I discuss two ways in which emotions explain actions: in the first, the explanation is expressive; in the second, the action is not only explained but also rationalized by the emotion's intentional content. The belief-desire model cannot satisfactorily account for either of these cases. My main purpose is to show that the emotions constitute an irreducible category in the explanation of action, to be understood by analogy with perception. Emotions are affective perceptions. Their affect gives them motivational force, and they (...) can rationalize actions because, like perception, they have a representational intentional content. Because of this, an emotion can non-inferentially justify a belief which in its turn justifies or rationalizes an action; so emotions may constitute a source of moral knowledge. (shrink)

I argue that, in experiencing a recalcitrant emotion, one does not violate a rational requirement of any sort. Rational requirements, as the expression has come to be used, are requirements of coherence. Accordingly, my argument is that there is nothing incoherent in any way about experiencing a recalcitrant emotion. One becomes incoherent only if one allows the emotion to influence one's reasoning and/or action, in which case one violates the ‘consistency principle’ and/or the ‘enkratic principle’. From the standpoint of rationality, (...) it would even be counterproductive to put subjects under the obligation that their emotional experiences and their evaluative judgements must always fit together. When we nevertheless intuitively sense that the subject is irrational in experiencing a recalcitrant emotion this is in cases in which the emotion challenges the subject's agential identity. However, emotions can, but need not, challenge one's agential identity, and, furthermore, perceptions can do so as well. In any case, challenges of this kind do not involve the violation of a rational requirement. (shrink)

Almost all contemporary philosophers on the subject agree that emotions play an indispensable role in the justification (as opposed to the mere causation) of other mental states and actions. However, how this role is to be understood is still an open question. At the core of the debate is the phenomenon of conflict without contradiction: why is it that an emotion need not be revised in the light of better judgment and knowledge? Conflict without contradiction has been explained either by (...) difference in content between emotion and judgment, or by a difference in the respective attitude towards content. I argue that conflict without contradiction is due to both differences, where difference in content is prior to difference in attitude. (shrink)

It is known that various complexity-theoretical problems can be translated into some special spectra problems (see e.g. Fagin [Fa74] or Blass and Gurevich, [Bl-Gu86]). So questions about complexity classes are translated into questions about the expressive power of some languages. In this paper we investigate the spectra of some logics with Henkin quanti fiers in the empty vocabulary. This problem has been investigated fi rstly by Krynicki and Mostowski in [Kr-Mo 92] and [Kr- Mo 95]. All presented results can be (...) also treated as results about the expressive power of certain languages in fi nite models. (shrink)

Autorinnen und Autoren aus Polen, Deutschland, Österreich, der Schweiz, den Niederlanden, Israel und Kanada legen in den Beiträgen dieses Bandes ihre neuesten Forschungsergebnisse vor. Im ersten Teil nähern sie sich unter spezifischen Fragestellungen der Person und dem Werk Janusz Korczaks. Der zweite Teil befasst sich mit seiner erzieherischen Praxis und zeigt, welche Elemente der Pädagogik Korczaks in der gegenwärtigen Erziehungspraxis von entscheidender Bedeutung sind.

Climate change – if not averted adequately and in time – could cause serious disruptions in society including issues associated with global warming and sea-level rise. It has been argued that geoen...

In this article, we explore the role that art can play in ethical reflection on risky and controversial technologies. New technologies often give rise to societal controversies about their potential risks and benefits. Over the last decades, social scientists, psychologists, and philosophers have criticized quantitative approaches to risk on the grounds that they oversimplify its societal and ethical implications. There is broad consensus amongst these scholars that stakeholders and their values and concerns should be included in decision-making about technological risks. (...) It has also been argued that the emotional responses of people can shed important light on the ethical aspects of risk and uncertainty. However, people’s emotions can be narrowly focused and biased. This article therefore assesses the role that technology-inspired artworks can play in overcoming such biases, by challenging our imagination and providing us with different perspectives on possible technological developments and their implications for society. Philosophers have not yet studied such artworks, so this constitutes an entirely new field of research for scholars of risk and moral theory. In particular, we focus on the case of BNCI technologies and related artworks. These technologies and artworks touch on questions of what it means to be human, thereby raising profound ethical and philosophical challenges. We discuss the experiences of artists, scientists, and engineers who are directly involved with BNCI technologies, and who were interviewed during a Hackathon at Amsterdam’s Waag Society in June 2016. Their views are analyzed in light of philosophical and aesthetic theories, which allows us to consider relevant ethical and conceptual issues as well as topics for further investigation. (shrink)

The paper develops a critique of the prevailing essentialist and homogenizing approach to business ethics that dominates the field with regard to Islam and proposes a constructivist perspective to the study of religion. It demonstrates the possibilities of this approach with the study of hizmet, a community business network from Turkey that has established itself in over 130 countries over the last 20 years. The implications for business ethics from the study of this movement is that the notion of corporate (...) social responsibility needs to be adjusted in order to accommodate the hizmet approach but that there are limits to this adjustment due to gender and labor rights considerations. The paper sees itself as a contribution to an alternative approach for Islamic business ethics very much in need of further development and encourages further research along these lines. (shrink)

I will put forward a short, simple argument for a pair of realist claims: metaphysical realism and what I will refer to as epistemological realism. The argument will rely upon nothing more than our apparent memories. Having presented the argument, I will go on to consider possible objections to it, of which there will be a number but none of which will do more than complicate the matter. The argument I present borrows from Peirce’s view that the world’s capacity to (...) surprise us plays a vital role in guiding us toward truth, and from the argument to the best explanation. However, it combines the two views in a way I have not seen done previously. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: References Further reading.

