Like every major new technology, genetic engineering is affecting the hopes and fears of many people. The risks involved are perceived differently by different groups. One group regards genetic engineering as a simple extension of older techniques with no special risks, e.g. traditional breeding. This conservative denial of special risks is confronted with a different kind of conservatism from a group which, in the name of the preservation of nature, opposes any kind of genetic engineering. A third group, rooted in (...) the liberal tradition, is prepared to accept the risks of genetic engineering as long as they are outweighed by prospective benefits. The liberal as well as the two conservative approaches, however, face serious difficulties in trying to develop a sound ethical argument concerning genetic engineering. In order to avoid these difficulties, an ethical approach focused on paradigmatic examples of good and evil is proposed. Such examples constitute rules of moral description, much as standards of measurement constitute rules of physical description. These rules are elaborated and interpreted in processes of social learning. In the present state of development of genetic engineering, such social learning requires appropriate institutional procedures. (shrink)

Insulin is a member of a family of hormones, growth factors and neuropeptides which are found in both vertebrates and invertebrates. A common ‘insulin fold’ is probably adopted by all family members. Although the specificities of receptor binding are different, there is possibility of co‐evolution of polypeptides and their receptors.

If philosophical moral reflection tends to improve moral behaviour, one might expect that professional ethicists will, on average, behave morally better than non-ethicists. One potential source of insight into the moral behaviour of ethicists is philosophers' opinions about ethicists' behaviour. At the 2007 Pacific Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association, we used chocolate to entice 277 passers-by to complete anonymous questionnaires without their knowing the topic of those questionnaires in advance. Version I of the questionnaire asked respondents to compare, (...) in general, the moral behaviour of ethicists to that of philosophers not specializing in ethics and to non-academics of similar social background. Version II asked respondents similar questions about the moral behaviour of the ethics specialist in their department whose name comes next in alphabetical order after their own. Both versions asked control questions about specialists in metaphysics and epistemology. The majority of respondents expressed the view that ethicists do not, on average, behave better than non-ethicists. Whereas ethicists tended to avoid saying that ethicists behave worse than non-ethicists, non-ethicists expressed that pessimistic view about as often as they expressed the view that ethicists behave better. (shrink)

The Warnock Committee decided not to sanction artificial insemination by donor (AID) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) for single heterosexual women or for lesbian women on the grounds that it is better for children to be born into a two-parent heterosexual family. From an examination of the effects on children of growing up in fatherless heterosexual and lesbian families, this paper questions that assumption.

I begin by considering various leadership aetiologies, wherein someone comes to obtain the various rights and obligations associated with the status function of a leader. Searle imagines two possibilities. First, someone comes to be a leader by way of established (e.g. democratic) constitutive rules or procedures. Second, someone might simply be declared a leader if they already wield sufficient coercive, non-deontological power. The deontological power associated with the status function of a leader is different from the antecedently existing coercive power (...) in that the former works, not under the force of threat, but by way of the imposition of rights and obligations. I consider a third leadership aetiology based on charismatic power. The possibility of charismatic power, in turn, recommends a normative, aesthetic source that cannot be reduced to either deontological power or coercive power. I begin by looking, in Sections 1 and 2, at examples which gesture towards the plausibility of aesthetic norms as a constituent of some status functions. Using a largely Humean account of the aesthetic (Section 3) in Sections 4 and 5, I argue that aesthetic evaluations have the right formal properties to underlie a status function. In particular, they are suitably epistemically objective, and they can provide desire-independent reasons for action. Finally, in Section 6, I argue aesthetic norms that are necessarily unprincipled, decisively account for a class of status functions which resist articulation in terms of explicitly codified rights and obligations. (shrink)

