Trash TV is generally regarded as an inferior genre that showcases the depths of human behavior for the sake of high viewership ratings. In this sense, the prevailing prejudice suggests that the moral orientation of the participants in trash TV is at best characterized by the (questionable) values of success and pleasure. Confronting this prejudice, the article aims to discuss the value orientation in trash TV, using examples from such show formats as Sommerhaus der Stars, Promis unter Palmen, and Temptation (...) Island. The evidence suggests that protagonists in trash TV display a sufficiently authentic and robust concern for nuanced moral values beyond pleasure and success. This finding might also support metaethical positions that seek to defend common-sense beliefs in genuine moral action and moral realism in a holistic way. (shrink)

According to Hempel’s influential theory of explanation, explaining why some a is G consists in showing that the truth that a is G follows from a law-like generalization to the effect that all Fs are G together with the initial condition that a is F. While Hempel’s overall account is now widely considered to be deeply flawed, the idea that some generalizations play the explanatory role that the account predicts is still often endorsed by contemporary philosophers of science. This idea, (...) however, conflicts with widely shared views in metaphysics according to which the generalization that all Fs are G is partially explained by the fact that a is G. I discuss two solutions to this conflict that have been proposed recently, argue that they are unsatisfactory, and offer an alternative. (shrink)

The number of legal and nonlegal ethical regulations in the biomedical field has increased tremendously, leaving present-day practitioners and researchers in a virtual crossfire of legislations and guidelines. Judging by the production and by the way these regulations are motivated and presented, they are held to be of great importance to ethical practice. This view is shared by many commentators. For instance, Commons and Baldwin write that, within the nursing profession, patient care can be performed unethically or ethically depending on (...) the professional standards the nurses have set for themselves. They also hold that such standards are set when nurses become aware of the ethical codes available. As nurses are often not familiar with the codes, they do not all conform to them. Commons and Baldwin argue that nurses' ability to deal with ethical dilemmas is effectively secured with education on guidelines, creating a “barrier” between personal and professional values. (shrink)

Sur la décomposition des ensembles de points en parties respectivement congruentes.

We all know that renewable energies are important for environmental reasons. However, recent developments should open our eyes to the fact that they are even more critical for sustainable development. In this commentary, we argue that societal benefits should be included in renewable energy decisions. Specifically, we discuss their contributions to freedom, peace, and democracy.

In this article we focus on how the language of developmental psychology shapes our conceptualisations and understandings of childrearing and of the parent-child relationship. By analysing some examples of contemporary research, policy and popular literature on parenting and parenting support in the UK and Flanders, we explore some of the ways in which normative assumptions about parenthood and upbringing are imported into these areas through the language of developmental psychology. We go on to address the particular attraction of developmental psychology (...) in the field of parenting and upbringing within our current cultural context. Drawing on the work of (among others) Zygmunt Bauman, we will show how developmental psychology, as one of the instruments that contributes to a breaking down of our existential condition into a series of well-defined, and thus apparently manageable, tasks and categories, displaces rather than confronts the possibly limitless depth of the enormity of the reality of ‘being a parent’. (shrink)

We investigate the issue of aggregativity in fair division problems from the perspective of cooperative game theory and Broomean theories of fairness. Paseau and Saunders proved that no non-trivial theory of fairness can be aggregative and conclude that theories of fairness are therefore problematic, or at least incomplete. We observe that there are theories of fairness, particularly those that are based on cooperative game theory, that do not face the problem of non-aggregativity. We use this observation to argue that the (...) universal claim that no non-trivial theory of fairness can guarantee aggregativity is false. Paseau and Saunders’s mistaken assertion can be understood as arising from a neglect of the games approach to fair division. Our treatment has two further pay-offs: for one, we give an accessible introduction to the games approach to fair division, whose significance has hitherto not been appreciated by philosophers working on fairness. For another, our discussion explores the issue of aggregativity in fair division problems in a comprehensive fashion. (shrink)

The Anthropocene concept allows human history to be imagined within the temporal framework of planetary processes. Accordingly, some environmentalists increasingly favour massively lengthening the temporal horizons of moral concern. Whilst there are defensible reasons for doing so, I wish to take issue with the ‘secular time’ perspective underlying some such approaches. To make my case, I present, in the first section, two recent manifestations of the long view perspective: a) ‘deep future’ narratives in popular climate science and futurism; b) the (...) ideas behind the Long Now Foundation. In the second section, I apply a critical lens to these perspectives via classic analyses of secular time by Charles Taylor, Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben. I conclude by suggesting that these post-secular critiques should be considered alongside recent approaches to the Anthropocene and the ‘geological turn’ from new materialist perspectives. (shrink)

