Prenatal diagnosis, especially noninvasive prenatal testing, has changed the experience of pregnancy, prenatal care and responsibilities in Israel and Germany in different ways. These differences reflect the countries' historical legacies, medico-legal policies, normative and cultural identities. Building on this observation, the contributors of this book present conversations between leading scholars from Israel and Germany based on an empirical bioethical perspective, analyses about the reshaping of 'life' by biomedicine, and philosophical reflections on socio-cultural claims and epistemic horizons of responsibilities. Practices and (...) discussions of reproductive medicine transform the concepts of responsibility and irresponsibility. (shrink)

Although birth marks the entrance of a human being into the world and establishes the very possibility of experience the philosophical implications of this event have been largely ignored in the history of thought. This is particularly troubling in phenomenology in general and in the work of Martin Heidegger in particular. While Heidegger raises the issue of birth he drops it very quickly on the path to defining Dasein''s existence as constituted from the standpoint of death, as being-towards-death. In this (...) paper I argue, contra Heidegger, that intentional existence can only be understood from the standpoint of birth. I begin by showing that intentionality inheres in a double difference that is fundamentally dependent on birth insofar as birth is an original differentiating from prenatal existence. I conclude with the argument that only a philosophy that regards Dasein from the standpoint of birth, as being-from-birth, can give an adequate account of humans as beings who live with others and who can initiate sense constitution and action. (shrink)

The concept of the ‘well-being of the child’ (like the ‘child’s welfare’ and ‘best interests of the child’) has remained underdetermined in legal and ethical texts on the needs and rights of children. As a hypothetical construct that draws attention to the child’s long-term welfare, the well-being of the child is a broader concept than autonomy and happiness. This paper clarifies some conceptual issues of the well-being of the child from a philosophical point of view. The main question is how (...) well-being could in practice acquire a concrete meaning and content for a particular issue or situation. A phenomenological-hermeneutic research perspective will be outlined that allows the child’s well-being to be elucidated and specified as an anthropological and ethical idea. It is based on a contextual understanding of generative relationships, a combination of the theory and practice of making sense, here described as ‘generative insight’, which could provide ethical guidance for decision making in families, legal practice, medicine or biomedical research. (shrink)

The contributors to this international volume take up questions about a phenomenology of time that begins with and attunes to gender issues. Themes such as feminist conceptions of time, change and becoming, the body and identity, memory and modes of experience, and the relevance of time as a moral and political question, shape Time in Feminist Phenomenology and allow readers to explore connections between feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and time. With its insistence on the importance of gender experience to the experience (...) of time, this volume is a welcome opening to new and critical thinking about being, knowledge, aesthetics, and ethics. (shrink)

Definition of the problemFrom an ethical point of view we analyse the ruling of the German Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G‑BA) of September 2019 to revise the guidelines about the coverage of noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPT) by mandatory health insurance, in order to include them under specified conditions. The decision contains four essential elements: a definition of the aim of NIPT testing (to avoid invasive testing), a criterion of access (test must be “necessary” for the pregnant woman to tackle (...) her individual situation), statements about the process of decision-making (after counselling by a physician and case by case) and a normative contextualization (termination of pregnancy under § 218 a German penal law) which is to be found in its explanations. There are tensions in the proposed model that oscillate about two axes: (1) The suffering that results from a possible birth of a child with trisomy or from not knowing about the genetic condition of the fetus can ultimately only be evaluated subjectively, from the perspective of the pregnant woman. (2) The meaning of an individual decision in the case-by-case model remains unclear because when judging about individual cases general points of view also need to be considered. However, we argue that the model of the G‑BA could be a sociopolitically and ultimately also ethically defensible pragmatic solution, exactly because of its paradoxes and its inherent flexibility. (shrink)

