The current neurosciences contribute to the construction of gender/sex to a high degree. Moreover, the subject of gender/sex differences in cognitive abilities attracts an immense public interest. At the same time, the entanglement of gender and science has been shown in many theoretical and empirical analyses. Although the body of literature is very extensive and differentiated with regards to the dimensions of ‘neuroscience of gender’ and ‘gender in neuroscience’, the feeding back of these findings into the field of neuroscience remains (...) a desideratum. Especially, the question of how gender knowledge, i.e. insights from feminist theory on gender/sex and from gender and science studies on knowledge production, may be integrated and applied within the neurosciences has been strongly neglected. Presumably due to their epistemic culture and epistemological presuppositions, these critical engagements are conceived as externalist by critical scholars and neuroscientists alike. In this context, the question arises of how substantiated gender knowledge may be accounted for in neuroscientific research practice? The article outlines methodological considerations for a critical research agenda in the cognitive neurosciences. I present thoughts on how insights and expertise from gender and science studies can be taken into account in the neuroscientific practice of knowledge production. Starting from the assumption that changes in neuroscientific research practices are possible, my aim is to point out possibilities of integrating gender knowledge into the neurosciences. (shrink)

How does the brain generate our experience of being in control over our actions and their effects? Here, we argue that the perception of events as self-caused emerges from a comparison between anticipated and actual action-effects: if the representation of an event that follows an action is activated before the action, the event is experienced as caused by one’s own action, whereas in the case of a mismatch it will be attributed to an external cause rather than to the self. (...) In a subliminal priming paradigm we show that participants overestimated how much control they had over objectively uncontrollable stimuli, which appeared after free- or forced-choice actions, when a masked prime activated a representation of the stimuli immediately before each action. This prime-induced control-illusion was independent from whether primes were consciously perceived. Results indicate that the conscious experience of control is modulated by unconscious anticipations of action-effects. (shrink)

In this book Katrin Flikschuh examines the relevance of Kant's political thought to major issues and problems in contemporary political philosophy. She advances and defends two principal claims: that Kant's philosophy of Right endorses the role of metaphysics in political thinking, in contrast to its generally hostile reception in the field today, and that his account of political obligation is cosmopolitan in its inception, assigning priority to the global rather than the domestic context. She shows how Kant's metaphysics of (...) freedom as a shared idea of practical reason underlies the cosmopolitan scope of his theory of justice, and she concludes that despite the revival of 'Kantianism' in contemporary thinking, his account of justice is in many respects very different from dominant approaches in contemporary liberal theory. Her study will be of interest to political philosophers, political theorists, and historians of ideas. (shrink)

In this paper an approach to the exhaustive interpretation of answers is developed. It builds on a proposal brought forward by Groenendijk and Stokhof (1984). We will use the close connection between their approach and McCarthy’s (1980, 1986) predicate circumscription and describe exhaustive interpretation as an instance of interpretation in minimal models, well-known from work on counterfactuals (see for instance Lewis (1973)). It is shown that by combining this approach with independent developments in semantics/pragmatics one can overcome certain limitations of (...) Groenenedijk and Stokhof’s (1984) proposal. In the last part of the paper we will provide a Gricean motivation for exhaustive interpretation building on work of Schulz (to appear) and van Rooij and Schulz (2004). (shrink)

In this paper, a pragmatic approach to the phenomenon of free choice permission is proposed. Free choice permission is explained as due to taking the speaker (i) to obey certain Gricean maxims of conversation and (ii) to be competent on the deontic options, i.e. to know the valid obligations and permissions. The approach differs from other pragmatic approaches to free choice permission in giving a formally precise description of the class of inferences that can be derived based on these two (...) assumptions. This formalization builds on work of Halpern and Moses (1984) on the concept of ‘only knowing’, generalized by Hoek et al., (1999, 2000), and Zimmermann’s (2000) approach to competence. (shrink)

