Regular musical activity as a complex multimodal lifestyle activity is proposed to be protective against age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. This cross-sectional study investigated the association and interplay between musical instrument playing during life, multi-domain cognitive abilities and brain morphology in older adults from the DZNE-Longitudinal Cognitive Impairment and Dementia Study study. Participants reporting having played a musical instrument across three life periods were compared to controls without a history of musical instrument playing, well-matched for reserve proxies of education, (...) intelligence, socioeconomic status and physical activity. Participants with musical activity outperformed controls in global cognition, working memory, executive functions, language, and visuospatial abilities, with no effects seen for learning and memory. The musically active group had greater gray matter volume in the somatosensory area, but did not differ from controls in higher-order frontal, temporal, or hippocampal volumes. However, the association between gray matter volume in distributed frontal-to-temporal regions and cognitive abilities was enhanced in participants with musical activity compared to controls. We show that playing a musical instrument during life relates to better late-life cognitive abilities and greater brain capacities in OA. Musical activity may serve as a multimodal enrichment strategy that could help preserve cognitive and brain health in late life. Longitudinal and interventional studies are needed to support this notion. (shrink)

Nikolaus von Kues, der große Philosoph und Theologe des 15. Jahrhunderts, hat sich auch mathematischen Problemen gewidmet. Vor allem die Frage nach der Möglichkeit der Quadratur des Kreises beschäftigte ihn. In seinen Lösungsansätzen spielt die Lehre vom Zusammenfall der Gegensätze eine entscheidende Rolle. In den vergangenen Jahren wurde Cusanus’ Technikverständnis an der Kueser Akademie für Europäische Geistesgeschichte intensiv erforscht. Im Ergebnis stellt Ingo Reiss in diesem Buch den cusanischen Zugang zu Mathematik und Technik und zu deren Wechselverhältnis vor.

Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt erstmals, dass sich die Vermittlung von Moral und Glück in Immanuel Kants Philosophie strukturell beschreiben lässt. Sie bleibt aber letztlich die nicht endende Aufgabe eines bewussten Lebens, das um seine Neigungen weiß, klug mit diesen umgeht und die Moral als letzten Orientierungspunkt versteht.

Editors' introduction to the special issue on homology (Biology and Philosophy Vol. 22, Issue 5, 2007).

ABSTRACTThis article introduces an “ordonomic” approach to corporate citizenship. We believe that ordonomics offers a conceptual framework for analyzing both the social structure and the semantics of moral commitments. We claim that such an analysis can provide theoretical guidance for the changing role of business in society, especially in regard to the expectation and trend that businesses take a political role and act as corporate citizens. The systematicraison d'êtreof corporate citizenship is that business firms can and—judged by the criterion of (...) prudent self-interest—“should” take on an active role in rule-finding discourses and rule-setting processes with the intent of realizing a win-win outcome of the economic game. We identify—and illustrate—four ways that corporate citizens can employ moral commitments as a factor of production to enhance their processes of economic value creation. (shrink)

Leitbilder pragen das Erscheinungsbild vieler Einrichtungen und Unternehmen. Sie geben Zeugnis vom Selbstverstandnis, dem Wertefundament und der Unternehmenskultur. Oft bleibt das Ideal jedoch hinter der Realitat zuruck oder lauft Gefahr, Mitarbeitende und Strukturen zu uberfordern. Speziell Krankenhauser in konfessioneller Tragerschaft stehen heute mehr denn je vor der Herausforderung, die ethische Selbstverpflichtung von Leitbildern mit Leben zu fullen. Ingo Proft zeigt in seiner Studie mithilfe der Epikie als Handlungsprinzip methodische Schritte auf, die Leitbilder bereits in der Entstehung auf Praktikabilitat und (...) Umsetzbarkeit ausrichten. Daruber hinaus helfen sie, bestehende Konzepte umzusetzen und weiterzuentwickeln. (shrink)

