Ethics boards have become obligatory passage points in today's medical science, and we forget how novel they really are. The use of humans in experiments is an age-old practice that records show goes back to at least the third century BC and, since the early modern period, as a practice it has become increasingly popular. Yet, in most countries around the world, hardly any formal checks and balances existed to govern the communal oversight of experiments involving human subjects until at (...) least the 1960s. Ethics by Committee traces the rise of ethics boards for human experimentation in the second half of the twentieth century. Using the Netherlands as a case-study, Noortje Jacobs shows how the authority of physicians to make decisions about clinical research gave way in most developed nations to formal mechanisms of communal decision-making that served to regiment the behavior of individual researchers. This historically unprecedented change in scientific governance came out of a growing international wariness of medical research in the decades after World War II. Research ethics committees were originally intended not only to make human experimentation more ethical but also to raise its epistemic quality. By examining complex negotiations over the appropriate governance of human subjects research, Ethics by Committee advances our understanding not only of the history of research ethics and the randomized controlled trial but also, more broadly, of how liberal democracies in the late twentieth century have sought to resolve public concerns over charged issues in medicine and science. (shrink)

Human rights protect the conditions of a minimally decent life of which mental health is an indispensable element. Adequate care for mental health is thus recognized as part of the human right to health. However, for populations living far from urban centers, adequate in-person (mental) health care is often extremely costly and thus not provided. Digital mental health care options have become an effective alternative to in-person treatment. Benefitting from these new digital opportunities, though, requires sufficient access to the internet. (...) Because everyone has a human right to adequate health care, and digital mental health care is now an effective option for progressively realizing this human right for people who live in remote regions, these people also have to be understood to have a right to access to the internet. This right to internet access creates duties for public authorities and the international community to create the required digital infrastructure and (where needed) to cover the costs of internet access where this is the only feasible way of delivering, or progressively realizing, the mental health care that is indispensable for having the opportunity to lead minimally decent lives. (shrink)

This article takes stock of recent efforts to implement controversy analysis as a digital method in the study of science, technology, and society and beyond and outlines a distinctive approach to address the problem of digital bias. Digital media technologies exert significant influence on the enactment of controversy in online settings, and this risks undermining the substantive focus of controversy analysis conducted by digital means. To address this problem, I propose a shift in thematic focus from controversy analysis to issue (...) mapping. The article begins by distinguishing between three broad frameworks that currently guide the development of controversy analysis as a digital method, namely, demarcationist, discursive, and empiricist. Each has been adopted in STS, but only the last one offers a digital “move beyond impartiality.” I demonstrate this approach by analyzing issues of Internet governance with the aid of the social media platform Twitter. (shrink)

Scholars working on the history of human experimentation have long puzzled over the neglect of medical research ethics in the first two decades after World War II, a period that saw a vast increase in human experimentation in medicine but that seems to have been characterized by a lack of moral leadership among physicians. This essay reexamines this notion by drawing on ethical debates about human experimentation in the Dutch medical profession between 1945 and 1971. In the international literature, Dutch (...) physicians are often singled out as having been exceptionally quick to note the need for better research ethics after World War II. This essay, however, shows that it is a mistake to identify these Dutch concerns as one of those exceptions that ultimately proves the rule. Instead, the Dutch ethics discourse developed in this period sought to carve out a legitimate space for “good medical research,” where “good” stood simultaneously for “methodologically valid” and “ethically just” and where research ethics committees were imagined to function as epistemic filters that would increase both the quality and the quantity of human experimentation in medicine. This connection between ethics and episteme has hitherto received little attention in the history of research ethics governance but remains a core element of medical research ethics today. (shrink)

O tema do artigo é o caráter grego da filosofia entendida como metafísica desde o enfoque permitido pelo pensamento de M. Heidegger (1889-1976). Temos o objetivo de apresentar que a metafísica tem seu ethos em uma experiência grega de origem. Pretendemos validar a hipótese de que: náo pode pretender legitimidade as tentativas de atrair o mérito do surgimento da metafísica para outro solo que o referido . Para fundamentaçáo de nossos argumentos, utilizaremos o comentário de G. Reale e extratos de (...) algumas preleções de G. W. F. Hegel. A problematizaçáo dessas idéias aponta para uma ratificaçáo do caráter grego da filosofia e deste como lugar de sua plena realizaçáo. (shrink)

