The development of synthetic biology calls for accurate understanding of the critical functions that allow construction and operation of a living cell. Besides coding for ubiquitous structures, minimal genomes encode a wealth of functions that dissipate energy in an unanticipated way. Analysis of these functions shows that they are meant to manage information under conditions when discrimination of substrates in a noisy background is preferred over a simple recognition process. We show here that many of these functions, including transporters and (...) the ribosome construction machinery, behave as would behave a material implementation of the informationmanaging agent theorized by Maxwell almost 150 years ago and commonly known as Maxwell’s demon (MxD). A core gene set encoding these functions belongs to the minimal genome required to allow the construction of an autonomous cell. These MxDs allow the cell to perform computations in an energy-efficient way that is vastly better than our contemporary computers. (shrink)

Drawing on Arabic data sets, this study examines reported speech in naturally occurring conversations. Building on earlier work in discourse analysis, the study demonstrates how reported speech is a multiparty social field in which much of the reporting involves not only speech but also intricate forms of voice patterns and embodied reenactments. The study argues that speakers create an integrated complex of reporting, including multimodal utterances that go beyond the stream of speech to include relevant nonlinguistic sounds and embodied gestures. (...) Analysis also shows that participants engage in verbal and nonverbal forms of stance toward the reported activities. The speaker makes certain these stance displays are available to the addressees to achieve co-participation. In contrast to studies which restrict analysis to linguistic phenomena, this study approaches reported speech as a fine performance in which different kinds of semiotic resources are brought together. (shrink)

Belief bias is the tendency for prior beliefs to influence people's deductive reasoning in two ways: through the application of a simple belief-heuristic and through the application of more effortful reasoning for unbelievable conclusions. Previous research indicates that cognitive ability is the primary determinant of the effect of beliefs on accuracy. In the current study, we show that the mere tendency to engage analytic reasoning is responsible for the effect of cognitive ability on motivated reasoning. The implications of this finding (...) for our understanding of the impact of individual differences on belief bias are discussed. (shrink)

The present study investigates how business ethics are related to vocational interest. Special attention has been paid to the relationship between business ethics and the interest in ‘enterprising’ and ‘social’ oriented professions. The results show that business ethics is only significantly correlated in a negative way, to enterprising vocational preferences. Moreover, the negative contribution of business ethics to the preference for entrepreneurial and managerial professions remains after controlling for personality and work values. Some work values also predict the entrepreneurial interest: (...) Earnings, Influence, Competition, Innovation and Creativity. The personality traits Extraversion (positive) and Agreeableness (negative) have predictive validity, but this effect disappears after controlling for work values. In the ‘Discussion’ section, we pay attention to possible consequences of the negative relationship between business ethics and Entrepreneurial interest for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). We argue that efforts concerning realistic job previews will only be meaningful if they are completed with efforts to make people more sensitive for ethics in two other domains, namely education and business. (shrink)

Nietzsche's Critique of Staticism Manuel Dries Part 1: Time, History, Method Nietzsche's Cultural Criticism and his Historical Methodology 23 Andrea Orsucci Thucydides, Nietzsche, and Williams 35 Raymond Geuss The Late Nietzsche's Fundamental Critique of Historical Scholarship 51 Thomas H. Brobjer Part II: Genealogy, Time, Becoming Nietzsche's Timely Genealogy: An Exercise in Anti-Reductionist Naturalism 63 Tinneke Beeckman From Kantian Temporality to Nietzschean Naturalism 75 R. Kevin Hill Nietzsche's Problem of the Past 87 John Richardson Towards Adualism: Becoming and Nihilism in (...) Nietzsche's Philosophy 113 Mamuel Dries Part III: Eternal Recurrence, Meaning, Agency Shocking Time: Reading Eternal Recurrence Literally 149 Lawrence J. Hatab Suicide, Meaning, and Redemption 163 Paul S. Loeb Nietzsche and the Temporality of (Self-)Legislation I91 Herman W. Siemens Part IV: Nietzsche's Contemporaries Geschichte or Historie? Nietzsche's Second Untimely Meditation in the Context of Nineteenth-Century Philological Studies 213 Anthonyl K. Jensen 'An Uncanny Re-Awakening': Nietzsche's Renascence of the Renaissance out of the Spirit of Jacob Burckhardt 231 Martin A. Ruehl Part V: Tragic and Musical Time Metaphysical and Historical Claims in The Birth of Tragedy 275 Katherine Harloe Nietzsche's Musical Conception of Time 291 Jonathan R. Cohen. (shrink)

Dry examines the U.S. Supreme Court's treatment of the First Amendment freedoms of religion and speech against the founding of the American Constitution and its philosophical underpinnings.

