The present work critically examines two assumptions frequently stated by supporters of cognitive neuroenhancement. The first, explicitly methodological, assumption is the supposition of effective and side effect-free neuroenhancers. However, there is an evidence-based concern that the most promising drugs currently used for cognitive enhancement can be addictive. Furthermore, this work describes why the neuronal correlates of key cognitive concepts, such as learning and memory, are so deeply connected with mechanisms implicated in the development and maintenance of addictive behaviour so that (...) modification of these systems may inevitably run the risk of addiction to the enhancing drugs. Such a potential risk of addiction could only be falsified by in-depth empirical research. The second, implicit, assumption is that research on neuroenhancement does not pose a serious moral problem. However, the potential for addiction, along with arguments related to research ethics and the potential social impact of neuroenhancement, could invalidate this assumption. It is suggested that ethical evaluation needs to consider the empirical data as well as the question of whether and how such empirical knowledge can be obtained. (shrink)

An important distinction between phonology and syntax has been overlooked. All phonological patterns belong to the regular region of the Chomsky Hierarchy, but not all syntactic patterns do. We argue that the hypothesis that humans employ distinct learning mechanisms for phonology and syntax currently offers the best explanation for this difference.

Bullying often results in negative coping in victims, including an increased consumption of alcohol. Recently, however, an increase in alcohol use has also been reported among perpetrators of bullying. The factors triggering this pattern are still unclear. We investigated the role of empathy in the interaction between bullying and alcohol use in an adolescent sample (IMAGEN) at age 13.97 (±0.53) years (baseline (BL), N = 2165, 50.9% female) and age 16.51 (±0.61) years (follow-up 1 (FU1), N = 1185, 54.9% female). (...) General empathic distress served as a significant moderator of alcohol use in perpetrators (F9, 493 = 17.978, p < 0.01), which was specific for males and FU1. Male perpetrators, who are generally less sensitive to distress, might thus be more vulnerable to alcohol abuse. (shrink)

1. Die Lehre vom Primat der praktischen Vernunft.

Contemporary psychiatry is becoming more biologically oriented in the attempt to elicit a biological rationale of mental diseases. Although mental disorders comprise mostly functional abnormalities, there is a substantial overlap between neurology and psychiatry in addressing cognitive disturbances. In schizophrenia, the presence of cognitive impairment prior to the onset of psychosis and early after its manifestation suggests that some neurocognitive abnormalities precede the onset of psychosis and may represent a trait marker. These cognitive alterations may arise from functional disconnectivity, as (...) no significant brain damage has been found. In this review we aim to revise A.R. Luria’s systematic approach used in the neuropsychological evaluation of cognitive functions, which was primarily applied in patients with neurological disorders and in the cognitive evaluation in schizophrenia and other related disorders. As proposed by Luria, cognitive processes, associated with higher cortical functions, may represent functional systems that are not localized in narrow, circumscribed areas of the brain, but occur among groups of concertedly working brain structures, each of which makes its own particular contribution to the organization of the functional system. Current developments in neuroscience provide evidence of functional connectivity in the brain. Therefore, Luria’s approach may serve as a frame of reference for the analysis and interpretation of cognitive functions in general and their abnormalities in schizophrenia in particular. Having said that, modern technology, as well as experimental evidence, may help us to understand the brain better and lead us towards creating a new classification of cognitive functions. In schizophrenia research, multidisciplinary approaches must be utilized to address specific cognitive alterations. The relationships among the components of cognitive functions derived from the functional connectivity of the brain may provide an insight into cognitive machinery. (shrink)