This article introduces an “ordonomic” approach to corporate citizenship. We believe that ordonomics offers a conceptual framework for analyzing both the social structure and the semantics of moral commitments. We claim that such an analysis can provide theoretical guidance for the changing role of business in society, especially in regard to the expectation and trend that businesses take a political role and act as corporate citizens. The systematicraison d'êtreof corporate citizenship is that business firms can and—judged by the criterion of (...) prudent self-interest—“should” take on an active role in rule-finding discourses and rule-setting processes with the intent of realizing a win-win outcome of the economic game. We identify—and illustrate—four ways that corporate citizens can employ moral commitments as a factor of production to enhance their processes of economic value creation. (shrink)

.A term rewrite system is called simply terminating if its termination can be shown by means of a simplification ordering. According to a result of Weiermann, the derivation length function of any simply terminating finite rewrite system is eventually dominated by a Hardy function of ordinal less than the small Veblen ordinal. This bound had appeared to be of rather theoretical nature, because all known examples had had multiple recursive complexities, until recently Touzet constructed simply terminating examples with complexities beyond (...) multiple recursion. This was established by simulating the Hydra battle for all ordinal segments below the proof-theoretic ordinal of Peano arithmetic. By extending this result to the small Veblen ordinal we prove the huge bound of Weiermann to be sharp. As a spin-off we can show that total termination allows for complexities as high as those of simple termination. (shrink)

Georg Simmel (1858-1918) ist nicht nur einer der zentralen Begründer der Soziologie, sondern trug auch eine einflussreiche Ästhetik vor. Dabei ist Simmels Ansatz doppelt ausgerichtet: Der säkular gearbeiteten und bis heute höchst erfolgreichen soziologischen Ästhetik, die sich am Konzept sozialer Wechselwirkung orientiert, steht eine in ihrem Gesamtprofil bisher nicht erfasste, emphatische Kunstphilosophie kulturalistischer Prägung gegenüber, die Artefakte als Schauseite der Metaphysik im Modus einer spezifischen Weltgründungskunst versteht.0Die vorliegende Arbeit diskutiert Eigenart und Verhältnis dieser beiden Ästhetiken und leitet so über zu (...) einer exemplarischen Würdigung von Simmels eminenten Wirkungen in Kunstgeschichte, liberalkonservativer Kulturkritik und früher Frankfurter Schule.0Negation der Arbeitsteilung, Formwerdung als kreativistische Entäusserung schlechthin der?Seele? sowie Werk- als Wirkungsästhetik von Bedeutungsintensität sind 'Leitbegriffe', mittels derer Simmels Denken radikaler Autonomie der Kunst sortiert und in ihren Chancen und Grenzen um 1900 erfasst wird. (shrink)

In einem grundlegenden Aufsatz, der hier in deutscher Ubersetzung zusammen mit dem englischen Original abgedruckt wird, leisten Bruni und Sugden einen innovativen Beitrag zur interdisziplinaren Verstandigung zwischen Philosophie und Okonomik. Ausgangspunkt ist der Befund, dass tugendethische Ansatze oft ausgesprochen marktkritisch sind, weil sie durch den Markt eine Erosion sozialer Normen und intrinsischer Motivation befurchten. Bruni und Sugden kritisieren die traditionelle Tugendethik dahingehend, dass diese den Markt an sachfremden Idealen messe und dadurch in eine wirtschaftsfremde und sogar wirtschaftsfeindliche Schieflage gerate. Der (...) Gegenansatz von Bruni und Sugden bestimmt den Markt als Praxis mit einem eigenstandigen Ziel (telos). Dieses besteht in der wechselseitigen Vorteilsgewahrung zwischen Tauschpartnern. Von hier ausgehend, identifizieren sie (ohne Anspruch auf Vollstandigkeit) acht Tugenden, die der Praxis des Marktes forderlich sind. Hierin sehen Bruni und Sugden einen Beitrag, die Menschen, die sich als moralische Subjekte verstehen, mit einem wichtigen Bereich ihrer alltaglichen Lebenspraxis zu versohnen. Dieser Band leitet dazu an, sich mit den Thesen von Bruni und Sugden intensiv und kritisch auseinanderzusetzen. Methodische Handreichungen erleichtern die Textanalyse. Besonders anregend fur die Diskussion sind ein Dutzend Kurzkommentare, die den Aufsatz von verschiedenen Blickwinkeln aus beleuchten. (shrink)

