The target article “Bounded Justice, Inclusion and the Hyper/Invisibility of Race in Precision Medicine” (Ferryman 2023) raises critical questions about the development of genuinely inclusive, fair...

ZusammenfassungEthische Aspekte von Biobanken-basierter Forschung werden zunehmend kontrovers diskutiert. In diesem Artikel wird die Debatte um ethisch angemessene Formen der Einwilligung in Biobanken-basierte Forschung nachgezeichnet. Nach einer Einführung in etablierte Einwilligungsmodelle skizziert der Beitrag kurz die Entwicklung alternativer Ansätze und diskutiert die damit verbundenen ethischen und regulatorischen Herausforderungen. Dabei wird dargestellt, welche ethischen Prinzipien in diesen Diskussionen eine Rolle spielen. Der Beitrag schließt mit einem Ausblick für Deutschland.

In der Wissenschaftsgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts steht die deutsche Tradition sprachbasierter Erkenntnistheorie im Schatten der primär rationalistischen Strömungen. Der an Leibniz' Begriff der cognitio symbolica ebenso wie an den englischen Empirismus Bacons und Lockes anknüpfende Ansatz gerät dabei in den Hintergrund, obwohl diese Traditionslinie, die sowohl rationalistische als auch empiristische Elemente vereinbart, bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts fortbesteht. Dies hat weitreichende Konsequenzen sowohl für die Philosophie- und Literaturgeschichte als auch für die literaturwissenschaftliche Detailforschung, da weder Herders Erkenntnistheorie noch die (...) poetologischen Konzeptionen des 'Anti-Klassikers' Jean Paul und des Frühromantikers Novalis ohne Kenntnis der theoretischen Voraussetzungen erklärt werden können. Unter Auswertung empirisch belegbarer Quellen wie handschriftliche Nachlässe, Briefwechsel und Zitate wird die Entwicklung eines semiotischen Wissensbegriffs bis zu seinen Ursprüngen im 17. Jahrhundert zurückverfolgt und schrittweise nachvollzogen: Die theoretische Ausbildung erfolgt um 1760 durch den für die Wissenschaftsgeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts höchst bedeutsamen Philosophen und Naturwissenschaftler Johann Heinrich Lambert (1728-1777). Eine systematische und historische Analyse der zentralen Schrift Herders "Eine Metakritik zur Kritik der reinen Vernunft" aus dem Jahr 1799 ergibt, daß Lamberts Ansatz in Herders Entwurf der Zeichenabhängigkeit allen menschlichen Denkens konsequent rezipiert wird. Schließlich müssen die poetologischen Konzeptionen Jean Pauls in der "Vorschule der Ästhetik" und in Novalis' "Theoretischem Werk" in die genannte Traditionslinie eingebunden werden. Infolgedessen sind besonders die Begriffe des Witzes und der Ironie Jean Pauls sowie der romantische Kritik-Begriff Novalis', der seine Enzyklopädistik stützt, wesentlich schärfer zu fassen als bisher. (shrink)

