The global spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has led to the imposition of severely restrictive measures by governments in the Western hemisphere. We feel a contrast between these measures and our freedom. This contrast, we argue, is a false perception. It only appears to us because we look at the issue through our contemporary moral philosophy of utilitarianism and an understanding of freedom as absence of constraints. Both these views can be (...) substituted with more sophisticated alternatives, namely an ethics of virtue and a notion of freedom of the will. These offer a fuller picture of morality and enable us to cooperate with the current restrictions by consciously choosing to adhere to them instead of perceiving them as draconian and immoral. We ask whether we should collaborate with the restrictions and argue that considerations of virtue will lead to an affirmative answer. More broadly, virtue ethics permits to deal with the practical concerns about how an individual should behave during this pandemic, given the current lockdown measures or lack thereof. -/- In section 1, we present how utilitarianism and a notion of freedom as negative liberty support the opposition to restrictive measures. In section 2, we outline an alternative based on an ethics of virtue and a more elaborated notion of free will. In the concluding section 3, we argue that considerations of virtue should guide the individual and public response to the emergency. (shrink)

Technology assessment (TA) is – for several reasons – not detachable from ethical questions. The development of institutions and concepts for TA, especially in the USA and Western Europe, has been marked by an increasing tendency to focus evaluative and normative questions. In the following paper, we point out, in as far as the common notions of TA are implicitly normative, why reflection upon conceptual options of TA inevitably leads to ethical questions, and that the key question of participation necessarily (...) comes up in the context of societal decisions made under conditions of risk or uncertainty. Arrangements of participatory and discoursive TA are referred to as possible applications of discourse ethics, but there are consequences to consider, which result from discourses in TA not being ideal discourses. Concepts and performance of TA arrangements on biotechnology and gene technology in different European countries are compared, analysing what similarities and differences can be found with respect to ethical clarification. Crucial questions of how to conceptualise participatory TA (pTA) and current topics in ethics of technology are shown to coincide. A proposal is presented of how these – theoretical normative and empirical descriptive – considerations can be used in a comprehensive conception for participatory and discoursive TA. (shrink)

Both science and religion are human endeavours that recruit and modify pre-existing human capacity to engage in epistemic vigilance. However, while science relies upon a focus on content vigilance, religion focusses on source vigilance. This difference is due, in turn, to the function of religious claims not being connected to their accuracy – unlike the function of scientific claims. Understanding this difference helps to understand many aspects of scientific and religious institutions.

Strawson, P. F. Semantics, logic and ontology.--Tugendhat, E. Existence in space and time.--Geuss, R. Quine und die Unbestimmtheit der Ontologie.--Bittner, R. Zu Quines These der ontologischen Relativität.--Hintikka, J. Die Intentionen der Intentionalität.

The book addresses the questions how literature can convey knowledge and how literary meaning can arise in the face of the fact that fictional texts waive the usual claim to truth. Based on the interdisciplinary cooperation of literary scholars and analytic philosophers, the present anthology attempts a) to analyze the possibility and conditions of gaining knowledge through literature, and b) to apply, in a fruitful way, philosophical theories of meaning and interpretation to the constitution of meaning within the language of (...) literature. The project is guided by the hypothesis that the cognitive function of literature cannot be understood without such fundamental modelings of the complex interaction of meaning, truth and knowledge. (shrink)

When we learn how to throw darts we adjust how we throw based on where the darts stick. Much of skill learning is computationally similar in that we learn using feedback obtained after the completion of individual actions. We can formalize such tasks as a search problem; among the set of all possible actions, find the action that leads to the highest reward. In such cases our actions have two objectives: we want to best utilize what we already know (exploitation), (...) but we also want to learn to be more successful in the future (exploration). Here we tested how participants learn movement trajectories where feedback is provided as a monetary reward that depends on the chosen trajectory. We mathematically derived the optimal search policy for our experiment using decision theory. The search behavior of participants is well predicted by an ideal searcher model that optimally combines exploration and exploitation. (shrink)

Neste artigo pretendo descrever o lugar da esperança como categoria filosófica na obra de Ernst Bloch assim como sua fundamentação.

