The foundational conviction of contemporary liberal thought is that all persons possess equal moral worth and are entitled to equal concern and respect by others. At the same time, nation states, as the primary organs of our collective self-governance, frequently pursue policies that are strikingly partial towards the interests of compatriots over those of foreigners. A common strategy for justifying this national partiality is to view it as grounded in associative obligations that we incur by standing in special relationships with (...) our fellow citizens. For instance, according to familiar arguments from ‘fair play’, voluntarily partaking in and benefiting from cooperative relationships with our fellow citizens gives us reciprocal obligations to maintain these social institutions and care for needy compatriots. By contrast, we do not have corresponding associative obligations towards foreigners. I maintain that such arguments from associative obligations face an important stumbling block. I argue for the following “Boundary Principle”, according to which we cannot appeal to special relationships amongst members of a group to justify an attitude of partiality towards them unless the boundaries of this group, and the fact that they exclude other persons from membership, can also be justified. If this is right, arguments from associative obligations, by themselves, are necessarily incomplete. Most modern states severely limit the scope of economic migration, and thereby prevent many would-be contributors to the collective enterprises of affluent societies from entering into those special relationships with us that would give rise to associative obligations on our part. Not only are would-be immigrants excluded from the benefits that participation in the cooperative schemes of affluent nation-states would itself confer; in addition, the fact that they do not stand in such cooperative relationships with us is then appealed to in order to justify the fact that we assign significantly less weight to their interests in the formulation of state policy. The upshot of my discussion is not that a defense of national partiality in terms of associative obligations cannot succeed. It is rather that a successful defense of national partiality in these terms is more closely tied to the question whether principled restrictions can be placed on immigration than most political philosophers have hitherto assumed. (shrink)

L’objet de la présente contribution vise moins à analyser tel aspect de la Philosophie de la volonté élaboré par Ricœur que de repérer, dans son œuvre ultérieure, les structures de transition (et le sens de leur articulation) entre une phénoménologie d’abord centrée sur l’ eidos d’une volonté bien solitaire à une philosophie du co-agir qui débouche sur le souci de l’autre et des institutions. On peut ainsi, dans une perspective très panoramique, pointer trois structures de transition complémentaires venant initialement de (...) traditions philosophiques hétérogènes, d’une part, la socio-phénoménologie couplée avec la philosophie hégélienne de la Sittlichkeit, d’autre part, la tradition chrétienne du socius et du prochain couplée avec une philosophie politique néo-aristotélicienne, enfin une sémantique de l’action issue des courants analytiques. (shrink)

These selections provide a brief but comprehensive introduction to Fichte’s philosophical system and his place in the history of German Idealism. In addition to some of Fichte’s most influential texts, such as the First and Second Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and The Basis of Our Belief in a Divine Governance of the World, Breazeale has translated, for the first time into English, several other writings from the same period, including Attempt at a New Presentation of the Wissenschaftslehre, Other short essays, (...) including Fichte’s replies to the charge of atheism, extend the discussions of the Introductions and respond to criticisms. Breazeale’s substantial Introduction supplies the context needed for a sound appreciation of Fichte’s enterprise and achievement. (shrink)

The novel coronavirus – officially named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, causing a disease which has flu-like symptoms – seems to be responsible for the current global lockdown or maybe one can even refer to it as a global event. Neither the virus nor the disease that it causes is truly novel, as the virus is part of the SARS virus family and therefore known, and likewise the symptoms of the disease are also well known, even flu-like, and therefore (...) also not novel. Yet, what is truly novel about the virus or the disease it causes is its effect, not specifically referring to the health effect, but its global socio-economic and political effect. It is for the first time in the history of humanity that such drastic global lockdown measures have been taken and that governments have taken the conscious decisions to ‘lay lame’ their economies. Such a radical decision is truly novel. Besides the economic ‘lockdown’, there are numerous socio-economic repercussions; for example, in a single day, millions of citizens in the United States file for unemployment, and similarly in many other countries. Covid-19 is a challenge to the economies of the world, to society at large, to the poor and vulnerable in particular, and to individuals who are ‘locked safely’ in their homes. Religious institutions, which traditionally provide collective meaning, can no longer gather in public places, and offer communal solace. Covid-19 maybe challenges what being human means, or at least, what one has come to believe concerning the meaning of being human. In this article, this question of being human in the time of Covid-19 will be explored. (shrink)

Farther Hints toward a Philosophy of the History of Man. . Having now gone over a considerable extent of human events and institutions, from the Euphrates ...

