Epistemische Tugenden sind Eigenschaften des forschenden Subjekts, die in wissenschaftlichen Kulturen als Bedingung fur die Produktion, Vermittlung oder den Erwerb von Wissen angesehen werden. Sie lassen sich nicht auf ein abstraktes Sollen reduzieren, wie es oft von Ethikkommissionen oder politischen Bewegungen an die Wissenschaft herangetragen wird. Die methodische Erzeugung von Wissen ware kaum moglich, wenn es nicht erkenntnisfordernde Tugenden wie Geduld, Aufmerksamkeit, Genauigkeit, Intuition, Wahrhaftigkeit, Neugierde, Strenge oder Zuverlassigkeit gabe, die den an sich prekaren Erkenntnisprozess stabilisieren und in eine bestimmte (...) Richtung lenken. Die Beitrage dieses Sammelbandes befassen sich mit epistemischen Tugenden aus (wissenschafts-)historischer, philosophischer, medien- und literaturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Ein Schwerpunkt liegt dabei auf dem Verhaltnis von wissenschaftlichen und soziokulturellen beziehungsweise moralischen Normen. Mit Beitragen von: Lorraine Daston, Martin Doll, Andreas Gelhard, Raymond Geuss, Ruben Hackler, Michael Hagner, Jens Kertscher, Markus Krajewski, Marcel Lepper, Martin Mulsow, Oliver Nievergelt, Tanja Paulitz, Robert Proctor, Katja Sabisch, Sandro Zanetti, Cornelia Zumbusch. (shrink)

Es gibt Gegenstände, von denen gilt, daß es dergleichen Gegenstände nicht gibt. Dieser Satz hat dem Österreicher Alexius Meinong nicht nur Berühmtheit, sondern auch vernichtende Urteile beschert. Hindern konnten sie ihn jedoch keinesfalls daran, die weltweit bekannte Schule der Grazer Gegenstandstheorie zu etablieren. Wertphilosophische, erkenntnistheoretische sowie psychologische Schriften und die Gründung des ersten experimentalpsychologischen Laboratoriums in Österreich komplettieren das Schaffen dieses Philosophen. Meinongs Lebensgeschichte ist die Verquickung der Geschichte seiner Publikationen und der akademischen Aktivitäten seiner kleinen Schule von Schülern. Platz (...) für private Belange schien in jenem Leben, das sich nahezu vier Jahrzehnte in der steiermärkischen Universitätsstadt Graz abspielte, kaum zu sein. Eine äußerst starke Sehschwäche, die Meinong vor Kollegen, Freunden und sogar seiner Frau auf ungewöhnliche Weise zu verbergen suchte, lastete schwer auf ihm. In der ersten vollständigen Biographie Meinongs zeichnet Evelyn Dölling das leidenschaftliche Ringen dieses Denkers um höchste wissenschaftliche Präzision nach. Aus der Recherche des umfangreichen Nachlaßmaterials sowie der zahlreichen Korrespondenzen (8 300 Briefe) entsteht ein Bild von Meinongs Familienleben und seinen Beziehungen zu Freunden, wie man es so bislang nicht kannte. (shrink)

For women in the former GDR, daily life has changed since the unification of the two German states. With the example of diary excerpts from the autumn of 1990, written by two women, both at that time in their early 50s and having worked full time all their lives, the question is explored how women from different social backgrounds experience the changes that have affected their daily lives, how they assess their past, approach their new living conditions, cope with the (...) demands made of them and, with the aid of examples of the symbolic division of the sexes, interpret their - changed - roles in the new social arena. (shrink)

One of the essential distinctions in action theory is that between activity and passivity. I address this distinction in this article.

