For forty years, acclaimed photographer and native Minnesotan Tom Arndt has been documenting the faces of Minnesota with unparalleled skill and candor. In Home, Arndt presents what he calls "a poem to my home state" through a series of poignant and compelling photographs that highlight the unique character of Minnesota. From Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis to Main Street in Willmar, from carnival workers at the state fair to drag racing fans in Anoka, and from small town street dances (...) to the sidewalks of Minneapolis, Home captures everyday life in the North Star State. By allowing people's lives to speak for themselves, Arndts photographs reveal the often forgotten moments that build common bridges across a diverse and ever-changing state. Enriched with more than 100 photographs, along with a personal and insightful preface by the author and a foreword by Garrison Keillor, Home is a landmark testimony to the people and culture of Minnesota. Arndt approaches his subjects - he would call them neighbors - with honesty, empathy, and humanity, and what emerges is a portrait of Minnesota that is at once achingly familiar and surprisingly new. (shrink)

Michael Peters, Sonja Arndt & Marek TesarThis is a collective writing experiment of PESA members, including its Executive Committee, asking questions of the Philosophy of Education in a New Key. Co...

Social robots are designed to perform intelligent, emotional, and autonomous behavior in order to establish intimate relationships with humans, for instance, in the context of elderly care. However, the imitation of qualities usually assumed to be necessary for human reciprocal interaction may impact our understanding of social interaction. Against this background, we compare the technical operations based on which social robots imitate human-like behavior with the concepts of emotionality, intelligence, and autonomy as usually attached to humans. In doing so, we (...) aim at making a conceptual contribution to the intuition that the technical imitation of emotional, intelligent, and autonomous behavior differs qualitatively from human forms of emotionality, intelligence, and autonomy. We conclude that the increasing tendency of social robots to imitate human characteristics and the thus increased human tendency of anthropomorphizing technical systems put forth new forms of human–machine interactions (HMI) that call for a critical examination. Thus, the emerging forms of interaction may lead, for instance, to false, reinforced, and perplexing assumptions regarding reciprocity. Therefore, studies are needed that critically examine the potential consequences and psychological effects that may be associated with the use of social robots, especially with regard to vulnerable groups such as children or the elderly. (shrink)

Corruption continues to be a considerable challenge for internationally active companies. In this article, we examine personal and socioenvironmental antecedents of corrupt behavior in organizations. In particular, we aim to illuminate the links between Machiavellianism, on-the-job experience with corrupt behavior at work, neutralization, and the attitude of business professionals toward corruption. The empirical analysis is based on the responses of 169 professionals. At first, a positive relationship between both Machiavellianism and on-the-job experience and the acceptance of corruption appears in the (...) model. However, an in-depth mediation analysis shows that neutralization is the keystone linking both Machiavellianism and on-the-job experience to the likelihood to condone corruption. Based on these results, we offer avenues for further research and implications for practitioners. (shrink)

Biobanks, collecting human specimen, medical records, and lifestyle-related data, face the challenge of having contradictory missions: on the one hand serving the collective welfare through easy access for medical research, on the other hand adhering to restrictive privacy expectations of people in order to maintain their willingness to participate in such research. In this article, ethical frameworks stressing the societal value of low-privacy expectations in order to secure biomedical research are discussed. It will turn out that neither utilitarian nor communitarian (...) or classical libertarian ethics frameworks will help to serve both goals. Instead, John Rawls’ differentiation of the “right” and the “good” is presented in order to illustrate the possibility of “serving two masters”: individual interests of privacy, and societal interests of scientific progress and intergenerational justice. In order to illustrate this counterbalancing concept with an example, the five-pillar concept of the German Ethics Council will be briefly discussed. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Naharaim Jahrgang: 12 Heft: 1-2 Seiten: 3-8.

Whether or not quantum physics can account for molecular structure is a matter of considerable controversy. Three of the problems raised in this regard are the problems of molecular structure. We argue that these problems are just special cases of the measurement problem of quantum mechanics: insofar as the measurement problem is solved, the problems of molecular structure are resolved as well. In addition, we explore one consequence of our argument: that claims about the reduction or emergence of molecular structure (...) cannot be settled independently of the choice of a particular resolution to the measurement problem. Specifically, we consider how three standard putative solutions to the measurement problem inform our under- standing of a molecule in isolation, as well as of chemistry’s relation to quantum physics. (shrink)

