This case is designed to help students analyze decision making from various ethical perspectives and to use stakeholder analysis. The case perspective is that of the CEO of Degussa AG, a multispecialty chemical company, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. Degussa is considering whether to submit a bid to supply its anti-graffiti coating, Protectosil ® , for a new Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe being planned for Berlin. Degussa’s ethical dilemma is that a former Degussa subsidiary, Degesch, manufactured and supplied (...) the Zyklon B nerve gas used by the Nazis to kill Jews in the concentration camps during World War II. Although Degussa has made attempts both to acknowledge and to atone for its war-time Nazi collaboration, public disclosure of its bid has the potential to engulf Degussa in controversy when activists and Jewish leaders learn of it. Students are asked to evaluate the bid’s benefits and costs to Degussa’s stakeholders, to consider the relevance of a company’s historical legacy to contemporary decision making, and to explore how German corporate history during and after the Holocaust has parallels to human rights issues in other countries. (shrink)

This accessible and highly readable book is the first full-length biography of Hegel to be published since the largely outdated treatments of the nineteenth century. Althaus draws on new historical material and scholarly sources about the life and times of this most enigmatic and influential of modern philosophers. He paints a living portrait of a thinker whose personality was more complex than is often imagined, and shows that Hegel's relation to his revolutionary times was also more ambiguous than is (...) usually accepted. Althaus presents a broad chronological narrative of Hegel's development from his early theological studies in Tubingen and the associated unpublished writings, profoundly critical of the established religious orthodoxies. He traces Hegel's years of philosophical apprenticeship with Schelling in Jena as he struggled for an independent intellectual position, up to the crowning period of influence and success in Berlin where Hegel appeared as the advocate of the modern Prussian state. Althaus tells a vivid story of Hegel's life and his intellectual and personal crises, drawing generously on the philosopher's own words from his extensive correspondence. His central role in the cultural and political life of the time is illuminated by the impressions and responses of his contemporaries, such as Schelling, Schleiermacher and Goethe. This panoramic introduction to Hegel's life, work and times will be a valuable resource for scholars, students and anyone interested in this towering figure of philosophy. (shrink)

Empirical research on public opinion has tended to misjudge the normative rationales for modern democracy. Although it is often presumed that citizens' policy preferences are the opinions of interest to democratic theorists, and that democracy requires a highly informed citizenry, neither of these premises represents a dominant position in mainstream democratic theory. Besides incorrect assumptions about major tenets of democratic theory, empirical research on civic engagement is running into dead ends that will require normative analysis to overcome. Bringing political philosophy (...) back in to the study of public opinion can not only remedy shortcomings in the empirical literature, but can also underscore how relevant that literature is for a wide range of problems in democratic practice. (shrink)

Althaus-Reid describes her work, Indecent Theology, as a reflection on sexuality from the perspective of an Argentinian liberation theology, critical queer theory and a theology of camp self-disclosure. As such, it is a diasporic, postcolonial theology concerned to critique accepted ideas of essentialism and to question theology's status as a universal discourse. Althaus-Reid responds to the suggestions and criticisms of the panel members and views her ongoing project as one of doing queer theology from a 'non-vanilla' Argentinian perspective (...) and with a vision for queer holiness in theology. (shrink)

This article examines the connections between a theory of redemption as indebtedness and the wider political/economic realities of indebtedness. In order to illustrate the argument the author demonstrates why it is necessary to even question the roots of theories since they too carry a wider agenda. The author contrasts a debt economy with an economy of love.

This case explores the ethical dilemmas faced by Wolfgang Thierse and other board members of the Memorial Foundation for the Murdered Jews of Europe. They must decide whether Degussa AG, a memorial subcontractor, can continue working on the memorial, despite Swiss andGerman media reports that a former subsidiary of Degussa’s, named Degesch, manufactured and supplied the nerve gas that killed Jews and other individuals in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The board’s decision is complicated by negative publicity the memorial has received, (...) by the fact that Degussa has already applied its anti-graffiti coating to some of the pillars that form the memorial’s main design, and by questions of whether the board exercised due diligence when Degussa was originally proposed as a project subcontractor. Students are asked to help Thierse reach a personal decision about Degussa’s continued participation and, in his role as board chair, formulate a discussion strategy for the upcoming, potentially volatile board meeting. (shrink)

On August 30, 2013, the American Political Science Association sponsored a roundtable on political epistemology as part of its annual meetings. Co-chairing the roundtable were Jeffrey Friedman, Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin; and Hélène Landemore, Department of Political Science, Yale University. The other participants were Scott Althaus, Department of Political Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Mark Bevir, Department of Political Science, University of California at Berkeley; Rogers Smith, Department of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania; and (...) Susan Stokes, Department of Political Science, Yale University. We thank the participants for permission to republish their remarks, which they subsequently edited for clarity. (shrink)