The objectives of this study were to develop a high-density chromosome bin map of homoeologous group 7 in hexaploid wheat, to identify gene distribution in these chromosomes, and to perform comparative studies of wheat with rice and barley. We mapped 2148 loci from 919 EST clones onto group 7 chromosomes of wheat. In the majority of cases the numbers of loci were significantly lower in the centromeric regions and tended to increase in the distal regions. The level of duplicated loci (...) in this group was 24% with most of these loci being localized toward the distal regions. One hundred nineteen EST probes that hybridized to three fragments and mapped to the three group 7 chromosomes were designated landmark probes and were used to construct a consensus homoeologous group 7 map. An additional 49 probes that mapped to 7AS, 7DS, and the ancestral translocated segment involving 7BS also were designated landmarks. Landmark probe orders and comparative maps of wheat, rice, and barley were produced on the basis of corresponding rice BAC/PAC and genetic markers that mapped on chromosomes 6 and 8 of rice. Identification of landmark ESTs and development of consensus maps may provide a framework of conserved coding regions predating the evolution of wheat genomes. (shrink)

Das Husserlbild der Gegenwart ist noch weitgehend gepragt von den erkenntnistheoretischen "Logischen Untersuchungen", durch die Husserl in weitem MaBe als Begriinder einer neuen objektiven Logik gilt. Mitunter wird er sogar als einseitig orien tierter Rationalist und Aufklarer des 20. J ahrhunderts, als der "Cartesius unserer Tage" 1 angesehen. Dieses Bild Husserls kann wohl jederzeit durch seine Veroffent lichungen gerechtfertigt werden. Dennoch ist es einseitig und recht vordergriindig, da dabei voll und ganz iibersehen wird, daB auch der Bereich des Emotionalen flir (...) HusserI ein entscheiden gut wie nichts des Interessengebiet darstellt, wovon bislang so veroffentlicht worden ist. Wohl werden in seinen Schriften gclegentlich Fragen der Wertlehre, der Asthetik und Ethik angeschnitten 2, aber eine eingehende Auseinandersetzung mit derartigen Fragen liegt in keinem der veroffentlichten Werke vor. In Wirklichkeit aber war ihm die Begriindung einer echten wissenschaftlichen Ethik immer ein ernstes philosophisches An liegen. Bereits vor den "Logischen Untersuchungen" beschaf tigte sich Husserl mit ethischen Grundproblemen 3. Welche 1 Vgl. Briick, Maria, Dr. phil, Ubey das Verhiiltnis Hllsserls zu Franz Brentano, vor nehmlich mit Rucksicht auf Brentanos Psychologie, 1933, S. 7. Husserl selbst hat die Phiinomenologie in den "Cartesianischen Meditationen" (Husscrliana, Bd. I, 1950, S. (shrink)

J.G. Fichtes Philosophie versteht sich als die einzig wahre und für alle Lebensbereiche zuständige; nach ihren Vorausstezungen und Erklärungsproblemen zu fragen, legt sich nahe. Die vorliegende Arbeit verfolgt diese Aufgabenstellung anhand einzelner Themenbereiche unter reichlicher Anführung von Textstellen aus Fichtes Gesamtwerk und der Sekundärliteratur.

In 2000 the Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Bergen (WAB) published the CD-ROM edition of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass: The Bergen Electronic Edition (BEE). Moreover, since then WAB has worked towards complementing the static CD-ROM edition with an interactive web platform that additionally allows more user-specific and more user-tailored utilizations of WAB’s Nachlass resources. The paper describes two specific web service tools of this platform: Interactive Dynamic Presentation (IDP) of the Wittgenstein Nachlass and Semantic Faceted Search and Browsing (SFB) of Wittgenstein (...) domain metadata. The paper argues that it is only when these two tools are fully implemented and functional that WAB can adequately serve the scholarly needs of the Wittgenstein Nachlass user community. The paper discusses some selected features and functionalities of the two tools in detail. An earlier version of this paper was published as „Complementing Static Scholarly Editions with Dynamic Research Platforms: Interactive Dynamic Presentation (IDP) and Semantic Faceted Search and Browsing (SFB) for the Wittgenstein Nachlass“ in Selected Papers from the CLARIN Annual Conference 2020, ed. by C. Navarretta & M. Eskevich (Utrecht: CLARIN ERIC). In writing this paper I have benefitted from comments by K. De Smedt, N. Gangopadhyay, Ø. Gjesdal, J. Hendrickson, C. Huitfeldt, H. Al Ruweh, the Clarin 2020 conference reviewers and editors as well as Jasmin Trächtler. (shrink)

