How do civilians react to being harmed in war? Existing studies argue that civilian casualties are strategically costly because civilian populations punish a belligerent who kills civilians and support the latter's opponent. Relying on eighty-seven semi-structured interviews with victims of coalition attacks in Afghanistan, this article shows that moral principles inform civilians’ attitudes toward their own harming. Their attitudes may therefore vary with the perceived circumstances of an attack. Civilians’ perception of harm as unintended and necessary, in accordance with the (...) moral principles of distinction and necessity, was associated with narratives that cast an attack as relatively more legitimate and with a partial or full release of the coalition from blame. The principle of proportionality, which requires that civilian casualties are caused in pursuit of a legitimate war aim, informed their abstract attitudes toward civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Two rules of international law, which accord with the moral principles of distinction and necessity, were reflected in the civilians’ attitudes. The legal rule of proportionality, which diverges from the namesake moral principle, failed to resonate with the civilians. The article explores whether compliance with the legal rules of distinction and necessity can contribute to mitigating the strategic costs of civilian casualties. (shrink)

Insight is a cognitive feature that is usually regarded as being generated by the neocortex and being present only in humans and possibly some closely related primates. In this essay we show that especially corvids display behavioral skills within the domains of object permanence, episodic memory, theory of mind, and tool use/causal reasoning that are insightful. These similarities between humans and corvids at the behavioral level are probably the result of a convergent evolution. Similarly, the telencephalic structures involved in higher (...) cognitive functions in both species show a high degree of similarity, although the forebrain of birds has no cortex-like lamination. The neural substrate for insight-related cognitive functions in mammals and birds is thus not necessarily based on a laminated cortical structure but can be generated by differently organized forebrains. Hence, neither is insight restricted to mammals, as predicted from a “scala naturae”, nor is the laminated cortex a prerequisite for the highest cognitive functions. (shrink)

Robots as social companions in close proximity to humans have a strong potential of becoming more and more prevalent in the coming years, especially in the realms of elder day care, child rearing, and education. As human beings, we have the fascinating ability to emotionally bond with various counterparts, not exclusively with other human beings, but also with animals, plants, and sometimes even objects. Therefore, we need to answer the fundamental ethical questions that concern human-robot-interactions per se, and we need (...) to address how we conceive of »good lives«, as more and more of the aspects of our daily lives will be interwoven with social robots. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to identify the manifestations of speciesism in the history of research into theory of mind in non-human animals and, more importantly, to identify the cognitive biases that contribute to the adoption of incautious and, as we will see in later chapters, often misinterpretations of empirical research. The influence of speciesism is also visible in broadly understood animal studies. The manifestations of species-related chauvinism are present, inter alia, in in considerations on the theory of mind. (...) An analysis of the already classic articles by Premarck and Woodruff (1978) and Calla and Tomasello (2011) reveals an attempt to maintain faith in human uniqueness. Maintaining this belief sometimes involves constructing careless interpretations. (shrink)

The article discusses the concept of social economy. In the first part, some essential historical sources of the subject matter are described. The second part deals with the concept of social economy, taking into special consideration its definitional problems, founding values and characteristic principles as well as dilemmas and difficulties connected with its implementation.

This book examines film as a multimodal text and an audiovisual synthesis, bringing together current work within the fields of narratology, philosophy, multimodal analysis, sound as well as cultural studies in order to cover a wide range of international academic interest. The book provides new insights into current work and turns the discussion towards recent research questions and analyses, representing and constituting in each contribution new work in the discipline of film text analysis. With the help of various example analyses, (...) all showing the methodological applicability of the discussed issues, the collection provides novel ways of considering film as one of the most complex and at the same time broadly comprehensible texts. (shrink)

Matthias Braun’s1 concise reflections on the ethical challenges posed by digital twins in medicine are briefly supplemented below by a thought that, in my view, seems to run through the text like a thread, but whose ethical implications are not explicitly stated. Braun states in the final paragraph that ‘digital twins do not fundamentally threaten the embodied person’, at least not as long as the person in question has ‘control over her simulated representation’. I agree with this, but would like (...) to point out that it is not just the embodied person who has control. Regardless of whether the person embodied by the digital twin has permanent control over it, which enables them to revoke their agreed representation at any time, the company that developed or uses the digital twin also has control over it. The control of the company or companies and other involved parties lies in the fact that data and information are …. (shrink)