Anesthesiology training programs are tasked with equipping trainees with the skills to become medically and ethically competent in the practice of anesthesia and to be prepared to obtain board certification, yet there is currently no standardized ethics curriculum within anesthesia training programs in the United States. To bridge this gap, and to provide a validated ethics curriculum to meet the aforementioned needs, in July 2021, a survey was sent to anesthesia scholars in the field of biomedical ethics to identify key (...) areas that should be included in such an ethics curriculum. The responses were rated on a Likert scale and ranked. This paper identifies the top ten topics identified as high priority for inclusion in an anesthesiology training program and consequently deemed most relevant to meet the educational needs of graduates of an anesthesiology residency: (1) capacity to consent; (2) capacity to refuse elective versus lifesaving treatment; (3) application of surrogate decisionmaking; (4) approach to do not resuscitate (DNR) status in the operating room; (5) patient autonomy and advance directives; (6) navigating patient beliefs that may impair care; (7) “futility” in end-of-life care: when to withdraw life support; (8) disclosure of medical errors; (9) clinical criteria for “brain death” and consequences of this definition; and (10) the impaired anesthesiologist. (shrink)

Errata slip has subtitle: Untersuchungen zur Erkenntnistheorie und Metaphysik des jungen Herder (1763-1778).

1. Die Lehre vom Primat der praktischen Vernunft.

Background: Prejudices against minorities can be understood as habitually negative evaluations that are kept in spite of evidence to the contrary. Therefore, individuals with strong prejudices might be dominated by habitual or “automatic” reactions at the expense of more controlled reactions. Computational theories suggest individual differences in the balance between habitual/model-free and deliberative/model-based decision-making.Methods: 127 subjects performed the two Step task and completed the blatant and subtle prejudice scale.Results: By using analyses of choices and reaction times in combination with computational (...) modeling, subjects with stronger blatant prejudices showed a shift away from model-based control. There was no association between these decision-making processes and subtle prejudices.Conclusion: These results support the idea that blatant prejudices toward minorities are related to a relative dominance of habitual decision-making. This finding has important implications for developing interventions that target to change prejudices across societies. (shrink)

Der auf Kants kritischer Philosophie fußenden Philosophengeneration galt Herder als hoffnungslos anachronistischer, vorkritischer Philosoph, dessen Denken für das eigene philosophische Programm keine Relevanz zukomme. Das im folgenden dokumentierte Projekt geht demgegenüber von der Hypothese aus, daß Herder in die Vorgeschichte der Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus gehört, daß er Vorläufer und Weggenosse der nachkantischen Philosophengeneration war. Der vorliegende Band versammelt Arbeiten, die zur Begründung und Diskussion dieser Auffassung in unterschiedlicher Weise beitragen: es geht um die Konturierung der für diese Thematik relevanten (...) Aspekte von Herders eigenem Denken, um die Erschließung der gemeinsamen philosophischen und wissenschaftshistorischen Grundlagen des Herderschen Denkens und der Philosophie des deutschen Idealismus, nicht zuletzt geht es um die Erarbeitung der Rezeption von Herders Philosophie in der nachkantischen Philosophengeneration. (shrink)

In 1792, with the aim of defending Kant's doctrine of freedom, Reinhold redefined freedom of will as the ability to decide for or against the moral law. Thus freedom of will represents a foundation of moral philosophy, if not of philosophy as a whole. The present volume seeks to reinterpret and to discuss this chapter of the post-Kantian discourse on freedom from various perspectives.

Wie müssen wir zurückschauen, um Was sehen zu können und darüber unseren Blick für das Gegenwärtige und Kommende zu schärfen?0Die Beiträge des Bandes, der zu Ehren von Sigrid Schade erscheint, beziehen sich auf vielschichtige Diskursgeschichten an den Schnittstellen von Kunst-, Kultur- und Medienwissenschaften. Sie beleuchten künstlerische, kulturelle und soziale Praktiken und Ordnungen als Aushandlungsort komplexer Bedeutungs- und Beziehungsgefüge.

Die Krisenerfahrungen der Moderne führen zum Rückgriff auf vormoderne Ordnungsvorstellungen, die jene Legitimationsdefizite kompensieren sollen, die im Zuge einer Dialektik der Aufklärung entstanden sind: die emanzipatorische Kraft der Vernunft scheint sich in eine Instanz neuer Herrschaft zu verkehren, als deren Organ die als repressiv erfahrenen Ordnungsleistungen des Staates begriffen werden. Diese Situation begünstigt die Suche nach Kräften, die menschlichem Eingriff entzogen sind, und kommt der Rehabilitierung von Naturvorstellungen entgegen, die sich der Welt des Menschen als normative Ordnungsquelle anbieten. Inwieweit sich (...) gerade die Geschlechterbeziehungen als Ausdruck solch natürlicher Ordnung verstehen lassen, ist eine der zentralen Fragen einer kritischen feministischen Philosophie. Die Untersuchungen, die die AutorInnen dieses Bandes vorlegen, bewegen sich im thematischen Umkreis dieser Fragestellung: in der Art eines Kompendiums werden in Interpretationen von Texten der politischen Philosophie, die in der Epoche von 1600-1850 entstanden sind, paradigmatische Legitimationsfiguren herausgearbeitet und der feministischen Ideologiekritik zugänglich gemacht. (shrink)

