Michel Foucault gilt als einer der wichtigsten Philosophen des 20. Jahrhunderts. Marita Rainsborough untersucht die aktuelle Relevanz seiner Philosophie unter Bezug auf die post- und dekolonialen Theorien von Mbembe, Bhabha und Mignolo im globalen Kontext. Dabei bezieht sie auch die Philosophie von Judith Butler und Byung-Chul Han sowie den Neuen Realismus in ihre kritische Lektüre mit ein und macht die bislang in der Rezeption vernachlässigten philosophischen Bezüge zu Bloch und Kant stark. Mit der Betrachtung des Subjekts zwischen Wissen, Macht, (...) Ethik und Ästhetik ergeben sich so eine Gesamtschau des Foucault'schen Werkes sowie neue Aspekte für die philosophische Auseinandersetzung mit diesem französischen Klassiker. (shrink)

This book sets up a rich intercultural dialogue between the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Michel Foucault, and that of key African thinkers such as Kwame Anthony Appiah, Achille Mbembe, Kwasi Wiredu, Kwame Gyekye, Tsenay Serequeberhahn, and Henry Odera Oruka. The book challenges western-centric visions of an African future by demonstrating the richness of thought that can be found in African and Afrodiasporic philosophy. The book first shows how thinkers such as Serequeberhan have criticised the inconsistencies in Kant's work, whereas (...) others such as Wiredu, Gyekye, Appiah and Mbembe also referred to his work positively and used it to develop progressive political concepts such as the metanational state; partial cosmopolitanism and Afropolitanism. The book goes on to consider how Mbembe and Mudimbe have responded to Foucault's ideas in deciphering the various Western, African and Afrodiasporic discourses of knowledge on Africa. The book concludes by considering various theories of intercultural exchange, from Gyekye's cultural borrowing, to Appiah's conversation across boundaries, Wiredu's cross cultural dialogue, Mbembe's thinking outside the frame, Serequeberhan's dialogue at a distance, and Oruka's call for global re-distribution and a new ecophilosophical attitude to safeguard human existence on the planet. This book invites us all to engage in intercultural dialogue and mutual respect for different cultural creations. It will be an important read for researchers in Philosophy wherever they are in the world. (shrink)

This article addresses some ambiguities and normative problems with the concept of mature care in professional relationships and in health care priorities. Mature care has recently been introduced in the literature on care ethics as an alternative to prevailing altruistic conceptions of care. The essence of mature care is an emphasis on reciprocity, where the mature agent has the ability to balance the concerns of self with those of others and act from a principle of not causing harm. Our basic (...) claim is that the prevailing concept of mature care does not capture the real nature of professional relationships and role obligations in health care. As the focus of attention in professional care is and must be the patient’s particular medical and care needs, such care must principally be altruistic. Furthermore, we argue that mature care cannot adequately address moral conflict in health care without accepting some more principle-based approaches and a richer notion of partiality. (shrink)

The distinction between germline and somatic gene editing is fundamental to the ethics of human gene editing. Multiple conferences of scientists, ethicists, and policymakers, and multiple professional bodies, have called for moratoria on germline gene editing, and editing of human germline cells is considered to be an ethical “red line” that either never should be crossed, or should only be crossed with great caution and care. However, as research on germline gene editing has progressed, it has become clear that not (...) all germline interventions are alike, and that these differences make a significant moral difference, when it comes to ethical questions about research, regulation, clinical application, and medical justification. In this paper, I argue that, rather than lumping all germline interventions together, we should distinguish between revising, correcting, and transferring genes, and I assess the consequences of this move for the ethics of gene editing. (shrink)

This article draws attention to a self-created survey designed for the purposes and needs of an empirical study for a dissertation on emotional intelligence and burnout in psychiatric practice. The survey was used as part of a complex research methodology including standardized tests. The information obtained and the results of the survey are intended to describe the profile of employees in the same organization in psychiatric practice at the time of the study. The questions are focused on the following aspects: (...) subjective perception of the respondents regarding their work; leisure activities, annual leave and the attitude towards it, sports, healthy eating, and influence of the pandemic situation on emotions. (shrink)