I propose to show that any direct moral bioenhancement procedures that could be realized within a relatively short period of time are not realistic options. This does not have to worry us; however; because alternative options for promoting morality are available. Consequently; moral bioenhancement is not an option for dealing successfully with the increased potential destructiveness of contemporary technologies within a short-term framework; i.e. within this century. In what follows; I will explain why this is the case; and why; contrary (...) to Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu; I think this need not worry us too much. In section 1.; I will critically analyze moral bioenhancement by means of citalopram; aimed at reducing the tendency to harm others directly. I give this prominence because it could be a practical option for altering human emotions and dispositions – to my mind; it seems the most promising practical option in this field. In later sections; I will consider other means of realizing moral bioenhancement; since the first option does not do the job it is supposed to; and because Persson and Savulescu are concerned with alternative approaches. (shrink)

Los descubrimientos de las neurociencias permiten intervenir en el cerebro humano para mejorar su estado o sus capacidades sin indicación médica. Este fenómeno es conocido como “Neuroenhancement” y está sujeto a un amplio debate ético. Como “Neuroenhancement” es un fenómeno evolutivo, el debate de aspectos éticos está necesariamente orientado al futuro y depende de la información sobre el posible desarrollo de la tecnología y sus consecuencias para la sociedad. Sin embargo, hay que establecer límites para la formulación de previsiones especulativas (...) en argumentos éticos y justificaciones políticas. Propongo distinguir argumentos con tres propósitos distintos: la formación de intuiciones éticas, el reflejo sobre el futuro de la sociedad y justificación de normativas y políticas. Para cada uno de ellos necesitamos estándares adecuados. Es tarea de la filosofía política desarrollar un estándar para los argumentos justificadores.: Neuroscientific findings allow interventions in the human brain to improve its function or modify mental states even without medical indication. This procedure, termed as neuroenhancement, is subject to a broad ethical debate. As neuroenhancement is an evolving phenomenon, the debate is necessarily future-oriented and highly dependent on information about future developments. It remains an open question to what degree uncertain forecasting or even speculation should be considered in the ethical debate and policy-making. I propose to distinguish between arguments with three different purposes: intuition-forming, self-reflecting and justifying arguments. Adequate standards are required for all kinds of future-oriented arguments. The development of these standards for justifying arguments is a task for political philosophy. (shrink)

: This paper examines two features of Kant’s 1768 critique of Leibniz’ conception of space. Firstly, Leibniz’ proposed geometrical calculus called ‘analysis situs’; secondly, Leibniz’ relational conception of space. The main thesis of the paper is that Kant’s arguments are more powerful than generally recognized. With regard to the analysis situs, I will show that Kant was quite well informed about this proposed science and that his arguments severely undermine Leibniz’ claims to what it could perform. With regard to the (...) relational theory of space, Kant’s argument would require Leibniz to present a complex story about the relation between God’s act of creation and our spatial experience to defend his relational view, rather than using the simple principle of sufficient reason. (shrink)

In a recent article, John McDowell has criticised Warren Goldfarb for attributing an anti-realist conception of linguistic understanding to Wittgenstein. 1 I argue that McDowell is right to reject Goldfarb's anti- realism, but does so for the wrong reasons. I show that both Goldfarb's and McDowell's interpretations are vitiated by the fact that they do not pay attention to Wittgenstein's positive claims about understanding, in particular his claim that understanding is a kind of ability. The cause of this oversight lies (...) in their endorsement of an excessively anti-systematic or “therapeutic” reading of Wittgenstein. (shrink)

The last two years have seen the publication of two books in the genre of how-to fiction writing manuals that use science both as a selling point and as a genuine analytical par­adigm. The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr and The Science of Screenwriting by Paul Joseph Gulino and Connie Shears use insights from the cognitive sciences and evolution­ary psychology, while retaining their practical, how-to character. This review article goes through some of the main clusters of advice shared by (...) the two books, dealing with infor­mation processing, attention allocation, the implications of human sociality for fiction, and story structure, while fitting their takes on these issues within the fields of biocultural criticism and cultural evolution. Despite containing occasional flaws and confusions about theory common in pioneering works, these books could be harbingers of change for the genre and an important step in the bottom-up infusion of biocultural theory into literary studies. (shrink)

Drawing on the work of Robert Nozick and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the author argues that human self-consciousness cannot be explained in naturalistic terms. Instead, it is a spontaneous phenomenon.

