The target article discusses various aspects of the relationship between the sympathetic system and pain. To this end, the patients under study are divided into three groups. In the first group, called (RSD), the syndrome can be characterized by a triad of autonomic, motor, and sensory symptoms, which occur in a distally generalized distribution. The pain is typically felt deeply and diffusely, has an orthostatic component, and is suppressed by the ischemia test. Under those circumstances, the pain is likely to (...) respond to sympatholytic interventions. In a second group, called (SMP) syndrome, the principal symptoms are spontaneous pain, which is felt superficially and has no orthostatic component, and allodynia. These symptoms, typically confined to the zone of a lesioned nerve, may also be relieved by sympathetic blocks. Since the characteristics of the pain differ between RSD and SMP, the underlying kind of sympathetic–sensory coupling may also vary between these cases. A very small third group of patients exhibits symptoms of both RSD and SMP. The dependence or independence of pain on sympathetic function reported in most published studies seems to be questionable because the degree of technical success of the block remains uncertain. Therefore, pain should not be reported as sympathetic function independent until the criteria for a complete sympathetic block have been established and satisfied. (shrink)

This article is dedicated to the question of normative aspects in which the relation between responsibly acting subjects and manipulable embryos has to be established. It advocates the thesis that “reflexive identity” between acting subject and treated embryonal “object” is the pivotal and starting point of the debate: the acting subject acts towards a form of objective human existence, which it has undergone by itself and therefore recognizes not only itself, but also poses the condition of possibility of its own (...) current sovereignty in acts. Against this background the concept of “Personalism”, which is found in the German “ESchG” (Embryo Protection Act) and “StZG” (Stem Cell Act), can be understood. If there are new questions arising from complex, technically mediated manipulations of the embryo today, as its entire synthetic production has become possible, it leads to the question regarding the normative meaning of “Besonderung” (particularity/particularization) and the identification of species as living individuality as such. Consequently, it raises the question of the normative relevance of corporal self-objectivations of individuals, which never passes over to just material circumstances. This also applies when embryos are obtained from iPS cells where the biotic substrate, as well as its “administration” and “utilization”, is not regarded an anonymous, but biotic substrate that is embedded in individual biographies that are undetachable and never completely lost. “Biopolitics” that place human biotic substrate in the disposition of arbitrary interests already has to be rejected in the interest of maintaining a perspective of reflexive identity as well as in the horizon of interpersonality. (shrink)

Functional electrical stimulation (FES), a method for inducing muscle contraction, has been successfully used in gait rehabilitation for patients with deficits after neurological disorders and several clinical studies have found that it can improve gait function after stroke and spinal cord injury. However, FES gait training is not suitable for patients with walking difficulty, such as those with severe motor paralysis of the lower limbs. We have previously shown that action observation combined with motor imagery (AO + MI) of walking (...) induces walking-related cortical activity. Therefore, we combined FES, which alternately generates dorsiflexion and plantar flexion, with AO + MI as an alternative to gait training. The present study investigates the transient effects of 20-min of FES simultaneously with and without AO + MI of walking on corticospinal and spinal reflex excitability in able-bodied participants. We measured motor evoked potentials and Hoffmann-reflexes to assess corticospinal and spinal reflex excitability at rest before and after the 20-min FES with and without the AO + MI. Our results show that FES without AO + MI did not change excitability (p > 0.05), while FES with AO + MI facilitated corticospinal excitability (p < 0.05). This facilitation likely occurred due to the synchronization of sensory inputs from FES and cortical activity during AO + MI. Facilitation was observed only in the dorsiflexor but not the plantar flexor muscle (p < 0.05), suggesting muscle specificity of the facilitation. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of combining FES with AO + MI and pave the way for novel neurorehabilitation strategies for patients with neurological gait deficits. (shrink)

