This paper contributes to the (re-)conceptualisation of responsible innovation by proposing an evolutionary economic approach that focuses on the role of consumers in the innovation process. After a discussion of the philosophical foundations and ethical implications of this approach, which bears an explanatory potential that has not been adequately considered in previous discussions of responsible innovation, we present a first step towards capturing the important but often neglected role of consumers in innovation processes (including responsible innovation): We propose an agent-based (...) model that incorporates a multidimensional space of characteristics in which new products or services are represented by more than the mere aspect of price and quality. Instead, innovations are denoted by a large set of characteristics, including also negative or harmful ones. The model is used to illustrate that consumers’ heterogeneity and bounded rationality – even if considered in a simple manner – indeed play a crucial role in the creation and diffusion of responsible innovation which can and should be used for further work in this field and for possible extensions of the model. (shrink)

It is held that absolute poverty causes approximately one third of all human deaths, some 18 million annually, and blights billions of lives with hunger and disease. This book develops universalizable norms aimed at tackling absolute poverty and the complex and multilayered problems associated with it.

Die Beiträge zur Altertumskunde enthalten Monographien, Sammelbände, Editionen, Übersetzungen und Kommentare zu Themen aus den Bereichen Klassische, Mittel- und Neulateinische Philologie, Alte Geschichte, Archäologie, Antike Philosophie sowie Nachwirken der Antike bis in die Neuzeit. Dadurch leistet die Reihe einen umfassenden Beitrag zur Erschließung klassischer Literatur und zur Forschung im gesamten Gebiet der Altertumswissenschaften.

Abstrakt Der Artikel fragt nach der Rezeption von Platons Freundschafts- und Liebesbegriff bei Plotin. Zunächst wird gezeigt, dass Platons Liebestheorie im Symposion und im Phaidros gleichermaßen auf den Aufstieg zum Ideenhimmel und die Selbstvervollkommnung des Liebenden abzielt, wobei der Phaidros mit der Freundschaft als schwächerer, durch Reziprozität gekennzeichneter Form der Liebe die soziale Dimension des Aufstiegs und der Vervollkommnung thematisiert. Dann wird nachgezeichnet, inwiefern Plotins Liebes- und Freundschaftsbegriff Theorieelemente aus Platons Symposion und Phaidros fortentwickelt. Nach Plotin ist die Liebe das (...) Movens des Aufstiegs zum Einen und die Freundschaft das Movens des dazu komplementären Abstiegs zur Vielheit. Es wird schließlich gezeigt, dass Platon wie Plotin ausschließlich an der philosophischen Freundschaft und Liebe interessiert sind und diese zentral für ihr Konzept von Erziehung und Selbsterziehung sind. (shrink)

This paper examines the influence of Euripides on Plato, reflecting the intertextuality between Euripides‘ Antiope und Plato’s Gorgias (esp. the agon between Zethos and Amphion and the agon between Callicles and Socrates, then the deus ex machina in the Antiope and the myth of the afterlife in the Gorgias). It is argued that the final part of the Gorgias is a serious philosophical answer to the tragic aporias, which Euripides dramatically staged in his Antiope (that is the aporia of supposed (...) and real kinship as well as the aporia of traditional revenge ethics) and which the viewer should answer for himself according to the conception of Euripidean tragedy. (shrink)

Book 11 of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses is very important for the question of whether the work as a whole has a serious intention or not. In this paper, I argue against the satirical interpretation of this book by showing that Lucius’ threefold initiation is a sign that he has been chosen by the gods; at every step he learns something new about religion and life. Furthermore, the first person narrator is interpreted as Lucius. But at the end of Book 11, the (...) transformed and religiously advanced Lucius is identified with Apuleius. Accordingly, I see the Metamorphoses as a didactic novel about the right and wrong ways of life. (shrink)