Meinongs Leben vollzog sich in engen räumlichen Grenzen. Es scheint kaum von besonderen Höhepunkten gekennzeichnet zu sein. Als neunjähriger, im Jahre 1862, verließ er seine Geburtsstadt Lemberg und ging nach Wien, um dort die Schule zu besuchen und später deutsche Philologie und Geschichte zu studieren. Nach Abschluß einer Dissertation über Arnold von Brescia wandte er sich der Philosophie zu und habilitierte sich auf Empfehlung von Franz Brentano mit einer Arbeit über David Hume. Ein schweres Augenleiden, das sehr zeitig schon zu (...) einer fast vollständigen Blindheit führte und das er mit großem Erfindungsreichtum vor Familie, Freunden und administrativen Einrichtungen zu verbergen suchte, hat sein Leben maßgeblich bestimmt. Meinongs weitere akademische Karriere, die Beziehungen zu seiner Frau Doris, zu seinen Freunden und Studenten werden unter besonderer Berücksichtigung seiner Sehschwäche nachgezeichnet. (shrink)

Spinoza’s epistemology aims at the development of ‘adequate’ and the removal of ‘confused’ ideas. His theory of confusion raises many questions, however. It has often been thought that the confusion of an idea is mind-relative, such that an idea might be confused in my mind but adequate in God’s. In this paper I argue that confusion cannot be mind-relative, because an idea’s confusion is determined by what it represents and for Spinoza, ideas are individuated by their representational content. Instead, I (...) propose that although it is possible to consider one and the same idea both adequately and confusedly, what such acts of considering pick up on are mind-independent features of ideas. (shrink)

Aunque el populismo es uno de los conceptos políticos más empleados en nuestra época, suele decirse que también es uno de los más escasamente comprendidos (Taggart 2002, 62), y hay incluso quien cree que está rodeado de un “completo caos conceptual” (Müller 2016, 11). También hay quien ha intentado clasificar diferentes aproximaciones al populismo (véase especialmente Taggart 2000, 10-22; también Panizza 2005, 2-3; Rovira Kaltwasser 2012, 186-96; Weyland 2017, 51-55). Sin embargo, lo cierto es que el principal consenso académico sobre (...) el populismo es, precisamente, que no hay ningún gran consenso sobre lo que pueda ser el populismo. Por eso hay quien dice que el populismo es un ejemplo paradigmático de lo que Gallie (1955) denominó “conceptos esencialmente controvertidos” (Weyland 2001; Mudde y Rovira Kaltwasser 2013; 2017). -/- Semejantes dificultades para acordar una definición permiten explicar por qué prácticamente cualquier texto académico sobre el populismo empieza advirtiendo que en este debate hay que andar con pies de plomo. Así las cosas, esta entrada no aspira a ofrecer ninguna definición concluyente del populismo (para intentos de ese tipo, véase Mansbridge y Macedo 2019 o Urbinati 2019b). Cada sección tiene una aspiración más modesta. La primera identifica algunas dificultades que complican la comprensión y definición del populismo. La segunda sección presenta dos rasgos en los que, a pesar de las discrepancias, la mayoría de las definiciones del populismo coinciden. La tercera ofrece una reconstrucción sintética de la teoría populista desarrollada por Laclau y Mouffe –dos de los teóricos más influyentes tanto política como académicamente. (shrink)

This volume addresses the problem of how language expresses conceptual information on event structures and how such information can be reconstructed in the interpretation process. The papers present important new insights into recent semantic and syntactic research on the topic. The volume deals with the following problems in detail: event structure and syntactic construction, event structure and modification, event structure and plurality, event structure and temporal relation, event structure and situation aspect, and event structure and language ontology. Importantly, the topic (...) is discussed not only on the basis of English and German but on the basis of other languages including Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, and Igbo as well. This volume thus provides solid evidence towards clarifying the empirical use of event based analyses. (shrink)

Nach einer kurzen Darstellung der Definitionen von Emo­tionen und Emotionsregulierung folgen verschiedene Ansätze der Klassifikation von Eifersucht. Übereinstimmend wird Eifersucht als Prozess verstanden, der typischerweise durch eine triadische Beziehungsstruktur – sei diese real oder auch nur gefürchtet – ausgelöst wird. Auf diese wahrgenommene Gefahr gibt es mehrere Möglichkeiten der Reaktion. Diese sind nicht nur situationsabhängig, sondern variieren sowohl inter- wie auch intrapersonell. Im psychoanalytischen Diskurs dominieren heute Zusammenhänge zwischen frühen Beziehungserfahrungen und Eifersucht, wobei vor allem (kumulativ) traumatisierende Beziehungserfahrungen mit einer (...) erhöhten Vulnerabilität für stärkere Eifersucht zusammenhängen könnten. Empirische Ergebnisse der Bindungsforschung zeigen ebenfalls solche Zusammenhänge. (shrink)

