This article describes peace in history until modern times as a peace derived from the authority of government. The modern idea of peace is based on the agreement of partners contracting self-confidently. The Christian contribution to peace contains the strong will to make peace through the believing in God as the permanently inspiring spirit of reconciliation. With regard to the humanitarian interventions which are controversially seen according to international law the article shows cause, reason, conditions and aim to justify ethically (...) the procedure of interventions. (shrink)

Because genetic engineering greatly accelerates the cultivation of new breeds of plants and animals and because in nature all life is part of an integrated whole, great responsibility rests upon those pursuing genetic research. No one can know with certainty what might develop as the result of genetic manipulation. One therefore cannot merely assume that only negative or catastrophic developments are to be expected. Rather, uncertainty remains, and it is necessary to learn to work with this uncertainty, that is, to (...) work carefully, one step at a time, open to correction and trusting that God is able to bring about good even from efforts that have gone away. Then nature remains a living whole and retains its own dynamic despite human intervention. (shrink)

The right is founded in the freedom of the individual and cannot be considered as something collectively made up. It has no extemal reason. The positive law which enables the public realization of freedom and therefore can be understood as a gift of God is compulsory upon everybody. At the same time it depends on the consent of the individual. There is no right without consciousness of right and so without conscience.

This article deals with different kinds of family life and parenthood that have developed. It is pointed out that for their own and their child's sake the parents should regard their relationship as a Iasting commitment, so that a spirit ofreliability, mutual trust and love can grow. The ethical task in this respect is not so much that ofmeeting a mere demand but- since what is demanded for is, in the first place, a gift-tobe truly aware of one's commitment. The (...) article also reflects upon legal aspects and describes the law's task to support and stabilize the relations people undertake by becoming partners and parents. (shrink)

On the basic of a critique of the conventional theological ethic it is shown that the unconditional dignity of every human being, independent of status, thought and religion is grounded theologically in the freedom offaith. Human dignity, however, is wholly inconceivable ifit does not include the right oflife and human rights for every human being also. From this principle a theological term of modern )formal< law is developed and a critical comment is given on the current debate on the various (...) charters of human rights. (shrink)

The study inquires into the difference between the juridical and the theological understand of punishment and guilt. In a religious-ethical view the idea of repentance and forgiveness is determinative. In this perspective the author points out, that repentance excludes furthermore punishment, forgiveness offers and opens new prospects of human life.

Name der Zeitschrift: Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie Jahrgang: 60 Heft: 2 Seiten: 305-309.

Academic resistance in Nazi-Germany between 1941 and 1944 gives a rare example of an exceptional cooperation between scholars of economics, law, history an Protestant theology. Leading representatives of the ordo-liberal Freiburg school of eceonomics (W. Eucken, F. Böhm and others) joined forces with theologians to develop concepts for political, social and economic life in post-war Germany by ordinance of >Bekennende Kirche< represented by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This outstanding example of interdisciplinary thinking proved tobe influential in founding Germany's Social Market System. It (...) stands as a successful, yet singular, way of dialogue between theology and economics. (shrink)

This new and important study of semantic change examines how new meanings arise through language use, especially the various ways in which speakers and writers experiment with uses of words and constructions in the flow of strategic interaction with addressees. In the last few decades there has been growing interest in exploring systemicities in semantic change from a number of perspectives including theories of metaphor, pragmatic inferencing, and grammaticalization. Like earlier studies, these have for the most part been based on (...) data taken out of context. This book is the first detailed examination of semantic change from the perspective of historical pragmatics and discourse analysis. Drawing on extensive corpus data from over a thousand years of English and Japanese textual history, Traugott and Dasher show that most changes in meaning originate in and are motivated by the associative flow of speech and conceptual metonymy. (shrink)

This paper discusses the logical space of alternative conceptual engineering projects, with a specific focus on (1) the processes, (2) the targets and goals, and (3) the methods of such projects. We present an overview of how these three aspects interact in the contemporary literature and discuss those alternative projects that have yet to be explored based on our suggested typology. We show how choices about each element in a conceptual engineering project constrain the possibilities for the others, thereby giving (...) rise to distinct groupings of possible projects under the banner of conceptual engineering. We conclude with a critical reflection on the potential ethical issues that arise as a result of effectively putting conceptual engineering into practice. (shrink)

