Sharing within communities has gained popularity in recent years. However, taking part in a community also comes with a certain amount of risk. This perceived amount of risk can be contained by regulations within a community as well as by potential participants’ trust in the community and the other members. We argue for a relation between regulation and the willingness to take the risk of joining a sharing community with trust as mediator. Thereby, we distinguish between two kinds of regulation (...) (soft and harsh regulation) and two kinds of trust (implicit and reason-based trust) on two different levels (vertical and horizontal trust). In one laboratory and one online experiment with overall 432 participants, we found that the compound of high soft and low harsh regulation increases participants’ willingness to take the risk of participation and the effect of soft regulation is mediated mainly by vertical and horizontal reason-based trust. Based on our results, we encourage sharing communities to count on soft regulation in order to increase potential members’ trust in the community and therefore take the risk to participate. (shrink)

learning about language is an exciting and ambitious new series of introductions to fundamental topics in language, linguistics and related areas. The books are designed for students of linguistics and those who are studying language as part of a wider course. In Realms of Meaning Thomas Hofmann provides an introduction to semantics that will be accessible to a student without any formal knowledge of the subject. This book provides an understanding of the way meaning works in natural languages (...) against a background of how we communicate with language. Thomas Hofmann has designed his text with particular attention to the needs and interests of the layman, whether student or interested general reader. To that end he avoids theoretical terminology and elaborate technical apparatus, and his survey also avoids commitment to specific linguistic theories which might limit the general usefulness of the book, or be vulnerable to the changes and developments over time. Contentious issues are mentioned only lightly but analysis of meaning is taken nevertheless to the frontiers of current knowledge, and the book has new ideas and perspectives that will be of real interest to specialists of semantics, linguistics and neighbouring areas especially psychology, philosophy and sociology. The fifteen chapters of the book cover many different aspects of the subject and how meaning is conveyed in linguistic communication. Examples are chosen mainly from English to provide material for the wider discussion of the principles in the subject, but European, East Asian and other languages also provide illuminating examples. (shrink)

In response to DNA‐damage, cells have to decide between different cell fate programmes. Activation of the tumour suppressor HIPK2 specifies the DNA damage response (DDR) and tips the cell fate balance towards an apoptotic response. HIPK2 is activated by the checkpoint kinase ATM, and triggers apoptosis through regulatory phosphorylation of a set of cellular key molecules including the tumour suppressor p53 and the anti‐apoptotic corepressor CtBP. Recent work has identified HIPK2 as a regulator of the ultimate step in cytokinesis: the (...) abscission of the mother and daughter cells. Since proper cytokinesis is essential for genome stability and maintenance of correct ploidy, this finding sheds new light on the tumour suppressor function of HIPK2. Here we highlight the molecular mechanisms coordinating HIPK2 function and discuss its emerging role as a tumour suppressor. (shrink)

Mild and massive DNA damage are differentially integrated into the cellular signaling networks and, in consequence, provoke different cell fate decisions. After mild damage, the tumor suppressor p53 directs the cellular response to cell cycle arrest, DNA repair, and cell survival, whereas upon severe damage, p53 drives the cell death response. One posttranslational modification of p53, phosphorylation at Serine 46, selectively occurs after severe DNA damage and is envisioned as a marker of the cell death response. However, the molecular mechanism (...) of action of the p53 Ser46 phospho‐isomer, the molecular timing of this phosphorylation event, and its activating effects on apoptosis and ferroptosis still await exploration. In this essay, the current body of evidence on the molecular function of this deadly p53 mark, its evolutionary conservation, and the regulation of the key players of this response, the p53 Serine 46 kinases, are reviewed and dissected. (shrink)