The output from motor neuron pools is influenced by the integration of synaptic inputs originating from descending corticomotor and spinal reflex pathways. In this study, using paired non-invasive brain and peripheral nerve stimulation, we investigated how descending corticomotor pathways influence the physiologic recruitment order of the soleus Hoffmann reflex. Eleven neurologically unimpaired adults completed an assessment of transcranial magnetic stimulation -conditioning of the soleus H-reflex over a range of peripheral nerve stimulation intensities. Unconditioned H-reflex recruitment (...) curves were obtained by delivering PNS pulses to the posterior tibial nerve. Subsequently, TMS-conditioned H-reflex recruitment curves were obtained by pairing PNS with subthreshold TMS at short and long intervals. We evaluated unconditioned and TMS-conditioned H-reflex amplitudes along the ascending limb, peak, and descending limb of the H-reflex recruitment curve. Our results revealed that, for long-interval facilitation, TMS-conditioned H-reflex amplitudes were significantly larger than unconditioned H-reflex amplitudes along the ascending limb and peak of the H-reflex recruitment curve. Additionally, significantly lower PNS intensities were needed to elicit peak H-reflex amplitude for long-interval facilitation compared to unconditioned. These findings suggest that the influence of descending corticomotor pathways, particularly those mediating long-interval facilitation, contribute to changing the recruitment gain of the motor neuron pool, and can inform future methodological protocols for TMS-conditioning of H-reflexes. By characterizing and inducing short-term plasticity in circuitry mediating short- and long-interval TMS-conditioning of H-reflex amplitudes, future studies can investigate supraspinal and spinal circuit contributions to abnormal motor control, as well as develop novel therapeutic targets for neuromodulation. (shrink)

Theories of graded causation attract growing attention in the philosophical debate on causation. An important field of application is the controversial relationship between causation and moral responsibility. However, it is still unclear how exactly the notion of graded causation should be understood in the context of moral responsibility. One question is whether we should endorse a proportionality principle, according to which the degree of an agent’s moral responsibility is proportionate to their degree of causal contribution. A second question is whether (...) a theory of graded causation should measure closeness to necessity or closeness to sufficiency. In this paper, we argue that we should indeed endorse a proportionality principle and that this principle supports a notion of graded causation relying on closeness to sufficiency rather than closeness to necessity. Furthermore, we argue that this insight helps to provide a plausible analysis of the so-called ‘Moral Difference Puzzle’ recently described by Bernstein. (shrink)

Diese Studie analysiert die Konzepte «Wissenskulturen» und «Experimentalkulturen», um sich dem Problem der Repräsentation mittels einer Mehrfaktoren-Analyse zu nähern.

Chemical structures are among the trademarks of our profession, as surely chemical as flasks, beakers and distillation columns. When someone sees one of us busily scribbling formulas or structures, he or she has no trouble identifying a chemist. Yet these familiar objects, which accompany our work from start to end, from the initial doodlings (Fig. I) to the final polished artwork in a publication (Fig. II), are deceptively simple. They raise interesting and difficult questions about representation. It is the intent (...) of this article to reflect upon molecular graphics. (shrink)

This introductory chapter gives a general survey of the research context, along with brief descriptions of the chapters collected here, indicating how they contribute to the three-year project which provided that context. Focusing on absolute notions of necessity and possibility, the project's principal aims were to explore the most fundamental questions and issues centred on them — ranging from scepticism about modal notions themselves, anti-realist view such as non-cognitivism, and the tenability of any sort of realism about modal facts, through (...) to questions about the metaphysics, logic, and epistemology of modality which any broadly realist view must answer. (shrink)

