This is a collection of four essays on aesthetic, ethical, and political issues by the pre-eminent Kant scholar in Germany today, perhaps best known for rekindling interest in the great classical German tradition from Kant to Fichte.

In the Introduction of the Tugendlehre, Kant identifies love of human beings as one of the four moral predispositions that make us receptive to the moral law. We claim that this love is neither benevolence nor the aptitude of the inclination to beneficence in general (both are also called love of human beings); rather it is amor complacentiae, which Kant understands as the delight in moral striving for perfection. We also provide a detailed analysis of Kant's almost completely neglected theory (...) of moral predispositions. They are necessary conditions to be aware of the moral law and to be motivated by it. (shrink)

There is a consensus that satire cannot be defined, but is best characterized by a cluster account. However, I argue that a cluster account does not acknowledge the artistically and politically significant distinction between real satire and some forms of frivolous topical comedy which are casually labeled ‘satire’ in international media contexts. To uphold this distinction, I introduce a weak proposal that satire is a genre which necessarily sets out to critique and entertain (with the qualification that these purposes necessarily (...) interact, although neither is wholly instrumental to the other). I further argue that this proposal also provides necessary and sufficient conditions for a definition of satire. (shrink)

Naturalness delves into a long withstanding argument of everyday life—the argument of naturalness. This book questions why what is natural has been seen in some ways as superior to what is artificial and discusses the role and validity of naturalistic arguments in domains such as politics, ethics, and reasoning.

In the first edition of Husserl’s 5th Logical Investigation we find a relatively unknown reductive method, which Husserl identifies retrospectively in the second edition as a ,Reduktion auf den reellen Bestand‘. In the 1913 version of the Logical Investigations the descriptions of this first reduction are nearly completely obscured by Husserl’s tendency to see them as tentative hints to his transcendental reduction. In this paper I will delineate the aims and the methodical context, but also the shortcomings, of Husserl’s first (...) attempt at a reduction, taking into account also the problems of the sense and the motivation of transcendental reduction. This first reduction seems strongly steeped in the methods and presuppositions of empiricism, a stance that was highly problematic already in the phenomenology of the first edition. Thus the present investigation opens up some new ways of understanding the formation of the method of reduction in phenomenology. (shrink)

The article is devoted to the problem of moral motivation. Author presents a view which, as he argues, is able to bridge the gap between acceptance of a moral rule and an action according to this rule. The main issue here is the future ethics that could possibly become a part of environmental ethics if it takes into consideration future goods and condition of nature. The author discusses rationality of moral norms in future ethics from a perspective of a universalistic (...) paradigm. Drawing from Hare and Sidgwick he maintains that temporal position of someone harmed by a present action cannot be relevant to the moral evaluation of the action in question. He also emphasizes that in case when moral agent is a future and abstract one, there is an important factor involved which could have an influence on our moral identity. It plays a crucial role because our ,,natural” motivation to act according to a rule concerns, first of all, moral subjects within a moral community. Birnbacher claims that taking non-moral motivations into account makes the prospects of future-oriented action appear much less gloomy. Therefore, in his project of future ethics, he fuses together levels of moral theory and of emotional basis of our motivation. He illustrates the point by demonstrating that the course of psychological factors has an impact on our motivation for action by the data drawn from empirical social research conducted in Europe and USA. Key words MORAL MOTIVATION, FUTURE. (shrink)

This article makes a contribution to interface criticism through the notion of chrono-design: the deliberate shaping of experiences of temporality and time through contemporary software techniques and digital technologies. This notion is articulated through discussions of network optimisation, user experience design, behavioural tracking, Hansen’s work on 21st-century media and Hayles’ framework of cognitive assemblages. In particular, the argument considers how contemporary user interfaces complicate conventional notions of the rational, self-reflexive subject by operating beyond consciousness at vast environmental dimensions and accelerated (...) micro-temporal speeds. These conditions, we argue, provide opportunities for new forms of behavioural suspense and captivation best exemplified through the figure of the trap. The politics and aesthetics of captivation, accordingly, should be considered as central to any expanded ecology of cognition. The article then concludes with a short demonstration of experimental uses of chrono-design methods applied critically to political economies of user tracking and data capture as a prompt for further interdisciplinary applied research in this domain. (shrink)