At first glance, freedom and coercion, or constraint, appear to be clearcut oppositions. However, in many contexts we find that the two are closely interwoven. Freedom and coercion then rather resemble a continuum: Without notice, elements of freedom resurface as forces of - or preconditions for - constraint and vice versa. Thus, sometimes the two mutually reinforce each other, while at other times they tend to undermine the other. This volume comprehensively explores the complex relationship between the elements and powers (...) of freedom and coercion in various contexts and from various perspectives. It is structured in four systematic sections: I Politics and economy, II. Institutions and personal life, III. Physiological aspects, IV. Aesthetic contexts. Der Band durchleuchtet das keineswegs einfach oppositive Verhältnis von Freiheit und Zwang, wie es sich seit der Formierung der Moderne in der Aufklärung entwickelt hat - politisch, philosophisch, anthropologisch, ästhetisch. Freiheit und Zwang stellen nur auf den ersten Blick binäre Gegensätze dar. Das eine kann graduell und oft unmerklich in das andere übergehen, und beide sind ohne das jeweils andere nicht denkbar. Häufig stehen Freiheit und Zwang in einem - negativen oder positiven - dialektischen Verhältnis zueinander, in dem sie sich gegenseitig bedingen und steigern oder aber unterminieren. Oder sind Freiheit und Zwang in der Moderne sogar zunehmend ununterscheidbar geworden? Der Band verleiht diesem schillernden Vexierbild in vier Abteilungen Ordnung und Struktur: I. Politik und Ökonomie, II. Institutionen und Lebensführung, III. Physiologische Dimensionen, IV. Ästhetische Verhandlungen. (shrink)

Patients suffering from mental disorders are often not treated on an equal basis with patients suffering from organic diseases. In Germany, for example, alcohol-dependent patients will be detoxified on a clinical ward to ensure that they survive acute alcohol withdrawal; however, medical insurances often do not cover treatment costs for a therapy for the addictive behavior that underlies the acute alcohol problem. While patients suffering from diabetes mellitus can also display personally harmful choices and, for example, consume sugar although they (...) know that this is detrimental for their health, medical insurances pay for the acute hyperglycemic shock treatment as well as for dietary and medical treatment of the .. (shrink)

The disease status of mental disorders has been hotly debated and is still highly relevant for ethical and economic considerations regarding the human rights of psychiatric patients. Here we critically discuss traditional evolutionary and degenerative concepts of mental disorders and propose instead the differentiation between independent dimensions of mental health resources on the one hand and mental disorders on the other. We suggest that impairments of a minimal set of mental functions can serve as indicators of exogenous and endogenous psychoses, (...) while other mental disorders cannot be diagnosed without a reference to setting and culture. (shrink)

Knapp sechs Jahre nach Rudolf Heinz' sechzigstem Geburtstag und dem auf dieses Ereignis ausgerichteten Erscheinen der Festschrift "Kontiguitäten. Texte-Festival für Rudolf Heinz" (Christoph Weismüller [Hg.] unter Mitarbeit von Ralf Bohn, Wien: Passagen 1997) folgt die Nachbearbeitung der "Kontiguitäten" und deren Produktion. Die Post-Skripts zum Texte-Festival für Rudolf Heinz setzen ein mit den Dokumenten der Feierlichkeit der Festschriftüberreichung: Laudatio, Geburtstagskomposition - inklusive Audio-CD -, Photographien der Festschriftübergabe. Unter dem topos Festschrift-Mechané folgt diesen Initialien die Korrespondenz von Heide Heinz und Christoph Weismüller (...) nebst notwendigen Paraphrasen und Hinweisen. Die Après nehmen einschlägige Kontiguitäts-Effekte auf, die mit der Fertigstellung der Festschrift, der Feierlichkeit der Übergabe, ihrer Distribution und ersten Nachbearbeitungen ihrer Konstitution einhergingen oder diesen folgten. Die Katamnese von Heide Heinz und Rudolf Heinz sowie weitere Korrespondenzen - Heide Heinz mit Ralf Bohn, Doris Dorner, Axel Schünemann; Rudolf Heinz mit Manfred Pohlen - finden sich als Zuträge ein. (shrink)