Wie sieht die korrekte Struktur der Rechtfertigung menschlichen Wissens aus? Welches sind ihre legitimen Quellen? Wie groß ist der Umfang unserer gerechtfertigten Meinungen? Von der normativen Erkenntnistheorie erhoffen wir uns Antworten auf diese und ähnliche Fragen. Allzu oft wird dabei übersehen, daß die Antworten ganz entscheidend davon abhängen, was wir unter 'Rechtfertigung' verstehen. Mit den Beiträgen einer internationalen Autorenschaft möchte das Buch durch die Konfrontation der traditionellen Erkenntnistheorie mit ihren Gegnern die versteckten Prämissen und Implikationen der traditionellen Perspektive transparenter machen. (...) Mit Beiträgen von: Thomas Bartelborth, Peter Baumann, Sven Bernecker, Elke Brendel, Fred Dretske, Thomas Grundmann, Frank Hofmann, Dirk Koppelberg, Hilary Kornblith, Wolfgang Spohn, Catrin Misselhorn, Richard Schantz, Christiane Schildknecht, Oliver Scholz, Karsten Stüber, Marcus Willaschek, Michael Williams. (shrink)

The emerging concept of systems medicine (or ‘P4 medicine’—predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory) is at the vanguard of the post-genomic movement towards ‘precision medicine’. It is the medical application of systems biology, the biological study of wholes. Of particular interest, P4 systems medicine is currently promised as a revolutionary new biomedical approach that is holistic rather than reductionist. This article analyzes its concept of holism, both with regard to methods and conceptualization of health and disease. Rather than representing a medical (...) holism associated with basic humanistic ideas, we find a technoscientific holism resulting from altered technological and theoretical circumstances in biology. We argue that this holism, which is aimed at disease prevention and health optimization, points towards an expanded form of medicalization, which we call ‘holistic medicalization’: Each person’s whole life process is defined in biomedical, technoscientific terms as quantifiable and controllable and underlain a regime of medical control that is holistic in that it is all-encompassing. It is directed at all levels of functioning, from the molecular to the social, continual throughout life and aimed at managing the whole continuum from cure of disease to optimization of health. We argue that this medicalization is a very concrete materialization of a broader trend in medicine and society, which we call ‘the medicalization of health and life itself’. We explicate this holistic medicalization, discuss potential harms and conclude by calling for preventive measures aimed at avoiding eventual harmful effects of overmedicalization in systems medicine (quaternary prevention). (shrink)

The aim of this chapter is to sketch some of the contributions of the environmental humanities to an understanding of climate change from the perspective of philosophy. Recently, the environmental humanities have become a recognised area of study, encompassing environmental orientations within the humanities. It is noted that, generally speaking, the humanities engage in a critical and reflective stance regarding ways of understanding the world, while the environmental humanities do so in relation to environmental matters. Four key themes, describing the (...) environmental humanities, namely, values and justice, narratives, temporalities, and the culture of nature, are identified. These themes subsequently are further explored by reflecting on the relation of climate change to various types of injustices, the role of catastrophist narratives, the importance of temporal dimensions, and the interaction of cultural conceptions of nature and human capacities to address this phenomenon. It is concluded that the approaches of the environmental humanities may be useful to reflect on how one may live with climate change. (shrink)

Abstract. Gettier’s famous examples intended to show that knowledge cannot always be equated with justified true belief. The Gettier problem can also be considered as a problem for topological epistemic logic: If knowledge and justified belief are conceived as topological operators K and B on topological spaces (to be considered as universes of possible worlds), one may ask whether it happens that there is a proposition A such that KA ≠ A & BA or not. If this is the case, (...) the epistemological logic defined by the topological operators K and B may be said to be non-traditional since there is for them a “Gettier proposition” where knowledge does not coincide with justified true belief. As far as we know, for the first time, this topological Gettier problem is discussed in Steinvold’s PhD dissertation (Steinsvold 2012). In Baltag, Bezhanishvili, Özgün, and Smets (2013), Steinvold’s co-derived set account is criticized since it can be easily “Gettierized”. Baltag et alii claim (without proof) that their topological account of Stalnaker’s logic KB of knowledge and belief does not have this flaw. In the following we will give some topological conditions that determine whether a topological KB model does or does not cope with the Gettier challenge. First, it will be shown that every KB model defines a (topologically slightly simplified) model that is rather similar to it but a is a model of traditional JTB (knowledge = justified true belief) logic of knowledge and belief. The existence of such doppelgangers of all KB models may be read as a qualified and partial topological rehabilitation of traditional JTB epistemology. Second, we consider the Gettier problem for a special class of models of Stalnaker’s combined logic of knowledge and belief KB, namely, for T0 Alexandroff spaces. We prove that, that almost all Alexandroff spaces do not face Gettier counterexamples. Third, we prove that the Stone spaces of Boolean algebras of regular closed subsets of Hausdorff (or T2) spaces X do not face Gettier counterexamples if the X are not pseu–docompact, and these Stone spaces do face Gettier counterexamples for compact spaces X. Succinctly formulated, Stalnaker’s KB logic of knowledge and belief can avoid Gettier problems for some models, while it falls back to traditional pre-Gettier JTB epistemology for other models. In contrast, co-derived set semantics is doomed to fail always in the sense that its models always fall prey to Gettier counterexamples. (shrink)