This study explores the attitude of German psychiatrists in leading positions towards joint crisis plans and psychiatric advance directives. This topic was examined by contacting 473 medical directors of German psychiatric hospitals and departments. They were asked to complete a questionnaire developed by us. That form contained questions about the incidence and acceptance of joint crisis plans and psychiatric advance directives and previous experiences with them. 108 medical directors of psychiatric hospitals and departments responded . Their answers demonstrate that in (...) their hospitals these documents are rarely used. Among the respondents, joint crisis plans are more accepted than psychiatric advance directives. There is a certain uncertainty when dealing with these instruments. Our main conclusion is that German psychiatry needs an intensified discussion on the use of instruments for patients to constitute procedures for future critical psychiatric events. For this purpose it will be helpful to collect more empirical data. Furthermore, the proposal of joint crisis plans in psychiatric hospitals and departments should be discussed as well as the possibility of consulting an expert during the preparation of a psychiatric advance directive. (shrink)

In view of the numerous accounting and corporate scandals associated with various forms of moral misconduct and the recent financial crisis, economics and business programs are often accused of actively contributing to the amoral decision making of their graduates. It is argued that theories and ideas taught at universities engender moral misbehavior among some managers, as these theories mainly focus on the primacy of profit-maximization and typically neglect the ethical and moral dimensions of decision making. To investigate this criticism, two (...) overlapping effects must be disentangled: the self-selection effect and the treatment effect. Drawing on the concept of moral judgment competence, we empirically examine this question with a sample of 1773 bachelor’s and 501 master’s students. Our results reveal that there is neither a self-selection nor a treatment effect for economics and business studies. Moreover, our results indicate that—regardless of the course of studies—university education in general does not seem to foster students’ moral development. (shrink)

While interdisciplinarity is not a new concept, the political and discursive mobilisation of interdisciplinarity is. Since the 1990s, this movement has intensified, and this has affected central funding bodies so that interdisciplinarity is now a de facto requirement in successful grant application. As a result, the literature is ripe with definitions, taxonomies, discussions and other attempts to grasp and define the concept of interdisciplinarity. In this paper, we explore how strategic demands for interdisciplinarity meet, interact with and change local research (...) practices and results of higher education and research. Our aim is to question and trace the consequences of applying the slippery and difficult term interdisciplinarity in research. The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork in a Danish interdisciplinary research programme, where we observed and analysed practices of writing, publishing, collaboration and educational development in five different research projects. We show how the call for interdisciplinarity was mobilised in a way that rendered the incentives and motives behind the programme unclear. Furthermore, we argue that the absence of clear definitions and assessment criteria produced a dominant, all-inclusive, but vague, configuration of interdisciplinarity that affected the research outcome, and ultimately, promoted and reproduced the existing monodisciplinary research and power structures. (shrink)

El presente artículo demuestra que el anhelo por el más allá que había expresado Juan Larrea en su poesía llega a su culminación en Diario del Nuevo Mundo. La experiencia vivida en el exilio mexicano le impulsa a abandonar el yo subjetivo y dejarse absorber por una conciencia objetiva que viene a constituir el epicentro de su proyecto filosófico. De esta manera, Larrea funda en Diario del Nuevo Mundo los principios constitutivos de una filosofía transcendental a la vez que describe (...) la situación personal en la que se encuentra. Además, el artículo mantiene que Larrea es de los más radicales entre los pensadores exiliados en su crítica de la racionalidad tecno-científica y que el proyecto de Larrea solo es posible porque se apoya en disciplinas tradicionalmente marginalizadas dentro de la filosofía como son la psicología, la religión y la poesía. (shrink)

Starting from Kant's striking question 'What is orientation in thinking?', this book argues that the main challenge facing global normative theorising lies in its failure to acknowledge its conceptual inadequacies. We do not know how to reason globally; instead, we tend to apply our domestic political experiences to the global context. Katrin Flikschuh argues that we must develop a form of global reasoning that is sensitive to the variability of contexts: rather than trying to identify a uniquely shareable set (...) of substantive principles, we need to appreciate and understand local reasons for action. Her original and incisive study shows how such reasoning can benefit from the open-ended nature of Kant's systematic but non-dogmatic philosophical thinking, and from reorientation from a domestic to a non-domestic frame of thought. It will appeal to all those interested in global moral issues, as well as to Kant scholars. (shrink)