A European Account of Justice: Under Pressure of Subsidiarity? This paper provides a dialectical-historical description of the EU's constitutional discourse. It is argued that the early Community's member state blind principle of justice implied the notion of a European political community and led to the establishment of fair procedures for decision making. This coming of age of an encompassing European constitutional narrative of justice and fairness prompted the question of the demarcation between the political role of the European political community (...) and that of member states' political communities. The answer proved to be subsidiarity. However, subsidiarity has introduced national conceptions of justice in the Union's constitutional discourse, at the risk of making European justice dependent on national conceptions of justice. (shrink)

Ricoeur’s thought bears a number of marks from his reading of the work of Merleau-Ponty. In this article, I argue that this also accounts for the nature of his political thought. I bring Ricoeur’s reviews of Humanisme et terreur (1947) to light in order to show how his confrontation with Merleau-Ponty marked an important turning point in his political thought. Firstly, I show that Merleau-Ponty’s defense of Marxism provoked Ricoeur to reflect upon its intrinsic pathology, and how this marked a (...) significant change in Ricoeur’s political position, namely, from Marxism to personalist socialism.Secondly, I explain how Ricoeur’s reading of Humanisme et terreur gave rise to a preliminary expression of ideas that would later become lasting and essential concepts of his political philosophy. More specifically, the pathology of Marxism would later become embedded in his theory of the political paradox and the concept of the prophet lived on in his reflections on civic responsibility.La pensée de Ricoeur porte un certain nombre de traces de sa lecture de Merleau-Ponty. Dans cet article, je soutiens qu’il en est de même pour sa pensée politique. Je mets en lumière ses recensions d’Humanisme et terreur (1947) pour montrer que sa confrontation avec Merleau-Ponty a marqué un tournant important dans sa pensée politique. En premier lieu, je montre que la défense merleau-pontienne du marxisme a conduit Ricoeur à réfléchir sur sa pathologie intrinsèque et que cela a entraîné un changement significatif dans la position politique même de Ricoeur, quittant le marxisme pour le socialisme personnaliste. En second lieu, j’explique comment la lecture par Ricoeur d’Humanisme et terreur a donné lieu à l’expression préliminaire d’idées qui allaient devenir par la suite durablement les concepts essentiels de sa philosophie politique. Plus précisément, la pathologie du marxisme est devenue plus tard sa théorie du paradoxe politique et le concept du prophète a eu une longue vie dans ses réflexions sur la responsabilité civique.Il pensiero di Ricoeur trae una serie di spunti dalla lettura del lavoro di Merleau-Ponty. In quest’articolo, sostengo che questo valga anche per il suo pensiero politico. Infatti, prendo in analisi la recensione di Ricoeur di Umanesimo e terrore (1947) al fine di mostrare come il suo confronto con Merleau-Ponty segnò un importante punto di svolta nel suo pensiero politico. Innanzitutto, mostro che la difesa del marxismo da parte di Merleau-Ponty portò Ricoeur a riflettere sull’intrinseca patologia dello stesso, e come questo segnò, quindi, un significativo cambiamento del posizionamento politico di Ricoeur stesso, che passò dal marxismo al socialismo personalista. In secondo luogo, spiego come la lettura di Umanesimo e terrore da parte di Ricoeur generò la preliminare formulazione di una serie di idee che più avanti sarebbero diventate concetti essenziali e durevoli della sua filosofia politica. Più nel dettaglio, la patologia del marxismo sarebbe poi diventata parte della sua teoria del paradosso politico e il concetto del profeta avrebbe preso vita dalle sue riflessioni sulla responsabilità civica. (shrink)