In 1922, philosopher Jakob Klatzkin and Zionist politician and later president of the World Jewish Congress, Nahum Goldmann founded the Eschkol publishing company in Berlin and began their major work on the Encyclopaedia Judaica. Eschkol was active during the Weimar Republic, where culture and politics were shaped by a Jewish renaissance and by the sustained migration of Jews from Eastern Europe. Most of the publisher’s books and brochures show emblematic historical ruptures and the migration of knowledge to new spaces, languages, (...) and cultures. This article analyzes Eschkol’s publications and cultural agenda from the perspective of a material culture of printed works, and focuses on its textbook program. It concentrates the discussion on the historian Simon Bernfeld and Jakob Klatzkin, two formative scholars of that period. (shrink)

Fifty years ago, on 12 September, 1963, the association agreement between the European Economic Community (EEC) and Turkey was signed in Ankara. However, in contrast to many other countries who applied later on, Turkey has not yet become a member of the EU. Nevertheless, Turkey’s candidacy to join the EU is still one of the most considerable and controversial topics within the European political arena. Within the accession negotiations, apart from human rights and the Kurdish and the Cypriot issues, one (...) of the greatest challenges to Turkey’s successful candidacy is the issue of respect for and protection of minorities. It might indeed represent an unsolvable problem, which will ultimately block Turkey joining the EU. Neither the EU nor Turkey has really come to terms or dealt with what the EU sees as an “unsatisfactory” protection of minorities in Turkey. What lies at the root of this disagreement is what the term “minority” actually means. Due to Turkey’s own nation state concept as being a united and undivided country and to the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne signed in 1923, which defined Turkey as a nation, the country only recognises non-Muslim minorities. Moreover, contrary to the wording of the minority protection clauses in the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey restricts its recognition of non-Muslim minorities only to the Greek, Armenian and Jewish religious populations. Although being a non-Muslim group as well, the Assyrians are excluded from the Turkish concept of minorities and, therefore, also from minority protection. In contrast to that, the EU’s concept of minority includes ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, which means that according to the EU’s concept of minorities, also ethnic minorities like the Kurds, linguistic minorities like the Laz and religious minorities like the Alevis are included in the term “minority” and, therefore, these minorities should benefit from specific minority protection rights. To find a common basis for discussing the unsatisfactory issue of minority rights in Turkey, the concept of “ethnic groups” is introduced by the author as the most promising approach to deal with this unreconciled conceptual difference. According to this concept, ethnic groups could form a sub-identity of Turkishness and help build a legal basis to the treatment of minority groups founded on human rights, which would be compatible with both Turkish and EU Law. (shrink)

Weltgeschichte ist, nach Hegel, Fortschritt im Bewusstsein der Freiheit. Das Prinzip der Freiheit geht jedoch auf seine Realisierung, wie Hegel vor allem im Blick auf das christliche Freiheitsprinzip zeigt. Das Freiheitsbewusstsein wird somit zur kritischen Instanz gegenuber der gesellschaftlich-politischen Wirklichkeit. Hegel nimmt damit das junghegelianische Programm der Verwirklichung der Philosophie vorweg, in dem jedoch das Konzept der Freiheitsgeschichte weitgehend durch eine Entfremdungsgeschichte ersetzt wurde. Karl Marx dagegen greift Hegels Konzept an der Problematik auf, die Hegel gesehen, aber fur die er (...) keine Losung hatte: dem Verlust der Freiheit und des Rechts fur grosse Teile der Bevolkerung durch die Entwicklung der kapitalistischen Okonomie. Marx, so die zentrale These des Buches, schreibt Hegels Konzept der Freiheitsgeschichte fort, wobei er, mit Hegel, die Verwirklichung der individuellen Freiheit als Bedingung der Freiheit aller in den Mittelpunkt stellt. Andreas Arndt ist Professor fur Philosophie an der Theologischen Fakultat der Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin; er ist seit 1992 Prasident der Internationalen Hegel-Gesellschaft e. V. (shrink)

The question ‘What is death?’ is by no means exclusively or primarily a question of medical science. It is, in the last analysis, a philosophical question. The philosopher’s role in the discussion of death is twofold: On the one hand, he has to explore those highly intelligible and essentially necessary aspects of death which no other human science investigates. This task includes a phenomenology of life and death, an ontology and metaphysics, as well as a philosophical anthropology of death. It (...) likewise includes an analysis of the language of death and life and of the logical structure of the arguments used in the debates about life and death. On the other hand the philosopher has to warn representatives of other disciplines against concluding too much from the little they know and extending their methods to areas where they are not appropriate. Careful reflection on both philosophical knowledge and philosophical ignorance concerning death shows, I shall argue, that the definition of death in terms of ‘brain death’ ought to be rejected. (shrink)

