How does the brain generate our experience of being in control over our actions and their effects? Here, we argue that the perception of events as self-caused emerges from a comparison between anticipated and actual action-effects: if the representation of an event that follows an action is activated before the action, the event is experienced as caused by one’s own action, whereas in the case of a mismatch it will be attributed to an external cause rather than to the self. (...) In a subliminal priming paradigm we show that participants overestimated how much control they had over objectively uncontrollable stimuli, which appeared after free- or forced-choice actions, when a masked prime activated a representation of the stimuli immediately before each action. This prime-induced control-illusion was independent from whether primes were consciously perceived. Results indicate that the conscious experience of control is modulated by unconscious anticipations of action-effects. (shrink)

In this book Katrin Flikschuh examines the relevance of Kant's political thought to major issues and problems in contemporary political philosophy. She advances and defends two principal claims: that Kant's philosophy of Right endorses the role of metaphysics in political thinking, in contrast to its generally hostile reception in the field today, and that his account of political obligation is cosmopolitan in its inception, assigning priority to the global rather than the domestic context. She shows how Kant's metaphysics of (...) freedom as a shared idea of practical reason underlies the cosmopolitan scope of his theory of justice, and she concludes that despite the revival of 'Kantianism' in contemporary thinking, his account of justice is in many respects very different from dominant approaches in contemporary liberal theory. Her study will be of interest to political philosophers, political theorists, and historians of ideas. (shrink)

This article aims to propagate Logic Programming as a formal tool to deal with non-monotonic reasoning. In philosophy and linguistics non-monotonic reasoning is modelled using Minimal Models as standard, i.e., by imposing an order (or selection function) on the class of all models and then by defining entailment as only caring about the minimal models of the premises with respect to the order. In this article we investigate the question whether instead of minimal models we should use logic programming to (...) model non-monotonic reasoning. Logic programming is an attractive alternative to a minimal models approach in that it makes concrete predictions in an efficient and transparent way. We study this question by focusing on one particular phenomenon that gives rise to non-monotonic inferences: conditional sentences. (shrink)

In this paper an approach to the exhaustive interpretation of answers is developed. It builds on a proposal brought forward by Groenendijk and Stokhof (1984). We will use the close connection between their approach and McCarthy’s (1980, 1986) predicate circumscription and describe exhaustive interpretation as an instance of interpretation in minimal models, well-known from work on counterfactuals (see for instance Lewis (1973)). It is shown that by combining this approach with independent developments in semantics/pragmatics one can overcome certain limitations of (...) Groenenedijk and Stokhof’s (1984) proposal. In the last part of the paper we will provide a Gricean motivation for exhaustive interpretation building on work of Schulz (to appear) and van Rooij and Schulz (2004). (shrink)

This study explores the attitude of German psychiatrists in leading positions towards joint crisis plans and psychiatric advance directives. This topic was examined by contacting 473 medical directors of German psychiatric hospitals and departments. They were asked to complete a questionnaire developed by us. That form contained questions about the incidence and acceptance of joint crisis plans and psychiatric advance directives and previous experiences with them. 108 medical directors of psychiatric hospitals and departments responded . Their answers demonstrate that in (...) their hospitals these documents are rarely used. Among the respondents, joint crisis plans are more accepted than psychiatric advance directives. There is a certain uncertainty when dealing with these instruments. Our main conclusion is that German psychiatry needs an intensified discussion on the use of instruments for patients to constitute procedures for future critical psychiatric events. For this purpose it will be helpful to collect more empirical data. Furthermore, the proposal of joint crisis plans in psychiatric hospitals and departments should be discussed as well as the possibility of consulting an expert during the preparation of a psychiatric advance directive. (shrink)

In view of the numerous accounting and corporate scandals associated with various forms of moral misconduct and the recent financial crisis, economics and business programs are often accused of actively contributing to the amoral decision making of their graduates. It is argued that theories and ideas taught at universities engender moral misbehavior among some managers, as these theories mainly focus on the primacy of profit-maximization and typically neglect the ethical and moral dimensions of decision making. To investigate this criticism, two (...) overlapping effects must be disentangled: the self-selection effect and the treatment effect. Drawing on the concept of moral judgment competence, we empirically examine this question with a sample of 1773 bachelor’s and 501 master’s students. Our results reveal that there is neither a self-selection nor a treatment effect for economics and business studies. Moreover, our results indicate that—regardless of the course of studies—university education in general does not seem to foster students’ moral development. (shrink)

