It is the purpose of this paper to address ethical issues concerning the development and application of Assistive Technology at Workplaces (ATW). We shall give a concrete technical concept how such technology might be constructed and propose eight technical functions it should adopt in order to serve its purpose. Then, we discuss the normative questions why one should use ATW, and by what means. We argue that ATW is good to the extent that it ensures social inclusion and consider four (...) normative domains in which its worth might consists in. In addition, we insist that ATW must satisfy two requirements of good workplaces, which we specify as (a) an exploitation restraint and (b) a duty of care. (shrink)

This article discusses some current research claims on gender and state socialism in Eastern Europe from 1945 to 1989. It raises questions about claims by Revisionist Feminist Scholars that official state socialist women’s organizations were ‘agents’ on behalf of women, or women’s movements, perhaps feminist, and not ‘transmission belts’ of communist parties. State socialist policies are described as ‘friendly towards women’ and ‘pro-women’. In contrast, the author claims that these organizations both were and were not agents on behalf of women, (...) and also prevented women’s agency. Meaningful women’s agency is not actually shown to occur intermittently throughout their history, but in two contexts – before 1955 or in moments of political rupture. Scholars do not distinguish the who, when, and what – Who could be agents? When could they be agents? And what kind of agents could they be? State policies, the author claims, were also at one and the same time ‘friendly’ and ‘unfriendly’ towards women, sometimes harming women. The author explores why this research is happening now, discussing research on Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the Democratic Women’s Organization of Germany, the Democratic Association of Hungarian Women, later renamed MNOT, the Romanian National Council of Women and the Yugoslav Anti-Fascist Women’s Organization. (shrink)

Introduction to the special cluster of articles by feminists from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

This article is a critical examination of Nancy Fraser's contrast of early second-wave feminism and contemporary global feminism in “Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History,” (Fraser ). Fraser contrasts emancipatory early second-wave feminism, strongly critical of capitalism, with feminism in the age of neoliberalism as being in a “dangerous liaison” with neoliberalism. I argue that Fraser's historical account of 1970s mainstream second-wave feminism is inaccurate, that it was not generally anti-capitalist, critical of the welfare system, or challenging the priority (...) of paid labor. I claim Fraser mistakenly takes a minority feminist position as mainstream. I further argue that Fraser's account of feminism today echoes arguments from James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer (2001) to Hester Eisenstein (), but such arguments ignore contemporary feminist minority positions. I challenge Fraser's arguments that feminism legitimates neoliberalism to women, that women's NGOs are simply service-providers enabling the state to withdraw services, and that criticisms of microcredit lending programs can be generalized into criticisms of women's feminism and women's NGOs today. I argue that these claims are vast over-generalizations and ignore countertrends. I give empirical evidence to support my objections by considering women's activities in post-communist European countries, which Fraser discusses. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe German state permitted about one million refugees to enter Germany in 2015–2016, although many were subsequently denied refugee status. Germany adopted an ‘integration’ and ‘welcome’ politics, an important, if imperfect, model for a European refugee policy. The integration of refugees required the joint activity of state, of civil society, of the public sphere and of refugees themselves. Civil society initiated a vast amount of essential care work and solidarity with refugees pursued especially, but not only, by women, yet civil (...) society and refugees had no say in refugee policies. German refugee policy and practice raised many normative issues, producing an intense and vigorous national debate about them, in which philosophers and theorists were active. Among the questions debated were whether Germany had accepted ‘too many’ refugees, the acceptability of the costs of the policy, the risks of harm to the least well off, the purported risks to safety, security and the social order and the purported threats to German culture. I first describe German state policies, practices and civil society efforts and then turn to normative debates. I discuss the limits of the German discourse and suggest how it needs to be expanded. (shrink)

Discusses the influences of Erich Fromm, examines his conception of the nature of man, and analyzes his views of social psychology, philosophy, ethics, and religion.

The paper included here was presented by Nanette Funk in Honor of Gertrude Ezorsky, the famed philosopher, feminist, and antiracism activist, at the 1997 Meeting of the Society for Women in Philosophy. It is published here as presented. Thus, although it is a coauthored talk the “I” refers to Nanette Funk.

