In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Giving an Account of OneselfChris LundbergGiving an Account of Oneself. Judith Butler. New York: Fordham University Press, 2005. Pp. x + 149. $18.95, softcover.Giving an Account of Oneself, Judith Butler's recent foray into moral philosophy, is a lucid interrogation of the problem of responsibility in the wake of contemporary critiques of the subject. In it, Butler moves beyond her concern with the conditions of subjectivity and its performances (...) towards a fuller consideration of life with others. Butler proffers an answer to the problem of post-subjective responsibility that resonates with the best elements of the rhetorical traditions, [End Page 329] though perhaps Butler's project might also benefit from a more thorough engagement with the problem of rhetoric in its specificity.Though works such as Gender Trouble earned a reputation (perhaps unfairly) for being theoretically dense to the point of obscurity, Giving an Account of Oneself is clearly and elegantly argued. Butler's argument is that moral philosophy relies on the ability of subjects to give an account of themselves and their actions. Such an account seems difficult in the face of blistering critiques of an autonomous, self-possessed, transparent, and naturally given subject of intention. How can one affirm responsibility in the post-subjective moment? As Butler puts it: "does the postulation of a subject who is not self-grounding … whose conditions of emergence can never fully be accounted for, undermine the possibility of responsibility and, in particular, of giving an account of oneself" (19)? What are the assumptions latent in critiques of the humanist subject that might deny the possibility of giving an account of oneself? Inspired by Foucault's interrogation of a naturalized truth of the subject, Lacan's account of a subject produced and dispossessed by the Symbolic Order, and Derrida's critique of presence, such critiques locate the subject as an effect of the operations of discourse, conceived broadly. Despite the force of these critiques, Butler claims that a view of the subject nested in and dispossessed by discourse provides possibilities for ethics. Butler's reframing of ethics draws on two assumptions that underwrite "post" accounts of the subject: that the subject is both an effect of discourse and of differential relation to others.The first assumption is that a subject produced within discourse is also a subject that is dependent on and interpenetrated by others. Drawing on her continuing engagement with Hegel, the work of Adriana Cavarero, Levinas's conception of alterity and Laplanche's theory of seduction, Butler argues that the subject is endowed with a "fundamental sociality" (33). The markers of fundamental sociality differ for each of these theorists: Hegel relies on the concept of recognition; Cavarero appropriates Arendt's space of appearance; Levinas argues for the priority of an ethical relation to the other over ontology; and Laplanche conceives of the emergence of subjectivity as a primal seduction of a child by the adult world. But each of these framings of the subject is united by a basic commitment that subjects are produced in relation to others both as a generative point and as a horizon.The second assumption is that when a subject dependent on other subjects attempts to give an account of itself, it does so within a structure of address. A subject makes a claim for itself only in the presence of others—an account of oneself both aims at the self but also simultaneously aims at presenting the self to another. On this reading, accounts of oneself are not transparent descriptions [End Page 330] of a subject's interiority: rather, an account of oneself must be a narrative, a discursive gathering of the self that can never fully recover the conditions of its emergence. Narrative is not simply a mode of communicating the content and intentions of a self to the other. Narrative is simultaneously the precondition for a subject naming and providing retroactive order to its own subjectivity. But where there are narratives, there is always the risk of narrative closure, or that the narrative is repeated without interruption. Put in terms of Butler's concern with ethics, is there not always a risk that a narrative becomes a self... (shrink)

Most research on the corporate philanthropy of organizations has focused on the external benefits of such initiatives for firms, such as benefits for firm reputation and opportunities. However, many firms justify their giving, in part, due to the positive impact it has on their employees. Little is known about the effectiveness of such efforts, or how they can be managed strategically to maximize impact. We hypothesize a main effect of office-level corporate philanthropy on average employee attitudes in that office, but (...) also investigate three strategies that offices may use to enhance this impact. Testing our hypotheses with 3 years of data on attitudes of an average of 14,577 employees in 53 offices we find support for the main effect, but mixed support for the specific strategies used to enhance impact. (shrink)

