This article provides an analysis of moral emotions from an attributional point of view, guided by the metaphors of man as a naïve scientist (Heider, 1958) and as a moral judge (Weiner, 2006). The theoretical analysis focuses on three concepts: (a) The distinction between the actor and the observer, (b) the functional quality of moral emotions, and (c) the perceived controllability of the causes of events. Moral emotions are identified (admiration, anger, awe, contempt, disgust, elevation, embarrassment, envy, gratitude, guilt, indignation, (...) jealousy, pity, pride, rage, regret, remorse, resentment, respect, schadenfreude, scorn, shame, and sympathy). A classification of these moral emotions is suggested and the empirical evidence briefly summarized. In discussing our results, we identify unresolved issues awaiting further analyses and research. (shrink)

This paper makes a conceptual inquiry into the notion of ‘publics’, and forwards an understanding of this notion that allows more responsible forms of decision-making with regards to technologies that have localized impacts, such as wind parks, hydrogen stations or flood barriers. The outcome of this inquiry is that the acceptability of a decision is to be assessed by a plurality of ‘publics’, including that of a local community. Even though a plurality of ‘publics’ might create competing normative demands, its (...) acknowledgment is necessary to withstand the monopolization of the process of technology appraisal. The paper presents four ways in which such an appropriation of publicness takes place. The creation of dedicated ‘local publics’, in contrast, helps to overcome these problems and allows for more responsible forms of decision-making. We describe ‘local publics’ as those in which stakeholders from the different publics that are related to the process of technology implementation are brought together, and in which concerns and issues from these publics are deliberated upon. The paper will present eight conditions for increasing the effectiveness of such ‘local publics’. (shrink)

Emotions are often met with suspicion in political debates about risky technologies, because they are seen as contrary to rational decision making. However, recent emotion research rejects such a dichotomous view of reason and emotion, by seeing emotions as an important source of moral insight. Moral emotions such as compassion and feelings of responsibility and justice can play an important role in judging ethical aspects of technological risks, such as justice, fairness, and autonomy. This article discusses how this idea can (...) be integrated into approaches for political decision making about risk. The article starts with an analysis of the dichotomous view of reason and emotion in risk theory, in approaches to participatory risk assessment as well as in relevant approaches to political philosophy. This article then presents alternative approaches in political philosophy and political theory that do explicitly endorse the importance of emotions. Based on these insights, a procedural approach for policy making is presented, in which emotional responses to technological risks, and the ethical concerns that lie behind them, are taken seriously. This approach allows for morally better political decisions about risky technologies and a better understanding between experts and laypeople. (shrink)

Für Meister Eckhart (um 1260 - um 1328) ist der Mensch als Ebenbild Gottes ein denkendes Wesen, wobei das Denken für ihn epistemologische und ontologische Relevanz hat. Diese Arbeit behandelt wesentliche Aspekte von Eckharts Denken, so seine Intellekttheorie, die theoontologische Wertung der Ichs, die Armut, die Liebe, die Zeit, das Nichts, das Glück und den Frieden.

Knowing that technologies are inherently value-laden and systemically interwoven with society, the question is how individual engineers can take up the challenge of accepting the responsibility for their work? This paper will argue that engineers have no institutional structure at the level of society that allows them to recognize, reflect upon, and actively integrate the value-laden character of their designs. Instead, engineers have to tap on the different institutional realms of market, science, and state, making their work a ‘hybrid’ activity (...) combining elements from the different institutional realms. To deal with this institutional hybridity, engineers develop routines and heuristics in their professional network, which do not allow societal values to be expressed in a satisfactory manner. To allow forms of ‘active’ responsibility, there have to be so-called ‘accountability forums’ that guide moral reflections of individual actors. The paper will subsequently look at the methodologies of value-sensitive design and constructive technology assessment and explore whether and how these methodologies allow engineers to integrate societal values into the design technological artifacts and systems. As VSD and CTA are methodologies that look at the process of technological design, whereas the focus of this paper is on the designer, they can only be used indirectly, namely as frameworks which help to identify the contours of a framework for active responsibility of engineers. (shrink)