Concerns around Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in higher education have so far largely centred on assessment integrity, resulting in fundamental questions about students’ broader engagement with these tools remaining underexplored. This paper reports on the findings of a survey that forms part of a wider study, comprising the first empirical investigation of GenAI use by university students as a method of engaging with their academic readings. Our survey of 101 students shows that over half of all students surveyed used GenAI (...) to some degree as a method of engaging with their unit readings. Our findings suggest that students turn to these tools in response to time constraints and conceptual difficulties, while maintaining complex attitudes toward their use: most welcome their availability, yet few report trusting or relying on GenAI-generated interpretations or summaries of texts. Importantly, our data reveals substantial demographic variations in usage patterns, with international students and those taking subjects as electives showing significantly higher rates of AI use to assist with reading. This suggests GenAI tools may be serving as important mediators for attempting to overcome epistemic barriers to learning, particularly for students who face additional linguistic or disciplinary challenges. (shrink)

The selfish goal metaphor is interesting and intriguing. It accounts for the idiosyncrasies and inconsistencies in peoples' goal pursuits without invoking free will, self-regulatory, or self-control failures. However, people pursue multiple goals, sometimes simultaneously. We argue that the model proposed in the target article may gain significant theoretical and practical value if the principles underlying goal selection and/or balancing on a moment-to-moment basis are clearly specified and integrated with the notion of the selfish goal.

This paper draws a parallel between two contemporary French conceptions of sociology. Each is first considered in terms of the principles and strategies of its sociological method. Through an analogy with Marx's philosophy of social science, critical sociology is shown to make an heuristic use for the analysis of cultures and social structures of the resistance to sociology that the sociologist encounters in the social objects, whereas pragmatic sociology adopts a pluralistic and descriptive strategy towards actions, actors and things. The (...) paper then tries to show how common interests or trading zones could allow both critical and pragmatic sociology to profit from their competitive relation by taking each other as objects of sociological analysis. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: I II Bibliography.

Thomas C. Vinci argues that Kant's Deductions demonstrate Kant's idealist doctrines and have the structure of an inference to the best explanation for correlated domains. With the Deduction of the Categories the correlated domains are intellectual conditions and non-geometrical laws of the empirical world. With the Deduction of the Concepts of Space, the correlated domains are the geometry of pure objects of intuition and the geometry of empirical objects.

This study presents an important theory regarding early developments in the Daoist philosophy of time. It does so from the perspective of an understudied but quite influential masterwork of Chinese philosophy, Heshang Gong Zhangju 河上公章句 (Chapters and Verses of the Master on the Upper River), which is Heshang Gong’s 河上公 commentary to the Daodejing 道德經. The first sections of this study identify Heshang Gong’s text of the Daodejing and his appended commentary with Huang-Lao 黃老 Daoism and situates it in relation (...) to Laozi’s 老子 version of the earlier text. The following sections introduce the Daoist concepts of form and formlessness as appropriate methodological tools with which to understand Heshang Gong’s philosophy of time, with the intent to open new pathways into Daoist philosophy. Lastly, by engaging a range of Chinese research, this study assists in bridging the often-gaping division between Chinese language and English language scholarship. (shrink)