Die allogene Transplantation von Blutstammzellen aus dem Körper von Kindern, die der Spende nicht selbst zustimmen können, in den Körper eines kranken Geschwisterkindes wirft schwierige ethische Fragen auf. Wie kann ein risikobehafteter, fremdnütziger medizinischer Eingriff ethisch gerechtfertigt werden? In dieser Arbeit werden Argumente kritisch untersucht, nach denen das Spenderkind eine Pflicht habe, bei der Transplantation mitzumachen. Die Idee der Pflicht ist nachvollziehbar aus der Perspektive der Eltern, die zwar in einem Fürsorgekonflikt sind (ein Kind zu Gunsten der Rettung des anderen (...) verletzen zu müssen), aber selbst eine Pflicht haben, für das Leben des kranken Kindes zu kämpfen. Eine Analyse des Pflichtbegriffs zeigt jedoch, dass die Erfüllung einer Pflicht daran gebunden ist, entscheidungskompetent zu sein. Drei Wege werden untersucht, eine solche Pflicht dennochzuzuschreiben: i) die Eltern übertragenihre Pflicht auf das Kind; ii) die Interessen des Spenderkindes implizieren eine Pflicht; iii) Geschwisterkinder haben aufgrund ihrer vertrauten Familienbeziehungen Pflichten untereinander, die auch die Pflicht zu spenden beinhalten. Alle drei Zuschreibungsstrategien werden als unhaltbar kritisiert. Das Ergebnis lautet, dass die Pflicht, einem Geschwisterkind Körpergewebe zu spenden, einem nicht-einwilligungsfähigen Kind nicht zugeschrieben werden kann. Andere philosophische Ansätze zur Stammzellspende von Kindern an Familienangehörige müssten entwickelt und geprüft werden. (shrink)

Die allogene Transplantation von Blutstammzellen aus dem Körper von Kindern, die der Spende nicht selbst zustimmen können, in den Körper eines kranken Geschwisterkindes wirft schwierige ethische Fragen auf. Wie kann ein risikobehafteter, fremdnütziger medizinischer Eingriff ethisch gerechtfertigt werden? In dieser Arbeit werden Argumente kritisch untersucht, nach denen das Spenderkind eine Pflicht habe, bei der Transplantation mitzumachen. Die Idee der Pflicht ist nachvollziehbar aus der Perspektive der Eltern, die zwar in einem Fürsorgekonflikt sind (ein Kind zu Gunsten der Rettung des anderen (...) verletzen zu müssen), aber selbst eine Pflicht haben, für das Leben des kranken Kindes zu kämpfen. Eine Analyse des Pflichtbegriffs zeigt jedoch, dass die Erfüllung einer Pflicht daran gebunden ist, entscheidungskompetent zu sein. Drei Wege werden untersucht, eine solche Pflicht dennochzuzuschreiben: i) die Eltern übertragenihre Pflicht auf das Kind; ii) die Interessen des Spenderkindes implizieren eine Pflicht; iii) Geschwisterkinder haben aufgrund ihrer vertrauten Familienbeziehungen Pflichten untereinander, die auch die Pflicht zu spenden beinhalten. Alle drei Zuschreibungsstrategien werden als unhaltbar kritisiert. Das Ergebnis lautet, dass die Pflicht, einem Geschwisterkind Körpergewebe zu spenden, einem nicht-einwilligungsfähigen Kind nicht zugeschrieben werden kann. Andere philosophische Ansätze zur Stammzellspende von Kindern an Familienangehörige müssten entwickelt und geprüft werden. (shrink)

Responsibility is central to Emmanuel Levinas as well as Hannah Arendt. A reading of their understanding of the concept and role of responsibility for politics and ethics and in regard to its social-ontological status of primacy, its reference to historical, worldly, and human conditions, brings out the similarities and differences of their work. Regarding their historical context, they could have engaged in a dialogue; but they never did. Their personal temperament and thematic approach to key issues concerning the concept of (...) responsibility—such as subjectivity, primordiality, or relationality—can be used to build pillars for a bridge between the two thinkers’ respective approaches. This essay tries to read each author in light of the other one. (shrink)

