Was sind Bilder? -Bild- ist keine scharf umrissene Kategorie. Was man zu den Bildern zahlt, hangt allerdings von Eigenschaften ab, die zueinander in systematischen Beziehungen ('Familienahnlichkeiten') stehen. Diese Eigenschaften werden in einer formalen Explikatsprache expliziert - so, dass deutlich wird, inwiefern Bilder eine Art Zeichen sind und: weshalb fur Bildende Kunst nicht Kommunikativitat, sondern Manipulativitat (in einem nicht wertenden Sinne) relevant ist. Die Arbeit ist ein Beispiel dafur, dass etablierte Mittel und Einsichten sowohl der sprachanalytischen Philosophie als auch der (...) fruhen Phanomenologie einer bildsemiotischen Grundlagenforschung zugutekommen.". (shrink)

This is a rich, dense book. Hines provides sensible analyses of the communications networks that unite systematics—the science devoted to understanding and standardizing descriptions of the relationships among living things—and systematists in the 21st century. This work will be useful for introducing graduate students to these aspects of modern systematics and to the sociology of this science.

Philosophy Compass, Volume 17, Issue 6, June 2022.

In summary, the creation and maintenance of the Wistar Rats as standardized animals can be attributed to the breeding work of Helen Dean King, coupled with the management and husbandry methods of Milton Greenman and Louise Duhring, and with supporting documentation provided by Henry Donaldson. The widespread use of the Wistar Rats, however, is a function of the ingenuity of Milton Greenman who saw in them a way for a small institution to provide service to science. Greenman's rhetoric, as captured (...) in his Director's Reports, prepared annually from 1905 until his death in 1937, shows that he was unusually sensitive to his times and to the economics of science and of society. In the era when biology was being defined, he recognized in the rat the potential to be a living analog to the pure chemicals that legitimated experimental science. From management literature he extracted the ideals of uniformity of product, standards of quality, and efficiency of production, applying them to scientific practice to generate an animal model that thrives as standard equipment in laboratories throughout the world today.I will close with a quote from Frederick W. Taylor that is a cogent statement of the contribution to science and scientific progress made by standardized tools and their creators. Equating the surgeon and the workman, Taylor wrote: [He is given] the finest implements, each one of which has been the subject of special study and development ... [and] the very best knowledge of his predecessors; and, provided with standard implements and methods which represent the best knowledge of the world up to date, he is able to use his own originality and ingenuity to make real additions to the world's knowledge, instead of reinventing things which are old.Standardized tools, whether surgeons' implements or laboratory-bred rats, are one of the vehicles for carrying scientific knowledge forward from generation to generation. In this sense, Greenman's Wistar Rats have done their job, in his words, of “providing service to science.”. (shrink)

It is a puzzle of long standing in Indo-Iranian studies that the cognates of the Vedic devás and their eventual rivals and eternal enemies, the ásuras, have entirely opposite valuations in Old Iranian, where Ahura Mazdāh is the chief of the pantheon and the daēuuas are considered demons. This puzzle is complicated by the fact that in early Vedic the ásuras do not have the demonic role they play in later Vedic and in fact are themselves sometimes identified as devás. (...) Numerous solutions to this problem have been advanced. This article re-examines the evidence in detail and suggests a new explanation, set in the larger Near Eastern cultural context. (shrink)

Der spätmoderne Mensch befindet sich in einer Identitätskrise. Frei im Hinblick auf die individuelle Lebensgestaltung ist er zugleich losgelöst von alten Sicherheiten und Bindungen an Klasse, Religion und Nation. Vor dem Hintergrund gesellschaftspolitischer und kultureller Krisen erscheint Identitätsbildung heute als situatives, ständig neu zu entwerfendes und dabei höchst ambivalentes Projekt. Welches Potenzial entfaltet das literarische Erzählen in diesem Kontext? Terézia Mora, Reinhard Jirgl und Peter Wawerzinek modellieren in ihren Werken Szenarien der Identitätsarbeit. Die Krise des Subjekts führt bei ihnen zu (...) einem neuen Nachdenken über Lebens- und Romanformen. Sie versinnbildlichen den Kernkonflikt von Text und Figur in charakteristischen Leerstellen, die das Ringen der Romane um die Selbstbilder von Protagonistinnen und Protagonisten sowie gleichzeitig um Form und Gattung spiegeln. So werden die literarischen Texte als komplexe Wahrnehmungsräume für die Leserinnen und Leser selbst zu einer Identitätserfahrung. (shrink)

Introduction By the late fifth century BCE Panini had composed the Astadhyayi, consisting of nearly 4000 rules giving a precise and fairly complete ...

