Dietmar Mieth (* 1940), profilierter Moraltheologe, Wissenschaftsorganisator und Meister Eckhart-Spezialist, schildert in diesem Buch seine Erfahrungen in Kirche und Gesellschaft. Die Auseinandersetzungen aus 50 Jahren, an denen der Autor selbst intensiv beteiligt war, werden dabei lebendig: von der Kindheit und Jugend in der vorkonziliaren Kirche, uber das Tubingen der spaten 60er-Jahre, die Diskussionen um die autonome Moral Alfons Auers, den Fall Pfurtner und die Kolner Erklarung, bis hin zur Grundung des Tubinger Internationalen Zentrums fur Ethik in den Wissenschaften und (...) zur ethischen Politikberatung. Ein spannendes Stuck Zeitgeschichte im Spiegel einer aussergewohnlichen Biographie! (shrink)

In this chapter we argue that poverty should be seen as a violation of dignity, drawing on two of Kant’s formulations of the Categorical Imperative – the formula of humanity and the formula of the kingdom of ends. In our view, poverty should not be seen primarily in terms of exploitation, nor of failures to help people in need. A Kantian perspective should give proper weight to the actual and potential agency of those who suffer poverty. This is a question (...) about power, not just the distribution of material resources. Theoretically, we will place particular emphasis on the rarely remarked reference to “ends and means” in the formula of the kingdom of ends. People are sometimes treated merely as means, which is one sort of disrespect for their equal moral status. Another form of disrespect, deeper and more general in form, is the denial of decent opportunities to act as means for others. The resulting powerlessness, we suggest, should be central to an adequate understanding of poverty and its violations of dignity. (shrink)

Are there strong positive obligations? We obviously consider it a strong obligation to save a drowning child. The first part of this work investigates the factors that define the strength of such an obligation to help and how this is to be differentiated from actions that transcend obligation and from charitable obligations. The second part examines the question whether this case can be transposed to our relationship with those suffering from poverty and cites morally relevant factors that differentiate the cases.

This article offers a Kantian account of dignity violations in the context of contemporary migration to western states. It considers three major issues: “modern slavery,” statutory detention, and lack of rights to engage in economic activity. While most Kantian accounts emphasize the dignity violations of treating people as “mere means,” we point out that this does not capture the central issue: the “hostile environment” that so many migrants face. The first part of the article briefly sets out a Kantian account (...) of dignity violations. The second part highlights two key differences between modern slavery and its historical forebears. It emphasizes the interpersonal rather than institutional character of modern slavery, and distinguishes trafficking from smuggling. The third part argues that migrants who lack formal rights to remain and work face institutional exclusions that violate human dignity. Policies that aim to discourage and restrict immigration demean people’s status as ends in themselves. Moreover, they do so by actively denying opportunities to act as means for others. As such, the article draws a link between Kant’s well-known cosmopolitan right not to be treated with hostility and his less well-known ethical duty, “to be a useful member of the world.” Dignity can be found in acting as a means for others; hostility and exclusion can violate dignity just as much as instrumentalization. (shrink)

With regard to the problem of world poverty, libertarian theories of corrective justice emphasize negative duties and the idea of responsibility whereas utilitarian theories of help concentrate on positive duties based on the capacity of the helper. Thomas Pogge has developed a revised model of compensation that entails positive obligations that are generated by negative duties. He intends to show that the affluent are violating their negative duties to ensure that their conduct will not harm others: They are contributing to (...) and profiting from an unjust global order. But the claim that negative duty generated positive obligations are more acceptable than positive duties is contestable. I examine whether Henry Shue’s model that is integrating negative duties and positive duties is more convincing concerning the foundation of positive duties to protect others. I defend the idea that there are positive duties of justice. This approach can integrate an allocation of positive duties via responsibility and maintain the advantage of an independent foundation of positive duties. (shrink)

Friedrich Nietzsche war kein Anarchist. Trotzdem weckten seine Ideen ein starkes Interesse bei Schlusselfiguren der anarchistischen Bewegung ab den 1890er-Jahren. Gustav Landauer, Emma Goldman und andere reflektierten uber die Chancen und die Gefahren, die jene Ideen fur ihre Politik enthalten. Hitzige Deutungskampfe, etwa uber den Willen zur Macht oder den Status von Frauen in Nietzsches Werken, entlockten selbst den vehementesten Kritikern wie Peter Kropotkin noch produktive Impulse zur Weiterentwicklung der eigenen Theorien. In jungerer Zeit hat sich eine neuere Stromung, der (...) "Postanarchismus", auf Nietzsche berufen, ohne allerdings die historischen Varianten des "nietzscheanischen Anarchismus" zu berucksichtigen. Dies stellt das Innovationspotenzial des Postanarchismus infrage. Das Buch nimmt eine transnationale Perspektive ein und dokumentiert erstmalig die anarchistische Rezeption Nietzsches in Deutschland, Grossbritannien und den USA innerhalb ihrer jeweiligen historischen Kontexte. (shrink)

Within the past two decades or so there has been a gradual renewal of interest in metaphysics in general and in the theistic arguments in particular. "the ontological argument: a research bibliography," is the most comprehensive bibliography ever done on this argument for god's existence, with over 330 items listed. the article is divided into the following categories: general histories of the argument; the argument in anselm; in the middle ages after anselm; from descartes to kant; in continental philosophy; in (...) british and american philosophy; the logic of "exists"; the concept of necessary being, etc. (shrink)

Dr. Norman L. Geisler has been called the "father of evangelical Christian philosophy." He has written more than one hundred books and taught at universities and top seminaries for some fifty-six years. He was the first president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society and the founder and first president of the International Society of Christian Apologetics. He has spoken or debated in more than two dozen countries and held pastoral/pulpit ministries in four states. Many view him as a cross between Thomas (...) Aquinas and Billy Graham. No one has done more to communicate the modern challenges of the Faith to the "average" Christian, to the church, and to the academy. This volume offers creative and constructive essays from twenty-three contributors, all notable in their own right, who preserve and propagate Dr. Geisler's ideas and express appreciation for his influence. Those who know him best say he is "true, faithful, and blessed by God!" -- from book cover. (shrink)

Moral, die erstens von inhaltlich überzogenen Moralvorstellungen, zweitens von der Missachtung des Eigenrechts von Handlungssphären und drittens von überzogenen Arten des Geltendmachens moralisch legitimer Forderungen herrühren kann. Wir charakterisieren diese Quellen des Moralismus näher, unterscheiden verschiedene Spielarten oder Subtypen und besprechen schließlich Phänomene aus dem Umkreis des Moralismus.

The author pointsout that there ist no contradiction between the question of norms and the question of values which are part of life experience. Normative ethics can formulate precepts which show by way of induction the relevance of values and norms based on experience. Experience has the status of an experimental discovesy of the reality of life. In this way, the author attempts a mediation between norm and experience with a view to an ambitious concept of theological ethics.