Design of clinical trials for germline gene editing stretches current accepted standards for human subjects research. Among the challenges involved is a set of issues concerningintergenerational monitoring—long-term follow-up study of subjects and their descendants. Because changes made at the germline would be heritable, germline gene editing could have adverse effects on individuals’ health that can be passed on to future generations. Determining whether germline gene editing is safe and effective for clinical use thus may require intergenerational monitoring. The aim of (...) this paper is to identify and argue for the significance of a set of ethical issues raised by intergenerational monitoring in future clinical trials of germline gene editing. Though long-term, multigenerational follow-up study of this kind is not without precedent, intergenerational monitoring in this context raises unique ethical challenges, challenges that go beyond existing protocols and standards for human subjects research. These challenges will need to be addressed if clinical trials of germline gene editing are ever pursued. (shrink)

:Since the advent of recombinant DNA technology, expectations about the potential for altering genes and controlling our biology at the fundamental level have been sky high. These expectations have gone largely unfulfilled. But though the dream of being able to control our biology is still far off, gene editing research has made enormous strides toward potential clinical use. This paper argues that when it comes to determining permissible uses of gene editing in one important medical context—germline intervention in reproductive medicine—issues (...) about enhancement and eugenics are, for the foreseeable future, a red herring. Current translational goals for gene editing research involve a different kind of editing than would be required to achieve manipulation of complex traits such as intelligence, and there are more pressing questions that need attention if clinical use of gene editing in reproductive medicine ever becomes a possibility. (shrink)

When developing computational models to analyze the tradeoffs between climate risk management strategies (i.e., mitigation, adaptation, or geoengineering), scientists make explicit and implicit decisions that are influenced by their beliefs, values and preferences. Model descriptions typically include only the explicit decisions and are silent on value judgments that may explain these decisions. Eliciting scientists’ mental models, a systematic approach to determining how they think about climate risk management, can help to gain a clearer understanding of their modeling decisions. In order (...) to identify and represent the role of values, beliefs and preferences on decisions, we used an augmented mental models research approach, namely values-informed mental models (ViMM). We conducted and qualitatively analyzed interviews with eleven climate risk management scientists. Our results suggest that these scientists use a similar decision framework to each other to think about modeling climate risk management tradeoffs, including eight specific decisions ranging from defining the model objectives to evaluating the model’s results. The influence of values on these decisions varied between our scientists and between the specific decisions. For instance, scientists invoked ethical values (e.g., concerns about human welfare) when defining objectives, but epistemic values (e.g., concerns about model consistency) were more influential when evaluating model results. ViMM can (i) enable insights that can inform the design of new computational models and (ii) make value judgments explicit and more inclusive of relevant values. This transparency can help model users to better discern the relevance of model results to their own decision framing and concerns. (shrink)

Student teachers’ experiences of professional ethics, as lived practice, need to be visualized and verbalized to support their ability to develop an ethical practice. The aim of this article is to discuss the lived experiences of professional ethics from beginning teachers’ internship, based on a phenomenological study. Some of the essential meanings are interpreted in relation to the tension between responsibility and accountability that is emerging from neoliberal influences in teacher education. Inspired by Reflective Life World Research, interviews were conducted (...) with student teachers specializing in preschool and elementary school. The empirical data was analyzed in order to determine the meanings that constitute the lived experience of professional ethics for early career teachers. By identifying the implications of professional ethics in neoliberal times, teacher educators can more easily observe and communicate the manifestations this has for teaching. Discussions and observations of professional ethics can stimulate student teachers’ learning as part of teacher education discourse. (shrink)

The history of the sciences and humanities follows cycles in some of which there is greater emphasis on the continuity of developments, in others on the breaks in continuity. In recent years the main focus of research for the 20th century has been on the continuities extending beyond the boundaries of 1933 and 1945. The main aim of this study, however, is to examine the impulses for the internationalization of German universities provided by a transnational group of academic migrants. These (...) migrants, whose origins were in the German academic community, represented an alternative continuity beyond the boundaries of this period: they were visiting academics who were the conveyors and interpreters of ideas from Germany into the USA and Britain and vice versa. The study of this group therefore combines remigration history and the history of universities as institutions, focussing on actors, networks and innovations in teaching, with the history of individual subjects and disciplines. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 8, August 2020, Page W1-W3.