Though Plato, famously, had Socrates ban the poets from his republic while Wittgenstein seems to aspire to a style of philosophical writing that approaches the literary, there is a troubling similarity between them in their elision of the self as a self. Saying what he means in the mode of the philosopher or meaning what he says in the mode of the poet, how can the self both be and say itself? The misprision of Abraham's binding of Isaac in the (...) thinking of Kierkegaard, who with Plato was one of Wittgenstein's favourite philosophers, is a telling opening into the question of the self in its responsibilities and its discontents. (shrink)

This paper argues that an exchange between Paolo Prodi and Giorgio Agamben on the role of the sacred in European constitutional history can inform the study of early modern history of political thought. Prodi, in his history of the sworn oath (sacramentum), and Agamben, in his history of the curse (sacer esto) and the accursed, or outlaw (homo sacer), explored how these sacred threats and promises, though not purely legal expressions themselves, underpinned the legal order. Through a study of three (...) sixteenth-century legal humanists’ views of the Roman laws concerning these sacred oaths and curses (the sacratae leges), this paper describes a similar interest in exploring the connection between the sacred and the legal order. It concludes that the idea of the commonwealth in the sixteenth century was a complex of legal and para-legal techniques, symbols, and structures in addition to the more frequently studied restoration of classical virtue theory. This paper also provides an edition and translation of Guillaume Budé's discussion of the Roman law of banishment [D. 48.19.2], which was the first legal commentary to assemble the materials relating to the homo sacer. (shrink)

El presente artículo demuestra que el anhelo por el más allá que había expresado Juan Larrea en su poesía llega a su culminación en Diario del Nuevo Mundo. La experiencia vivida en el exilio mexicano le impulsa a abandonar el yo subjetivo y dejarse absorber por una conciencia objetiva que viene a constituir el epicentro de su proyecto filosófico. De esta manera, Larrea funda en Diario del Nuevo Mundo los principios constitutivos de una filosofía transcendental a la vez que describe (...) la situación personal en la que se encuentra. Además, el artículo mantiene que Larrea es de los más radicales entre los pensadores exiliados en su crítica de la racionalidad tecno-científica y que el proyecto de Larrea solo es posible porque se apoya en disciplinas tradicionalmente marginalizadas dentro de la filosofía como son la psicología, la religión y la poesía. (shrink)

For sociologists, interpretations of cultural objects, whether grouped into genres or taken individually, are intermediate steps toward understanding more fully the contexts in which they are produced. This does not deny the satisfaction implicit in grasping the significance of aspects of objects themselves; I hope that the analysis I have presented lends viewing the Sangatsu-dō sculptures a degree of comprehension, and pleasure, not present before. The ultimate test, however, and the justification for undertaking any sociological examination of cultural objects, is (...) the usefulness of the resulting account in confirming or rejecting ideas about the social conditions surrounding their production. The important question in judging the appropriateness of examining individual objects is therefore not whether sociologists (as opposed, for example, to art historians) ought to concern themselves with such analysis; it is whether such analyses increase the ability of objects to serve as evidence in investigations of interesting social phenomena. My goal is not therefore to supplant generic analysis with a focus on individual objects: it is as possible to fetishize the study of the object as it is to ignore its potential. In fact, it is most useful to see the two approaches as complementary, making possible fuller analyses than each can enable separately. We would do well to take more seriously the benefits of locating objects in the contexts in which people deal with them most commonly: as distinct elements in more inclusive fields, in which meaning and appeal are closely tied to difference. (shrink)

