Social entrepreneurship is not just an objective description of a phenomenon; it also carries a positive normative connotation. However, the academic discourse barely reflects social entrepreneurship’s inherent normativity and often grounds it implicitly on the mission of a social enterprise. In this paper, we argue critically that it is insufficient to ground social entrepreneurship’s inherent normativity on a social mission. Instead, we will show how such a mission-centric conception of social entrepreneurship, when put into practice, is prone to enhance rather (...) than diminish societal grievances. In order to give social entrepreneurship an explicit and sound ethical grounding, we draw on integrative economic ethics as a frame of reference. From this perspective, social entrepreneurship necessitates adherence to the discourse-ethically reasoned moral principle in order to live up to its inherent normative validity claim of good entrepreneurship. The consideration of social entrepreneurship practices is crucial to make this approach less vulnerable to ethical critique. The addition of a practice dimension overcomes the mission-centric view of social entrepreneurship and opens up a typology of enterprise forms, thereby enabling a more fine-grained distinction between social enterprises and other forms of organization. (shrink)

Volume 51, Issue 3, July 2020, Page 275-276.

Quentin Meillassoux’s speculative materialism aims to define access to reality of the natural world apart from its giveness to sentient subjects. This world apart is designated by Meillassoux as the “Great Outdoors” which was marginalized as a topic of philosophy after Kant’s critiques. The question of the incommensurability of human subjects and physical objects is taken up by Meillassoux and addressed by allowing mathematizable properties of physical objects to be referred to objectively in mathematical statements. In this paper we follow (...) the discussion with speculative materialism conducted by Deborah Danowski and Eduardo Viveiros de Castro in The Ends of the World (2017). These authors show that Meillassoux’s conception of the “Great Outdoors” includes, yet insufficiently explores, the notion of ancestral humanity in Amerindian myth – and intimately related to the practice of hallucinogenic trance – as the means to address the problem of said incommensurability. (shrink)

Die vorliegende Arbeit nimmt die aktuelle Diskussion in Neurowissenschaften und Philosophie zum Problem der Willensfreiheit auf und entwickelt eine theologisch-anthropologische Perspektive auf das Thema. Sie informiert klar gegliedert über unterschiedliche Positionen dieser interdisziplinären Debatte. Dabei erörtert sie die Hintergründe neurowissenschaftlicher Argumente und weist auf deren begriffliche und systematische Schwierigkeiten hin. Der Autor entwickelt unter Bezugnahme auf die neurowissenschaftliche Herausforderung in pointierter Weise einen philosophischen Begriff der Willensfreiheit. Er lehnt sich dabei an Robert Kane und den philosophischen Libertarismus an. Sodann wird (...) im Ausgang von Luthers reformatorischen Hauptschriften ein theologisch-anthropologischer Freiheitsbegriff entfaltet. Sowohl das Problem des "versklavten Willens" als auch die Freiheit eines Christenmenschen in ihren unterschiedlichen Aspekten beschreibt der Autor ausführlich und differenziert. Christliche Freiheit wird als Phänomen des Lebens in der Zeit und in menschlichen Beziehungen beleuchtet. Analogien und Differenzen zu einem philosophischen Freiheitsbegriff und zu neurowissenschaftlichen Aspekten werden deutlich herausgestellt. (shrink)

This article develops a theoretical explanation of the patterns of violence and distribution of conflict in contemporary world. It combines the international political thought of Carl Schmitt with an exploration of the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and tensions over the South China Sea in order to envisage a new spatialisation of the world based around Großräume – ‘large spaces’, that is, powerful agglomerations of states – and peripheral lands in-between. It is thereby stipulated that while direct violence between Großräume (...) is limited, inter- Großraum competition is channelled towards the periphery, and the three cases presented in this article demonstrate how the exact nature and means of conflict depend on a particular inter- Großraum alignment. This reconceptualisation of the international order is presented in the wider context of Schmitt’s political thought, particularly his notions of the political, sovereignty and the exception in order to elucidate the latent processes behind the formation of state groupings and their willingness to engage in conflict beyond their borders. (shrink)

This article provides a framework for understanding post-truth politics by employing the ideas of Nietzsche and Schmitt. It posits pre-moral and pre-economic guilt and debt, relating human non-self-sufficiency, at the heart of social and political existence and alleges that guilt and debt are the hey bonds that hold human groupings together. Following Schmitt, romantic attitudes to politics are seen as negating this underlying reality, opting instead for escapist fantasy of self-mastery and unlimited creative potential. The author claims that these promises (...) in particular are picked up by post-truth politics, placing the human person and their preconceptions at the heart of the world and handing over to them prime creative power at least as a matter of fantasy. Nevertheless, this escapism merely hides the persistence of guilt and debt. However, despite being an inadequate way of perceiving the world, the post-truth fantasy still constitutes a severe challenge to political bonds. (shrink)

