This book contributes to current bioethical debates by providing a critical analysis of the philosophy of human death. Bernard N. Schumacher discusses contemporary philosophical perspectives on death, creating a dialogue between phenomenology, existentialism, and analytic philosophy. He also examines the ancient philosophies that have shaped our current ideas about death. His analysis focuses on three fundamental problems: (1) the definition of human death, (2) the knowledge of mortality and of human death as such, and (3) the question of whether (...) death is nothing to us or, on the contrary, whether it can be regarded as an absolute or relative evil. Drawing on scholarship published in four languages and from three distinct currents of thought, this volume represents a comprehensive and systematic study of the philosophy of death, one that provides a provocative basis for discussions of the bioethics of human mortality. (shrink)

This book is about the nature of sensory perception. Contributions focus on five questions, i.e.: (1) What distinguishes sensory perception from other cognitive states? Is it true, for instance, that perceptual content, in contrast to the phenomenal content of sensations like pain, always depends on the perceivers conceptual resources? (2) How do we have to explain the intentionality of perceptual states? (3) What is the nature of perceptual content? (4) In which sense do the objects of sensory perception depend on (...) the constitution of the perceiver? How, for instance, do secondary qualities like colours, sounds and smells depend on the perception of human subjects? (5) How can we account for the intentionality of misperceptions? These questions are addressed through the interpretation of classical historical texts as well as in the context of systematical reflections. With contributions by Margaret Atherton, Michael Ayers, Peter Baumann, Martha Brandt Bolton, Thomas Grundmann, Gary Hatfield, Rolf-Peter Horstmann, Andreas Kemmerling, Bertram Kienzle, Martine Nida-Rümelin, Dominik Perler, Jay F. Rosenberg, Katia Saporiti, Ralph Schumacher, Gerald Vision, and Russell Wahl. (shrink)

Schumaker (philosophy, science and technology department, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) examines how the terms of posture encompass all the major disciplines and investigates a variety of philosophical topics: abstract thought, ...

We present a discrete model theory similar in structure to ordinary quantum mechanics, but based on a finite field instead of complex amplitudes. The interpretation of this theory involves only the “modal” concepts of possibility and necessity rather than quantitative probability measures. Despite its simplicity, our model theory includes entangled states and has versions of both Bell’s theorem and the no cloning theorem.

To the extent that contemporary literature can irritate common understandings of literature and the present, it can also function as a stimulus and corrective for literary studies that do not always already presuppose to know what literature is. This has recently become visible in confrontations with social media, in which literary and time-diagnostic modes of writing come together in different ways in experiments with digital tools, as in the context of more conventional forms of literature and corresponding theoretical discourses, to (...) produce what can be called »representing the present«. (shrink)

Although company narratives frequently emphasize impressive sales numbers and market leadership, such an organizational “top dog” narrative can backfire when companies are accused of engaging in unethical conduct. This research demonstrates, through a series of nine (_N_ = 3872) experimental studies, that an organizational top dog (vs. underdog) narrative increases the intended punishment of company moral transgressions but not non-moral transgressions. Such differences in intended punishment emerge because observers infer that organizations with a top dog narrative use predominantly dominance-based strategies (...) to achieve their status, whereas companies with an underdog narrative are less likely perceived as employing such strategies. We provide preliminary evidence that a debiasing intervention decreases the harsher punishment of organizations with a top dog narrative but does not affect the punishment of organizations with an underdog narrative. (shrink)

This article answers several calls—coming as well from corporate governance practitioners as from corporate governance researchers—concerning the possibility of complying simultaneously with requirements of innovation and ethics. Revealing the long-term orientation as the variable which permits us to link the principal goal of organization, being “survival,” with innovation and ethic, the article devises a framework for incorporating ethics into a company’s processes and strategies for innovation. With the principal goal of organizations being “survival” in the long-term, it is assumed that (...) innovation is necessary in order to realize a going concern. Firms that do not innovate and adapt to rapidly changing business environments are less likely to be sustainable. Thus, it is in a business’ best interests to adopt an innovation process for long-term success. We posit that there are two simultaneous sources of innovation and change that are unavoidable and embedded in the corporate landscape. First, we argue for genetically embedded, Darwinian explanations for adaptations that enable an entity’s survival. This view is combined with more conventional, social science explanations for change. Our new, comprehensive model of the governance of innovation processes hinges on the one hand on an organization’s long-term orientation, which we argue, is not possible without a consideration of an ethical dimension. On the other hand, the model employs, for the first time, the concept of duality, in order to make the positive coexistence of innovation and ethic analytically visible. Guided by this concept the roots of the ethic within innovation are traced from both natural science forces for change, and cultural pressures operating on members of an organization. We present our Integrated Causal Model of Innovation and propose theoretical relationships that will generate numerous avenues for future research in the field, and help managers to reorient their governance strategies. (shrink)

