In the framework of ethical social choice theory, sustainability is justified by efficiency and equity as ethical axioms. These axioms correspond to the Suppes–Sen grading principle. In technologies that are productive in a certain sense, the set of Suppes–Sen maximal utility paths is shown to equal the set of non-decreasing and efficient paths. Since any such path is sustainable, efficiency and equity can thus be used to deem any unsustainable path as ethically unacceptable. This finding is contrasted with results that (...) seem to indicate that an infinite number of generations cannot be treated equally. (shrink)

This study aims to describe social network and social participation and to assess associations with depressive symptoms in older persons with increased risk for dementia in Germany. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study in primary care patients (aged 60-77) as part of a multicenter cluster-randomized controlled trial (AgeWell.de). We present descriptive and multivariate analyses for social networks (Lubben Social Network Scale and subscales) and social participation (item list of social activities) and analyze associations of these variables with depressive symptoms (Geriatric (...) Depression Scale). Of 1030 included patients, 17.2% were at risk for social isolation (Lubben Social Network Scale < 12). Looking at the subscales, a reduced non-family network was found almost twice as often as a reduced family network. Patients with depressive symptoms had significantly smaller social networks than patients without depression (p < 0.001). They rather engaged in social activities of low involvement level or no weekly social activity at all (p < 0.001). The study shows associations of depressive symptoms with a decreased social network and less social participation in elderly participants. Sufficient non-family contacts and weekly social activities seem to play an important role in mental health and should be encouraged in elderly primary care patients. (shrink)

This article addresses the question whether companies benefit from their commitment to corporate social responsibility. The authors argue that firms which score high on CSR activities build investor confidence and find evidence that they benefit from lower information asymmetry. The authors measure information asymmetry by insider trading, which is defined as the trading of a company’s shares by corporate insiders who have an information advantage with the aim to reap gains or avoid losses. Using a sample of U.S. firms listed (...) in the MSCI World Index during the period 2004 to 2013 and the firm- and industry-level CSR rating from Global Engagement Service, the authors show that insider transactions in firms with a high score on CSR activities lead to lower abnormal returns. This investigation extends current literature on the business case for CSR by explaining the influence of CSR activities on asymmetric information. (shrink)

This article discusses the history of the concepts of potential infinity and actual infinity in the context of Christian theology, mathematical thinking and metaphysical reasoning. It shows that the structure of Ancient Greek rationality could not go beyond the concept of potential infinity, which is highlighted in Aristotle's metaphysics. The limitations of the metaphysical mind of ancient Greece were overcome through Christian theology and its concept of the infinite God, as formulated in Gregory of Nyssa's theology. That is how the (...) concept of actual infinity emerged. However, Gregory of Nyssa's understanding of human rationality went still further. He said that access to the infinity of God was to be found only in an asymptotic ascension, as expressed in apophatic theology, and this view endangered the rationality of theology. Deeply influenced by the apophatic tradition, Nicholas of Cusa avoided this danger by showing that infinity could be accessed by symbolic representation and asymptotic mathematical reasoning. Thus, he made an immense contribution in making infinity rationally accessible. This endeavor was finally realized by Georg Cantor. This rational accessibility revealed discernible structures of infinity, such as the continuum hypothesis, and the cardinal numbers. However, the probable logical inconsistency of Georg Cantor's all-encompassing Absolute Infinity points to an intuitive understanding of infinity that goes beyond its rational structures – as in apophatic theology. (shrink)

Background Concepts of health have been widely discussed in the philosophy and ethics of medicine. Parallel to these theoretical debates, numerous empirical research projects have focused on subjective concepts of health and shown their significance for individuals and society at various levels. Only a few studies have so far investigated the concepts of health of non-professionals and professionals involved in long-term home care and discussed these empirical perspectives regarding moral responsibilities. Objectives To identify the subjective concepts of the health of (...) non-professionals (care recipients, informal caregivers) and professionals (registered nurses) involved in long-term home care and to discuss them against the background of existing normative guidelines addressing non-professionals and professionals’ responsibilities and rights concerning health. Research design A qualitative design was chosen to explore subjective concepts of health. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews; content analysis was applied according to Mayring. Participants and research context Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with non-professionals and professionals in long-term home care arrangements in Northern Germany. Ethical considerations Ethics approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board at the University Medicine Greifswald (BB123/16). Findings Non-professionals and professionals consider health as a capability that enables them to participate in social activities and live their own lives according to their preferences. The former regard health particularly as a feeling and an attitude, the latter as the absence of disease with a focus on mental and emotional well-being. Both groups highlight the unsurpassable value of health and the personal responsibility for it. Discussion Normative guidelines applicable to practice in long-term home care discuss responsibilities and rights unevenly and raise several problems regarding non-professionals and professionals’ subjective concepts of health. Conclusion Individuals’ concepts of health are relevant for the subsequent interpretation of rights and responsibilities and should, thus, be reflected upon to address health-related needs effectively. (shrink)

