This is an entry to the Compendium of Quantum Physics, edited by F Weinert, K Hentschel and D Greenberger, to be published by Springer-Verlag.

Die kantische Ethik steht im Spannungsfeld von Rationalismus und Unmittelbarkeit, welche von der Vernunft nicht mehr zu fassen ist. Es ist das Faszinierende an der Theorie Kants, dass Moralität als vernünftiges Phänomen erkannt wird, welches intersubjektive Geltung beanspruchen muss. Gleichwohl kommt praktische Vernunft im Begriff des Gewissens in einen rational nicht mehr einholbaren Bereich.

Grace de Laguna was a philosopher working in the first part of the twentieth century on analytic and speculative philosophy, as well as on the psychology and philosophy of language, especially the social function of language. Joel Katzav’s lead essay focuses mainly on the former part of her work, while my commentary focuses mostly on the latter. Katzav shows how her work played a role in the development of analytic philosophy, I try to show how her work played a role (...) in the development of pragmatic linguistics, whose development overlapped with some aspects of analytic philosophy. I situate it in the context of an emerging ‘pragmatic Weltanschauung’ that was embraced by many working in linguistics, philology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology and what would later be called linguistic pragmatics. (shrink)

After the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were adopted in 2011, an international treaty has been being negotiated since 2014. The two instruments reveal similarities and also conflicts regarding the adequate organization of the global economy based on human rights. The focus in this article will be on the processes leading to these instruments, because they themselves mirror different understandings of governance in the field of business and human rights as well as the struggle over the power (...) of definition and legitimacy. The UNGPs were developed on the basis of global multi-stakeholder consultations, underlining legitimacy through broad inclusion. There are varying judgements as to the success of this approach. The process towards the treaty follows the traditional path of negotiations at UN level. These negotiations reveal a struggle for recognition of the legitimacy of the process itself. Both procedures have shortcomings with regard to legitimacy and show the need for a revision concerning the inclusion of stakeholders. The complementarity of a soft and hard law instrument may enhance the creation of a level playing field in the global economy, thereby strengthening human rights. (shrink)

Le travail avec les familles ayant une histoire en lien avec la migration nécessite une réflexion et une écoute adaptées. Dans ce contexte a été pensé un dispositif thérapeutique au sein d’un centre médico-psychopédagogique pour accueillir et prendre en compte l’origine culturelle ainsi que la situation transculturelle de ces familles. Cet article relate l’expérience clinique d’une mère et de son enfant autour de contes issus de la tradition orale du Maghreb dans le cadre d’un atelier rassemblant des dyades mères-enfants. Le (...) dispositif a pu restaurer le lien symbolique et dyadique, activer une autorisation à apprendre. La remobilisation des représentations culturelles au travers du conte a joué un rôle essentiel dans la renarcissisation à un niveau individuel pour une (re)construction identitaire. (shrink)

This article adds to earlier research revealing that the American news media did not discharge their responsibility as a watchdog press in the post-9/11 years by failing to scrutinize extreme and unlawful government policies and actions, most of all the decision to invade Iraq based on false information about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction arsenal. The content analyses presented here demonstrate that leading US news organizations, both television and print, did not expressly refer to human rights violations when (...) they reported on the torturing of foreign detainees during “enhanced interrogations” in US-run prison facilities abroad and the killing of civilians, including children, in US drone strikes overseas and outside theaters of war. Moreover, by framing torture and the “collateral damage” caused by drone-launched missile attacks episodically rather than in the context of human rights, the news media failed to alert the American public to the grave humanitarian violations in the so-called war on terrorism during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations. (shrink)

The physics of condensed matter, in contrast to quantum physics or cosmology, is not traditionally associated with deep philosophical questions. However, as science - largely thanks to more powerful computers - becomes capable of analysing and modelling ever more complex many-body systems, basic questions of philosophical relevance arise. Questions about the emergence of structure, the nature of cooperative behaviour, the implications of the second law, the quantum-classical transition and many other issues. This book is a collection of essays by leading (...) physicists and philosophers. Each investigates one or more of these issues, making use of examples from modern condensed matter research. Physicists and philosophers alike will find surprising and stimulating ideas in these pages. (shrink)