The rapid evolution of drug resistance remains a major obstacle for HIV therapy. The capacity of the virus for recombination is widely believed to facilitate the evolution of drug resistance. Here, we challenge this intuitive view. We develop a population genetic model of HIV replication that incorporates the processes of mutation, cellular superinfection, and recombination. We show that cellular superinfection increases the abundance of low fitness viruses at the expense of the fittest strains due to the mixing of viral proteins (...) during virion assembly. Moreover, we argue that whether recombination facilitates the evolution of drug resistance depends critically on how resistance mutations interact to determine viral fitness. Contrary to the commonly held belief, we find that, under the most plausible biological assumptions, recombination is expected to slow down the rate of evolution of multi‐drug‐resistant virus during therapy. BioEssays 26:180–188, 2004. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This case explores the ethical dilemmas faced by Wolfgang Thierse and other board members of the Memorial Foundation for the Murdered Jews of Europe. They must decide whether Degussa AG, a memorial subcontractor, can continue working on the memorial, despite Swiss andGerman media reports that a former subsidiary of Degussa’s, named Degesch, manufactured and supplied the nerve gas that killed Jews and other individuals in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The board’s decision is complicated by negative publicity the memorial has received, (...) by the fact that Degussa has already applied its anti-graffiti coating to some of the pillars that form the memorial’s main design, and by questions of whether the board exercised due diligence when Degussa was originally proposed as a project subcontractor. Students are asked to help Thierse reach a personal decision about Degussa’s continued participation and, in his role as board chair, formulate a discussion strategy for the upcoming, potentially volatile board meeting. (shrink)

We may well be witnessing a decisive event in the history of knowledge as diversity is becoming one of the premier values of late modern societies. We seek to preserve and foster biodiversity, neurodiversity, racial diversity, ethnic diversity, gender diversity, linguistic diversity, cultural diversity, and perspectival diversity. Perspectival diversity has become the passage point through which other forms of diversity must pass to become epistemically consequential. This article examines how two of its varieties, viewpoint diversity and educational diversity, have come (...) to transform the moral economy of science. Both aim at multiplying perspectives on a given subject, but their political subtexts differ markedly. The valorization of educational diversity followed a US Supreme Court decision in 1978 that enabled universities to advance social justice, if they justified race-conscious admissions in terms of the pedagogic benefits of a more diverse student body for all. By contrast, the proponents of viewpoint diversity aim at the reform of scientific knowledge production and distribution rather than the reallocation of status and power among different social groups. We examine the political epistemology of viewpoint diversity by analyzing a controversy between social psychologists who, amid the American culture wars of the 2010s, debated how to rein in their political biases in a scientific field supposedly lacking political diversity. Out of this scientific controversy grew Heterodox Academy, an activist organization promoting viewpoint diversity in higher education. By relating and comparing viewpoint and educational diversity, we clarify what is at stake epistemically in the US-centric moral economy of diversity. (shrink)

Excerpt from Frömmigkeit und Sittlichkeit nach Evangelischer Auffassung Werde und somit eine in sich selbstständige, nach immanenten Gesetzen frei sich entfaltende sittliche Lebensgestaltung begründe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the (...) original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

Two fundamental paradigms are in conflict. Expert systems are the creation of the artificial intelligence paradigm which presumes that an objective reality can be understood and controlled by an individual expert intelligence that can be replaced by machinery. The alternative paradigm assumes that reality is the subjective product of human beings striving to collaborate through shared norms and experiences, a process that can be assisted by but never replaced by computers. The first paradigm is appropriate in the domains of natural (...) science and mathematics but dangerous in social sciencet business and, especially, the law. Expert systems are constructed on the basis of a number of metaphysical assumptions that are invalid in the legal domain. These assumptions are assimilated through a number ofcommonplace metaphors that guide the thoughts of the majority of people entering the computing field who are usually trained in first paradigm subjects such as mathematics and the natural science. This inappropriate paradigm hinders our progress in the field of computers and law. We need to adopt a socially orientated view of tbe nature of reality, of language, of meaning, of intelligence, and of reasoning. It will be easier then to build computer systems to facilitate social interactions in the legal domain and easier to understand why boxes that try to imitate legal expertise are intrinsically fraudulent. (shrink)

This article examines what it is to think through queer eyes, that is what may queer theory offer to the study of theology. It shows what queer is in this context and challenges the reader to think in other ways. The article examines how queer theory helps to illuminate the radical nature of incarnation at the same time as examining some of the concerns expressed by theorists about the nature of the queer theological project.

This chapter first surveys general issues in the epistemic internalism / externalism debate: what is the distinction, what motivates it, and what arguments can be given on both sides. -/- The second part of the chapter will examine the internalism / externalism debate as regards to the specific case of the epistemology of memory belief.