Given the multiplicity of political agencies emanating from the social realm encountered on the Web, the medium appears to drive home the point of the displacement of politics beyond representative and stakeholder arrangements. As such, the social and political significance of the Web resides in its undermining of conventional procedures of democratization. However, tracing movements of protest across the Web, we notice that trajectories of politicization on the Web are highly particular. Resisting the interpretation of the particularity of protest trails (...) as a sign of the transportation of the displaced politics back towards the center, we ask : why take the detour via specific sites and spec issues, given the displacement of politics ? (shrink)

Second-wave of feminism has stressed the particularity of phenomena that modern political theory had conceptualized as general in nature and scope: the citizen, the political community, the topics of politics. Since then, feminist and queer theories and practices have not only shown that the subjects, arrangements and issues of politics are always historically specific. They have also demonstrated that their particularity may be constitutive of politics. The specificity of political actors, of particular procedures and themes may inform political processes. This (...) insight of feminism, this short piece argues, is of special relevance for grasping politics today. Under circumstances of globalization, the particularity of political processes, and their ingredients, becomes increasingly obvious. In this context, unorthodox actors, such as NGO’s, serve as agents of politics, and the boundaries of political communities become unsettled. Also, here issues emerge that resist treatment in classic democratic institutions, such as those founded in the nation-state. As the particularity of the actors, arrangements and issues is increasingly clear, feminist and queer theory become especially crucial to the understanding of politics. It tells us not to resist this particularization of politics, but to embrace it. It reminds us that the main political question is that of the staking-out of particular sites, the construction of specific forms of politics, and the articulation of particular issues. (shrink)

Putting the New Materialist figure of diffraction to use in a set of readings – in which cultural texts are materially read against their contents and their themes, against their readers or against other texts – this volume proposes a critical intervention into the practice of reading itself.

It is hardly surprising that the two greatest Kantian philosophers of the twentieth century's second half would, at some point of time, reflect and comment on one of the most famous writings of the Königsberg sage, namely on Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch. Of course, in recent decades, and especially around the celebration of the 200th anniversary of its publication, many commentary articles and books have been published on Kant's little essay, but it makes a difference when Jürgen Habermas and (...) John Rawls make an effort to get to an appropriate understanding of Kant's text in the present-day world. Here I will describe some of the main features of their understanding of Kant's peace proposal. I will first briefly recall the main scheme of Kant's essay, anticipating the writings of Habermas and Rawls by employing their new vocabularies and schemes in describing Kant's position. The main purpose of my outline of Kant's essay is to investigate how much of Kant's proposal has remained alive in Habermas and Rawls. (shrink)

"Merten Reglitz makes a case for a new human right to free Internet access, arguing it is crucial for protecting and advancing fundamental moral interests. He examines the risks the Internet poses to our most important rights if it is not safeguarded by public institutions"--.

This paper examines the limits and possibilities of topological approaches in the social analysis of technology. It proposes that topology should be considered not just as a theory to be adopted, but equally as a device that is deployed in social life in a variety of ways. Digital technologies help to make clear why: these technologies have facilitated the spread of a topological imagination, but they have also enabled a weak form of topological imagination, one that leaves in place deterministic (...) ideas about technology as the principal driver of social change. This paper examines this situation and alternatives to it through an empirical case, that of smart electricity meters. On the one hand, these technologies enable only a limited ‘expansion of the frame’ on technology, one in which the primacy of technology is maintained. But they are also used to render relations between technology and society more complexly. I explore topological devices deployed in this second way, such as the digital visualization tool of tag clouding and propose that this device enables an empirical mode of critique: here, topology does not just help to foreground the entanglement of the social and the technical, it also helps to dramatize the contingent, non-coherent unfolding of issues. (shrink)

This article explores the role of sustainable living experiments as devices of public engagement. It engages with object-centred perspectives in the sociology of science and technology, which have characterized public experiments as sites for the domestication of technology, and as effective instruments of public involvement, because, in part, of the seductive force of their use of empirical forms of display. Green living experiments, which are conducted in the intimate setting of the home and reported on blogs, complicate this understanding, insofar (...) as they seek to format socio-material practices as sites of involvement. This has implications for how we conceive of the relations between public involvement and everyday material practices. While the latter are often located outside the public sphere, green living experiments extend the publicity genre of `being intimate in public' to things. It also follows that green living experiments do not so much solve but rather articulate problems of public involvement. (shrink)

