Research in nanotechnology has advanced rapidly in recent years. Several researchers, however, warn that there is a paucity of research on the ethical, legal, and social implications of nanotechnology, and they caution that ethical reflections on nanotechnology lag behind this fast developing science. In this article, the authors question this conclusion, pointing out that the predicted concrete ethical issues related to the area of nanotechnology are rather similar to those related to the area of biotechnology and biology that have been (...) considered by ethicists since the 1970s. Hence, a knowledge base has already been acquired from ethical reflections on biotechnology and biology, which may be a good starting point and foundation for a discussion of ethical reflections on nanotechnology. The authors argue that a promising approach is the use of basic ethical principles as a method to analyze ethical issues of nanotechnology. (shrink)

This contribution examines Arrighi’s effort in Adam Smith in Beijing to understand the trajectory of China’s political economy and the effects of that trajectory on the current reforms and changes in China. This article discusses these reforms from the perspective of China’s ’internal’ dynamics and suggests that Arrighi’s argument has been developed without proper reference to China’s complex realities. As an alternative, the contribution proposes a research-agenda that could better account for these realities.

Certain critics, e.g. Manfred Frank and Hans-Herbert Kögler, claim that Hans-Georg Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics reduces the individual subject to a mere instrument of history and tradition, the latter reproducing themselves through the subject. However, Gadamer also emphasizes the active role of the subject in shaping and creating history and tradition. In this article I argue that the critics mistakenly emphasize a one-sided conception of history. By incorporating both active and passive aspects of the subject, Gadamer's philosophical hermeneutics provides the means (...) by which the individual may be conceived more aptly in an interdependent, dialectical relation to their corresponding historical, cultural, and social context. (shrink)

Management consultants and their moral standards and behaviour have been questioned and caricatured, but it is not sufficiently appreciated that they frequently have to operate in situations which are characterized by ambiguity, ignorance, uncertainty and sensitivity and they cannot always simply apply ethical rules in cooperating with their clients. In addition, more attention should be given to the ethics of the client, and “dual ethics” should be a joint concern. Research among consultants and clients has identified several ethical dilemmas frequently (...) experienced by consultants which are explained and explored. Dr Poulfelt is Associate Professor of Management at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School, Blaagaardsgade 23 B, DK‐2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark. (shrink)

International tax competition undermines states’ capacity for redistributive taxation. It is thus problematic from the point of view of both cosmopolitan and internationalist theories of justice. This article examines the proposal of a fiscal policy constraint that prohibits tax policies if they are strategically motivated and harmful to effective fiscal self-determination internationally. I argue that we should opt for a more robust, preference-independent mechanism to prevent harmful tax competition instead. States should, as a matter of justice, accept global minimum tax (...) rates on mobile tax bases. (shrink)

Based on a dataset of more than 5,000 contentious collective actions from 1700-2000, this paper examines the relation between popular protest and democratization of the Danish political system. The first wave of protests began in the 1830s and culminated in 1848 with the fall of absolutism and the transition to constitutional monarchy. The next protest wave from 1885 to 1887 arose from the so-called ‘constitutional struggle’ and mobilized hundreds of thousands of ordinary Danes, and contributed to the parliamentarization and nationalization (...) of the political system. The third wave unfolded around the end of World War II, while the hitherto last wave of popular struggle erupted in 1968 with the youth rebellion. The analysis show that ‘democracy’ was the central issue of contention in all four of these protest waves, and support the main thesis that periods of intense interaction between popular protest and the state have had a decisive formative influence on the genesis and further development of Danish democracy. (shrink)