De Smet et al. (2018) propose that when functionally similar constructions come to overlap, analogical attraction may occur. So may differentiation, but this process involves attraction to other subnetworks and is both “accidental” and “exceptional”. I argue that differentiation plays a considerably more significant role than De Smet et al. allow. My case study is the development of the dative and benefactive alternations. The rise of the dative alternation (e.g., “gave the Saxons land” ∼ “gave land to the Saxons”) has (...) been shown to occur in later Middle English between 1400 and 1500 (Zehentner 2018). Building on Zehentner and Traugott (2020), the rise of the benefactive alternation (e.g., “build her a house” ∼ “build a house for her”) in Early Modern English c1650 is analyzed from a historical constructionalist perspective and compared with the rise of the dative alternation. The histories of the alternations exemplify the rise of functionally similar constructions that overlap, and show that differentiation from each other plays as large a role as attraction. Both attraction and differentiation occur at several levels of abstraction: verb-specific constructions, schemas and larger systemic changes. (shrink)

The world of disability theory is currently divided between those who insist it reflects a physical fact affecting life quality and those who believe disability is defined by social prejudice. Despite a dialogue spanning bioethical, medical and social scientific literatures the differences between opposing views remains persistent. The result is similar to a figure-ground paradox in which one can see only part of a picture at any moment. This paper attempts to find areas of commonality between the opposing camps, and (...) thus to rearrange the figures of the paradox at a fundamental level. The purpose is first to identify areas in which common ground can be achieved, and secondarily, to clarify the areas in which disagreement continues. While a general and unified theory of physical difference/disability is beyond the scope of this paper the result may advance that general goal. (shrink)

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Résumé Les affinités paradoxales que la recherche a pu pointer entre la « secte » philosophique épicurienne et la secte chrétienne dans les premiers siècles de notre ère sont rappelées puis examinées dans le détail du premier document attestant une rencontre précise entre les deux sectes, le récit des Actes des Apôtres qui montre Paul discutant avec les Épicuriens et les Stoïciens d’Athènes, puis nous restitue le discours de Paul devant l’Aréopage d’Athènes. Il apparaît que Paul se pose en philosophe (...) pour exposer sa doctrine en des termes jusqu’à un certain point compatibles avec une doctrine matérialiste voire polythéiste. (shrink)

In so far as the Tao Te Ching and the Chuang Tzu are life-philosophies, they are philosophies of solitude. My aim in the following pages is to explain and defend this claim, clarifying the distinctive kind of solitude that is taught by Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu.

The acceptance of military directives violating medical ethics and international covenants encouraged by the demonisation of the enemy by the US president in 2002 has effectively removed the right of medical personnel to refuse participation in internationally proscribed actionsMedicine and its traditional ethic of care is today a victim of the current conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, its uniquely humanising mission rejected by US President George W Bush and his advisors. In denying the applicability of international agreements guaranteeing medicine’s ecumenical (...) role in this conflict they have transformed medicine into just another weapon of tactical significance. The result, predictable in retrospect, has been to make military physicians and nurses complicit—actively or passively—in what Litton calls an “atrocity-producing situation”, resulting in detainee or prisoner abuse.1From the first revelations of detainee torture in US detention camps to recent allegations of continued abuse , the focus of international attention has shifted from the US prosecution of low ranking, non-commissioned military personnel to the context in which the atrocities they committed occurred. “No one up the chain of command has ever been held accountable for what is in these horrifying images,” Center for Constitutional Rights Director Bill Goodman said of recently published photographs of 2004 prisoner torture and abuse.2 “The situation in several areas violates international law and conventions on human rights and torture,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture following a 2006 investigation.3The denial of international law and convention involved the overt disavowal of covenants and conventions that for almost 150 years required medical personnel in the US military to act within the guidelines of a Hippocratic vision of medicine. To understand how fundamental this change has been requires a brief review of the history of medicine’s previously protected status and then a description of …. (shrink)