The reality of spirits? A historiography of the Akan concept of 'mind' (La réalité des esprits: Vers une historiographie de la conception akan de l'esprit). In this article the following thesis is considered: the classifications used to define African Indigenous Religions are 'inventions' of Western scholars of religion who employ categories that are entirely "non-indigenous". The author investigates the presumptions of this statement and discusses the work of scholars of religion studying the Akan and in particular the Akan concept of (...) mind. In the analytic philosophical tradition the precise meaning of Akan concepts of mind such as okra and sunsum, described by various scholars of religion in different eras, are reviewed. The pre-colonial, colonial and the postcolonial era all have had specific influence on the conceptualisation of the mind. On the basis of an historiography of the Akan mind the author concludes that, contrary to the originally thesis under review, 'cultural background' and 'academic discipline' are relatively unimportant in the classification of 'indigenous religions'. The 'paradigm' prevailing within a discipline , 'personal belief' and the spatio-temporal context in which conceptualisations are created, turn out to be far more significant. (shrink)

Wir diskutieren ethische Probleme der medizinischen Behandlung intersexueller Kinder. Gefragt wird nach dem Stellenwert von Elternwünschen nach eindeutiger Geschlechtszuweisung sowie nach den Konfliktfeldern, die zum einen zwischen konkurrierenden Wunschvorstellungen der Eltern und der behandelnden Ärzte, zum andern zwischen Kindeswohl und Kinderrechten entstehen können. Gegenwärtig wird Neugeborenen mit anatomisch uneindeutigem Genital trotz unsicherer Prognose über die Behandlungsergebnisse oft noch ein Geschlecht zugewiesen und operativ erstellt. Dieses Vorgehen ist von verschiedenen Seiten ethisch heftig kritisiert worden. Kipnis u. Diamond forderten 1998 im „Journal (...) of Clinical Ethics“ ein Moratorium für alle nicht vital indizierten geschlechtskorrigierenden Eingriffe. Diese Forderung orientiert sich am Interesse des zukünftigen Erwachsenen, betont dessen prospektive Autonomie und klammert den Elternwunsch aus. Dieses „Modell des antizipierten Konsenses“ kann jedoch mit Bezug auf Neugeborene und Kleinkinder bedeutsame Aspekte des Eltern-Kind-Verhältnisses nicht angemessen erfassen. Im Aufsatz werden Argumente angeführt, die es aus Sicht einer Ethik der Elternschaft rechtfertigen, ethische Entscheidungen auf der Basis eines beziehungsorientierten Modells zu treffen. In unserem Modell fallen Elternwünsche ethisch ins Gewicht. (shrink)

For their deployment in human societies to be safe, AI agents need to be aligned with value-laden cooperative human life. One way of solving this “problem of value alignment” is to build moral machines. I argue that the goal of building moral machines aims at the wrong kind of ideal, and that instead, we need an approach to value alignment that takes seriously the categorically different cognitive and moral capabilities between human and AI agents, a condition I call deep agential (...) diversity. Domestication is the answer to a similarly structured problem: namely, how to integrate nonhuman animals that lack moral agency safely into human society and align their behavior with human values. Just like nonhuman animals, AI agents lack a genuinely moral agency; and just like nonhuman animals, we might find ways to train them to nevertheless assist us, and live and work among us – to “domesticate” them, in other words. I claim that the domestication approach does well in explaining many of our intuitions and worries about deploying AI agents in our social practices. (shrink)

Die digitale Transformation erfasst die Medien der Literatur und Literaturkritik in unterschiedlicher Geschwindigkeit. Die Substituierung der gedruckten Zeitung, der Stammheimat der Literaturkritik, durch digitale Formate ist weit vorangeschritten. Auf dem Buchmarkt ist das gedruckte Hardcover nach wie vor ein relativ stabiles Element. Der Beitrag kommentiert diese Differenz in medienhistorischer Perspektive.

