The notion of institutional entrepreneurship has become very popular in the last decade. Starting from a review of the literature on the topic, I first focus on the use of the idea of individual entrepreneurs and point out three theoretical incongruities it produces. I then discuss notions of collective entrepreneurship and institutional work to see if they can overcome these incongruities. I conclude that although they can remedy some of the problems, these notions run the risk of describing everything until (...) they describe nothing. In order to limit and enable the entrepreneurship literature to discuss agency meaningfully, I argue, it needs to develop analytical frames of agency derived either from existing sociological theories or from further developing its own brand of agency theory. (shrink)

In the paper at hand I introduce Goethe’s ontology and methodology for the study of life as an alternative to current theories. ‘Life,’ in its individual, social and/or pan-natural form, has been a recurring topic in the social sciences for the last two centuries and may currently experience a renaissance, if we are to believe Scott Lash. Goethe’s approach is of particular interest because he formulated it as one of the first critical responses to the nascent discipline of biology. It (...) can be characterised broadly as phenomenology with a strong dose of life philosophy. For this reason, and to draw its contours more clearly, I compare his approach to the respective thoughts in Husserl’s and Simmel’s work. The comparison focuses on the two central concepts phenomenon and life but also discusses broader epistemological and methodological issues, such as the relationship between observer and observed, the relationship between culture and nature, the nature of causality as well as preferred methods of study. (shrink)

Why and how do institutions endure? The most characteristic feature of institutions—their longevity—seems to be a neglected topic in current institutional analysis, which overwhelmingly is conducted as an analysis of institutional change. This article, in contrast, attempts to answer some basic questions about institutional endurance and reproduction, most notably how institutional reproduction can be distinguished from institutional endurance, how institutions manage to “bind” time and space, and which role structures “out of time and space” play in this. I explore the (...) processual nature of three theories institutionalist authors draw on to identify elements and explanations of endurance. I then elaborate on these insights by introducing Roger Friedland’s notion of institutional substance and ideas from the process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead. (shrink)

The adoption of the French Duty of Vigilance law has been celebrated as a milestone for advancing the transnational business and human rights regime. The law can contribute to harden corporate accountability by challenging the “separation principle” of transnational companies and by obligating companies to report on their duty of vigilance. However, the question of whether the law actually contributes to human rights and environmental protection along global supply chains requires empirically grounded research that connects processes in home and host (...) state countries. This paper contributes to such a new research agenda by linking political ecology literature and empirical insights from the Global South to research on due diligence regulations. With reference to field research data on contestations between the oil and gas company Total E&P and indigenous communities in Bolivia, I argue that the burden of proof and contestations over valid knowledge represent major obstacles when trying to establish legal liability. (shrink)

What is good sex? This question can be evaluated in multiple dimensions, the moral dimension being only one of them. My main thesis in this paper is that a criterion for good sex is whether the participants are on a par with each other. This can be understood as a moral ideal. In order to make this argument, I first explain what is meant by “sex”. This is, on the one hand, to delineate clearly which phenome-na are included in the (...) definition for the purposes of this argument. It is, on the other hand, to repel the problematic image of sex as something exclusively physical. In a second step I will address the issue of consent. Consent is, in my view, a minimal condition for the moral quality of sexual activities. It is only when consent is given by all participants that sexual activity is legitimized. Of course many related questions arise in this context, but without consent, we cannot speak of the moral quality of sexual activities at all. But why is consent so important? It is important to protect people. The protection is more successful if we take into account the attitude with which people engage with each other sexually. Sexual activities where people are on a par with each other are morally better than those where people are not. Being on par means that each participant’s desires and wishes are respected equally. I develop this thesis further by engaging with different objections. If we set out to question whether a sexual activity is morally good, we will also have to answer the question whether the participants who are engaged in this activity are on a par with each other. (shrink)

Health is a value-laden concept. The state of being that it designates is a fundamental human goal. As a value, the concept is normative, governing both clinical practice and the therapeutic treatment developed by medical research. Also, the promise of health plays a pivotal role in health-policy discourse. Almut Caspary considers philosophical and theological concepts of health in the context of its practical significance, both in the past and today. This conceptual analysis culminates in a preliminary sketch of a (...) concept of health; focusing on the stem-cell debate, it offers a discriminating approach to contemporary ethical problems in medicine. "Gesundheit" ist ein wertgeladener Begriff. Er bezeichnet einen grundsatzlich wunschenswerten Zustand menschlicher Existenz, der das arztliche Handeln im klinischen Alltag leitet. Daruber hinaus werden (gesundheits-)politische Debatten mit Verweis auf den Nutzen fur die Gesundheit entschieden. Vor diesem Hintergrund setzt sich Almut Caspary epochenubergreifend mit philosophischen und theologischen Uberlegungen zur Gesundheit auseinander. Die konzeptuelle Diskussion erlaubt die Skizzierung eines Gesundheitsverstandnisses, das - wie am Beispiel der Stammzelldebatte gezeigt wird - ein differenziertes Abwagen in medizinethischen Konfliktfallen zulasst. (shrink)