In recent years, we have seen a new concern with ethics training for research and development professionals. Although ethics training has become more common, the effectiveness of the training being provided is open to question. In the present effort, a new ethics training course was developed that stresses the importance of the strategies people apply to make sense of ethical problems. The effectiveness of this training was assessed in a sample of 59 doctoral students working in the biological and social (...) sciences using a pre–post design with follow-up and a series of ethical decision-making measures serving as the outcome variable. Results showed not only that this training led to sizable gains in ethical decision making but also that these gains were maintained over time. The implications of these findings for ethics training in the sciences are discussed. (shrink)

In this paper, we report on the development and validity of the Professional Decision-Making in Research measure, a vignette-based test that examines decision-making strategies used by investigators when confronted with challenging situations in the context of empirical research. The PDR was administered online with a battery of validity measures to a group of NIH-funded researchers and research trainees who were diverse in terms of age, years of experience, types of research, and race. The PDR demonstrated adequate reliability and parallel form (...) correlation. As hypothesized, the PDR was significantly negatively correlated with narcissism, cynicism, moral disengagement, and compliance disengagement; it was not correlated with socially desirable responding. In regression analysis, the strongest predictors of higher PDR scores were low compliance disengagement, speaking English as a native language, conducting clinical research with human subjects, and low levels of narcissism. Given that the PDR was written at an eighth grade reading level to be suitable for use with English as a second language participants and that only one-fourth of items focused on clinical research, further research into the possible roles of culture and research ethics training across specialties is warranted. This initial validity study demonstrates the potential usefulness of the PDR as an educational outcome assessment measure and a research instrument for studies on professionalism and integrity in research. (shrink)

In the closing moments of Phaedrus, Socrates announces rhetoric's last gasp: "And now the play is played out; and of rhetoric enough" (2006, 69). Of course, news of rhetoric's death has been greatly exaggerated. Indeed, the death and subsequent rebirth of rhetoric have been declared countless times, and debates surrounding the nature and character of rhetoric— from antiquity through the renaissance and even into the modern day— seem to continue almost interminably. In the contemporary context, such debates often flow inexorably (...) from a constitutive indecision that marks rhetorical studies's complicated relationship to a foundational definition of rhetoric. More often than not, after a brief foray into debates .. (shrink)

In this paper, we report on the development and validity of the Professional Decision-Making in Research measure, a vignette-based test that examines decision-making strategies used by investigators when confronted with challenging situations in the context of empirical research. The PDR was administered online with a battery of validity measures to a group of NIH-funded researchers and research trainees who were diverse in terms of age, years of experience, types of research, and race. The PDR demonstrated adequate reliability and parallel form (...) correlation. As hypothesized, the PDR was significantly negatively correlated with narcissism, cynicism, moral disengagement, and compliance disengagement; it was not correlated with socially desirable responding. In regression analysis, the strongest predictors of higher PDR scores were low compliance disengagement, speaking English as a native language, conducting clinical research with human subjects, and low levels of narcissism. Given that the PDR was written at an eighth grade reading level to be suitable for use with English as a second language participants and that only one-fourth of items focused on clinical research, further research into the possible roles of culture and research ethics training across specialties is warranted. This initial validity study demonstrates the potential usefulness of the PDR as an educational outcome assessment measure and a research instrument for studies on professionalism and integrity in research. (shrink)

The recently published ‘Scientific Review’ by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport about transwomen’s participation in female sport doesn’t deserve its name; it is wholly unscientific. This publication follows a familiar pattern. The body is not important anymore when it comes to categorisation and eligibility in sport; instead, it’s all about a psychological phenomenon: gender identity. This side-lining of the body (which makes the side-lining of female athletes and the inclusion of male-born athletes possible) is now reinforced by an (...) attack on the bio-medical sciences. (shrink)

Successfully navigating the norms of a society is a complex task that involves recognizing diverse kinds of rules as well as the relative weight attached to them. In the United States, different kinds of rules—federal statutes and regulations, scientific norms, and professional ideals—guide the work of researchers. Penalties for violating these different kinds of rules and norms can range from the displeasure of peers to criminal sanctions. We proposed that it would be more difficult for researchers working in the U.S. (...) who were born in other nations to distinguish the seriousness of violating rules across diverse domains. We administered a new measure, the evaluating rules in science task, to National Institutes of Health-funded investigators. The ERST assessed perceptions of the seriousness of violating research regulations, norms, and ideals, and allowed us to calculate the degree to which researchers distinguished between the seriousness of each rule category. The ERST also assessed researchers’ predictions of the seriousness that research integrity officers would assign to the rules. We compared researchers’ predictions to the seriousness ratings of 112 RIOs working at U.S. research-intensive universities. U.S.-born researchers were significantly better at distinguishing between the seriousness of violating federal research regulations and violating ideals of science, and they were more accurate in their predictions of the views of RIOs. Acculturation to the U.S. moderated the effects of nationality on accuracy. We discuss the implications of these findings in terms of future research and education. (shrink)