Islamic Business Finance is based on strong ethical regulations as suggested by Islamic Literature, such as the Quran and the Traditions of the Prophet of Islam, and could be considered as a subclass of the wider subject of ethical standards in business. This book highlights the basic principles of Islamic Business ethics and their implication in today's global business environment. It highlights the most important features of Islamic banking and finance in relation to the core principles of Shariah law. It (...) is the most comprehensive book to date, in terms of the number of Quranic verses and traditions of the Prophet relating to this subject, which are interspersed throughout the text. It explains how ethics are defined both in general terms and within the context of an Islamic perspective. In addition, it provides a logical interpretation of Islamic principles of business ethics through the use of contemporary business case studies. Topics such as digital currencies, money laundering, etc. are discussed at length. This book also discusses the new and emerging ethical issues faced by business and industry globally. This book will be a valuable reference guide for students, teachers and researchers of Islamic banking and finance. (shrink)

In this article, we argue that “affect” should be an important notion in political philosophy. We do this, firstly, by tracing the notion of affect through the philosophical system of Immanuel Kant. We find that affect plays a threefold role for Kant, which can be mapped onto Hannah Arendt’s distinction between natural humanity, moral humanity, and political/aesthetic humanity (our rephrasing). Affect clearly plays a role on the level of natural humanity, and it is arguably to be pinpointed from within moral (...) humanity. With regard to political/aesthetic humanity, we argue that in order to understand how pure judgments of taste can vouch for the ‘bridging’ of the gap between natural and moral humanity, an understanding of the role of aesthetic _affection_ is essential. Secondly, we broaden the Kantian scope of affect by discussing how Žižek, in Lacan’s wake, has tried (but failed) to systematically examine the political relevance of pure judgments of taste. To understand how humans are able to come together politically, we need a better understanding of affect as that which allows _pure form_ to effectuate a subjectively but universally shareable proclivity for (dis)pleasure and desire. (shrink)

For Nietzsche’s hypothesis of a threat of nihilism to be intelligible, this chapter attributes to him at least three assumptions that underpin his philosophical project: (1) what there is, is becoming (and not being), (2) most (if not all) strongly believe in being, and (3) nihilism is a function of the belief in being. This chapter argues that Nietzsche held two doctrines of becoming: one more radical, which he believes is required to fend off nihilism, and one much more moderate—the (...) ontology of relations he develops under the label ‘will to power’. Based on the latter he attempts (but ultimately fails) to develop an ‘adualistic’—neither monistic nor dualistic—practice of thought, a ‘simultaneity-thinking’ ("Zugleich-Denken") that would no longer be subject to nihilism. (shrink)

Nietzsche's thought has been of renewed interest to philosophers in the Anglo-American philosophical community as well as to philosophers of a more phenomenological and hermeneutic background. The volume aims to appeal to both communities of scholars as it seeks to deepen the growing interest and appreciation of Nietzsche's contribution to our understanding of the mind. The 16 essays by leading Nietzsche scholars examine Nietzsche's understanding of consciousness and investigate its continuities with current developments in philosophy of mind, neuroscience, neuroethics, psychology, (...) linguistics, and metaphysics. Recent work in philosophy of mind emphasises non-reductive approaches to consciousness and self-consciousness. The mental is understood as always already embodied as well as situated or embedded in and emerging from a complex system. Nietzsche's thoroughly naturalistic philosophy has received renewed attention as it challenges any reductivist attempt to understand the mental exclusively as a physical phenomenon using the methods of the natural sciences. His understanding of nature and the physical, informed by but not reducible to the natural sciences of his time, is highly idiosyncratic. It posits the mental at several levels, from unconscious and proto-conscious drives, affects and emotions, to reflective, higher-order conscious states, intentionality and language. (shrink)

This article argues that Nietzsche’s transvaluation project refers not to a mere inversion or negation of a set of nihilism-prone, Judeo-Christian values but, instead, to a different conception of what a value is and how it functions. Traditional values function within a standard logical framework and claim legitimacy and “bindingness” based on exogenous authority with absolute extension. Nietzsche regards this framework as unnecessarily reductive in its attempted exclusion of contradiction and real opposition among competing values. I propose a nonstandard, dialetheic (...) model of valuation that requires a value to be both true and false as well as neither true nor false.In our Europe, life is no longer quite so uncertain, contingent, nonsensical. [...] The power man has achieved now allows a reduction of those means of discipline of which the moral interpretation was the strongest.— KSA 12:5[71]The logic of our conscious thinking is only a crude and facilitated form of the thinking needed by our organism [...] A simultaneity-thinking [ein Zugleichdenken], for example, is needed of which we have hardly an inkling. [...] We are still growing continually, our sense of time and place, etc., is still developing.— KSA 11:34[124]. (shrink)