Der Liberalismus beansprucht ein politisches Ordnungssystem zu sein, welches den Bürger*innen die Freiheit zuspricht und ihnen garantiert, sich selbst zu regieren. Doch löst er diesen Anspruch kohärent ein? Jana Katharina Funk zeigt auf, dass Freiheit nicht voraussetzungslos zu haben ist. In Anlehnung an Amartya Sen und Martha Nussbaum schlägt sie ein Konzept des Liberalismus vor, das die positive Freiheit in den Mittelpunkt stellt. Ein liberales Ordnungssystem muss demzufolge die Einzelnen zur Freiheit befähigen und ermächtigen. Es liegt an ihnen, sich (...) für ihre Version des guten Lebens zu entscheiden - aber sie müssen sich auch entscheiden können. (shrink)

In this paper Ludwig Wittgenstein is interpreted as a philosopher of language and technology. Due to current developments, a special focus is on lifeworld practice and technoscientific research. In particular, image-interpretation is used as a concrete methodical example. Whereas in most science- or technology-related Wittgenstein interpretations the focus is on the Tractatus, the Investigations or On Certainty, in this paper the primary source is his very late triune fragment Bemerkungen über die Farben. It is argued that Wittgenstein’s approach can supplement (...) Don Ihde’s concept of material hermeneutics, and that Wittgenstein’s constructivist and pragmatist claims relate to current authors in the philosophy of technology like Peter Janich, Carl Mitcham or Jürgen Mittelstraß. Ludwig Wittgenstein enables a philosophical approach of transcendental grammars, techno-linguistic forms of life and technoscientific language games. In detail, several methodological aspects regarding relations between language and technology are summarized. Here concretely repeatability and methodical actions play major roles in uncertain situations of language and technology practice. It is shown that Wittgenstein is still underestimated in the philosophy of technology—although his thoughtful conceptualizations of language, social practice and technology bear important methodical insights for current technosciences like synthetic biology, robotics and many others. (shrink)

Perceptions of criminality and remorse are critical for legal decision-making. While faces perceived as criminal are more likely to be selected in police lineups and to receive guilty verdicts, faces perceived as remorseful are more likely to receive less severe punishment recommendations. To identify the information that makes a face appear criminal and/or remorseful, we successfully used two different data-driven computational approaches that led to convergent findings: one relying on the use of computer-generated faces, and the other on photographs of (...) people. In addition to visualising and validating the perceived looks of criminality and remorse, we report correlations with earlier face models of dominance, threat, trustworthiness, masculinity/femininity, and sadness. The new face models of criminal and remorseful appearance contribute to our understanding of perceived criminality and remorse. They can be used to study the effects of perceived criminality and remorse on decision-making; research that can ultimately inform legal policies. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the use of the term ‘life’ in the debates within and about synthetic biology. We review different positions within these debates, focusing on the historical background, the constructive epistemology of laboratory research and the pros and cons of metaphorical speech. We argue that ‘life’ is used as buzzword, as folk concept, and as theoretical concept in inhomogeneous ways. Extending beyond the review of the significant literature, we also argue that ‘life’ can be understood as aBurstwordin (...) two concrete senses. Firstly, terms such as life easily turn into fuzzy, foggy and buzzy clouds of nonsense, if their use is not appropriately reflected. In these cases, the semantic orientation is detonated. This is theBurstword Icharacteristic of the concept of ‘life’ that we reveal for its unclear terminological use. Secondly, and in contrast toBurstword I, we show that the concept of ‘life’ can be used in a methodologically controlled way. We call this kind of useBurstword II. Here the concept of ‘life’ fulfils the function of expanding an inadequately narrow disciplinary or conceptual focus in different discursive contexts. In this second sense, ‘life’ receives an important operational function, for instance as a transdisciplinary research principle. It turns out that the innovative function and paradigm-changing power of metaphorical speech belong here as well. Finally, we illustrate three ethically relevant examples that show how ‘life’ can be applied asBurstword IIin the context of synthetic biology. (shrink)

Interpretations of family carer empowerment in much nursing research, and in home‐care practice and policy, rarely attend explicitly to families’ choice or control about the nature, extent or length of their involvement, or control over the impact on their own health. In this article, structural empowerment is used as an analytic lens to examine home‐care nurses’ interactions with families in one Western Canadian region. Data were collected from 75 hrs of fieldwork in 59 interactions (18 nurses visiting 16 families) and (...) interviews with 12 nurses and 11 family carers. Generally, nurses prioritized client empowerment, and their practice with families appeared oriented to supporting their role and needs as carers (i.e. rather than as unique individuals beyond the caring role), and reinforcing the caring role through validation and recognition. Although families generally expressed appreciation for these interactions, a structural empowerment lens illustrates how the broad context of home care shapes the interpretation and practice of empowerment in ways that can, paradoxically, be disempowering for families. Opportunities to effectively support family choice and control when a client is being cared for at home are discussed. (shrink)

The fundamental question for the interpreter who addresses himself to the Jesus-tradition today is this: Is it possible any longer to recover the parable as parable?