In debates about the moral foundations of intellectual property, one very popular strand concerns the role of labor as a moral basis for intellectual property rights. This idea has a great deal of intuitive plausibility; but is there a way to make it philosophically precise? That is, does labor provide strong reasons to grant intellectual property rights to intellectual laborers? In this paper, I argue that the answer to that question is “yes”. I offer a new view, different from existing (...) labor theories of intellectual property, which I call the productive capacities view. This view gives us a way to make sense of the idea of labor as the basis for intellectual property rights, as well as a tool for critically evaluating existing intellectual property institutions. (shrink)

Nudging is a concept in behavioural science, political theory and economics that proposes indirect suggestions to try to achieve non-forced compliance and to influence the decision making and behaviour of groups and individuals. Researchers in medical ethics are currently discussing whether nudging is ethically permissible in healthcare. In this article, we examine current knowledge about how different decisions are made and how this decision-making process pertains to patients. We view this knowledge in light of the nursing project and the ongoing (...) debate regarding the ethical legitimacy of nudging in healthcare. We argue that it is insufficient to discuss nudging in nursing and healthcare in light of free will and patient autonomy alone. Sometimes, nurses must take charge and exhibit leadership in the nurse–patient relationship. From the perspective of nursing as leadership, nudging becomes a useful tool for directing and guiding patients towards the shared goals of health, recovery and independence and away from suffering. The use of nudging in nursing to influence patients’ decisions and actions must be in alignment with the nursing project and in accordance with patients’ own values and goals. (shrink)

Diagnostic testing can be used for many purposes, including testing to facilitate the clinical care of individual patients, testing as an inclusion criterion for clinical trial participation, and both passive and active surveillance testing of the general population in order to facilitate public health outcomes, such as the containment or mitigation of an infectious disease. As such, diagnostic testing presents us with ethical questions that are, in part, already addressed in the literature on clinical care as well as clinical research (...) (such as the rights of patients to refuse testing or treatment in the clinical setting or the rights of participants in randomized controlled trials to withdraw from the trial at any time). However, diagnostic testing, for the purpose of disease surveillance also raises ethical issues that we do not encounter in these settings, and thus have not been much discussed. In this paper we will be concerned with the similarities and differences between the ethical considerations in these three domains: clinical care, clinical research, and public health, as they relate to diagnostic testing specifically. Via an examination of the COVID-19 case we will show how an appeal to the concept of diagnostic justice helps us to make sense of the (at times competing) ethical considerations in these three domains. (shrink)

Following the global financial crisis, banks have become more regulated to advance ethical sales cultures throughout the sector. Based on case studies of three retail banks, we find that they construct the ‘appropriate advisor’ in different ways. Inspired by Bakhtin’s work on ethics, we propose a vocabulary of relational ethics centered on the ‘answerable self.’ We argue that this vocabulary is apt for studying and discussing how organizations advance ethical sales cultures in ways that instead of encouraging value congruence and (...) alignment allow for ethical openness. In such cultures, employees—as moral agents—are morally questioning, critically self-reflexive, and answerable for their own actions toward others in their social relationships. Our paper makes three theoretical contributions, namely, problematizing the idea of cultural alignment and value congruence, demonstrating that identity regulation can both comprise and support the ‘answerable self,’ and advancing our understanding of the interdependence of ethical openness and ethical closure in fostering ethical sales cultures. (shrink)

In the late 1980s and 1990s, American popular culture has been increasingly rife with conspiracy narratives of recent historical events. Among cultural producers, filmmaker Oliver Stone has had a significant impact on popular understanding of American culture in the late twentieth century through a series of docudramas which reread American history through the lens of conspiracy theory and paranoia. This paper examines the films of Oliver Stone-in particular Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, and Nixon-asking why they have (...) achieved popularity and brought about catharsis, why they are the subject of attack, and why it is useful to look beyond the debate about truth and falsehood that has surrounded them. It analyzes the ways in which Stone's status as a Vietnam veteran allowed Platoon to be accorded the authenticity of survivor discourse, whereas JFK and Nixon were subject to almost hysterical attack, not only because of Stone's assertions of conspiracy, but also because of his cinematic style of tampering with famous images. Taking these films as its point of departure, this paper examines the role of images in the construction of history, the form of the docudrama, the reenactment of historical images, fantasies of history, and ways in which paranoia is part of the practice of citizenship. (shrink)