The interplay of content and context is observable in a moment to moment manner as propositional content unfolds. The current contribution illustrates this through data from real-time language comprehension indicating that propositional content is not computed in isolation but relies in important ways on context during every step of the computation of meaning. The relevant notion of context that we have to adopt includes all aspects of possible worlds and draws on a variety of knowledge representations, which in a first (...) processing phase serve to generate expectations for upcoming words. In a second phase, the discourse representation is assessed and if necessary updated by means of inferential reasoning and enrichment to reflect the speaker’s intended meaning. (shrink)

Deux questions sont abordées : l'individu peut-il conceptualiser sa mort? Celle-ci est-elle un mal? Trois problèmes sont soulevés : la nature de la mort, sa connaissance par l'individu et sa perception, ou non, comme un mal. L'auteur analyse les textes classiques anciens et contemporains traitant de l'approche de la mort, et se livre à une intégration critique des philosophes thanatologues.

Takes an original approach to reading Augustine's theory of divine illumination and shows how the theory was transformed and reinterpreted in medieval ...

This book is designed for the sophomore/junior level Introduction to Advanced Mathematics course. Written in a modified R.L. Moore fashion, it offers a unique approach in which readers construct their own understanding. However, while readers are called upon to write their own proofs, they are also encouraged to work in groups. There are few finished proofs contained in the text, but the author offers “proof sketches” and helpful technique tips to help readers as they develop their proof writing skills. This (...) book is most successful in a small, seminar style class. Logic, Sets, Induction, Relations, Functions, Elementary Number Theory, Cardinality, The Real Numbers For all readers interested in abstract mathematics. (shrink)

For researchers who study technology designs, the application and execution of so-called design-oriented research projects are a common way of funding their research. Against this background, we propose a new methodical approach with which VSD can easily be implemented in such projects and which we call “value declaration”. We share our experience with this method which we gained in two design-oriented research projects.

This book takes the principles of archetypal pedagogy and applies them in exciting new ways to fields as diverse as literary studies, therapy and, of course, teacher education.

From the structure of quantum dynamics for closed and open systems, we describe several general results about information flow between interacting systems, which can be expressed in diagrammatic form. Conditions on information flow (e.g., that no information is transferred from system A to system B) imply that the overall dynamical evolution has a particular structure. We also remark that one simple type of two-qubit interaction, the unitary CNOT gate, cannot be represented by local operations and a single simultaneous information exchange.

Während in der Forschungsliteratur zu Berkeleys Theorien bis in die 70er Jahre des vergangenen Jahrhunderts Gesamtdarstellungen dominierten, in denen es wie zum Beispiel in den Monographien von A. A. Luce, Ian Tipton und George Pitcher um die Kritik oder Verteidigung seines Immaterialismus und direkten Realismus geht, konzentriert sich die Diskussion seit den 80er Jahren auf die Untersuchung historischer Entwicklungslinien sowie auf einzelne konzeptuelle und argumentative Beiträge Berkeleys zur Erkenntnistheorie und Metaphysik. Im folgenden wird anhand von drei zentralen Fragestellungen ein repräsentativer (...) Überblick über die Forschungsliteratur zu Berkeleys Philosophie gegeben: Auf welche Weise kritisiert Berkeley den Repräsentationalismus, und wie verteidigt er seinen Immaterialismus? Wird Berkeley seinem Anspruch gerecht, unserem Alltagsrealismus in wesentlichen Punkten Rechnung zu tragen? Wodurch zeichnet sich Berkeleys direkter Realismus aus? (shrink)

L’auteur traite de la question fondamentale qui est une personne et, plus spécifiquement, si tous les êtres humains sont des personnes ou s’il existe des êtres humains qui ne seraient pas des personnes et qui n’auraient donc pas les mêmes droits à la vie que celles-ci. Certains philosophes, tels que Peter Singer, Michael Tooley et Tristram Engelhardt, se sont proposés de résoudre bon nombre des délicats problèmes bioéthiques contemporains en distinguant, d’une part, la vie humaine biologique, propre à l’être humain (...) et, d’autre part, la vie humaine personnelle, qui est celle de la personne à laquelle est octroyé un droit à la vie. L’auteur soutient que tout être humain est fondamentalement une personne. The author discusses the fundamental question who is a person and more specifically if every human being is a person or if there exists some human beings who are not persons and who do not have the same rights to life as the human being. In an attempt to resolve a good number of delicate bioethical problems some philosophers, such as Peter Singer, Michael Tooley et Tristram Engelhardt, propose to distinguish between human biological life, belonging to all human beings, and human personal life, which belongs to a person to whom is accorded the right to life. The author maintains that every human being is fundamentally a person. (shrink)

