In de vorige jaargang van dit tijdschrift heb ik twee artikelen gepubliceerd over de wijsgerige theologie van de zogenaamde Utrechtse school. Daarop is gereageerd door respectievelijk M. Sarot, G. van den Brink en V. Brümmer. Er zijn drie punten waarop ik de discussie graag kort wil voortzetten: logische consistentie en conceptuele coherentie als norm voor het geloof, het verfijnde realisme, en de eigen aard van de theologie in vergelijking met het concrete geloven. In feite gaat het daarbij steeds om (...) de eigen aard van het geloof. Daarin ligt ook de reden ruimte te vragen voor deze reactie. Het lijkt mij van bijzonder belang voor de theologie dat het concrete geloven op de juiste manier wordt verstaan. Alleen dan kan de theologie dit geloof werkelijk dienen. Dat geldt tegenover het gevaar van versubjectivering van het geloof evenzeer als tegenover dat van verintellectualisering. (shrink)

Ubuntu is een levensfilosofie. Spirituele levenskracht verbindt de mens met zijn samenleving en de natuur. De werkelijkheid is een dynamiek van op elkaar inwerkende krachten. Het streven naar herstel van harmonie en vrede in een versplinterde wereld is daarbij een cruciaal doel. Ubuntu is verzoeningsgezind. Nelson Mandela was als leider van de bevrijdingsbeweging ANC, na zijn langdurige gevangenschap op Robbeneiland, sterk door ubuntu geïnspireerd. Het gaf hem moed om met de witte minderheidsregering gesprekken aan te gaan om het discriminerende (...) systeem van Apartheid te overwinnen. Tussen zijn vrijlating in 1990 en de eerste non-raciale verkiezingen in 1994 balanceerde Zuid-Afrika op de rand van een bloedige burgeroorlog. Met geduld en vasthoudendheid wist Mandela echter zijn verzoeningsstrategie door te zetten en een catastrofe te voorkomen. Zijn verzoeningspolitiek is tot op de dag van vandaag een inspiratiebron voor het oplossen van nationale en internationale conflicten. (shrink)

In het boek Exodus, hoofdstuk 3, wordt verteld hoe God aan Mozes verschijnt in een brandende braambos. De HEER heeft het lijden van Israel in Egypte gezien en wil hen daaruit bevrijden. Daartoe wordt Mozes naar de farao gestuurd om tegen hem te zeggen dat hij Israel moet laten gaan. Met die boodschap moet Mozes eerst naar Israel zelf. Vandaar zijn vraag: wat zullen zij zeggen? Zullen zij mij geloven, als ik zeg dat ik gestuurd ben door de God (...) van hun vader, van Abraham, Isaak en Jakob? Zullen zij niet vragen: wie is die God? Hoe is zijn naam? In antwoord daarop spreekt God de bekende woorden: ‘Ik ben die Ik ben.’ Mozes moet tot de Israelieten zeggen: ‘Ik ben heeft mij tot u gezonden.’ En verder: ‘De HEER, de God van uw vaderen, de God van Abraham, de God van Isaak en de God van Jakob, heeft mij tot u gezonden. Dit is mijn naam voor eeuwig en zo wil Ik aangeroepen worden van geslacht tot geslacht.’. (shrink)

In de vorige jaargang van dit tijdschrift heb ik twee artikelen gepubliceerd over de wijsgerige theologie van de zogenaamde Utrechtse school. Daarop is gereageerd door respectievelijk M. Sarot, G. van den Brink en V. Brümmer. Er zijn drie punten waarop ik de discussie graag kort wil voortzetten: logische consistentie en conceptuele coherentie als norm voor het geloof, het verfijnde realisme, en de eigen aard van de theologie in vergelijking met het concrete geloven. In feite gaat het daarbij steeds om (...) de eigen aard van het geloof. Daarin ligt ook de reden ruimte te vragen voor deze reactie. Het lijkt mij van bijzonder belang voor de theologie dat het concrete geloven op de juiste manier wordt verstaan. Alleen dan kan de theologie dit geloof werkelijk dienen. Dat geldt tegenover het gevaar van versubjectivering van het geloof evenzeer als tegenover dat van verintellectualisering. (shrink)