"A quoi bon les poètes?" le texte de Heidegger destiné à faire l'éloge de Rilke, semble à certains égards faire plutôt l'éloge d'un autre poète, Hölderlin. Le présent ouvrage déploie l'interprétation équivoque de Rilke par Heidegger, en mobilisant en outre ses lectures de Hölderlin et de Nietzsche. L'enjeu se situe dans la conception de la poésie et de son rapport au "temps de détresse", où la trace des dieux enfuis est perdue. Un commentaire critique du texte de Heidegger montre que (...) l'interprétation même constitue son sujet implicite et qu'il ouvre un nouveau sens de l'interprétation. (shrink)

Though questions about whether gene editing should be done at all have dominated ethical discussion, a literature about how it can be done ethically has been growing. Work on responsible translational pathways for human germline gene editing has been criticized for focusing on the wrong questions. But questions about responsible translational pathways—questions about how gene editing could be done ethically—are, in an important sense, prior to questions about whether it is desirable and permissible. Asking “whether” questions about gene editing requires (...) a model of what responsible clinical use of gene editing would look like. (shrink)

Interkultureller Austausch geht von der Gleichwertigkeit der Kulturen aus und ist vom Gedanken des produktiven Dialogs, der gegenseitigen Anregung und der Korrektur bestimmt. Ein solcher Dialog mit Immanuel Kant und Michel Foucault bietet eine anregende Perspektive auf die afrikanische Philosophie. Marita Rainsborough untersucht vor diesem Hintergrund die Auseinandersetzung afrikanischer Philosophen wie Anthony Appiah und Achille Mbembe mit philosophischen Grundfragen. Ihre Visionen einer afrikanischen Zukunft machen deutlich, dass sich akute Probleme wie Machtmissbrauch und Menschenrechtsverletzungen - unter Berücksichtigung der lokalen Besonderheiten (...) - nur im globalen Kontext lösen lassen. (shrink)

In this paper, we analyze the recent public scandal involving Nafissatou Diallo and Dominique Strauss-Kahn to offer an account of the role affectability imbalances play in process-based invisibility. Process-based invisibilities, in this paper, refer to predictable narrative gaps within public narratives that can be aptly described as disappearances. We demonstrate that compromised, complex social identities, maladjusted webs of reciprocity, and a failure to fully appreciate basic affectability in large part cause affectability imbalances. Ultimately, we claim that affectability imbalances and the (...) three imbricated conditions that facilitate such imbalances—complex social identities, reciprocity, and basic affectability—are integral features of process-based invisibility. (shrink)

RESUMO: No centro da filosofia de Kwame A. Appiah encontra-se a questão da identidade. Partindo do conceito da liberdade de Mill, ele considera a criação de uma identidade pessoal, no sentido de individualidade particular, uma tarefa permanente - como projeto individual. Nesse contexto, os planos de vida não devem ser concebidos como genericamente rigorosos, mas sim incoerentes e muitas vezes mutantes. Com isso, a identidade não se deve entender como algo fixo e cerrado, porém, como uma espécie de mosaico de (...) vários elementos que se encontram em reprogramação contínua - como formação híbrida. A construção da identidade encerra a narração de histórias de vida, tanto individual como coletiva. Os respectivos elementos podem recorrer a diferentes experiências transculturais, consoante a história coletiva e a história de vida do indivíduo. Assim, a transculturalidade é importante, não só para identidades coletivas, como também sempre em nível de identidade pessoal. O filósofo africano Achille Mbembe alude ao nomadismo do ser humano e à imersão e dispersão culturais associadas que se deixam ler como processos da transculturalidade. Na arte africana contemporânea, esses processos da formação da identidade refletem-se no transcultural. Como exemplos, devem ser apresentados os artistas Edson Chagas, Kehinde Wiley, Yinka Shonibare e Romuald Hazoumè, com obras selecionadas.ABSTRACT: The issue of identity is at the heart of Kwame Appiah's philosophy. Taking Mill's concept of liberty as his starting point, he views the development of a personal identity in the sense of a particular individuality as an ongoing task - as an individual project. In this context, life plans should not be understood as strictly linear but rather as disparate and continuously changing. Identity is thus not something which is fixed and closed but rather similar to a mosaic, consisting of various elements which are always shifting - a hybrid entity. The construction of identity includes the telling of life stories, both of a collective and of a personal nature. When doing so, each element may refer to diverse, transcultural experiences in keeping with the history of the collective and the life story of the individual. Transculturality is thus of significance not only for collective identities but also always on the level of personal identity. The African philosopher Achille Mbembe speaks of human nomadism and the associated cultural immersion and dispersion, which can be interpreted as transcultural processes. These processes of identity formation are reflected in the transculturality of contemporary African art. Selected works of artists Edson Chargas, Kehinde Wiley, Yinka Shonibare and Romuald Hazoumè will be presented as examples of this. (shrink)