Mental disorders have been suggested to differ from somatic diseases because they lack an organic correlate. We show that this argument is both empirically wrong and theoretically irrelevant, because diseases are defined by functional impairments and not biological variation. Due to human diversity, a multitude of functions can be defined, and any selection of medically relevant functional impairments is necessarily value-based. We suggest that such values include individual survival and living in a shared world with others, and that their definition (...) requires public debate and a critical reflection by Philosophical Anthropology. However, the presence of functional impairments that are generally relevant for human life and survival only fulfils the so-called disease criterion, which is necessary but not sufficient to diagnose a clinically relevant malady. This would only be justified if such functional impairments cause individual harm, either because they are accompanied by suffering (the illness criterion) or because they interfere with basic activities of daily living such as personal hygiene and food intake (the sickness criterion of a clinically relevant malady). We apply this theory to mental disorders, conclude that only a fraction of such “disorders” currently listed in international classifications of diseases are clinically relevant mental maladies, suggest focusing on the needs of persons with such maladies and recommend avoiding “pathologization” of human diversity. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie Jahrgang: 63 Heft: 5 Seiten: 900-912.

Herders Metakritik aus dem Jahr 1799 ist ein Generalangriff auf Kants Kritik der reinen Vernunft und den beginnenden Kantianismus an der Universitat Jena, zu dem Herder offensichtlich auch die Philosophie Fichtes rechnet. Bei den Zeitgenossen war dieses Werk Herders Ruf als Philosoph nicht eben zutraglich. Die Nachwelt aber kann Herders auf Hamann gestutzte, sprachanalytisch verfahrende Kritik auch einer kritisch bereinigten Metaphysik als Vorbereitung des linguistic turn der Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts ganz neu schatzen und interessiert sich fur den Ansatz eines (...) holistischen, lebensphilosophischen Naturalismus und seine unausgeschopften Potentiale. - Die in diesem Band versammelten Beitrage versuchen, die schwierigen Lehrstucke dieses Werks transparent zu machen, und werfen ein Licht auf den Entstehungs- und Wirkungskontext dieser so lange vernachlassigten Schrift. - Mit Beitragen von Andreas Arndt, Manfred Baum, Oswald Bayer, Martin Bondeli, Markus Buntfuss, Marion Heinz, Petra Lohmann, Angelica Nuzzo, Violetta Stolz, Pierluigi Valenza, Rainer Wisbert und Gunter Zoller. (shrink)

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) gilt weithin als Autor des literarischen Sturm und Drang bzw. der philosophischen und theologischen Spataufklarung. Dass er jedoch auf vielen Gebieten die Klassische Deutsche Philosophie massgeblich beeinflusste, wird eher selten in den Blick genommen. Der Band untersucht dieses sowohl kritische als auch affirmative Rezeptionsverhaltnis Kants, Schellings, Schlegels, Humboldts oder Hegels zu Herder auf den Gebieten der Geschichtsphilosophie, der Metaphysik, der Ethik und Politik sowie der Asthetik und Anthropologie. - Mit Beitragen von Andreas Arndt, Manfred Baum, Christoph (...) Binkelmann, Martin Bondeli, Nigel De Souza, Stefan Greif, Andree Hahmann, Cornelia Klinger, Christian Krijnen, Stephan Nachtsheim, Angelica Nuzzo, Ludger Roth, Gideon Stiening, Violetta Stolz und Gunter Zoller. (shrink)