The so-called quantum Zeno effect is essentially a consequence of the projection postulate for ideal measurements. To test the effect, Itanoet al. have performed an experiment on an ensemble of atoms where rapidly repeated level measurements were realized by means of short laser pulses. Using dynamical considerations, we give an explanation why the projection postulate can be applied in good approximation to such measurements. Corrections to ideal measurements are determined explicitly. This is used to discuss how far the experiment of (...) Itanoet al. can be considered as a test of the quantum Zeno effect. We also analyze a new possible experiment on a single atom where stochastic light and dark periods can be interpreted as manifestation of the quantum Zeno effect. We show that the measurement point of view gives a quick and intuitive understanding of experiments of the above type, although a finer analysis has to take the corrections into account. (shrink)

The strict distinction and separation of mind and body is a particularly modern Western point of view that is routinely also applied to other cultures. Arguing against this dichotomy, the following contribution builds upon research on "implicit knowledge" and "knowing how" that allow us to view body and mind in their interaction. The focus is on Simeon Stylites the Elder, the most prominent representative of the Syrian ascetic movement, who, in a spectacular way and after incessant exercise, was able to (...) act from a sphere of internalized body-knowledge. Selected texts on him dating from Late Antiquity will illustrate how the ascetic body was represented as a body of knowledge with which the idea of Christian perfection was to be fulfilled. (shrink)

Hermann Cohen’s essay on Maimonides’ ethics is one of the most fundamental texts of twentieth-century Jewish philosophy, correlating Platonic, prophetic, Maimonidean, and Kantian traditions. Almut Sh. Bruckstein provides the first English translation and her own extensive commentary on this landmark 1908 work, which inspired readings of medieval and rabbinic sources by Leo Strauss, Franz Rosenzweig, and Emmanuel Levinas. Cohen rejects the notion that we should try to understand texts of the past solely in the context of their own historical (...) era. Subverting the historical order, he interprets the ethical meanings of texts in the light of a future yet to be realized. He commits the entire Jewish tradition to a universal socialism prophetically inspired by ideals of humanity, peace, and universal justice. Through her own probing commentary on Cohen’s text, like the margin notes of a medieval treatise, Bruckstein performs the hermeneutical act that lies at the core of Cohen’s argument: she reads Jewish sources from a perspective that recognizes the interpretive act of commentary itself. (shrink)

Druck der Zensur, nicht Aufhebung der Zielvorstellungen ist die richtige Begründung für das Vorherrschen der ober-flächlichen Assoziationen. Die oberflächlichen Assoziationen ersetzen in der Darstellung die tiefen, wenn die Zensur diese normalen Verbindungswege ungangbar macht. Es ist, wie wenn ein allgemeines Verkehrshindernis, z.B. eine Überschwemmung, im Gebirge die großen und breiten Straßen unwegsam werden läßt; der Verkehr wird dann auf unbequemen und steilen Fußpfaden aufrechterhalten, die sonst nur der Jäger begangen hat.

Thema des Sammelbands ist der Zusammenhang von ubung und Wissen in religiosen und philosophischen Kontexten der Vormoderne. AN einzelnen regional und sozial differenzierten Fallbeispielen aus dem euro-asiatischen Raum werden ubungspraktiken, durch die Wissen hergestellt, vermittelt und bestatigt, aber auch hinterfragt und modifiziert wurde, klassifiziert und erortert. UNtersucht werden Materialien, Medien und Darstellungsweisen aus griechisch-romischer Philosophie, Christentum, Judentum und Islam, Hinduismus und Buddhismus, die von der wechselseitigen Verwiesenheit von ubung und Wissen zeugen. uBerlegungen zum Thema im Kontext globaler Austauschbeziehungen, wie sie (...) z.B. Den modernen Yoga pragen, runden den Band ab. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Paragrana Jahrgang: 25 Heft: 1 Seiten: 13-19.

Name der Zeitschrift: Paragrana Jahrgang: 23 Heft: 2 Seiten: 48-62.

