We have now had some two decades of Levinas commentary. What remains to be said? Certainly one thing we have learned since Otherwise than Being is that Levinas’s philosophy and his talmudic and confessional writings nourish each other so profoundly that to approach Levinas without understanding the historyof Jewish philosophy — in its confrontations with neo-Platonism, Aristotle, Kant — is to risk misunderstanding Levinas. Insights into the interrelationships between Jewish thought and Levinas’s other humanism have been provided by thinkers like (...) Robert Gibbs, Claire Katz, Catherine Chalier, Shmuel Trigano, and Gérard Bensussan, to name but a few. But if one is not well versed in Jewish thought, will one be liable to abandon Levinas’s thought as an existentialized confessionalism? Perhaps. But I think the loss to philosophy would be considerable. (shrink)

L’auteure retrace les controverses qui ont émaillé l’histoire du principe de précaution en France dans les trente dernières années après son adoption au niveau international et européen. Elle montre que le principe de précaution constitue une dimension nouvelle de la rationalité adaptée aux défis de la société contemporaine.

Although lie detection procedures have been fundamentally criticized since their inception at the beginning of the 20th century, they are still in use around the world. In addition, they have created some remarkable appeal in the context of counterterrorism policies. Thereby, the links between science and fiction in this topic are quite tight and by no means arbitrary: In the progressive narrative of the lie detection devices, there is a promise of changing society for the better, which is entangled in (...) a fictional narrative provided by many cinematic and literary examples. By drawing on the concept of “diegetic technologies” formulated by David Kirby, we want to highlight the role of science fictional narratives in the historical development and current application of lie detection procedures. We therefore aim to use this conceptual frame to analyze the role of prevention-oriented mind reading procedures, which are developed for or already used in the “war on terror” with reference to their fictional predecessors. One virulent factor has to be highlighted in this context: The fictional engagement with possible new lie detection practices is in itself creating a legitimating ground for future security technologies. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Sexualisierte Gewalt gehört zu den lang tabuisierten Themen unserer Gesellschaft. Die in jüngster Zeit bekannt gewordenen Fälle von sexualisierter Gewalt in pädagogischen Institutionen werden im vorliegenden Beitrag zum Anlass genommen, den Fragen nachzugehen, was bislang über sexualisierte Gewalt im Sport bekannt ist und welche Strukturen und Prozesse gerade in Organisationen des Sports zu sexualisierter Gewalt und ihrer Verdeckung beitragen können. Dazu wird sowohl der Forschungsstand über sexualisierte Gewalt im Sport und in pädagogischen Institutionen herangezogen, als auch ein durch qualitative (...) Forschung generiertes Fallbeispiel von Machtmissbrauch und sexualisierter Gewalt im Kontext des Sports rekonstruiert und analysiert. (shrink)

The aim of this book is to understand and critically appraise science-based transgression dynamics in their whole complexity. It includes contributions from experts with different disciplinary backgrounds, such as philosophy, history and sociology. Thus, it is in itself an example of boundary transgression. Scientific disciplines and their objects have tended to be seen as permanent and distinct. However, science is better conceived as an activity that constantly surpasses, erases and rebuilds all kinds of boundaries, either disciplinary, socio-ethical or ecological. This (...) transgressive capacity, a characteristic trait of science and its applications, defines us as "knowledge societies." However, scientific and technological developments are also sources of serious environmental and social concerns. Contents Disciplinary Transgression of Boundaries - Extra-Disciplinary Transgression of Boundaries - Radical Transgression of Boundaries Target Groups Scientists and students of philosophy, sociology, history of science, and interdisciplinary fields such as technology assessment, sustainable development, science and technology studies - Practitioners in research management Editors Bettina-Johanna Krings (MA in sociology, political science and anthropology; PhD in sociology) is head of the research department "Knowledge Society and Knowledge Policy" at the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Hannot Rodríguez (PhD in philosophy) is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. Anna Schleisiek (Dipl.-Soz.) is doing research on the role of economic principles in the scientific practice of research teams for her PhD project in sociology. <. (shrink)

This article explores how historians of emotions and historians of the senses can collaborate to write a history of emotional experience that takes seriously the corporeality of emotions. It invest...