Over the last two decades, the capabilities approach has become an increasingly influential theory of development. It conceptualises human wellbeing in terms of an individual's ability to achieve functionings we have reason to value. In contrast, the African ethic of ubuntu views human flourishing as the propensity to pursue relations of fellowship with others, such that relationships have fundamental value. These two theoretical perspectives seem to be in tension with each other; while the capabilities approach focuses on individuals as the (...) locus of ethical value, an ubuntu ethic concentrates on the relations between individuals. In this article, we ask: to what extent is the capabilities approach compatible with this African ethical theory? We argue that, on reflection, relations play a much stronger role in the capabilities approach than often assumed. There is good reason to believe that relationality is part of the concept of a capability itself, where such relationality has intrinsic ethical value. This understanding of the ethical centrality of relations grounds new normative perspectives on the capabilities approach, and offers a more comprehensive grasp of the relevance of relationships to empirical enquiry. (shrink)

100 years ago, the editors of the Journal of Educational Psychology conducted one of the most famous studies of experts’ conceptions of human intelligence. This was reason enough to prompt the question where we stand today with making sense of “intelligence”. In this paper, we argue that we should overcome our anthropocentrism and appreciate the wonders of intelligence in nonhuman and nonbiological animals instead. For that reason, we study two cases of octopus intelligence and intelligence in machine learning systems to (...) embrace the notion of intelligence as a non-unitary faculty with pluralistic forms. Furthermore, we derive lessons for advancing our human self-understanding. (shrink)

Highlighting Hegel's conceptual realism Hoffmann focuses on an undervalued move in his dialectic: inversion (μεταβολή). Easily proving completeness for Kant's table of categories, Hoffmann shows how metabolic dialectic substantiates Hegel's claim for his _Logic_: it is indeed the science of absolute form!

Would there be possibles if God did not exist? The interpretative impasse on this point has been mainly due to the failure to recognize an ambiguity in Scotus’s terminology. “Possibilia” are (1) the eidetic natures of things or (2) the possibility for a creature to exist. In this paper I argue that Scotus denies that God is responsible for giving things the possibility of existence. In this sense, possibles do not depend on God. Yet I also argue that according to (...) Scotus, only God can originate the eidetic natures of creatures, i.e., the natures of which possibility is predicated. If God did not exist, there would be no possibles, because there would be no eidetic natures and thus no subjects of which possibility could be affirmed. What leads Scotus to this view are not so much considerations pertaining to modal logic but rather epistemological concerns. (shrink)

Keine ausführliche Beschreibung für "Die absolute Form" verfügbar.

In _Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel – A Propaedeutic_, Thomas Sören Hoffmann invites the philosophically interested reader to converse with, to work with, and to think with the “master philosopher of German Idealism,” the last great system builder of European philosophy.

Certain traits of the magnanimous man of the Nicomachean Ethics seem incompatible with gratitude and humility. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas are the first commentators of the Latin West who had access to the integral portrayal of magnanimity in the Nicomachean Ethics. Surprisingly, they welcomed the Aristotelian ideal of magnanimity without reservations. The paper summarizes Aristotle’s account of magnanimity, discusses briefly the transformation of this notion in Stoicism and early scholasticism, and analyzes Albert’s and Thomas’s interpretation of Aristotle. Thomas (...) is found to be a more faithful and ingenious interpreter than Albert. He addresses and solves a number of philosophical problems of Aristotle’s account that still puzzle contemporary interpreters. (shrink)

Over twenty years have passed since JLME published “The Girl Who Cried Pain: A Bias Against Women in the Treatment of Pain.” This article revisits the conclusions drawn in that piece and explores what we have learned in the last two decades regarding the experience of men and women who have chronic pain and whether women continue to be treated less aggressively for their pain than men.

Many consumers implicitly associate sustainability with lower product strength. This so-called ethical = less strong intuition (ELSI) poses a major threat for the success of sustainable products. This article explores this pervasive lay theory and examines whether it is a key barrier for sustainable consumption patterns. Even more importantly, little is known about the underlying mechanisms that might operate differently at the implicit and explicit levels of the consumer’s decision-making. To fill this gap, three studies examine how the implicit judgments (...) that consumers activate automatically shape their consumption behaviors, in concert with their more controlled explicit beliefs about sustainable products. The Main Study investigates the ELSI’s imprint on actual shopping patterns and disentangles the implicit and explicit mechanisms of the lay theory. This paper also asks how this negative influence can be attenuated by examining whether the consumer’s interest in sustainable consumption reduces reliance on the ELSI. Two follow-up studies confirm the robustness from different methodological and practical perspectives. Implications for companies and policy makers are derived. (shrink)