The speech of Gregory Thaumaturgus to the Christian scholar and theologian Origen is a historical document of unusual importance, both in terms of its content, depicting the master-student relationship of the time from the perspective of the student, and in terms of form, providing an actual implementation of the theory of rhetoric that was a cornerstone of higher education. Yet disagreement persists to this day in the scholarly literature over the generic classification of this first example of Christian epideictic oratory. (...) It is most frequently found categorized as a speech of thanksgiving, of praise, or of farewell. This paper discusses the grounds for the various definitions, examines the text itself in search of such grounds, and shows, in reference to two treatises on epideictic attributed to Menander Rhetor, why the most plausible classification is as a logos syntaktikos – a farewell speech, in which a traveler, by means of portraying and arousing emotion, laments the necessary parting and praises the person or people of whom leave is taken. (shrink)

Abstract„Erleuchtung“ ist einer der prominentesten Begriffe, mit dem in der europäischen Kultur- und Religionsgeschichte Ideen der Vervollkommnung des Menschen zum Ausdruck gebracht worden sind. Anhand ausgewählter Beispiele umreißt das vorliegende Papier seine Entwicklung von einer Metapher in der griechischen Philosophie hin zu einem transkonfessionellen Sammelbegriff, der im Zuge der Pluralisierung von Religionen seit den 1960er Jahren eine Konjunktur in neuen, durch Markt und Medien allgemein zugänglichen Sinnstiftungsangeboten der „populären Religion“ (Knoblauch) erfahren hat. In einer Tour d’horizon, die bei Platon einsetzt (...) und über Clemens von Alexandrien und Ps.-Dionysios Areopagita ins 18. Jahrhundert sowie in die Gegenwart führt, wird gezeigt, wie sich Vorstellungen von Licht und Erleuchtung und die Rede hierüber zu einem religiösen Begriff verdichtet haben, der über lange Zeit einen Ort im Christentum hatte, bevor er, begünstigt durch die Aufklärung, zu einer populären Kategorie wurde, die vor allem mit asiatischen, oder zumindest asiatisch inspirierten, Praktiken zur Erlangung von Heil in Verbindung gebracht wird. Der Beitrag rückt bei der Darstellung dieser Entwicklung in der Moderne Auswirkungen der Aufklärung in den Blick sowie asiatisch-euroamerikanische Beziehungsdynamiken der europäischen Kolonialzeit, die zur Entdeckung des Buddhismus als Religion führten. Haben diese doch maßgeblich dazu beigetragen, dass Erleuchtung im gegenwärtigen populären Verständnis, wie es sich beispielhaft in der sog. Satsang-Bewegung und populär-religiöser Erzähl- und Ratgeberliteratur findet, nicht mehr, wie in der neoplatonischchristlichen Prägung des Begriffs, als Zwischenstufe auf einem Weg zur Vervollkommnung gilt, sondern als Ziel und bleibender Besitz, der mit Vollendung assoziiert wird. (shrink)

In both ancient tradition and modern research Pythagoreanism has been understood as a religious sect or as a philosophical and scientific community. Numerous attempts have been made to reconcile these pictures as well as to analyze them separately. The most recent scholarship compartmentalizes different facets of Pythagorean knowledge, but this offers no context for exploring their origins, development, and interdependence. This collection aims to reverse this trend, addressing connections between the different fields of Pythagorean knowledge, such as eschatology, metempsychosis, metaphysics, (...) epistemology, arithmology and numerology, music, dietetics and medicine as well as politics. In particular, the contributions discuss how the Pythagorean way of life related to more doctrinal aspects of knowledge, such as Pythagorean religion and science. The volume explores the effects of this interdependence between different kinds of knowledge both within the Pythagorean corpus and in its later reception. Chapters cover historical periods from the Archaic Period (6th century BC) to Neoplatonism, Early Christianity, the European and Arabic Middle Ages, and the Renaissance through to the Early Modern Period (17th century AD). (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft Jahrgang: 25 Heft: 1 Seiten: 1-5.

"Thema der Beiträge sind intentionale Praktiken der Wissensvermittlung, die in den Medien Text und Bild in vormodernen Kulteren von der Antike bis ins Frühmittelalter erkennbar und beschreibbar sind. Untersuchungsgegenstand sind altorientalische, antike griechische, römische, syrische, klassisch-arabische und frühmittelalterliche Texte und bildliche Darstellunen, in denen die Kommunikation von Sach-/Fachwissen und religiösem, philosophischem, politischem, sozialem, paradigmatischem Wissen eine Rolle spielt. Im Fokus stehen die an diesen Prozessen beteiligten Akteure, insbesondere die Darastellung ihrer verbalen, mimischen und gestischen Kommunikation bzw. (Selbst- ) Inszenierung in (...) Text und Bild."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)