We prove that for each β, γ < ε0 there existsα < ε0 such that whenever A ⊆ ω is α ‐large and G: A → β is such that (∀a ∈ A)(psn(G (a)) ≤ a), then there exists a γ ‐large C ⊆ A on which G is nondecreasing. Moreover, we give upper bounds for α for small ordinals β ≤ ω (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim).

The subject of the analysis is within the category of an educational lie. According to Maria Ossowska, this might be understood as either a justified or permitted misleading of someone, or the maintaining an illusion for either one’s own or another’s sake. Looking at different categories of these distortions of truth, we find that they are used not only for a child’s upbringing or the benefit of the topic, but for withholding or modifying the information about the reality or educational (...) concept. Cheating is an example of an educational lie and it combines someone’s opinion with truth, but would be falsely incompatible with factual knowledge and truthful understanding. Pupils who cheat mislead the teacher and, in the instructor’s ignorance, are led to believe that those pupils have, in fact, knowledge reflected in the exam. Likely the teacher is being cheated as well the student for different reasons. The educational lie has another dimension (when we take into account the sham activity) the quasi teaching or the pseudo-education. This occurs when educators/teachers offer their pupils/clients something different from what should be. The pretence takes place along with the authentic process of learning or completing educational tasks. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to check whether an online n-back task conducted in the uncontrolled environment of the Internet can yield valid and reliable data. For this purpose, 169 participants completed an online n-back task with n1, n2 and n3 blocks on their home computers. The results have shown acceptable reliability for overall accuracy and reaction time indices across n1, n2, n3 blocks, as well as for reaction time indices for each n block. Unacceptable reliability has been found (...) for separate n levels accuracy indices and for response bias indices. Confirmatory factor analysis has revealed that, among 8 proposed measurement models, the best fit for the data collected is a model with two uncorrelated factors: accuracy consisting of n1, n2, n3 indices and reaction time consisting of n2, n3 indices. The results of this study have demonstrated for the first time that a reliable administration of online n-back task is possible and may therefore give rise to new opportunities for working memory research. (shrink)

The point of departure of any ethical theory is the anthropological fact that normally developed humans must lead their own lives themselves. This means that their conduct is neither programmed nor determined by instincts. Human beings must on every occasion engage the circumstances of a practical situation by their own choice and decision. Even when they find themselves delivered over to the stimuli and powers of particular circumstances in a completely passive manner, this does not occur in the way that (...) it does for a robot, but rather, on the basis of a background of an essential possibility that they can conduct themselves otherwise than they are now behaving. Where there is the possibility of a choice, then the question inevitably arises regarding the principle of the choice. On what do we base our decision to choose one possibility rather than another? We can let fate decide, we can consult astrological charts, we can appeal to an authority, or we can try to find out what we truly want, what are our deepest desires and what choice agrees best with these desires. Finally, we can also inquire into what decision is the objectively correct and rational one, i.e. which decision is good independent of our subjective preferences. This latter case, of course, presupposes a standard of the objectively good and rational, in regard to which we can be responsible for and evaluate our decisions as well as our ensuing actions. (shrink)

Following the publication of the Contributions to Philosophy, Mindfulness and the History of Being, the question of the significance of Heidegger’s later work has been widely discussed. However, th...

Martin Heidegger's Nietzsche's Second Untimely Meditation presents crucial elements for understanding Heidegger's thinking from 1936 to 1940. Heidegger offers a radically different reading of a text that he had read decades earlier, showing how his relationship with Nietzche's has changed, as well as how his understandings of the differences between animals and humans, temporality and history, and the Western philosophical tradition developed. With his new reading, Heidegger delineates three Nietzschean modes of history, which should be understood as grounded in the (...) structure of temporality or historicity and also offers a metaphysical determination of life and the essence of humankind. Ullrich Hasse and Mark Sinclair offer a clear and accessible translation despite the fragmentary and disjointed quality of the original lecture notes that comprise this text. (shrink)

