The historic Christian tradition of offering hospitality to strangers provides moral, theological and practical insights for contemporary responses to the needs of refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants. Ancient writers were explicit about the difficulties, blessings, and necessity of welcoming strangers. In this paper, specific components of the tradition, especially as they are evident in the writings of Chrysostom, Calvin and Wesley, are discussed. Suggestions are offered for points of intersection with contemporary concerns related to asylum and immigration.

Die Studien und Texte zur Sozialgeschichte der Literatur (STSL) veröffentlichen seit 1975 herausragende literatur-, geschichts- und kulturwissenschaftliche Arbeiten zu vornehmlich deutscher Literatur vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. Schwerpunkt der literaturgeschichtlichen und theoretischen Abhandlungen sowie der Quellen- und Materialienbände ist das Verhältnis von literarischem Text und gesellschaftlich-historischem Kontext. Als maßgebliche Publikationsreihe einer seit den 1960er Jahren einflussreichen Sozialgeschichte der Literatur prägt STSL zugleich die literaturwissenschaftliche Diskussion über mögliche Austauschbeziehungen zwischen Literatur-, Geschichts- und Sozialwissenschaften.

In masked priming tasks responses are usually faster when prime and target require identical rather than different responses. Previous research has extensively manipulated the nature and number of response-affording stimuli. However, little is known about the constraints of masked priming regarding the nature and number of response alternatives. The present study explored the limits of masked priming in a six-choice reaction time task, where responses from different fingers of both hands were required. We studied participants that were either experts for (...) the type of response or novices. Masked primes facilitated responding to targets that required the same response, responses with a different finger of the same hand, and with a homologous finger of the other hand. These effects were modulated by expertise. The results show that masked primes facilitate responding especially for experts in the S–R mapping and with increasing similarity of primed and required response. (shrink)

Semantische Fragen erwecken seit Jahrzehnten das besondere Interesse verschiedenster Wissenschaften. In den Studien des vorliegenden Bandes werden aus der Sicht der germanistischen Linguistik Antwortangebote versucht, insbesondere zu theoretischen Positionen innerhalb verschiedenster Semantikauffassungen, zur Strukturiertheit der Semantik im Morphem, im Wort, im Syntagma, zu semantischen Relationen im Sprachsystem und im Sprachgebrauch. Ausgehend von übereinstimmenden, jedoch im Detail nicht immer identischen Auffassungen zum Phänomen Sprache, widerspiegeln die Aufsätze den Stand und die Ergebnisse von Forschungen zur deutschen Gegenwartssprache, die in den von den (...) Herausgebern geleiteten Wissenschaftlerkollektiven entstanden. (shrink)

A wide array of species throughout the animal kingdom has shown the ability to distinguish between quantities. Aside from being important for optimal foraging decisions, this ability seems to also be of great relevance in group-living animals as it allows them to inform their decisions regarding engagement in between-group conflicts based on the size of competing groups. However, it is often unclear whether these animals rely on numerical information alone to make these decisions or whether they employ other cues that (...) may covary with the differences in quantity. In this study we used a touch screen paradigm to investigate the quantity discrimination abilities of two closely related group-living species, wolves and dogs, using a simultaneous visual presentation paradigm. Both species were able to successfully distinguish between stimuli of different quantities up to 32 items and ratios up to 0.80, and their results were in accordance with Weber's law (which predicts worse performances at higher ratios). However, our controls showed that both wolves and dogs may have used continuous, non-numerical cues, such as size and shape of the stimuli, in conjunction with the numerical information to solve this task. In line with this possibility, dogs' performance greatly exceeded that which they had shown in other numerical competence paradigms. We discuss the implications these results may have on these species' underlying biases and numerical capabilities, as well as how our paradigm may have affected the animals' ability to solve the task. (shrink)

The objective of the present research was two-fold: to provide a new definition of ethical competence, and to clarify the influence of empathy, personal values, and the five-factor model of personality on ethical competence. The present research provides a comprehensive overview about recent approaches and empirically explores the interconnections of these constructs. 366 German undergraduate students were examined in a cross-sectional study that investigated the relationship of empathy, personal values, and the five-factor model of personality with moral judgment competence and (...) counterproductive work behavior as indicators of moral judgment and behavior. We found self-transcendence values to be related to both, high levels of empathy and ethical competence, in contrast to self-enhancement values. Multiple mediation analysis revealed unique effects of empathy on ethical competence through values as mediators. Affective empathy transmitted its effect on ethical competence through benevolence, conformity, tradition, power, and hedonism. Most importantly, perspective taking lost its predictive power when investigated alongside affective empathy dimensions. These results converge to an important role of affective empathy, in particular empathic concern, with regard to personal values and ethical competence. Furthermore, the five-factor model of personality explained variance in measures of ethical competence. Our research suggests that organizational decision makers should consider the role of empathy, personal values, and the five-factor model in their human resource management in order to select employees with high ethical competence. (shrink)

ArgumentUsing the notion of styles of knowledge we refer to the ways diverse scientific communities claim to produce true knowledge, their understandings regarding the attitudes and values that scientists should have in order to grasp natural and social reality, and the practices and technologies developed within such styles. This paper analyzes scientific and medical enterprises that explored the relationship between environment, population, and society in Colombia between 1850 and 1920. We argue that similar styles of knowledge production were shared in (...) human geography, medical geography, and climatic physiology at the mid-nineteenth century; and that some physicians working in bacteriology and physiology since the 1880s established epistemic boundaries between their work and earlier scientific activities, while others found these distinctions irrelevant. However, the historical actors committed to any of the styles of knowledge production explored in this article agreed on the local specificity of their objects of inquiry, therefore questioning European science. These styles of knowledge production also shaped different ways of perceiving and addressing national problems. Hence, this article is a contribution to the recent literature on both historical epistemology and social and cultural history of science and medicine. (shrink)