Drawing on social identity theory and organizational identification theory, we develop a model of the impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on employees’ organizational identification. We argue that employees’ perceptions of their company’s social responsibility behaviors are more important than organizational reality in determining organizational identification. After defining perceived corporate social responsibility (PCSR), we postulate how PCSR affects organizational identification when perception and reality are aligned or misaligned. Implications for organizational practice and further research are discussed.

_Arne Næss and Ingemar Hedenius as Dramatic Intellectuals: A Case Study for a Shared Theory of the Sociology of Knowledge and the History of Knowledge_ In terms of their substantive research interests and their epistemological approach, the sociology of knowledge and the history of knowledge show significant enough similarities to allow shared theory development. In this article, I argue that the recent work by Jeffrey C. Alexander on ‘dramatic intellectuals’ can offer a useful point of departure for such an undertaking. (...) Alexander’s interest in the way intellectuals provide meaning-making narratives for their audiences can be seen as not unlike the interest of historians of knowledge in examining how knowledge circulates in society. Indeed, one can go as far as to claim Alexander’s postulates about dramatic intellectuals to constitute a theory of knowledge circulation. To demonstrate the point and the relevance of his work to the sociology and history of knowledge more in general, two brief case studies are presented: that of the Norwegian philosopher Arne Næss and that of the Swedish philosopher Ingemar Hedenius. Many of their activities in the early post-war period, it is shown, can be viewed as attempts at meaning-construction through narratives formulated to help the broader public orient itself in the world in difficult times. The argument is made that the sociology of knowledge and the history of knowledge need, accordingly, to pay more attention to the central category of meaning in the study of intellectuals and their audiences. This can be profitably done by departing from the observation of Alexander’s that what enables knowledge to circulate in society is its dramatic conveyance through well-formulated meaning-making narratives that help social actors make sense of their circumstances. (shrink)

In the past decades a large number of students have taken courses and degrees in Gender Studies around Europe and proceeded to find employment. This article is based on a quantitative and qualitative study carried out in 2012 of Gender Studies students in Sweden, their education and employment. The design of the study was inspired by a large European research project investigating Women’s Studies in Europe and concerned with the motives for doing Gender Studies among Swedish students, as well as (...) who the students were, how they evaluated their Gender Studies education and what work they proceeded to after they left the university. In this article the results are discussed in terms of dilemmas: between Gender Studies’ critique of neoliberalism, employability and the former students’ wishes to be employed, and their evaluation of their studies and employment. The Swedish study is also compared with previous research in order to understand general and particular traits in Swedish Gender Studies education and employment. Analysis points to interesting contradictions within Gender Studies in relation to the labor market, student groups and employability. (shrink)

This essay explores ethical foundations for meeting the digital challenge via a case study of the work, life, and virtues of the greatest mathematician and natural scientist of the eighteenth century, Leonhard Euler. By biography and history one can learn of the gifts of human strength, practices, good will, dependence on others, and friendships which made possible Euler’s own astonishing corpus of work and that of many other scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technologists. Digital technology results from a combination of science (...) (demonstrable knowledge and method), technology, engineering, and art (forms and artifacts of making and expressing), and mathematics (abstract numerical, algebraic, geometrical, formal, and digital concepts, rules, representations, and logics). Joint reflection on the biographical, historical, and natural sources of mathematics and the digital is essential for any humanization or ascesis in response to the perils and promises of digital technology for human thriving. As ethics enable and embody an ethos, so technologies are means and manifestations of a telos. Thus, thought and action for thriving through the digital needs to contemplate and conciliate the ends of humans and of the digital. (shrink)