Viktor von Weizsäcker (1886-1957) wird oft als einer der Begründer der psychosomatischen Medizin im deutschsprachigen Raum angeführt. Doch ist mit dieser Zuschreibung sein Versuch einer grundlegenden Reform der Medizin nur unzureichend charakterisiert. Im Zentrum des vorliegenden Bandes stehen daher Studien zu seiner anthropologischen Medizin und Sozialmedizin, die nicht nur «psycho-somatisch» ausgerichtet, sondern auch erkenntnis- und gesellschaftskritisch gefaßt waren. Dabei wird sowohl die Aktualität der Gedanken von Weizsäckers als auch ihr Zeitbezug und ihre Zeitbedingtheit, gerade in den Jahren zwischen 1933 und (...) 1945, deutlich. (shrink)

This section discusses mostly some unsolved problems. . . .I hope that some mathematicians who are interested in a classification of sets of real numbers, in particular sets with Lebesgue measure zero, will read it and try to find solutions for the problems here outlined.

New network technologies are framed as eliminating ‘transaction costs’, a notion first developed in economic theory that now drives the design of market systems. However, the actual promise of the elimination of transaction costs seems unfeasible, because of a cyclical pattern in which network technologies that make that promise create processes of institutionalization that create new forms transaction costs. Nonetheless, the promises legitimize the exemption of innovations of network technologies from critical scrutiny.

Despite the opening of the market and partial privatization of state‐owned companies in China, the state still represents the controlling shareholder in larger companies. By analyzing the weaknesses of Chinese corporate governance we illustrate the framework for harmful corruption. China is characterized by a weak legal system and strong influences of traditions such as guanxi. In this article we analyze the influence of guanxi on the Chinese corporate governance system. We find that guanxi is in general a double‐edged sword, but (...) business‐to‐government guanxi in particular can harm the weak Chinese corporate governance system and hamper its further economic development and growth. (shrink)

Der Gottinger Philosoph, Politiker und Padagoge Leonard Nelson (1882-1927) entwickelte eine umfassende integrale Theorie, die sich von der philosophischen Grundlegung uber eine Gesellschaftsanalyse bis zu einer politischen Programmatik hin erstreckte.Mit diesem Werk liegt eine erste umfassende, auf neuen Quellen basierende kritische Gesamtdarstellung der politischen Theorie Nelsons vor. Neben der Darstellung der Biographie Nelsons entwickelt der Autor dessen neukantianische Philosophie. In der Gesellschaftstheorie wird die Auseinandersetzung mit Liberalismus, Sozialismus und Kommunismus deutlich.Die Monographie basiert auf ausfuhrlichen Quellenstudien und bezieht eine kritische analysierende (...) Grundposition.Sie richtet sich an Historiker und Philosophen ebenso wie Politologen und politisch Interessierte allgemein.Der Verfasser lehrt als Privatdozent fur Politikwissenschaft an der Universitat Dortmund und hat mehrere historisch-politische Studien veroffentlicht. (shrink)

Einleitung -- Kindheit und Jugend im grossbürgerlichen Ambiente in Kiel, Cuxhaven und Lübeck -- Student und politischer Aktivist in Tübingen -- Doktorand in Berlin und die Beziehungen zu Aussenminister Gustav Stresemann -- Polltische und berufliche Aktivitäten in den Krisenjahren der Republik -- Wirtschaftspolitischer Amtsträger im Dritten Reich -- In der Regierung von Württemberg-Hohenzollern -- Professor für Politikwissenschaft an der Universität Tübingen -- "Öffentlicher Professor" sowie interner Berater und Kritiker -- Lebensabend : Familiäres, Krankheiten und die Fron des Memoirenschreibens -- Epilog.

The way pollution is managed in Western countries is based on the preservation of the taboo character of waste, which is conceived to be privately produced and seen as a threat to public health. Public authorities have been given the responsibility to isolate waste and hide it from public eyes. However, this dominant approach is challenged by the emergence of new forms of pollution. New conceptual and policy frameworks to manage environmental degradation have to be developed. The prevailing institutional structures, (...) however, obstruct the successful societal uptake of alternative frameworks. (shrink)