According to Chen's Linguistic Savings Hypothesis, our native language affects our economic behavior. We present three studies investigating how cross-linguistic differences in the grammaticalization of future-time reference affect intertemporal choices. In a series of decision scenarios about finance and health issues, we let speakers of altogether five languages that represent FTR with increasing strength, that is, Chinese, German, Danish, Spanish, and English, choose between hypothetical sooner-smaller and later-larger reward options. While the LSH predicts a present-bias that increases with FTR-strength, our (...) decision makers preferred later-larger options and this future-bias increased with FTR-strength. In multiple regressions, the FTR-strength effect persisted when controlled for socioeconomic and cultural differences. We discuss why our findings deviate from the LSH and ask in how far the FTR-strength effect represents a habitual constitution of linguistic relativity or an instance of online decision framing. (shrink)

Schmerzen, körperliche Erschöpfung, Erosionen oder Spuren zeitlichen Verfalls und ähnliches verweisen auf Erfahrungen, die sich diskursiver Einholung nicht ohne weiteres fügen. Mit dem Formlosen, der bloßen Materialität oder dem Chaos assoziiert, widersetzen sie sich den generellen Begriffen des Textes und des Verstehens. Zudem verweigern sie sich ihrer Entschlüsselung als Konstruktion - im Sinne ihrer begrifflichen Bezeichnung und Unterscheidung - wie auch ihrer Inszenierung als einer ästhetischen Praxis, weil sie in allen ihren Hervorbringungen als eine nicht aufgehende Heterogenität immer schon mitschwingen. (...) Denn es gibt keine Arbeit ohne den Rest, keinen Diskurs ohne das Nichteinholbare oder Undarstellbare, keine Technik ohne Versagen, kein Denken ohne die Widerständigkeit der Dinge, worin sie ebenso sehr verwickelt sind, wie sie diese verleugnen. Posthermeneutik ist der Versuch, diese 'andere', 'negative' Seite neu zu denken - und damit das mit einzubeziehen, was nicht Verstehen ist, aber ins Verstehen eingeht, was nicht Zeichen ist, aber notwendige Voraussetzung aller Zeichenprozesse bleibt, was nicht Sinn ist, aber die Bedeutungen stört, was nicht Medium ist, aber alle Medialität mitprägt. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungPatientenverfügungen für spätere Zustände schwerer kognitiver Beeinträchtigungen, wie sie für Spätphasen der Demenz typisch sind, stoßen auf weitergehende Vorbehalte als Patientenverfügungen für anderweitige Zustände eingeschränkter Einwilligungsfähigkeit. Einer der Gründe dafür scheinen die ethischen und psychologischen Konflikte im Gefolge von Patientenverfügungen zu sein, mit denen Patienten in gesunden Tagen für bestimmte Phasen der Erkrankung die Nichtbehandlung interkurrenter Erkrankungen oder die Unterlassung künstlicher Ernährung verfügt haben, während sich unter den in der Patientenverfügung gemeinten Bedingungen keine Anzeichen finden, dass sie unter ihrer Situation (...) leiden. Der Beitrag argumentiert für diese Situation für eine „gemischte“ ethische Strategie: Patientenverfügungen im rechtlichen Sinne sollten insbesondere dann, wenn sie im Rahmen eines Advance Care Planning erstellt sind, befolgt werden, um zu verhindern, dass den Vorausverfügenden das Vertrauen in die spätere Befolgung ihres Wunsches nach Abbruch oder Nichtaufnahme medizinischer Behandlungen genommen wird. Dagegen sollten darüber hinausgehende „Pflegeverfügungen“ ohne rechtlich verbindlichen Status nur in Fällen beachtet werden, in denen zwischen vorausverfügtem und „natürlichem“ Willen Konkordanz besteht. (shrink)

Krause’s philosophy deserves to be memorized as the first link in a chain of thinking on animal rights that is still on the way today. Though Krause was not the first to talk of animal rights in the history of animal ethics, his theory of animal rights is pathbreaking in embedding a conception of animal rights in an all-encompassing metaphysical system. The essay situates Krause’s theory of animal rights in the framework of his general theory of rights and points to (...) the challenges Krause’s theory faces by the inevitability of trade-offs between animal and human rights. (shrink)