Dieser Beitrag kritisiert aktuelle Vorschläge zur Einführung einer allgemeinen Dienstpflicht. Vier Argumente für einen verpflichtenden Dienst zugunsten der Allgemeinheit werden diskutiert und zurückgewiesen: Das paternalistische Argument, das sich auf den Nutzen der Dienstpflicht für die Dienstpflichtigen selbst beruft, scheitert aus prinzipiellen Erwägungen. Das sozialstaatliche Argument, das die Dienstpflicht durch ihre Rolle bei der Erfüllung sozialstaatlicher Aufgaben gerechtfertigt sieht, ist wenig überzeugend, solange es mildere Mittel gibt, diese Aufgaben zu erfüllen. Das Argument über Gemeinschaftlichkeit, das die Dienstpflicht mit einer Konzeption des (...) guten Lebens in Gemeinschaft begründet, scheitert an seiner Unvereinbarkeit mit einem vernünftigen Pluralismus der Lebensentwürfe. Und schließlich ist auch die These zurückzuweisen, dass eine allgemeine Dienstpflicht notwendig sei, um die gesellschaftlichen Voraussetzungen einer funktionierenden Demokratie zu gewährleisten. Eine Diskussion vermeintlicher Analogien beschließt den Aufsatz. (shrink)

Dieses Kapitel gibt einen Überblick über philosophische Debatten zum Umgang mit menschlicher Mobilität über nationalstaatliche Grenzen. Dabei wird zum einen auf die Diskussion über ein staatliches Recht auf Ausschluss bzw. ein individuelles Recht auf Einwanderung eingegangen, zum anderen wird die Frage beleuchtet, wer aufgrund einer besonderen Bedrohungslage im Herkunftsland einen Anspruch auf Aufnahme hat und wie Pflichten zur Aufnahme von Geflüchteten unter den Staaten zu verteilen sind.

This paper assesses the ‘power-induced failure of reciprocity’ account of exploitation in the domain of trade. I argue that its proponents face a dilemma. Either the cost variable of reciprocity is understood to include opportunity costs. Then, the account implausibly implies that those with more valuable outside options should get a larger part of the overall benefits of cooperation. Or the cost variable is understood to exclude opportunity costs. Then, the account has awkward implications in cases where direct costs and (...) opportunity costs are substitutable. To evade this dilemma, the account could be amended to include a hypothetical baseline that equalizes opportunity costs. But then, the account ceases to be isolationist. Whether a cooperative interaction counts as exploitative is no longer independent of moral considerations about distributions outside the domain of trade. (shrink)

In the move from a teleological notion of history to one ruled by the logic of the symptom, Žižek is pushed to theorize the notion of the Act. Bringing together Marxism and psychoanalysis at the level of surplus, revolution and the end of analysis merge. What Žižek provides is a picture of change permeated with contingencies: a hysterical ‘acting out’ can become the Act proper; a violent outburst can become revolution. This can only be accomplished with the help of the (...) party-cum-analyst, which Zizek asserts serves to ensure that spontaneity becomes politicized. This paper serves as an attempt to trace the beginnings of the theoretical contours of Žižek’s development of the Act, and ends by opening towards the investigation of the importance of Pascal’s wager in Žižek’s theoretical corpus. (shrink)

This essay outlines the kinds of evidence available (and not available) for studies of ancient Mediterranean pandemics, the scholarship on the subject so far, and some reflections on the relationship between the two. The focus is on the three largescale epidemic episodes that have attracted the most scholarly attention: the “Plague of Athens” in the fifth century BCE; the “Antonine Plague,” which spread across the Roman Empire in the late second century CE; and the “Justinianic Plague,” which first engulfed the (...) Mediterranean in the sixth century CE. All present considerable evidential challenges. There are traditional resources and the rich remains of ancient medical writings, but we also now have at our disposal new archaeological and genetic evidence. The research questions on these pandemics must be expanded beyond asking what disease was implicated and what political and economic impact its Mediterranean outbreaks had, sometimes within quite a restricted geographical area. Interdisciplinary research will be required to answer these wider enquiries fully. All the salient disciplines need to be involved, with due attention to their methodologies, if the field is to move forward and make the most of its resources. (shrink)

While he develops three different aspects of Lacan's “Real,” Slavoj Žižek does so only partially, in the end leaving an inconsistent and contradictory account. Here these three versions of the Real are outlined and clarified by showing their relation to Marx's account of capitalist exchange and socialist politics. This leads to a discussion of two other aspects of the Real that appear in Žižek's work: the pre-Symbolic Real and the “Sinthome.” Where the former is simultaneously the fear of a unified (...) working class and the fantasy of a world of “total enjoyment” without conflict, the latter is discussed here in terms of political struggle that takes on not only the form of a means to an end but also that of an end in itself. (shrink)