Ovaj rad usmjeren je na proučavanje prijateljskih odnosa unutar razrednog odjela. Odnosi među vršnjacima izuzetno su važni u školskom razdoblju, a nedostatak ili trajne teškoće u prijateljskim odnosima mogu se reflektirati na uspjeh učenika, usvajanje nastavnih sadržaja, sliku učenika o sebi, socijalni status i socijalni uspjeh itd. Cilj empirijskog dijela rada je ispitati kvalitetu prijateljskih odnosa unutar razrednog odjela u kategoriji ‘najbolji prijatelj’. Iz cilja istraživanja proizašla su tri istraživačka pitanja: Kakav je profil prijateljskih odnosa u kategoriji ‘najbolji prijatelj’? Kako (...) izgleda hijerarhijska struktura dimenzija kvalitete prijateljstva u ponuđenim kategorijama? Koje karakteristike opisuju najboljeg prijatelja i idealnog prijatelja? Rezultati istraživanja utvrđuju dva profila: opći te profil blizine i roditeljske uključenosti. Utvrđivanje hijerarhijske strukture ukazalo je na važnost brige i priznanja te pouzdanosti i rješavanja problema. Vrh hijerarhijske ljestvice zauzimaju dimenzije priznanja i pouzdanosti. Kao najznačajnije karakteristike koje opisuju najboljeg prijatelja ističu se razgovor i zajedničko provođenje vremena, povjeravanje i pomoć, a u idealnom prijateljstvu izdvajaju se moralne vrijednosti prijatelja. This paper focuses on studying friend relationships in the classroom. Relationships between peers are exceptionally important in school age, and a lack of such relationships or continued difficulties with them can reflect on student successes, learning outcomes, and student perceptions of self, social status, social success, etc. The goal of the empirical part of the research was to examine the quality of friend relationships within the classroom in the category of ‘best friend’. Three research questions arose from the research goal: What is the profile of friend relationships in the category of ‘best friend’? What is the hierarchical structure of the quality dimensions of friendship in the categories offered? Which characteristics describe one’s best friend and the ideal friend? The results of research affirm two profiles – a general one, and the profile of closeness and parental involvement. The affirmation of hierarchical structure pointed to the importance of care and recognition and reliability and problem solving. The highest point in the hierarchy is held by the dimensions of recognition and reliability. The most significant characteristics that describe one’s best friend include conversation and spending time together, trust and aid; the moral values of the friend are exemplified in an ideal friendship. (shrink)

This paper focuses on studying friend relationships in the classroom. Relationships between peers are exceptionally important in school age, and a lack of such relationships or continued difficulties with them can reflect on student successes, learning outcomes, and student perceptions of self, social status, social success, etc. The goal of the empirical part of the research was to examine the quality of friend relationships within the classroom in the category of ‘best friend’. Three research questions arose from the research goal: (...) What is the profile of friend relationships in the category of ‘best friend’? What is the hierarchical structure of the quality dimensions of friendship in the categories offered? Which characteristics describe one’s best friend and the ideal friend? The results of research affirm two profiles – a general one, and the profile of closeness and parental involvement. The affirmation of hierarchical structure pointed to the importance of care and recognition and reliability and problem solving. The highest point in the hierarchy is held by the dimensions of recognition and reliability. The most significant characteristics that describe one’s best friend include conversation and spending time together, trust and aid; the moral values of the friend are exemplified in an ideal friendship. (shrink)

Researchers encounter challenges that require making complex professional decisions. Strategies such as seeking help and anticipating consequences support decision-making in these situations. Existing evidence on a measure of professional decision-making in research that assesses the use of decision-making strategies revealed that NIH-funded researchers born outside of the U.S. tended to score below their U.S. counterparts. To examine potential explanations for this association, this study recruited 101 researchers born in the United States and 102 born internationally to complete the PDR and (...) measures of basic personal values, values in scientific work, discrimination between the seriousness of rules in research, exposure to unprofessional research practices, and acculturation to American culture. Several variables were associated with PDR scores—discrimination between types of rules in research, exposure to unprofessional research practices, acculturation, and the basic personal values of power, security, and benevolence. However, only security, benevolence, acculturation, and rule discrimination were also associated with nation of origin. In multivariate models, the variance explained by these variables in accounting for the association of nation of origin and PDR scores was somewhat overlapping, thus, only security and benevolence remained as unique, statistically significant predictors. Thus, this study identified some important variables in the association of nation of origin and PDR, but more research is needed. In a secondary analysis to examine the “clinical significance” of scores on the PDR, this study examined aggregated PDR score data from the present sample and past samples of investigators. This analysis identified scores that may suggest a concern versus those scores that may be interpreted as excellent, proficient, or marginal. Implications for training and mentoring, along with considerations for future research are discussed. (shrink)