Vigilanz wird alltäglich ausgeübt, etwa im Bereich der Sicherheit, des Rechts, der Religionen oder auch der Öffentlichen Gesundheit: überall dort, wo wir auf etwas achten, gegebenenfalls auch etwas tun oder melden sollen. Der Münchner SFB 1369, in dem dieser Band entstanden ist, untersucht die Geschichte, kulturellen Varianten und aktuellen Formen dieses Phänomens nichtinstitutioneller, aber doch hochgradig funktionaler Wachsamkeit. Der erste Band der Publikationsreihe,Vigilanzkulturen' widmet sich der zeitlichen Dimension von Vigilanz. So wie menschliche Aufmerksamkeit erheblichen Schwankungen unterliegt, ist auch Wachsamkeit zeitlich (...) instabil. Die hohe physiologisch-kognitive Intensität von Wachsamkeit lässt sich nur schwer auf Dauer stellen. Wird über längere Zeit hinweg ein ereignisloses oder unstrukturiertes Geschehen beobachtet, sinkt die Aufmerksamkeit oder richtet sich auf anderes. Kulturelle Anleitungen zur Wachsamkeit arbeiten daher in der Regel selbst mit zeitlichen Strukturen: mit Rhythmisierungen, Habitualisierungen oder Dramatisierungen. Sie geben vor, in welcher Abfolge Wachsamkeit herauf- oder herabgestuft werden soll oder sie variieren denkbare Gefahren. Sie arbeiten mit natürlichen Zeitverläufen (wie Tag und Nacht, Licht und Dunkelheit), die sie, kulturell überformt, nutzbar machen. Darüber hinaus können auch Techniken und Medien helfen, Wachsamkeit zu verstetigen. Der Band untersucht diese zeitliche Gestaltung der Wachsamkeit anhand historisch spezifischer Konstellationen. Er versammelt Beiträge aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen wie Geschichte, Ethnographie, Kunstgeschichte, Literatur- und Medienwissenschaft, um die Zeiten der Wachsamkeit zu erforschen. (shrink)

This study aims to examine the perceptions of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff in English local government on the ethical nature of their treatment at work, and its mediating effect on their Public Service Motivation. This is a particular imperative in a sector which itself delivers social justice within a strong regulatory system designed to ensure workplace equality and therefore is expected to be a model employer for other organisations. Employees place great importance on their fair treatment by their (...) employers and, in particular, the endeavour of managerial authority to implement equality at work based on their discretionary powers. 2580 valid responses were collected from 15,000 questionnaires sent to staff in five local councils in England. Our analyses show that BAME employees have a significantly stronger PSM than their white colleagues; however, this has been eroded by their perception of unfair treatment: being underpaid allied with a lack of effort from management to ensure an equal work environment, to be specific, to prevent discrimination, bullying, and racism at workplace. Most importantly, the perceived exertion made by management to ensure an equal work environment has a significantly strong mediating effect on PSM and a compensational effect on perceived lower pay. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. (shrink)

The formation of blood vessels within the vascular system entails a variety of cellular processes, including proliferation, migration and differentiation. In many cases, these diverse processes need to be finely coordinated among neighbouring endothelial cells in order to establish a functional vascular network. For instance, during angiogenic sprouting specialized endothelial tip cells follow guidance cues and migrate extensively into avascular tissues while trailing stalk cells must stay connected to the patent blood vessel. The vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and Notch (...) signalling pathways have emerged as the major players in governing these different cellular behaviours. In particular, recent work indicates an important role for Notch signalling in determining how an endothelial cell responds to VEGF. In this review, we provide an overview of these biochemically distinct pathways and discuss how they may interact during endothelial cell differentiation and angiogenesis. BioEssays 30:303–313, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

In everyday situations, and particularly in some sport and working contexts, humans face an inherently unpredictable and uncertain environment. All sorts of unpredictable and unexpected things happen but typically people are able to skillfully adapt. In this paper, we address two key questions in cognitive science. First, how is an agent able to bring its previously learned skill to bear on a novel situation? Second, how can an agent be both sensitive to the particularity of a given situation, while remaining (...) flexibly poised for many other possibilities for action? We will argue that both the sensitivity to novel situations and the sensitivity to a multiplicity of action possibilities are enabled by the property of skilled agency that we will call metastable attunement. We characterize a skilled agent’s flexible interactions with a dynamically changing environment in terms of metastable dynamics in agent-environment systems. What we find in metastability is the realization of two competing tendencies: the tendency of the agent to express their intrinsic dynamics and the tendency to search for new possibilities. Metastably attuned agents are ready to engage with a multiplicity of affordances, allowing for a balance between stability and flexibility. On the one hand, agents are able to exploit affordances they are attuned to, while at the same time being ready to flexibly explore for other affordances. Metastable attunement allows agents to smoothly transition between these possible configurations so as to adapt their behaviour to what the particular situation requires. We go on to describe the role metastability plays in learning of new skills, and in skilful behaviour more generally. Finally, drawing upon work in art, architecture and sports science, we develop a number of perspectives on how to investigate metastable attunement in real life situations. (shrink)