The idea of sociability - a person’s disposition and ability to communicate and live in the community - goes through the whole history of philosophy. Due to the peculiarity of translations, this term and the whole tradition related to it have been lost to the Russian reader. The article discusses some tendencies in comprehending the idea of sociability in early modern moral philosophy. The key to this consideration is F. Hutcheson’s essay On the Natural Sociability of Mankind, the title of (...) which contains the very term “sociability” and which presents the main essential points in a discussion of the issue in the first third of the 18 th century. One can distinguish two main approaches to the problem. According to one of them, sociability determined by various human natural needs is the basis of social relations, and a person becomes a moral agent as a social being (H. Grotius, T. Hobbes, S. Pufen-dorf, B. Mandeville). According to another approach, sociability is a manifestation of a person’s natural tendency to care for the good of others, and its consistent implementation leads to the formation of community and supports its stability (Cambridge Platonists, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, J. Butler, D. Hume, A. Smith). Representatives of both approaches recognized contradiction in manifestations of sociability or in its nature. I. Kant theoretically overcame the confrontation between these approaches and conceptualized the contradiction and associated it with the human nature. According to Kant, the “unsociable sociability” is given in the fact that a person has a tendency to sociability but also a tendency to self-assertion at the expense of others. However, despite the presence of asocial features (evil principle), Kant considered the person’s inherent sociability (good principle) as a prerequisite for culture and as one of the most important conditions of possibility of morality. (shrink)

Este trabajo analiza los discursos de científicos españoles residentes en Bochum (Alemania), y de parte de ellos que, tras pasar una larga etapa en dicha ciudad, habían retornado. El mismo muestra cómo experimentan una dificultosa adaptación caracterizada por un sentimiento de infravaloración laboral, una falta de estabilidad y la añoranza de ciertos aspectos propios de la cultura española como la calidad del ocio y la mayor sociabilidad de su población. Por otro lado, se observa un retorno singularizado por la desincronización (...) con sus lugares de origen, debido a que sienten que el tiempo ha pasado muy rápido en los mismos, mientras que para ellos sus vidas se ha ralentizado. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung Der Aufsatz thematisiert die geschlechtsbezogene Kommunikation im Spitzensport. Hierzu wird nach einem knappen Forschungsbericht ein kommunikationstheoretischer Zugang gewählt. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass es sich bei Kommunikation um keinen einfachen Übertragungsprozess handelt, sondern um ein kontingentes Geschehen, so dass es unsicher ist, dass sich die Kommunikationspartner wechselseitig voll verstehen und dass sie jeweils das tun, was der andere erwartet. Die Regulierung von Kontingenz geschieht innerhalb der Kommunikation vor allem durch die Generalisierung von Verhaltenserwartungen, also durch den Bezug darauf, was (...) in bestimmten Situationen von den Kommunikationspartnern typisch erwartet werden kann und welches Verhalten den Rahmen des „Erlaubten“ sprengen würde. An drei Beispielen aus den Sportarten Hockey, Turnen und Handball untersucht der Beitrag die Bedeutung geschlechtsspezifischer Verhaltenserwartungen in der Trainer-Athlet-Kommunikation und diskutiert deren Funktionen und Folgen im Spitzensport. (shrink)