What is the future of science and technology? Will academic research become a commodity like so much else? Will technology and science become ever more intertwined? Such questions concern anyone to whom science and technology matter. A philosophical approach can shed light on them, as Hans Radder has amply shown. This volume contains essays by colleagues and friends that highlight the wide variety of topics he has addressed in his work. Whether it is the interaction between science, technology and society, (...) the nature of scientific experimentation, or the scientific realism question, Radder's approach is always acute and committed. 0With contributions by Henk van den Belt, James Robert Brown, Kai Eigner, Andrew Feenberg, Steve Fuller, Makoto Katsumori, Peter Kirschenmann, Christian Krijnen, Peter Kroes, Chunglin Kwa, Sabina Leonelli, Loet Leydesdorff, Alfred Nordmann, Pieter Pekelharing, Arthur Petersen, Henk de Regt, Angela Roothaan, László Ropolyi, Frits Schipper, and Astrid Schwarz. (shrink)

Door de Franse filosoof Maurice Blanchot geïnspireerd pleidooi voor de ritualisering van het denken.

Three experiments examined whether the mere priming of potential action effects enhances people’s feeling of causing these effects when they occur. In a computer task, participants and the computer independently moved a rapidly moving square on a display. Participants had to press a key, thereby stopping the movement. However, the participant or the computer could have caused the square to stop on the observed position, and accordingly, the stopped position of the square could be conceived of as the potential effect (...) resulting from participants’ action of pressing the stop key. The location of this position was primed or not just before participants had to stop the movement. Results showed that priming of the position enhanced experienced authorship of stopping the square. Additional experimentation demonstrated that this priming of agency was not mediated by the goal or intention to produce the effect. (shrink)

In the first part of the paper, factual information is given about developments in European business ethics since it started on a more or less institutionalized basis, five or six years ago. In the second part some comments are presented on the meaning of the developments and the possible causes. Attention is given to resemblances and differences between American and European business ethics. In the short last part some suggestions are proposed about tasks business ethics will face in the next (...) decade. (shrink)

This article analyzes the epistemic value of understanding and offers an account of the role of understanding in science. First, I discuss the objectivist view of the relation between explanation and understanding, defended by Carl Hempel and J. D. Trout. I challenge this view by arguing that pragmatic aspects of explanation are crucial for achieving the epistemic aims of science. Subsequently, I present an analysis of these pragmatic aspects in terms of ‘intelligibility’ and a contextual account of scientific understanding based (...) on this notion. †To contact the author, please write to: Faculty of Philosophy, VU University Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands; e‐mail: [email protected]. (shrink)

In the context of his theory of numberings, Ershov showed that Kleene's recursion theorem holds for any precomplete numbering. We discuss various generalizations of this result. Among other things, we show that Arslanov's completeness criterion also holds for every precomplete numbering, and we discuss the relation with Visser's ADN theorem, as well as the uniformity or nonuniformity of the various fixed point theorems. Finally, we base numberings on partial combinatory algebras and prove a generalization of Ershov's theorem in this context.

We study the complexity of the classification problem of conjugacy on dynamical systems on some compact metrizable spaces. Especially we prove that the conjugacy equivalence relation of interval dynamical systems is Borel bireducible to isomorphism equivalence relation of countable graphs. This solves a special case of Hjorth’s conjecture which states that every orbit equivalence relation induced by a continuous action of the group of all homeomorphisms of the closed unit interval is classifiable by countable structures. We also prove that conjugacy (...) equivalence relation of Hilbert cube homeomorphisms is Borel bireducible to the universal orbit equivalence relation. (shrink)

Illative combinatory logic consists of the theory of combinators or lambda calculus extended by extra constants (and corresponding axioms and rules) intended to capture inference. The paper considers systems of illative combinatory logic that are sound for first-order propositional and predicate calculus. The interpretation from ordinary logic into the illative systems can be done in two ways: following the propositions-as-types paradigm, in which derivations become combinators or, in a more direct way, in which derivations are not translated. Both translations are (...) closely related in a canonical way. The two direct translations turn out to be complete. The paper fulfills the program of Church [1932], [1933] and Curry [1930] to base logic on a consistent system of λ-terms or combinators. Hitherto this program had failed because systems of ICL were either too weak (to provide a sound interpretation) or too strong (sometimes even inconsistent). (shrink)