Ausgangspunkt der vorliegenden Arbeit über Gilles Deleuze ist die Frage nach dem Verhältnis von Ironie und Humor, weil bei Deleuze der Humor zu einer Methode des Denkens wird. Das erste Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit der Beziehung des Denkens zu Malerei, Theater, Kino und Literatur, sowie mit der Kunst der Herstellung von Begriffen und der Sprache der Philosophie. Im zweiten Kapitel wird der Begriff des reinen Ereignisses entwickelt, der im Zentrum des Denkens von Deleuze steht. Das dritte Kapitel handelt hingegen vom (...) Körper und vom Eintreten von Ereignissen: vom Verhältnis von Virtualität und Aktualität, von Singularität und Individuation und von einer bestimmten Umkehrung des Platonismus, die Voraussetzung für eine deleuzeianische Ideenlehre ist. Das Schlusskapitel versteht sich als Einführung in einen fröhlichen Atheismus und entwickelt Ansätze zu einer deleuzeianischen Ethik. Der Anhang enthält eine umfassende Bibliographie der Schriften von Deleuze und ihrer deutschsprachigen Übersetzungen, sowie der vorliegenden Sekundärliteratur. (shrink)

This article contributes to the debate about the political role of the business firm. The article clarifies what is meant by the “political” role of the firm and how this political role relates to its economic role. To this end, the authors present an ordonomic concept of corporate citizenship and illustrate the concept by way of comparison with the Aristotelian idea of individual citizenship for the antique polis. According to our concept, companies take a political role if they participate in (...) rule-setting processes and rule-finding discourses. Though this political role of the corporation is in principle ambivalent, the authors conclude that in such processes of “new governance” the economic and political roles of the firm need not contradict each other but can follow the same win-win logic of individual self-perfection through cooperative social interactions. (shrink)

The agents of a jury have to decide between a good and a bad option through simple majority voting. In this paper the jury consists of N independent couples. Each couple consists of two correlated agents of the same competence level. Different couples may have different competence levels. In addition, each agent is assumed to be better than completely random guessing. We prove tight lower and upper bounds for the quality of the majority decision. The lower bound is the same (...) as the competence of majority voting of N independent agents. The upper bound cases for negatively correlated couples can be much better than the value for 2N\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$2 \, N$$\end{document} independent agents. (shrink)

This article understands codes of ethics as written documents that represent social actors in specific ways through the use of language. It presents an empirical study that investigated the codes of ethics of the German Dax30 companies. The study adopted a critical discourse analysis-approach in order to reveal how the code-texts produce a particular understanding of the various internal social groups for the readers. Language is regarded as social practice that functions at creating particular understandings of individuals and groups, how (...) they are interrelated, and how they should behave. Findings show that codes of ethics do not represent employees as a group that is empowered or morally enlightened; instead they are positioned as passive receivers of rules and regulations. Furthermore, codes of ethics classify employees as having a need to be monitored and controlled by the higher levels of the corporate hierarchy. Overall, code language enforces compliance through maintaining existing and building new asymmetries between the different groups within a company. As a consequence, the article discusses a somewhat different understanding of code effectiveness. Reproducing and reemphasizing hierarchical relations could also lead to code compliance, perhaps without any need for developing the moral employee that is committed to ethical values. (shrink)