Bei Schiller bedeutet Spielen ein Handeln frei von Notwendigkeit und Pflicht und bedeutet dementsprechend das Genießen der Befreiung von der Notwendigkeit. Es ist diese Erfahrung der Freiheit, die das Spiel mit dem ästhetischen Phänomen der Schönheit verbindet und seinen großen erzieherischen Wert ausmacht. Die Eigenschaft, die wir als Schönheit bezeichnen, setzt dieselbe Leichtigkeit des Geistes voraus wie das Spiel. In einem schönen Kunstwerk herrscht weder die Form über den Stoff noch umgekehrt. Ein Kunstwerk ist ein freies Zusammenspiel von Form und (...) Inhalt, von Schönheit und Notwendigkeit, so dass es die höchste Erscheinungsform des Spiels darstellt. Spiele sind Stufen auf dem Weg zur Schönheit, weil sie die Spieler zum Genuss der freien Kreativität erziehen. Im Unterschied zu Schiller verwirft Montessori das Spiel als Erziehungsmittel. Sie behauptet, dass die Kinder arbeiten sollen, um sich ihren eigenen Weg durch die Schwierigkeiten der Realität zu bahnen. Allerdings lassen sich beim näheren Hinsehen in ihren Methoden viele Elemente der Freiheit erkennen, welche Schiller dem Spiel zuschreibt. Beispielsweise können sich die Kinder die Gegenstände aussuchen, mit denen sie „arbeiten” wollen. Sie brauchen sie auch nicht zwingend auf die Art einzusetzen, wie es ihnen die ErzieherInnen vormachen. Und vor allem genießen die Kinder ihre „Arbeit” voll und ganz. In der folgenden Abhandlung erläutert die Autorin zunächst Schillers Gedanken zur Erziehung durch Spiel, insbesondere im Hinblick auf das Phänomen der Phantasie. Im zweiten Teil setzt sich die Autorin mit der Frage auseinander, ob es richtig ist zu behaupten, dass Montessori die Phantasie als Erziehungsmittel ablehnt. (shrink)

Selon Schiller, jouer, c’est agir en étant dégagé de toute contrainte et de toute obligation, et donc tirer grand plaisir de sa liberté par rapport aux nécessités. C’est ce sentiment de liberté rattachant le jeu au phénomčne esthétique de beauté qui fait sa grande valeur éducationnelle. La qualité que nous appelons beauté procure le męme plaisir que le jeu. Dans une belle śuvre d’art, la matičre n’est pas dominée par la forme ou vice-versa. Une śuvre d’art est un jeu libre (...) entre forme et substance, entre beauté et contrainte, et représente de ce fait le summum de l’activité ludique. Les jeux sont des pas sur la voie de la beauté, car ils éduquent ceux qui jouent au plaisir de la liberté de création. Contrairement ŕ la position de Schiller, Maria Montessori rejette le jeu comme moyen d’éducation. Elle pense que les enfants doivent travailler pour trouver leur voie ŕ travers les difficultés de la réalité. Or, l’analyse de ses méthodes révčle la présence de nombreux éléments de la liberté que Schiller attribue au jeu. Les enfants peuvent choisir les choses avec lesquelles ils « travaillent ». Ils ne sont pas obligés de les utiliser exactement de la maničre que l’éducateur leur montre. Et, ce qui est le plus important, les enfants prennent un grand plaisir ŕ exécuter leur « travail ». Dans cet article, l’auteur interprčte d’abord les réflexions de Schiller sur l’éducation ŕ travers le jeu, oů l’accent est mis sur l’imagination. Dans la seconde partie, l’auteur discute la question de savoir s’il est justifié de prétendre que Maria Montessori rejette l’imagination comme moyen d’éducation. (shrink)

In Schiller’s opinion, to play means to act free from the force of need as well as of duty and thus to enjoy liberation from necessity. It is this experience of freedom that links play with the aesthetical phenomenon of beauty and causes its high educational value. The quality that we call beauty represents the same lightness of spirit as the game does. In the beautiful work of art, the material is not dominated by the form or vice versa. The (...) work of art shows a free play between form and matter, between beauty and necessity, and thus represents the highest kind of play. Games are steps on the way to beauty, because they educate the player to enjoy the freedom of creativity. Contrary to Schiller’s position, Montessori refuses play as a means of education. She holds that children have to work in order to find their way in the difficulties of reality. But in studying her methods one realizes that there are many elements of that freedom which Schiller attributes to play. Children can chose the things with which they “work”. They are not forced to use them in exactly the same way that the nurse has shown them. And most important: the children enjoy their “work” thoroughly. In my paper I will first explain Schiller’s thoughts on education by play with special emphasis on the phenomenon of fantasy. In the second part of my paper I will discuss the question whether it is true to say that Montessori refuses fantasy as a means of education. (shrink)