The laughter of the Thracian handmaid. About the ›unworldliness‹ of philosophy. Interpreting Plato’s story of the Thracian handmaid, this essay focuses on questions concerning the supposition of an opposition between common sense and philosophical thinking. Taking the laughter of the maid seriously the author discusses the role of laughter for Plato’s approach. By reevaluating the function of laughter she argues for its strength in revealing ideological thinking or an undisclosed hypothesis, and in enabling philosophical thinking. Thus, the author argues that (...) the alliance of laughter and thinking unsettles the state of being enclosed in ideology, everydayness or thoughtlessness, and both distances and unsettles human beings. And hence, it may free us to pose again the question as to how we are thinking what. (shrink)

Obwohl Elternschaft in der Geschichte der Philosophie kein zentrales Thema darstellt, spielt sie doch in einigen Debatten und Beiträgen eine wichtige Rolle. Dabei variiert die Schwerpunktsetzung zwischen dem äußeren Verhältnis der Elternschaft zu Staat und Gesellschaft und der Analyse innerfamiliärer Beziehungen. Im Folgenden geben wir zunächst einen kurzen historischen Überblick, um sodann auf Einzelprobleme und fragen einer philosophischen Analyse des Themas Elternschaft einzugehen. Hierzu gehören neben einer Rekonstruktion der grundlegenden konzeptionellen Struktur von Elternschaft, die Themenbereiche Rechte und Pflichten, Verantwortung sowie (...) Liebe und Sorge. (shrink)

Die allogene Transplantation von Blutstammzellen aus dem Körper von Kindern, die der Spende nicht selbst zustimmen können, in den Körper eines kranken Geschwisterkindes wirft schwierige ethische Fragen auf. Wie kann ein risikobehafteter, fremdnütziger medizinischer Eingriff ethisch gerechtfertigt werden? In dieser Arbeit werden Argumente kritisch untersucht, nach denen das Spenderkind eine Pflicht habe, bei der Transplantation mitzumachen. Die Idee der Pflicht ist nachvollziehbar aus der Perspektive der Eltern, die zwar in einem Fürsorgekonflikt sind (ein Kind zu Gunsten der Rettung des anderen (...) verletzen zu müssen), aber selbst eine Pflicht haben, für das Leben des kranken Kindes zu kämpfen. Eine Analyse des Pflichtbegriffs zeigt jedoch, dass die Erfüllung einer Pflicht daran gebunden ist, entscheidungskompetent zu sein. Drei Wege werden untersucht, eine solche Pflicht dennochzuzuschreiben: i) die Eltern übertragenihre Pflicht auf das Kind; ii) die Interessen des Spenderkindes implizieren eine Pflicht; iii) Geschwisterkinder haben aufgrund ihrer vertrauten Familienbeziehungen Pflichten untereinander, die auch die Pflicht zu spenden beinhalten. Alle drei Zuschreibungsstrategien werden als unhaltbar kritisiert. Das Ergebnis lautet, dass die Pflicht, einem Geschwisterkind Körpergewebe zu spenden, einem nicht-einwilligungsfähigen Kind nicht zugeschrieben werden kann. Andere philosophische Ansätze zur Stammzellspende von Kindern an Familienangehörige müssten entwickelt und geprüft werden. (shrink)

Interpreting Plato's story of the Thracian handmaid, this essay focuses on questions concerning the supposition of an opposition between common sense and philosophical thinking. Taking the laughter of the maid seriously the author discusses the role of laughter for Plato's approach. By reevaluating the function of laughter she argues for its strength in revealing ideological thinking or an undisclosed hypothesis, and in enabling philosophical thinking. Thus, the author argues that the alliance of laughter and thinking unsettles the state of being (...) enclosed in ideology, everydayness or thoughtlessness, and both distances and unsettles human beings. And hence, it may free us to pose again the question as to how we are thinking what. (shrink)