Taxa and homologues can in our view be construed both as kinds and as individuals. However, the conceptualization of taxa as natural kinds in the sense of homeostatic property cluster kinds has been criticized by some systematists, as it seems that even such kinds cannot evolve due to their being homeostatic. We reply by arguing that the treatment of transformational and taxic homologies, respectively, as dynamic and static aspects of the same homeostatic property cluster kind represents a good perspective for (...) supporting the conceptualization of taxa as kinds. The focus on a phenomenon of homology based on causal processes (e.g., connectivity, activity-function, genetics, inheritance, and modularity) and implying relationship with modification yields a notion of natural kinds conforming to the phylogenetic-evolutionary framework. Nevertheless, homeostatic property cluster kinds in taxonomic and evolutionary practice must be rooted in the primacy of epistemological classification (homology as observational properties) over metaphysical generalization (series of transformation and common ancestry as unobservational processes). The perspective of individuating characters exclusively by historical-transformational independence instead of their developmental, structural, and functional independence fails to yield a sufficient practical interplay between theory and observation. Purely ontological and ostensional perspectives in evolution and phylogeny (e.g., an ideographic character concept and PhyloCode’s ‘individualism’ of clades) may be pragmatically contested in the case of urgent issues in biodiversity research, conservation, and systematics. (shrink)

Über Jahrzehnte beanspruchten die komplementären Diskurse des östlichen partei-, später staatsoffiziellen Marxismus sowie des westlichen Antikommunismus die nahezu uneingeschränkte Definitionsmacht über das, was gemeinhin als 'Marxsche Theorie' oder 'wissenschaftlicher Sozialismus' galt. Dagegen machte sich ab Mitte der 1960er Jahre eine neue Lektüre-Bewegung vor allem in der Bundesrepublik daran, die originellen wissenschaftlichen Gehalte des Marxschen Denkens zu entdecken. Der Rezeptionsschutt der vorangegangenen 100 Jahre sollte weggeräumt werden, um für die Rekonstruktion einer kritischen Gesellschaftstheorie mit einem innovativen Methoden- und Gegenstandsverständnis Platz zu (...) schaffen. Das Buch vergegenwärtigt die Quellen, Geschichte und Resultate dieses neuen Diskussionskontexts. Drei Stränge der Debatte werden näher beleuchtet: die methodologische und werttheoretische Grundlagenforschung, die Staatsableitung sowie die Untersuchung der revolutionstheoretischen Implikationen der Kritik der politischen Ökonomie. Dabei wird gezeigt, dass in einem noch keineswegs abgeschlossenen Forschungsprozess die Umrisse einer bei Marx angelegten Theorie erkennbar werden, die wichtige Impulse zum Verständnis der modernen Reichtums- und Herrschaftsformen geben kann und in vielem geradezu das Gegenteil von dem zeigt, was man von Marx in marxistischen wie nicht-marxistischen Kreisen zu wissen glaubte. (shrink)

Dieser Aufsatz zeichnet aus einer ordonomischen Perspektive nach, wie das Revival der Tugendethik seit den späten 1950er-Jahren eine philosophische Literatur tugendethischer Marktkritik hervorgebracht hat, die von Ökonomen argumentativ zurückgewiesen und in Form einer Tugendethik des Marktes konstruktiv überboten worden ist. Besonders betont wird, inwiefern diese Entwicklung – die Rehabilitierung der Tugendethik innerhalb der ökonomischen Theorie – dazu beitragen kann, die doppelte Herausforderung des Kommunitarismus besser zu bewältigen. Diese besteht darin, auf die Gesellschaftsfähigkeit von Gemeinschaften ebenso zu achten wie auf die (...) Gemeinschaftsfähigkeit der modernen Gesellschaft. (shrink)