Legal mobilization in the courts and in political discourse has emerged as an increasingly important strategy of social movements that complements other political approaches. This is true also for women’s movements in post-socialist countries, but most research on strategic litigation has focused so far on common law countries and on supranational litigation in Europe. Using the case of Poland as an example, this article asks why references to the law are so attractive in post-socialist contexts and what can be gained (...) by this with respect to actual rights, justice and social change. It focuses thereby on strategic litigation as the most sophisticated strategy that results from other sustained movement activities connected with the law. It draws on field research, interviews with activists and analyses of primary as well as secondary sources. The article explores the reasons for using the law as the ‘master frame’ by analysing the traditions of gender and law in state socialism and during democratic consolidation. Two examples of strategic litigation, the Tysiąc case for reproductive rights and the ‘Biedronka’ cases for employment rights, are analysed and situated in the context of other legal mobilization activities. These cases set the agenda for crucial social problems and resulted in binding decisions by the courts. A broad and predominantly supportive media discourse was conducive to cultivating public opinion. These analyses support the conclusion that legal mobilization tends to directly influence law and legal practices. It has a socializing effect on the population and their legal consciousness. In aiming at both state and society, these legal strategies of the women’s movement are a modest but crucial success for democratic consolidation. (shrink)

The realm of non-rational influence, which includes nudging, is home to many other morally interesting phenomena. In this paper, I introduce the term bumping, to discuss the category of unintentional non-rational influence. Bumping happens constantly, wherever people make choices in environments where they are affected by other people. For instance, doctors will often bump their patients as patients make choices about what treatments to pursue. In some cases, these bumps will systematically tend to make patients’ decisions worse. Put another way: (...) doctors will sometimes harm their patients by bumping them in systematic ways. I use the case of medical overuse, the provision of medical services where the likely harm outweighs the likely benefit to the patient, as a touchstone for arguing that doctors who systematically bump their patients towards harm can be blameworthy for their unwitting influence. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 98 Heft: 2 Seiten: 773-777.

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 97 Heft: 1 Seiten: 357-360.

Through advances in production and treatment technologies, transparent glass has become an increasingly versatile material and a global hallmark of modern architecture. In the shape of invisible barriers, it defines spaces while simultaneously shaping their lighting, noise, and climate conditions. Despite these unique architectural qualities, little is known regarding the human experience with glass barriers. Is a material that has been described as being simultaneously there and not there from an architectural perspective, actually there and/or not there from perceptual, behavioral, (...) and social points of view? In this article, we review systematic observations and experimental studies that explore the impact of transparent barriers on human cognition and action. In doing so, the importance of empirical and multidisciplinary approaches to inform the use of glass in contemporary architecture is highlighted and key questions for future inquiry are identified. (shrink)

In European philosophies of history, the linear paradigm that has prevailed for centuries as a derivative of Christian salvation history (Heilsgeschichte), ultimately lost its monopoly with the arrival of the “post-age.” The result of this has been that ideas that have survived on the margins, even the cyclical interpretation of time attached to religious traditions, now seem capable of outliving the short-lived belief in continuous progress. According to the cyclical view of history, those who came last will leave first, with (...) those who came first leaving as the last adherents of the driving force of Western rationalization. Thus, within a century, beginning with World War 2, a major turning point has been crossed: Socialism was the first to disappear, and it looks like Secular Liberalism will be the next; then Protestantism, followed by Islam, and so forth. As seductive as these images may appear, they only mirror an auto-destructive thread at the very center of Europe’s troubled Geist. But can anything be done to save the most important European values, and specifically, the ethical drive to say “no” to power, which is perhaps the most important legacy of monotheism? Either as a self-limitation from within powerful institutions or as a mode of resistance on the margins of powerful developments—there is a strong adherence to the good (often named God) that helps people and communities survive their diasporic state. I will present this kernel of ethical monotheism by two relatively unknown twentieth-century examples of “diasporic knowledge”: Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941), in which she recorded her observations of the devastating effects of empires on Yugoslavia, and two poems by Rosario Castellanos, who decades before the debate on postcolonialism voiced the concerns of displaced indigenous cultures in her Mexican homeland. I suggest that, paradoxically, attention to diasporic voices is one way of realizing the spirit of European self-limitation that is so much needed today to prevent further damage to our societies and environment wrought by the excessive drive for progress fostered by an unethical monorationalism. (shrink)