In this paper an approach to the exhaustive interpretation of answers is developed. It builds on a proposal brought forward by Groenendijk and Stokhof (1984). We will use the close connection between their approach and McCarthy's (1980, 1986) predicate circumscription and describe exhaustive interpretation as an instance of interpretation in minimal models, well-known from work on counterfactuals (see for instance Lewis (1973)). It is shown that by combining this approach with independent developments in semantics/pragmatics one can overcome certain limitations of (...) Groenenedijk and Stokhof's (1984) proposal. In the last part of the paper we will provide a Gricean motivation for exhaustive interpretation building on work of Schulz (to appear) and van Rooij and Schulz (2004). (shrink)

This article aims to propagate Logic Programming as a formal tool to deal with non-monotonic reasoning. In philosophy and linguistics non-monotonic reasoning is modelled using Minimal Models as standard, i.e., by imposing an order (or selection function) on the class of all models and then by defining entailment as only caring about the minimal models of the premises with respect to the order. In this article we investigate the question whether instead of minimal models we should use logic programming to (...) model non-monotonic reasoning. Logic programming is an attractive alternative to a minimal models approach in that it makes concrete predictions in an efficient and transparent way. We study this question by focusing on one particular phenomenon that gives rise to non-monotonic inferences: conditional sentences. (shrink)

Micro-phenomenology is an interview and analysis method for investigating subjective experience. As a research tool, it provides detailed descriptions of brief moments of any type of subjective experience and offers techniques for systematically comparing them. In this article, we use an auto-ethnographic approach to present and explore the method. The reader is invited to observe a dialogue between two authors that illustrates and comments on the planning, conducting and analysis of a pilot series of five micro-phenomenological interviews. All these interviews (...) asked experienced researchers of micro-phenomenology to browse their memories to identify one successful and one challenging instance of working with micro-phenomenology. The interview then focused on this reflective task to investigate whether applying the method to itself might reveal quality criteria. The article starts by presenting a shortened and edited version of the first of these interviews. Keeping the dialogue format, we then outline the micro-phenomenological analysis procedure by demonstrating its application to part of this data and corresponding passages of other interviews. We focus on one unexpected finding: interviewed researchers judge the quality of an interview in part based on a connection or contact between interviewer and interviewee. We discuss these results in the context of the means and intentions of the method and suggest avenues for future research. (shrink)

This paper deals with the truth conditions of conditional sentences. It focuses on a particular class of problematic examples for semantic theories for these sentences. I will argue that the examples show the need to refer to dynamic, in particular causal laws in an approach to their truth conditions. More particularly, I will claim that we need a causal notion of consequence. The proposal subsequently made uses a representation of causal dependencies as proposed in Pearl to formalize a causal notion (...) of consequence. This notion inserted in premise semantics for counterfactuals in the style of Veltman and Kratzer will provide a new interpretation rule for conditionals. I will illustrate how this approach overcomes problems of previous proposals and end with some remarks on remaining questions. (shrink)

Background Healthcare services are increasingly being shifted to home settings for patients nearing end-of-life. Consequently, the burden on family caregivers is significant. Their vulnerable situation remains poorly understood and there is little information available regarding their experiences of dignity. Aim This study seeks to understand the experiences of family caregivers related to dignity and loss of dignity, aiming to provide a deeper insight into their situation when caring for a home-dwelling family member nearing end-of-life. Research design and participants This exploratory (...) study consists of a second analysis combining data from two primary studies, including 24 family caregivers of a family member nearing end-of-life, and is founded upon Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics. Ethical considerations Approval was obtained from the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research and was based on voluntary participation, informed consent, and confidentiality. Results The following three main themes were identified: Having a meaningful existence within the living environment, being seen and valued as a family caregiver in relation with others and suffering in a space of loneliness. These contextual, relational, and existential perspectives were found to be closely interrelated. Conclusion and final considerations The dignity of family caregivers was closely tied to being seen as unique individuals, not merely caregivers, thereby requiring healthcare professionals (HCPs) to understand their personal needs. This study highlights the emotional distress and loneliness family caregivers feel in their dual role within the healthcare system, thereby calling for HCPs to adopt an attitude of gentleness and recognition to impart dignity-preserving care in homecare practices. (shrink)