How come we ought to do things? Current metanormative debates often suffer from the fact that authors implicitly use adequacy conditions not shared by their opponents. This leads to an unsatisfying dialectical gridlock: One author accuses her opponents of not being able to account for stuff she judges essential, but the opponents do not think this to be a major flaw. In an attempt to meet the problem of gridlock head-on, the current investigation approaches oughtness differently. -/- I start with (...) the introduction of a grounding framework for thinking about oughtness -- the central normative property -- that allows a lucid presentation of the views on the market. It soon becomes clear that one necessary part of any plausible assessment of accounts of oughtness is a discussion of their adequacy conditions. I continue with a detailed evaluation of four different accounts, as presented by Halbig (2007), Schroeder (2007), Stemmer (2006), and Scanlon (2014). My main result is that desire-based or Humean theories of oughtness are more plausible because desire-independent accounts fail to explain something crucial: the for-me character of oughtness. Based on the insights gathered thus far, I then develop a new Humean theory – metaethical conativism – and defend it against some historically influential objections. (shrink)

In this article I seek to explain Hegel’s significance to contemporary meta-ethics, in particular to Kantian constructivism. I argue that in the master–slave dialectic in the Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel shows that self-consciousness and intersubjectivity arise at the same time. This point, I argue, shows that there is no problem with taking other people’s reasons to motivate us since reflection on our aims is necessarily also reflection on the needs of those around us. I further explore Hegel’s contribution to the (...) debate about internal and external reasons. I end by arguing that we should understand reasons as historically constructed in the sense that who counts as an intrinsic bearer of value changes over time. I thus argue that the struggle for recognition is in fact the beginning of the long march toward the idea of recognition and the Kantian kingdom of ends. This march, however, is driven by the need to overcome injustice as it is instantiated at the beginning of history by the master’s absolute domination of the slave. (shrink)

In contemporary theories of language it is common to appeal to propositions as expressed by utterances of sentences. The aim of this paper is to question this idea, for as I argue, the relationship between sentences and propositions cannot be worked out in any rewarding way.

The problem of expertise plays a key role in current scientific and political debates. Dominant approaches to expertise are focused on knowledge as an idealistic content. Given the partial inadequacy of these perspectives, an amended theoretical and methodological approach is needed. This paper aims then at sketching a relational conceptualization of expertise. At this purpose, the connections between recent anthropological theories and pragmatist theories will be highlighted.

Abstract:The “nonidentical” is Adorno’s term for anything that cannot be grasped by a concept or a system of concepts: sensual experience and events; emotions, understood as unconscious but influential layers of the psychic system; emergent results of interactions; the possibility of non-alienated and non-reified social circumstances. Within practices of music pedagogy, the nonidentical is relevant under all these aspects: the naming of musical issues does not encompass (let alone substitute for) the musical phenomenon (and it is not self-evident how to (...) conceptualize appropriate deictic actions). Emotionality should not be tamed (and it is an open question how to bring it to bear in a sensible way). Emergent results of the interaction in music lessons are a problem for planning classes, a planning which has to consider learning outcomes. The school system is almost completely shaped by economics of education (and cannot easily try to simulate processes of non-alienated and non-reified interactions between all participants). Corresponding research has to focus on identities constituting practices in music pedagogy; but it can develop a sensitivity to realizations of the nonidentical and induce new practices which are structured according to Critical Theory. The paper is concerned with the complementarity of identities and the nonidentical with regard to music pedagogy in a broader perspective, classifying practices of music pedagogy within a system of this discipline–on the basis of a logic of reflection. (shrink)

"Der Text gilt den Aporien der Medienanthropologie. Neben den Debatten um das mediale Apriori, wie sie vor allen die Arbeiten Friedrich Kittlers ausgelöst haben, geraten dabei zwei Dinge in den Blick. Zum einen die Möglichkeit, die Rede von der technischen Datenverarbeitung nicht nur metaphorisch, sondern der Sache nach auf die Verarbeitungsprozesse des Menschen zu übertragen und so quantifizierbare Kriterien für dessen Leistungsfähigkeit abzuleiten. Zum anderen wird in der Abwendung von einer spezifisch deutschen Medienwissenschaft gerade in der aktuellen internationalen Diskussion ein (...) Medienbegriff etabliert, der in seiner pluralen Ausrichtung Bezugnahmen etwa auch zur Biologie erlaubt (BioMedia). The paper is devoted to the aporias of medial anthropology. In addition to the debates about the medial a priori, as initiated primarily by the works of Friedrich Kittler, two things come into view: On the one hand, the possibility to apply the notion of technical data processing to human processes not only in a metaphorical, but also in a literal way, in order to derive quantifiable criteria for their performance; on the other hand, the turn away from specifically German media studies in the ongoing international discussion establishes a notion of media that, thanks to its pluralistic orientation, allows references to other fields of study, e.g. to biology (biomedia). ". (shrink)