This Article develops an understanding of authority as the ability to establish content-laden reference points that participants in legal discourse can hardly escape. Situating authority between coercion by force and persuasion through argument, it carves out recognition and constraint as constitutive elements of authority. Delegation - a conditional grant of authority from principals to agents - is typically taken to account for the authority of international courts and tribunals. But the Article argues that delegation is at best only the starting (...) point of ICTs’ authority. The dynamics of the legal discourse stabilize authority and account for its further growth. The conception of authority that emerges from the discussion herein is less one of a command that demands blind obedience than a reference point that redistributes argumentative burdens. Communication is authority’s medium. Taking a step back from immediate normative questions, the Article shows what it takes for ICTs to have authority. It presents the communicative dynamics that build up ICTs’ authority and showcases the discursive resources ICTs themselves use to induce deference. The Article suggests in conclusion that a better understanding of what it takes for ICTs to have authority will also advance questions about such authority’s normative legitimacy. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue on empirical grounds that (VL-initial) Asymmetric Coordination in German cannot be reduced to a syntactic structure of the form [if S1, then S2], but rather needs to be analyzed as some kind of adjunction to the if-clause, i.e., along the lines of [[if S1] and S2]. This conclusion gives rise to an apparent mismatch between syntactic structure (narrow scope of if) and semantic interpretation (wide scope of if). To resolve this paradoxical situation, I propose a (...) compositional semantics for conditionals that is based on the idea that (indexed) if is to be construed as some kind of anaphor (variable) that ranges over objects of type modal base picking up a modal background in the actual context. Even though this analysis assigns a non-vacuous semantics to the complementizer if, it is still compatible with the syntax of Asymmetric Coordination in German, and, in contrast to alternative accounts, avoids the generation of non-existent distributive readings. (shrink)

Can differences in corporate codes of ethics arise from the specific situation of transformation in Slovakia in contrast to the stable context of the firms in Western Germany? This paper compares codes of ethics of large‐scale enterprises in both countries in terms of ethical issues addressed. It demonstrates that codes of ethics of the Slovak companies mirror the specific transformational circumstances in the country. Compared with Western Germany the codes of these firms include multiple ethical issues, meaning that they experience (...) a broader range of relevant ethical problems. Furthermore, their codes are internally oriented, in terms of the ethical issues raised most often; they put more emphasis on committing employees, managers and shareholders/owners to the firm. Based on the differences discovered, it is proposed that negative experiences within the past process of transformation and in part the socialist heritage are the main reasons for differences between the two samples. (shrink)

The paper works towards an account of explanatory integration in biology, using as a case study explanations of the evolutionary origin of novelties-a problem requiring the integration of several biological fields and approaches. In contrast to the idea that fields studying lower level phenomena are always more fundamental in explanations, I argue that the particular combination of disciplines and theoretical approaches needed to address a complex biological problem and which among them is explanatorily more fundamental varies with the problem pursued. (...) Solving a complex problem need not require theoretical unification or the stable synthesis of different biological fields, as items of knowledge from traditional disciplines can be related solely for the purposes of a specific problem. Apart from the development of genuine interfield theories, successful integration can be effected by smaller epistemic units (concepts, methods, explanations) being linked. Unification or integration is not an aim in itself, but needed for the aim of solving a particular scientific problem, where the problem's nature determines the kind of intellectual integration required. (shrink)

In this paper some parts of the model theory for logics based on generalised Kripke semantics are developed. Löwenheim-Skolem theorems and some applications of ultraproduct constructions for generalised Kripke models with variable universe are investigated using similar theorems of the model theory for classical logic. The results are generalizations of the theorems of [4].

The discussion presents a framework of concepts that is intended to account for the rationality of semantic change and variation, suggesting that each scientific concept consists of three components of content: 1) reference, 2) inferential role, and 3) the epistemic goal pursued with the concept’s use. I argue that in the course of history a concept can change in any of these components, and that change in the concept’s inferential role and reference can be accounted for as being rational relative (...) to the third component, the concept’s epistemic goal. This framework is illustrated and defended by application to the history of the gene concept. It is explained how the molecular gene concept grew rationally out of the classical gene concept despite a change in reference, and why the use and reference of the contemporary molecular gene concept may legitimately vary from context to context. (shrink)

Reductionism encompasses a set of ontological, epistemological, and methodological claims about the relation of different scientific domains. The basic question of reduction is whether the properties, concepts, explanations, or methods from one scientific domain (typically at higher levels of organization) can be deduced from or explained by the properties, concepts, explanations, or methods from another domain of science (typically one about lower levels of organization). Reduction is germane to a variety of issues in philosophy of science, including the structure of (...) scientific theories, the relations between different scientific disciplines, the nature of explanation, the diversity of methodology, and the very idea of theoretical progress, as well as to numerous topics in metaphysics and philosophy of mind, such as emergence, mereology, and supervenience. (shrink)

