Bioethics scholarship considering the possibility of gestating an embryo to full term in an artificial womb (ectogenesis) often overstates the capacities of current technologies and underestimates the barriers to the development of full ectogenesis. Moreover, this debate causes harm by (1) neglecting more immediate problems in the development of artificial wombs, (2) treating abortion as a “problem with a technological solution,” bolstering anti-abortion rhetoric, and (3) presuming the stability of women’s reproductive rights. The ectogenesis conversation must consider anticipated uses of (...) the technology (neonatal intensive care) and acknowledge the immediate context (recognizing abortion as essential healthcare and existing reproductive inequities). (shrink)

The treatise known as book Lambda of Aristotle’s Metaphysics has become one of the most debated issues of recent scholarship. Aristotle adresses here fundamental questions of his theory of substance, his idea of causes and principles, and his concept of motions. Furthermore, the importance of the text is due to the fact that it contains an outline of what was traditionally understood as Aristotle’s theology.

In this short response, I agree with Cavaliere’s recent invitation to consider ectogenesis, the process of gestation occurring outside the body, as a political perspective and provocation to building a world in which reproductive and care labour are more justly distributed. But I argue that much of the literature Cavaliere addresses in which scholars argue that artificial wombs may produce greater gender equality has the limitation of taking a fixed, binary and biological approach to sex and gender. I argue that (...) in taking steps toward the possibility of more just practices of caregiving and family making, we must look first not to artificial womb technologies but to addressing the ways that contemporary legal and social practices that enforce essentialising, binary ways of thinking about reproductive bodies inhibit this goal. (shrink)

Werner Jaeger (1888–1961) was at his time the most brilliant and the most influential German classicist. His most important project was a tripartite study that he finally published under the title of Paideia. Die Formung des griechischen Menschen (1933–1947). Paideia was much more than a detailed scholarly book on pedagogy in the ancient world. It was an attempt to interpret the history of ancient thought—from Homeric epics to Attic tragedy and Platonic philosophy—as rooted in the intention to educate (or rather (...) to ‘form’) human beings. And it was the attempt to contribute to a contemporary German movement called ‘Third Humanism’. In this article, I give a critical overview of this work, its strengths and its shortcomings. (shrink)

This volume dispels the idea that Platonism was an otherworldly enterprise which neglected the study of the natural world. Leading scholars examine how the Platonists of late antiquity sought to understand and explain natural phenomena: their essays offer a new understanding of the metaphysics of Platonism, and its place in the history of science.

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 107 Heft: 1 Seiten: 89-110.

The paper first analyses the Ciceronian sources of Augustine’s idea of justice, then argues that Augustine maintains a kind of “supernatural” view of politics , which leaves no room for a normative evaluation of the socio-political sphere. The specific feature of Augustine’s political “supernaturalism”, in fact, is the idea that original sin, depriving man of divine grace, prevents the earthly world from being an improvable copy of an ideal model.

According to a wide-spread opinion, the history of moral philosophy is divided into two major parts. Whereas ancient ethics is concerned with agent-relative prudential volitions, modern ethics is based upon agent-neutral moral obligations. The article questions this opposition by indicating that the mainstream of ancient ethics should rather be characterized by its typical theory of action. This theory doesn’t rest on prudential rationality but on the idea that a rational agent has to follow a number of non-arbitrary principles which conduct (...) his or her deliberating, choosing and acting. The model in question starts with an intellectualist concept of the will , and develops an account of human flourishing which is the basis of subtle further distinctions between relevant and incidental goods. Finally, it opens the possibility to bridge the gap between the issue of human flourishing and the Kantian concept of morality. (shrink)

A growing body of scholarship argues that by disentangling gestation from the body, artificial wombs will alter the relationship between men, women, and fetuses such that reproduction is effectively ‘degendered’. Scholars have claimed that this purported ‘degendering’ of gestation will subsequently create greater equity between men and women. I argue that, contrary to the assumptions made in this literature, it is law, not biology, that acts as a primary barrier to the ‘degendering’ of gestation. With reference to contemporary case law (...) involving disputes over frozen embryos, I demonstrate that though reproductive technologies have already made it possible for gendered progenitors to have an ‘equal’ say in gestation, law mires the possibilities of these technologies in traditional stories of gendered parenthood. Looking to the way binary assumptions about gender limit the self-determination of trans men and nonbinary and genderqueer people who are gestational parents, I argue the ‘degendering’ of gestation will come not with artificial wombs but with the end of limited legal paradigms for gendered gestational parenthood. (shrink)

Bevor man sich der antiken Tierethik aus einer moralphilosophischen Perspektive zuwenden kann, sollte man sich einige allgemeine kulturhistorische Fakten vor Augen führen. Die Art und Weise, wie Tiere in der Antike im allgemeinen Bewusstsein betrachtet wurden und wie man sie faktisch im Alltag behandelt hat, divergiert ganz erheblich von unseren eigenen landläufigen Auffassungen.

Sous l'influence probable du néo-platonisme, Augustin a développé une philosophie des nombres, le nombre s'agrandissant sans fin étant même identifié à la deuxième personne de la Trinité. L'A. passe en revue plusieurs oeuvres d'Augustin et y montre l'importance de la différence entre nombre intelligible et nombre sensible dans la théorie de la connaissance, la théologie, l'éthique, la conception de la musique et de la Providence.

Neste artigo, o autor apresenta a concepção de linguagem de Santo Agostinho, sobretudo nas seguintes obras: De dialectica, De magistro e nos escritos tardios De doctrina christiana e De trinitate. É dada especial atenção à teoria agostiniana da linguagem no De magistro. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Agostinho. Linguagem. De magistro. Sinais. ABSTRACT In this article the author presents St. Augustine’s conception of language philosophy, with special concern for the following works: De dialectica, De Magistro and the later writings De doctrina christiana and (...) De Trinitate. The enphasis of the exposition relies on St. Augustine’s philosophy of language in De magistro. KEY WORDS – Augustine. Philosophy of language. De magistro. Signs. (shrink)