It is quite extraordinary, philosophically speaking, that according to the orthodox interpretation: (a) quantum mechanics is a complete and comprehensive theory of microphysics, and yet (b) the role of measurement, in quantum mechanics, cannot be analyzed in terms of the collective effects of the microphysical particles making up the apparatus. It follows that, if the orthodox interpretation is correct, the measurement apparatus and its quantum physical effects cannot be accounted for microreductively. This is significant because it is widely believed that (...) the relation between physical wholes and parts is microreductive. Indeed, many philosophers are persuaded of the inevitability of universal microreduction to the basic elements of microphysics. This is the viewpoint embodied in the program for the unity of science, espoused in recent years, most notably by Robert Causey (1977). (shrink)

Clinical ethics consultations exist to support patients, families and clinicians who are facing ethical or moral challenges related to patient care. They provide a forum for open communication, where all stakeholders are encouraged to express their concerns and articulate their viewpoints. Ethics consultations can be requested by patients, caregivers or members of a patient’s clinical or supportive team. Althoughpatientsand by extension their families (especially in cases of decisional incapacity) are the common denominators in most ethics consultations, these constituents are theleastlikely (...) to request them. At many healthcare organisations in the USA, ethics consultations are overwhelmingly requested by physicians and other clinicians. We believe it is vital that healthcare institutions bridge the knowledge gaps and power imbalances over access to ethics consultation services through augmented policies, procedures and infrastructure. With enhanced education and support, patients and families may use ethics consultation to elevate their voices and prioritise their unique characteristics and preferences in the delivery of their healthcare. Empowering patients and families to request ethics consultation can only strengthen the patient/family–clinician relationship, enhance the shared decision-making model of care and ultimately lead to improved patient-centred care. (shrink)

The Ethics Committee at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) developed a Bioethics Ambassador Program (BAP); a yearlong educational program to assist clinical and non-clinical staff develop the skills to identify and address common burgeoning ethical issues that can arise during the provision of care to patients with cancer. The goal was to provide greater awareness of the role and services of Ethics, particularly at the institution’s geographically-diverse outpatient care centers and to better-instill a culture of preventative ethics. This article (...) discusses the design and implementation of the first two years of the program and analyzes its strengths, weaknesses, and impact on MSK. (shrink)

The utopian energy of the liberal social-democratic state, which is unable to answer the great questions of today's world, is now spent. The way forward will involve a struggle, not against the institutions, but for the emergence of a new rationality, corresponding not only to a new organisation of society, but also to a strategic and multidimensional concept of class.

We provide welfarist evaluations of decision rules for federations of states and consider models, under which the interests of people from different states are stochastically dependent. We concentrate on two welfarist standards; they require that the expected utility for the federation be maximized or that the expected utilities for people from different states be equal. We discuss an analytic result that characterizes the decision rule with maximum expected utility, set up a class of models that display interstate dependencies and run (...) simulations for different dependency scenarios in the European Union. We find that, under positive correlations, the welfare distribution tends to be less sensitive to the choice of the decision rule, whereas it can be important under negative correlations. The results that Beisbart and Bovens (SCW 29, p. 581, 2007) have found for two types of models without interstate dependencies are relatively stable. There are exceptions, though, under which the way the welfare distribution is shaped by a decision rule is significantly affected by dependencies. (shrink)

The Arthaśāstra: Selections from the Classic Indian Work on Statecraft. Edited and Translated, with an Introduction, by Mark McClish and Patrick Olivelle. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2012. Pp. lxvi + 169. $52, £37.95 ; $16.95, £12.95.

Der Traité de l′homme war bis weit ins 18. Jahrhundert hinein das mit Abstand wirkmächtigste Werk Descartes′. Diese Wirkung verdankte sich zweier posthumer Editionen, die beide reich illustriert waren und miteinander mehrere Jahrzehnte konkurrierten, bis sich eine von ihnen endgültig durchsetzte. Die andere ist mitsamt ihren Bildern vergessen. Der Beitrag konfrontiert die Bildprogramme dieser Editionen miteinander, um zu zeigen, dass die später als für Descartes zentral angesehene mechanistische Auffassung vom Körper als Maschine eine postcartesianische Erfindung ist, die in erster Linie (...) durch die Abbildungen in Clerseliers Edition und oft auch gegen den Wortlaut des Textes tradiert wurde. Diese Bilder begründeten so eine vom Text separate Wirkungsgeschichte von Descartes′ medizinischen Ideen. (shrink)

