ABSTRACT Fine examination of our accumulated cultural knowledge is especially helpful in studying the emotions, which are only tangentially accessible to experimental manipulation. Here I use the six properties of emotions that Elster has summarized to suggest how they show a need for changes in the science of motivation. The apparent adaptive purpose of emotions lies in their action tendencies – what they add to the cold calculation of advantage. Subjectively they stand out by their intrusiveness, the duration of which (...) often has a half-life. Emotions each have a valence, which suggests that they are not only motivating but also motivated, an implication that requires re-examination of how negativity works. Emotions are also experienced as ‘triggered’, but are so malleable that triggering cannot mean a simple conditioned reflexiveness. Emotions are not only triggered – or motivated – by beliefs, but motivate beliefs in turn, and can be fed back on themselves in a ‘wildfire’ phenomenon. These feedback effects are further evidence against emotions being reflexive. With regard to the three great revolutions, I argue that enthusiasm differs from romantic love only in its object, and urgency comes from the dysphoria of using response suppression for self-control. I can add nothing further to Elster’s masterful history. (shrink)

The problems of this passage were concisely stated by M. Platnauer more than thirty years ago and his suggestions for their solution have been adopted and developed in A. S. F. Gow's magnum opus. Its authority—so the present writer suspects—is liable at this point to eclipse the meaning of the text.

Es ist eigentlich zu früh, Anmerkungen zu einem Buch zu machen, das nach dem Selbstverständnis seines Autors erst in einem zweiten Buch zur Sache kommen soll, nämlich zu dem, was er «die inhaltliche Auseinandersetzung mit einzelnen anthropologischen Themenbereichen» nennt. Damit stellt sich natürlich gleich die Frage: Was soll denn das erste, also das hier vorliegende Buch leisten? Man kann dessen Aufgabe so umreißen: Es soll den Rahmen abstecken, innerhalb dessen die anthropologische Diskussion des 13. Jahrhunderts stattfand. Mit dieser Aufgabenbestimmung geht (...) die Annahme einher, dass die Forschung diesen Rahmen bislang nicht oder doch nicht richtig abgesteckt hat. Diese Annahme stützt sich auf Mängel der mediävistischen Anthropologie. (shrink)

The UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of 2005 purports to articulate universal norms for bioethics. However, this document has met with mixed reviews. Some deny that the elaboration of universal bioethics norms is needed; some deny that UNESCO has the expertise or authority to articulate such norms; some regard the content of the UNESCO document as too vague or general to be useful; and some regard the document as a cog in the effort of like-minded cosmopolitans to (...) codify their particular moral intuitions in international law. This issue examines the potential merits and pitfalls of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. (shrink)