Walter Benjamin, der Traum und das Bild des Weiblichen Geschichtsphilosophie aus gendertheoretischer Perspektive. 0Karin Stögner: 0Beschädigtes Leben und antisemitische „Schiefheilung". Freud und Adorno revisited.0Ljiljana Radonic: 0Autonomie versus Engagement? Über Adorno und Brecht. 0Gerhard Scheit: 0„Une promesse de bonheur". Herbert Marcuses „Über den affirmativen Charakter der Kultur".0Daniela Berner und Florian Wagner: 0Gebrochene Geschichte, Bedrängte Gegenwart. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen eines fremdgestellten Blicks 0auf die nationalsozialistische Vergangenheit im Film. 0Tobias Ebbrecht-Hartmann: 0Das drastische Medium. Über Adornos Kritik des Films. 0Christoph Hesse: 0Träumerinnen im Wachen. (...) Die „Kollektivträume" der Comics und die Kritische Theorie. 0Barbara Eder : 0Verehrte Unsichtbare!"0Über die Kunst des Hörens bei Walter Benjamin und Theodor W. Adorno 0Christine Ehardt: 0Exkursion 0Shopping Mall, mit Walter Benjamin u.a. 0Anette Baldauf : 0Zum Einbruch des.Realen' in die Gegenwart 0Eingedenken, Erinnern, Katharsis 0Sara Vorwalder und Veronika Zangl : 0„Alles wirklich Brauchbare besteht in Aushilfen". Zwei Lektüren zu Oskar Negt und Alexander Kluges Geschichte und Eigensinn 0Valentin Mertes und Michael Paninski : 0„Die Nord-West-Passage der Revolution" 0Herrschaftsverhältnisse und die situationistische Kartographierung 0der Stadtlandschaft 0Brigitte Marschall: 0. (shrink)

Currently, affect and emotions are a widely discussed political topic. At least since the early 1990s, different disciplines—from the social sciences and humanities to science and technoscience—have increasingly engaged in studying and conceptualizing affect, emotion, feeling, and sensation, evoking yet another turn that is frequently framed as the “affective turn.” Within queer feminist affect theory, two positions have emerged: following Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's well-known critique, there are either more “paranoid” or more “reparative” approaches toward affect. Whereas the latter emphasize the (...) potentialities of affect, the former argue that one should question the mere idea of affect as liberation and promise. Here, I suggest moving beyond a critique or celebration of affect by embracing the political ambivalence of affect. For this queer feminist theorizing of affective politics, I adapt Jacques Rancière's theory of the political and particularly his understanding of emancipation. Rancière takes emancipation into account without, however, uncritically endorsing or celebrating a politics of liberation. I draw on his famous idea of the “distribution of the sensible” and reframe it as the “distribution of emotions,” by which I develop a multilayered approach toward a nonidentitarian, nondichotomous, and emancipatory queer feminist theory of affective politics. (shrink)

The contributors analyse the key roles in constructing peaceful international couple relationships and their foreign-policy outcomes, at a time of acute trust deficit in international affairs. They show that to establish prospects of conflict transformation and sustainable international policy cooperation, the most positive long-term impact derives from sub-state intermediary levels and middle-class elites promoting integration through incremental identity-change, rather than from diplomatic engagement between rivals (despite the relevance of leaders embedded in institutional frameworks for facilitating rapprochement). A differentiation approach is (...) applied throughout the volume, revealing the various mechanisms at work, moving from the rationalist to the sociological, from intergovernmental strategic bargaining to societal integration and the construction of new identities below the state-level. (shrink)

When confronting the issues related to developments in Biotechnology, we must repeatedly ask ourselves anew what can and cannot be justified in an ethical sense. This is because radically new ethical questions seem to arise through innovative techniques such as stem cell research or GMOs as well as in the so-called “economic area”. This paper focuses more on society than on economy, because the term “economic area” is (from my point of view) a synonym for the perception of society. The (...) layperson often has problems in understand what has happened when confronting new technologies and knowledge produced through industrial finance. The example discussed here is German stem cell research. (shrink)

When confronting the issues related to developments in modern medicine and biotechnology, we must repeatedly ask ourselves anew what can and cannot be justified in an ethical sense. For radically new ethical questions seem to arise through innovative techniques such as stem cell research or preimplantation diagnosis — and with them new areas of conflicting interests. If one scrutinizes the previous positions related to this subject, it becomes conspicuous that a multitude of questions has quickly piled up — however, (as (...) in the case of Germany) comprehensive and differentiated views have mostly been lacking. (shrink)

This paper elaborates on discussions in Germany regarding some of the ethical and legal issues in the area of the use and patenting of inventions involving human tissue. The issues discussed pertain to the benefits and problems regarding informed consent and the issue of property rights as they relate to the donation of cells and tissue.