This article suggests that the best available normative framework for guiding conduct in war rests on categories that do not echo the terms of an individual rights-based morality, but acknowledge the impossibility of rendering warfare fully morally justified. Avoiding the undue moralization of conduct in war is an imperative for a normative framework that strives to actually give behavioral guidance to combatants, most of whom will inevitably be ignorant of the moral status of the individuals they encounter on the battlefield (...) and will often be uncertain or mistaken about the justice of their own cause. We identify the requirement of military necessity, applied on the basis of what we refer to as the “St. Petersburg assumption”, as the main principle according to which a combatant should act, regardless of which side or in which battlefield encounter she finds herself. This pragmatic normative framework enjoys moral traction for three reasons: first, in the circumstances of war it protects human life to a certain extent; second, it makes no false claims about the moral justification of individual conduct in combat operations; and, third, it fulfills morally important functions of law. However, the criterion of military necessity interpreted on the basis of the St. Petersburg assumption does not directly replicate fundamental moral prescriptions about the preservation of individual rights. (shrink)

How will the Holocaust be remembered as its survivors disappear? In this article Janina Bauman reflects upon her own work on the Holocaust in the context of the Holocaust's broader reception. She offers her own views about the genre with reference to contemporary documents and testimonials, secondary work, scholarly work, fiction and film. These observations and stories all circulate around her own 1986 landmark text, Winter in the Morning.

Since their arrival in Europe in the Middle Ages the Gypsies have suffered from discrimination on the grounds of racial prejudice. In the 20th century the NAZI doctrine lead to Porrajmos - the Gypsy Holocaust. In the post-war communist countries, Gypsies were forced to give up their traditional ways of life and become productive. Persecution of Gypsies - those who stayed in the post-communist countries and those who migrated to the West - continued in Europe after the big changes of (...) 1989 and up to the present time. (shrink)

The first part deals with the problem of the external form of ostensive definition. It is concluded that the definition statement is not complete. The proper form of this statement is not a sentence, but a sentential function, namely a sentential function of the type: ``Π x [N(x)=x is in the respect R and in the degree D such as A, B... and not such as K, L...]" where "N" stands for the term being defined. Thus the ostensive definition informs (...) about the criteria of applicability of the defined term in a partial way only, and the rest must be supplied by the addressee for whom the given definition was destined. In the second part the conditions are analysed on which depends the possibility of solving that problem, and consequently the conditions on which depend the informational value and the efficacy of ostensive definition. The concluding remarks deal with the properties of the terms introduced by the ostensive method. (shrink)

Niniejszy artykuł poświęcony jest zagadnieniu wyjaśnienia poznania w teleosemantyce, która jest najbardziej zaawansowaną wersją reprezentacyjnej teorii umysłu. Krytyka reprezentacjonizmu ze strony teorii poznania ucieleśnionego powoduje, że założenia i tezy teorii reprezentacyjnych powinny zostać poddane analizie w kontekście pytania o adekwatność i sukces tego podejścia. Głównym założeniem tego podejścia jest teza, że procesy poznawcze jak percepcja, myślenie pojęciowe, wiedza itp. polegają na wytwarzaniu reprezentacji mentalnych i operowaniu nimi. Materialną składową reprezentacji mentalnych są stany neuronalne mózgu, będące nośnikami treści poznawczych. Głównym problemem (...) tego podejścia jest wyjaśnienie przypisywania stanom mózgu treści pełniących funkcję reprezentacji. Teleosemantyka łączy wyjaśnienie nadawania treści z zagadnieniem intencjonalności stanów mentalnych i tezą o reprezentacyjnym charakterze poznania. Jako punkt wyjścia, zostały omówione związki jakie zachodzą pomiędzy ogólnym pojęciem reprezentacji a intencjonalnością. Ogólna struktura reprezentacji jest strukturą spełniającą warunki intencjonalności zarówno w sensie „bycia o czymś”, jak i skierowania na przedmiot intencjonalny. Problemem do rozwiązania jest konstytuowanie relacji reprezentacji i przypisywanie treści stanom mózgu. Następnie podana została analizie propozycja rozwiązania tego problemu przedstawiona przez R. Millikan w jej teorii teleosemantyki. Upatruje ona źródło intencjonalności w biologicznych funkcjach zdobywania informacji niezbędnej do przetrwania. Funkcje te spełniane są przez relacje konstytuujące reprezentacje mentalne. Semantyka reprezentacji jest nadana przez cel funkcji biologicznej, natomiast warunki prawdziwości skorelowane są z własnościami otoczenia. Końcowa część poświęcona jest omówieniu ograniczeń takiego ujęcia i przedstawieniu krytyki ze strony stanowisk antyreprezentacyjnych. Prowadzi to do konkluzji, że teleosemantyka, rozwijając relacyjne rozumienie reprezentacji wnosi do wyjaśnienia poznania ważny element. Łączy pojęcie intencjonalności z reprezentowaniem świata w umyśle. Nie daje jednak jeszcze pełnej odpowiedzi na pytanie o konstytucję treści poznawczych. Nie powinna też być traktowana jako jedyny i uniwersalny sposób rozwiązania problemu treści, ale jako jedna z propozycji wyjaśnienia elementów poznania wyposażonych w treść intencjonalną. (shrink)

