Der gute Mensch von Kopenhagen - Niels Bohr und die Entfesselung des Atoms Der Physiker und Nobelpreisträger Niels Bohr (1885?1962) veränderte durch seine Forschung unseren Blick auf die Welt. Mit seinem Atommodell konnte erstmals die Stabilität von Materie erklärt werden, doch zugleich machten die darauf aufbauende Atomphysik und Nukleartechnik unsere Welt so unsicher wie nie zuvor. Ernst Peter Fischer beleuchtet Leben und Werk dieses faszinierenden Mannes, dessen Erkenntnisse uns bis heute beschäftigen. Ernst Peter Fischer, (...) geboren 1947 in Wuppertal, studierte Mathematik, Physik und Biologie und promovierte 1977 am California Institute of Technology. 1987 habilitierte er sich im Fach Wissenschaftsgeschichte und lehrt seither an der Universität Konstanz. Als Wissenschaftspublizist schreibt er für GEO, Bild der Wissenschaft, Die Weltwoche und die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Fischer ist Autor zahlreicher Bücher, darunter der Bestseller?Die andere Bildung?(2001) und die Max-Planck-Biographie?Der Physiker?(2007). Für seine Arbeit erhielt er mehre Preise, u. a. den Sartorius-Preis der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. (shrink)

In a world of limited resources, it could be argued that companies that aspire to be good corporate citizens need to focus on making best use of resources. User value and environmental harm are created in supply chains and it could therefore be argued that company business ethics should be extended from the company to the entire value chain from the first supplier to the last customer. Starting with a delineation of the linkages between business ethics, corporate sustainability, and the (...) stakeholder concept, this article argues that supply chains generally have a great innovation potential for sustainable development. This potential could be highlighted with system thinking and the use of change management knowledge, promoting not only innovations within technology but also within organizational improvement. We propose process models and performance indicators as means of highlighting improvement potential and thus breaking down normative business ethics' requirements to an opertionalizable corporate level: Good business ethics should focus on maximizing stakeholder value in relation to harm done. Our results indicate that focusing on supply chains reveals previously unknown innovation potential that seems to be related to limited system understanding. The assumption is that increased visibility of opportunities will act as a driver for change. Results also highlight the importance of focusing on sustainability effects of the core business and clearly relating value created to harm done. (shrink)

The essays in this volume explore various issues pertaining to human agency, such as the relationship between free will and causal determinism, and the nature and conditions of moral responsibility. Builds on and extends some of the very best recent work in the field. Features lively and vigorous debate. Forges connections between abstract philosophical theorizing and applied work in neuroscience and even criminal law.

Corporate reputation is decisive for stakeholders’ supporting or repelling behavior and, therefore, one of firms’ most valuable intangible resources. Drawing on signaling theory, this paper focuses on the usefulness of voluntarily provided corporate reputation disclosures (CRDs) and examines their impact on stakeholders’ attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Our experimental vignette studies reveal that CRDs reduce stakeholders’ information asymmetries, which positively affects perceived organizational performance and corporate reputation as well as stakeholders’ purchase, investment, and employment intentions. The relationships between CRDs and stakeholders’ (...) behavioral intentions are sequentially mediated by changes in the perceived organizational performance and corporate reputation. This implies that stakeholders use the signals transmitted by CRDs to adjust their perceptions of a firm’s organizational performance and corporate reputation, which ultimately induces their behavioral outcomes. Overall, our empirical results show the usefulness of CRDs for firms in effectively developing stakeholder relationships and, thereby, contributing to assure their going concern. For stakeholders, CRDs improve efficiency in evaluating a firm’s future development. (shrink)

Evolutionary change is opportunistic, but its course is strongly constrained in several fundamental ways. These constraints (historical/phylogenetic, functional/adaptive, constructional/morphogenetic) and their dynamic relationships are discussed here and shown to constitute the conceptual framework of Constructional Morphology. Notwithstanding recent published opinions which claim that the discovery of constraints renders Neodarwinian selection theory obsolete, we regard the insights of Constructional Morphology as being entirely consistent with this theory. As is shown here in the case of the Hyracoidea, formal analysis of the constraints (...) which have framed the evolution of various characters extends our understanding of the evolution of a taxon. (shrink)