This contribution analyzes the general relation between nature and laboratory with respect to the alternative of a ,,presented" and a ,,self-presenting nature". It is argued that as essentially presented by technological means, ,,nature in the laboratory" has to be considered as a dimensionally reduced nature already incorporated to the objective world of man. The basic precondition of the emergence of laboratory science on the threshold of modern times was the introduction of a concept of an ,,active physics" which itself presupposed (...) the abandonment of a given ,,metaphysical" order of phenomena, especially in the sense of the Aristotelian substance-accidence-scheme. The logic of a suchlike forced ,,presentation of nature", and also the logic of the modern technology-dependent ways of progress in knowledge can precisely be analyzed within the theoretical framework of the Paul-Lorenzen-School (,,Methodological constructivism"). The concept of a ,,self-presenting nature", on the other hand, requires a genuine reflection of a philosophy of nature which is able to focus on the aspects of self-reference and differentiality of the genuine instances of nature. Finally three starting-points of a non-laboratorial way of thinking nature are discussed. German Der Beitrag analysiert das Verhältnis von Natur und Labor unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Alternative von ,,sich zeigender und ,,gezeigter Natur, wobei die im Labor auf dem Wege einer wesentlich technisch-praktischen Erwirkung konkret ,,gezeigte Natur eine der Gegenstandswelt des Menschen immer schon integrierte (und insoweit dimensional verkürzte) Natur ist. Die entscheidende Voraussetzung für die Entstehung der Laborwissenschaft an der Schwelle zur Neuzeit war die Einführung eines Konzepts ,,handelnder Physik, das seinerseits die Preisgabe einer vorgängigen ,,metaphysischen Ordnung der Phänomene (insbesondere im Sinne des Substanz-Akzidens-Gefälles) voraussetzt. Die Logik dieses ,,Zeigens der Natur ebenso wie die des modernen, technologieabhängig gewordenen Erkenntnisfortschritts ist wissenschaftstheoretisch mit den Mitteln des Methodischen Konstruktivismus präzise beschreibbar. Für den alternativen Begriff einer ,,sich zeigenden Natur als wesentlich polydimensionaler, einheitsbegrifflich nicht einholbarer Totalität bedarf es jedoch einer genuin naturphilosophischen Reflexion, die insbesondere die mit dem Natürlichen verbundenen Komponenten der Selbstbezüglichkeit und der Differentialität zu thematisieren vermag. Abschließend werden drei Ansatzpunkte eines ,,nichtlaboratorischen Naturdenkens diskutiert. (shrink)

Résumé L’article développe la thèse suivante : le phénomène évaluatif, ses instruments et ses institutions nouvellement créées (agences de notation, agences d’évaluation, hautes autorités) sont à la fois les révélateurs et les opérateurs d’une transformation des rapports entre deux institutions en crise : L’État et les professions. S’inspirant de la trilogie des pouvoirs de Freidson (2001), l’auteur suggère d’analyser l’alliance actuelle entre marché et État tandis qu’une crise et une mutation des élites traditionnelles françaises (haute fonction publique, experts d’État, élites (...) politiques) fragilisent l’alliance entre professions et État caractéristique de la construction de l’État social à la fin du xix e siècle. (shrink)

Résumé L’article développe la thèse suivante : le phénomène évaluatif, ses instruments et ses institutions nouvellement créées (agences de notation, agences d’évaluation, hautes autorités) sont à la fois les révélateurs et les opérateurs d’une transformation des rapports entre deux institutions en crise : L’État et les professions. S’inspirant de la trilogie des pouvoirs de Freidson (2001), l’auteur suggère d’analyser l’alliance actuelle entre marché et État tandis qu’une crise et une mutation des élites traditionnelles françaises (haute fonction publique, experts d’État, élites (...) politiques) fragilisent l’alliance entre professions et État caractéristique de la construction de l’État social à la fin du xix e siècle. (shrink)