Examining previous discussions on how to construe the concepts of gender and race, we advocate what we call strategic conceptual engineering. This is the employment of a (possibly novel) concept for specific epistemic or social aims, concomitant with the openness to use a different concept (e.g., of race) for other purposes. We illustrate this approach by sketching three distinct concepts of gender and arguing that all of them are needed, as they answer to different social aims. The first concept serves (...) the aim of identifying and explaining gender-based discrimination. It is similar to Haslanger’s well-known account, except that rather than offering a definition of ‘woman’ we focus on ‘gender’ as one among several axes of discrimination. The second concept of gender is to assign legal rights and social recognitions, and thus is to be trans-inclusive. We argue that this cannot be achieved by previously suggested concepts that include substantial gender-related psychological features, such as awareness of social expectations. Instead, our concept counts someone as being of a certain gender solely based on the person’s self-identification with this gender. The third concept of gender serves the aim of personal empowerment by means of one’s gender identity. In this context, substantial psychological features and awareness of one’s social situation are involved. While previous accounts of concepts have focused on their role in determining extensions, we point to contexts where a concept’s role in explanation and moral reasoning can be more important. (shrink)

Recent rival attempts in the philosophy of science to put forward a general theory of the properties that all (and only) natural kinds across the sciences possess may have proven to be futile. Instead, I develop a general methodological framework for how to philosophically study kinds. Any kind has to be investigated and articulated together with the human aims that motivate referring to this kind, where different kinds in the same scientific domain can answer to different concrete aims. My core (...) contention is that non-epistemic aims, including environmental, ethical, and political aims, matter as well. This is defended and illustrated based on several examples of kinds, with particular attention to the role of social-political aims: species, race, gender, as well as personality disorders and oppositional defiant disorder as psychiatric kinds. Such non-epistemic aims and values need not always be those personally favoured by scientists, but may have to reflect values that matter to relevant societal stakeholders. Despite the general agenda to study ‘kinds,’ I argue that philosophers should stop using the term ‘natural kinds,’ as this label obscures the relevance of humans interests and the way in which many kinds are based on contingent social processes subject to human responsibility. (shrink)

Wenn die Therapie an eine Grenze kommt und keine Aussicht auf Heilung besteht, wenn Leiden und Schmerz ubermachtig werden, stellt sich haufig die Frage: "Wie mochte ich sterben?" Dann wird fur immer mehr Menschen der Suizid zum Ausdruck eines selbstbestimmten Sterbens. Hierzu ist in Politik und Gesellschaft eine heftige Debatte entbrannt, besonders um die Frage, ob ein assistierter Suizid vom arztlichen Ethos gedeckt und somit straffrei sein kann. In dieser Publikation diskutieren Politiker, Juristen, Mediziner, Theologen und Ethiker diese Fragen kontrovers (...) und bieten vielfaltige Ansatze fur eine kritische gesellschaftliche Debatte wie auch fur die personliche Urteilsbildung. Ein wichtiger Beitrag zu einem aktuellen Thema - fur Fachleute, Interessierte und Betroffene. (shrink)

Despite the traditional focus on metaphysical issues in discussions of natural kinds in biology, epistemological considerations are at least as important. By revisiting the debate as to whether taxa are kinds or individuals, I argue that both accounts are metaphysically compatible, but that one or the other approach can be pragmatically preferable depending on the epistemic context. Recent objections against construing species as homeostatic property cluster kinds are also addressed. The second part of the paper broadens the perspective by considering (...) homologues as another example of natural kinds, comparing them with analogues as functionally defined kinds. Given that there are various types of natural kinds, I discuss the different theoretical purposes served by diverse kind concepts, suggesting that there is no clear-cut distinction between natural kinds and other kinds, such as functional kinds. Rather than attempting to offer a unique metaphysical account of ‘natural’ kind, a more fruitful approach consists in the epistemological study of how different natural kind concepts are employed in scientific reasoning. (shrink)