En envisageant la communication dans une perspective anthropologique, Dell Hathaway Hymes a introduit le langage en acte - verbal et non verbal - au coeur de l'analyse sociolinguistique. L'étude du langage qu'il a développée va évoluer d'une « ethnographie de la parole » vers une ethnographie de la communication, ouvrant la voie à une pragmatique et à une anthropologie communicationnelle.Considering the communication from an anthropological perspective, Dell Hathaway Hymes has introduced the language act - verbal and nonverbal - in the (...) heart of sociolinguistic analysis. The study of language he has developed will develop an "ethnography of speaking" to an ethnography of communication, opening the way to a pragmatic and communicative anthropology. (shrink)

Cette contribution est centrée sur l'analyse d'une pratique éditoriale, illustrée par le parcours récent de l'Encyclopædia Universalis dans la conception de dispositifs informatisés de diffusion de connaissances. Il s'agit d'étudier les conditions d'appropriation techniques et cognitives faites aux lecteurs-utilisateurs confrontés à des environnements sophistiqués et à des interfaces hypermédias de lecture-écriture. La « culture de l'information » est utilisée pour identifier un modèle informationnel du sujet, induit par les évolutions de la technique et par les dispositifs de communication qui sont (...) proposés.This contribution focuses on the analysis of an editorial practice, illustrated by the recent approach of the Encyclopaedia Universalis to computerized systems of knowledge dissemination. The purpose is to study the conditions of technical and cognitive appropriation created for readers/users in their confrontation with sophisticated systems and hypermedia reading/writing interfaces. Information literacy is used to identify an informational model of the individual concerned, induced by the technical evolutions and the communication systems that are presented. (shrink)

The impact of social media influencers (SMIs) on brand-related outcomes has been well researched, yet whether this influence also impacts political participation and what role the relationship between SMIs and their audiences play has not been sufficiently examined to date. Basing this study on the Balance Model, I investigated the potential of an unlikely vs. a likely source and the role of similarity with a SMI based on a shared topic interest to elicit the intention for political action in an (...) experimental study (n = 222). The perceived similarity with the SMI was examined as a mediator and the role of the shared topic interest with the SMI as a potential moderator. The results indicate that a likely source for political information generated a greater topic fit. The perceived similarity with the source depended on the shared topic interest between the source and the participants. This is a key finding, as perceived similarity with the source in turn predicted the intention to take political action, which positively activated participants who shared the topic interest of the unlikely source even if they did not indicate a topic interest in politics. Thus, a shared interest with a SMI might make even those not interested in politics more open to political participation. (shrink)

This article explores the way in which the generative capacity of language inflects objects and props in several films by Alfred Hitchcock, focusing in particular on Rope (1948) and Strangers on a Train (1951). Camera angle and framing, the duration of the shot, the close-up or the long shot – all give shape to the filmed object. But why is language – or its absence – not mentioned among the set of operations that determines cinematic objects? In the form of (...) dialogue or imaged writing (words or letters visible in the frame), it notably contextualizes the object in Hitchcock's films. Language in relation to objects can be punning; it can extend the image, evoking another, unimaged object through the use of rhyme, and it may act as a verbal solution to a puzzle. When imaged as writing, language is materialized, itself an object. At their most macabre, Hitchcock films stage an oscillation between a word's literal and figurative use, generating an undertext that extends beyond the joke the film's surface makes available. This discussion teases out several functions of language in Hitchcock films as it impacts the viewer's understanding of objects, moments when language creates undertexts that are clearly intentional but resist interpretation. (shrink)

Compliance is often achieved ‘by design’ through a coherent system of controls consisting of information systems and procedures. This system-based control requires a new approach to auditing in which companies must demonstrate to the regulator that they are ‘in control’. They must determine the relevance of a regulation for their business, justify which set of control measures they have taken to comply with it, and demonstrate that the control measures are operationally effective. In this paper we show how value-based argumentation (...) theory can be applied to the compliance domain. Corporate values motivate the selection of control measures (actions) which aim to fulfil control objectives, i.e. adopted norms (goals). In particular, we show how to formalize the audit dialogue in which companies justify their compliance decisions to regulators using value-based argumentation. The approach is illustrated by a case study of the safety and security measures adopted in the context of EU customs regulation. (shrink)