The term ‘locked-in’ syndrome (LIS) describes a medical condition in which persons concerned are severely paralyzed and at the same time fully conscious and awake. The resulting anarthria makes it impossible for these patients to naturally communicate, which results in diagnostic as well as serious practical and ethical problems. Therefore, developing alternative, muscle-independent communication means is of prime importance. Such communication means can be realized via brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) circumventing the muscular system by using brain signals associated with preserved cognitive, (...) sensory, and emotional brain functions. Primarily, BCIs based on electrophysiological measures have been developed and applied with remarkable success. Recently, also blood flow–based neuroimaging methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), have been explored in this context. After reviewing recent literature on the development of especially hemodynamically based BCIs, we introduce a highly reliable and easy-to-apply communication procedure that enables untrained participants to motor-independently and relatively effortlessly answer multiple-choice questions based on intentionally generated single-trial fMRI signals that can be decoded online. Our technique takes advantage of the participants’ capability to voluntarily influence certain spatio-temporal aspects of the blood oxygenation level–dependent (BOLD) signal: source location (by using different mental tasks), signal onset and offset. We show that healthy participants are capable of hemodynamically encoding at least four distinct information units on a single-trial level without extensive pretraining and with little effort. Moreover, realtime data analysis based on simple multi-filter correlations allows for automated answer decoding with a high accuracy (94.9%) demonstrating the robustness of the presented method.. (shrink)

This paper addresses early modern botanical nomenclature, the practices of identifying and publishing synonyms in particular, as a collaborative “information science”. Before Linnaean nomenclature became the lingua franca of botany, it was inevitable that, over time, the same plant was given several names by different people, which created confusion and made communication among botanists increasingly difficult. What names counted as synonyms and actually referred to the same plant had to be identified by meticulously comparing living and dried specimens of this (...) and similar plants as well as relevant illustrations und descriptions in the botanical literature. Identifying synonyms required and generated an ever-expanding mass of data, which was used continuously to adjust and rearrange plant names. Despite the greatest care, judgements on synonyms were not definitive, which meant that published lists of synonyms for individual species of plants were in a state of flux and had to be constantly updated, corrected, and rewritten. This required long-term international collaborations, the accumulated results of which were not published once but consecutively, in augmented and corrected editions of a book. As a result of this networked approach, synonyms are networked names that reflect the epistemic interconnectedness of the botanical community. These questions will be discussed with a focus on the Dutch botanist Johannes Burman, who placed synonyms at the centre of his work as posthumous editor—and co-author—of the botanical manuscripts that were left behind by other botanists. (shrink)

Bilder in Kunst und Wissenschaft sind Orte des Denkens und Forschens.

The act of thought-thought as an act-would precede the thought thinking or becoming conscious of an act. The notion of act involves a violence essentially: the violence of transitivity, lacking in the transcendence of thought... Totality and Infinity The work of Emmanuel Levinas revolves around two preoccupations. First, his philosophical project can be described as the construction of a formal ethics, grounded upon the transcendence of the other human being and a subject's spontaneous responsibility toward that other. Second, Levinas has (...) written extensively on, and as a member of, the cultural and textual life of Judaism. These two concerns are intertwined. Their relation, however, is one of considerable complexity. Levinas' philosophical project stems directly from his situation as a Jewish thinker in the twentieth century and takes its particular form from his study of the Torah and the Talmud. It is, indeed, a hermeneutics of biblical experience. If inspired by Judaism, Levinas' ethics are not eo ipso confessional. What his ethics takes from Judaism, rather, is a particular way of conceiving transcendence and the other human being. It owes to the philosophy of Franz Rosenzweig and Martin Buber a logos of the world and of the holy, which acknowledges their incom mensurability without positing one as fallen and the other as supernal. (shrink)