This article will provide an illustration of Max Weber’s theory of rationalization with a specific impetus on its interdependency with the development of capitalism. Following Horkheimer, I shall critically draw on Weber to outline a theory of human freedom, showing that rationalization not only implies economic and social liberation but entails a totalizing tendency that invades all spheres of socio-political life including people’s mental infrastructure. This mental colonization can be framed as a process of substituting value rationality with instrumental rationality. (...) I will claim that this substitution can be understood as an impediment for human freedom. Following contemporary theories of action, I will show the centrality of value orientation for understanding human freedom. Therefore, I propose a critical theory of freedom that centers value rational action as realization of freedom and can be understood as emancipative. (shrink)

This paper presents results of a qualitative study focussed on reconstructingcurrent reception processes of Tibetan Buddhist teachings and practicesas well as its representatives by the Swiss public since the mid 1990’s. Byexamining public discourses on Tibetan Buddhism in Switzerland, the paperaddresses issues concerning the social construction, representation and (re-)production of cultural and religious difference. It is argued that public receptionand representation of Tibetan Buddhism in the media clearly – even if implicitly– reflects disputes about conceptions of one’s own religious, cultural (...) and nationalidentity as well as about collectively shared values. It is shown that publicdiscourse on Tibetan Buddhism in Switzerland is characterized by opposingtendencies: on the one hand, it is clearly dominated by well-known positiveimages and stereotypes, which might be regarded as elements of an establishedrepertoire of knowledge about Tibet, Tibetans and the “World Religion of Buddhism”and which are reproduced as a matter of course within public discussionson the topic. On the other hand, nevertheless, these dominant topoi arecurrently being questioned by various social actors and on various levels. Theseefforts at deconstructing popular images and perceptions of Tibetan cultural andreligious traditions, however, have relatively small impact on wider social processesof constructing religious and cultural alterity – not nearly as much, forexample, as the construction of an Islamic “Other” culminating in the minaretreferendum of 2009. (shrink)

Introduction to the special cluster of articles by feminists from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Long description: Unter welchen Bedingungen kann Authentizität entstehen? Wie wird sie wahrgenommen und warum misst man ihr gegenwärtig so viel Bedeutung bei? Dieser Band fasst mit kritischem Blick die theoretischen Möglichkeiten und Begrenzungen ins Auge, die dem Authentizitäts-Konzept innewohnen. Die Beiträge aus unterschiedlichen geisteswissenschaftlichen Disziplinen bestimmen ”Authentizität“ als ästhetische wie lebenswirkliche Kategorie, die ihre Relevanz gerade aus einer paradoxen Wechselbeziehung zwischen Essenz und Konstruktion, zwischen Wahrhaftigkeit und Performanz bezieht. Somit liefert die theoretische Betrachtung der Authentizität ein sinnfälliges Beschreibungsmuster für die (...) Epistemologie der Postmoderne - und stellt diese zugleich in Frage. (shrink)

This article explores the role of the five “abodes” (or “intellectual powers” or “mental properties”) of the Light Realm in the narrative of Mani’s Living Gospel according to the Coptic Synaxeis codex. Far from being spared in the war effort (as it appears from Theodore bar Koni’s report on Mani’s doctrine), these five powers can be seen in Mani’s narrative to be active contributors not only to the generation of each divine persona newly called into being but also in the (...) actual fight against the forces of Darkness, securing their final defeat. (shrink)

Language the Loaded Weapon by Dwight Bolinger. London and New York: Longman, 1980, 214 pp.

Title: Rethinking Democracy: Freedom, Social Cooperation in Politics, Economy, and Society Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521386292 Author: Carol Gould Title: Democratic Theory and Socialism Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521335787 Author: Frank Cunningham.

Philosophy begins with wonder, according to Plato and Aristotle. Yet Plato and Aristotle did not expand a great deal on what precisely wonder is. Does this fact alone not raise curiosity in us as to why this passion or concept is important? What is wonder.