Ovaj rad predstavlja prikaz članka »Recepcija časopisa Praxis u Slovačkoj« slovačkog filozofa Andreja Kopčoka, koji je objavljen u časopisu Filozofia 2005. godine. Kopčokov članak opširno govori o početku upoznavanja s »praxis-filozofijom« u Slovačkoj, višegodišnjoj suradnji slovačkih filozofa s glavnim protagonistima tog filozofskog usmjerenja, odjeku što ga je ta suradnja imala u Slovačkoj, posebno ukoliko je riječ o razvoju filozofske misli s obzirom na političke i društvene prilike što su vladale u Slovačkoj u vremenu od 60-ih godina XX. stoljeća nadalje.This paper (...) is an account of the article “The Reception of the Praxis Journal in Slovakia” by Slovak philosopher Andrej Kopčok, which was published in 2005 in the Filozofia journal. Kopčok’s article expounds on the beginnings of reception of “praxis philosophy” in Slovakia, yearlong cooperation of Slovak and Czech philosophers with the protagonists of that philosophical orientation, and the responses of that cooperation in Slovakia, especially with regard to the development of philosophical thought concerning political and social circumstances in Slovakia since the 1960s. (shrink)

Philosophy and science fiction are two separate discourses that use counter-intuitive scenarios in two distinct ways. Where philosophy endeavours to ground counter-intuitive scenarios, science fiction as a transmedial fictional genre acts in a pragmatic and exploratory manner by seeking to imagine what it would be like if they were real. In this paper, I analyse David Cronenberg’s science fiction film eXistenZ, and defend two theses. The critical-theoretical thesis: Cronenberg thinks society is being gamified and seeks to dramatise the process of (...) gamification along with its pitfalls. The metaphysical thesis: Cronenberg’s diegetic world brings about a new articulation of the scepticism as an old philosophical problem. An attempt to excavate the metaphysical presuppositions of this work reanimates Cartesian interactionist dualism and Kantian transcendental idealism, as two well-known philosophical positions. (shrink)

This article presents the phenomenon of the refugee, as Hannah Arendt experienced it, to show its paradigmatic function. This was done by a philosopher Giorgio Agamben who tried to show the concept of a refugee as paradigmatic in sense that it has power to change the current theoretical concepts of political philosophy. The main thesis of the article is that not only the concept of refugee can serve as a paradigm, but many others so the emphasis of this article is (...) on a theoretical meaning and a conceptual productivity of a paradigm. In the context of a Forum Junge Theologie and its main theme »transgressions — Grenzüberschreitungen«, the concept of a paradigm is presented as a border–concept. Concept of a refugee as a border concept becomes a paradigm and in that way it can criticize the contemporary concepts such as state, citizenship and human rights and facilitate a new understanding of the society. The article, after presenting the argumentation of Agamben’s interpretation of the concept of a refugee as a paradigm, ends with thoughts about possible ways of overcoming of the border, which man had defined. Maybe this can be achieved by new appreciation of a human as such and not only as a citizen. The realities of state would remain in some way, but the understanding of the border between states should be reconsidered and changed. (shrink)

How to improve clinical practice and, in particular, that of physical therapy? Currently, several strategies are used which all fit the label scientification. These scientific strategies have to make physical therapy''s clinical practice more homogeneous. Sometimes this homogenization is thought to be necessary for other strategies of innovation including effectiveness research. But it has also been suggested that more homogeneity in the clinic is already itself an improvement. In this article we comment on these strategies. More specifically, we direct our (...) attention at attempts in physical therapy to establish a uniform, generally adopted scientific language. We argue that these attempts fail to appreciate the specificity of therapeutic work. The effectiveness research that follows is therefore liable to take irrelevant variables into account. We illustrate this argument with examples taken from analyses of diverging therapies for stroke patients. (shrink)