People can be risk seeking and risk averse, but people can also be uncertainty averse: in other words, if risk is at least the possibility of an unwanted affect, then it is not only the unwanted effect that they want to avoid, it can also be the uncertainty inherent in the possibility that they wish to avoid. This uncertainty aversion can even lead to a state where someone prefers a certain outcome at all costs, even when it is the worst (...) case. This gives rise to the following paradox: the worst case seems to be more acceptable than the state where there is still a chance that it will not materialize. We can call this the Unbearable Uncertainty Paradox. This essay provides a first conceptual sketch of this phenomenon that seems to be widespread but nevertheless does not appear to have been identified before, either by philosophers or by psychologists. (shrink)

In this article, we discuss the importance of emotions for ethical reflection on technological developments, as well as the role that art can play in this. We review literature that argues that emotions can and should play an important role in the assessment and acceptance of technological risk and in designing morally responsible technologies. We then investigate how technologically engagedartcan contribute to critical, emotional-moral reflection on technological risks. The role of art that engages with technology is unexplored territory and gives (...) rise to many fascinating philosophical questions that have not yet been sufficiently addressed in the literature. (shrink)

A review of the scientific method. In the scientific method, results must be capable of being reproduced to be valid.

La notion de dénomination d’un rapport domine la théorie de la proportionnalité au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance. Elle apparaît dans des contextes différents, traités d’arithmétique, éditions des Éléments, traités sur la théorie des proportions, etc. L’exposé le plus complet sur cette notion se trouve dans le commentaire de Clavius à la définition 4 du livre V des Éléments d’Euclide. Clavius se fait ici l’écho des travaux de ses prédécesseurs en particulier de Jordanus et de Campanus, mais ne rapporte (...) pas la théorie des rapports irrationnels initiée par Bradwardine et développée par Oresme. (shrink)

It is known that various complexity-theoretical problems can be translated into some special spectra problems. Thus, questions about complexity classes are translated into questions about the expressive power of some languages. In this paper we investigate the spectra of some logics with Henkin quantifiers in the empty vocabulary.

In the past, Schiller has often been underestimated as a philosopher in his own right. Fortunately, this has been changing, beginning with the bicentennial commemoration of his death in 2005, which has since then produced a fair number of volumes, mostly in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Unfortunately, Frederick Beiser's 2005 Schiller the Philosopher: A Re-Examination, one of the still rare book-length treatments by a single author, has failed to lead to a similar "new wave" in the English-speaking world. Thus, (...) it is heartening to have here a volume of essays focusing on his philosophical writings and bringing together titans of the fields of philosophical Schiller-studies, German early romantic... (shrink)

Technologische Entwicklungen, zum Beispiel in der Energieerzeugung, Robotik und Biotechnologie, vollziehen sich in einem schnellen Tempo und können tiefgreifende Auswirkungen auf die Gesellschaft haben, indem sie unsere Lebensweise auf oft unvorhersehbare Weise verändern und unvorhergesehene Risiken hervorrufen. Wie von Risikoethikern argumentiert wurde, erfordert dies ethische Überlegungen und demokratische Deliberation. Debatten über technologische Risiken sind jedoch häufig hitzig und münden in Pattsituationen. Dies ist auf die Komplexitäten dieser Debatten zurückzuführen, da sie wissenschaftliche Informationen und Unsicherheiten beinhalten sowie ethische Überlegungen und emotionale (...) Reaktionen hervorrufen. (shrink)

Climate change is a pressing phenomenon with huge potential ethical, legal and social policy implications. Climate change gives rise to intricate moral and policy issues as it involves contested science, uncertainty and risk. In order to come to scientifically and morally justified, as well as feasible, policies, targeting climate change requires an interdisciplinary approach. This special issue will identify the main challenges that climate change poses from social, economic, methodological and ethical perspectives by focusing on the complex interrelations between uncertainty, (...) values and policy in this context. This special issue brings together scholars from economics, social sciences and philosophy in order to address these challenges. (shrink)

In de kunsttheorie zijn er verschillende opvattingen over wat we zien of beoordelen als we een schilderij voor ons hebben die niet gericht zijn op de esthetische aspecten van het kunstwerk zelf. Analoog daaraan komen we in de ethiek ook interpretaties tegen van wát we zien of beoordelen als we morele aspecten van de wereld bekijken die niet over de ethische aspecten van de wereld zelf gaan. In dit artikel betoog ik dat beide het mis hebben: zowel in de kunst (...) als in de ethiek is het zinvol om te kijken naar de esthetische of ethische aspecten van de werkelijkheid zelf. (shrink)

After decades of being met with suspicion or even disdain the epistemic role of intuitions – and specifically the school of ethical intuitionism – has seen a revival. This revival has been undertaken by both leading moral philosophers such as Jonathan Dancy and Robert Audi and moral psychologists like Jonathan Haidt and Joshua Greene.See Jonathan Dancy, Ethics Without Principles (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), Robert Audi, The Good in the Right. A Theory of Intuition and Intrinsic Value (Princeton: Princeton University (...) Press, 2003) and Joshua D. Greene and Jonathan Haidt, “How (and Where) Does Moral Judgment Work?,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 6 (2002): 517–523.Dancy, for example, has argued that moral principles play no substantive role in moral thought and judgement. Since it has traditionally been assumed that our particular moral judgements are justified on the basis of the more general moral principles from which they are derived, Dancy’s moral epistemology takes a diffe. (shrink)

This is the first edited collection to bring together classic pieces and new work by leading scholars of Thomas Reid. The contributors explore key elements of Reid's moral theory in an organised and thematic way, offering a balanced and broad ranging volume.