Das Fundament der Rawls’schen Gerechtigkeitstheorie ist die moralische Gleichheit aller Gerechtigkeitssubjekte. Die symmetrische Positionierung der Parteien bei den Urzustands-Deliberationen stellt sicher, dass Subjekte mit gleichem moralischen Status das gleiche Recht auf faire Interessenberücksichtigung haben. Dabei fällt allerdings auf, dass Rawls nicht per se gegen unverdiente Ungleichheit argumentiert, sondern gegen unverdiente Ungleichheit zwischen moralisch Gleichen. Hier stellt sich die Frage: kann es Gerechtigkeit zwischen moralisch Ungleichen geben? Und wenn ja: ändert ein ungleicher moralischer Status der Gerechtigkeitssubjekte auch den Inhalt der, und (...) die Ansprüche auf, Gerechtigkeit? Wenn man annimmt, Gerechtigkeitsbeziehungen bestünden ausschließlich zwischen Menschen, dann erscheinen diese Fragen offensichtlich unsinnig. Ich argumentiere allerdings, dass die exklusive Anwendung von Gerechtigkeitstheorien auf Personen begrifflich kontingent ist – und dass die Einbeziehung von nichtmenschlichen Akteuren Rawls’ Gerechtigkeitstheorie zwar vor schwierige, aber möglicherweise produktive Herausforderungen stellt, die ich in diesem Beitrag untersuchen möchte. (shrink)

'Beauty in African Thought: A Critique of the Western Idea of Development' won the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Year 2023 as mentioned on the Rowman and Littlefield webpage. The book investigates how the concept of beauty in African philosophy and related qualitative social sciences may contribute to a richer intercultural exchange on the idea of development. While working within frameworks created in post-colonial and arguably neo-colonial times, African thinkers have reacted against the mainstream view that restricts the meaning (...) and scope of good development to economic growth and Western-style education. These thinkers have worked toward a critical self-understanding of the potentials inherent in cultural, spiritual, and political traditions since pre-colonial times. Edited by Bolaji Bateye, Mahmoud Masaeli, Louise Müller, and Angela Roothaan, this collection explores branches of thought from wisdom or oral traditions to political thought and philosophy of culture. This book is urgent reading material for any policy maker, scholar, or student wishing to attend to the voices of African(ist) thinkers who search for alternative approaches to global questions of development in a time of climate change and increasing socio-economic inequality. The book was introduced by Louise Müller -as a first author - and Angela Roothaan. (shrink)

Well-Being in African Philosophy: Insights for a Global Ethics of Development, edited by Bolaji Bateye, Mahmoud Masaeli, Louise Müller, and Angela Roothaan, explores the notion of well-being in African and intercultural philosophy and its insights into global ethics of development. Drawing from longstanding debates on communitarianism in the context of personhood in African philosophy, as well as those in intercultural philosophy, the diverse contributors present manifold ways to philosophize about well-being from African contexts. Hailing from sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, and the (...) Middle East, they address questions of human well-being related to the major global challenges of our time, such as climate change and socio-economic, gender, and racial inequality in society, education, and organization. This collection, building on the work of African independence philosophers as well as oral traditions from a critical development studies perspective, offers fresh views on well-being, development, and morality, thus contributing to global ethics from an African vantage point. The first author of this book's introduction is Louise Müller. See: Müller, L and A. Roothaan (2023). ‘Introduction’. In: Well-Being in African Philosophy: Insights for a Global Ethics of Development. Maryland, USA, Lexington Books by Rowman and Littlefield, 1-11. (shrink)

The philosophical foundations of human rights are as complex as they are controversial. For some years, the debate has been dominated by the rather gridlocked opposition between moral and political conceptions of human rights. Moreover, a profound examination of the social and relational dimension of human rights has been lacking. Against this background, this volume brings together contributions which scrutinise the multi-faceted foundations of human rights. It is a valuable collection for philosophers, political scientists and legal scholars interested in fresh (...) insights into the idea and practice of human rights. With contributions by Markus Abraham | Andreas Busen | Johannes Haaf | Christoph Herrler | Justine Lacroix | Franziska Martinsen | Luise Müller | Esther Neuhann | Niklas Plätzer | Ned Richardson-Little | Regina Schidel | Tatjana Noemi Tömmel | Alexander Weiß | Markus Wolf. (shrink)

European Journal of Political Theory, Ahead of Print.

European Journal of Political Theory, Ahead of Print.

As décadas de 1750 e 1760 foram decisivas para a formação do que hoje entendemos por ciência econômica. Uma das noções centrais a tomar forma nesse período foi a do mercado como uma ordem espontânea. O artigo defende que essa ideia tem origem no modo como os economistas desse período reformularam a tese da sociabilidade natural dos seres humanos, assumindo o comércio como o local privilegiado de sua operação. Essa tese é o pano de fundo dos debates a propósito da (...) teoria do valor ao longo da década de 1760 e que, em larga medida, caracterizarão a ciência econômica a partir de então. São analisadas as obras de Forbonnais, de Tucker, de Gournay, da fisiocracia e de Turgot. AbstractThe decades of 1750 and 1760 were the founding years of modern economics. One of the central notions to take shape in this period was the idea of the market as a spontaneous order. This paper defends that this idea has its origins in the way the economists of the period reformulated the thesis of the natural sociability of humankind, by assuming commerce as the privileged place of its operations. This thesis offers the background of the 1760’s debate on value that characterizes economics from that time on. The works of Forbonnais, Tucker, Gournay, Physiocracy and Turgot are analised. (shrink)