Unter den Versuchen Fichtes, sein Denken allgemeinverständlich darzustellen, zählt diese 1800 erschienene Schrift zu den inhaltlich abgerundetsten und aufschlußreichsten; bei den Zeitgenossen stieß sie jedoch auf vehemente Kritik, Hegel sah in ihr gar einen besonders illustrativen Text für den Aufweis der Haltlosigkeit der von Fichte in der Wissenschaftslehre vertretenen Position einer auf das Ich als Tathandlung gegründeten Philosophie. Darum vermag allein schon die Lektüre von Fichtes Bestimmung des Menschen und ihrer kritischen Rezeption in Hegels Glauben und Wissen einen Einblick in (...) die Gründe zu vermitteln, warum bis ins 20. Jahrhundert die Philosophie Fichtes weitgehend als ein merkwürdiger Mosaikstein auf dem Wege "Von Kant bis Hegel" oder, im Hinblick auf den "Endpunkt" dieses Wegs wohl genauer, in der "Entwicklung des Spinozismus" betrachtet wurde. Deutlich wird einer neuen Lektüre aber auch, wieviel noch zu tun bleibt, um die wichtigen Erkenntnisse, die im Deutschen Idealismus auf so getrennten Bahnen gewonnen wurden, im Blick auf die gemeinsamen Grundprobleme einer "Ersten Philosophie" ohne Rückfall in die traditionellen Feindbilder wahrzunehmen und kritisch in die pluralistische Diskussion heutigen Philosophierens einzubringen. (shrink)

In the history of philosophy, Fichte's thought marks a crucial transitional stage between Kant and post-Kantian philosophy. Fichte radicalized Kant's thought by arguing that human freedom, not external reality, must be the starting point of all systematic philosophy, and in Foundations of Natural Right, thought by many to be his most important work of political philosophy, he applies his ideas to fundamental issues in political and legal philosophy, covering such topics as civic freedom, rights, private property, contracts, family relations, and (...) the foundations of modern political organization. This volume offers the first complete translation of the work into English, by Michael Baur, together with an introduction by Frederick Neuhouser that sets it in its philosophical and historical context. (shrink)

In einem Programm vom Dezember 1746 informierte Gottsched die literarische Öffentlichkeit von seiner Absicht, eine Geschichte der deutschen Poesie von Karl dem Großen bis ins 17. Jahrhundert zu schreiben, und bat um Unterstützung bei der Suche nach den bislang nur unzureichend erschlossenen Quellentexten. Im Briefwechsel des zwölften Bandes, Oktober 1746 bis Ende 1747, kommen erste Ergebnisse zur Sprache. Nachdem die Preisaufgabe der Berliner Akademie für 1747 eine Darstellung und Bewertung der Monadenlehre verlangte, zeichnete sich durch eine Veröffentlichung des einflussreichen Akademiemitglieds (...) Leonhard Euler ab, dass monaden- und leibnizkritische Einsendungen bevorzugt würden. Die Leibnizfreunde um Gottsched und Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel engagierten sich deshalb für den Druck und die Übersetzung der anonymen – von Jean Henri Samuel Formey stammenden – Widerlegung der Eulerschen Auffassung. Eine weitere Schrift Formeys wurde im Gottschedkreis wegen ihrer christentumskritischen Implikationen erörtert. Schließlich erregten im Zeitraum des vorliegenden Bandes die Gerüchte und Veröffentlichungen über die Erscheinungen eines Verstorbenen im Braunschweiger Collegium Carolinum die Gemüter. Die Leipziger aufgeklärte Alethophilenfraktion sah darin nur Betrug oder Selbsttäuschung und distanzierte sich von jeder Akzeptanz des Phänomens. (shrink)

Bescheidene Antwort auf Herrn Christian Wolffens Anmerckungen über das Buddeische Bedencken ; D. Io. Francisci Buddei Bedencken über die Wolffianische Philosophie -- Bescheidener Beweis, dass das Buddeische Bedencken noch fest stehe, wieder Hrn. Christian Wolffens Nöthige Zugabe aufgesetzet.

§ I. A FINITE, RATIONAL BEING CAN NOT POSIT ITSELF WITHOUT ASCRIBING TO ITSELF A FREE CAUSALITY. PROOF. A. If a rational being is to posit itself as such, ...

Der dritte Band der Studienausgabe enthält die beiden zentralen Vorlesungen der praktischen Philosophie Fichtes aus der späten Berliner Zeit, die Rechtslehre von 1812 und die Sittenlehre von 1812. Ihnen vorangestellt sind die >Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten, die Fichte im Sommersemester 1811 gehalten hat. Aufbauend auf der Bestimmung der wissenschaftlichen und philosophischen Erkenntnis in seinen Einleitungsvorlesungen in die Philosophie (s. Band I und II), zeigt Fichte hier, was das Wesen des Wissenschaftlers bzw. des Gelehrten ausmacht, seine spezifische Aufgabe und (...) seine sittliche Verantwortung in der Welt. - Fichtes Rechtslehre wird streng nach der Handschrift ohne weitergehende Ergänzungen wiedergegeben; so lassen sich die Unterschiede zur Grundlage des Naturrechts von 1796 bei aller Strukturähnlichkeit deutlich erkennen. - Ganz im Sinne der späten Wissenschaftslehre als Lehre der Erscheinung des Absoluten geht die Sittenlehre 1812 von einem höchsten Grundsatz aus, dem absoluten Bilden, das als oberstes Ideal, in Fichtes Terminologie als Begriff, erscheint. Die Analyse des Satzes Der Begriff sey Grund der Welt. (shrink)

