The deconstruction of the subject associated with postmodernism cannot be said to have simply carried the day. Opponents and critics of postmodernism have held that we must return to the subject and to autonomy as a necessary condition of thinking about ethics, politics, agency and responsibility. Indeed, Peter Dews has recently argued that efforts to displace the subject repeat rather than dissolve the problems generated by subject-centered theories, a charge he takes to be devastating. The implications of this return to (...) the subject, and the power of the critique which motivates it, will be my focus here. I consider especially Judith Butler's performative account of agency and her recent discussion of reflexivity, and argue that they afford us a means of obviating the critique while providing for the reflexive agency that proponents of the return to the subject think necessary. Key Words: agency • autonomy • Seyla Benhabib • Judith Butler • Dieter Henrich • power • reflexivity • subjectivation • subjectivity. (shrink)

In this volume, the author investigates and argues for, a particular answer to the question: What is the right way to logically analyze modalities from natural language within formal languages? The answer is: by formalizing modal expressions in terms of predicates. But, as in the case of truth, the most intuitive modal principles lead to paradox once the modal notions are conceived as predicates. -/- The book discusses the philosophical interpretation of these modal paradoxes and argues that any satisfactory approach (...) to modality will have to face the paradoxes independently of the grammatical category of the modal notion. By systematizing modal principles with respect to their joint consistency and inconsistency, Stern provides an overview of the options and limitations of the predicate approach to modality that may serve as a useful starting point for future work on predicate approaches to modality. Stern also develops a general strategy for constructing philosophically attractive theories of modal notions conceived as predicates. The idea is to characterize the modal predicate by appeal to its interaction with the truth predicate. This strategy is put to use by developing the modal theories Modal Friedman-Sheard and Modal Kripke-Feferman. (shrink)

Effective inseparability of pairs of sets is an important notion in logic and computer science. We study the effective inseparability of sets which appear as index sets of subsets of an effectively given topological T0-space and discuss its consequences. It is shown that for two disjoint subsets X and Y of the space one can effectively find a witness that the index set of X cannot be separated from the index set of Y by a recursively enumerable set, if X (...) intersects the topological closure of an effectively enumerable subset of Y. As a consequence of a more general parametric inseparability result a theorem of Rice-Shapiro type is obtained. Moreover, under some additional requirements it follows that nonopen subsets have productive index sets. This implies a generalized Rice theorem: Connected spaces have only trivial completely recursive subsets. As application some decision problems in computable analysis and domain theory are studied. It follows that the complement of the halting problem can be reduced to the problem to decide of a number whether it is a computable irrational. The same is true for the problems to decide whether two numbers are equal, whether one is not greater than the other, and whether a number is equal to a given number. In the case of an effectively given continuous complete partial order the complexity of the last problem depends on whether the given element is the smallest element, in which case the complement of the halting problem is reducible to it, whether it is a base element and maximal, then the decision problem is recursively isomorphic to the halting problem, or whether it is none of these. In this case, both the halting problem and its complement are reducible to the problem. The same is true in nontrivial cases for the problems whether an element belongs to the basis, whether two elements of the partial order are equal, or whether one approximates the other. In general, for any nonempty proper subset of the partial order either the halting problem or its complement can be reduced to the membership problem of the subset. (shrink)

Schupbach and Sprenger introduce a novel probabilistic approach to measuring the explanatory power that a given explanans exerts over a corresponding explanandum. Though we are sympathetic to their general approach, we argue that it does not adequately capture the way in which the causal explanatory power that c exerts on e varies with background knowledge. We then amend their approach so that it does capture this variance. Though our account of explanatory power is less ambitious than Schupbach and Sprenger’s in (...) the sense that it is limited to causal explanatory power, it is also more ambitious because we do not limit its domain to cases where c genuinely explains e. Instead, we claim that c causally explains e if and only if our account says that c explains e with some positive amount of causal explanatory power. (shrink)

Die vorliegende Analyse setzt sich mit dem Vorwurf der gesellschaftlichen Irrelevanz von Peter Handkes Prosa auseinander. Anhand einer vergleichenden Interpretation von R. M. Rilkes Malte und P. Handkes Stunde soll die Unhaltbarkeit dieser These unter Beweis gestellt werden, insofern sich die Ich-Orientierung bei Handke im Gegensatz zu Rilkes letztlich streng solipsistischer Attitüde als eine im Gegeneffekt doch im Sozialbereich verankerte Subjektivität enthüllt.