This book, first published in 2000, offers translations of the initial critical reactions to Kant's philosophy. Also included is a selection of writings by Kant's contemporaries who took on the task of defending the critical philosophy against early attacks. The first aim of this collection is to show in detail how Kant was understood and misunderstood by his contemporaries. The second aim is to reveal the sorts of arguments that Kant and his first disciples mounted in their defense of the (...) theoretical philosophy. The third aim of the book is to contribute to an understanding of the development of Kant's critical philosophy after its initial formulation in the Critique of Pure Reason, and in particular why Kant made the changes he did in the second edition of the work in 1787. This collection, which includes a glossary of key terms and biographical sketches of the critics on both sides of the debate, is a major addition to Kant scholarship and should be seen as a companion volume to the Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant. (shrink)

In this paper, I will explore the concept that healing activities shape the objects of therapy and seek to construct those objects through therapeutic activities. Objects of therapy are the persons, patients, human bodies, diseases, physiological processes and personal suffering—that which clinical medicine constructs through its distinctive formative processes, practices and knowledge. The rationale for choice of philosophical sources namely, Cassirer, Foucault, the anthropological perspective of Good and the sociological account of Frank will be discussed. The claim articulated by Good (...) will be examined and its relationship to culture, illness, medical knowledge, practice, truth, and science. I then focus on Frank's concepts of the patient and the body and how medical knowledge and practices affects it. The concept that the medicalization of the illness narrative silences the patient's voice requiring an ethic of listening will be emphasized, described and further supported by Charon's (2006, Narrative medicine: Honoring the stories of illness. New York, NY: Oxford University Press) and Cassell's (2015, The nature of suffering and the goals of medicine. New York, NY: Oxford University Press) thoughts on narrative of illness in clinical medicine. My position concludes that healing activities construct the objects of therapy: as the medical culture's way of seeking truth; as medicine's way of mediating and organizing forms of reality through culture and symbolic forms; and, as medicine's way of entering the body and constructing the disease. Lastly, I suggest that in spite of the remarkable progress in the control of disease, the failure to address the interpretation of illness meanings is a fundamental flaw in the work of “doctoring.” The experience and meanings of illness are at the centre of clinical practice and is a moral, political, ethical and professional obligation. The person is a cultural construct, a complex and culturally shaped way of experiencing self and other, and cultural “work” is required to constitute the person who is the object of medical attention and it also necessitates the ethic of listening. (shrink)

The paper presents a logical treatment of actions based on dynamic logic. This approach makes it possible to reflect clearly the differences between static and dynamic elements of the world, a distinction which seems crucial to us for a representation of actions.Starting from propositional dynamic logic a formal system (DLA) is developed, the programs of which are used to model action types. Some special features of this system are: Basic aspects of time are incorporated in DLA as far as they (...) are needed for our purpose. Names for states and for instants are simulated by formulas. It is possible to express formally that a formula is satisfiable or valid. A special program is introduced to reflect developments which are not caused by an official agent but by external influences. (shrink)

Ever since it was discovered in hydra, regeneration has remained a stimulating question for developmental biologists. Cellular approaches have revealed that, within the first few hours of apical or basal hydra regeneration, differentiation and determination of nerve cells are the primary cellular events detectable. The head and foot activators (HA, FA), neuropeptides that are released upon injury, are signaling molecules involved in these processes. In conditions where it induces cellular differentiation or determination, HA behaves as an agonist of the cyclic (...) AMP (cAMP) pathway involving the modulation of CREB nuclear transcription factor activity. This cascade would be required for proper regeneration, regardless of whether the polarity involved is apical or basal. Modulations of the protein kinase C pathway, which have been shown to affect apical or basal positional values, might signal to bring about this polarity; however, endogenous ligands responsible for this modulation are as yet unknown. (shrink)

One of the first Swiss performance artists, Manon has fashioned a career for herself out of the identities of others. Whether exploring the limits of gender or the beauty of decay, Manon—through her personas, installations, and performance pieces—continually foregrounds the instability of place and self. Her most recent project, She Was Once MISS RIMINI, is one of her most brutal and touching. Here, she literally depicts imagined futures for an aging beauty queen. Each exquisite image in this pictorial essay teases (...) out the possible paths Miss Rimini—an alter-ego for Manon who “happened” upon a beauty pageant in the early 1970s and walked away with the crown—could have taken. A small-town diva? A hypersensitive viola player? Perhaps even a psychiatric patient? She Was Once MISS RIMINI is a trenchant meditation on the art, or artifice, of growing older. Costume, lipstick, lighting, attitude—all aspects of self-presentation are in concert here with quiet critiques of social and economic systems that limit the options of older women. Accompanied by an enlightening introduction by art theorist Brigitte Ulmer, She Was Once MISS RIMINI is the first and only documentation of Miss Rimini and one of the first books in English on Manon. (shrink)