For every$n\in \omega \setminus \{0,1\}$we introduce the following weak choice principle:$\operatorname {nC}_{<\aleph _0}^-:$For every infinite family$\mathcal {F}$of finite sets of size at least n there is an infinite subfamily$\mathcal {G}\subseteq \mathcal {F}$with a selection function$f:\mathcal {G}\to \left [\bigcup \mathcal {G}\right ]^n$such that$f(F)\in [F]^n$for all$F\in \mathcal {G}$.Moreover, we consider the following choice principle:$\operatorname {KWF}^-:$For every infinite family$\mathcal {F}$of finite sets of size at least$2$there is an infinite subfamily$\mathcal {G}\subseteq \mathcal {F}$with a Kinna–Wagner selection function. That is, there is a function$g\colon \mathcal (...) {G}\to \mathcal {P}\left (\bigcup \mathcal {G}\right )$with$\emptyset \not =f(F)\subsetneq F$for every$F\in \mathcal {G}$.We will discuss the relations between these two choice principles and their relations to other well-known weak choice principles. Moreover, we will discuss what happens when we replace$\mathcal {F}$by a linearly ordered or a well-ordered family. (shrink)

For \(n\in \omega \), the weak choice principle \(\textrm{RC}_n\) is defined as follows: _For every infinite set_ _X_ _there is an infinite subset_ \(Y\subseteq X\) _with a choice function on_ \([Y]^n:=\{z\subseteq Y:|z|=n\}\). The choice principle \(\textrm{C}_n^-\) states the following: _For every infinite family of_ _n_-_element sets, there is an infinite subfamily_ \({\mathcal {G}}\subseteq {\mathcal {F}}\) _with a choice function._ The choice principles \(\textrm{LOC}_n^-\) and \(\textrm{WOC}_n^-\) are the same as \(\textrm{C}_n^-\), but we assume that the family \({\mathcal {F}}\) is linearly orderable (...) (for \(\textrm{LOC}_n^-\) ) or well-orderable (for \(\textrm{WOC}_n^-\) ). In the first part of this paper, for \(m,n\in \omega \) we will give a full characterization of when the implication \(\textrm{RC}_m\Rightarrow \textrm{WOC}_n^-\) holds in \({\textsf {ZF}}\). We will prove the independence results by using suitable Fraenkel-Mostowski permutation models. In the second part, we will show some generalizations. In particular, we will show that \(\textrm{RC}_5\Rightarrow \textrm{LOC}_5^-\) and that \(\textrm{RC}_6\Rightarrow \textrm{C}_3^-\), answering two open questions from Halbeisen and Tachtsis (Arch Math Logik 59(5):583–606, 2020). Furthermore, we will show that \(\textrm{RC}_6\Rightarrow \textrm{C}_9^-\) and that \(\textrm{RC}_7\Rightarrow \textrm{LOC}_7^-\). (shrink)

For much of the modern period, theologians and philosophers of religion have struggled with the problem of proving that it is rational to believe in God. Drawing on the thought of Thomas Aquinas, this book, a companion to Theological Philosophy, lays the foundation for an innovative effort to overturn the longstanding problem of proving faith's rationality, and to establish instead that rationality requires to be explained by appeals to faith. To this end, Schumacher advances the constructive argument that rationality (...) is not only an epistemological question concerning the soundness of human thoughts, which she defines in terms of ‘intellectual virtue’. (shrink)

A leading Catholic philosopher, he won a wide audience through such books as The Four Cardinal Virtues and About Love.This book is one of few extended studies ...

A Reader in Early Franciscan Theology presents for the first time in English key passages from the Summa Halensis, one of the first major installments in the summa genre for which scholasticism became famous. This systematic work of philosophy and theology was collaboratively written mostly between 1236 and 1245 by the founding members of the Franciscan school, such as Alexander of Hales and John of La Rochelle, who worked at the recently founded University of Paris. Modern scholarship has often dismissed (...) this early Franciscan intellectual tradition as unoriginal, merely systematizing the Augustinian tradition in light of the rediscovery of Aristotle, paving the way for truly revolutionary figures like John Duns Scotus. But as the selections in this reader show, it was this earlier generation that initiated this break with precedent. The compilers of the Summa Halensis first articulated many positions that eventually become closely associated with the Franciscan tradition on issues like the nature of God, the proof for God’s existence, free will, the transcendentals, and Christology. This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the ways in which medieval thinkers employed philosophical concepts in a theological context as well as the evolution of Franciscan thought and its legacy to modernity. A Reader in Early Franciscan Theology is available from the publisher on an open-access basis. (shrink)