In this article, we describe a project in which philosophy, in combination with methods drawn from mental modeling, was used to structure dialogue among stakeholders in a region-scale climate adaptation process. The case study we discuss synthesizes the Toolbox dialogue method, a philosophically grounded approach to enhancing communication and collaboration in complex research and practice, with a mental modeling approach rooted in risk analysis, assessment, and communication to structure conversations among non-academic stakeholders who have a common interest in planning for (...) a sustainable future. We begin by describing the background of this project, including details about climate resiliency efforts in West Michigan and the Toolbox dialogue method, which was extended in this project from academic research into community organization involving the West Michigan Climate Resiliency Framework Initiative. This extension involved application of several methods, which are the focus of the Methods section. We then present and discuss preliminary results that suggest the potential for philosophical dialogue to enhance mutual understanding in complex community initiatives that focus on sustainable responses to climate change. Overall, the article supplies a detailed, instructive example of how philosophy can support policy-relevant decision-making processes at the community level. (shrink)

1. Bd. Dialoge. De proidentia. De constantia sapiensis. De ira. (Liber 1/3) Ad Marciam de consolatione. Über d. Standhaftigkeit d. Weisen. Über d. Zorn. (Buch 1/3) Trostschrift an Marcia. Lat. Text v. A Bougery u. R. Waltz. --2. Bd. De vita beata. De otio. De tranquillitate animi. De brevitate vitae. Ad Polybium de consolatione. Über das glückliche Leben. Über die Musse. Über die Seelenruhe. Über die Kürze des Lebens. Trostschrift an Polybius. Trotschrift an die Mutter Helvia. Lat. Text v. A. (...) Bourgery und R. Waltz. --3. Bd. Ad Lucilium epistulae morales I-LXIX. An Lucilius Briefe über Ethik 1-69. Lat. Text von F. Préchac. -- 4. Bd. Ad Lucilium epistulae morales LXX-CXXIV, [CXXV]. An Lucilius Briefe über Ethik 70-124, [125]. Lat. Text von F. Préchac.--5. Bd. Über die Milde. Über die Wohltaten. Lat. Text von F. Préchac. (shrink)

This research involves a review of the submissions to a 2005/06 Australian Government Inquiry into Corporate Social Responsibility. The Inquiry was established to investigate whether corporate social responsibilities and accountabilities should be regulated, or left to be determined by market forces. Our results show that the business community overwhelming favour an anti-regulation approach whereby corporations should be left with the flexibility to determine their social responsibilities and associated accountabilities and ‘enlightened self-interest’ should be retained as the guiding mechanism for social (...) responsibility initiatives. In stark contrast, the submissions from social and environmental organisations and individuals provided counter-arguments in favour of a pro-regulation view. Ultimately Government embraced the ‘free market perspective’ promoted by the business community and decided against the introduction of national legislation pertaining to corporate social responsibilities. (shrink)

Despite what many critics see as an inability to deliver much in the way of therapeutic value (Hunter and Drazen 2019), genetics remains a bottomless source of fascination, trepidation, and reflect...

Global governance of emerging, disruptive biomedical technologies presents a multitude of ethical problems. The recent paper by Shoziet alraises some of these problems in the context of a discussion of what could be themostdisruptive (and most morally fraught) emerging biomedical technology—human germline genome editing. At the heart of their argument is the claim that, for something like gene editing, there is likely to be tension between the interests of specific states in crafting regulation for the technology, and disagreement about what (...) would be necessary to meet the requirements for responsible translation of gene editing into the clinic. This complicates hopes for a tidy, algorithmic process of crafting global governance via frameworks for regulation built around core ‘ethical values and principles’ (as they are called in the WHO Framework), and also forces us to confront deeper philosophical questions about biotechnology and global health. (shrink)