Global forest loss is highest in the tropical region, an area with high biological biodiversity. As some of these forests are part of indigenous forest management, it is important to pay attention to such management, its values and practices for better conservation. This paper focuses on sacred freshwater swamp forests of the Western Ghats, India, and with it a faith-based approach to nature conservation. Drawing on fieldwork and focus groups, we present the rituals and rules that structure the governance of (...) sacred swamps. We also discuss in depth the ecological, socio-cultural and economic valuation of these freshwater swamps by various local groups. In this way, we show overlaps and differences of valuation among different groups. In the context of a secular state with a diversity of faith groups and migration dynamics, we propose that faith-based governance of sacred swamps can benefit from the emphasis of faith-independent, ‘accessible’ ecological, socio-cultural and economic values to foster a dialogue around sacred swamps and their place for livelihoods and nature conservation. (shrink)

Bird songs often display musical acoustic features such as tonal pitch selection, rhythmicity, and melodic contouring. We investigated higher-order musical temporal structure in bird song using an experimental method called “music scrambling” with human subjects. Recorded songs from a phylogenetically diverse group of 20 avian taxa were split into constituent elements and recombined in original and random order. Human subjects were asked to evaluate which version sounded more “musical” on a per-species basis. Species identity and stimulus treatment were concealed from (...) subjects, and stimulus presentation order was randomized within and between taxa. Two recordings of human music were included as a control for attentiveness. Participants varied in their assessments of individual species musicality, but overall they were significantly more likely to rate bird songs with original temporal sequence as more musical than those with randomized temporal sequence. We discuss alternative hypotheses for the origins of avian musicality, including honest signaling, perceptual bias, and arbitrary aesthetic coevolution. (shrink)

Few arguments against intentional states in animals have stood the test of time. But one objection by Stich and Davidson has never been rebutted. In my reconstruction it runs: Ascribing beliefs to animals is vacuous, unless something counts as an animal believing one specific “content” rather than another; Nothing counts as an animal believing one specific content rather than another, because of their lack of language; Ergo: Ascribing beliefs to animals is vacuous. Several attempts to block the argument challenge the (...) first premise, notably the appeals to “naked” belief ascriptions and alternative representational formats. This essay defends the first premise and instead challenges the second premise. There are non-linguistic “modes of presentation”; these can be determined by attributing to animals specific needs and capacities—a “ hermeneutic ethology” based on lessons from the debate about radical translation/interpretation in the human case. On that basis we can narrow down content by exclusion. What remains is an “imponderability of the mental” which does not rule out attributions of intentional states to animals. (shrink)

PurposeThe demand for learning is constantly increasing in transcultural knowledge societies. This paper aims to consider the impact of learning concepts, as developed by Danish libraries, and the way they relate to mutual recognition and social inclusion of ethnic minority groups.Design/methodology/approachConducting research on open social spaces as libraries and learning labs in libraries implies a multiple research design along with a differentiated analytical framework.FindingsLibraries in multicultural districts will be able to contribute to the fulfilment of integration purposes more effectively if (...) they cease to be bound to the concept of information. In transformative and cross‐cultural learning contexts, the concept of knowledge should be employed.Practical implicationsStudying activities in libraries still need to be delimited from learning in schools. Enhancing multicultural learning with focus on learning styles, which permits a mutual reflection of significant symbol systems, will be desirable.Originality/valueThe paper shows, in the context of this study, knowledge emerged from the interaction of social and cultural capital. (shrink)

O debate atual em tomo da luta pelo direito de cidadania pouco dá-se conta da lógica abstraidora que caracteriza o sistema do Direito liberal, ao qual se integra. Usando como meio de inclusão social das camadas desfavorecidas, esta luta vê-se encadeada aos trilhos do procedimento legal. Ainda que possibilite avanços no que tange ao reconhecimento de novas demandas sociais, não consegue garantir sua concretização material. É na complementaridade entre a luta pelo direito de cidadania e aquela dos movimentos sociais que, (...) na sociedade liberal, revelasse a insuficiência dos procedimentos meramente legais. (shrink)

In this accessible collection of short meditations on various topics, Blumenberg works as a detective of ideas scouring the periphery of intellectual and philosophical history for clues—metaphors, gestures, anecdotes—essential to grasping human finitude.

Persönlichkeit, Glück, Schicksal.--Vorurteile gegen die Weltanschauung von Leibniz.--Der Realismus und die Idee.--Die Wiedergeburt der Ontologie.--Zur wesentlichen Freiheit.--Die Willensfreiheit als Gabe und Aufgabe.--Zur Logik der Gemeinschaft.--Über die Einheit und die Immanenz des Ganzen.--Die Idee der Wissenschaft im Wandel der Jahrhunderte.--Die Sachlichkeit als Kultur-problem.--Über den Sinn des kategorischen Imperativs.

This contribution deals with an interpretation of practical theology which reckons amongst its tasks both an empirical situational analysis and a normative guide to action. We address the question to what extent it is possible for practical theology to fullfil both these tasks when, in the tradition of Weber's concept of scientific method, it wants to be descriptive above all, while applying at the same time methods that claim to be objective and value-free, i.e. that do not jump to conclusions (...) about what should be on the basis of what is. In order to relate all this to practice, both the foundations of our theory and its initial formulation and evaluation need to be worked out and submitted to rational verification. (shrink)

Die Zeiten, da die Philosophen ganze Epochen in den Blick nahmen, um ihre Tendenzen zu charakterisieren und zu kritisieren, scheinen längst vorbei. Die hypertrophen Ansprüche der Hegelianer und Marxisten bzw. Neomarxisten sind einer kleinteiligen logischen Analyse gewichen, die an Schärfe gewinnt, was sie an umfassendem Überblick verliert.In einer solchen Situation ist es bemerkenswert, wenn der Dortmunder Philosoph Friedrich Rapp den Mut hat, an ältere Formen der Kultur- und Gesellschaftskritik anzuknüpfen, um schonungslos die Pathologien der Moderne aufzudecken. Diese Pathologien rühren seiner (...) Meinung nach daher, daß dem Freiheitsdrang des modernen Menschen keine entsprechenden konstruktiven Leistungen gegenüberstünden, die eine ordnungsstiftende Kraft hätten. Es gilt sogar: „Die Konsequenzen der maßlosen Freiheit sind ein Tabuthema." An dieses Tabu will Rapp rühren, weil die destruktiven Konsequenzen unseres Freiheitsdranges inzwischen Ausmaße erreicht haben, die zur Selbstzerstörung führen könnten. Die „Lebenslüge der Moderne" bestehe darin, dies nicht sehen zu wollen. (shrink)

We discuss the possibility of “fifth forces” in relativistic gravitation theories of fourth order. The fifth force may be an analog to the “weak forces” in the theories of electroweak interactions.