The role of uncertainty within an organization’s environment features prominently in the business ethics and management literature, but how corporate investment decisions should proceed in the face of uncertainties relating to the natural environment is less discussed. From the perspective of ecological economics, the salience of ecology-induced issues challenges management to address new types of uncertainties. These pertain to constraints within the natural environment as well as to institutional action aimed at conserving the natural environment. We derive six areas of (...) ecology-induced uncertainties and propose ecology-driven real options as a conceptual approach for systematically incorporating these uncertainties into strategic management. We combine our results in an integrative investment framework and illustrate its application with the case of carbon constraints. (shrink)

ArgumentThe paper focuses on the instrumentality of writing in the context of scientific research. It is suggested that the tool-character of writing is related to specific writing procedures, such as the list. These procedures can vary in their degree of complexity and often follow rules that are not codified. In any case, writing procedures can be characterized as non-material devices of “concretion.” Two examples from the notebooks of the physicist and philosopher of science, Ernst Mach (1838–1916), will help to develop (...) the notion of writing procedures. Typical for Mach's use of his notebooks, they highlight the effects of writing in the context of reasoning and reflecting. (shrink)

The philosophy of modality investigates necessity and possibility, and related notions--are they objective features of mind-independent reality? If so, are they irreducible, or can modal facts be explained in other terms? This volume presents new work on modality by established leaders in the field and by up-and-coming philosophers. Between them, the papers address fundamental questions concerning realism and anti-realism about modality, the nature and basis of facts about what is possible and what is necessary, the nature of modal knowledge, modal (...) logic and its relations to necessary existence and to counterfactual reasoning. The general introduction locates the individual contributions in the wider context of the contemporary discussion of the metaphysics and epistemology of modality. (shrink)

This paper takes a novel approach to studying the existence and stability of Nash equilibria in N-firm Cournot–Bertrand oligopolies. First, we show that such games can be monotonically embedded into a game of strategic heterogeneity, so that each firm best responds to the choices of all other firms in a monotonic way. We then show that this monotonicity can be exploited to derive conditions which guarantee the existence of a unique, dominance solvable Nash equilibrium which is stable under all adaptive (...) dynamics. These conditions constitute a strict improvement over existing results in the literature. Finally, we examine the effect on these conditions resulting from additional firms entering the market. (shrink)

Based on a qualitative survey among 203 US workers active on the microwork platform Amazon Mechanical Turk, we analyze potential biases embedded in the institutional setting provided by on-demand crowdworking platforms and their effect on perceived workplace fairness. We explore the triadic relationship between employers, workers, and platform providers, focusing on the power of platform providers to design settings and processes that affect workers’ fairness perceptions. Our focus is on workers’ awareness of the new institutional setting, frames applied to the (...) mediating platform, and a differentiated analysis of distinct fairness dimensions. (shrink)

The contribution of the body to cognition and control in natural and artificial agents is increasingly described as “off-loading computation from the brain to the body”, where the body is said to perform “morphological computation”. Our investigation of four characteristic cases of morphological computation in animals and robots shows that the ‘off-loading’ perspective is misleading. Actually, the contribution of body morphology to cognition and control is rarely computational, in any useful sense of the word. We thus distinguish (1) morphology that (...) facilitates control, (2) morphology that facilitates perception and the rare cases of (3) morphological computation proper, such as ‘reservoir computing.’ where the body is actually used for computation. This result contributes to the understanding of the relation between embodiment and computation: The question for robot design and cognitive science is not whether computation is offloaded to the body, but to what extent the body facilitates cognition and control – how it contributes to the overall ‘orchestration’ of intelligent behaviour. (shrink)