The author considers Rousseau’s concept of the general will to be the categorical groundwork of the modern understanding of democracy, and its transposition from the natural-legal to the social context, as well as its being built into the legal foundation of both social and political life to be the turning point at which the history of democracy is divided into two epochs. In the first section of the article the author reconstructs the prehistory of the concept of democracy based on (...) Herod, Plato and Aristotle’s views. He then identifies the significant changes in the concept and true role of democracy, which emerged in the century of the French Revolution, and differentiates between the concepts of general and common will in order to establish the moral dimension of democracy, in the light of which he focuses on Rousseau’s political philosophy. In the final section the author turns to partitocracy as one of the possible perversion forms of democracy. In doing so, he limits himself to the “transitional type” of systematic partitocracy, which emerged within the framework of the historical phenomenon of Post-Communism. Within this context, as an alternative theoretical approach to explaining Post-Communism – i.e. the prevalent theory of transition – the author opposes the theory of Post-Communist chaos. (shrink)

Raspravu o pluralizmu u području filozofije autor otvara razlikovanjem institucionalne i supstancionalne razine filozofskog pluralizma. Dok se institucionalni pluralizam odnosi na vanjske uvjete i okolnosti mišljenja i obilježava otvorenost i neutralnost filozofskih institucija, supstancionalni pluralizam izražava odnos prema istini kao imanentnom cilju svakog mišljenja. U tom odnosu pluralizam gubi svaki smisao, jer se istina može pluralizirati samo u svojim aspektima, pa se, sukladno tome, i supstancijalni pluralizam može odraziti kao pluralizam perspektiva . Pluriperspektivizam se, u razlici prema relativističkom perspektivizmu, pobliže (...) određuje kao integrativni perspektivizam, odnosno kao interaktivno povezivanje perspektiva u metodološkom obrascu stvaranja orijentacijskog znanja. Paradigma orijentacijskog znanja, koja se artikulira u protuteži prema monoperspektivizmu novovjeke znanosti, postaje tako duhovnim obilježjem nove epohe. U članku se ekspliciraju kategorijalna razlikovanja "objektne i smisaone istine" , te s druge strane "uporabnog i orijentacijskog znanja" , kako bi se prijelom svjetskopovijesnih epoha mogao izraziti ne samo sredstvima teorije istine nego istodobno obrazložiti i na epistemološkoj razini.Die Diskussion über den Pluralismus im Bereich der Philosophie eröffnet der Autor mit der Unter-scheidung zwischen einer institutionalen und einer substantiellen Ebene innerhalb des philosophischenPluralismus. Während sich der institutionale Pluralismus auf die äußeren Bedingungenund Umstände des Denkens bezieht sowie die Offenheit und Neutralität philosophischer Institutionencharakterisiert, bringt der substantielle Pluralismus den Bezug zur Wahrheit als das immanenteZiel allen Denkens zum Ausdruck. In diesem Bezug verliert der Pluralismus jeglichen Sinn,da die Wahrheit nur in ihren Aspekten pluralisiert werden kann, sodass demgemäß der substantiellePluralismus nur als ein Pluralismus von Perspektiven vertretbar ist. ImUnterschied zum relativistischen Perspektivismus wird der Pluriperspektivismus als ein integrativerPerspektivismus bestimmt bzw. als ein interaktives Verknüpfen von Perspektiven nach einem metho-dologischen Verfahren zur Erzeugung von Orientierungswissen. Das Paradigma des Orientierungs-wissens, das sich als Gegengewicht zum Monoperspektivismus der neuzeitlichen Wissenschaft artikuliert,wird so zum geistigen Merkmal der neuen Epoche. Der Verfasser expliziert die kategorialeUnterscheidung zwischen »Objekt- und Sinnwahrheit« einerseits und zwischen»Verfügungs- und Orientierungswissen« andererseits, welche die weltgeschichtlicheEpochenwende nicht nur mit den Mitteln der Wahrheitstheorie zum Ausdruck bringen, sondernsie zugleich auch auf epistemologischer Ebene begründen soll. (shrink)