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, SETLcoin, Ether, Solar Coin, or Liberty Reserve exist since 2009. Because of their decentralized control, they are often considered a threat or alternative to the conventional centralized banking system. While the technological implication of some such currencies, especially of Bitcoin, has attracted much attention, so far there is little discussion about the entire field of cryptocurrencies and very little academic literature addressing its ethical significance. In this article, we thus address the impact of “blockchain technology” on (...) the nature of financial transactions from a business ethics perspective. We begin with a survey on relevant literature from neighboring disciplines. Next, we work towards a 3 × 3 framework for current debates on the ethics of cryptocurrencies : we combine the micro, meso, and macro levels of business and society with assessments of the potential ethical impact of cryptocurrencies as morally beneficial, detrimental, and ambiguous. In addition, we highlight possible avenues for future research, such as the changing roles of the miners and regulators, the prosocial use of cryptocurrencies, the antisocial use for shadow banking and transactions in the ‘dark net’ and cryptocurrencies’ effect on inflation and deflation. (shrink)

Many results of modern physics—those of quantum mechanics, for instance—come in a probabilistic guise. But what do probabilistic statements in physics mean? Are probabilities matters of objective fact and part of the furniture of the world, as objectivists think? Or do they only express ignorance or belief, as Bayesians suggest? And how are probabilistic hypotheses justified and supported by empirical evidence? Finally, what does the probabilistic nature of physics imply for our understanding of the world? This volume is the first (...) to provide a philosophical appraisal of probabilities in all of physics. Its main aim is to make sense of probabilistic statements as they occur in the various physical theories and models and to provide a plausible epistemology and metaphysics of probabilities. The essays collected here consider statistical physics, probabilistic modelling, and quantum mechanics, and critically assess the merits and disadvantages of objectivist and subjectivist views of probabilities in these fields. In particular, the Bayesian and Humean views of probabilities and the varieties of Boltzmann's typicality approach are examined. The contributions on quantum mechanics discuss the special character of quantum correlations, the justification of the famous Born Rule, and the role of probabilities in a quantum field theoretic framework. Finally, the connections between probabilities and foundational issues in physics are explored. The Reversibility Paradox, the notion of entropy, and the ontology of quantum mechanics are discussed. Other essays consider Humean supervenience and the question whether the physical world is deterministic. (shrink)

Seit einigen Jahren zeichnet sich in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte ein Ende des traditionellen Streites ab, ob man bei der Interpretation der Wissenschaftsentwicklung und allgemein bei der Wissensproduktion entweder vor allem auf die sozialen Faktoren zu achten habe oder aber auf die als eigenständig zu begreifenden, wissenschaftsimmanenten,geistigen' Faktoren, wie Ideen, Begriffe und Methoden. Zunehmend hat sich die Strategie etabliert, das Aufkommen der Unterscheidung zwischen sozial konstruierten und,wissenschaftlichen' Momenten der Wissenschaftsentwicklung selbst zum Forschungsgegenstand zu machen. Wissenschaft wird in der Folge nicht mehr primär (...) als Theorie begriffen, sondern als bestimmte, mehr oder weniger lokal situierte, kulturelle oder soziale Praxis. Die traditionellen Rechtfertigungskriterien für Wissen werden sozial und kulturell kontextualisiert. Die im vorliegenden Band versammelten Aufsätze aus den Bereichen der Philosophie, Geschichtswissenschaft, Wissenschaftstheorie, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Ethnologie und Soziologie unternehmen es, die neue Situation anhand von Fallstudien und theoretischen Überlegungen aus verschiedenen Perspektiven auszuloten. Mit Beiträgen von: Alexander Becker, Cora Bender,Wolfgang Detel, Uljana Feest, Gundula Grebner, Hajo Greif, Thomas Kailer, Katrin Koehl, Andreas Niederberger, Alfred Nordmann, Ulrich Oevermann, Trevor Pinch und Claus Zittel. (shrink)

In business ethics journals, Kant’s ethics is often portrayed as overly formalistic, devoid of substantial content, and without regard for the consequences of actions or questions of character. Hence, virtue ethicists ride happily to the rescue, offering to replace or complement Kant’s theory with their own. Before such efforts are undertaken, however, one should recognize that Kant himself wrote a “virtue theory” (Tugendlehre), wherein he discussed the questions of character as well as the teleological nature of human action. Numerous Kant (...) scholars argue that Kant already erected precisely the kind of integrative moral architecture that some of his modern interpreters (while aiming to supersede him) wish to construct. For business ethics, this divergence of scholarly opinion is of crucial importance. It shows first that the standard portrayals of Kant’s ethics in business ethics textbooks—as rigidly deontological, narrowly individualistic, and hence unsuitable for the specific demands of corporate agency—might have to be revised. Second, discussions in the business ethics literature on stakeholder-engagement and managerial decision-making likewise stand to gain from a more nuanced picture of Kant’s moral philosophy. Third, a reassessment of Kant’s ethics with regard to questions of personal character and moral sentiments might also lead to a more favorable view of the relevance of his ethics for managerial practice. Last, but not least, the many current attempts to reconcile Kant’s freedom-oriented philosophy with virtue theories stand to benefit considerably from a better understanding of how Kant himself conceived of one such synthesis between the formal and substantial aspects of morality. This, ultimately, could lead to an important overlapping consensus in the academic literature as to the role and relevance of virtuous conduct in business. (shrink)