John Searle (1932-) is one of the most famous living American philosophers. A pupil of J. L. Austin at Oxford in the 1950s, he is currently Mills Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Language at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1995 John Searle published "The Construction of Social Reality", a text which not only promises to disclose the institutional backdrop against which speech takes place, but initiate a new 'philosophy of society'. Since then "The Construction of Social Reality" (...) has been subject to a flurry of criticism. While many of Searle's interlocutors share the sense that the text marks an important breakthrough, he has time and again accused critics of misunderstanding his claims. Despite Searle's characteristic crispness and clarity there remains some confusion, among both philosophers and sociologists, regarding the significance of his proposals. This book traces some of the high points of this dialogue, leveraging Searle's own clarifications to propose a new way of understanding the text. In particular, Joshua Rust looks to Max Weber in suggesting that Searle has articulated an ideal type. In locating The Construction of Social Reality under the umbrella of one of sociology's founding fathers, this book not only makes Searle's text more accessible to the readers in the social sciences, but presents Max Weber as a thinker worthy of philosophical reconsideration. Moreover, the recharacterization of Searle's claims in terms of the ideal type helps facilitate a comparison between Searle and other social theorists such as Talcott Parsons. (shrink)

Riehl, A. Zu R. Hayms gedächtnis.--Schrader, W. Die seelenlehre der Griechen in der älteren lyrik.--Vaihinger, H. Die transcendentale deduktion der kategorien.--Rehmke, J. Wechselwirkung oder parallelismus?--Wentscher, M. Das problem der willensfreiheit bei Lotze.--Kühnemann, E. Über die grundlagen der lehre des Spinoza.--Volkelt, J. Die kunst des individualisierens in den dichtungen Jean Pauls.--Uphues, G. Über die idee einer pädagogik als bildungswissenschaft. Über die idee einer philosophie des christentums.--Lipps, T. Von der form der ästhetischen apperception.--Schwarz, H. Gefallen und lust.--Medicus, F. Die beiden prinzipien der (...) sittlichen beurteilung.--Reischle, M. Jesu worte von der ewigen bestimmung der menschenseele in religionsgeschichtlicher beleuchtung. (shrink)

We argued in Part 1 of this series that because all living systems are extremely far‐from‐equilibrium dynamic confections of matter, they must necessarily be driven to that state by the conversion of chemically specific external disequilibria into specific internal disequilibria. Such conversions require task‐specific macromolecular engines. We here argue that the same is not only true of life at its emergence; it is the enabling cause of that emergence; although here the external driving disequilibria, and the conversion engines needed must (...) have been abiotic. We argue further that the initial step in life's emergence can only create an extremely simple non‐equilibrium “seed” from which all the complexity of life must then develop. We assert that this complexity develops incrementally and progressively, each step tested for value added “in flight.” And we make the case that only the submarine alkaline hydrothermal vent (AHV) model has the potential to satisfy these requirements. (shrink)

In True Detective, the character of Rust Cohle is remarkable in giving voice to pessimism. Cohle says: "Time is a flat circle". This is Friedrich Nietzsche's doctrine of eternal recurrence, as depicted in The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Cohle expresses this idea in a pessimistic mood and it is meant to magnify the absurdity of life by declaring its endless repetition. Schopenhauer was an early influence on Nietzsche, and they agreed on certain basic things, including the primacy (...) of a driving will, which generates perpetual conflict with no ultimate resolution and no salvation. Nietzsche's book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, provides a dramatic narrative depicting the task of life‐affirmation in the face of eternal recurrence. The portrayal of eternal recurrence in True Detective is not in the spirit of Nietzsche's conception. It is more akin to Schopenhauer's response. Nietzsche finds a way to overcome pessimism by affirming life because of its tragic limits. (shrink)