The article describes »structures ofresponsible life« in Tödt's theological thinking. (1) As a professor Tödt taught an ethos of matureself responsibility. (2) He was led from exegesis to social ethics by the task of interpreting the gospel in our present time. Tödt explores analogies and differences between options of our present time and the fundamental directions ofChristian faith, especially through such topics as peace and human rights. (3) In a world characterized by modern science and technology, human beings are themselves (...) responsible for the norms of their actions in the sense of a cooperatio hominis cum deo that responds to God. (4) Tödt's ethical heory of moral reasoning tends to an ethic of action. (5) As an historian, the theologian is also accountable for hisfundamental world view. For Tödt, in his research of the Bonhoeffer-Dohnanyi circle's resistance, taking sides with the victims was central. (shrink)

Wolfgang Welsch examines global aestheticization phenomena, probes the relationship of aesthetics and ethics, and considers the broad relevance of aesthetics for contemporary thinking. He argues that modes of thought familiar from the aesthetic realm comprise fundamental paradigms for understanding todayÆs reality. The implications for specific and everyday issues are demonstrated in studies of architecture, advertising, the Internet, and our perception of the life world. Surgically precise, innovative, and, above all, relevant, this book is an essential resource, providing the analysis (...) of contemporary culture with philosophical bite. Aesthetics is to transcend itself, address the whole realm of aethesis, and hence enable orientation in the contemporary condition. Undoing aesthetics means releasing it from old cultural binds and giving it new ties with the future. (shrink)

Der vorliegende Band enthalt sechs teilweise stark iiberarbeitete Aufsatze, die in der Zeit zwischen der Niederschrift des Buches Theorienstrnkturen und Theoriendynamik, Springer-Verlag 1973, im folgenden mit [Theoriendynamik] bezeichnet, und der Monographie The Strncturalist View of Theories. A Pos­ sible Analogue of the Bourbaki Programme in Physical Science, Springer-Ver­ lag 1979, im folgenden kurz [Strnkturalismus] genannt, entstanden sind. In diesen Abhandlungen werden jeweils gewisse Aspekte des strukturalistischen Theorienkonzeptes behandelt. Am starksten iiberarbeitet wurden die Auf­ satze II, IV, V und VI, die (...) urspriinglich in englischer Sprache erschienen waren. Vier der sechs Arbeiten, namlich I, III, IV und VI, bilden auBerdem erweiterte Fassungen von Vortragen. Obwohl das zweite Buch [Strnkturalismus] durch P. Feyerabends ausftihr­ liche Diskussion der strukturalistischen Auffassung im British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, Dezember 1977, angeregt worden ist, stellt es seinem Ansatz und Aufbau nach eher den Versuch einer systematischen Kurzdarstel­ lung des strukturalistischen Vorgehens nach seinem letzten Stande dar. Dem­ gegeniiber entstanden die hier verOffentlichten Artikel stets aus einem ganz be­ stimmten AnlaB. Diese Anlasse konnte man schematisch in drei Klassen unter­ teilen: Entweder ging es darum, eine anschauliche intuitive Ein/iihrnng zu lie­ fern (I und V); oder die Aufgabe bestand darin, die Beziehung zu anderen philosophischen Positionen. wie z. B. derjenigen L. Wittgensteins, H. Putnams, K. Poppers oder T. S. Kuhns. zu analysieren (II. III und IV); oder es sollte zu den wichtigsten und bis dahin verOffentlichten Kritiken Stellung bezogen wer­ den (wie in VI). (shrink)

Freud’s metapsychology has been interpreted in a number of different ways. Some scholars see him committed to classical scientism, others to genuine hermeneutics. Many Freud philologists suggest that he moved from an early scientism to hermeneutic methods in his later writings, and some think he misunderstood his own angle, thinking himself to be a natural scientist, but actually practising hermeneutics. The article first looks at Freud’s model of the soul and his remarks about psychoanalytic explanations and concludes that there is (...) overwhelming evidence for the contention that he conceived of psychoanalytic explanations in terms of causal explanations and that his metapsychology is, all things considered, scientistic. However, it seems that Freud did not clearly distinguish between causal and rational explanations. The article emphasizes that he could have found this distinction in the writings of Max Weber. In the last two sections, the article turns to a meticulous analysis of two vignettes describing Freud’s own treatment of two cases that he takes to be fine examples of the technique used in psychoanalytic treatment. It turns out that Freud himself looks at these cases and their treatment, throughout, in terms of rationality and irrationality. In particular, he seems to distinguish between an “external” irrationality and an “internal” rationality of neurotic diseases. He also seems to point to functions of neuroses representing certain solutions for mental disturbances. Thus, there is much evidence for assuming that in his psychoanalytic technique, Freud relied on genuine hermeneutic and functional methods; and therefore, Freud’s official metapsychology seems to be methodologically inconsistent with his analytic technique. (shrink)