In 2013, Kurt Ullrich set out to chronicle the magic of the Iowa State Fair in words and photographs. Join him as August days and nights blow warm and easy over the fairgrounds, brushing lightly against fellow travelers on this earth, both human and not. He captures precious moments of extreme joy and unbridled delight in these beautiful black-and-white images, celebrating the brash rural energy of the fair, from Big Wheel races to people-watching goats, fair queen contestants to arm (...) wrestlers, Percherons to ponies. Prize pigs, prize sheep, prize apples, and the famous butter cow all have their moment in the limelight. Iowa s very best ear of corn and old friends reminiscing outside their RVs draw the photographer s fond eye, as do brightly lit beer stands and the brilliant arc of the Ferris wheel against the night sky. ". (shrink)

Avant-propos du traducteur Cet article est la deuxième (et dernière) partie de la traduction du chapitre d’ouvrage de Ullrich Melle ayant pour titre « Husserls deskriptive Erforschung der Gefühlserlebnisse », publié en 2012. Le premier volet de ce travail a paru dans le précédent numéro d’Alter, accompagné d’une introduction précisant l’intérêt majeur de ce texte pour l’étude de la phénoménologie husserlienne de l’affectivité et justifiant les traductions de quelques termes centraux. Nous y...

Cet article est la traduction de la première partied’un chapitre d’ouvrage écrit par Ullrich Melle, ayant pour titre original « Husserls deskriptive Erforschung der Gefühlserlebnisse » et paru en 2012. La traduction de cet article nous a paru particulièrement pertinente en raison du contexte actuel effervescent autour du problème de l’affectivité chez Husserl, matérialisé bien sûr par la parution tant attendue des Studien zur Struktur des Bewußtseins, notamment de leur second volume intitulé...

Als Religionsphilosoph ist Georg Simmel weniger bekannt denn als Kulturphilosoph und Soziologe, doch wird aus seinem Werk der Entwurf einer eigenständigen Religionsphilosophie erhebbar. Weder inhaltlich verfasster Glaube, noch philosophische Religionskritik erfassen demnach die Religion; erst jenseits ihrer kann sie werden, was sie ist: reines, ursprunghaftes Leben. Ausgehend von einer umfänglicheren Sichtung der Sekundärliteratur entfaltet Ullrich die innere Logik der Religionsphilosophie Simmels und diskutiert sie in ihrem Verhältnis zum Christentum.

Alles dreht sich um Werte. Sie werden von Politikern herbeizitiert, gerne bekennt man sich zu ihnen? in der Konsumwelt, in der politischen Aktionskunst, beim Wohnen, beim Essen und im Fitnesskult. Wolfgang Ullrich nimmt die Karriere der Werte in verschiedenen Bereichen unter die Lupe. Seine These: Sich zu Werten zu bekennen ist so beliebt, weil es dem Selbstbewusstsein schmeichelt. Man darf sich dann moralisch gut und sogar kreativ fühlen. Ullrich untersucht, wie Werte im Einzelnen in Szene gesetzt werden. Aber (...) er fragt auch, wie sich gesellschaftspolitische Debatten unter diesen Vorzeichen entwickeln. (shrink)

Is consolidation needed to account for retroactive interference in free recall? Interfering mental activity during the retention interval of a memory task impairs performance, in particular if the interference occurs in temporal proximity to the encoding of the to-be-remembered information. There are at least two rival theoretical accounts of this temporal gradient of retroactive interference. The cognitive neuroscience literature has suggested neural consolidation is a pivotal factor determining item recall. According to this account, interfering activity interrupts consolidation processes that would (...) otherwise stabilize the memory representations of TBR items post-encoding. Temporal distinctiveness theory, by contrast, proposes that the retrievability of items depends on their isolation in psychological time. According to this theory, information processed after the encoding of TBR material will reduce the temporal distinctiveness of the TBR information. To test between these accounts, implementations of consolidation were added to the SIMPLE model of memory and learning. We report data from two experiments utilizing a two-list free recall paradigm. Modeling results imply that SIMPLE was able to model the data and did not benefit from the addition of consolidation. It is concluded that the temporal gradient of retroactive interference cannot be taken as evidence for memory consolidation. (shrink)

Proceedings of a conference held Dec. 4-5, 1998 at the Universit'at G'ottingen.