A strong coloring on a cardinal$\kappa $is a function$f:[\kappa ]^2\to \kappa $such that for every$A\subseteq \kappa $of full size$\kappa $, every color$\unicode{x3b3} <\kappa $is attained by$f\restriction [A]^2$. The symbol$$ \begin{align*} \kappa\nrightarrow[\kappa]^2_{\kappa} \end{align*} $$asserts the existence of a strong coloring on$\kappa $.We introduce the symbol$$ \begin{align*} \kappa\nrightarrow_p[\kappa]^2_{\kappa} \end{align*} $$which asserts the existence of a coloring$f:[\kappa ]^2\to \kappa $which isstrong over a partition$p:[\kappa ]^2\to \theta $. A coloringfis strong overpif for every$A\in [\kappa ]^{\kappa }$there is$i<\theta $so that for every color$\unicode{x3b3} <\kappa $is (...) attained by$f\restriction ([A]^2\cap p^{-1}(i))$.We prove that whenever$\kappa \nrightarrow [\kappa ]^2_{\kappa }$holds, also$\kappa \nrightarrow _p[\kappa ]^2_{\kappa }$holds for an arbitrary finite partitionp. Similarly, arbitrary finitep-s can be added to stronger symbols which hold in any model of ZFC. If$\kappa ^{\theta }=\kappa $, then$\kappa \nrightarrow _p[\kappa ]^2_{\kappa }$and stronger symbols, like$\operatorname {Pr}_1(\kappa,\kappa,\kappa,\chi )_p$or$\operatorname {Pr}_0(\kappa,\kappa,\kappa,\aleph _0)_p$, also hold for an arbitrary partitionpto$\theta $parts.The symbols$$ \begin{gather*} \aleph_1\nrightarrow_p[\aleph_1]^2_{\aleph_1},\;\;\; \aleph_1\nrightarrow_p[\aleph_1\circledast \aleph_1]^2_{\aleph_1},\;\;\; \aleph_0\circledast\aleph_1\nrightarrow_p[1\circledast\aleph_1]^2_{\aleph_1}, \\ \operatorname{Pr}_1(\aleph_1,\aleph_1,\aleph_1,\aleph_0)_p,\;\;\;\text{ and } \;\;\; \operatorname{Pr}_0(\aleph_1,\aleph_1,\aleph_1,\aleph_0)_p \end{gather*} $$hold for an arbitrary countable partitionpunder the Continuum Hypothesis and are independent over ZFC$+ \neg $CH. (shrink)

In her debate with Michael Blake, Gillian Brock sets out to justify emigration restrictions on medical workers from poor states on the basis of their free-riding on the public investment that their states have made in them in form of a publicly funded education. For this purpose, Brock aims to isolate the question of emigration restrictions from the larger question of responsibilities for remedying global inequalities. I argue that this approach is misguided because it is blind to decisive factors at (...) play in the problem of medical brain drain and consequently distorts the different responsibilities this problem generates. Brock’s strategy, if successful, would effectively lead to punishing emigrating workers from poor states for the free-riding and exploitation that is committed by affluent states – which is a counter-intuitive result. (shrink)

In this thesis I defend the principle of global egalitarianism. According to this idea most of the existing detrimental inequalities in this world are morally objectionable. As detrimental inequalities I understand those that are not to the benefit of the worst off people and that can be non-wastefully removed. To begin with, I consider various justifications of the idea that only those detrimental inequalities that occur within one and the same state are morally objectionable. I identify Thomas Nagel’s approach as (...) the most promising defence of this traditional position. However, I also show that Nagel’s argument does not even justify the elimination of detrimental inequalities within states. A discussion of the concept of political legitimacy rather shows that egalitarian justice is not a necessary condition of the justifiability of the exercise of coercive political power. I, then, consider other, more Rawlsian approaches to the question of detrimental inequalities. These views appear more plausible than Nagel’s position and argue that egalitarian duties also arise in certain international contexts. But also these more global theories of distributive justice suffer from shortcomings. Since they make the application of duties of justice dependent on the existence of social practices they cannot adequately account for the justified interests of non-participants that are affected by these practices. The counter-intuitive implications of practice-dependent theories lead me to investigate the plausibility of a theory that does not limit justice to existing practices and that argues for the inherent value of equality. This theory is global egalitarianism. I defend global egalitarianism by debilitating three objections that opponents of this idea frequently present in the relevant literature. Finally I also address two particular objections to the idea that global egalitarian duties are institutionalizable with the help of coercive global authorities. (shrink)