Mhealth technology is mushrooming world-wide and, in a variety of forms, reaches increasing numbers of users in ever-widening contexts and virtually independent from standard medical evidence assessment. Yet, debate on the broader societal impact including in particular mapping and classification of ethical issues raised has been limited. This article, as part of an ongoing empirically informed ethical research project, provides an overview of ethical issues of mhealth applications with a specific focus on implications on autonomy as a key notion in (...) the debate. A multi-stage model of references to the potential of mhealth use for strengthening some or other form of self-determination will be proposed as a descriptive tool. It illustrates an assumed continuum of enhanced autonomy via mhealth broadly conceived: from patient to user autonomy, to improved health literacy, and finally to the vision of supra-individual empowerment and democratised, participatory health and medicine as a whole. On closer examination, however, these references are frequently ambivalent or vague, perpetuating the at times uncritical use of established autonomy concepts in medical ethics. The article suggests zooming in on the range of autonomy-related aspects against the backdrop of digital innovation and datafied health more generally, and on this basis add to existing frameworks for the ethical evaluation of mhealth more specifically. (shrink)

This article examines how local experiments and negotiation processes contribute to social and field-level learning. The analysis is framed within the niche development literature, which offers a framework for analyzing the relation between projects in local contexts and the transfer of local experiences into generally applicable rules. The authors examine 2 case studies drawn from a meta-analysis of 27 new energy projects. The case studies, both pertaining to biogas projects for local municipalities, illustrate the diversity of applications for a technology (...) through processes of local variation and selection. The authors examine the diversity of expectations and the negotiation and alignment of these expectations underlying the diversity of local solutions. Moreover, the authors address how the transfer of lessons from individual local experiments can follow different pathways and yet always require due attention to the social and cultural limits to the transferability of solutions. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDie bei Krebserkrankungen junger Frauen erforderliche Chemo- bzw. Strahlentherapie kann in der Folge bei den betroffenen Patientinnen zur Unfruchtbarkeit führen. Somit werden die Betroffenen oft gleichzeitig mit einer potentiell lebensbedrohlichen Erkrankung und einem potentiell kinderlosen Leben konfrontiert. Die derzeitigen Methoden zum Erhalt der Fertilität sind experimentell, mit therapeutischer Unsicherheit und gesundheitlichen Risiken belastet, dennoch werden sie zunehmend nachgefragt. Die mit dem Angebot fertilitätserhaltender Maßnahmen verbundene derzeitige Beratungspraxis wird in dem hier vorliegenden Beitrag aus ethischer Perspektive hinterfragt. Ausgehend von einer kritischen (...) Würdigung des nach wie vor häufig angewandten Autonomiekonzepts von Beauchamp und Childress wird diskutiert, auf welche Weise die normative Belastbarkeit der Entscheidungsfindung durch die Vulnerabilität der Patientin limitiert sein kann. Als Alternative zum Autonomiekonzept von Beauchamp und Childress wird anschließend eine Entscheidungsfindung auf der Grundlage biographischer Identität in Anlehnung an das Konzept der personalen Autonomie nach Quante erörtert. (shrink)

(1981). Differing national orientations toward the future: A comparative examination of societal characteristics and public opinion∗. World Futures: Vol. 17, No. 3-4, pp. 157-194.

The Prometheus Syndrome includes eight essays which focus on a Promethean figure in the fields of science, theology, or literature, or as fictional character.

This paper explores two main methods, employed for the analysis of regulatory law, empirical and systems-theoretical approaches. These two approaches are often portrayed in the literature as very different, mainly for two reasons. First, it is contended by some authors that systems-theoretical approaches—in contrast to empirical approaches—do not see a role for individuals in shaping social reality and regulatory law as one aspect of it. This paper, however, claims that systems-theoretical accounts do provide for human agency while empirical accounts have (...) limitations in their analysis of the role of ‘real individuals’ in shaping regulatory law. The paper argues that both empirical and systems-theoretical approaches need to provide a deeper analysis of the notion of ‘the individual’. This requires taking into account how ‘feeling rules’ influence the management of emotions. Secondly, empirical and systems-theoretical approaches are portrayed as distinct because they are considered as employing different methodologies. While systems theory involves speculative grand theory, empirical approaches are based on specific techniques of empirical data collection and analysis. This paper argues, however, that systems-theoretical ideas on how knowledge about the social world can be generated are close to qualitative empirical approaches, which stress the relativity and subjectivity of the meaning systems of the particular actors studied. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Paragrana Jahrgang: 25 Heft: 1 Seiten: 299-312.