As a philosopher, whose theory about economics and business is systematically connected to a moral and political philosophy, Aristotle provides a rich conceptual framework to reflect upon personal wellbeing, the wealth of households, and the welfare of the state. Even though Aristotle has mainly been portrayed as an enemy of business, interest in his teachings has been on the rise among management scholars. Several articles have examined Aristotle's position with regard to current managerial approaches such as total quality management, knowledge (...) management, crisis management, and networking. Even though Aristotle is a constant reference point for business ethics scholars, only rarely have there been attempts to see what consequences his thinking would have for reorienting business philosophy and organizational strategy. In this study, we wiD outline how Aristotle's theory of household management can be applied to the management of modern corporations. We argue that conceptions of chrematistike and oikonomia provide a basis to discuss the relationship between business and society and to draw important conclusions for business management. (shrink)

What is life? Is it just the biologically familiar--birds, trees, snails, people--or is it an infinitely complex set of patterns that a computer could simulate? What role does intelligence play in separating the organic from the inorganic, the living from the inert? Does life evolve along a predestined path, or does it suddenly emerge from what appeared lifeless and programmatic? In this easily accessible and wide-ranging survey, Claus Emmeche outlines many of the challenges and controversies involved in the dynamic (...) and curious science of artificial life. Emmeche describes the work being done by an international network of biologists, computer scientists, and physicists who are using computers to study life as it could be, or as it might evolve under conditions different from those on earth. Many artificial-life researchers believe that they can create new life in the computer by simulating the processes observed in traditional, biological life-forms. The flight of a flock of birds, for example, can be reproduced faithfully and in all its complexity by a relatively simple computer program that is designed to generate electronic "boids." Are these "boids" then alive? The central problem, Emmeche notes, lies in defining the salient differences between biological life and computer simulations of its processes. And yet, if we can breathe life into a computer, what might this mean for our other assumptions about what it means to be alive? The Garden in the Machine touches on every aspect of this complex and rapidly developing discipline, including its connections to artificial intelligence, chaos theory, computational theory, and studies of emergence. Drawing on the most current work in the field, this book is a major overview of artificial life. Professionals and nonscientists alike will find it an invaluable guide to concepts and technologies that may forever change our definition of life. (shrink)

In the light of growing political and religious fundamentalism, this open access book defends the idea of freedom as paramount for the attempt to find common ethical ground in the age of globality. The book sets out to examine as yet unexhausted ways to boost the resilience of the principle of liberalism. Critically reviewing the last 200 years of the philosophy of freedom, it revises the principle of liberty in order to revive it. It discusses many different aspects that fall (...) under its three main topics: the metaphysics of freedom, quantitative freedom and qualitative freedom. Open societies worldwide have come under increasing pressure in the last decades. The belief that politics and markets fare best when guided by the principle of liberty presently faces multiple challenges such as terrorism, climate warming, inequality, populism, and financial crises. In the view of its critics, the idea of freedom no longer offers adequate guidance to meet these challenges and should be partially corrected or even entirely replaced by countervailing values. Against the reduction of freedom to the merely quantitative question as to how much liberties individuals call their own, this book draws attention to the qualitative concerns which and whose opportunities society should foster. It argues that, correctly understood, the idea of liberty commits us to defend as well as advance the freedom of each and every world citizen. (shrink)

Originally presented as the author's habilitation under the title: Kirchliche Zensur und theologische Rezeption - Die postume Expurgation der Werke Cajetans und Contarinis und das theologische Profil der rèomischen Kongregationen von Inquisition und Index.

En af velfærdsstatens civiliserende virkninger har været forsøgene på at imødegå de trusler for menneske og miljø, som stammer fra den industrielle produktion, gennem indgående statslig eller korporativ regulering af virksomhedernes udnyttelse af materielle, menneskelige og samfundsmæssige ressourcer. Regulering af ny genteknologi ser umiddelbart ud til blot at være et nyt eksempel herpå, men samtidig er genteknologien her ved det 20. århundredes slutning også et eksempel på noget nyt.