Adressaten von asymmetrischen Anerkennungen sind Quellen von Normativität, die nicht Subjekte in der ethischen Gemeinschaft der Personen sind. Bei stark eingeschränktem oder noch nicht entwickeltem personalem Leben sind die Adressaten gleichwohl Mitglieder der ethischen Gemeinschaft. Asymmetrische Anerkennungen über diesen Umkreis hinaus sind normative Reaktionen auf den Sachverhalt, dass die ethische Gemeinschaft der humanen Lebensform keine Nische bildet und in die Naturprozesse eingebunden bleibt. Für den Fall, dass eine Bezugnahme auf Eigenschaften und Fähigkeiten von Adressaten asymmetrischer Anerkennungen prinzipiell nicht mehr möglich (...) ist, bieten sich indirekte Begründungsverfahren an, die sich an guter Praxis orientieren. (shrink)

Ethics can generally be understood as the normative theory of moral reasons. It examines conditions for the possibility of ethical practice and formulates justifiable normative conceptions for the conduct of individual persons, as well as for the organisation of communities, and societal institutions.Throughout the course of the development of Western ethics, several approaches to the normative questions about morally good actions and how to lead a good life have emerged; the most prominent among them are virtue ethics, contractualism, deontological ethics (...) or the ethics of autonomy, and consequentialism. In modern times, these approaches are confronted with a broadening political, cultural, and economic exchange due to the process of globalization. In order to meet emerging normative challenges, ethics has to be considered part of an intercultural discourse of reasons. This is the only way to transcend ideology and dogmatism and take into account the cultural pluralism of a globalized world. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungGegenüber dem Einsatz der DNA-Phänotypisierung in der Strafverfolgung gibt es Bedenken hinsichtlich der epistemischen Zuverlässigkeit, der Diskriminierung, des Datenschutzes sowie der informationellen Selbstbestimmung. Tatsächliche Opfersituationen stehen dabei nicht im Vordergrund. Bei der normativen Analyse der Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der forensischen DNA-Phänotypisierung hat es aber gerade um die Vermeidung beziehungsweise Begrenzung von Leiden und komplexen Opfersituationen zu gehen, die auch nach der Straftat dynamisch bleiben. Die konkrete Gestaltung der Strafverfolgung entscheidet darüber, welche Ausmaße die Opfersituation annimmt beziehungsweise annehmen wird.

This chapter contains sections titled: What is Practice Theory? What is a Practice? Being‐in‐the‐World and Practical Holism Two Philosophers and an Antiphilosophy: Kripkenstein, Winchgenstein, and Therapeutic Quietism Winchgensteinian Practice Theory From Winchgenstein to Frankenstein Investigating Practices Note.

In der Vorrede zur ersten Auflage der Religionsschrift macht Kant unmissverständlich klar, dass der zur Moral verbundene Mensch der „Idee eines Wesens über ihm" nicht bedürfe. Damit ist aber nicht der Sinn und Zweck der nachfolgenden Schrift bestritten, sondern lediglich klargestellt, dass auch Religion und Kirchenglauben unter dem Prinzipat des Autonomiegedankens stehen. Ausgehend von dieser Feststellung entwickelt Kant eine in vier Stücke gegliederte Schrift, die nicht nur den aufgeklärten Umgang mit positiven Religionen beschreibt, sondern die auch die moralphilosophischen Schriften der (...) 1780er Jahre bisweilen ergänzt, bisweilen modifiziert. So wird beispielsweise die Sphäre moralischer Verbindlichkeiten um eine Gattungspflicht, nämlich eine Pflicht „des menschlichen Geschlechts gegen sich selbst" erweitert und auch das in den Bereich der Anthropologie fallende Theorem des „Hanges zum Bösen" erweist sich als in hohem Maße diskutabel. Dass zu alledem das letzte Wort noch nicht gesprochen ist, zeigt die in den letzten Jahrzehnten wieder anhebende Diskussion, der der vorliegende Band Rechnung trägt, indem er zu etwa gleichen Teilen historisch und systematisch ausgerichtet ist und vieles an interessanten Neubewertungen bereithält. (shrink)

A global target of stabilizing greenhouse-gas concentrations at between 450 and 550 parts per million carbon-dioxide equivalent has proven robust to recent developments in the science and economics of climate change. Retrospective analysis of the Stern Review suggests that the risks were underestimated, indicating a stabilization target closer to 450 ppm CO2e. Climate policy at the international level is now moving rapidly towards agreeing an emissions pathway, and distributing responsibilities between countries. A feasible framework can be constructed in which (...) each country takes on its own responsibilities and targets, based on a shared understanding of the risks and the need for action and collaboration on climate change. The global deal should contain six key features: a pathway to achieve the world target of 50 per cent reductions by 2050, where rich countries contribute at least 75 per cent of the reductions; global emissions trading to reduce costs; reform of the clean development mechanism to scale up emission reductions on a sectoral or benchmark level; scaling up of R&D funding for low-carbon energy; an agreement on deforestation; and adaptation finance. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7.

_The first English-language collection devoted to Hegel’s_ Philosophy of Subjective Spirit.