To explore how cultural beliefs are reflected in different popular views of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis for human leukocyte antigen match (popularly known as “savior siblings”), we compare the reception and interpretations, in Germany and Israel, of the novel/film My Sister’s Keeper. Qualitative analysis of reviews, commentaries and posts is used to classify and compare normative assessments of PGD for HLA and how they reproduce, negotiate or oppose the national policy and its underlying cultural and ethical premises. Four major themes emanated (...) from the comparison: loss of self-determination and autonomy; loss of dignity through instrumentalization; eugenics and euthanasia; and saving life. In both countries, most commentaries represented a dominant position, with a few negotiated positions. We also highlight the decoding of a relatively less explored bioethical aspect of My Sister’s Keeper’s narrative, namely the meaning of euthanasia. We conclude by discussing how the findings relate to attempts of providing cultural explanations for the regulation of HLA-PGD. (shrink)

Kaum eine zweite moderne Wissenschaft weckt im gleichen Ausmass Hoffnungen und Angste wie die Biotechnologie. Neben der Hoffnung, durch die Entschlusselung des menschlichen genetischen Codes, die Moglichkeit der Veranderung des Erbgutes und Reduplikation von Stammzellen entscheidende Fortschritte in der Diagnostik und Therapie von Krankheiten zu machen, steht die Angst vor einem Missbrauch dieses neuen Wissens. Einer Moralphilosophie, die sich nicht auf die Exegese historischer Texte reduzieren lassen will, bietet sich hier ein wichtiges neues Aufgabenfeld: Sie ist gefordert, vorausschauend die ethischen (...) Grenzen und Notwendigkeiten menschlichen Handelns neu zu beurteilen und zu begrunden. Dieser Sammelband will Diskussionen anregen und vertiefen, indem er unterschiedliche Positionen, konkurrierende philosophische, theologische und naturwissenschaftliche Begrundungs- und Argumentationsmodelle aufzeigt und kritisch aufeinander bezieht.". (shrink)

The routinization of prenatal diagnosis is the source of bioethical and policy debates regarding choice, autonomy, access, and protection. To understand these debates in the context of cultural diversity and moral pluralism, we compare Israel and Germany, focusing on two recent repro-genetic “hot spots” of such policy-making at the beginning of life: pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and non-invasive prenatal genetic testing, two cutting-edge repro-genetic technologies that are regulated and viewed very differently in Germany and Israel, reflecting different medicolegal policies as well (...) as public and bioethical considerations. First, we compare policy-making in the context of PGD for HLA typing, used to create sibling donors, approved in Israel under specific conditions while prohibited in Germany. Second, we compare policy-making in the context of NIPT, which came under fire in Germany, while in Israel there has been little public debate about it. Both countries justify their contrasting policies as reflecting a concern for the well-being and care of the embryo/child, thus highlighting different concepts of embryo/child protection, autonomy, family relations, and the impact of religion and history on the promotion/protection of life. We use the juxtaposition of PGD and NIPT to highlight some inconsistencies in policies concerning the protection of extra- and intra-corporeal embryos. We conclude by drawing on the comparison to show how national variations exist alongside co-evolution. (shrink)

This paper offers an account of recognition and its relation to knowledge. One important observation is that while ‘know’ is a stative verb, ‘recognize’ is an achievement verb. A second is that ‘recognize’ is knowledge entailing, both when combined with a complementizer phrase and when combined with a noun phrase. The behavior of the latter kind of construction is particularly subtle and is the main focus of this paper. This paper ends with an interesting puzzle about object recognition.

Ways of Living Religion provides a philosophical analysis of different types of religious experience, focusing on the lived experience of religion rather than mere statements of belief or doctrine. Christina M. Gschwandtner distinguishes between experiences by examining their defining features, showing their continuity with human experience.

This collection highlights the important role of the topic of revelation in the work of Paul Ricœur. It discusses his biblical hermeneutics and his philosophical hermeneutics of the self on such topics as identity, trauma, or forgiveness, and also puts him in conversation with other thinkers on the topic of revelation.