This Inspirational Guide To An Open, Critical Exchange Between India And The West Is Framed As A Tribute To Dr. Bettina Baumer, An Eminent Scholar Of Indology. Comprising 32 Essays, Segregated Into Three Sections Indian Philosophy And Spirituality, Indian Arts And Aesthetics, And Interreligious And Intercultural Dialogue.

Is Plato’s philosophy still relevant for current issues in politics and political science? In order to answer this question, the contributions to this volume endeavour to re-read the Platonic dialogues and to interpret them in terms of textual hermeneutics on the one hand. On the other hand, they refer to Plato from a systematic point of view and apply his philosophy, in particular the method of Socratic dialogue, to discussions on contemporary political issues. The volume is dedicated to Barbara Zehnpfennig, (...) whose works aim at making Socratic–Platonic philosophy fruitful for the present on the basis of a new interpretation of Plato’s philosophy. With contributions by Anke Adamik, Sarah Al-Taher, Viktoria Bachmann, Philip Breuer, Johanna Falk-Seifert, Bettina Fröhlich, Benjamin A. Hahn, Hendrik Hansen, Thomas Haslböck, Raul Heimann, Johannes Frank Hoerlin, Vanessa Jansche, Peter Kainz, Christina Kast, Eva-Maria Kaufmann, Ulrich Kühn, Laura Martena, Julian Obenauer, Victor Peneff und Thomas Wimmer. (shrink)

Summary This essay aims to elucidate the collaborative dimension of the knowledge-making process in eighteenth-century Linnaean botany. Due to its ever increasing and potentially infinite need for information, Linnaean botany had to rely more and more heavily on the accumulation and aggregation of contributions by many people. This, in turn, had a crucial impact on the genesis and form of botanical publications: the more comprehensive the project, the larger the effect. It was the botanist Carl Linnaeus who managed to establish (...) himself as the centre of this contributory knowledge-making process. Given the exponential growth in the number of known species and the resulting need for observation, this was the necessary condition which allowed him continuously to update and correct his systematic works, and allowed them to maintain their status as the central catalogues of a global botany for decades. (shrink)

Die Philosophiedidaktik ist eine herausfordernde Disziplin. In ihrer Aufgabe als Vermittlungs- und Reflexionswissenschaft muss sie Entwicklungen der aktuellen Philosophie berücksichtigen, auf die komplexen Veränderungen unserer Lebenswelt reagieren, die Herausforderungen des Lernorts Schule ernst nehmen und die Erkenntnisse wesentlicher Bezugsdisziplinen einbeziehen. Diese Vernetzungsaufgabe verlangt nach systematischen philosophiedidaktischen Untersuchungen für die Lehrkräfteausbildung. Ziel dieses Bandes ist die Analyse und Diskussion der philosophischen, fachdidaktischen und bildungstheoretischen Fragestellungen einer Reihe komplexer Herausforderungen, die für die Ausbildung an der Hochschule, im Referendariat sowie in der Fort- (...) und Weiterbildung wirksam werden: Welche Rolle kann und soll philosophische Bildung in inter- und transdisziplinären Bezügen spielen, wie z.B. bei der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung oder in einem Bildungslabor? Wie kann und sollte Philosophieren mit Kindern praktiziert werden? Wie kann und sollte mit der Forderung nach Inklusion umgegangen werden? Ist problemorientierter Unterricht der Goldstandard philosophischen Unterrichtens oder nicht? Auf diese und weitere Fragen geben die Beiträge der Autor*innen Antworten und Lösungsvorschläge, in denen alte und neue Kontroversen sichtbar werden. Der Band versteht sich als Beitrag zu lebendigen Grundsatzdiskursen, die ein Fundament liefern für die Entwicklung eines zeitgemäßen Philosophie- und Ethikunterrichts. (shrink)