Normative questions about discrimination and preferences in dating have recently received mounting attention. I first argue that the current discourse can be reconstructed as between two theoretical camps: proponents of mere preference accounts and proponents of obligation accounts. Second, I argue that both positions presuppose a framework assumption to the effect that attraction is to be conceived of in terms of (positive or negative) obligations. This is because the mere preference account denies obligations in dating, whereas obligation accounts embrace (at (...) least weak) duties. This framework assumption is ill‐begotten once we apprehend that the reality of other people always already outruns our sideways‐on theorising about what property in others we ought to be attracted to. The aim is not to solve the stand‐off between proponents of mere preferences and obligations, but to dissolve the need to conceive of attraction and dating in terms of obligations at all. (shrink)

The concept of implicit bias has become a staple in social psychology as well as epistemology, ethics, and social philosophy; so much so that so-called implicit association tests (IAT) and policies against the effects of implicit bias have been implemented as political tools (particularly in Anglophone countries). This article argues that parts of implicit bias research rest on two assumptions which have not yet received sufficient critical attention. The eradication assumption holds that implicit biases can and ought to be done (...) away with. The pejorative assumption holds that biases are necessarily morally (and/or epistemically) pernicious. Drawing on Gadamer’s hermeneutic theory of Vorurteil (prejudice), this article argues that implicit bias is a smaller species of the wider genus of (Gadamerian) prejudices such that both the eradication assumption and pejorative assumption turn out to be flawed. This is to the effect that implicit biases are neither necessarily morally pernicious, nor can they be fully eradicated. Instead, they present an essential part of human cognition as such. (shrink)

The use of computers to support learning at work has for long been propagated. Although a large bulk of experience exists in this field, it is still an open question what role computer applications play and can play in the process of learning. It can even be questioned if the learning processes themselves are sufficiently well understood to enable designers and others to provide relevant support. In this article these questions are addressed with reference to experience gained with two projects (...) on computer support for shop floor learning. The projects involved the future users actively in the design process and it is argued that this involvement reached far beyond the mere shaping of the learning artefacts. (shrink)

In bisher einzigartiger Weise fasst dieser Band über die Grenzen der Disziplinen hinweg, aber auch Theorie und Praxis übergreifend die aktuelle Debatte zu den Emotionen in den Künsten zusammen. Die Aufsätze ermöglichen Fachleuten und interessierten Laien einen profunden Einblick in die Frage, was unter Affekt und Gefühl verstanden werden kann und wie Emotionen in den Künsten wirksam werden. Mit Beiträgen u. a. von den Architekten Peter Eisenman und Daniel Libeskind, dem Dichter und Büchner-Preisträger Thomas Kling, dem Komponisten Dieter Schnebel, (...) den Philosophinnen Agnes Heller und Brigitte Scheer, dem Psychologen Rainer Krause unddem Kunsthistoriker Werner Hofmann. Verkaufsargumente: - interdisziplinärer Sammelband, der Theorie und Praxis verbindet - bekannte Namen unter den Beiträgern, u.a. die Architekten Peter Eisenmann und Daniel Libeskind - umfassender überblick über die Debatte zu Emotionen in den Künsten, für interessierte Laien sowie für Fachleute. (shrink)

In der neueren Erkenntnistheorie wird der Bayesianismus immer populärer. In diesem Ansatz werden Überzeugungen mit Glaubensgraden versehen. Dazu möchte ich der Frage nachgehen, ob wir den klassischen Ansatz in der Erkennnistheorie mit seinen kategorischen Überzeugungen komplett durch einen bayesianischen mit einem probabilistischen Überzeugungssystem ersetzen könnten. Um das zu klären, rekonstruiere ich zunächst beide Modelle unserer Überzeugungssysteme und vergleiche sie dann im Hinblick darauf, wie leistungsfähig sie jeweils dafür sind, erkenntnistheoretische Probleme zu lösen und als Grundlage für Entscheidungen zu dienen. Dabei (...) zeigt sich eine gewisse Inkommensurabilität der beiden Ansätze und außerdem erweist sich keine der Konzeptionen als eindeutig überlegen. Deshalb argumentiere ich schließlich für eine bestimmte Hybridkonzeption aus beiden Ansätzen, die die Vorteile beider Konzeptionen vereinen kann. (shrink)