Micro-phenomenology is an interview and analysis method for investigating subjective experience. As a research tool, it provides detailed descriptions of brief moments of any type of subjective experience and offers techniques for systematically comparing them. In this article, we use an auto-ethnographic approach to present and explore the method. The reader is invited to observe a dialogue between two authors that illustrates and comments on the planning, conducting and analysis of a pilot series of five micro-phenomenological interviews. All these interviews (...) asked experienced researchers of micro-phenomenology to browse their memories to identify one successful and one challenging instance of working with micro-phenomenology. The interview then focused on this reflective task to investigate whether applying the method to itself might reveal quality criteria. The article starts by presenting a shortened and edited version of the first of these interviews. Keeping the dialogue format, we then outline the micro-phenomenological analysis procedure by demonstrating its application to part of this data and corresponding passages of other interviews. We focus on one unexpected finding: interviewed researchers judge the quality of an interview in part based on a connection or contact between interviewer and interviewee. We discuss these results in the context of the means and intentions of the method and suggest avenues for future research. (shrink)

In this paper an approach to the exhaustive interpretation of answers is developed. It builds on a proposal brought forward by Groenendijk and Stokhof (1984). We will use the close connection between their approach and McCarthy's (1980, 1986) predicate circumscription and describe exhaustive interpretation as an instance of interpretation in minimal models, well-known from work on counterfactuals (see for instance Lewis (1973)). It is shown that by combining this approach with independent developments in semantics/pragmatics one can overcome certain limitations of (...) Groenenedijk and Stokhof's (1984) proposal. In the last part of the paper we will provide a Gricean motivation for exhaustive interpretation building on work of Schulz (to appear) and van Rooij and Schulz (2004). (shrink)

English summary: What is freedom? Are humans free? And are God and human freedom compatible? These questions are raised by Anselm of Canterbury in his dialogues on freedom. Katrin Konig interprets Anselm's theory of freedom in its theological and historical context and brings it into a dialogue with contemporary analytic theories of freedom. Thereby a qualitative concept of freedom as a gift towards the good is contributed: gifted freedom. According to this understanding, freedom is something greater than individual self-determination (...) or choice between alternative possibilities. It is grounded in the perception of truth, unfolded in the love of justice and compatible with perfect determination by the action of God. In this horizon it is possible to discern the aporia of the modern debate on determinism and to reconcile seeming contradictions. German description: Was ist Freiheit? Ist der Mensch frei? Und: Sind Gott und menschliche Freiheit vereinbar? Diese Fragen untersucht Anselm von Canterbury in seinen Freiheitsdialogen. Katrin Konig deutet Anselms Freiheitstheorie in ihrem theologischen Zusammenhang, verortet sie historisch und bringt sie ins Gesprach mit analytisch-philosophischen Freiheitstheorien der Gegenwart. Damit wird ein qualitativer Begriff von Freiheit als Gabe zum Guten zur Diskussion gestellt: begnadete Freiheit. Freiheit ist diesem Verstandnis nach mehr als individuelle Selbstbestimmung oder Wahl zwischen alternativen Moglichkeiten. Sie grundet in Wahrheitserkenntnis, entfaltet sich in Gerechtigkeitsliebe und ist mit vollkommener Bestimmtheit durch das Wirken Gottes vereinbar. In diesem Horizont konnen Aporien der modernen Determinismusdebatte wahrgenommen und scheinbare Gegensatze vermittelt werden. (shrink)

Research on sustainability assurance is still in its beginnings. One of the key questions in this field that also is of the highest practical relevance is concerned with the quality of the assurance process. However, a common understanding of assurance quality and how it should be measured is still missing. We try to close this gap by building on the financial audit literature. We introduce a definition of assurance quality that comprises two key aspects: the depth of the assurance process (...) and the breadth of the assurance statement. Based on prior research, we hypothesize that a firm’s sustainability performance is related to the depth of the assurance process, while the type of the assurance provider, more precisely the affiliation to the accounting profession, is related to the breadth of the assurance statement. Results for a sample of 122 European firms reveal a negative relationship between sustainability performance and assurance process depth as well as between the affiliation to the accounting profession and assurance statement breadth. Thus, we find evidence that poor sustainability performers ask for in-depth assurance services, most likely as a means to enhance their internal sustainability-related processes and systems. Assurance providers that do not belong to the accounting profession in turn are associated with broader assurance statements. (shrink)