Why are we still intrigued by Nietzsche? This chapter argues that sustained interest stems from Nietzsche’s challenge to what we might call the ‘staticism’ inherent in our ordinary experience. Staticism can be defined, roughly speaking, as the view that the world is a collection of enduring, re-identifiable objects that change only very gradually and according to determinate laws. The chapter discusses Nietzsche’s rejection of the remnants of staticism in Hegel and Schopenhauer. It outlines why Nietzsche deems belief in any variant (...) of the staticist picture as problematic ; and examines Nietzsche’s adualistic-dialetheic stance towards, for example, first-person and third-person descriptions in the philosophy of mind. The chapter closes with a discussion of the contributions of "Nietzsche on Time and History". (shrink)

When is it appropriate to harm a single person to help multiple others? Psychologists have investigated this question through the study of hypothetical “trolley” dilemmas involving extreme physical harm life-or-death situations that contrast outcome-focussed, consequentialist moral reasoning with principle-focussed, deontological moral reasoning. The present studies investigate whether participants’ preference for consequentialism generalises across domains. We administered traditional physical harm dilemmas as well as a trolley-type dilemma involving monetary harm. Across four studies (N = 809), an internal meta-analysis demonstrated that participants’ (...) responses to the traditional dilemmas predicted their responses to the monetary dilemma. Additionally, previous research has uncovered that primary psychopathy predicts consequentialist responses on physical harm dilemmas. The current work uncovers that this association does not generalise to monetary harm dilemmas, suggesting that the association between primary psychopathy and consequentialist reasoning is not related to consequentialist reasoning per se, but to the idiosyncrasies of traditional harm-centric trolley dilemmas instead. (shrink)

The philosopher, writer and technology critic Günther Anders, né Stern (1902–1992), occasionally referred to his own thinking as “occasional philosophy”. In order to reconstruct this mode of thought, which is also an essential key to understanding Anders, I will refer to a previously unpublished typescript of the same name from his literary estate. This reconstruction will be based on three theses: From the outset, Anders’ work is characterised by a preoccupation with questions of method. Secondly, the tools of occasional philosophy (...) can be found not only in his philosophical writings, but above all in his reflections on art, literature and photomontage. Thirdly, the prima vista eclectic and anti-systematic method is a logical reaction to the fundamentally changed conditions of philosophising in a (post-)modern, technologised society. (shrink)

This paper considers three general dilemmas that tend to undermine successful configurations of unity: the either/or dilemma, the synthesis dilemma and the relativism dilemma. It argues that, in his aesthetic writings, Schiller’s critique of Kantian dualisms leads him to an adualistic conception of unity that operates with a different, more inclusive approach to opposition and unification. In order to clarify Schiller’s innovative and often misunderstood position, the paper draws on the disjunctive logic recently developed by Friedrich Kümmel.

Paul Ricœur shared Emmanuel Mounier’s personalist and communitarian ideal of a universal community, which ensures that every human being has access to the conditions for self-development as a person. Whereas Mounier talks about communication as the structure of personhood that summons us towards the gradual enlargement of the community, Ricœur’s reflections on translation provide a missing link by referring, not just to the human capacity to communicate, but more specifically, to our capacity to translate and the implied ethics of linguistic (...) hospitality. This allowed him to show that what enables us to enlarge the circle of brotherhood is the capacity to gradually settle in the world of the other and to welcome the other into one’s own world. (shrink)

Why are we still intrigued by Nietzsche? This chapter argues that sustained interest stems from Nietzsche’s challenge to what we might call the ‘staticism’ inherent in our ordinary experience. Staticism can be defined, roughly speaking, as the view that the world is a collection of enduring, re-identifiable objects that change only very gradually and according to determinate laws. The chapter discusses Nietzsche’s rejection of remnants of staticism in Hegel and Schopenhauer (1). It outlines why Nietzsche deems belief in any variant (...) of the staticist picture as problematic (2); and examines his adualistic-dialetheic stance towards, for example, first-person and third-person descriptions in the philosophy of mind (3). The chapter closes with a discussion of the contributions of "Nietzsche on Time and History". (shrink)