Unfortunately, few substantial works by the "new wave" of Eastern European philosophers have yet appeared in widely read languages. Those who are interested in a glimpse into these developments will therefore welcome this international anthology devoted to the topic of socialist humanism. Such authors as Schaff, Bloch, Petrovic, and Korac are represented, as well as Western writers such as Goldmann, Marcuse, Rubel, and Russell, whose "In Praise of Idleness" was apparently thought relevant to this subject. Unfortunately, the brevity of these (...) contributions forces the authors to limit the penetration of their remarks, so that in some cases one gets an impression of superficiality which is not fair to them. But until their major works are translated, or until we all learn Serbo-Croatian and Polish, this is the best we can do, and it gives evidence that very interesting themes indeed are being discussed these days behind the rusting Iron Curtain. The titles of the sections of the book, which give a rough idea of the matters with which the essays deal, are On Humanism, On Man, On Freedom, On Alienation, and On Practice.—J. J. (shrink)

This is an interesting and useful book with essays by Lewis White Beck, Ernst Cassierer, Hermann Cohen, Richard Hönigswald, Hansgeorg Hoppe, Edmund Husserl, Ram Adhar Mall, Jeffrie G. Murphy, Alois Riehl, Wolfgang Stegmüller, Martha E. Williams. All thirteen essays or notes reprinted concern the relationship between Hume and Kant. Its publication follows the 200th anniversary of the appearance of the Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Common to both philosophers is the view that scientific knowledge depends on the knowledge of man. (...) In a long introduction the editor briefly recalls Hume's place in the history of philosophy. Turning to Kant he points out that Kant realized that if we take Hume's view of causality seriously, it cannot but lead to scepticism. Thus he felt obliged to look for a foundation of the sciences in the trans-subjective structure of the human mind. However, Kant never became an empiricist, but still subscribed to what Russell called a "pre-Humean rationalism." Nevertheless there is a convergence between both philosophers: Hume feels that one cannot go beyond the presence of percepts in one's own consciousness. Now Kant is equally convinced that our theoretical knowledge is limited to appearances. What lies beyond the appearances--das Ding an sich--cannot be reached. (shrink)

This chapter contains section titled: Introduction The Issue of Textual Difficulties and Style The PI Preface Baker's Contextualism Applying the Right Kind of Context Conclusions and Further Issues.

If philosophical moral reflection tends to promote moral behavior, one might think that professional ethicists would behave morally better than do socially comparable non-ethicists. We examined three types of courteous and discourteous behavior at American Philosophical Association conferences: talking audibly while the speaker is talking (versus remaining silent), allowing the door to slam shut while entering or exiting mid-session (versus attempting to close the door quietly), and leaving behind clutter at the end of a session (versus leaving one's seat tidy). (...) By these three measures, audiences in ethics sessions did not appear to behave any more courteously than did audiences in non-ethics sessions. However, audiences in environmental ethics sessions did appear to leave behind less trash. (shrink)

To celebrate the 270th anniversary of the De Gruyter publishing house, the company is providing permanent open access to 270 selected treasures from the De Gruyter Book Archive. Titles will be made available to anyone, anywhere at any time that might be interested. The DGBA project seeks to digitize the entire backlist of titles published since 1749 to ensure that future generations have digital access to the high-quality primary sources that De Gruyter has published over the centuries.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are increasingly integrated into the functioning of physical and digital products, creating unprecedented opportunities for interaction and functionality. However, there is a challenge for designers to ideate within this creative landscape, balancing the possibilities of technology with human interactional concerns. We investigate techniques for exploring and reflecting on the interactional affordances, the unique relational possibilities, and the wider social implications of AI systems. We introduced into an interaction design course (_n_ = 100) nine (...) ‘AI exercises’ that draw on more than human design, responsible AI, and speculative enactment to create experiential engagements around AI interaction design. We find that exercises around metaphors and enactments make questions of training and learning, privacy and consent, autonomy and agency more tangible, and thereby help students be more reflective and responsible on how to design with AI and its complex properties in both their design process and outcomes. (shrink)