This paper deals with the truth conditions of conditional sentences. It focuses on a particular class of problematic examples for semantic theories for these sentences. I will argue that the examples show the need to refer to dynamic, in particular causal laws in an approach to their truth conditions. More particularly, I will claim that we need a causal notion of consequence. The proposal subsequently made uses a representation of causal dependencies as proposed in Pearl to formalize a causal notion (...) of consequence. This notion inserted in premise semantics for counterfactuals in the style of Veltman and Kratzer will provide a new interpretation rule for conditionals. I will illustrate how this approach overcomes problems of previous proposals and end with some remarks on remaining questions. (shrink)

Starting from Kant's striking question 'What is orientation in thinking?', this book argues that the main challenge facing global normative theorising lies in its failure to acknowledge its conceptual inadequacies. We do not know how to reason globally; instead, we tend to apply our domestic political experiences to the global context. Katrin Flikschuh argues that we must develop a form of global reasoning that is sensitive to the variability of contexts: rather than trying to identify a uniquely shareable set (...) of substantive principles, we need to appreciate and understand local reasons for action. Her original and incisive study shows how such reasoning can benefit from the open-ended nature of Kant's systematic but non-dogmatic philosophical thinking, and from reorientation from a domestic to a non-domestic frame of thought. It will appeal to all those interested in global moral issues, as well as to Kant scholars. (shrink)

Background Healthcare services are increasingly being shifted to home settings for patients nearing end-of-life. Consequently, the burden on family caregivers is significant. Their vulnerable situation remains poorly understood and there is little information available regarding their experiences of dignity. Aim This study seeks to understand the experiences of family caregivers related to dignity and loss of dignity, aiming to provide a deeper insight into their situation when caring for a home-dwelling family member nearing end-of-life. Research design and participants This exploratory (...) study consists of a second analysis combining data from two primary studies, including 24 family caregivers of a family member nearing end-of-life, and is founded upon Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. Ethical considerations Approval was obtained from the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research and was based on voluntary participation, informed consent, and confidentiality. Results The following three main themes were identified: Having a meaningful existence within the living environment, being seen and valued as a family caregiver in relation with others and suffering in a space of loneliness. These contextual, relational, and existential perspectives were found to be closely interrelated. Conclusion and final considerations The dignity of family caregivers was closely tied to being seen as unique individuals, not merely caregivers, thereby requiring healthcare professionals (HCPs) to understand their personal needs. This study highlights the emotional distress and loneliness family caregivers feel in their dual role within the healthcare system, thereby calling for HCPs to adopt an attitude of gentleness and recognition to impart dignity-preserving care in homecare practices. (shrink)

In his Animadversiones on Machiavelli's The Prince (1661), Hermann Conring, one of the most famous of the early modern German professors of politics, further developed the constitutional reading of Machiavelli's The Prince, following in the footsteps of Bodin and the German political theorists of the previous generation such as Arnisaeus, Contzen, and Besold. For Conring, Machiavelli's exaggerated analysis of tyranny and his heavy emphasis on popular liberty offered not so much a realist political science but a dangerous prelude to the (...) monarchomachic theory of popular sovereignty and a fatalistic concession to sin. Conring, a committed Aristotelian with Arminian sympathies, preferred a more empirical constitutional analysis (and a theory of the state) which did not favor any particular faction of the state (i.e. the people over the nobility) as the unique source of stability or instability and which explained the necessity for wickedness as the result of poor constitutional design rather than a realistic view of human nature and fate. (shrink)

Chap. 1. Creativity in the first kabbalistic writings -- Chap. 2. The philosophic ethos -- Chap. 3. Investigating God in rabbinic and later Jewish literature -- Chap. 4. The philosophic ethos in the writings of the first kabbalists -- Chap. 5. Investigating God in Sefer ha-Bahir -- Chap. 6. The philosophic ethos in the writings of Nahmanides.