Ruben Berrios Queen’s University Belfast Anti-realism and Aesthetic Cognition Abstract At the core of the debate between scientific realism and anti-realism is the question of the relation between scientific theory and the world. The realist possesses a mimetic conception of the relation between theory and reality. For the realist, scientific theories represent reality. The anti-realist, in contrast, seeks to understand the relations between theory and world in non-mimetic terms. We will examine Cartwright’s simulacrum account of explanation in order to illuminate (...) the anti-realist position. Science consists of phenomenological and theoretical laws. The former are concerned with appearances, or those phenomena that can be directly observed; the latter involve the unobservable reality that is alleged to underlie appearances, and are capable only of indirect confirmation. Phenomenological laws are said to be descriptive, whilst theoretical laws are understood as explanatory. Cartwright is concerned with the theoretical. She claims that the standard realist account of the explanatory efficacy of theoretical laws is faulty. The explanatory power of theoretical laws consists in their ability to provide an explanation of physical phenomena. According to Cartwright, the realist claims that laws explain phenomena by providing an abstract description of them, in terms of their micro-structural features, that is alleged to be true. On this view, explanatory power is entirely dependent on descriptive adequacy. As phenomenological laws describe appearances, so theoretical laws describe the fundamental reality that governs appearances. Cartwright rejects the preceding view and in its place proposes a simulacrum account of explanation. According to Cartwright, the explanatory power of theoretical laws is related not to descriptive adequacy, but rather to the construction of adequate models. To explain a phenomenon is to construct a model which best or most adequately accommodates the phenomenon to a theory. The model will consist of various posited objects that serve to explain the phenomena in terms that are consistent with a set of theoretical laws. Cartwright claims that theoretical laws are true of, or describe, the objects of the model. The objects of the model, however, are not descriptive of reality. They are simulacra. They have, that is, the form or appearance of things, without possessing their substance or proper qualities. In light of the foregoing account we can summarise the distinction between scientific realism and anti-realism as follows. The realist claims that theoretical laws literally represent real objects. The anti-realist claims that laws represent objects of a model that are simulacra of reality. Anti-realism has an aesthetic dimension. The movement from realism to anti-realism is also the movement from the mimetic conception of the scientist as holding a mirror to nature to the constructionist view of the scientist as engaging with nature through invention. There is a lot of the artist in the anti-realist’s view of the scientist. This is true for Cartwright as well as, for example, Van Fraassen in his doctrine of constructive empiricism. It would appear, then, that the philosophy of science has absorbed some concepts that are ordinarily housed in aesthetics. And it has done so profitably. The aim of this paper is to reverse the direction of disciplinary influence. Can art, in relation to its status as a cognitive enterprise, be illuminated by scientific anti-realism? I will argue that it can. In an unexpected reference to the Nicomachean Ethics, Cartwright draws a suggestive parallel between theoretical laws and general moral principles, on the one hand, and physical phenomena and everyday moral conduct, on the other hand. If we add to this the claim that a central component of art’s value is cognitive, then we have the basic materials with which to flesh out a broadly anti-realist view of art. In the production of art, artists can construct models that mediate between everyday ethical phenomena and general ethical tendencies. These models reveal the ways in which there are implicit consistencies or inconsistencies, conflicts or congruences and so forth, between the phenomena and the tendencies. On this basis art can contribute to the reflective understanding of ethical life. This constitutes to a large degree art’s status as a cognitive enterprise. To apprehend art cognitively as artist or critic is to engage in aesthetic cognition. (shrink)

The link between leadership and mental health at the workplace is well established by prior research. However, most of the studies have addressed this relationship from a single-source perspective. The aim of this study was to examine how supervisor and employee ratings of health-oriented leadership correspond to each other and which sources are predictive for employee mental health. We assessed data within 99 teams containing 713 employees in 11 different companies in Southern Germany. Supervisors and their staff completed questionnaires on (...) the supervisors’ health-oriented staff-care dimensions awareness, value of health and health behavior and current mental distress. Hierarchical linear models revealed that supervisors’ self-ratings were significantly related to their employees’ ratings only on the health behavior dimension, but not on the health awareness and value of health dimensions. Also, supervisors rated themselves significantly higher on HoL compared to their employees. Employee ratings of HoL significantly predicted their own level of mental distress, whereas supervisor ratings of HoL did not predict employees’ mental distress at the team level. Supervisors’ self-ratings of HoL did not influence the relationship between employee ratings of HoL and their mental distress on an individual level. These results highlight the complex relationship between multisource assessments of HoL and employee mental health, emphasizing the importance of subjective perception for mental health. Future studies should investigate under which conditions supervisor and employee ratings correspond to each other and are predictive for mental health at the workplace. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 9, September 2020, Page 78-80.