From the contents:0K. Eggers / A. Stollberg: Vorwort? Antike und Mittelalter? M. Nanni: Musikalische Energeia? 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert? I. Mai Groote:?ut energiam habeat Musica?: Vorstellungen vom Zusammenwirken von Text, Rhythmus und Musik im 17. Jahrhundert? L. Holtmeier: La mécanique des doigts? Energie und Körperlichkeit in der französischen Musiktheorie? A. Stollberg: Schwunglinien und Wellenkurven. Zur Theorie der Melodik im späten 18. und frühen 19. Jahrhundert? M. Schneider: Tugend-Energie. Charakterkraft und Erzählform in Wielands Agathon und Schlegels Lucinde? B. Specht: Die?geheimere Werkstätte (...) des Physikers?. Naturdynamik und Fragmentästhetik bei Johann Wilhelm Ritter? C. Torra-Mattenklott: Die energetische Wirkung der Künste bei E. T. A. Hoffmann? N. Noeske: Dämonische Energien zwischen Arzt und Patientin: Virtuosität als magnetisches Fluidum 20. und 21. Jahrhundert? E. Neswald: Thermodynamik als Weltanschauung um 1900. (shrink)

Die Diatriben und das Encheiridion des Stoikers Epiktet (spätes 1. bis frühes 2.Jh.n.Chr.) erfreuen sich eines bleibenden Interesses in der Forschung. Dies belegen zahlreiche Einzeluntersuchungen sowie neuere Kommentare und Übersetzungen zu ausgewählten Kapiteln seines Werkes. Als Stoiker weist Epiktet insofern eine Besonderheit auf, als er die theologischen Aspekte in seiner Philosophie besonders betont. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit einem wichtigen Teil der Theologie Epiktets: seiner Gebetslehre. Epiktet integriert in sein Werk Gebetstexte, die er seinen Schülern als Vorbild- und Übungstexte (...) an die Hand gibt, und stellt mehrfach die Wichtigkeit der Gebete innerhalb des täglichen Lebens heraus. Sie sind nach Epiktets Lehre ein zentrales Element der angemessenen stoischen Lebenshaltung. Mit seiner Gebetslehre beeinflusst Epiktet nicht nur Philosophen der Antike, sondern auch frühchristliche Theologen. Um Epiktets Gebetslehre vorzustellen, werden die Gebete Epiktets und seine Aussagen über das Beten in der vorliegenden Arbeit in ihrem jeweiligen Kontext bezüglich Form, Inhalt und Funktionen analysiert und interpretiert. Darüber hinaus wird anhand der Gebetslehren ausgewählter Autoren ein Einblick in die Geschichte des philosophischen Gebets gegeben, um Epiktets Gebetslehre anschließend darin verorten zu können. (shrink)

Research on sustainability assurance is still in its beginnings. One of the key questions in this field that also is of the highest practical relevance is concerned with the quality of the assurance process. However, a common understanding of assurance quality and how it should be measured is still missing. We try to close this gap by building on the financial audit literature. We introduce a definition of assurance quality that comprises two key aspects: the depth of the assurance process (...) and the breadth of the assurance statement. Based on prior research, we hypothesize that a firm’s sustainability performance is related to the depth of the assurance process, while the type of the assurance provider, more precisely the affiliation to the accounting profession, is related to the breadth of the assurance statement. Results for a sample of 122 European firms reveal a negative relationship between sustainability performance and assurance process depth as well as between the affiliation to the accounting profession and assurance statement breadth. Thus, we find evidence that poor sustainability performers ask for in-depth assurance services, most likely as a means to enhance their internal sustainability-related processes and systems. Assurance providers that do not belong to the accounting profession in turn are associated with broader assurance statements. (shrink)

This book presents the first full exploration of Kant's position on colonialism. Leading experts in both political thought and normative theory place Kant's thoughts on the subject in historical context, examine the tensions that colonialism produces in his work, and evaluate the relevance of these reflections for current debates on global justice.