Die Diatriben und das Encheiridion des Stoikers Epiktet (spätes 1. bis frühes 2.Jh.n.Chr.) erfreuen sich eines bleibenden Interesses in der Forschung. Dies belegen zahlreiche Einzeluntersuchungen sowie neuere Kommentare und Übersetzungen zu ausgewählten Kapiteln seines Werkes. Als Stoiker weist Epiktet insofern eine Besonderheit auf, als er die theologischen Aspekte in seiner Philosophie besonders betont. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit einem wichtigen Teil der Theologie Epiktets: seiner Gebetslehre. Epiktet integriert in sein Werk Gebetstexte, die er seinen Schülern als Vorbild- und Übungstexte (...) an die Hand gibt, und stellt mehrfach die Wichtigkeit der Gebete innerhalb des täglichen Lebens heraus. Sie sind nach Epiktets Lehre ein zentrales Element der angemessenen stoischen Lebenshaltung. Mit seiner Gebetslehre beeinflusst Epiktet nicht nur Philosophen der Antike, sondern auch frühchristliche Theologen. Um Epiktets Gebetslehre vorzustellen, werden die Gebete Epiktets und seine Aussagen über das Beten in der vorliegenden Arbeit in ihrem jeweiligen Kontext bezüglich Form, Inhalt und Funktionen analysiert und interpretiert. Darüber hinaus wird anhand der Gebetslehren ausgewählter Autoren ein Einblick in die Geschichte des philosophischen Gebets gegeben, um Epiktets Gebetslehre anschließend darin verorten zu können. (shrink)

This book presents the first full exploration of Kant's position on colonialism. Leading experts in both political thought and normative theory place Kant's thoughts on the subject in historical context, examine the tensions that colonialism produces in his work, and evaluate the relevance of these reflections for current debates on global justice.

This work of comparative philosophy envisions a cosmological whole that celebrates difference.

In this paper, a pragmatic approach to the phenomenon of free choice permission is proposed. Free choice permission is explained as due to taking the speaker (i) to obey certain Gricean maxims of conversation and (ii) to be competent on the deontic options, i.e. to know the valid obligations and permissions. The approach differs from other pragmatic approaches to free choice permission in giving a formally precise description of the class of inferences that can be derived based on these two (...) assumptions. This formalization builds on work of Halpern and Moses (1984) on the concept of ‘only knowing’, generalized by Hoek et al., (1999, 2000), and Zimmermann’s (2000) approach to competence. (shrink)

Rousseau and Nietzsche: Toward an Aesthetic Morality offers a vivid depiction of the problems and potential of modernity through the words of two of its most poignant voices. The book focuses upon the modern self's desire to individuate while facing the ethical responsibility to integrate into the world. Katrin Froese elegantly juxtaposes Nietzsche's drive for extraordinary individualism with Rousseau's call for the dependable citizen, demonstrating that where Nietzsche's aestheticism embraces the limitless and irreconcilable longings of a divided being, Rousseau's (...) approach emphasizes the imposition of limits to ensure that harmony and contentment prevail. Going beyond conventional scholarship, the work emphasizes the similarities at the heart of Rousseau's notion of morality and Nietzsche's aestheticism: the moral vision that underlies Nietzsche's notion of art and the aesthetic understanding prevalent in Rousseau's moral system. This stunning new work of political philosophy will be of great use to scholars of political thought and readers seeking to understand what made Rousseau and Nietzsche's thought so decidedly modern. (shrink)

As a cluster of behaviours resulting in desired organizational outcomes, antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviours have long been searched. Based on the fact that the work and family domains of individuals closely interact and that harmony between values shared in organizations and the values adopted by individuals, called person–organization fit, have important consequences on the desired outcomes, the research conducted tries to identify the relationship between values existing in the individual's family and organization with organizational citizenship behaviour. The results of (...) the research show that the congruence between the values of two domains has a significant relationship with the level of organizational citizenship behaviour. (shrink)

This article focusses on the social and legal implications that blockchain technology brings about, not only due to its ideological framework, but also, and especially, due to the concept of law it inaugurates. Thus, this article claims, that, by interlocking technological and legal structures, blockchain technology initiates a profound displacement of legal symbolics and imaginaries. It shows how blockchain law, by emancipating itself from three essential dimensions of law—language, territory, and the body—implies a profound disruption of how we perceive law (...) and its legitimacy. Starting with an overview of the technological details of blockchain, the paper then addresses its ideological context and traces the underlying ideas, values and functions and their relation with—and impact on—the general perception of law and legal issues. By critically assessing the claim that blockchain will liberate the subject from any heteronymic constraints, this paper analyses to what extent this technology has social and legal implications that reach far beyond its virtual, purely blockchain-related scope of applications—and why this technology should matter to us all. (shrink)