturana. Busse, Locker und Nüse erörtern in ihren Aufsätzen besonders die Problematik, die sich aus dem Konzept der Autopoiese und der daraus resultierenden Geschlossenheit des zentralen Nervensystems ergeben. O. Breidbach nimmt auf die biologische Forschung Bezug und zieht den es noch viel zu verfrüht ist, um auf dem heutigen Kenntnisstand bereits Aussagen über unsere Erkenntnisfähigkeit zu machen. Einige Beiträge befassen sich mehr mit den praktischen Auswirkungen konstruktivistischer Annahmen z.B. in der Familientherapie (Stierlin) oder in der Lerntheorie (Simon). Von Interesse sind auch die Beiträge von Hans Geisslinger, die beschreiben, wie sich unsere Wirklichkeit mit Hilfe einiger weniger Parameter verändern lässt. (shrink)

Introduction Future HIV vaccine efficacy trials with adolescents will need to ensure that participants comprehend study concepts in order to confer true informed assent. A Hepatitis B vaccine trial with adolescents offers valuable opportunity to test youth understanding of vaccine trial requirements in general. Methods Youth reviewed a simplified assent form with study investigators and then completed a comprehension questionnaire. Once enrolled, all youth were tested for HIV and confirmed to be HIV-negative. Results 123 youth completed the questionnaire (mean age=15 (...) years; 63% male; 70% Hispanic). Overall, only 69 (56%) youth answered all six questions correctly. Conclusions Youth enrolled in a Hepatitis B vaccine trial demonstrated variable comprehension of the study design and various methodological concepts, such as treatment group masking. (shrink)

Susan Schneider argues that physicalism must be false if abstracta are part of the physicalist's dependence base. In opposition to her view, here I set out some reasons to think that abstracta in general, including abstracta that are woven into the dependence base, are something physicalists can countenance with consistency.

In conveying experiences of meditation, the question of what exceeds or should resist description has been a recurrent topic of commentary in a wide array of literature -- including religious doctrine, meditation guides, and contextual accounts written by historians and social scientists. Yet, to date, this question has not significantly informed neuroscientific studies on the effects of meditation on brain and behaviour, in large part -- but not wholly -- because of the disregard for first-person accounts of experience that still (...) characterizes neuroscience in general. By juxtaposing perspectives from non-neuroscientific accounts on the tensions and questions raised by what is and is not expressed or expressible in words, this article paves the way for a new set of possibilities in experimental contemplative neuroscience. (shrink)

Intonation plays an integral role in comprehending spoken language. Listeners can rapidly integrate intonational information to predictively map a given pitch accent onto the speaker's likely referential intentions. We use mouse tracking to investigate two questions: (a) how listeners draw predictive inferences based on information from intonation? and (b) how listeners adapt their online interpretation of intonational cues when these are reliable or unreliable? We formulate a novel Bayesian model of rational predictive cue integration and explore predictions derived under a (...) concrete linking hypothesis relating a quantitative notion of evidential strength of a cue to the moment in time, relative to the unfolding speech signal, at which mouse trajectories turn towards the eventually selected option. In order to capture rational belief updates after concrete observations of a speaker's behavior, we formulate and explore an extension of this model that includes the listener's hierarchical beliefs about the speaker's likely production behavior. Our results are compatible with the assumption that listeners rapidly and rationally integrate all available intonational information, that they expect reliable intonational information initially, and that they adapt these initial expectations gradually during exposition to unreliable input. All materials, data, and scripts can be retrieved here: https://osf.io/dnbuk/. (shrink)

In Balanced Wonder, Jan B. W. Pedersen digs deep into the alluring topic of wonder, in dialogue with Neo-Aristotelian philosophers, arguing that the experience of wonder, when balanced, serves as a strong contributor to human flourishing.

[opening paragraph]: I have great respect for efforts by Francisco Varela, Jonathan Shear and company to create a systematic phenomenology. In support of their efforts it should be noted that there is no need to start from scratch. We already have a systematic study of human conscious experience, and it is called ‘psychology'. True, many academic psychologists deny this rather obvious fact, but if we look at what they do rather than what they say, we find that they are always (...) studying the things people can report with accuracy. But the things we humans can report accurately are the same things we experience as conscious! Reportability is the generally accepted index of consciousness. In point of fact, therefore, psychologists are always asking people about their conscious experiences. (shrink)

The relevance of the topic is primarily due to the fact that in recent years the Protestant churches of Ukraine have increasingly been directing activities towards raising the educational level of their pastors and believers. The proportion of Protestants among university students who receive state diplomas in various specialties is noticeably increasing. Obviously, the emergence of such a tendency is not coincidental and is connected with the desire of Protestant organizations to increase their influence in order to achieve a more (...) successful policy of proselytism. (shrink)

This article examines the impact that the interplay between workplace, the welfare state and global working life has on female workers when they become pregnant. By focusing on two highly educated Norwegian female workers, it explores how this change process takes place in two companies operating in the global market located in different countries: Norway and the US. Pregnancy contributes to transforming the neutralized bodiless female worker into an embodied worker with gender. The female workers' experiences and negotiations represent forms (...) of global action on local stages. This is illustrated by four processes: `married to work', `pregnant and still married to work', `negotiating separation from work' and `excluding mothering'. The findings indicate the significance of taking welfare state and workplace policy approaches into consideration in studies of global effects on employees. (shrink)

Social standards have become important tools in corporate governance. They are often presented as voluntary initiatives in CSR and are generally based on the principle of multi-stakeholder collaboration as a means to gain legitimacy. Yet, based on a case study of a company in the textile industry, the paper shows that not all CSR standards are equally valued and that the adoption of particular CSR standards can be the result of external constraints on managerial discretion, e.g. emerging from business partners (...) and activist groups. (shrink)

At the threshold of the Twenty-First Century, Humankind is facing a new Era. After 6 million years of genomic independent existence and after 2 million years of increased capacity in learning and transmitting information among the members of the group and from one generation to the next which supported an enduring technological tradition, we are now facing the effects of a dramatic and accelerated population growth. In the last two centuries human population size increased from one billion in 1835, to (...) 2.5 billion by 1950. This number then doubled in only 45 years to almost 6 billion. This unprecedented increase in numbers, affecting specific geographical areas, has accentuated the deterioration of the natural environment caused by the misuse of natural resources and the depletion of fertile soils due to the clearance of forests, climatic changes and pollution. (shrink)