Es sabido que ante los cambios en los sistemas productivos y económicos de las últimas décadas del siglo XX, muchas arquitecturas industriales quedaron obsoletas entrando en progresivo abandono. En años recientes, en la ciudad de Santa Fe (Argentina), se produjeron intervenciones, tanto desde el municipio como desde el gobierno provincial, dando cuenta de la importancia que adquieren estas acciones: a la vez de recuperar arquitecturas de este tipo, realizan valiosos aportes a la construcción de ciudadanía y a la vida urbana (...) en su conjunto. Este artículo se presenta como reflexión derivada de un proyecto de investigación, interrogando las arquitecturas producidas mediante gestión estatal y abordando la problemática tanto desde los métodos de la historia de la arquitectura como de la interpretación crítica de los datos recabados. El análisis de los cuatro casos presentados tiene como principal objetivo plantear una mirada sobre el impacto positivo que pueden tener este tipo de intervenciones en las que, mediante acciones políticas, se propone la recuperación de edificios industriales desactivados para volcarlos al uso público, con la intención de ofrecer una mejora en el presente y, a la vez, orientar a la sociedad hacia la construcción de un mejor futuro. (shrink)

What can international courts say when criminals ask, by what right do you try me? Some authors attempt to draw a connection between humanity's responsibility to call offenders to account and the harm humanity has suffered as a consequence of the offender's crimes. Others have argued that there need not be a special connection between those calling to account and the offenders, as the right to punish offenders is a general right each and every person has. Both lines of argument (...) are ultimately unconvincing. Instead, I argue for a modified version of the second position which proposes a democratically based theory of responsibility for punishment held by international criminal law institutions. (shrink)

O presente artigo busca estabelecer o local e a função do capital portador de juros em O Capital, visando com isso jogar luz sobre a estrutura eminentemente sistemática desta obra. Deste modo a obra máxima de Marx aparecerá muito próxima do idealismo alemão (particularmente de Fichte e Hegel), onde a questão da sistematicidade (da filosofia) foi sentida de maneira mais premente.

Contribution for book symposium on Andrea Sangiovanni's Humanity without Dignity.

ABSTRACT. The author looks at two themes in the writings of four African scholars: E. Bolaji Idowu, John Mbiti, Okot p’Bitek and Kwame Appiah. She surveys their ideas about the existence of truth and of a High God. For each theme, she outlines the significance of each author’s work. In the conclusion the coherence between both themes is shown with the help of two varieties of philosophical positions and aesthetic styles, notably: modern-ism and postmodernism She shows why Idowu and Mbiti (...) should be categorized as mod-ernist. She argues that Okot p’Bitek’s view of God-as-dead shows him to be a modernist and why his deconstruction of the work of previous scholars also makes him a postmod-ernist avant la lettre. Finally, she argues that Appiah’s postmodern vision on the non-existence of one single truth has been conducive to his vision on identity as a bricolage of traditional and modern elements of culture. KEY WORDS. African religion, Appiah (Kwame), discourse, High God, Idowu (Bolaji), Mbiti (John), modernism, Okot p’Bitek, postmodernism, truth. (shrink)

Comment penser la morale – sans verser dans l'incantation de l'obligation ou en appeler à la crainte suscitée par la sanction? La proposition de Guyau consiste à concevoir l'histoire de la philosophie morale comme traversée par une antinomie structurale (idéalisme versus naturalisme) qu'un évolutionnisme élargi peut dépasser. La morale qui en découle sera anomique, inventive et sans modèle suprême – sans obligation ni sanction.

First, thank you Flo and Joe for this initiative. I would love to make contact with more people interested and active in the use, place, impact and potential of computing in our society.

Solov'ev (1853-1900) gilt als "der erste christliche Denker, der den individuellen und nicht nur den Gattungssinn der Liebe zwischen Mann und Frau anerkannte" (Berdjajev). Der bedeutendste russische Philosoph des 19. Jahrhunderts sieht in der Unbedingtheit des leidenschaftlichen Verlangens der sinnlichen Liebe ein Geschehen der unbedingten Anerkennung des geliebten Menschen - das Fundament der Ethik.