Science-policy interactions can both facilitate and hamper professional normative judgement, i.e. a value judgement about the desirability of a certain situation. Anthropogenic land subsidence, contributing to relative sea-level rise in the economically important Western peatland areas in the Netherlands is a case in point. The implementation of mitigation, adaptation and compensation measures is lagging, partly due to science-policy interaction problems potentially leading to conflicts between stakeholders, including agrarians, climate scientists and inhabitants. We find that professional normative judgement is enhanced when (...) researchers and societal stakeholders reflect more critically on their role and engage in more inclusive science-policy interactions. (shrink)

In het personalisme staat de menselijke persoon centraal. Niet het individu en zijn enge eigenbelang, maar de mensen in verbondenheid met elkaar, hun leefwereld en idealen. De personalistische filosofie heeft haar stempel gedrukt op onze samenleving. Tot op vandaag functioneert ze als inspiratiebron voor maatschappelijke projecten. 0Misschien juist omwille van die sterke impact in het verleden heeft het personalisme vandaag een wat stoffig imago. Dit boek maakt daar komaf mee. Denkers en doeners van diverse pluimage stellen zich de vraag wat (...) een hedendaags personalisme kan inhouden. Welke impulsen kan het personalisme geven aan de samenleving van morgen? Hoe kunnen we dat concretiseren, in diverse domeinen, van economie tot ecologie, van psychologie tot politiek? 0Zo blijkt dat personalisten nog steeds tegen de stroom in zwemmen. Tegenover de materialistische en individualistische reflex van onze samenleving houden ze een warm pleidooi voor het relationele en het spirituele. Met oog voor concrete initiatieven en ruimte om de personalistische traditie kritisch te bekijken, zet dit boek de toon voor een breed maatschappelijk debat. Dit is leesvoer voor iedereen die met een open geest wil nadenken over een betere samenleving. (shrink)

v. 1. Theg bźin mdzod -- v. 2. Chos dbyiṅs mdzod -- v. 3-4. Theg mchog mdzod -- v. 5. Gnas lugs mdzod ; Tshig don mdzod -- v. 6. Man ṅag mdzod ; Grub mthaʾ mdzod.

The centrality of the embodiment of mind, self, and values for the later Nietzsche is widely acknowledged. Here, I reconstrue Nietzsche’s HL to show that he uses his drive model of the mind already in this early text. The “historical sickness” central to HL is diagnosed in the form of failures of embodiment and drive control. First, I argue that a precursor to Nietzsche’s figure of “the last human” is already the target in HL. Second, I offer working definitions for (...) terms such as “drives,” “affects,” and “values,” which are crucial to Nietzsche’s heuristic diagnostic framework. I then focus on the neglected passage that contrasts the medieval memento mori with a modern memento vivere, showing that the former functions as an embodied mechanism of willing and self-control, which Nietzsche claims the moderns have been unsuccessful in replacing. Finally, I draw on recent research in embodied cognition and identify two causes—“overload” and “semantic embodiment”— of the modern “historical sickness” that undermines flourishing. (shrink)

The Buddha -- The Buddha's teachings -- The approaches and their philosophical systems -- The path of the cause-based approaches -- The fruition-based secret Mantra approach -- The Sarma tradition -- The Ningma tradition -- The extraordinary teachings: the Vajra heart essence.

On conduct of life for Muslims and Islamic ethics.

It is a common conviction that Ricoeur’s main contribution to Anglo-American political philosophy is to be found in the dialogue he tried to establish between liberalism and communitarianism. I argue that the depth of Ricoeur’s political philosophy is better served by situating it not only with regard to liberalism and communitarianism, but especially with regard to republicanism. This article shows how Ricoeur’s political philosophy—with its focus on the so-called “political paradox”—contains the main components of contemporary republicanism, with its stress on (...) active citizenship and mixed constitution as necessary prerequisites for freedom, interpreted as the absence of illegitimate domination. I also argue that there are, however, significant differences between Ricoeur’s theory and the main currents in contemporary republicanism, civic republicanism, and civic humanism, because of his reliance on a positive conception of freedom on the one hand and his emphasis on the fragility of politics on the other hand. (shrink)