Na primjeru Utopije morala Karla Alberta i Elenor Jain, autor pokazuje razliku između ontološke etike kao metafizičke etike i svih drugih prošlih i suvremenih etika kao nemetafizičkih. Središnja pretenzija ontološke etike kao aktualne etike primjerene vremenu ležiu tome da ona može nadmašiti specifičnosti pojedinačnih kultura i pokazati fundament etičkog mišljenja i djelovanja, koji prevladava razdvajajuće elemente tradiranih moralnih predodžaba ili religioznih normi te obraća pažnju na ono zajedničko što ljudi i narodi doživljavaju kao iskustvo bitka, u smislu ontološke misli, od (...) Parmenida i Platona do Heideggera i Lavellea. Nasuprot tom prenaglašavanju Platonove idealističke linije u europskoj praktičnoj filozofiji, autor ovoga rada ukazuje na druge smjerove europske filozofije, te posebno ističe Aristotelovu philosophia anthropina kao nemetafizičku praktičnu filozofiju u smislu jedinstva etike i politike, neovisno o metafizici. Dok Albert i Jain zagovaraju bliskost etike i estetike, te u smislu modernog globalizma povezuju europsku filozofiju s izvaneuropskom mitološkom i metafizičkom mudrošću, autor ovoga rada ukazuje na Gadamerovu interpretaciju odnosa phronesisa i sophiae u VI. knjizi Aristotelove Nikomahove etike i naHeideggerovu fundamentalnu ontologiju, ne kao metafiziku, nego kao hermeneutičku praktičnu filozofiju, da bi na tragu Finkove interpretacije VII. knjige Platonove Države pokazao mogućnost drukčijeg tumačenja odnosa dokse i episteme od onoga što ga pružaju Albert i Jain, kako kod samoga Platona tako i u transcendentalnoj fenomenologiji životnog svijeta kod kasnoga Husserla. Jer suvremenom globalnom svijetu više je potrebna nemetafizička praktična filozofija – kao povijesnom svijetu života primjereno mišljenje – negoli metafizička etika i mitologija.Am Beispiel von Die Utopie der Moral von Karl Albert und Elenor Jain zeigt der Verfasserden Unterschied zwischen einer ontologischen Ethik als einer metaphysischen Ethik und allenanderen vergangenen und gegenwärtigen Ethiken als nicht-metaphysischen Ethiken. Der Hauptanspruchder ontologischen Ethik als einer aktualen und der Zeit angemessenen Ethik liegtdarin,dass sie die Eigenartigkeiten der einzelnen Kulturenübergreifenund das Fundamentumdesethischen Denkens und Handelns aufweisen kann, das die trennendenElemente der tradiertenMoralvorstellungen oder religiösenNormen aufhebt und die Aufmerksamkeitauf dasGemeinsamelenkt, welches die Menschen und die Völker als Seinserfahrung erleben – im Sinnedesontologischen Gedankens von Parmenides und Platon bis Heidegger und Lavelle. Im Gegensatzzu dieser überbetonten idealistischen Linie Platons in der europäischenpraktischenPhilosophieweist der Verfasserdieser Arbeitauf die anderenStrömungen der europäischenPhilosophiehin und hebt insbesonderedie aristotelische philosophia anthropinaals nicht-metaphysischepraktische Philosophie im Sinne der Einheit von Ethik und Politik hervor,die vonderMetaphysik unabhängig ist. WährendAlbertund Jain die Nähe von Ethik und Ästhetik befürwortenund im Sinne des modernen Globalismus die europäischePhilosophie mit der außereuropäischenmythologischen und metaphysischen Weisheitverbinden, verweist der VerfasserdieserArbeitauf Gadamers Interpretationdes Verhältnissesvon phronesisund sophia im VI.Buchder NikomachischenEthik vonAristotelesund auf die Fundamentalontologie Heideggers–aufgefasst nicht als eine Metaphysik, sondern als hermeneutische praktische Philosophie. AufdenSpurender Fink’schenInterpretationdes VII. Buches von Platons Staat zeigt der Verfassersodannauf, dass eine andereMöglichkeit zur Deutung des Verhältnissesvon Doxe und Epistemebestehtals jene, die von Albertund Jain befürwortet wird,sowohl bei Platon selbst als auch inderTranszendentalphänomenologieder Lebenswelt beim späten Husserl. Denn die globale WeltderGegenwart braucht mehr eine nicht-metaphysische praktische Philosophie und ein der geschichtlichenLebenswelt angemessenes Denken als eine metaphysische Ethik und Mythologie. (shrink)