Since the Brexit Referendum in the United Kingdom and the election of Donald Trump as US President in 2016, the term ‘fake news’ has become a significant source of concern. Recently, the European Commission and the British House of Commons have condemned the phenomenon as a threat to their institutions’ democratic processes and values. However, political disinformation is nothing new, and empirical studies suggest that fake news has not decided crucial elections, that most readers do not believe the online fake (...) news stories they read, and that political polarization in Western democracies like the US began to increase long before online fake news existed. The question then is: how exactly does fake news threaten democracies? This paper argues that online fake news threatens democratic processes because it undermines citizens’ epistemic trust in each other. This in turn threatens to undermine the perceived legitimacy and the moral justification of democratic institutions as a whole. While online fake news is a symptom of a much larger issue (how has the Internet affected democracies, and how can we use its positive power while checking its negative effects?), it deserves particular attention given the potential danger it presents for the viability and the legitimacy of the democratic process. (shrink)

In 2016, the United Nation’s General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution regarding ‘The Promotion, Protection and Enjoyment of Human Rights on the Internet’. At the heart of this resolution is the UN’s concern that ‘rights that people have offline must also be protected online.’ While the UN thus recognises the importance of the Internet, it does so problematically selectively by focusing on protecting existing offline rights online. I argue instead that Internet access is itself a moral human right that requires (...) that everyone has unmonitored and uncensored access to this global medium, which should be publicly provided free of charge for those unable to afford it. Rather than being a mere luxury, Internet access should be considered a universal entitlement because it is necessary for people to be able to lead minimally decent lives. Accepting this claim transforms our conception of the Internet from a technology to that of a basic right. (shrink)

O artigo deseja responder o seguinte problema: como a hermenêutica fenomenológica de Heidegger possibilita pensar os conceitos fundamentais da educação? Para responder esta pergunta precisaremos: a) Apresentar o projeto heideggeriano da hermenêutica da facticidade; b) Caracterizar a história da educação como narrativa dos seus fundamentos, e c) Indicar como a hermenêutica heideggeriana liberaria o sentido das interpretações de educação, tornando seus fundamentos compreensíveis e permitindo interpretações radicais dos mesmos.

Este estudo oferece uma interpretação filosófica dos conceitos de memória e confissão, a partir da obra Coniissões de Agostinho. Estes conceitos são abordados com relação a outros temas importantes do pensamento de Agostinho, como, por exemplo, a teoria da iluminação, a prova noológica da existência de Deus e a concepção de Deus como fundamento da totalidade dos entes.

O tema do artigo é a apropriação heideggeriana da filosofia prática de Aristóteles, e como isso implicaria no conceito de “_phrónesis_”; questiona-se sobre qual seria o papel reservado a este conceito aristotélico em suas investigações na década de 1920. Objetiva-se indicar como esta é pensada em duas importantes obras desse período, o _Relatório Natorp_ e _Platão: Sofista._ Meta relacionada é compreender como o conceito aparece no âmbito das interpretações fenomenológicas sobre o estagirita, especialmente na _Ética a Nicômaco._ Pretende-se indicar que (...) a _phrónesis_ (tratada como _circunvisão_ e trazendo em si a gênese do existencial _cuidado_) _é o que pode nos orientar praticamente em nossos comportamentos, proporcionando uma _visão do aberto e implicando na interação com nosso ser. Caberá indicar como a _phrónesis está ligada a um modo de desencobrimento do ser-aí e evidenciar como o ente que somos se dá à futura fenomenologia-existencial de Heidegger._. (shrink)