When it’s time for a game change, you need a guide to the new rules. Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices provides a play-by-play understanding of the practices strand of A Framework for K–12 Science Education (Framework) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Written in clear, nontechnical language, this book provides a wealth of real-world examples to show you what’s different about practice-centered teaching and learning at all grade levels. The book (...) addresses three important questions: 1. How will engaging students in science and engineering practices help improve science education? 2. What do the eight practices look like in the classroom? 3. How can educators engage students in practices to bring the NGSS to life? Helping Students Make Sense of the World Using Next Generation Science and Engineering Practices was developed for K–12 science teachers, curriculum developers, teacher educators, and administrators. Many of its authors contributed to the Framework’s initial vision and tested their ideas in actual science classrooms. If you want a fresh game plan to help students work together to generate and revise knowledge—not just receive and repeat information—this book is for you. (shrink)

Addressing God -- Approaching God -- Experiencing God -- Receiving God -- Worshipping God -- Manifesting God.

Microaggressions are a new moral category that refers to the subtle yet harmful forms of discriminatory behavior experienced by members of oppressed groups. Such behavior often results from implicit bias, leaving individual perpetrators unaware of the harm they have caused. Moreover, microaggressions are often dismissed on the grounds that they do not constitute a real or morally significant harm. My goal is therefore to explain why microaggressions are morally significant and argue that we are responsible for their harms. I offer (...) a conceptual framework for microaggressions, exploring the central mechanisms used for identification and the empirical research concerning their harm. The cumulative harm of microaggressions presents a unique case for understanding disaggregation models for contributed harms, blame allocation, and individual responsibility within structural oppression. Our standard moral model for addressing cumulative harm is to hold all individual contributors blameworthy for their particular contributions. However, if we aim to hold people responsible for their unconscious microaggressions and address cumulative harm holistically, this model is inadequate. Drawing on Iris Marion Young's social connection model, I argue that we, as individual perpetrators of microaggressions, have a responsibility to respond to the cumulative harm to which we have individually contributed. (shrink)

In this paper, I present and explore some ideas about how factive emotional states and factive perceptual states each relate to knowledge and reasons. This discussion will shed light on the so-called ‘perceptual model’ of the emotions.

Each case study defines:The dilemma in questionThe context of the organizational/management settingThe conditions that create the dilemmaThe courses of action ...

I analyse the 2014 policy to promote 'British values' in schools from the perspective of the two main positions in contemporary liberal theory, comprehensive liberalism and political liberalism. I highlight in what ways comprehensive and political liberal defences of the policy are unsatisfactory, before briefly sketching a possible alternative position – ‘thin comprehensive liberalism’ – and discussing its potential for justifying a substantive education in liberal values. In light of this theoretical perspective, I suggest some ways that the existing British (...) values policy might be amended in practice so as to bring it more in line with the liberal ideal. (shrink)

How do people decide which claims should be considered mere beliefs and which count as knowledge? Although little is known about how people attribute knowledge to others, philosophical debate about the nature of knowledge may provide a starting point. Traditionally, a belief that is both true and justified was thought to constitute knowledge. However, philosophers now agree that this account is inadequate, due largely to a class of counterexamples (termed ‘‘Gettier cases’’) in which a person’s justified belief is true, but (...) only due to luck. We report four experiments examining the effect of truth, justification, and ‘‘Gettiering’’ on people’s knowledge attributions. These experiments show that: (1) people attribute knowledge to others only when their beliefs are both true and justified; (2) in contrast to contemporary philosophers, people also attribute knowledge to others in Gettier situations; and (3) knowledge is not attributed in one class of Gettier cases, but only because the agent’s belief is based on ‘‘apparent’’ evidence. These findings suggest that the lay concept of knowledge is roughly consistent with the traditional account of knowledge as justified true belief, and also point to a major difference between the epistemic intuitions of laypeople and those of philosophers. (shrink)

A unique take on death and bereavement without a belief in God or an afterlife Accepting death is never easy, but we don't need religion to find peace, comfort, and solace in the face of death. In this inspiring and life-affirming collection of short essays, prominent atheist author Greta Christina offers secular ways to handle your own mortality and the death of those you love.