This paper maintains that objectivism about practical reasons should be combined with pluralism both about the nature of practical reasons and about action explanations. We argue for an ‘expanding circle of practical reasons’, starting out from an open-minded monist objectivism. On this view, practical reasons are not limited to actual facts, but consist in states of affairs, possible facts that may or may not obtain. Going beyond such ‘that-ish’ reasons, we argue that goals are also bona fide practical reasons. This (...) makes for a genuine pluralism about practical reasons. Furthermore, the facts or states of affairs that function as practical reasons are not exclusively natural or descriptive, but include normative facts. That normative facts can be reasons justifies a pluralism about reason explanations, one which allows for what we call enkratic explanations in addition to teleological ones. (shrink)

L’objet de cet article n’est pas de répondre à une question de nature physique ou métaphysique : « qu’est-ce que l’espace? », mais de se concentrer sur un problème pragmatique : « quand interprétons-nous l’espace? ». Dans ses trois dimensions (le corps propre, la chose, le social), l’espace devient interprétable quand il a perdu ses repères habituels, quand nous sommes confrontés à des phénomènes de désorientation, quand nous sommes face à des espaces inconnus, étranges ou étrangers. À la différence d’une (...) herméneutique de l’espace qui se focalise sur les technologies savantes de déchiffrement de signes, l’article donne la priorité à une anthropologie interprétative de la spatialité qui met en lumière les technologiques ordinaires de dévoilement du sens. À une herméneutique de l’espace qui tire son modèle du texte, la contribution ajoute une analytique interprétative d’une spatialité mouvante, irréductible à toute inscription comme expression durablement fixée. (shrink)

In this brief response to Herbert De Vriese’s The Charm of Disenchantment, his attempt to link secularism and modernity is questioned. Criticism is leveled at De Vriese’s use of the correspondence between Voltaire and Frederick the Great without reference to the historical context, notably the confessional states that existed between roughly 1650 and 1800 in Europe. De Vriese’s apology for disenchantment and modernity is also questioned in the light of both modern religious and secular responses to modernity as exemplified by (...) the Dalai Lama and Bernard Stiegler. (shrink)

The triumph of a post-scholastic mysticism over scholastic loyalism:Gerson versus Ruusbroec, 1399. This article provides an introduction to the thought of the Flemish-Brabant 14th-century mystical thinker, Jan van Ruusbroec, with special attention to the explosion in the niche research from 1981 to 2017. Ruusbroec is presented as a ‘post-scholastic’ thinker, who in an idiosyncratic way, transcended the high-scholastic aspirations of absolute clarity and certainty about God and human existence. His thought is contextualised within a polemical, posthumous context, namely the attempt (...) of the chancellor of the University of Paris at the time, John Gerson, to get Ruusbroec’s text‘, ‘Die geestelike brulocht’ declared as heresy and Ruusbroec himself as a heretic in the year 1399 AD, 18 years after Ruusbroec’s death. The attempts of Ruusbroec’s young colleagues at the modest monastery of Groenendaal, confronting and rearguing Gerson on this issue, are thoroughly explored. The fact that neither ‘Die geestelike brulocht’ nor Ruusbroec himself could eventually be effectively challenged by the high-powered Gerson, is presented as an example of the inherent potential of ‘post-scholasticism’ to contribute to the progression that eventually manifested itself as the ‘new world’, the Renaissance. No one won or lost this posthumous battle: but Gerson certainly did not win it. This is a remarkable note in, even a ‘triumph’ for, the archives of the small Augustinian monastery in Groenendaal, consisting of subtle ‘Augustinian’ monks, who had little more than a dedicated passion for Ruusbroec’s mysticism on their side. A hermeneutic interpretation of the events of 1399 is henceforth presented, to indicate that within the socio-political turmoil of European societies in the 14th century, there were still places, where people were able to find ‘rest in God’ – as there should be today. (shrink)

Relying on data collected by the Zurich Survey of Academics, a unique representative online survey among academics in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, this paper replicates Johann and Mayer's :175–196, 2019) analysis of researchers' perceptions of scientific authorship and expands their scope. The primary goals of the study at hand are to learn more about country differences in perceptions of scientific authorship, as well as the influence of perceived publication pressure on authorship perceptions. The results indicate that academics in Switzerland (...) interpret scientific authorship more leniently than their colleagues in Germany and Austria. The findings further indicate that, as perceived pressure to publish increases, researchers are more likely to belong to a group of academics who hold the view that any type of contribution/task justifies co-authorship, including even those contributions/tasks that do not justify co-authorship according to most authorship guidelines. In summary, the present study suggests that action is required to harmonize regulations for scientific authorship and to improve the research culture. (shrink)

Mit dem Entwurf eines merkantilistischen, autarken und sozialen Ständestaates liefert Fichte eine der geschlossensten Konkretisierungen seiner rechtspolitischen Ideen, nämlich das erste Modell einer sozialistischen Planwirtschaft. Zugleich berührt das Werk ein Kernproblem von Fichtes praktischer Philosophie: Wie läßt sich die freie Selbsttätigkeit der Einzelnen mit der alle auf ein Ideal verpflichtenden Hoheit des Vernunftsstaates vereinigen?