We experience perception as a holistic phenomenon that can be unfolded in different aspects assigned to different senses. Against this background two interrelated questions can be asked pointing us in opposite directions: If our original experience is a holistic one, how do we ever come to divide the unity of our perception into a multiplicity of sensory objects and experiences? And if different senses can be distinguished, what in turn is the reason for their interaction in a synesthetic unity of (...) experience?—To answer both questions, the role of our experiences of two diferent movements associated with our perception is analyzed: (1) the so-called kinesthetic experiences, and (2) the dynamic movements associated with perceived things, events, atmospheres, etc., and their affective significance for the perceiving subject. The article argues that attention to both movements is crucial both for the possibility of separating different sensory perceptions and for the experience of a sensory unity in our perception. (shrink)

In this article the author submits as thesis that Habermas's concept of communicative action results from an uncritical appropriation of the concept ‘speech act’. For this purpose, firstly the origin of Habermas's idea of a ‘power-free communication’ in his discussion with Gadamer will be considered. The legitimacy of such a concept of language is — following Habermas — adequately shown most of all by Searle. Secondly therefore, Searle's theory of the speech act will be taken in consideration. Indeed, Searle places (...) the speech act at the heart of any adequate study of the language: in the speech act a trouble-free semantic transport takes place. But, as the author claims, two very disputable presuppositions lie at the root of the concept of ‘speech act’. These are: on the one hand the distinction between illocution and perlocution and on the other hand the principle of expressibility. With reference to Grice and Derrida the disputability of these presuppositions is shown. However, Searle uses these principles mainly in a methodological sense in order to constitute the object of ‘speech act’. Finally, Habermas's ontological use of these principles in his theory of communicative action is shown. If one, however, does not accept these — and this article finds that there are good reasons for not doing so —, the crucial distinction between communicative and strategic action breaks down. (shrink)

This article introduces an interpretative approach to the analysis of situations in computational settings called situational analytics. I outline the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of this approach, which is still under development, and show how it can be used to surface situations from large data sets derived from online platforms such as YouTube. Situational analytics extends to computationally-mediated settings a qualitative methodology developed by Adele Clarke, Situational Analysis, which uses data mapping to detect heterogeneous entities in fieldwork data to determine (...) ‘what makes a difference’ in a situation. Situational analytics scales up this methodology to analyse situations latent in computational data sets with semi-automated methods of textual and visual analysis. I discuss how this approach deviates from recent analyses of situations in computational social science, and argue that Clarke’s framework renders tractable a fundamental methodological problem that arises in this area of research: while social researchers turn to computational settings in order to analyse social life, the social processes unfolding in these envirnoments are fundamentally affected by the computational architectures in which they occur. Situational analytics offers a way to address this problematic by making a heterogeneously composed situation – involving social, technical and media elements – the unit of computational analysis. To conclude, I show how situational analytics can be applied in a case study of YouTube videos featuring intelligent vehicles and discuss how situational analysis itself needs to be elaborated if we are to come to terms with computational transformations of the situational fabric of social life. (shrink)

Immanuel Kant is recognized as one of the first philosophers who wrote systematically about global justice and world peace. In the current debate on global justice he is mostly appealed to by critics of extensive duties of global justice. However, I show in this paper that an analysis of Kant’s late work on rights and justice provides ample resources for disagreeing with those who take Kant to call for only modest changes in global politics. Kant’s comments in the Doctrine of (...) Right clarify that he thinks we need a coercively enforced global civil condition. But his work also contains ideas that imply that within such a global legal order there must be no extreme forms of poverty and inequality, and that the current holdings of states are by no means conclusive possessions without confirmation by the global legal order we have a duty to establish. Thus, this paper challenges the prevailing interpretation of Kant as a conservative thinker about global justice that is held, for instance, by the leading contemporary liberal thinkers such as John Rawls, Thomas Nagel, and Ronald Dworkin. (shrink)

Investigamos a possibilidade de pensar uma Filosofia da educaçáo a partir da obra do filósofo alemáo Martin Heidegger. Temos os objetivos específicos de esclarecer o que é o cuidado no campo teórico do autor, como ele poderia se relacionar com a educaçáo e como este poderia basear uma pedagogia que preza pelo exercício de ser si-próprio. Presumimos poder afirmar que o cuidado, entendido preliminarmente como a essência do existir humano, tornaria possível um modo do discente colocar-se diante de suas vivências (...) ressignificando sua existência. Etapas precedidas por uma apropriaçáo filosófica da educaçáo e das experiências existenciais dos que estáo envolvidos no processo de educar para a época atual. A filosofia de Heidegger, que sabemos resguardar muitos pormenores, será tratada aqui de maneira simplificada e, embora respeitando seu cânon, buscaremos traduzi-la em linguagem acessível, de modo a náo nos perdermos em especificidades que poderiam obstruir nosso caminho de argumentaçáo. (shrink)