Clanak nastoji da utvrdi identitet umetnickog dela u slikarstvu, muzici i knjizevnosti. Rasprava je po svom karakteru ontoloska. Posebna paznja posvecena je problemu falsifikata umetnickog dela u razlicitim umetnostima. Tu razlikujem dve vrste falsifikata: fake i forgery. Prva vrsta falsifikata postoji iskljucivo u umetnostima u kojima je umetnicko delo singularan fizicki objekat, takozvanim autografskim umetnostima, dok se druga vrsta falsifikata moze pojaviti i u drugim, alografskim, umetnostima, iako mnogo redje. Sa problemom falsifikovanja umetnickog dela usko je povezano pitanje mogucnosti redukovanja (...) umetnickog dela na formalni simbolicki sistem, koji bi predstavljao svojevrsnu definiciju umetnickog dela. Rasprava pokazuje da konzistentna analiza ontoloskog statusa umetnickog dela u razlicitim formama umetnosti, daje naizgled neintuitivne i iznenadjujuce rezultate. (shrink)

: In this essay I make an attempt at sketching the outlines of Fichte’s method of philosophical construction in intuition and try to explore the rationality of his concept of deduction. I discuss the relationship between Fichte’s method of philosophical construction and Kant’s concept of construction of geometrical figures in pure intuition. I offer in-depth analysis of Fichte’s deduction of concepts in his Foundations of Natural Rights and in the Wissenschaftslehre nova methodo. However, I argue that Fichte’s deduction of practical (...) spontaneity is not successful. Finally, I consider and reject some objections to my interpretation. (shrink)

The French molecular biologist François Jacob outlined a theory of evolution as tinkering. From a methodological point of view, his approach can be seen as a biologic specification of the relation between laws, describing coherently the dynamics of a system, and contingent boundary conditions on this dynamics. From a semiotic perspective, tinkering is a pragmatic concept well-known from the information-theoretic anthropology of Claude Lévi-Strauss. In idealized contrast to an engineer, the tinkerer has to accept the concrete restrictions on his material (...) resources as only gradually changeable constraints on his projects. Jacobian biopragmatics examines evolution as a biologic analogue to human tinkering devoid of any projecting subjectivity. To validate this analogy, four basic principles concerning main formal aspects of evolutionary objects, agents, histories, and consistency criteria are proposed. (shrink)

This article discusses paleographic and linguistic aspects of the Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions on the Tillya-tepe and Pushkalavati coins and adduces some epigraphic and literary parallels. It proposes a syntactically separate reading of the two sides of the Tillya-tepe coin, and concludes that in spite of some differences of execution the coins may have been produced in the same workshop.

The phonetic change between b and w is analyzed in a new way. The phenomenon can be considered as firmly established in current research and the list of examples is here enriched by further material. The objects of investigation consist of writings of single words, as well as plays on words.

Die Ästhetik wird als eigenständige philosophische Disziplin im zweiten Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts von Gelehrten an der Universität Halle begründet. Zur gleichen Zeit treibt die Frage nach dem 'ganzen Menschen' in Halle die Gemüter um: Eine neue Wissenschaft vom Menschen, die Anthropologie, kündigt sich an. Treffend ist deshalb von einer "Gleichursprünglichkeit von Ästhetik und Anthropologie" gesprochen worden. Worin genau sie besteht, klärt dieses Buch.

The author of 'Betrachtungen eines Unpolitischen' (1918) is usually regarded as one of the founding fathers of the so-called 'Conservative Revolution'. But Thomas Mann's understanding of this concept does not at all coincide with the definition established by Armin Mohler, mainly in that it is not Nietzschean. Nor do the ties with the George circle furnish grounds for assigning Mann to the 'Conservative Revol ution', any more than to the 'aesthetic fundamentalism' which was cul tivated there. Moreover, it can be (...) shown that Mann's political views differ significantly from the 'new nationalism' propagated in the circle around Arthur Moeller van den Bruck, and that they have more affini ties to old liberalism than to a 'Conservative Revolution'. (shrink)