Political Representation: A Historical and Conceptual investigation into Its Polysemy The aim of this study is to value the complexity of theoretical formulations that different traditions and authors have provided on the problem of political representation. This is achieved by relying on a text that has pioneered this kind of investigation: Hasso Hofmann s Repräsentation: Studien zur Wort- und Begriffsgeschichte von der Antike bis ins 19. Jahrhundert. Hofmann s book, originally published in German in 1974, has not received (...) due attention in the contemporary debate on representation and is scarcely known in the non-German academic environment. However, its unique methodological and conceptual outlook on representation has much to contribute to the current debate on this topic. Hofmann s main objective is to draw a history and theory of representation that values the polysemy of the Latin word repraesentatio from Antiquity until the 19th century. To achieve this goal, Hofmann analyses the diverse meanings that have been attached to the word representation throughout its history, from its inception in the Latin world onwards. To prove the relevance of this approach for the contemporary debate, I apply Hofmann s semantic-conceptual map of representation to the study of political representation in such diverse authors as Marsilius of Padua, Carl Schmitt, Thomas Hobbes, Ernst Kantorowicz as well as contemporary authors such as Bernard Manin, Nadia Urbinati, Frank Ankersmit, John Dryzek and others. In so doing, I show that the answer to the question: what makes representation a political notion? is far from univocal. Moreover, I argue that Hofmann s interpretive lens provides an alternative approach to what is still considered the classical study of political representation in the Anglophone world: Hanna Pitkin s The Concept of Representation. By critically comparing Pitkin and Hofmann s approaches to the problem of political representation, my aim is to demonstrate that Pitkin s normative perspective should be revised. Pitkin argues, first, that it is possible to pinpoint a general meaning of the concept of representation as making present again and, second, that there is a general concept of political representation that is identified with substantive acting for and in which all aesthetic meanings of representation are excluded. In contrast to this approach, Hofmann stresses the polysemyc character of representation, and the impossibility of narrowing down a general meaning of the concept. Drawing on Hofmann, one can argue that the semantic richness of political representation is just as broad as that of the word representation itself and that what makes representation political varies from epoch to epoch, from author to author. As a result, the common way to look at political representation nowadays, i.e. as democratic representation, is far from the only one but constitutes, rather, just one of the numerous ways to look at this concept over time. Using Hofmann s perspective for the study of political representation also helps us show that the aesthetic meanings of representation are always and intrinsically bound up with political representation in all the authors who have theorized this concept. In contrast to Pitkin, one could argue that any meaningful concept of political representation must also include the aesthetic and symbolic meanings of representation. Accordingly, it is impossible to think of political representation without accounting for its symbolic dimension as Darstellung. (shrink)

Widespread popular discourse, at the time of writing, is centring on the capabilities of AI technologies, among others, in utilising the readily available mass of data to augment claimed educational problems. These positions often elide the unobjective nature of algorithms and the socio-politically infused assemblages of data available, situated within the neoliberalist scientism dominating educational policy discourse. The simplicity with which datafication treats education has led to a global culture of data-driven techno-rationality that affords ultra-rapid forms of free-floating control settled (...) on an ideology of dataism. Dataism rests on the assumption that sociality and subjectification can be reduced to quantifiable data whereby the student rather than being treated as a subject comes to be treated as data doppelganger. The injustices inherent in datafication and its associated epistemes ignore hidden neoliberal inequalities and maintain the insidious coloniality inherent in advanced capitalism, while simultaneously fuelling the rapid and cyclical stripping of purpose from education itself. There is a need to problematise the hidden logics of coloniality that are both maintained and reproduced within the datafication agenda. The current article draws on decolonial theory to animate the logics of datafication through a Deleuzian reading, situated within the learnification of neoliberal education. (shrink)