The appearance of consciousness in the universe remains one of the major mysteries unsolved by science or philosophy. Absent an agreed-upon definition of consciousness or even a convenient system to test theories of consciousness, a confusing heterogeneity of theories proliferate. In pursuit of clarifying this complicated discourse, we here interpret various frameworks for the scientific and philosophical study of consciousness through the lens of social insect evolutionary biology. To do so, we first discuss the notion of a forward test versus (...) a reverse test, analogous to the normal and revolutionary phases of the scientific process. Contemporary theories of consciousness are forward tests for consciousness, in that they strive to become a means to classify the level of consciousness of arbitrary states and systems. Yet no such theory of consciousness has earned sufficient confidence such that it might be actually used as a forward test in ambiguous settings. What is needed now is thus a legitimate reverse test for theories of consciousness, to provide internal and external calibration of different frameworks. A reverse test for consciousness would ideally look like a method for referencing theories of consciousness to a tractable model system. We introduce the Ant Colony Test as a rigorous reverse test for consciousness. We show that social insect colonies, though disaggregated collectives, fulfill many of the prerequisites for conscious awareness met by humans and honey bee workers. A long lineage of philosophically-neutral neurobehavioral, evolutionary, and ecological studies on social insect colonies can thus be redeployed for the study of consciousness in general. We suggest that the ACT can provide insight into the nature of consciousness, and highlight the ant colony as a model system for ethically performing clarifying experiments about consciousness. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Philologus Jahrgang: 160 Heft: 2 Seiten: 197-216.

Velaquí un libro que fala do home actual e do seu mundo. Da vida como camiño con encrucilladas. Encrucilladas que levan a filosofía actual a buscar na linguaxe unha nova forma de supervivencia. Unha modalidade de encontro no inestable conflito de interpretacións dos múltiples discursos sobre a realidade. Camiñantes aborda os problemas derivados da globalización, a violencia e a soidade do home contemporáneo.

The appearance of consciousness in the universe remains one of the major mysteries unsolved by science or philosophy. Absent an agreed-upon definition of consciousness or even a convenient system to test theories of consciousness, a confusing heterogeneity of theories proliferate. In pursuit of clarifying this complicated discourse, we here interpret various frameworks for the scientific and philosophical study of consciousness through the lens of social insect evolutionary biology. To do so, we first discuss the notion of a forward test versus (...) a reverse test, analogous to the normal and revolutionary phases of the scientific process. Contemporary theories of consciousness are forward tests for consciousness, in that they strive to become a means to classify the level of consciousness of arbitrary states and systems. Yet no such theory of consciousness has earned sufficient confidence such that it might be actually used as a forward test in ambiguous settings. What is needed now is thus a legitimate reverse test for theories of consciousness, to provide internal and external calibration of different frameworks. A reverse test for consciousness would ideally look like a method for referencing theories of consciousness to a tractable (and non-human) model system. We introduce the Ant Colony Test (ACT) as a rigorous reverse test for consciousness. We show that social insect colonies, though disaggregated collectives, fulfill many of the prerequisites for conscious awareness met by humans and honey bee workers. A long lineage of philosophically-neutral neurobehavioral, evolutionary, and ecological studies on social insect colonies can thus be redeployed for the study of consciousness in general. We suggest that the ACT can provide insight into the nature of consciousness, and highlight the ant colony as a model system for ethically performing clarifying experiments about consciousness. (shrink)

Aaron Antonovsky, the medical sociologist, defined the sense of coherence as a pervasive sense that the events in one’s life are comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful or worthwhile. Research on the sense of coherence indicates that it is positively correlated with resilience and adaptive coping with disabilities and illnesses. The collection of first–person narratives published in Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics on genetic testing can be understood as expressions of the human effort to restore or sustain a sense of coherence in the (...) face of illness, uncertainty, or even curiosity about one’s origins and future wellbeing. While the medical usefulness of the genetic testing that was discussed in the collection of narratives was often modest, the contribution of testing to the sense of coherence was often greater. Understanding the sense of coherence as a possible motive for genetic testing might reshape the way that we conceive of the benefits and the burdens of genetic testing and the disclosure of incidental findings. (shrink)

Frances Kamm distinguishes between changes or enhancements that are made before a child exists (ex ante changes) and those that are made once a child exists (ex post changes), and she argues that ex ante changes do not show disrespect or, as Michael Sandel would put it, lack of love, for a person, since the person does not yet exist. In this paper, I argue that it is important to distinguish between ex ante enhancements that are morally (...) neutral and those that are morally dubious, and that the latter ones are morally objectionable even if the persons do not yet exist. (shrink)