To what extend can genuinely mereological considerations apply to talk of wholes and parts in discussions of the relationship between individual persons and the social groups, etc. to which they belong?

Researchers have studied the athletes' dual careers with the aim of helping them to combine the sport and the academic–vocational sphere. Most of this research has addressed the study–sport combination, but there is a lack of studies on the work–sport combination. The main objective of this research was to explore the subjective perceptions of Spanish elite athletes when attempting to combine their careers as professional athletes with a second profession or trade. Further, this study aims to identify the access to (...) facilitating resources and the perception of obstacles and barriers to the development of a dual career. A qualitative approach was chosen to address these research questions. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was carried out on a sample of 18 elite athletes, and the data were collected using semi-structured interviews based on a set of superordinate and subordinate categories. The results showed that the athletes interviewed possessed valuable resources such as the transference of sports values to the work sphere. However, important barriers were highlighted such as the perception of sport institutions as absent entities in the work–sport combination. Thus, the study of this type of dual career seems to be one of the challenges facing the interested scientific community for the coming years. (shrink)

The idea that citizens have a right to receive information that is relevant for their suitable exercise of political rights and liberties is well established in democratic societies. However, this right has never been systematically analyzed, thus remaining a blurry concept. This article tackles this conceptual gap by conceptualizing citizens’ right to information. After reviewing previous approaches to this idea, I locate citizens’ right to information on the map of communication rights, and put forward a systematic framework for both justifying (...) and analyzing it. This framework focuses on this right’s grounds, its function, its holders, its content, and its correlative duties. Although the conceptualization offered here will be incomplete, it will be enough to distinguish the general concept of citizens’ right to information from both its specific conceptions and from the other two best-known rights of the public: freedom of information and the public’s right to know. (shrink)

An analysis of causal explanation, using counterfactuals and omitting laws or lawlike generalisations.

This paper presents an analysis and critique of Roger Penrose’s epistemological, methodological, and ontological positions. The analysis is relevant not only because Penrose is an influential scientist, but also because of the particular traits of his thought. These traits are directly connected with his background and approach to science: ontological and epistemological realism, mathematical Platonism, emphasis on the continuities of science, epistemological inclusiveness and essential openness of science, the role of common sense, emphasis on the connection between science, ethics, and (...) philosophy. The paper articulates Penrose’s position and criticizes some of its possible shortcomings. It contributes to the perception of science as an open activity, as illustrated in Penrose’s particular approach, and provides an interesting case-study that can contribute to understanding how epistemological and ontological positions are connected with particular scientific practices. (shrink)

Most of the features of modern Russian business are transient, determined by the transitional character of the Russian economy and drastic changes in the social structure, ideology, and consciousness of Russian society in general. There are three main normative experiences in the traditions of Russian business: a) the experience of pre-Revolutionary business, specifically developed and practiced by the merchants of the old-believers extraction; b) the experience of socialist economy, which was more or less oriented to the public good and presupposed (...) selfless aspirations by the economic agents; c) the experience of legally and administratively constrained private business and illegal shadow business, which expected businessmen to be vigorous, industrious and enterprising. The process of privatization was developed under the aegis of state, specifically the state bureaucracy. The influence of changes in the social-economic system has been ambivalent for social morals. However, the reforms could stimulate their improvement. The recent development in the cultural environment of business testify to the emerging space of civilized business, which manifests that it is practically useful for businessmen to be ethical. (shrink)

A comparison of disjunctive theories of action and perception. The development of a theory of action that warrants the name, a disjunctive theory. On this theory, there is an exclusive disjunction: either an action or an event (in one sense). It follows that in that sense basic actions do not have events intrinsic to them.