Introduction Adolescents’ physical activity (PA) behavior can be driven by several psychosocial determinants at the same time. Most analyses use a variable-based approach that examines relations between PA-related determinants and PA behavior on the between-person level. Using this approach, possible coexistences of different psychosocial determinants within one person cannot be examined. Therefore, by applying a person-oriented approach, this study examined a) which profiles regarding PA-related psychosocial variables typically occur in female sixth-graders, b) if these profiles deliver a self-consistent picture according (...) to theoretical assumptions, and c) if the profiles contribute to the explanation of PA. Materials and Methods The sample comprised 475 female sixth-graders. Seventeen PA-related variables were assessed: support for autonomy, competence and relatedness in PE as well as their satisfaction in PE and leisure-time; behavioral regulation of exercise (five subscales); self-efficacy and social support from friends and family (two subscales). Moderate-to-vigorous PA was measured using accelerometers. Data were analyzed using the self-organizing maps (SOM) analysis, a cluster analysis including an unsupervised algorithm for non-linear models. Results According to the respective level of psychosocial resources, a positive, a medium and a negative cluster were identified. This superordinate cluster solution represented a self-consistent picture that was in line with theoretical assumptions. The three-cluster solution contributed to the explanation of PA behavior, with the positive cluster accumulating an average of six minutes more moderate-to-vigorous PA per day than the medium cluster and ten minutes more than the negative cluster. Additionally, SOM detected a subgroup within the positive cluster that benefited from a specific combination of intrinsic and external regulations with regard to PA. Discussion The results underline the relevance of the assessed psychosocial determinants of PA behavior in female sixth-graders. The results further indicate that the different psychosocial resources within a given person do not develop independently of one another, which supports the use of a person-oriented approach. In addition, the SOM analysis identified subgroups with specific characteristics, which would have remained undetected using variable-based approaches. Thus, this approach offers the possibility to reduce data complexity without overlooking subgroups with special demands that go beyond the superordinate cluster solution. (shrink)

Über das eigene Lebensende autonom bestimmen zu können, ist der Wunsch vieler Menschen. Höchste Gerichte in Deutschland und Österreich erkennen das Recht auf assistierten Suizid als eine Form des selbstbestimmten Sterbens an. In der Schweiz tragen Sterbehilfeorganisationen zu einer breiteren Akzeptanz bei. Wie aber ist die Suizidhilfe ethisch zu rechtfertigen? Und wie soll die emergente Praxis geregelt und gelebt werden? Die Beiträger*innen widmen sich diesen Fragen aus interdisziplinärer Perspektive. Sie beleuchten dabei vor allem das Problem der Freiverantwortlichkeit eines Suizidwunschs sowie (...) neu entstehende Vulnerabilitäten und analysieren so die soziokulturellen Herausforderungen für eine gute Versorgung am Lebensende. (shrink)

Over the past few years, even before the Brexit campaign and the outcome of the 2016 referendum in the United Kingdom, Europe has been haunted by the spectre of an impending split and disintegration of the Union. Self-appointed “kings” and “philosophers” of greater Europe seem to have been competing for the “unity award,” with more and more of them failing dramatically. One indicator of the public alarm at the prospect of the Union’s split is the exaggerated use of the word (...) “unity” and its cognates. But can the rhetoric of unity act as a cure for the disease? This essay suggests that, ironically, the constant use of organic metaphors and invocations of European unity seems to be paving the way for—rather than preventing—the rise of neo-authoritarian forces. (shrink)