The hierarchy of conceptual categories involves a level of abstraction called the basic level. This is the level at which the subjects are fastest at identifying category members, at which conceptual priming most easily obtains, at which information is most easily remembered over time, and at which a single mental image can reflect the entire category. Basic-level categories tend to be the first ones acquired by young children, and also tend to be expressed by the simplest words. Various approaches have (...) been developed to deal especially with verbs, which, as the basis of grammatical clauses, are more structured than nouns. Generative semantics explored the idea that the inherent structure of verbs conforms to the syntactic structure of sentences, and therefore should be studied by means of complex paraphrases. (shrink)

In media philosophy since Benjamin, the concept of medium is conceived in terms of »translation« or »transport«. In a similar vein, Christoph Tholen has brought the literal sense of »metaphor« as »meta-pherein« into focus. In my paper I argue that Tholen’s approach misses the »meta« of »metaphor«, corresponding to the Latin »trans«. This is contrasted with the greek »dia« that allows the development of a performative notion of medium, which orients itself at material practices of transition.

A particular notion of reason has pervaded studies of practical action throughout the whole tradition of western philosophy up to Wittgenstein and Heidegger. This notion has been centrally located in contexts other than the specific study of practical action itself.This essay examines the relation of reason and practical action by reviewing Habermas' and Husserl's theories of the relation between discourse and action (I), and then proposing Garfinkel's ethnomethodological studies of practical action as an alternative to Husserl's and Habermas' preoccupation with (...) the primacy of theoretical discourse (II). In a final section I shall interpret Garfinkel's studies, following his own suggestions as studies in practical ethics, and make reference to similar themes in philosophical ethics (Ill). (shrink)

Einer der auffälligsten gesellschaftlichen Trends der letzten zwanzig Jahre ist die zunehmende Moralisierung von Bereichen des individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Lebens, die in früheren Zeiten eher der Logik der effektiven Interessenverfolgung vorbehalten waren. Die Forderung nach der Übernahme und Wahrnehmung moralischer Verantwortung hat Lebensbereiche erfasst, die lange Zeit weitgehend außerhalb der Moral standen: Wirtschaft, Umwelt, Ressourcennutzung.

There is hardly an analogy in the history of philosophy that has been referred to as often as the one that Kant himself draws in the second preface of the Critique of pure reason between Copernicus′ revolution in astronomy and his own revolution in metaphysics; and yet there is to the present day no detailed analysis thereof. The analogy is much more complex than meets the superficial eye: In the first passage , Kant does not draw a simple comparison to (...) Copernicus′ famous heliocentric hypothesis . In the second passage , Kant connects the reference to Copernicus with a reference to Newton by drawing an extremely rich analogy between the law of gravitation and the moral law of freedom. The revolution in metaphysics is related to the revolution in ethics; that famous analogy of Kant really is a Copernican-Newtonian analogy. (shrink)

It is evident that the problem of global climate change is closely bound up with questions of distributional justice, both intra- and intergenerational. Questions of justice are raised by two kinds of burdens: reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases, and the financial and knowledge transfers necessary to enable the poorest countries to compensate the harms suffered by the ongoing process. Both burdens involve considerable costs and opportunity costs. On the backdrop of a prioritarian version of utilitarianism, it is argued (...) that the answer should be a split strategy. While reduction of emissions should be based on the polluter-pays principle, obligations of compensation should be based on the criteria of overall economic strength. (shrink)

This contribution offers an introduction into the language of rights and the role rights play in ethics and law; with special reference to the rights of children. It emerges that there are a number of very different functions characteristic of 'rights talk'; both in ethics and law; and that many of them offer opportunities for strengthening appeals to moral and legal principles while others involve pitfalls that should be avoided. In conclusion; two of the theoretical questions raised by rights are (...) addressed: whether the concept of rights can be replaced without loss by the concept of obligation; and whether rights should be seen as social constructs derived from obligations; or whether it is more plausible to reverse the order of priority. (shrink)

Summary This paper tries to show how the irreducible indeterminacy of textual meanings can be reconciled with epistemological realism which normally presupposes independently existing but determinate objects of knowledge. E.D. Hirsch's project of objective interpretation, including his most recent attempts to show that meanings, in spite of their openness to future modifications, are historically determined objects of knowledge, is being criticized. The paper argues that his use of the semantics and the reference theories of Kripke, Putnam, and others forces him (...) to give up, against his own intention, his methodologically important distinction between meaning and significance. Within such theories a strict separation of linguistic knowledge of meaning and world knowledge can no longer be upheld. Since the application of individually and historically variable world knowledge is unavoidable in the process of understanding texts, the textual meanings reconstructed by readers will always remain indeterminate. (shrink)