This paper deals with Swinburne’s project of developing a theodicy. We criticise this project from both an external and an internal perspective. Regarding the first strategy, the target of our critique is Swinburne’s construal of God’s attributes—especially omniscience—and the related issue of incorrigible foreknowledge. We argue that Swinburne has to clarify and improve his position to deal with the fideist or the atheist. Regarding the second strategy, we focus on Swinburne’s notion of God’s right. In this context, the parent-child-analogy strikes (...) us as particularly problematic. Hence, we argue that Swinburne should either rethink it or drop it altogether. (shrink)

The current epoch is often described by cultural theorists as facing an ontological turn with regard to the question of nature. In the Anthropocene, ‘Mother Nature’ makes space for ‘Gaia’, a nature that is inseparably related to culture. In turn, Gaia has vehemently been criticized as a harmonious figure of whole-ism. Utilizing a psychoanalytic framework, this paper traces the shift from Nature to Gaia through Jacques Lacan's ‘formulas of sexuation’. From a Lacanian standpoint, sexual difference paves the way towards two (...) different ways of relating nature and culture. Addressing the case of ruination, the author engages with the two underlying ontologies taking place in debates on nature: the narrative of Mother Nature based on a ‘masculine’ ontology, and the notion of Gaia as following a ‘feminine’ ontology. The paper concludes by outlining a feminine reading of the Anthropocene that captures nature and culture as ruined and immanently out of joint. (shrink)

The advent of ChatGPT by OpenAI has prompted extensive discourse on its potential implications for science and higher education. While the impact on education has been a primary focus, there is limited empirical research on the effects of large language models (LLMs) and LLM-based chatbots on science and scientific practice. To investigate this further, we conducted a Delphi study involving 72 researchers specializing in AI and digitization. The study focused on applications and limitations of LLMs, their effects on the science (...) system, ethical and legal considerations, and the required competencies for their effective use. Our findings highlight the transformative potential of LLMs in science, particularly in administrative, creative, and analytical tasks. However, risks related to bias, misinformation, and quality assurance need to be addressed through proactive regulation and science education. This research contributes to informed discussions on the impact of generative AI in science and helps identify areas for future action. (shrink)

Richard Rorty is well known as a propagandist of pragmatism and of a "post-philosophical" culture in which many traditional philosophical debates are dismissed as outrightly fruitless. The paper is mainly concerned with Rorty's dismissal of the realism-antirealism debate. The shift from argument to propaganda which is typical of much of Rorty's reasoning is critically investigated from different perspectives. In particular, it is argued that Rorty cannot convincingly establish a pragmatist position beyond realism and antirealism, and that pragmatism seems to be (...) inadequate with respect to scientific practice. Finally, the fruitfulness of the realism-antirealism debate is defended. (shrink)

Pohl (Chinese studies, Trier U., Germany) and Muller (philosophy, Trier U.) present 16 contributions penned by U.S., German, Taiwanese, and Chinese scholars that explore the ethical viewpoints of their respective philosophical traditions. The collection is meant to be cross-cultural at the same time as it attends to the political/ideological rifts of the Western and Chinese regions. After exploring theoretical issues of understanding ethics in a global context, the contributors explore ethical and political values for Chinese and Western societies respectively. (...) Final papers offer a more explicitly comparative approach, looking at such ideas as morality and the family, medical ethics, and jurisprudential attitudes towards human rights. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR. (shrink)

We’re solarpunks because the only other options are denial or despair.Utopian Studies, Futures, and Anticipatory Studies all focus, if in different ways, on the past, present, and futures. Utopian narratives anticipate, to cite Abensour, “what is different, the wish for the advent of a radical alterity here and now.”1 A tool that all disciplines use is storytelling—utopias as narratives by definition, Futures and Anticipatory Studies as critical and inquisitive tools. The Solarpunk Futures game taps into these disciplines by creatively exploring (...) still-possible or radically new worlds and societies.The Solarpunk Surf Club is an artists’ collective that has dedicated its work to the... (shrink)

Haraway's 'Cyborg Manifesto' is a key postmodern text and is widely taught in many disciplines as one of the first texts to embrace technology from a leftist and feminist perspective using the metaphor of the cyborg to champion a socialist, postmodern, and anti-identitarian politics. Until Haraway's work, few feminists had turned to theorising science and technology and thus her work quite literally changed the terms of the debate. This article continues to be seen as hugely influential in the field of (...) feminism, particularly postmodern, materialist, and scientific strands. It is also a precursor to cyberfeminism and posthumanism and perhaps anticipates the development of digital humanities. (shrink)

Art is always political! Only dance is not!Dance has been somewhat ignored in utopian studies as a potential transformatory and political artistic expression, though performance and drama have attracted critical attention. The exhibition Das Echo der Utopien at the Dance Archive in Cologne uses its own archival materials to prove that dance can be political by looking at archival visual material from the sixteenth century to the German dance theater of the 1990s. The underlying assumption of the exhibition is that (...) dance as a physical, bodily form of individual and social expression has been and will be monitored and censored. “Social choreography,” in the words of Hewitt, highlights the interconnection between... (shrink)