Przedmiotem artykułu jest ukazanie realizmu strukturalnego jako stanowiska realistycznego w dyskusji, prowadzonej wokół realizmu naukowego – jego wybranych zalet i słabości. Realizm strukturalny jest odpowiedzią na wyzwanie, jakie realizmowi naukowemu stawiają historyczne fakty zmiany teorii w nauce. Nawiązuje on do semantycznego ujęcia teorii naukowych i wypracowanego w tym podejściu aparatu pojęciowego. Zgodnie z realizmem strukturalnym to, co zostaje zachowane z dojrzałych teorii naukowych po zmianie teorii, to ich sformułowania matematyczne, będące abstrakcyjnymi modelami teorii. Są one aproksymacyjnie prawdziwe, gdyż reprezentują realne (...) struktury rzeczywistości w sposób wolny od ontologicznej interpretacji, narzuconej przez język teorii. Realizm strukturalny i nawiązujący do niego semirealizm, który rozszerza niezmienniczość dojrzałych teorii na własności detekcyjne obiektów fizycznych, bronią tezy realizmu naukowego w kwestii aproksymacyjnej prawdziwości teorii naukowych, interpretując realistycznie zmiany teorii naukowych. Pozostawiają jednak na boku istotny dla realizmu problem reprezentowania rzeczywistości w teoriach naukowych. Oba wspomniane stanowiska, nawiązując do modelowego ujęcia teorii naukowych, przyjmują, że reprezentacja jest izomorfizmem struktur matematycznego modelu teorii i rzeczywistości. Takie rozumienie reprezentacji jest zbyt wąskie, nie uwzględnia, że struktura zjawisk nie jest jednoznacznie określona. Strukturę tę dla teorii zastępuje matematyczny model danych, który odzwierciedla zjawiska przedstawione jako związki własności określonych przez teorię. Realistyczna interpretacja modelu danych stanowi dla realizmu strukturalnego konieczne uzupełnienie, aby spełniał on naczelną tezę realizmu, głoszącą, że nauka poznaje świat taki, jaki jest niezależnie od teorii. Stanowi to podstawę, aby broniona w realizmie strukturalnym aproksymacyjna prawdziwość teorii naukowych miała ugruntowane uzasadnienie. Wskazanie potrzeby rozszerzenia realizmu strukturalnego i semirealizmu o odpowiednią dla nich koncepcję reprezentacji jest tezą tej pracy. W artykule zostały przedstawione podstawowe elementy współczesnej dyskusji wokół realizmu naukowego oraz stanowiska realizmu strukturalnego i semirealizmu jako uzgodnienie realizmu naukowego z faktem radykalnej zmiany teorii. Następnie zostały ukazane konsekwencje, jakie dla realizmu strukturalnego wynikają z semantycznego (modelowego) ujęcia teorii naukowych i związanego z tym pojęcia reprezentacji jako izomorfizmu struktur. Ostatni fragment został poświęcony wskazaniu, że aby spełnić postulaty realizmu naukowego zarówno realizm strukturalny, jak i semirealizm powinny być uzupełnione o interpretację reprezentacji rzeczywistości w modelu danych w duchu realizmu naukowego. -------------- Zgłoszono: 17/09/2020. Zrecenzowano: 12/10/2020. Zaakceptowano do publikacji: 09/11/2020. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Nothing Wants to Die An Eye for an Eye, a Tooth for a Tooth Solution 1: Keep Your Powder Dry Solution 2: Pretend It Wasn't You Solution 3: Give, and Ye Shall Receive Solution 4: Take Only What You Need Solution 5: Cheat Death The Keepers of the Game as a Moral Authority Notes.

cz. 2. Demokryt, Sokrates, Platon, Arystoteles.

Vermutlich sind sich Technik und Mensch nirgendwo so nahe, sind auf intime und verbindliche Weise miteinander verschränkt, wie in den Bereichen von Medizin, Therapie und Pflege. Am Nexus von Medizin und Technik werden deshalb zahlreiche ethische Fragen aufgeworfen. Dieser Band verfolgt das zweifache Anliegen, die Verschränkungen von Medizin, Technik und Ethik einerseits aus unterschiedlichen disziplinären Perspektiven zu beleuchten sowie andererseits einen Blick in die Praxis zu werfen, in die Erfahrungsräume der in der Medizin tätigen Menschen und ihre Interaktionen mit Technologien.