“Classic,” serotonergic psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin are the objects of renewed attention in science and psychiatry. A recent spate of research has produced evidence that psychedelics might be safe and effective adjuncts to the treatment of mood and addictive disorders, agents of positive psychological change in healthy subjects, and valuable tools for studying the neural mechanisms of perception and cognition. This chapter surveys three philosophical debates that have arisen in response to this “renaissance” of psychedelic research. The (...) first concerns the mechanisms of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (“psychedelic therapy”): How, exactly, does psychedelic administration in controlled conditions cause lasting psychological benefits? The second concerns the implications of psychedelic research for the philosophy of mind: Does psychedelic evidence show that there can be conscious mental states lacking all forms of self-consciousness? The third concerns the epistemic status of the psychedelic state: Is it possible that certain kinds of knowledge, or other epistemic benefits, could be gained by undergoing a psychedelic experience? (shrink)

Organizations are increasingly adopting “Emotional AI” to monitor and influence employee emotions, aiming to create more empathetic workplaces. However, we argue that automating empathy risks fostering empathy skepticism, alienating employees, exacerbating mental health issues, and eroding trust. We call on organizations to address the root causes of negative workplace emotions and leverage AI as a tool to complement—rather than replace—empathy, fostering workplaces that genuinely prioritize care and trust.

In this paper, we start by comparing the two agents, Ann and Bob, who are involved in two car crashes. Whereas Ann crashes her car through no fault of her own, Bob crashes as a result of reckless driving. Unlike Ann, Bob is held criminally responsible, and the insurance company refuses to cover the car’s damages. Nonetheless, Ann and Bob both receive emergency hospital treatment that a third party covers, regardless of any assessment of personal responsibility. What warrants such apparent (...) exceptionalism with respect to personal responsibility in the healthcare context? We turn our attention to an understudied aspect of the debate on personal health responsibility, namely, the conceptualisation of the person in need of emergency hospital treatment. Drawing on the research of Joshua Knobe and Shaun Nichols, we propose that a context-dependent conceptualisation of the person may help explain a reluctance to ascribe responsibility to the individual for negative health outcomes. (shrink)

The idea that it is acceptable to ‘nudge’ people to opt for the ‘healthy choice’ is gaining currency in health care policy circles. This article investigates whether researchers evaluating Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Screening Programmes (AAASP) attempt to influence decision makers in ways that are similar to popular ‘nudging’ techniques. Comparing two papers on the health economics of AAASP both published in the BMJ within the last 3 years, it is shown that the values chosen for the health economics modelling are (...) not representative of the literature and consistently favour the conclusions of the articles. It is argued (1) that this and other features of these articles may be justified within a Libertarian Paternalist framework as ‘nudging’ like ways of influencing decision makers, but also (2) that these ways of influencing decision makers raise significant ethical issues in the context of democratic decision making. (shrink)

St. Thomas Aquinas never commented on the Song of Songs. The purpose of this book is to demonstrate, however, that he meditated on it and absorbed it, so that the words of the Song are for him a familiar repertoire and a theological source. His work contains numerous citations of the Song, not counting his borrowings of vocabulary and images from it. In total, there are 312 citations of the Song in Aquinas's corpus, along with citations of the Song (...) that are found in citations that Aquinas makes of other authors (as for example in the Catena aurea). Understanding the purpose and placement of these citations significantly enriches our understanding of Aquinas as a theologian, biblical exegete, and spiritual master. The book contains an Appendix listing and contextualizing each citation. The study of the citations of the Song especially illuminates Aquinas's spiritual doctrine. By citing the Song, Aquinas emphasizes the spiritual life's path of dynamic ascent, through an ever increasing participation in the mystery of the nuptial union of Christ and the Church through love. The Song also highlights the eschatological tension or yearning present in the spiritual life, which is ordered to the fullness of beatific vision. Although Aquinas's theology is highly "intellectual," by citing the Song he brings out the affective character of the spiritual life and conveys the centrality of love in the soul's journey toward Christ. He also draws together contemplation and preaching through his use of the Song. (shrink)

In this article I argue that the intentional explanation of actions is a central task of the social sciences. However, the attribution of intentional states is highly underdetermined by observational data. Such attributions are forms of inference to the best explanation, and they have to cohere with our background knowledge of the conditions under which the agent acts. In addition to this ‚outer coherence’ we have to ask for an ‚inner coherence’ within the intentional profile of the agent to gain (...) a meaningful understanding. Both forms of coherence can help to reduce underdetermination. (shrink)