Para el pensamiento especulativo de Hegel, parece que lo que desde Husserl y Alfred Schütz se llama «Lebenswelt» no tiene ningún significado sistemático especial. Justamente lo que se refiere a la conciencia del mundo de la vida parece mostrarse solo en su aspecto negativo: como modos de conocimiento deficitarios, contaminados de sensibilidad, como ausencia de la razón y de su concepto –como «no-razón»- y por tanto como renuncia a la razón. El saber inmediato en el sentido de la «creencia» de (...) Jacobi, cuyo concepto ciertamente se retrotrae de hecho a la filosofía del sentido común de Thomas Reid, es para Hegel –según la indicación del §63 de la Enciclopedia de 1830- «lo mismo que en otros lugares se llama inspiración, revelación en el corazón, contenido implantado por la naturaleza en el ser humano e incluso también, de modo particular, sano entendimiento humano, common sense, sentido común. Todas estas formas cumplen el mismo cometido: la inmediatez con que se encuentra un contenido en la conciencia, un hecho en su interior lo convierten en principio.». (shrink)

Patient RP suffers a unilateral right homonymous quadrant anopia but demonstrates better than chance discrimination for stimuli presented in the blind field at temporal frequencies between 33 and 47 Hz . Examination of her reports of visual experience during blind-field discrimination suggests a more complex picture in which experiences particular to correct discrimination are not found at low-mid-gamma frequencies, but are significantly more likely than average at a lower frequency at which blindsight is not observed. We believe that visual experience (...) may serve to support blindsight if discrimination tasks are generally impaired at frequencies outside of the low-mid-gamma band. If this is so, although generally experienced as non-specific and unstructured light, the visual experience that accompanies discrimination performance must be based upon a neural representation which includes information on the visual features present in the stimulus. (shrink)

There is a persisting debate about what chemical bonds are and whether they exist. I argue that chemical bonds are real patterns of interactions between subatomic particles. This proposal resolves the problems raised in the context of existing understandings of the chemical bond and provides a novel way to defend the reality of chemical bonds.

One of the most plausible and widely discussed examples of strong emergence is molecular structure. The only detailed account of it, which has been very influential, is due to Robin Hendry and is formulated in terms of downward causation. This paper explains Hendry’s account of the strong emergence of molecular structure and argues that it is coherent only if one assumes a diachronic reflexive notion of downward causation. However, in the context of this notion of downward causation, the strong emergence (...) of molecular structure faces three challenges that have not been met and which have so far remained unnoticed. First, the putative empirical evidence presented for the strong emergence of molecular structure equally undermines supervenience, which is one of the main tenets of strong emergence. Secondly, it is ambiguous how the assumption of determinate nuclear positions is invoked for the support of strong emergence, as the role of this assumption in Hendry’s argument can be interpreted in more than one way. Lastly, there are understandings of causation which render the postulation of a downward causal relation between a molecule’s structure and its quantum mechanical entities, untenable. (shrink)

Using an enactive approach to trail runners’ activity, this study sought to identify and characterize runners’ phenomenological gestalts, which are forms of experience that synthesize the heterogeneous sensorimotor, cognitive and emotional information that emerges in race situations. By an in-depth examination of their meaningful experiences, we were able to highlight the different typologies of interactions between bodily processes (e.g., sensations, pains), behaviors (e.g., actions, strategies) and environment (e.g., meteorological conditions, route profile). Ten non-professional runners who ran an ultra-trail running race (...) (330 kilometers, 24,000 meters of elevation gain) volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected in two steps: (1) collection of past activity traces (i.e., race maps, field notes and self-assessment scales) and (2) enactive interviews using the past activity traces in which the runners were invited to relive their experience and describe their activity. The enactive interviews were coded using the course-of-experience methodology to identify the phenomenological gestalts that emerged from activity and scaffolded the runners’ courses of experience. The results revealed that runners typically enact three phenomenological gestalts: controlling global ease, enduring general fatigue and experiencing difficult situations, and feeling freedom in the running pace. These phenomenological gestalts were made up of specific behaviors, involvements and meaningful situated elements that portrayed various ways of achieving an ultra-endurance performance in the race situation. They also highlighted how runners enact a meaningful world by acting in relation to the fluctuations in physical sensations and environmental conditions during an ultra-trail race. Practical applications for preparation, race management and sports psychology interventions are proposed to enrich the existing recommendations. In conclusion, this approach provides new research perspectives by offering a more holistic grasp of activity in trail running through an in-depth analysis of athletes’ experience. In doing so, we may expect that runners can connect these typical gestalts to their own personal experiences and stories as trail runners in order to sustain a viable approach to their sport. (shrink)