According to act-consequentialism the right action is the one that produces the best results as judged from an impersonal perspective. Some claim that this requirement is unreasonably demanding and therefore consequentialism is unacceptable as a moral theory. The article breaks with dominant trends in discussing this so-called Overdemandingness Objection. Instead of focusing on theoretical responses, it empirically investigates whether there exists a widely shared intuition that consequentialist demands are unreasonable. This discussion takes the form of examining what people think about (...) the normative significance of consequentialist requirements. In two experiments, the article finds that although people are sensitive to consequentialist requirements and, on average, find more extreme demands less reasonable, the level of disagreement with consequentialism falls short of qualifying as a widely shared intuition, even when demands are the highest. The article then ends with a general discussion of possible objections to its methods and its findings. (shrink)

According to Viveiros de Castro, comparison as ontology defines the ontological turn in anthropology. It presents a necessity for philosophy to approach the matter with comparative strategy. Morten Pedersen claims that ontological turn should be interpreted as a fulfillment of an anthropological version of Husserl’s method. Thus, phenomenology enters the field of interest along with its critique in Speculative Realism. In this article, we will see clearly why this selection is not accidental but rather unavoidable. Amerindian perspectivism necessitates the philosophical (...) reconceptualization of perspective in general, which is to be taken as a challenge for the established discourses. The need arises to rethink the problematic of Kantian perspectivism and its offspring. Amerindian perspectivism proposes cosmological deictics that hold a spatiality of the perspective of the other, of the in-itself, thus it comes into an opposition to Kant’s system. Phenomenological perspective, as one of the Kantian offspring, faces a predicament that is interwoven with the critique of correlationism arriving from Speculative Realisms. The synthetic character of phenomenology allows enough flexibility for it to traverse these recent charges. We will draw a comparative picture of dynamic co-evolution of strains of recent thought, striving for a synthetic multiplicity, permeated by a common perspectival thread. (shrink)

"3.2.5 The borderline concept of sovereignty" -- "3.2.6 Dynamic versus absolute: the tragic of the decision" -- "3.3 The theology: law and politics" -- "3.3.1 Constitution as partial suturing" -- "3.3.2 Law, norm and the decision" -- "3.3.3 Legitimacy and the immanent will" -- "3.3.4 The constitutive reinforced" -- "3.3.5 Dynamic, integration and constant turmoil" -- "4 A theory of ordering" -- "4.1 The framework: state and sovereignty" -- "4.1.1 The state" -- "4.1.2 Sovereignty" -- "4.2 The content: law and (...) politics" -- "4.2.1 Law" -- "4.2.2 Politics" -- "4.3 A partial excursus on the tragic and the theological" -- "Conclusions. (shrink)

Bringing together contributors from the disciplines of law, politics, philosophy, and communication studies, this volume develops an interdisciplinary vocabulary for thinking about the questions and antinomies of human-technology interaction while also resisting any deceptively straightforward synthesis. The topics discussed include the competition over and regulation of technology, the harm induced by autonomous technologies, and the place and role of humans in a world that is undergoing rapid and radical change.

This book proposes a posthumanist research methodology for future research in the areas of the economy, the human self, politics, and research ethics, providing a novel explanatory and methodological framework for studying today's world.

This article employs Spinoza’s ideas as a springboard for developing a novel philosophical interpretation of today’s technologically enhanced world. As a starting point, today’s digitized and datafied world has brought about fundamental changes not only to the ways in which humans live their lives but also to our understanding of the role and place of the human person as such. As the conditions and, in many cases, the content of everyday life are shaped by data, code, devices and the infrastructure (...) necessary for connectivity and interoperability, anthropocentric notions of the human begin to fall apart. Hence, this article embraces the post-humanist displacement of the human by demonstrating human beings to be merely parts of hybrid agglomerations, united by the flows of affect. It is within these affective flows that agency and existence are seen to be located. Moreover, through appreciation of Spinozist monism, it becomes evident that today’s hybrid agglomerations, understood as manifestations of a single substance under the attributes of thought and extension, are not aberrations but merely manifestations of natural human embeddedness. (shrink)

The present paper analyses the relationship between the figures of the Arbeiter and the Krieger, described by Ernst Jünger, and their metaphysical context, that is, the becoming in which the catastrophe of war takes place. The analysis is conducted through a theoretical comparison with Simone Weil’s thought, in which war is considered as an extreme case of malheur, i.e., the manifestation of divinity as pure grace devoid of power. Two useful paradigms are thus outlined to explain the condition of the (...) human being in the becoming: the paradigm of dominion (Jünger) and the paradigm of waiting (Weil). In the second part of the paper, those two options are associated with two art pieces, in order to visually represent the characteristics of dominion and waiting, showing the dramatic issue of the choice for dominion in the face of the catastrophe produced by technology. (shrink)

We examined social facilitation and emotional convergence in amusement, sadness, and fear in dynamic interactions. Dyads of friends or strangers jointly watched emotion-eliciting films while they either could or could not communicate nonverbally. We assessed three components of each emotion (expressions, appraisals, and feelings), as well as attention to and social motives toward the co-participant. In Study 1, participants interacted through a mute videoconference. In Study 2, they sat next to each other and either were or were not separated by (...) a partition. Results revealed that facilitation and convergence are not uniform across different emotions and emotion components. Particularly strong supporting patterns emerged for the facilitation of and convergence in smiling. When direct interaction was possible (Study 2), friends showed a general tendency for strong convergence, with the exception of fear-related appraisals. This suggests that underlying processes of emotional contagion and social appraisal are differentially relevant for different emotions. (shrink)