In [STU 00, KUT 03] we introduced a family of ‘modal' languages intended for talking about distances. These languages are interpreted in ‘distance spaces' which satisfy some of the standard axioms of metric spaces. Among other things, we singled out decidable logics of distance spaces and proved expressive completeness results relating classical and modal languages. The aim of this paper is to axiomatize the modal fragments of the semantically defined distance logics of [KUT 03] and give a new proof of (...) their decidability. (shrink)

We provide an overview of three ways in which the expression “Historical epistemology” (HE) is often understood: (1) HE as a study of the history of higher-order epistemic concepts such as objectivity, observation, experimentation, or probability; (2) HE as a study of the historical trajectories of the objects of research, such as the electron, DNA, or phlogiston; (3) HE as the long-term study of scientific developments. After laying out various ways in which these agendas touch on current debates within both (...) epistemology and philosophy of science (e.g., skepticism, realism, rationality of scientific change), we conclude by highlighting three topics as especially worthy of further philosophical investigation. The first concerns the methods, aims and systematic ambitions of the history of epistemology. The second concerns the ways in versions of HE can be connected to versions of naturalized and social epistemologies. The third concerns the philosophy of history, and in particular the level of analysis at which a historical analysis should aim. (shrink)

The paper shows why and how an empirical study of fast-and-frugal heuristics can provide norms of good reasoning, and thus how (and how far) rationality can be naturalized. We explain the heuristics that humans often rely on in solving problems, for example, choosing investment strategies or apartments, placing bets in sports, or making library searches. We then show that heuristics can lead to judgments that are as accurate as or even more accurate than strategies that use more information and computation, (...) including optimization methods. A standard way to defend the use of heuristics is by reference to accuracy-effort trade-offs. We take a different route, emphasizing ecological rationality (the relationship between cognitive heuristics and environment), and argue that in uncertain environments, more information and computation are not always better (the “less-can-be-more” doctrine). The resulting naturalism about rationality is thus normative because it not only describes what heuristics people use, but also in which specific environments one should rely on a heuristic in order to make better inferences. While we desist from claiming that the scope of ecological rationality is unlimited, we think it is of wide practical use. (shrink)

The practice of taking hand-written notes in lectures has been rediscovered recently because of several studies on its learning efficacy in the mainstream media. Students are enjoined to ditch their laptops and return to pen and paper. Such arguments presuppose that notes are taken in order to be revisited after the lecture. Learning is seen to happen only after the event. We argue instead that student’s note-taking is an educational practice worthy in itself as a way to relate to the (...) live event of the lecture. We adopt a phenomenological approach inspired by Vilém Flusser’s phenomenology of gestures, which assumes that a gesture like note-taking is always an event of thinking with media in which a certain freedom is expressed. But Flusser’s description of note-taking focusses on the individual note-taker. What about students’ note-taking in a lecture hall as a collective gesture? Nietzsche considered note-taking ‘mechanical,’ as if students were automatons who mindlessly transcribed a verbal flow, while Benjamin considered it an inaesthetic gesture: at best, boring; at worst, ‘painful to watch.’ In contrast, we argue that the educational potentiality of note-taking—or better, note-making—can be grasped only if we account for its mediaticity (as writing that displaces the voice), together with but distinct from its political potentiality as a collective mediality (as a ‘means without end’). Note-taking enables us to see how collective thinking emerges in the lecture, a kind of thinking that belongs neither to the lecturer nor the student, but emerges in the relation of attention established between the lecturer, students and their object of thought. (shrink)

“We can look back on what we have achieved and, without exaggerating, call it a ‘miracle’.” This quote is Angela Merkel’s second famous remark on Israel (the most famous being that Israel’s securit...