This work of comparative philosophy envisions a cosmological whole that celebrates difference.

Rousseau and Nietzsche: Toward an Aesthetic Morality offers a vivid depiction of the problems and potential of modernity through the words of two of its most poignant voices. The book focuses upon the modern self's desire to individuate while facing the ethical responsibility to integrate into the world. Katrin Froese elegantly juxtaposes Nietzsche's drive for extraordinary individualism with Rousseau's call for the dependable citizen, demonstrating that where Nietzsche's aestheticism embraces the limitless and irreconcilable longings of a divided being, Rousseau's (...) approach emphasizes the imposition of limits to ensure that harmony and contentment prevail. Going beyond conventional scholarship, the work emphasizes the similarities at the heart of Rousseau's notion of morality and Nietzsche's aestheticism: the moral vision that underlies Nietzsche's notion of art and the aesthetic understanding prevalent in Rousseau's moral system. This stunning new work of political philosophy will be of great use to scholars of political thought and readers seeking to understand what made Rousseau and Nietzsche's thought so decidedly modern. (shrink)

English summary: What is freedom? Are humans free? And are God and human freedom compatible? These questions are raised by Anselm of Canterbury in his dialogues on freedom. Katrin Konig interprets Anselm's theory of freedom in its theological and historical context and brings it into a dialogue with contemporary analytic theories of freedom. Thereby a qualitative concept of freedom as a gift towards the good is contributed: gifted freedom. According to this understanding, freedom is something greater than individual self-determination (...) or choice between alternative possibilities. It is grounded in the perception of truth, unfolded in the love of justice and compatible with perfect determination by the action of God. In this horizon it is possible to discern the aporia of the modern debate on determinism and to reconcile seeming contradictions. German description: Was ist Freiheit? Ist der Mensch frei? Und: Sind Gott und menschliche Freiheit vereinbar? Diese Fragen untersucht Anselm von Canterbury in seinen Freiheitsdialogen. Katrin Konig deutet Anselms Freiheitstheorie in ihrem theologischen Zusammenhang, verortet sie historisch und bringt sie ins Gesprach mit analytisch-philosophischen Freiheitstheorien der Gegenwart. Damit wird ein qualitativer Begriff von Freiheit als Gabe zum Guten zur Diskussion gestellt: begnadete Freiheit. Freiheit ist diesem Verstandnis nach mehr als individuelle Selbstbestimmung oder Wahl zwischen alternativen Moglichkeiten. Sie grundet in Wahrheitserkenntnis, entfaltet sich in Gerechtigkeitsliebe und ist mit vollkommener Bestimmtheit durch das Wirken Gottes vereinbar. In diesem Horizont konnen Aporien der modernen Determinismusdebatte wahrgenommen und scheinbare Gegensatze vermittelt werden. (shrink)

The philosophical reading of Proust’s Recherche presented here suggests Proust’s aesthetic method as a model for philosophy. The term “aesthetic” refers to the constitutive role of sensation, perception, and sensuality for the practice of philosophising. In Proust’s peculiar descriptions a specific form of “sentient thinking” takes shape. This thinking is characterised by the entanglement of the particular as detailed description and the general as theoretical reflection. With reference to Proust, the philosophical practice of describing is developed into a central element (...) of philosophy as aesthetic practice. (shrink)

While appreciating Oblak’s call for and investment in more ecological research designs in psychology, I point out several aspects in Oblak’s own experimental setup that might themselves derive ….

A multiplicity of circumstances - including geographic and political isolation, and differences of social organization and customs - has led different groups of people to develop mathematical knowledge independently of each other. Yet history has shown us again and again that by some necessity these separate groups often encounter the same problems. The solutions they propose, however, are often different. This suggests a series of questions. First of all: what is the relationship between the solutions? Is one solution an alternative (...) to the other, and if so, how to account for their differences? Or, on the contrary, are the solutions complementary? Both of these configurations can be found in the history of mathematics: in the following article we will investigate two elementary examples of these phenomena and trace the historical circumstances under which different solutions have come into contact. (shrink)