More involvement of sub-Saharan African countries in biomedical studies, specifically in genetic research, is needed to advance individualized medicine that will benefit non-European populations. Missing infrastructure, cultural and religious beliefs as well as lack of understanding of research benefits can pose a challenge to recruitment. Here we describe recruitment efforts for a large genetic study requiring three-generation pedigrees within the Yoruba homelands of Nigeria. The aim of the study was to identify genes responsible for keloids, a wound healing disorder. We (...) also discuss ethical and logistical considerations that we encountered in preparation for this research endeavor. (shrink)

“Art is necessary in order that man should be able to recognize and change the world. But art is also necessary by virtue of the magic inherent in it.”—Ernst Fischer Reissued with an introduction by John Berger, The Necessity of Art is a beautifully written meditation on art’s importance in viewing the world in which we live. In this wide-ranging and erudite exploration of literary and fine art, Fischer looks at the relationship between the creative imagination and (...) social reality, arguing that truthful art must both reflect existence in all its flaws and imperfections, and help show how change and improvement might be brought about. With his emphasis on the individual’s need to engage with society, his rejection of rampant consumerism and hypertechnology, and his indomitable optimism, this radical, affirmative and humane vision of the artistic endeavor remains as timely today as when it was first published sixty years ago. (shrink)

Das Unbehagen im Kapitalismus.--Der Einzelne und die Gesamtheit.--Freiheit und Notwendigkeit.

One of the twentieth century s most influential books on art, with a new introduction by John Berger, the author of Ways of Seeing.

Kommunikation ist ohne Kontextualisierung nicht realisierbar, Texte sind ohne Kontexte nicht denkbar. Die moderne kognitive Textlinguistik und die linguistische Diskursanalyse setzen diese Erkenntnis häufig in ihren Arbeiten voraus. Dabei bleibt aber der Kontextbegriff theoretisch fast stets marginal, und das, was er bezeichnet, vage und/oder arbiträr. Dies hat sicherlich damit zu tun, dass Kontext keine unabhängig spezifizierbaren Sachverhalte oder Klassen von Sachverhalten bezeichnet. Der Begriff benennt vielmehr ein Verhältnis: Fast beliebige Sachverhalte können zu Kontexten dadurch werden, dass sie mit einem im (...) Fokus stehenden kommunikativen Ereignis in Verbindung stehen oder gesetzt werden, und erst diese Verbindung ermöglicht es, das fokussierte Element zu verstehen. Der vorliegende Sammelband versucht, diesen Mangel an begrifflicher Fundierung anzusprechen und ihm in Form theoretischer und text-analytischer Beiträge z.B. zu literalen Praktiken in verschiedenen sozio-kulturellen, medialen und literarischen Kontexten entgegenzutreten. Dabei soll die Macht der Kontexte, wie sie sich in den Texten manifestiert sowie - in umgekehrter Perspektive - die Kontextualisierungspotenz und -notwendigkeit von Texten und damit ihre Macht über die Kontexte herausgestellt werden. (shrink)

There is a gap of knowledge about the extent to which gratitude is indeed the working mechanism of change in gratitude interventions aiming to promote mental well-being. This study explores the mediational role of gratitude as mood in the context of a recently conducted randomized controlled trial on the effects of a 6-week gratitude intervention on mental well-being in comparison with a waitlist control group. Gratitude as mood was measured at 2, 4, and 6 weeks. Both simple and multiple mediation (...) models were conducted as well as various sensitivity analyses. Results showed a gradual increase of gratitude as mood during the intervention. The effects of the 6-week gratitude intervention on mental well-being were mediated by increases of gratitude as mood at 4 weeks but not at 2 weeks. These findings suggest a dose-response relationship for gratitude interventions, but more research is warranted. (shrink)