The German-Jewish philosophers Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig, have - both in their own ways - produced systems of philosophy at a time that was supposed to be the time after systems. With their respective systems they - both in their own ways - transcended the apologetic stance of Jewish thought by placing the Jewishness of their thinking at a methodologically central point for?general philosophy.? However, the link between Cohen?s system and the Star of Redemption, is hard to find. Looking (...) back from the perspective of a?return of religion? in late twentieth century, the essay proposes to see the link between both systems in Cohen?s notion of compassion. Nemacko-jevrejski filozofi Herman Koen i Franc Rozencvajg su - svaki na svoj nacin - produkovali sisteme filozofije u vremenu koje je trebalo da vazi kao vreme posle sistema. Svojim sistemima su - takodje svaki na svoj nacin, prevazilazili apologetsko stanoviste jevrejske misli uspostavljajuci jevrejstvo svoje misli kao centralnu metodsku tacku?opste filozofije?. Medjutim, tesko je naci vezu izmedju Koenovog sistema i Zvezde iskupljenja. Gledajuci unazad, iz perspektive?povratka religije? u kasnom dvadesetom veku, rad pokusava da nedje vezu izmedju pomenuta dva sistema u Koenovom pojmu saosecanja. (shrink)

English summary: The messianic has always been a problem between the monotheistic religions. Not only did it divide Jews and Christians, it also caused divisions among Jews and among Christians as well. In the 20th century, philosophers and political leaders attached increasing importance to it in a more secular form. The authors of the articles collected in this volume deal with the subject of messianism in the 20th century in various contexts. The articles are written from the standpoint of different (...) disciplines and provide a multifaceted perspective of a spiritual and intellectual phenomenon that deserves further research. German description: Die Verhaltnisse von religiosen und sakularen Ordnungen stehen neu zur Debatte. Sah es lange so aus, als wurden die sakularen Ordnungen sich nach und nach gegen die religiosen durchsetzen, so hat sich dieses Bild entschieden verkehrt: Die neue Hinwendung zu Religionen ist ein politisch relevantes Thema geworden. Das Phanomen des Messianismus hat in allen Umbruchzeiten eine schillernde Zwischenstellung gehalten. So konnten einerseits die christlichen Theologien von aussen als der Versuch beschrieben werden, einen durch seinen Tod den meisten als afalsch erwiesenen Messias zum richtigen Messias umzudeuten. Die rabbinische Bewegung kann demgegenuber in ihrer Weigerung, diese Umdeutung mitzuvollziehen, als die Kraft bezeichnet werden, die einen anderen Begriff vom Messias in Kontradistinktion zum christlichen entwickelte. Drittens spielt das Messianische innerhalb der Religionen in den Gegenbewegungen zu den grossen religiosen Instituten eine wieder andere Rolle: In dem Masse, in dem die aufgeklarte Welt nicht mehr gegen eine starke Kirche opponieren musste, sondern selbst ihr astahlernes Gehause errichtet hatte, wurde adas Messianische gerade fur Philosophen zu einer Kraft, die als Garant fur das Unbestimmbare der Zukunft mehr oder weniger deutlich bestimmt wurde. Die Autoren der hier gesammelten Beitrage befassen sich in verschiedenen Kontexten mit dem Thema Messianismus im 20. Jahrhundert. (shrink)

In this paper we deal with the logic ${\cal M\kern-1pt L}_{\omega_1}$ which is the infinitary extension of propositional modal logic that has conjunctions and disjunctions only for countable sets of formulas. After introducing some basic concepts and tools from modal logic, we modify Makkai's generalization of the notion of consistency property to make it fit for modal purposes. Using this construction as a universal instrument, we prove, among other things, interpolation for ${\cal M\kern-1pt L}_{\omega_1}$ as well as preservation results for (...) universal, existential, and positive ${\cal M\kern-1pt L}_{\omega_1}$-formulas. (shrink)