The transcription factor NF‐κB (p65/p50) plays a central role in the coordination of cellular responses by activating the transcription of numerous target genes. The precise role of the dynamics of NF‐κB signalling in regulating gene expression is still an open question. Here, we show that besides external stimulation intracellular parameters can influence the dynamics of NF‐κB. By applying mathematical modelling and bifurcation analyses, we show that NF‐κB is capable of exhibiting different types of dynamics in response to the same stimulus. (...) We identified the total NF‐κB concentration and the IκBα transcription rate constant as two critical parameters that modulate the dynamics and the fold change of NF‐κB. Both parameters might vary as a result of cell‐to‐cell variability. The regulation of the IκBα transcription rate constant, e.g. by co‐factors, provides the possibility of regulating the NF‐κB dynamics by crosstalk. (shrink)

Friends of the Emir: Non-Muslim State Officials in Premodern Islamic Thought. By Luke B. Yarbrough. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. xiv + 361. $120 ; $32.99.

This issue ofScience in Contextis dedicated to the question of whether there was a “cinematographic turn” in the sciences around the beginning of the twentieth century. In 1895, the Lumière brothers presented their projection apparatus to the Parisian public for the first time. In 1897, the Scottish medical doctor John McIntyre filmed the movement of a frog's leg; in Vienna, in 1898, Ludwig Braun made film recordings of the contractions of a living dog's heart (cf. Cartwright 1992); in 1904, Lucien (...) Bull filmed in slow motion a bullet entering a soap bubble. In 1907 and 1908, respectively, Max Seddig and Victor Henri recorded Brownian motion with the help of a cinematograph (Curtis 2005). In 1909, the Swiss Julius Ries was one of the first to film fertilization and cell division in sea urchins (Ries 1909). In that same year in Paris, Louise Chevroton and Frédéric Vlès used a film camera to observe cell division in the same object (Chevroton and Vlès 1909). As early as 1898, the Parisian surgeon Eugène-Louis Doyen began filming several of his operations, among them the spectacular separation of the Siamese twins Doodica and Radica (Bonah and Laukötter 2009). And in England, the scientist and zoologist Francis Martin Duncan produced an array of popular-scientific films for Charles Urban: “The unseen world: A series of microscopic studies” was presented to the public in the Alhambra Theatre in London for the first time in 1903 (see Gaycken in this issue). (shrink)

This study investigates how background music influences learning with respect to three different theoretical approaches. Both the Mozart effect as well as the arousal-mood-hypothesis indicate that background music can potentially benefit learning outcomes. While the Mozart effect assumes a direct influence of background music on cognitive abilities, the arousal-mood-hypothesis assumes a mediation effect over arousal and mood. However, the seductive detail effect indicates that seductive details such as background music worsen learning. Moreover, as working memory capacity has a crucial influence (...) on learning with seductive details, we also included the learner’s working memory capacity as a factor in our study. We tested 81 college students using a between-subject design with half of the sample listening to two pop songs while learning a visual text and the other half learning in silence. We included working memory capacity in the design as a continuous organism variable. Arousal and mood scores before and after learning were collected as potential mediating variables. To measure learning outcomes we tested recall and comprehension. We did not find a mediation effect between background music and arousal or mood on learning outcomes. In addition, for recall performance there were no main effects of background music or working memory capacity, nor an interaction effect of these factors. However, when considering comprehension we did find an interaction between background music and working memory capacity: the higher the learners’ working memory capacity, the better they learned with background music. This is in line with the seductive detail assumption. (shrink)

Recent discussions on corporate citizenship highlight the new political role of corporations in society by arguing that corporations increasingly act as quasi-governmental actors and take on what hitherto had originally been governmental tasks. By examining political and sociological citizenship theories, the authors show that such a corporate engagement can be explained by a changing conception of corporate citizens from corporate bourgeois to corporate citoyen. As an intermediate actor in society, the corporate citoyen assumes co-responsibilities for social and civic affairs and (...) actively collaborates with fellow citizens beyond governmental regulation. This change raises the question of how such corporate civic engagement can be aligned with public policy regulations and how corporate activities can be integrated into the democratic regime. To clarify the mode of CC contributions to society, the authors will apply the tenet of subsidiarity as a governing principle which allows for specifying corporations’ tasks as intermediate actors in society. By referring to the renewed European Union strategy for Corporate Social Responsibility, the authors show how such a subsidiary corporate-governmental task-sharing can be organized. (shrink)