The article attempts to portray architecture as a spatial medium and to analyse the processing and storage of information, objects and persons. In doing so, architectural space becomes not only the effect of these medial operations, but it also forms and materializes these processes at the same time. Openings are characterized as fundamental elements of architectural media. Also, in this regard, such classic elements as doors and windows in the sense of a room perceived as a perforated membrane, acquire a (...) new medial quality. (shrink)

Mit der Einsicht in die Bezogenheit der Frage nach der Wahrheit uber die Wirklichkeit auf die Frage nach dem Masstab des richtigen Handelns tritt die antike Philosophie in ihre klassische Peride ein. Die das richtige Handeln betreffende Frage impliziert ein weiteres Problem, namlich in welcher Weise sich der denkende und haldende Mensch auf sich selbst zuruckbeziehen kann. Denn derartige Fragen erschopen sich nicht darin, bestimmte Gegenstande zu intendieren. Sie beziehen sich immer auf den Fragenden zuruck. Fur das Handeln selbst ist (...) es nicht ohne Belang, wie es von einem BewuBtsein intendiert wird. Kein Staat ist existenzfahig, wenn er sich nicht auf irgendein Bewusstsein stutzt, das ihn intendiert. Da man von richtigem und falschem Bewusstsein spricht, mussen wir die grundsatzliche Frage stellen, ob das Wissen um das richtige Handeln einen bivalenten Geltungsanspruch erhebt. (edited). (shrink)

The paper analyzes the meaning of color terms within the framework of Kaplan's character theory (which, when generalized to a treatment of hidden indexicality or dependence on the context world, can perfectly accommodate Kripke's notions of apriority and of (metaphysical) necessity). It explains this framework and why it might be fruitfully applied to color terms. Then it defends six theses: that (1) the predicate "is red" and (2) even the relation "appears red to" are hidden indexicals (i.e., have, as used (...) in English, different extensions in different context worlds), that (3) the phenomenal, the comparative, and the epistemic reading of "appears red to" are not three different readings, but reflect the context world dependence of this term, that (4) the statement "x is red iff x would appear red to most English-speaking people under normal conditions" is a priori in English, but analytic only in one reading and not in another, and that these observations account well for the epistemology of color terms and allow us to be metaphysically conservative by claiming that our context world is presumably such that (5) the statement "x appears red to y iff x (appropriately) causes y to be in a certain (disjunctive) neural state N" is necessarily true and (6) the statement "x is red iff the reflectance spectrum of the surface of x is of some (disjunctive) kind R" is necessarily true as well. (shrink)

Stephan H. Pfürtner (1922-2012) was a Catholic theologian who in the last stage of his academic career taught Social Ethics in the Department of Protestant Theology at Philipps-University in Marburg. The text, originally a lecture in commemoration of Stephan Pfürtner and his work, shows the close connection between biography and theology, between ethical experience and ethical reflection in his case. Empathetic Courage is shown by him in his successful effort to save three young Jewish women from death in the Concentration (...) Camp of Stutthof near Danzig in 1944. Ecumenical Resistance is performed by a group of young Christians around four ministers who became sentenced to death in 1943. A Liberated Conscience is decisive for Pfürtner’s position in a deep conflict with the Roman-Catholic Church on the ethics of human sexuality. Ethics of Reponsibility is the conception that he develops in his Marburg years. Evangelical Catholicity characterizes the spiritual dimension of Stephan Pfürtner’s legacy. (shrink)