In this paper we have two aims: first, to draw attention to the close connexion between interpretation and scientific understanding; second, to give a detailed account of how theories without a spacetime can be interpreted, and so of how they can be understood. In order to do so, we of course need an account of what is meant by a theory ‘without a spacetime’: which we also provide in this paper. We describe three tools, used by physicists, aimed at constructing (...) interpretations which are adequate for the goal of understanding. We analyse examples from high-energy physics illustrating how physicists use these tools to construct interpretations and thereby attain understanding. The examples are: the ’t Hooft approximation of gauge theories, random matrix models, causal sets, loop quantum gravity, and group field theory. (shrink)

In der Geschichte des Wiener Kreises lässt sich eine private und eine öffentliche Phase unterscheiden. Die private Phase ist 1929 zu Ende. Im Sommer dieses Jahres beschliessen die Mitglieder mit ihrer Philosophie der wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung vor die Öffentlichkeit zu treten.

The rise of the mechanistic worldview in the seventeenth century had a major impact on views of biological generation. Many seventeenth century naturalists rejected the old animist thesis. However, the alternative view of gradual mechanistic formation in embryology didn’t convince either. How to articulate the peculiarity of life? Researchers in the seventeenth century proposed both “animist” and mechanistic theories of life. In the eighteenth century again a controversy in biology arose regarding the explanation of generation. Some adhered to the view (...) that life is a physical property of matter (e.g. Buffon), others saw living entities as the result of the development of pre-existing germs (e.g. Bonnet). Naturalists, lacked a convincing account that could guide their research. In interaction with leading naturalists of his time Immanuel Kant articulated an approach to explaining generation. Kant’s account, delineated in his Kritik der Urteilskraft (Critique of the power of judgment) (1790), is a combination of Newtonian non-reductionist mechanism in explanation, and a concept of natural end comparable to Stahl’s formal conception of organic bodies. It consists of two claims: a) in biology only mechanical explanation is explanatory, and b) living entities contain some original organisation, which is mechanically unexplainable. In the nineteenth century this approach influenced naturalists as Müller, Virchow, and Von Baer, in their physiological research. Dissatisfied with a sheer mechanistic or, on the other hand, a sheer teleological approach, they appreciated the Kantian account of mechanical explanation of natural ends. In Germany, in the second halve of the nineteenth century, Ernst Haeckel reopened the debate about abiogenesis, which still continuous. (shrink)

This volume presents chapters from internationally renowned scholars in the area of goals and social behavior.

The paper is replaced by a new version (12-2019): DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3572846 -/- Physical phenomena emerge from the quantum fields everywhere in space. However, not only the phenomena emerge from the quantum fields, the law of the conservation of energy must have its origin from the same spatial structure. This paper describes the relations between the main law of physics and the mathematical structure of the “aggregated” quantum fields.

One of the most important contributions of A. Church to logic is his invention of the lambda calculus. We present the genesis of this theory and its two major areas of application: the representation of computations and the resulting functional programming languages on the one hand and the representation of reasoning and the resulting systems of computer mathematics on the other hand.

Uiteenzetting van de culturele invloed die is uitgegaan van de relativiteitstheorie in Nederland.

This study is an archeological investigation into the historically changing relationship between words and images. The result is an encyclopedia of interpretative techniques in which language functions as a model of thought. Three periods come to the fore. In the classical one, grammatical structures are responsible for the dominance of describing and identifying activities. Thought about art departs from the idea, that classificatory systems represent images. _Art criticism_ is the form of interpretation in this period. In the modern period time (...) moves to the foreground. Now attention is focused on changes in grammatical forms instead of changes in constant structures. A hermeneutic form of interpretation comes into being: _Art History_. In the postmodern period one realizes that words fail to establish a consistent relationship with visuality. New, semiological theories of interpretation now explain what images can signify. This volume is of interest for philosophers of art and art theoreticians, as well as for students and professionals in both fields. (shrink)