In Anknüpfung an eine Arbeit von 2006 zur Frequenzvereinbarung am Behandlungsbeginn greifen die Autorinnen das Thema des Settings und des Handlungsdialogs erneut auf, diesmal anhand eines Behandlungsverlaufs. Bei Patienten, die frühe Traumata erlebt haben, die nicht erzählbar sind, weil sie vor der Zeit liegen, in der das autobiographische Gedächtnis etabliert ist, spielt die Angstregulierung eine fundamentale Rolle. Hochfrequenz kann bei diesen Patienten Ängste auslösen, die als nicht steuerbar erlebt oder befürchtet werden. Ein niederfrequentes Setting ist hier oft – vor allem (...) am Beginn der Behandlung – das, worauf Analytiker und Patient sich verständigen können. Ein Frequenzwechsel wird möglich, wenn Fortschritte in der Symbolisierungsfähigkeit es erlauben, dass Ängste als solche wahrnehmbar und nicht mehr überwiegend agiert oder somatisiert werden. Dieser Entwicklungsprozess wird ausführlich an einer Behandlung dargestellt, die in wiederholten Intervisionen begleitet wurde. (shrink)

This book introduces readers to the topic of explanation. The insights of Plato, Aristotle, J.S. Mill and Carl Hempel are examined, and are used to argue against the view that explanation is merely a problem for the philosophy of science. Having established its importance for understanding knowledge in general, the book concludes with a bold and original explanation of explanation.

NOTA DEL EDITOR: Bioética en práctica incluye también el texto “Criterios para la asignación de asistencia mecánica respiratoria en pacientes con Covid 19, un mirada bioética” del P. Rubén Revello, del Instituto de Bioética de la Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, quien amablemente autorizó su reproducción para esta sección de la revista. El Dr. Carlos A. Gómez Fajardo, docente de Bioética de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana y miembro del Comité editorial de la revista Persona y Bioética (...) agradece y comenta brevemente el texto: “Agradezco y recibo con gran atención sus valiosos contenidos. Son pertinentes y acertados los principios mencionados sobre el bien global del paciente y el respeto a la vida de toda persona, sin discriminación, como parte esencial del ethos hipocrático. Es innegable la necesidad del uso de criterios objetivos en la asignación de asistencia mecánica respitatoria. Para ello, en la disciplina de los cuidados críticos se dispone de las herramientas soportadas en la evidencia, de gran valor práctico y como es obvio en el uso de elementos de diagnóstico y terapia, también con sus limitantes, como sucede con las limitaciones de valores predictivos de las mismas. Encuentro que el uso del concepto “preservar la mayoría de los años de vida”, por parte de Jakie Powder del Jhon Hopkins Center of Bioethic, se puede prestar a equívocos, pues podría entenderse como un intento de reducción de criterios utilitaristas para la asignación de recursos de ARM; el autor se hace cargo del tema e indica que “cabe aclarar que ‘preservar la mayoría de los años de vida’ no significa hacer un triage que excluya de la AMR a pacientes que sobrepasan una cierta edad, sino que no se incluya a pacientes cuya prolongación de la vida solo resulte precaria y penosa”. En el ámbito académico-filosófico de la disciplina de la bioética se encuentran en contradicción esencial dos visiones: la utilitarista materialista y la realista; es de difícil conciliación racional el intento de cuantificación objetiva de “calidad de vida”, pues ello conduciría a posibles decisiones injustas. Creo que es pertinente reconocer que el ejercicio práctico de la medicina se enmarca, generalmente -no solo en situación de pandemia- en un entorno de escasez de recursos. Estos, por supuesto, siempre han de asignarse dentro del marco de la racionalidad, la proporcionalidad terapéutica y la justicia, pero es pertinente reconocer que existen variables que determinan resultados fatales y que no pueden ser atribuibles a los procesos de decisión del clínico, quien no ha de ser obligado a lo imposible cuando el volumen y complejidad de las circunstancias de triage son apremiantes. Ello no deroga el imperativo racional hipocrático del respeto a la vida de todos como inspiración del quehacer”. Este escrito fue publicado por el Centro de Bioética: Persona & Familia, en su portal web, el 22 de abril de 2020. El autor autorizó a la revista Persona y Bioética publicarlo en su sección de Bioética en práctica. Se hicieron modificaciones ortotipográficas leves al texto y una adaptación de las referencias para hacerlo compatible con las pautas editoriales de la revista. (shrink)