Em 1989, a era do realismo político chegou ao fim. &s condições foram modificadas de forma a substituir O modelo hobbesiano de paz pela intimidação que prevalecia até então, por um modelo consideravelmente mais desafiador, o modelo kantiano da paz pelo direito. Se, todavia, o paradigma de Huntington dadas civilizações em conflito estivesse correto, teríamos de esquecer Kant e lembrarmo-nos de Hobbes. A racionalidade pé-no-chão, a desconfiança sadia, a luta pela acumulação do poder e todos os demais instrumentos da caixa (...) realista de ferramentas da prudência política são muito adequados para facilitar a autoafirmação política numa época de culturas violentamente conflitantes. No entanto, um tal desamparo não é bem fundamentado. Considerando-se que, desde seu início, o liberalismo é uma teoria do pluralismo religioso e ético, e que é bem -testada no trato de problemas do multiculturalismo, é ao menos possível argumentar-se em favor de um universalismo liberal fraco que forneça fundamentos normativos para uma ordem global baseada na convivência pacífica. Naturalmente, modéstia conceitual e moral é crucial. Se a doutrina dos direitos humanos deseja defender sua alegação universal em face da diversidade cultural. ela terá de se restringir às condições pré-culturais e meramente naturais do ser humano e da coexistência humana. Essas limitações dão fundamento a sua força normativa. Nem políticas nacionais, nem concepções culturais do que seja a vida próspera e a importância existencial podem ser aceitas se contradizem os imperativos e as condições fundamentais do funcionamento puramente biológico do ser humano. (shrink)

Wille und Willensfreiheit sind ein heißes Thema, in der Gehirnforschung ebenso wie in der Philosophie. Wenn der Wille eine Folge biologischer Gehirnfunktionen ist und naturwissenschaftlich beschrieben werden kann, wie muss dann die Frage der ethischen Verantwortung des Einzelnen beantwortet werden? Für Wolfgang Seidel gehören biologisch bedingte Veränderungen auch des Gehirns zu den konkreten Erfahrungen aus der medizinischen Forschung und Praxis - wie auch die Erfahrung, dass nicht alle physiologischen Auswirkungen auf den einzelnen Menschen mit den Mitteln naturwissenschaftlichen Vorgehens kausal (...) absehbar sind. Sein Buch ist eine Kritik an dem alleinigen Erklärungsanspruch eines naturwissenschaftlichen Determinismus, der alles Denken und Verhalten in allen Details kausal aus der Gehirnforschung ableiten will. Seidels spannender alltagsphilosophischer Essay lädt zum entspannten Nachdenken über die Gehirnmechanismen und bewusste Entscheidungsfreiheit ein - wobei wir nebenbei erleben können, dass es letztlich keinen Unterschied macht, ob unser alltägliches Erleben des eigenen Wollens eine Illusion oder freier Wille ist - und dass unser Gehirn auch ethisch gut funktioniert. (shrink)

Verfasser behandelt die Frage, ob die Naturwissenschaften ihre gegenwärtige Hauptfunktion, die Lieferung technikrelevanter Erkenntnisse, wirksamer als bisher erfüllen könnten, wenn sie sich nicht nur während revolutionärer Perioden, sondern ununterbrochen theoretisch pluralistisch entwickeln würden. Zuerst wird gezeigt, warum die Naturwissenschaften unter der Forderung nach maximaler Effektivität stehen, anschließend, daß diese Forderung durch einander abwechselnde pluralistische und nichtpluralistische Entwicklungsphasen in höherem Grade erfüllt wird als durch eine permanent pluralistische Entwicklung. Daraus wird geschlossen, daß eine Ersetzung der bisherigen Entwicklungsdynamik in den Naturwissenschaften durch (...) eine permanent pluralistische wenig Realisierungschancen hat. Mit Hilfe der Effektivitätsforderung wird ferner erklärt, warum auch während evolutionärer Perioden in einem gewissen Ausmaß theoretischer Pluralismus besteht, insbesondere, warum in der Praxis neue Theorien bei Mißerfolgen nicht strikt eliminiert werden, sondern Bewährungsfristen erhalten. (shrink)

Aristoteles hat seine Lehrschriften sicherlich sowohl als Vorlesungsmanuskripte für seine Schüler als auch für ein abstraktes Publikum und für die Nachwelt geschrieben. Denn wir finden sowohl Bezugnahmen auf seine Hörer als auch Bemerkungen, die einzelne seiner Thesen selbstbewusst im positiven Sinne mit der Leistung der Vorgänger vergleichen und in einen historischen Zusammenhang stellen, was nur sinnvoll ist, wenn der Vergleich von außen nachvollzogen warden konnte. Wieweit einzelne Schriften zu seinen Lebzeiten in Umlauf kamen, ist unbekannt.

This paper investigates whether managerial rhetoric in the Management Discussion and Analysis section of 10-K filings can help gauge the level of managerial opportunism in a firm. We find that the use of trust-related words is connected to inefficient investment decisions and poor operating performance. Furthermore, firms making more frequent use of trust-related words are subject to less monitoring by institutional investors or analysts. Their accounting also relies more heavily on discretionary accruals. These results are consistent with the notion that (...) managerial rhetoric to advertise trustworthiness points towards agency problems plaguing the firm. (shrink)