The present article analyses the concept of lecture in the thought of Simone Weil. Lecture is connected to the rational activity of human being and it allows man to orientate inside the structure of reality, by virtue of the meaning lecture itself determines. The different levels of lecture culminate in the possibility, for lecture itself, to reach a dimension of self-knowledge, and therefore to convert itself into non-lecture. Non-lecture corresponds to the state of abandonment and detachment which is typical of (...) mysticism. When man reaches this condition, he can overcome the fallacy of form and affirm the real presence of the things, in order to access a superior knowledge of reality and to a full experience of divine love. Non-lecture permits human being to face the malheur, understanding that malheur is a contradictory sign of divine grace. (shrink)

Este trabalho, apresentado em forma de ensaio filosófico e pedagógico, propõe experimentar modos outros de escrever e interpretar os conceitos de Michel Foucault. Para desenvolver a analítica, parte-se de três conceitos basilares: saber, poder e subjetividade. A tese que se instaura é que a interpretação se dá na articulação entre movimentos recíprocos de interioridade e exterioridade do sujeito –constituído pelos discursos, pelos jogos de poder e pelas tecnologias de si – que, para significar o mundo, dá nomes e, assim, sentido (...) para a existência. Como resultado, o trabalho propõe pensar a hermenêutica foucaultiana como transgressora, não pelo seu caráter subversivo, mas pela possibilidade de funcionar como ferramenta teórica e metodológica. Interpretar é, nessa perspectiva, projetar o espaço-outro, o tempo-outro e a vida-outra, indagando o impacto da crise anti-intelectualista e negacionista. (shrink)

Il limite necesario: Ex parte necessitatis -- La regola del limite -- Ex parte Dei -- Grazia e gravità: Necessità -- Gravità -- Persona -- Tempo, vuoto e metodo: Immaginazione e vuoto -- Tempo e lavoro -- Lavoro e lettura -- Spazio e tempo.

An influential objection to act-consequentialism holds that the theory is unduly demanding. This paper is an attempt to approach this critique of act-consequentialism – the Overdemandingness Objection – from a different, so far undiscussed, angle. First, the paper argues that the most convincing form of the Objection claims that consequentialism is overdemanding because it requires us, with decisive force, to do things that, intuitively, we do not have decisive reason to perform. Second, in order to investigate the existence of the (...) intuition, the paper reports empirical evidence of how people see the normative significance of consequentialist requirements.. In a scenario study that recruited a sample which is representative of the German population in key characteristics, it finds that there is no widely shared intuition as to the excessive demandingness of consequentialist requirements, although people do find higher demands less reasonable. This is true irrespective of people’s level of formal education despite the fact that lower levels of formal education are associated with an increased likelihood of having intuitions that are consistent with the Objection. Apart from contributing in this way to the debate concerning the Overdemandingness Objection, the paper also more directly speaks to the basic discussion concerning the status and role of intuitions in moral philosophy. It discusses methodological questions relevant to the role of intuitions and ends with proposing an improved methodology to investigate intuitions that connects them to emotions in a particular way and also proposes a role for virtue. (shrink)

: William James's letter of 12 January 1883 to William Erasmus Darwin is here published for the first time. The letter brings out the importance for the development of James's philosophy of the Darwinian emphasis on concreteness and the activities of organisms.

Dewey's critique of nationalism is primarily a critique of the ambitions of great powers. He was unaware of the aspirations of small nations, and his critique has less relevance for small-nation nationalism. In fact, as a communitarian, he should have been a supporter. But he also believed that science and technology are pushing mankind towards unity. The ideal society is to be cosmopolitan, democratic and secular, with everyone relying on the scientific method for beliefs. An American nationalist, he believed in (...) America's special link with democracy, in her mission to lead mankind, and saw America as a model of cosmopolitanism. However, he never made clear whether he saw America as a melting pot forming a new nation or as a mosaic. As a result, the status of nationality in the cosmopolitan humanity of the future remains unclear. (shrink)

The essay consists of two somewhat independent parts. In the first, I recount some of my experiences as editor, reflecting on interpretative contexts as a source of error, the role of chance, and dependence upon the work of others, especially the arrangement and cataloguing of libraries and archives. I note some of the changes libraries have undergone, including computerization, and sketch out some likely effects on scholarship. In the second part, I report some of my idle thoughts about William James. (...) Emphasis is on the surprising absence of evidence, given the large number of surviving documents, giving insight into the private core of his personality, as distinct from the public—and at times politically motivated—presentation of himself. I make some guesses about his personal religious beliefs, his reasons for engaging in psychical research, and his social views. I conclude with reflections upon his contributions to philosophy and the consequences for myself of such an extensive association with a single person. (shrink)