Global society is facing formidable current and future problems that threaten the prospects for justice and peace, sustainability, and the well-being of humanity both now and in the future. Many of these problems are related to science and technology and to how they function in the world. If the social responsibility of scientists and engineers implies a duty to safeguard or promote a peaceful, just and sustainable world society, then science and engineering education should empower students to fulfil this responsibility. (...) The contributions to this special issue present European examples of teaching social responsibility to students in science and engineering, and provide examples and discussion of how this teaching can be promoted, and of obstacles that are encountered. Speaking generally, education aimed at preparing future scientists and engineers for social responsibility is presently very limited and seemingly insufficient in view of the enormous ethical and social problems that are associated with current science and technology. Although many social, political and professional organisations have expressed the need for the provision of teaching for social responsibility, important and persistent barriers stand in the way of its sustained development. What is needed are both bottom-up teaching initiatives from individuals or groups of academic teachers, and top-down support to secure appropriate embedding in the university. Often the latter is lacking or inadequate. Educational policies at the national or international level, such as the Bologna agreements in Europe, can be an opportunity for introducing teaching for social responsibility. However, frequently no or only limited positive effect of such policies can be discerned. Existing accreditation and evaluation mechanisms do not guarantee appropriate attention to teaching for social responsibility, because, in their current form, they provide no guarantee that the curricula pay sufficient attention to teaching goals that are desirable for society as a whole. (shrink)

The articles by Henk Bodewitz collected in this volume, published between 1969 and 2013, deal with Vedic cosmology and ethics on basis of a systematic philological study of early Vedic texts, from the Ṛgveda to various Brāhmaṇas, Āraṇyakas and Upaniṣads.

The sixteenth-century Dutch spiritualist and controversialist, Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (1522-1590), is increasingly recognized as a pivotal figure in the cultural and political life of the early Dutch Republic. With the appearance of Henk Bonger’s widely acclaimed biography (1978), the first complete account of Coornhert’s life became available in the Dutch language. Today this biography is still the starting point of any serious research on Coornhert and his circle. This translation now makes this standard biography available in English for the (...) first time. The translator profited from Henk Bonger’s comments on the translated chapters, and the author approved of adaptations and changes where these were deemed necessary. The structure and most of the chapters of the book are as they were in the original. The chief changes are: the abridgment and combination into one chapter of the two original chapters on Coornhert’s creative work and his translations. The ample quotes from Coornhert contained in the text enable the reader to attain a first hand acquaintance with Coornhert’s profound thought and inimitable style. References have been updated and some explanatory remarks intended for a non-Dutch readership were added. The translation is complemented with a full bibliography of Coornhert’s writings, as well as an up-to-date bibliography of the secondary literature; with 25 illustrations. (shrink)

In _The Very Idea of Organization_ Krijnen develops a new philosophical methodology for a social ontology in general and an organizational ontology in particular by rejuvenating the Kantian and Hegelian tradition of philosophy.

One of the career options Ede Christian University for higher professional education offers is nursing. As a Christian professional school, the ECU provides learning environments for nursing students to become professionals who are to exhibit a Christian life style, values and professional ethics. Nursing graduates of our school in general may have a Christian disposition regarding major issues in health care like displaying respect for patients, having a correct attitude, practising informed consent, displaying confidentiality, and avoiding euthanasia etc. A worrying (...) development for educators, though, is that often within a year after their graduation these young nursing professionals may adopt the secularized behaviour predominant in their workplace, even when that behaviour in some respects contrasts with the values they internalized during their nursing education. . Apparently, the shaping force of the social context of a professional practice can be stronger than the personal beliefs young professionals adopt before their graduation. (shrink)

This volume includes the critical edition of five apologias (1522-1529) in which Erasmus defended his New Testament translation and commentary (1516)against Diego López de Zúñiga and Sancho Carranza. The edition is partly based on manuscript sources never used before.

Both Kant’s and Hegel’s conceptions of normativity have shown to be extremely thorough and influential until today. Against the background of the much-disputed issue of ‘formalism’, _Concepts of Normativity: Kant or Hegel?_ explores limits and perspectives of their deliberations.

_Metaphysics of Freedom? Kant’s Concept of Cosmological Freedom in Historical and Systematic Perspective_ scrutinizes the mostly neglected cosmological foundation of Kant’s concept of freedom.