According to one understanding of the problem of dirty hands, every case of dirty hands is an instance of moral conflict, but not every instance of moral conflict is a case of dirty hands. So, what sets the two apart? The dirty hands literature has offered widely different answers to this question but there has been relatively little discussion about their relative merits as well as challenges. In this paper I evaluate these different accounts by making clear which understanding of (...) concept distinctness underlies them and which of them is, ultimately, the most plausible one in the case of dirty hands and ordinary moral conflict. In order to do so, I will borrow from the terminology employed in recent debates in the philosophy of evil which have tackled a similar problem to the one at hand, i.e. defining what sets evil apart from ordinary wrongdoing. Here it has been argued that concepts could be distinct in three ways: they can have a quantitative difference, a strong qualitative or a moderate qualitative difference. I conclude that the most convincing definition of dirty hands draws a moderate qualitative distinction between ordinary moral conflict according to which dirty hands are those moral conflicts that involve a serious violation or betrayal of a core moral value. (shrink)

As technology continues to advance, the use of computers and the Internet in educational environments has immensely increased. But just how effective has their use been in enhancing children's learning? In this thought-provoking book, Christina E. Erneling conducts a thorough investigation of scholarly journals articles on how computers and the Internet affect learning.

Within the rarefied world of art collecting, connoisseurship signifies esoteric knowledge used to judge the quality, exclusivity, desirability and even authenticity of art. As this collection of essays demonstrates, however, connoisseurship is not confined to the art world but rather practised in a variety of settings by elites and consumers alike. This volume presents a fresh approach to connoisseurship, creating a broad international dialogue about its meaning and application. It ranges across such diverse fields as consumer history, sociology and ethnography, (...) earth science, forensic science and art history. It demonstrates that connoisseurship can be both intuitive and scientific, utilizing comparison and tied to measures of value and market dynamics. (shrink)

English summary: It seems that reason is less a universal principle than something inherently bound to the contexts in which it appears. These contributions to a conference held on the occasion of Christoph Schwobel's 60th birthday explore the character of reason's manifold contexts: the grounding of reason in the inner word of God 's Trinitarian life as well as the disclosure of reason and and its limits in human conversation. German description: Vernunft scheint in der Gegenwart weniger ein allgemeines Prinzip (...) als eine in Kontexte eingebundene Grosse zu sein. Die Beitrage einer Tagung anlasslich von Christoph Schwobels 60. Geburtstag, gehen der Frage nach dem Charakter dieser Kontextbindung nach: der Begrundung der Vernunft im trinitarischen Gesprach wie der Erschliessung und Problematisierung der Vernunft im menschlichen Gesprach. Mit Beitragen von V. Brummer, G. van den Brink, C. Drobe, H. J. Eckstein, D.-M. Grube, J. Halfwassen, S. Heine, F. Hermanni, E. Herms, W. Harle, W. Homolka, W. Jeanrond, R. W. Jenson, D. Kelsey, A. F. Koch, A. Kupsch, V. Leppin, P.-C. Lai, P. Lo, A. Min, J. Moltmann, M. Muhling, P. Peterson, M. Sarot, F. Schweitzer, A. Torrance, J. Webster, M. Welker, M. Wendte, M. Wisse, H. Wisskirchen und L. Zak. (shrink)

Der Band wagt eine Wiederentdeckung der politischen Philosophie Arthur Schopenhauers, die als "Pessimistischer Liberalismus" ausgewiesen wird: Das metaphysisch begründete Leiden von Mensch und Tier bildet den Kern seines liberalen Staatsverständnisses, dessen Fundament das Misstrauen wider Welt und Existenz ist.