Maria mediatrix represents a paradigm of mediality in the Middle Ages. Mary′s power consists in bridging the gap between the celestial sphere and the world, the Christ and mankind. She is full of grace and conveying grace, participating in humanity and divinity by these characteristics. Her influence is based on having given birth to the Christ, accompanied his life until his death on the cross, having suffered and died in her soul with him in love. She incites the individual to (...) follow her on her paths, to love and suffer as she did, to follow the Christ. Her path – if followed – offers the perspective to reach redemption and salvation. But she is also interceding for the sinners. Ascended to heaven and crowned as queen, she is able to change the severity of judgements of her son into mercy. The present article outlines a “mediologic” approach, presenting some developments from the bible to the Middle Ages and giving examples of different ways of Mary′s mediation. The latter are mainly focussed on homilies written by Bernhard de Clairvaux (1090–1153) on the occasion of the feasts of the birth and ascension of Mary and five chapters of the ‘Büchlein der Ewigen Weisheit’ by Heinrich Seuse (1295–1366). (shrink)

This master thesis analyzes specific challenges concerning 'truth-telling' war reporters face when reporting on international conflict. For this purpose truth is examined in accordance with journalistic principles outlined in codes of ethics, with a focus on objectivity and fairness. The aim is to discover ways to improve the application of principles, in order to battle epistemic errors and the effects they entail: polarization, reductionism, and superficiality. The study concludes that providing context and nuance is crucial, but that codes - although (...) essential - are insufficient in helping journalists decide what is relevant and what is not. An approach in virtue ethics is recommended where phronesis (or practical wisdom) can inspire responsible journalists to comply with the spirit, rather than the letter of the principles. (shrink)

In the contemporary philosophical literature, political legitimacy is often identified with a right to rule. However, this term is problematic. First, if we accept an interest theory of rights, it often remains unclear whose interests justify a right to rule : either the interest of the holders of this right to rule or the interests of those subject to the authority. And second, if we analyse the right to rule in terms of Wesley Hohfeld’s characterization of rights, we find disagreement (...) among philosophers about what constitutes the conceptual core of political authority: a power-right or a claim-right to rule. In this paper I show that both of these are problematic for a number of reasons. First, if we think that it is only the interests of the holders of a right to rule that justify the possession of authority, the conceptual core of authority must consist in a claim-right. However, this understanding of authority biases our thinking about legitimacy in favor of democratic exercises of power. Second, if we hold such a decisively democratic view of legitimacy, we confront an impasse with respect to addressing global collective action problems. Although it is clear that political authority is necessary or useful for solving these issues, it is doubtful that we can establish global institutions that are democratically authorized anytime soon. The paper suggests an alternative ‘Power-Right to Command View’ of political legitimacy that avoids the democratic bias and allows for thinking about solutions to global problems via global service authorities. (shrink)

While almost everyone has heard of human rights, few will have reflected in depth on what human rights are, where they originate from and what they mean. A Philosophical Introduction to Human Rights – accessibly written without being superficial – addresses these questions and provides a multifaceted introduction to legal philosophy. The point of departure is the famous 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides a frame for engagement with western legal philosophy. Thomas Mertens sketches the philosophical and (...) historical background of the Declaration, discusses the ten most important human rights with the help of key philosophers, and ends by reflecting on the relationship between rights and duties. The basso continuo of the book is a particular world view derived from Immanuel Kant. 'Unsocial sociability' is what characterises humans, i.e. the tension between man's individual and social nature. Some human rights emphasize the first, others the second aspect. The tension between these two aspects plays a fundamental role in how human rights are interpreted and applied. (shrink)

Manuel Mertens guides the reader through Bruno’s mnemonic palaces, and shows how these fascinating intellectual constructions of the famous heretic philosopher can be called magical.